I missed most of the 1st period in real time, so I didn't catch the first two goals other than on replays. Now I think the first goal is one I think I should ding him for. Only Brian Boucher pointed out how he should have gotten that puck with his stick before it hit the skate, while the NBC intermission guys said ''It's not really his fault'' or whatever during the intermission. Then after looking at goal 2 again, which I said might have been bad, I think that was definitely stoppable too. If that puck went top shelf on his stick side, I would have not given him any blame for it, but going in where it did, that's definitely stoppable. Goal 3 was stoppable too, goal 4 (the GWG) was not a stoppable goal at all. The first 3 goals weren't the most hideous goals I've seen and not nearly as bad as when Lehtonen murdered the Stars in the 1st period of game 7 against the Blues last year, but they were stoppable at best.
Not sure why Bernier is getting the blame. None of those goals were that bad.
Maybe none were horrific, but the first 3 were stoppable at best.
For some reason people also don't want to acknowledge that Bernier is tiny compared to Gibson, and most other NHL starters. A good number of the "no chance" goals he lets in would just be simple positional saves for a larger man. For a little guy like Bernier, he has to make insane saves regularly to compensate for his stature.
That's a very good point. Goal 2 might be the best example of that. If you really wanna nitpick, maybe you'd say that the GWG might have hit him in the shoulder if he had a couple more inches, even though it wasn't a bad goal by any means. I feel like Alex Stalock was an example of this. He was horrific in his last 2 years with the Sharks, a total liability by his last season. When looking at his goals allowed, it didn't seem like he allowed a lot of bad goals, but there were a lot of goals scored on him simply because he didn't take up as much space in the net. So he allowed a fair share of goals that would have hit some other goalies in the shoulder.
I find it hilarious we live in a world where a man who's 6'0" is called tiny and little.
It's just the reality of the goaltending position at this point. This is where we've come to. It's because of this phenomenon, that teams have drafted these really tall guys or are signing these 6 foot 6 guys, even though a decent amount of them turn out to be nothing and not any good at the NHL level.
If the league were mostly made up of goalies that were 5 foot 11, guys like Bernier would probably be much better than they are right now. A guy like Alex Stalock might have been a pretty good goalie back in the 70's, 80's or even the 90's. The only fairly decent goalies that height in the NHL are probably Halak and Bernier, just off the top of my head. Aaron Dell was great for the Sharks, but has only been in the league for one year. Stalock looked good after his first NHL season too.
