MapleLeaf4ever
Registered User
what would you do?
commit or bridge
Going into this year and with some of the things Bernier did last year I would have said commit. Hell 2 months ago I would have said so as well. However this recent collapse has made me sit down and re-evaluate the team piece by piece. When I look at the goaltending, I am not comfortable with either of these guys on a Long term big money deal.
Bernier is a calming presence in net. However I feel his calmness is his major flaw as well as his greatest strength. He's not flashy and doesn't make the big save when needed. However one can argue he doesn't need to because he is quite technically sound.
Riemer, it's hard to separate the person from the player. He is such a great guy and the way he acted this weekend to get the team fired up to end this skid. Sure it was vs. EDM and if you go by PDO they were overdue under Horacheck. However he makes big saves when you need him too and does things to get his team going.
I don't believe either of these guys are elite goalies, I also don't believe they are backups entirely either, but I think if this team is rebuilding then they only need one. So when you ask commit or bridge, I say trade. Bernier should fetch a nice return if the goalie market heats up. STL is always looking. Minnesota may not be sold on Dubnyk, there is also EDM who needs a goalie. I keep Riemer because 1, Bernier should fetch more right now, 2, I think Riemer is a better guy to keep in the room and the team plays better infront of him, 3, I don't think the goaltending situation after acquiring Bernier was handled right. The net should have been Riemers from the start and Bernier should have had to take it from him. Bernier was given it right from the start. And lastly I am still a fan of the guy. He is difficult to hate, he came in as a Cinderella story and has always been a big happy kid in the big city. He has deserved better than Carlyle and Nonis. He has deserved better than to have his wife harassed on twitter. He has deserved better than for this organization in the post Burke era to throw him under the bus for Game 7, Last years collapse (yes he didn't exactly help the team then but we can't act like they played great in front of him). So yeah, I say trade Bernier, and keep Riemer like WPG/ATL did with Pavlic until they got Hutchinson.