Lundqvist, Miller, Toivonen, Niitymaki

[Coburnfan05]

The play of both Niittymäki and Lundqvist at the olympics is overrated. Both teams could have made it to the finals without them and Nabokov was the best goalie imo.

I guess Nittimaki had nothing to do with the calder cup win last year either...

It's to hard to argue who is the best of the bunch as none of them have played enough in the NHL to determine thier futures.

Goalies also tend to peak a little later on in thier careers.

While Nitty has been a little inconsistent, I feel I must come to his defense.

It's hard to be really consistent when Hitchcock doesn't play him enough. When he started 17 games straight when Esche was hurt he played very well and kept the Flyers in many games.

The Flyers have also (not like previous years) have been a very inconsistent and at times down right awefull defensively. Factor in the injuries and not having a consistent lineup, there will be all kinds of defensive breakdows.

LI may not consider him to be the best right now, but with a coach who plays him like a true number 1 and a team who will play consistent defense in front of him, there is no reason he could be the best of these goalies in the future.

I know one thing for sure Nitty is way better then Esche...I just don't see why the Flyers brass can't see it.

Edit. What's all the love for MAF in Pittsburgh...Am I the only one who thinks he is overrated.

 

[Buffalo87]

Edit. What's all the love for MAF in Pittsburgh...Am I the only one who thinks he is overrated.

Yes, you wanna talk about having no D in front of you. It's basically MAF againt the entire opponents offense. MAF is 4 years younger than Niittymaki, has the worst defense in the NHL in front of him and he's posting very similar numbers to Niittymaki.

 

[Matti_A]

I guess Nittimaki had nothing to do with the calder cup win last year either...

I did not see any of those games but from what i heard and read he was spectacular and also won the playoff mvp, which is >> olympic mvp imho.
Thats why I personally have been a bit dissapointed in him this season, cause I had higher expectations of him.
And during that 17 game stretch he rarely had a game with a save percentage above 90.

 

[Coburnfan05]

Yes, you wanna talk about having no D in front of you. It's basically MAF againt the entire opponents offense. MAF is 4 years younger than Niittymaki, has the worst defense in the NHL in front of him and he's posting very similar numbers to Niittymaki.

I mean for the amount of hype he has gotten, I just think he has some big shoes to fill.

 

[Joe MacMillan]

I did not see any of those games but from what i heard and read he was spectacular and also won the playoff mvp, which is >> olympic mvp imho.
Thats why I personally have been a bit dissapointed in him this season, cause I had higher expectations of him.
And during that 17 game stretch he rarely had a game with a save percentage above 90.

I think he had sv% over 90 after that 17-game stretch and then he started struggling and it dropped below 90.

 

[Buffalo87]

I mean for the amount of hype he has gotten, I just think he has some big shoes to fill.

He definitly does, I think he's done fine, not great, but fine so far. Nobody expected him to carry the team as a 21 year old.

 

[The Sanchise]

Clearly we can sya right now who the best are. Look where the teams are n standings, look at the gaa and sv%, look at the winning % by the goalie.

Also to the AHL stats once again Miller has never played on a strong defensive team. He is always playing on a team that fires on shots and scores at will. Systems can make goalies better see Mikka Kiprusoff.

All my point was is Miller is currently better, and people had him ranked behind toivonen, nittymaki, lehtonen, and fleury(in some cases)

Clearly if Miller was so bad he would not be considered one of the top goalies in the east behind luongo, hasek, brodeur and lunqvist.

Also I am not saying he is the coming of Patrick Roy but he is a very good young goaltender who has noything but a strong and long future as a Buffalo Sabre

However to show my un bias I will leave you with this:

The one thing that holds Ryan Miller back from being better than the other goalies in the NHL because he can be the best, but like I said there is one thing holding him back and it is his psyche. Since the 03/04 season he had to see a team psyche doctor to evaluate his game because when he plays bad he felt that he was crap and shouldn't play ne more. Now I think he is over that stuff but you never know. But if he could stop getting down on himaself than he would have been a starter in 03/04 because he did start our first two in hopes he would make the jump at 23/24 yrs old but his psyche held him down. That is the major reason also why his rookie year is 26