ADK
LETS GO BUFFALO!
Lehner was on point last night (not counting shootout). If we played all three periods rather than just two we would have won the game in regulation. Also the game tying goal was a fluke/ puck luck.
What are we debating? I don't think whether Lehner is good or bad at shootouts is really in dispute. Nor do I believe the notion that goaltenders periodically give up bad goals is disputed.
Call me crazy, but I think a goal-by-goal (or shootout-by-shootout, or game-by-game) reassessment of goaltenders is silly. All goaltenders have weaknesses, and shootouts are definitely a big weakness of Lehner's. But many use each GA or shootout as a pretext to delve into the same tired arguments that were made all spring, summer, and early-fall.
The frustrating thing is that the fix for lehner covering his posts is so simple. Stop going skate to post. Start going pad to post. A few years ago I had to do this in beer league because the skate blade and skate itself leave too much room for a bobbling puck to trickle either under or over even when you think you're covering it. And yet lehner has had this problem for a couple years now. Guarantee you coaches tell their players to try and stuff it against the post on him.
I mean, they do a good job of breaking down his positional options, and I think he should go with what he feels comfortable with there in terms of sealing holes above the ice and being ready to move. I'm just saying, with all the tricklers he's let in just over the skate blade and such, he could just be making contact between pad and post and never worry about the kind of bad goal again.http://ingoalmag.com/analysis/devils-schneider-breaks-vh-reverse-vh/
Or maybe he needs to watch that video and read the article...
I've said it since his first season with Buffalo. He's weak on the posts, and not just with his ability to hug it. He stands with the pads crossed at the top while play moves down low, leaving a 5 hole low gap. Its been exploited a few times because he's not fast enough to close the hole.First goal of the game again yesterday. Get your pad against the post. His skate blade comes off the post a little there, but (a) that's called giving yourself leeway, and (b) not even sure his skate moved a full puck-width there. May have easily just slid under the skate blade where the pad elevates it above the ice surface.
He is an NHL goaltender, just not an average NHL starter. If hes happy to take a big paycut and do backup services, let him stay. That's just about as far as I'd go with Lehner. Otherwise, let him be someone else's problem.This is not an NHL caliber goaltender.
This is the problem with letting a guy whose self avowed strategy for picking goaltenders was just "biggest Swede or Finn you can find." Sometimes the snark was honest. No sense that Murray knew how to evaluate a players fundamentals or athletic ability at that position.Still can't believe we gave a 1st round pick for Jax Teller.