Sparks is an NHL goalie for sure.

[member 300185]

1st goal - Toews knocks the puck down from about 3'9" for the tip in. Not Sparks fault.
2nd goal - Debrincat with the tic tac tow play. Blown D coverage. Not Sparks fault.
3rd goal - Hayden's goal. Sparks stopped the first shot. No D coverage. No one covered Hayden. Hayden gets the second shot with no one even attempting to get to him. Not Sparks fault.
4th goal - Manning shot from point. Sparks completely screened on the shot. Not Sparks fault.
5th goal - Kane goes 5 hole. No coverage and Kane should not be left wide open. Sparks wishes he had that one back.
6th goal - Kane with the ripper. Off Hainsey and in. Not Sparks fault.

So for you people freaking out about Sparks, you are wrong. If you don't think so, go look at the replays.

People start piling on. Probably even some people who didnt watch the game are also piling on. Many of you are ready to run Sparks out of the league after his first game. Shame on most of you. Freaking gang mentality.

Not sure if some of you know this or not, but we won the game. Sparks only had 1 iffy goal.

Let me guess, most of you are also ignoring 3 highlight reel goals also. He is athletic. That toe save was freaking awesome.

"Oh, he is not NHL ready, he let 6 goals in". STOP!! Last season Freddy let in 5 goals 5 times and let in 6 goals 5 times.

Oh, did I mention he is young also.
Oh, did I mention it was his first game this year? Which doesn't really matter because only 1 goal was iffy.
Oh, did I mention he is also the back up goalie....not that it matters because 5 of those goals were not his fault.

"He is ECHL caliber". I heard that a few times. Are you serious? 5 of the goals are not his fault and he cannot be blamed for them.

Here is why the Hawks scored 6 goals....poor D zone coverage.

If you don't see the puck, you cannot stop it....most times.
If the puck is deflected in or re-directed at some point, then the goalie cannot be blamed.

But again, mostly blown D zone coverage.

Now lets see how many of you are going to jump on the "Sparks is not good" after 1 game....which most goals were not his fault.

Sparks was mobile, athletic, and well positioned. That is a fact. Blown D coverage is also a fact. Many tip ins and screens, was also a fact. He also had 3 highlight reel saves and that is a fact.

Click to read more...

 

[Knies iT]

He was going up against a red hot Toews/Kane, not an easy opponent. He needs to improve his ability to track pucks and fight through screens. Otherwise, you can't blame him for a lot of the goals tonight.

That's Sparks though; makes jaw dropping stops only to let in a softie right after.

 

[Jozay]

I'll definitely give him a chance, but he has not inspired much confidence so far.

 

[member 300185]

He was going up against a red hot Toews/Kane, not an easy opponent. He needs to improve his ability to track pucks and fight through screens. Otherwise, you can't blame him for a lot of the goals tonight.

That's Sparks though; makes jaw dropping stops only to let in a softie right after.

You can do that to a certain point but on Mannings goal, he had his own player and a Hawk 3 feet in front of him. Its not like he can skate out to them and say "hey, stop it, I cant' see the puck".

 

[Mr Hockey]

Dont see him up here past December but you never know.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

He looked bad. Another performance like that and I’d call up Pickard instead. Oh wait..

 

[hotpaws]

i'm not going to bury the guy after one game but

how is he a NHL goalie for sure ?

 

[Peiskos]

He didn't impress in pre-season and his first game in the show he lets in 6, I think much of the harsh criticism against him is because of many peoples inability to understand why he needed to be thrust into the backup role so quickly.

We already had a capable decent backup with McElhinney, its almost as if Dubas let Curtis go simply for the sake of making a change. McElhinney should still be our backup and Sparks should have left Dubas with no choice but to call him up due to further stellar play in the AHL, Curtis seemingly had his job ripped out from under him for no reason whatsoever and I do believe it will come back to haunt this team if and when Andersen has an injury.

I think it was rushed, and I think it was unnecessary to promote Sparks, I also believe we have poor G depth now with the losses of McElhinney/Pickard and if Andersen goes down our NHL tandem will essentially be AHL caliber, that's all. My opinion on the matter.

 

[hotpaws]

double post

 

[Peiskos]

He looked bad. Another performance like that and I’d call up Pickard instead. Oh wait..

Exactly, Leafs went from solid G depth to what now? no more McElhinney, no more Pickard. If Andersen gets injured what is our tandem exactly? Sparks-Bibeau?? Kaskisuo? terrible rookie-esque move by GM Dubas to let two proven NHL backup caliber goalies just vanish away.

 

[BertCorbeau]

At the end of the day he gave up 6 goals. I saw some good flashes in his game, I don’t think the defence made it easy for him.

Certainly deserves another couple of chances before I make any calls

 

[member 262271]

I think it would be interesting to see how this game goes with Andy in net, we don't have that gift of hindsight however. I hope Sparks improves going forward.

 

[Notsince67]

1st goal - Toews knocks the puck down from about 3'9" for the tip in. Not Sparks fault.
2nd goal - Debrincat with the tic tac tow play. Blown D coverage. Not Sparks fault.
3rd goal - Hayden's goal. Sparks stopped the first shot. No D coverage. No one covered Hayden. Hayden gets the second shot with no one even attempting to get to him. Not Sparks fault.
4th goal - Manning shot from point. Sparks completely screened on the shot. Not Sparks fault.
5th goal - Kane goes 5 hole. No coverage and Kane should not be left wide open. Sparks wishes he had that one back.
6th goal - Kane with the ripper. Off Hainsey and in. Not Sparks fault.

So for you people freaking out about Sparks, you are wrong. If you don't think so, go look at the replays.

People start piling on. Probably even some people who didnt watch the game are also piling on. Many of you are ready to run Sparks out of the league after his first game. Shame on most of you. Freaking gang mentality.

Not sure if some of you know this or not, but we won the game. Sparks only had 1 iffy goal.

Let me guess, most of you are also ignoring 3 highlight reel goals also. He is athletic. That toe save was freaking awesome.

"Oh, he is not NHL ready, he let 6 goals in". STOP!! Last season Freddy let in 5 goals 5 times and let in 6 goals 5 times.

Oh, did I mention he is young also.
Oh, did I mention it was his first game this year? Which doesn't really matter because only 1 goal was iffy.
Oh, did I mention he is also the back up goalie....not that it matters because 5 of those goals were not his fault.

"He is ECHL caliber". I heard that a few times. Are you serious? 5 of the goals are not his fault and he cannot be blamed for them.

Here is why the Hawks scored 6 goals....poor D zone coverage.

If you don't see the puck, you cannot stop it....most times.
If the puck is deflected in or re-directed at some point, then the goalie cannot be blames.

But again, mostly blown D zone coverage.

Now lets see how many of you are going to jump on the "Sparks is not good" after 1 game....which most goals were not his fault.

Sparks was mobile, athletic, and well positioned. That is a fact. Blown D coverage is also a fact. Many tip ins and screens, was also a fact. He also had 3 highlight reel saves and that is a fact.

I think he sucked

 

[member 300185]

I think he sucked

Thats because you didnt pay attention.

 

[Mikeyg]

NO

NO THE f*** HES NOT. That is all.

 

[drewjenks]

He didn't impress in pre-season and his first game in the show he lets in 6, I think much of the harsh criticism against him is because of many peoples inability to understand why he needed to be thrust into the backup role so quickly.

We already had a capable decent backup with McElhinney, its almost as if Dubas let Curtis go simply for the sake of making a change. McElhinney should still be our backup and Sparks should have left Dubas with no choice but to call him up due to further stellar play in the AHL, Curtis seemingly had his job ripped out from under him for no reason whatsoever and I do believe it will come back to haunt this team if and when Andersen has an injury.

I think it was rushed, and I think it was unnecessary to promote Sparks, I also believe we have poor G depth now with the losses of McElhinney/Pickard and if Andersen goes down our NHL tandem will essentially be AHL caliber, that's all. My opinion on the matter.

So you're not aware we would have lost Sparks on waivers if we sent him down?

We were losing 2 of the 3 in every situation.

 

[Gabriel426]

You guys do know that Murray let in like 6 goals the other night. Hotby let in 7 goals. Who was Hawks goalie again, Cam award also let in 7 goals.
What do these three goalies have in Common.....

Honestly, I know some are trolls, some just want to find something to bash.... but if somehow Sparks proved to be not NHL caliber, you might look smart with I told you so, but won’t that make the Leafs with a few more Losses

 

[Phion Keneuf]

Based on tonight I can give you 6 reasons why he’s not an NHL goalie.

 

[indigobuffalo]

I stand by what I said, he needs to redeem himself after that game.

Sure, we all have bad days. That wasn’t great. He did, however, make some pretty amazing saves.

He’s got skills. He needs experience.

Hopefully he gets a few more games in October and gets a rhythm going.

The team played egregiously in front of him. Everyone only had energy skating up the ice not back.

 

[member 300185]

At the end of the day he gave up 6 goals. I saw some good flashes in his game, I don’t think the defence made it easy for him.

Certainly deserves another couple of chances before I make any calls

Agreed.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

People really want sparks to fail and are perfectly happy to use this one game as proof that he's terrible. Even though that's very ridiculous, Sparks is definitely not a proven NHL goalie

 

[Ryan Michaels]

Footage leaks from OP's pre-gaming:

 

[stickty111]

I agree with you.
Good thread.
Mac fans just cant take Sparks being good.

 

[member 300185]

NO

NO THE **** HES NOT. That is all.

And why? Which of the 6 goals do you think were his fault?

 

[Peiskos]

So you're not aware we would have lost Sparks on waivers if we sent him down?

We were losing 2 of the 3 in every situation.

Perhaps it was the better bet to go with the proven NHL caliber backup.