RoyalDude wrote:Are you calling Hotby, Elliott and Smith elite goalies? They are in that category of great flash in the pan playoff goaltending, well Elliott and Smith are beneficiaries of a teams system put in place by their coaches. Whotby? Bryzgalov just came out of
a series that was a shooting gallery, goaltending was awful. Rinnie and lunqvist and Brodeur are elite. Not quite ready to put Quick in that category. Personally I see a Philly vs Nashville final, offense vs defense. The leagues best goalie in Rinnie vs the leagues biggest schizo hot and cold goaltender in Bryzgalov
I don't think you're picking up what I was putting down. Put more simply here are the matchups from the first round:
Los Angeles beat Vancouver = LA is clearly the superior defensive team and Jon Quick - this season at least - put up a superior performance to either Canucks goaltender.
St. Louis beat San Jose = The Blues are the best defensive team in the league and both of their goaltenders are better than Niemi.
Phoenix beat Chicago = The Yotes have a far superior commitment to defense and Mike Smith while not a star in my books is clearly better than Corey Crawford.
Nashville beat Detroit = I like Jimmy Howard but clearly Rinne is a better, more highly acclaimed netminder.
New York beat Ottawa = with a better goaltender and superior team defense.
Washington beat Boston = this is the one exception I mentioned, obviously Thomas is supposed to be a better goaltender than Holtby and the B's are supposed to be a better defensive team than the Caps.
New Jersey beat Florida = Martin Brodeur vs. Jose Theodore, say no more.
Philly beat Pittsburgh = neither team is a shutdown squad but both featured marquee goaltenders and the team with the more expensive keeper happened to win.
I'd say there are two exceptions, one being Washington and the other being Philadelphia.