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Goaltending conundrum

Erndog said:
I see 2 big difference in good Gus vs. bad Gus.

1)  He is not losing his net. 

Before, when he was playing poorly, I felt he was always losing his net.  Scrambling, in poor position, angling very poorly, challenging at the wrong time, etc.  He would have to flop back in the net very often just to try and get back in position.  I remember a lot of other people mentioning this as well.  He just seemed to 'lose his net' often.  I haven't noticed that at all recently.  He seems much more aware of his surroundings.  His positioning looks night and day compared to last year/early this year.

2)  Confidence.

He seems to be filled with confidence.  Before, when he let in a poor goal or something you could see he was visibly shook up.  He often shrugged his shoulders, or 'went for a skate', or banged his stick or even gave his own D-men a look.  He was rattled.  Now he seems to be a lot more able to shrug it off and bare down.  Another thing, he used to hate handling the puck out of his net.  You could see he was hesitant.  Now he likes to come out more, stop the puck, make a pass, etc.  You can see he is playing with a ton of confidence.


I also think his glove hand is a lot better than Reimers'.

Anyways, those are the 2 biggest improvements I've seen in Gus.  Agree/disagree?

1000000000% Agree with both. Positioning especially it's like looking at a completely different player.
 
Two things for me.  The first is a reflection of his confidence as he's well out from his net to challenge shooters and cut down the angles.  The other is his rebound control, and not so much in cutting down on rebounds, but the way he is kicking the puck into the corners and out to the sides to minimize second chances.

I'm really glad to see him getting it together, even if that means just getting a chance with another club at the end of the season.
 
Burke on Jonas...

?I told Jonas ?you saved our ass this season. You?re the reason we didn?t crumble to dust. I never counted on him, but I never discounted him.?
 
Tigger said:
Burke on Jonas...

?I told Jonas ?you saved our ass this season. You?re the reason we didn?t crumble to dust. I never counted on him, but I never discounted him.?

Where's that quote from?
 
Tigger said:
Burke on Jonas...

?I told Jonas ?you saved our ass this season. You?re the reason we didn?t crumble to dust. I never counted on him, but I never discounted him.?

Burke also went on a frenzy last night too on Twitter. Called out a Jets fan, said he sent e-mails while drunk as well.
 
Zee said:
Tigger said:
Burke on Jonas...

?I told Jonas ?you saved our ass this season. You?re the reason we didn?t crumble to dust. I never counted on him, but I never discounted him.?

Where's that quote from?

his interview on the fan590 last night (i googled it), link is in the burke thread
 
Zee said:
Tigger said:
Burke on Jonas...

?I told Jonas ?you saved our ass this season. You?re the reason we didn?t crumble to dust. I never counted on him, but I never discounted him.?

Where's that quote from?

It was in the Sun today too. I'm just glad to see some public recognition for Jonas from management, he deserves it.
 
Well, time to try Reimer for a while now... Goose has been good over this stretch but doesn't deserve any more time given Wilson's "win and you're in" plan in my opinion.
 
Sarge said:
Well, time to try Reimer for a while now... Goose has been good over this stretch but doesn't deserve any more time given Wilson's "win and you're in" plan in my opinion.

No the time to try Reimer was last night or even better Fri night.  Gus was not at fault for the last two losses but was a big part of the 4 game win streak before that.  To not play him Tues would be a huge blow to his confidence.  To play Reimer Fri night after Gus's SO would have sent the msg to Gus, you are our guy, now here take the night off.  Total mismanagement by RW as per usual.
 
leafplasma said:
Sarge said:
Well, time to try Reimer for a while now... Goose has been good over this stretch but doesn't deserve any more time given Wilson's "win and you're in" plan in my opinion.

No the time to try Reimer was last night or even better Fri night.  Gus was not at fault for the last two losses but a big part of the 4 game win streak before that.  To not play him Tues would be a huge blow to his confidence.  To play Reimer Fri night after Gus's SO would have sent the msg to Gus, you are our guy, now here take the night off.

Holy revisionist history, Batman!
 
Bender said:
leafplasma said:
Sarge said:
Well, time to try Reimer for a while now... Goose has been good over this stretch but doesn't deserve any more time given Wilson's "win and you're in" plan in my opinion.

No the time to try Reimer was last night or even better Fri night.  Gus was not at fault for the last two losses but a big part of the 4 game win streak before that.  To not play him Tues would be a huge blow to his confidence.  To play Reimer Fri night after Gus's SO would have sent the msg to Gus, you are our guy, now here take the night off.

Holy revisionist history, Batman!

It isn't hindsight, that is what I wanted to do 48 hours ago :).
 
13 said:
Unless one of'em starts to dominate, let'em play until they lose, then make a change. Well......... that's how I'd do it.

That's what Wilson said, but still went with Gustavsson back to back after a loss.  Although given how the Leafs played on Saturday I doubt Reimer would have fared any better, and then he'd be out next game with the "lose and you're out" strategy.  So yeah, I say give Reimer a shot against the Sens.
 
To me, tonight's game seals it, and as far as I'm concerned this debate is over.  Reimer hasn't played really well at all this season, even when he was 4-0-1 to start.  You can't give up a backbreaking soft goal in the 3rd at this juncture.  IMO Gustavsson should be the #1 the rest of the way.
 
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
To me, tonight's game seals it, and as far as I'm concerned this debate is over.  Reimer hasn't played really well at all this season, even when he was 4-0-1 to start.  You can't give up a backbreaking soft goal in the 3rd at this juncture.  IMO Gustavsson should be the #1 the rest of the way.

There's no question that Gus should be the #1 but can he handle it?  He's had moments where he can stink up that joint as well. Leafs are right back to the "we need a proven goalie" issue of the past few seasons. What the hell happened to Reimer??
 
Zee said:
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
To me, tonight's game seals it, and as far as I'm concerned this debate is over.  Reimer hasn't played really well at all this season, even when he was 4-0-1 to start.  You can't give up a backbreaking soft goal in the 3rd at this juncture.  IMO Gustavsson should be the #1 the rest of the way.

There's no question that Gus should be the #1 but can he handle it?  He's had moments where he can stink up that joint as well. Leafs are right back to the "we need a proven goalie" issue of the past few seasons. What the hell happened to Reimer??

Small sample size - he's crashing back down to Earth.
 
Well, here's how I see the state of the goaltending;

We have two young guys who have not come into their own yet... Do we really want to declare a #1 when let's face it, neither are really a "#1 NHL goaltender" by most standards? I wouldn't. My feeling is both guys need to push each other to be better. They need relative equal playing time to do that and I really think the "win and you're in" policy is best to keep these guys developing.

The problem as I see it is for better or worse, this is a tandem now and there's really no point in riding one in an effort to make the playoffs. I haven't given up on either guy and in fact, as much as I wanted a more stable situation this past off season (ie. Giguere) I'm not in a hurry to rush out and get a guy via trade just so we can get to the dance right now.. Unless we're getting a guy like Schneider or Bernier (which isn't likely to happen) who stands an excellent chance at being our #1 for the next 8-10 years, trading for goaltender would be a mistake I think. - I don't want to see another Toskalaish type mistake here.

I feel that one of Gustavsson or Reimer is going to have to be the guy for the next couple years anyway and I don't think now (after a crushing loss to the Sens half way through a season) is the right time to make a decision on who we're going to help push faster towards that end. Let 'em battle it out and if it means missing the playoffs, so be it. I want the Leafs to work towards building something more than a team who gets their butts kicked in the first round of the playoffs and I think it would be a mistake to point to one of these guys and say "you're it... we're pinning all our hopes on you." Neither guy in my opinion warrants that privilege (for want of better word.) 

Sorry if I'm rambling (I'm very tired.) Perhaps nothing I'm saying here makes any sense. Perhaps it's personal therapy to put some of my feelings on the subject in writing right now. Either way, that's how I see this little conundrum. 
 

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