Friday, February 8, 2008

Is Valiquette the Solution?

Steve Zipay at Blue Notes, reports that Steve Valiquette will be starting tomorrow afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers...

"He shut out the Flyers in his last appearance, so Steve Valiquette will be in goal tomorrow afternoon in Philadelphia.

Valiquette was told about the start at the beginning of the week, so Henrik Lundqvist's performance in the home losses to the Kings and Ducks had no impact on the decision. "We seem to play better with our backs to the wall," said Valiquette, who hasn't changed his routine all week."

MSGNetwork wonders if Valiquette could be the solution to the Rangers woes...

"Once upon a time, not very long ago, the slumping Rangers went to Philadelphia to cure their non-winning woes.

Something about the Broad Street air revived them. That and the flawless goaltending of Steve Valiquette. Suddenly, the slump was history.

Yoo-hoo, Stevie Wonder, you are needed on Saturday in the City of Brotherly Love. Yeah, again!...

...If history is to provide a lesson, Renney will put Valiquette back in goal on Saturday afternoon. Should Stevie Wonder win over the Flyers, he should be kept between the pipes until he loses.

The coach must go with his winner and, right now, Lundqvist is not that man."

...can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad to see Renney giving Valiquette the start in Philly. If the Rangers win, I completely agree with MSGNetwork, Valiquette needs to start until the Rangers lose because Lundqvist is not getting the job done.

...if I'm Sather right now, I'm a little hesistant to give Lundqvist a long term contract. If you look at the three years Lundqvist has been the starter, he has yet to have a completely successful season. In his first year he struggled down the stretch, his second year he struggled to open the season and we all know what's going on this year.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you serious?
The end of the 1st season, 1st he was a rookie, 2nd there was the run at the Olympics where he won Gold, 3rd he got hurt at the end of the year...
The 2nd season the whole team got off to a bad start, and one of the only reason they made the playoffs was his stellar play after the all star break.

2 seasons, and he was a Vezina Finalist both years.

This season his dad has a brain anyurism and he is also dealing with contarct negotiations, all have to weighing on his mind, and effecting his play.
I'm not saying give him 13 years like the wannabe goalie on the Island got, but he needs to locked up for at least 5 years.
Get your head on straight if your going to run this blog, its getting ridiculous.

Kevin DeLury said...

By making excuses for his poor play you are actually agreeing with me that he has struggled at some point in each season that he has started. And you know what, Tom Barraso won the Vezina and Patrick Roy won the Stanely Cup and Conn Smythe as rookies, Brodeur played just as many games in the Olympics, if you're injuried sit out, if the whole team gets off to a bad start pick them up and if your father is ill go home and take care of him. If you're in the lineup, I don't want to hear any excuses.

Anonymous said...

I do agree he has been up and down, and last night he was awful. Bottom line he could have stood on his head and the Rangers still only scored 1 goal.
He has picked them up all year....how many games has he had the chance to sit back and relax because the Rangers score 3,4, or even 5 goals. How many shootouts does thins guys shutdown the other team,
And comparing Lundqvist to Brodeur and Roy the two best goalies in the History of the NHL, proves my point that he needs to be locked up long term.
Lundquist is not make any excuses, those were some reasons I believe he might be playing poorly.

Going into last night, Lundquist is still in the top 10 in almost all goalie stats.