I was at the game last night, slumming it in the GM Power seats. If you are beating yourself up for not attending or because you missed it on TV, I assure you such activity is utterly groundless. Granted, I spent some of the game distracted by Sparticat's antics and discussing my all time favourite Zdeno Chara radio moments with former Senate Committee contributor Phil, but I counted five scoring chances for Ottawa to Tampa Bay's three. I have always been of the opinion that chances, not goals, make a hockey game exciting. This match-up had neither. I was almost inclined to follow Rick Tocchet's advice, and request a refund. We did, however, determine that "Two dorks on the radio for three hours? Now THAT'S ridiculous!" was Chara's best work.
Last night's result could suggest water has perhaps been added to the coffee grinds of a potential goaltending controversy (it's a brewin'.) Martin Gerber posted his second win of this increasingly aged season last night, making 24 saves for the team's first shutout. Gerber has now allowed one goal in his last 159 minutes of play, while teammate Alex Auld looked decidedly average in the team's losses to Florida and Washington this week. Auld allowed 9 goals on 74 shots in his two starts this week, good for a 4.50 GAA and .878 save percentage. Gerber was named first star last night, the Ottawa Sun ran an article praising Gerber in today's paper, the Ottawa Citizen suggested that Hartsburg now has a tough choice to make when deciding who starts Tuesday, while fans called the post-game show nominating the much maligned Swiss 'tender for increased duties. And so once again we ask
ourselves: Is there a goaltending controversy in Ottawa?Good lord, I hope not. If there is, it will likely be a creation of an unoccupied Ottawa media.
I was critical of Martin Gerber well before started we publishing. To be fair, Gerber seems like a fine individual. His teammates speak about his work ethic in glowing terms, he is always very professional in the media, and by all accounts he does not sulk or cause a distraction in the dressing room when things do not go his way. All things considered, he seems like a good teammate and a serviceable back-up goaltender, albeit a touch pricey when his $3.7M cap hit is factored in. Having said that, unless he absoloutely implodes, the job should be Alex Auld's to lose. Despite Martin Gerber's strong stats from his week's work, I'm not even convinced he played very well.
I concede Gerber allowed very few goals in the last two games. However, the technical problems that make Gerber a poor NHL goaltender. I watched the tape of the Chicago game I had slept through Wednesday and had a bird's eye view of the Sens' net for 67% of last night's game, and even though he got the shutout, to say Gerber was particularly strong in goal would be a results-driven assessment. The journey through which Gerber arrived at his recent statistical success has been sloppy and erratic.
Don`t get me wrong, I would love to be able to play goal like Martin Gerber can; he just does not exhibit the skill set of a No.1 goalie in this league. For starters, Gerber fights the puck like a scared first-time driver fights the steering wheel. The man never looks comfortable with the biscuit, and it produces awkward rebounds around the Senator goal. This trend appears to be a result of Gerber's lack of confidence and relaxation in goal, as well as poor technique. Run a quick image search on Google and you will find numerous photographs of Marty bobbling high shots. Gerber`s confidence issues also manifest themselves in weak goals in pressure situations, which often deflate the Senator bench and cause the team's defencemen to scramble out of position to cover for Gerber when the game is on the line, resulting in defensive zone breakdowns.
Furthermore, Gerber has a hard time staying in position in his crease. He often loses sight of the puck, leaving himself in the wrong spot, then slides laterally to recover. The problem is he frequently misjudges where he needs to be and over compensates to the short side, leaving shooters the whole far side of the net. This happened three or four times last night by my count. If Tampa Bay`s anemic offense had hit the net on only 25% of those opportunities, the game would have gone to overtime or worse. I am not a goaltending pro, but this problem seems pretty intelligible and glaring to me.
Alex Auld has given this team stability between the pipes, making the saves he is supposed to make in key situations (Ie. that save on Evgeni Malkin late in Ottawa's 3-2 victory over the Penguins.) Two strong results from Gerber in the midst of a congested schedule should not be enough to oust Auld from the team's goaltending throne. Knowing what he got the last time he handed Gerber the starter's job, I can't see how or why Craig Hartsburg would give Gerber the chance to win it back right now. In light of the play of both netminders so far this season, Auld deserves the chance to play himself out of the driver's seat more so than Gerber deserves the chance to play himself in.
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