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Originally Posted by dookie88
Now THAT is an educated statement.
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What can I say, goal tending is kind of my thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dookie88
Statistically Leighton was better in the regular season and in the playoffs than Niemi. And while Niemi was better in the Stanley Cup Finals, he was just less worse. Both sucked.
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If stats are what does it for you, cool. Goalies don't play in a vacuum though. For whatever it's worth, my opinion is rooted in actually watching them play.
It's a lot easier to get an athletic spaz like Niemi to cut down on his positional mistakes than it is to turn a sloth like Leighton into an adequate athlete. I am oversimplifying my argument a little bit for the sake of brevity, but that is the majority of why I say Niemi has more room for improvement.
In the finals Niemi was making more difficult saves, more often. And he got legitamitely left out to dry more often than anyone cares to mention (or if people are saying that, then I am missing it). Leighton was getting scored on by very stoppable shots. I'm oversimplifying my case, but that says a good deal about why I think he's better now.