Whoa, whoa, I think you misread. I didn't say Halak's overall season was mediocre to poor. I said his last two games, which is what I was responding to – poor Halak, the team didn't give him any support the past two games. I called Halak average, mediocre in those games. I said the team was poor and he was part of that.
I missed that part of the conversation. I agree that Halak's play was nothing spectacular the last two games. All I caught was that he was playing worse against worse competition and that implication that he got a coached fired, and I took both those comments as ones designed to impugn his season as a whole. If that wasn't the case, then I was definitely on a different page than you were.
I missed that part of the conversation. I agree that Halak's play was nothing spectacular the last two games. All I caught was that he was playing worse against worse competition and that implication that he got a coached fired, and I took both those comments as ones designed to impugn his season as a whole. If that wasn't the case, then I was definitely on a different page than you were.
Like I said, it's more annoyance at the disrespect Elliott gets and since I usually don't respond by saying negative things about Halak, even if they happen to be true, this time I chose to do so.
Like I said, it's more annoyance at the disrespect Elliott gets and since I usually don't respond by saying negative things about Halak, even if they happen to be true, this time I chose to do so.
I think that's fair. I can understand a bit of skepticism regarding Elliott's ability to sustain his level of play since he can't possibly keep it up forever, but what he's accomplished this season shouldn't be overlooked or unappreciated by anyone (much less Blues fans).
Blues are losing a lot of little moments. Can't wait another foot so you take icing. Then Arnott gets tossed from the own-zone faceoff, then Stewart loses the draw, then Berglund, as usual, gets tossed ... these little things are what's giving Detroit a slight edge so far in a game in which both are playing well.
Detroit is making a concerted effort to take away the point option in the defensive zone. I like how the Blues (especially the second line) has been exploiting that extra space down low to get the puck to the front of the net. That's exactly what they need to be doing to have success against a defensive scheme like that.
So what exactly gets someone thrown out of a faceoff? I've never been sure.
Can be any number of things, including things not specific to the guys actually taking the faceoff (like how the rest of the team is lining up/acting).
