Goalie Fights

I love watching goalies fight! Last nights tilt between Ottawa’s Ray Emory and Buffalo’s Martin Biron wasn’t a classic, but it was funny. Emory seemed to revel in the chance to slap around the French Canadian. Emery had a huge smile on his face and easily dropped Biron. In an attempt to redeem himself, Biron tripped Emery by pulling on his pads. It looked more like second graders in a sandbox rumble than 2 angry men ready to fight to defend their teams honor. There is a great rivalry developing between these two teams. When the Sabres were beating everyone earlier in the year, the Senators had their number. Now the roles seem to be reversing and took on a nasty tone when Sabres captain, Chris Drury, was blindsided by Chris Neil and had to be helped off the ice. The game between these two on Saturday should be a good and maybe Emery will get the chance to beat up Ryan Miller too.



I think that Ottawa’s reputation of being a team that is lacking grit and easily pushed around is unfair. If you look back at the past couple years, these guys have been involved on some of the NHL’s biggest brawls including the mayhem that ended a game with the Flyers. The fact that they can’t win in the post season doesn’t mean that they don’t have grit. Suspect goal tending and poor leadership (Alfie sucks) are more to blame.



I don’t want to talk about the Leafs today. They could only muster two goals and neither of them came of sticks...Pathetic.



I am hoping the Raptors are going to prove me right in an argument I was having with a buddy. He said that they were going to stumble after the All Star break. I am convinced that they will be able to use the momentum they had going before the break to extend their lead in the Atlantic division. After the unmotivated effort on Wednesday I am wondering if I am right. What killed me on Wednesday was T.J. Ford recklessly driving the lane and tossing up a hopeless shot in the dying seconds of the game. The game plan is simple: give the ball to Bosh. He has continually made big shots at the end of games. He is the hero, not you T.J.



I may or may not be starting to like Anthony Parker. I picked him up in my basketball pool because D-Wade went down. I can’t have a guy on my team who is a chucker so I might be removing that label.



I’m not sure which Raptor team will show up tonight. If Bosh got some rest and can make his shots this should be a win. He will put up 25 and 10.



We definitely got the best of the Jones/Dixon trade. Jones wasn’t playing and the Raptors have depth at the 2 and 3 position. I think this was more of a chemistry move than anything else. Jones was sending out bad vibes and Colangelo dumped him. Great job keeping Mo Pete. He has so much heart and is bringing a great game off the bench. This team has balls and the league is starting to see it. The swagger was there before the All Star break and they are going to bring it back tonight!