Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Karma or Statistics - Who Should Start in Net Tonight?

First off, congrats to Marty Brodeur for tieing Sawchuk's shutout record at 103 last night. It's only a matter of games before Marty seals his 104th, but hopefully he gets to do it at home in front of all 1,300 fans at the Prudential Centre. Let's just hope it's not on December 18th vs. the Sens.

As I watched the highlights of Marty's win, it made me yearn for a Sens shutout, of which we have yet to achieve in the 2009-2010 campaign. Back when obtained Leclaire I was very optimistic that he would return to his shut-em-out ways of the 2007-08 season, where he managed 9 shutouts in a career high 54 games played - 37.5% of his wins that season were by shutout!

Hold on...my head just exploded...

But alas, after 28 games this season we are still in search of our first goose egg between Snoopy and the BE Keeper. Now, I'm not coming down on our goaltending and think it's been very solid, despite a recent 3pt, 5 game road swing where the whole team seemed to be on vacation, with the exception of a few standouts. That all said, I keep itching to see a final score of:

Ottawa # - Visitor 0

Agree? Good.

That brings me to my question of who should start in net tonight. Over the course of the dismal road swing, I kept reading people plead for Mike "Don't Call Me Marty" Brodeur to start a game, but Clouston kept with BE. Now that the Keeper has played 5 straight games on the road (and every game since and including the broken jaw incident), is it time for him to rest?

Now this is getting a little crazy, but imagine this...

December 7 - Marty Brodeur records his 103rd shutout to tie the NHL record
December 8 - Mikey Brodeaur records his 1st shutout in his first NHL game

Could fate be on our side tonight? Or am I crazy? Coming back down to Earth, maybe Mikey B is ready and he just deserves a start. Maybe he's jacked about his distant's cousin's success that he's pumped to play. Add that to the fact that MTL came off a 13 shot performance last night. Do you give this game to Brodeur.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that Ottawa returns to SBP tonight where Elliot is 4-0-2 this season with a 2.18 save percentage. Hmm, I like those odds.

The Habs are 2 points behind us. This is a good time to stretch our lead and a very important game following the road trip from hell. A first-half season must win if you ask me.

So who do you start??? Karma or Statistics?