Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Emery shows his mettle
Ray Emery shows first signs of life in NHL
The passive tree huggers have roared to life like a dying man being shocked with a debibulator. The cause for the outbreak of venom, Ray Emery’s three game suspension for hitting Maxim Lapierre of the Montreal Canadiens in the second period of the Ottawa-Montreal game this past Saturday night, February 10th.
Emery has shown incredible resolve during his short time in the NHL after a brief but mercurial career in the AHL where he was suspended a couple of times and involved in some of the wilder altercations in the past 3-4 years. For quite some time many fans and media in Ottawa have pondered at what point his past behavior and temper would get the better of him – now we know. Is this a big deal? No it’s not but regretfully some on both sides are making it out to be.
From the Ottawa perspective. You never want to lose your starting goaltender be it to injury or suspension and in the midst of a tight playoff race it’s even worse timing however with only three games in the next seven days and with Martin Gerber already slated to start tomorrow’s game against Florida Ottawa may dodge a bullet of course we’ll know more about that in seven days. The fact remains that many goaltenders before Ray Emery and many after him will at some point assert themselves clear their crease or take matters into their own hands. Terry Sawchuk fought and hit everything that moved anywhere near his crease. Billy Smith was the most truculent goaltender in the history of the sport until Ron Hextall came along and made him look like a choir boy routinely posting 100+ pim seasons and taking several suspensions. Patrick Roy was once suspended eight games for a slash so bad on a Minnesota player named Warren Babe on October 19, 1987 that he put Babe out of action for two weeks. Those are some pretty good goaltenders in the history of the NHL. All of them Cup finalists and all but Hextall Cup winners. Frankly, from the Ottawa perspective I’m not that upset to see Emery finally blow a fuse. I think it would be good if he also takes an occasion or two and drops the gloves. I wouldn’t recommend he take on the Derek Boogaard’s or George Laracque’s of the world but winging a few shots at the numerous crease crashers in today’s game is never a bad idea in my opinion.
From the Montreal perspective. The Habs accomplished several things with this incident. Clearly they got under Emery’s skin and that bodes well for future games and maybe a playoff series at some point in time. Montreal scored on the power play so that really makes it worth while and lastly they got a suspension that frankly nobody in hockey circles feels was warranted so the hype and reaction in Montreal helped lead to that and if at the end of the day the Senators struggle with Gerber in the lineup then it’s really a win-win for Montreal. Of course all of this is easy to say because Lapierre was not hurt on the play despite their being significant intent to do so.
From the leagues perspective. The NHL continues to evolve in to a joke status. A league that was once revered for its respect level among its brethren and a code of conduct that player and fans espoused for decades continues to look Mickey Mouse as player after player night in and night out run the goalies. With the threat of 2-5-10 hanging over any body who comes to their defense or worse, taking twenty-seven minutes like Sheldon Souray did against Colby Armstrong on February 1st only to see Armstrong drop his gloves and get nothing - the NHL continues with this lack of accountability prevalent in the game today to slip into the back channels, literally, of the viewing public. Who can state with any conviction that they recall crease crashing in the 1980’s, 1970’s, 1960’s or before to the degree that we are getting it now? If you ventured near a goalie in those era’s retribution was swift. If you hit somebody from behind you were made accountable – on the ice. Not in the boardroom. Or in the case of Alexandre Ovechkin’s hit on Daniel Briere just a few weeks ago, not even in the boardroom. At least Paul Gaustad tried to get him for that brutal hit on Briere. I digress. Folks, this too shall pass. Ray Emery has finally shown his mettle as far as I’m concerned and I’m way more impressed that he’s had the season he’s had to date than worrying about a three game suspension.
Liam Maguire
The passive tree huggers have roared to life like a dying man being shocked with a debibulator. The cause for the outbreak of venom, Ray Emery’s three game suspension for hitting Maxim Lapierre of the Montreal Canadiens in the second period of the Ottawa-Montreal game this past Saturday night, February 10th.
Emery has shown incredible resolve during his short time in the NHL after a brief but mercurial career in the AHL where he was suspended a couple of times and involved in some of the wilder altercations in the past 3-4 years. For quite some time many fans and media in Ottawa have pondered at what point his past behavior and temper would get the better of him – now we know. Is this a big deal? No it’s not but regretfully some on both sides are making it out to be.
From the Ottawa perspective. You never want to lose your starting goaltender be it to injury or suspension and in the midst of a tight playoff race it’s even worse timing however with only three games in the next seven days and with Martin Gerber already slated to start tomorrow’s game against Florida Ottawa may dodge a bullet of course we’ll know more about that in seven days. The fact remains that many goaltenders before Ray Emery and many after him will at some point assert themselves clear their crease or take matters into their own hands. Terry Sawchuk fought and hit everything that moved anywhere near his crease. Billy Smith was the most truculent goaltender in the history of the sport until Ron Hextall came along and made him look like a choir boy routinely posting 100+ pim seasons and taking several suspensions. Patrick Roy was once suspended eight games for a slash so bad on a Minnesota player named Warren Babe on October 19, 1987 that he put Babe out of action for two weeks. Those are some pretty good goaltenders in the history of the NHL. All of them Cup finalists and all but Hextall Cup winners. Frankly, from the Ottawa perspective I’m not that upset to see Emery finally blow a fuse. I think it would be good if he also takes an occasion or two and drops the gloves. I wouldn’t recommend he take on the Derek Boogaard’s or George Laracque’s of the world but winging a few shots at the numerous crease crashers in today’s game is never a bad idea in my opinion.
From the Montreal perspective. The Habs accomplished several things with this incident. Clearly they got under Emery’s skin and that bodes well for future games and maybe a playoff series at some point in time. Montreal scored on the power play so that really makes it worth while and lastly they got a suspension that frankly nobody in hockey circles feels was warranted so the hype and reaction in Montreal helped lead to that and if at the end of the day the Senators struggle with Gerber in the lineup then it’s really a win-win for Montreal. Of course all of this is easy to say because Lapierre was not hurt on the play despite their being significant intent to do so.
From the leagues perspective. The NHL continues to evolve in to a joke status. A league that was once revered for its respect level among its brethren and a code of conduct that player and fans espoused for decades continues to look Mickey Mouse as player after player night in and night out run the goalies. With the threat of 2-5-10 hanging over any body who comes to their defense or worse, taking twenty-seven minutes like Sheldon Souray did against Colby Armstrong on February 1st only to see Armstrong drop his gloves and get nothing - the NHL continues with this lack of accountability prevalent in the game today to slip into the back channels, literally, of the viewing public. Who can state with any conviction that they recall crease crashing in the 1980’s, 1970’s, 1960’s or before to the degree that we are getting it now? If you ventured near a goalie in those era’s retribution was swift. If you hit somebody from behind you were made accountable – on the ice. Not in the boardroom. Or in the case of Alexandre Ovechkin’s hit on Daniel Briere just a few weeks ago, not even in the boardroom. At least Paul Gaustad tried to get him for that brutal hit on Briere. I digress. Folks, this too shall pass. Ray Emery has finally shown his mettle as far as I’m concerned and I’m way more impressed that he’s had the season he’s had to date than worrying about a three game suspension.
Liam Maguire
# posted by Liam Maguire @ 9:11 AM 
