Ray Emery, Martin Gerber - and a Desperate Media

[coldsquad2002]

RE - \"When Ottawa is playing their best hockey you can put a guy in a wheel chair in net and his stats will be good\"

Lalime proved Ottawa could not win with any goalie. I seen the Leaf\'s get destroyed offensively by Ottawa in playoffs for a few years but win due to having Belfour while Ottawa had Lalime.

[19 Straight]

Dobber wrote:

MysteryMike: as great as Bernier is - and he is great - and as capable as he is of playing next season - and he is quite capable - I think the Kings would prefer to wait until he is 22 or even 23. Goalies take a long time to develop and sometimes they never truly reach their potential if they are brought in too early.
Getting Emery for two seasons before he is a UFA...the timing might be perfect.
That being said, I think the Lightning need him more.

If I\'m Ottawa, I would prefer to trade him to the other conference, however.

[tiantonio]

leBoomer wrote:

I dont think I could have done any worse in drafting goalies this year.

That may be the worst collection of supposed net minders that I have seen in quite some time. Even your goalie that \"won\" tonight gave up 6 goals on 22 shots.

Ouch

[GoalieGuild]

I wish I saw this thread BEFORE I wrote my column on Rageaholic Ray.

Dobber is totally right about the media - I wanted to take that angle at first but I realized it was time to focus on the player rather than his surroundings.

Emery\'s ridiculous antics last week stemmed from his frustration at totally sucking this year. If you were that close to winning a Stanley Cup, got a bunch of bling over the summer, then came out with two straight wins and then started to look the fool compared to Martin Gerber, you\'d be pissed too.

But the way he handled it all was ridiculous and quite immature.

Honestly, his days are numbered in the NHL. Nobody wants to hear a player whine and no teammate wants to answer questions that has nothing to do with hockey about another teammate, especially to a fat, sweaty, gross reporter shoving a tape recorder in your face.

Dobber is also correct about the trade part - except I don\'t see anyone picking him up. He\'s not ... shall we say ... starter material. He\'s just a huge goalie with sub-par lateral movement. Which NHL team would want to deal with this guy? Toronto? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAaaaaaaaa

[Dobber]

True enough GG, true enough...but he\'s still young and he has a history of winning, regardless of skills. Sometimes that alone can forge a career.

[coldsquad2002]

I think anyone knocking Emery\'s skills at this point will end up eating their words. In a couple months and during the playoffs Emery will be the man in Ottawa and all will be forgiven. Go Razor !!

[Yardie]

With so many young goalies in the NHL and many technically skilled and professional goalies on the way, Emery\'s strengths: age and one year of NHL success aren\'t nearly as valuable as one would think. These assets are further diluted with all the nonsense we have all heard. Plus, how old is this guy? 24? That is well past the age where you can put his attitude down to mere youthful exuberance.

I hope he sorts himself out. And I agree that the media has a role to play in all this. A negative one - eager to seize upon a players emotions and actions real or imagined.

[ultrawhiteness]

dobber nailed the situation in LA. however... maybe lombardi is alright with stinking it up another year for another lottery pick?

[Glenn99]

What does this do for Emery now? Guys in my league laughed at me when I traded him for Toskala a couple weeks ago, but I don\'t know it is almost like Ray is sabotaging this on purpose to get out of Ottawa.

There can\'t be too many reasons for being late for practice again when the team pretty much layed it on the line. The only thing that will help him now is if Gerber goes into the tank, which could happen.

[Dobber]

His reason was legit...but it was still irresponsible. I think he learned from it. The media is still blowing it up.
B)

[Glenn99]

You are right in that the media is blasting him in Ottawa, probably out of proportion.

Check this out

Link: http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=274450

[ultrawhiteness]

wow that guy really laid into him.

there was one sentence in that article that I actually thought was kind of insightful... \"Emery\'s behaviour smacks of a player whose lifestyle is affecting his ability to do his job\".