It may not all be Niemi’s fault however. As Niemi continues to find his identity in net to offer that consistent goaltending that Stanley Cup caliber teams rely on, the San Jose Sharks as a team are struggling to find that consistency that takes the team to the next level.

Niemi possesses a very aggressive butterfly style, which causes him to crouch very, very low. As Niemi tracks the shot in this stance, Niemi gets down so low that his hands are down by his knees, a style reminiscent to Bill Ranford. Unfortunately, this style of play is a double-edged sword for Niemi, as it exposes the extreme vulnerability of his top shelf. When Niemi is in this stance and has to react to high shots, he has to first straighten his crouched body, then react to the high shot on either side.

Pucks tend to find their way past Niemi this way.

One positive for Niemi, nay – the Sharks goaltenders in tandem, is that lately it hasn’t been the opposing team scoring against them. Which of course translates in to negative for San Jose’s D.

Just as Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle blasted a puck past his own goaltender when Thomas Greiss started against the Dallas Stars, Brent Burns tipped a puck on a 2-on-1 play in which the pass along the crease was going to miss its mark, re-directing the puck into the net for a Coyotes goal.

This is the consistency San Jose needs to find. Night in, night out, it’s unclear which players are going to show up. Will we be seeing that aggressive, shit down defense backed by a Stanley Cup champion goaltender, or will we see a defense lacking identity and confidence, over committing to plays as their goalie slides around on his knees watching the puck fly by?

As the Stanley Cup playoffs continue to draw closer, Antti Niemi needs to show that he is that Stanley Cup champion goaltender. The San Jose Sharks top D guys have to show more consistency. The San Jose Sharks have to do better, and to begin the transition to being that better team, the Sharks need to stop beating themselves and start beating their opponents.

Facing the Pittsburgh Penguins isn’t an easy task. Stopping all 25 shots they throw at you, is just as difficult. Regardless of the level of difficulty, Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer isn’t the least bit intimidated and continues to solidify himself as a quality number 1 NHL goaltender.

As if he had to further prove that Optimus Reim is the man in Toronto, Reimer stood tall against the Ottawa Senators, blanking all 49 shots the Sens took.

Yes, a 49 save shutout performance by James Reimer.

Ed "The Eagle" Belfour

As the Maple Leafs continue to dangle onto the final playoff spot, the organization has to be confident in the fact that should they make the playoffs, they have a kid in net that is going to give them their first fighting chance for the Cup since the 03-04 season when Ed Belfour was their starting goaltender.

“I really wanted to step it up a bit and the only way I know how is to work hard and do what I think is right and so I went home and got in a little better shape (during the All-Star break),” Reimer said. “I never could have guessed that it would come with back-to-back shutouts. That’s a lot of fun to experience.”

It’s going to be tough for the Maple Leafs to get into the playoffs, but it’s going to be interesting to see how this young goaltender answers the call of the number 1 goaltender, bringing the hope of the Stanley Cup to Toronto.
]]> http://www.thepadstack.com/2012/02/james-reimer-2nd-straight-shuout/feed/ 0 http://www.thepadstack.com/2012/02/halak-earns-21st-shutout/ http://www.thepadstack.com/2012/02/halak-earns-21st-shutout/#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:46:54 +0000 Devin DiNardo http://www.thepadstack.com/?p=188 Halak stopped all 22 shots faced to record his fifth shutout of the season, 21st of his career, Friday night in the Blues’ 1-0 win over the Kings.

Dallas started the game strong, taking a couple of quick shots early in the game. Greiss stayed calm and reserved, stopping a whipping 7 shots in the first period. The second period would be just as lackluster, but a bit more surprising.

San Jose played exceptionally strong in front of Greiss, as though they were playing for him, and not with him. Unfortunately Dallas would be credited with a goal when a fluke defensive play by Dan Boyle on Steve Ott would bring the Stars within 1 point of the Sharks. Ott was coming in locked and loaded on Greiss, whom was square to the puck. Boyle defended aggressively and was able to steal the puck away from Ott. Unfortunately, in a quick attempt to clear the puck from Ott, Boyle sent the puck flying towards his own net, only to catch Greiss by surprise and sneak through his five-hole. Greiss only faced 4 shots in the 2nd periods.

Dallas found a little bit of life coming into the third, increasing their overall shot output to 10 that period. Greiss stayed strong, playing aggressive at the top of his crease and staying square to his shooters. Early in the third, Greiss would stop a shot to his lower blocker side, over stretching so he can reach for the save. This left the puck sitting at the top of the crease, in which Greiss attempted to cover with his blocker.

Rather than either dropping his stick to pick up the puck with his blocker, or quickly cover the puck with his glove, Greiss attempted to weakly cover the puck with the edge of his blocker. This ineffective move made it quite easy for Dallas’ Jamie Benn to tap the unprotected puck into the empty net.

Despite his own team’s goal against and a flukey puck cover, Greiss still played very, very solid. While his starts are sporadic, thanks to Antti Niemi, Greiss is making the best of every opportunity he is getting. It’s just a matter of time before he earns a couple of starts in a row to further solidify his back-up role, and hopefully be part of a goaltending tandem that will take San Jose all the way.

Despite facing, and stopping, 30 shots, Niemi wasn’t tested with any truly difficult situations. You can chalk that up to one of two factors: the San Jose Sharks played a smart, tight game and the Columbus Blue Jackets were just that bad.

As a team struggling to find an identity and respect, Rick Nash and company were able to muster 30 shots past the Sharks defense. A majority of these shots were along the ice, which is Niemi’s forte.

Niemi displayed, yet again, his graceful ability of the butterfly slide by taking away any chance a low shot had of going in the net. Nash had an opportunity when his shot was kicked back to him by Niemi, which at the same time a Blue Jacket was reach for the puck and inadvertently pushed Niemi out of position. Nemo was able to recover and take away Nash’s scoring chance.

Niemi faced plenty of rebound situations tonight, be it the puck caroming off the boards to the front of the net, or his first save resulting in a second scoring opportunity for Columbus. And it would be Niemi’s butterfly slide that saved the day.

Be it his newly designed helmet, or the fact that his father was in the stands, Niemi slid into his 2nd consecutive shutout with relative ease. Now let’s see if Niemi can ride this confidence, and begin to build on these games to make him the elite goaltender that San Jose needs.

In the AIHL’s opening weekend, the Northern California Mustangs played host to the Oakland Goodlife at the Mustangs’ home at the Silver Creek Sportsplex. The Oakland Goodlife opened the scoring 5:45 into game one when Oakland’s Gavin Klatt put the puck past Mustangs goaltender Ryan Lowe.

Jason Weiser added a goal of his own to put Goodlife up 2-0 in the first period. However the Mustangs didn’t have an answer for former Mustang Travis Suyeishi, as he ended the game with a hat trick.

The Mustangs did all they could, firing 20 shots on net, but the game’s deserved first star, Kevin Silva, had answers for every shot he faced, backstopping Oakland to a 5-0 win in their first game of the 2011-2012 AIHL season.

Special teams seemed to trouble the Mustangs in game 2, as Goodlife converted on 4 of their 5 power play opportunities. Travis Suyeishi again dominated his former team with 2 goals and 2 assists. Not to be outdone, Oakland’s Jason Weiser answered Suyeishi’s hat trick with one of his own, ending the game with 5 goals.

Hat tricks aside, Goodlife’s goaltender Kevin Silva would again rise to the occasion, stopping all 24 shots the Mustangs took. Oakland easily took game 2, strengthening their 2-0 record with a 12-0 win over Northern California.

While it was a tough opening weekend for the Northern California Mustangs, it’s still definitely far too early to hit the panic button in San Jose. Coach Mario Sousa and his Mustangs definitely have a lot of work ahead of them if they plan to overtake Oakland as the AIHL Elite League Champions.

The San Jose Sharks may no longer have a decision to make on who will start in goal to open the season.

Antero Niittymaki

San Jose’s Antero Niittymaki recently underwent hip surgery, knocking him out of action for up to 12 weeks. While he is currently serving as San Jose’s back-up goaltender, this surgery, in my eyes, could be detrimental to the rest of Nitty’s career.

Dating back to 2006, Niittymaki has been victim to a string of hip and lower body injuries. Niitty, who for a brief moment after his acquisition by San Jose was referred to as “their man” received quite the fitting nickname by yours truly: “Glass Hips.”

It is my line of thinking that Niittymaki’s aggressive style of play is the cause for his bad hips. When he preps for a shot, Niity stands in a pretty low crouch with a nice gaping five-hole. This stance obviously puts a lot of wear and tear on his hips.

Ed Belfour's "Trap"

Heck, look at Ed Belfour’s old stance. Referred to as the “Belfour Trap,” Ed Belfour used to “trap” shooters into shooting five-hole. Often having a very wide stance while keeping his hands high, Belfour would give shooters no other option that to go between the legs. And at this time, Belfour was so quick with closing his five-hole that shooters had no chance.

Unfortunately, after a couple of years of performing with this stance, Belfour began falling victim to back issues, and had to change his game. The result? A successful run at the Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars.

Niittymaki obviously has yet to change his style. Whether or not he;s actually tried in practice, but the continual wear and tear he’s putting on his lower body is causing him to miss out of half of his contract year with San Jose.

Antti Niemi

Antti Niemi should be the clear cut starter, as he was last season, but “Nemo” has missed training camp and preseason because he had to have a cyst removed. Team officials feel that Niemi should be ready to go come the season opener.

And if he’s not?

Thomas Greiss is your answer.

Thomas Greiss

It’s not all doom and gloom in San Jose. Like I said, Niemi should be back in time for the starter, and if not he won’t miss THAT many games. However, with Niittymaki missing half the season, the Sharks will need a reliable back-up. Now, if I got to wear my GM hat, my first attention to my nets would be to find the best support for Antti Niemi.

I’m the kind of guy that likes to have a veteran back-up behind the young, up and coming starting goaltender. Jimmy Howard has Chris Osgood and Corey Crawford has Marty Turco.

I like this set up not because of the obvious, if your starter falters you have someone with starting experience to handle a short workload, but it’s the stuff off camera that it most beneficial. Working and mentoring both on and off the ice. Niemi hasn’t had this opportunity yet, and I can see how it’s affecting his game. On top of that, San Jose doesn’t have a dedicated goalie coach; as Corey Schwab works mostly in Worcester.

So if I were going to keep Greiss in Worcester to work on his game and keep the AHL Sharks afloat, what goalie on the market would I bring in to take over back-up duties in San Jose?

I swear, this is not a biased decision.

Marty Turco