Rotowire.com, such a useful source of player insight when it comes to baseball, really went bonkers over hockey today, concerning Anaheim goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Reporting on the Game 7 win over Cowtown, Rotowire "advised":
Jean-Sebastien Giguere's health is no longer of concern. Bryzgalov wrapped up the series playing roughly 4.5 games and posting an astounding 0.80 goals-against average and .968 save percentage.
Er, lets not be too hasty here about "astounding 0.80 GAAs". Even when Calgary had a sixth attacker they couldn't produce a single quality scoring chance. The Flames had the lowest GFA in the goram* league this season, so their 1 goal over the final two playoff games wasn't entirely unexpected. Put me in that goalie slot and watch me let in no more than 3. Let's see how Bryzgalov does against the Colorado Avalanche before we crow about his acheivements: shut down the Sakic/Tanguay/Hejduk line, and the Turgeon/Laaksonen/Hinote line, and the McLean/Laperriere/Brunette line, and then point shots of Rob Blake and Patrice Brisbois and Karlis Skrastins. Then we can decide what kind of goaltender Anaheim has gotten itself.
* Yes, I am swearing Firefly style now. Enjoy.
Other sports news, I should add in that I've made an update to my Cam Ward post
April 25, 2006: The Seattle Times reports that Eddie Guardado is "in no danger of losing his closer job".
May 4, 2006: The Seattle Post-Intelligence reports...that Eddie Guardado "is no longer the Mariners primary closer".
Ouch. Sorry Eddie. I guess blowing yet another save on May 3rd was the final nail. What was that? 3 saves blown in 8 days back in April? A 8.38 ERA? Ugh.
The problem is there's really nobody around to replace him: Rafael Soriano or J.J. Putz or George Sherrill don't quite jump out at you.
Oddly enough I tried to secure Guardado, and came up 0/4 in my leagues. Shit, eh?
4-0 White Sox in Chicago this morning as Jose Conteras tries for thirteen consecutive wins. This will help my epic struggle discussed here.
Roger Clemens is enjoying torturing all 30 MLB teams.
