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Daily Times beat writer Anthony J. SanFilippo takes you inside the locker rooms of the Philadelphia Flyers and the rest of the NHL.



Sunday, February 8, 2009

GOALIE GAG ORDER

Back with you guys after being away from the team for most of the past week...

Here's the latest on the goalie controversy that coach John Stevens insists is not a controversy at all....

When asked to talk about the goaltender situation before today's game with the Thrashers, Stevens declined to talk about it.

He said he would save it for conversation later this week.

Sounds like he doesn't want to address the obvious.... Right now, Niittymaki is better suited to get more work than Biron as the Flyers try to accumulate as many points as possible.

We'll see how he plays it, but my prediction is Niittymaki starts three of the next four games, starting with today.

On another note, the Thrashers, in an effort to snap their 13-game losing skid to the Flyers, switched goalies themselves and will start Johan Hedberg against Niittymaki today.

Normal starter Kari Lehtonen has lost all 12 games he's played against Niittymaki dating back to their days in the AHL.

One other item...

Philips Arena is more than half empty nine minutes before game time.

Has the southeastern hockey experiment failed yet?

2 Comments:

Anonymous jpark91 said...

i think nitty has to keep getting the oppertunities until proven otherwise. he is obviously on top of his game at a time that marty is forgetting his basics such as hugging the post (a problem that has been dated back to last season and a major problem in the pittsburgh series) like early in the first period of saturday's game.

playoff goalie talk....

with conversations with my family and friends i have been told that stevens would have to go with the veteran experience in marty biron. similar to the case in 05-06 with esche. however, i feel that the only way that we can ultimately judge the caliber of nitty is by giving him the nod in the playoffs and seeing what he is truly made of. hey, he is the mvp of the 06 olympics (a shockingly underrated fact) and a calder cup winner.

I am not trying to bash marty biron but i do feel that nitty looks much better right now and is giving the flyers more oppertunity of win hockey games.

hey anthony, if playoffs were to start tomorrow, who is your goalie?

p.s. yes the hockey expansion in places like atlanta and phoenix has failed and those teams should be relocated to places like hartford and winnipeg

February 8, 2009 11:42 PM 
Blogger simon said...

I don't know why Nitty isn't the starter; unfair if you ask me. it was a bonehead move from the day we signed Biron.

just like Jpark said....Nitty has world class experience. it seems he's more suited to play better teams that can really move the puck. both goalies play percentages being a butterfly goalie, but nitty has what it takes to make the saves goalies can't; he's got the subtle flash; quickness, and agility.

Argue Biron played SO WELL against the Habs last year; but honestly - how many chances did the habs snipers miss? i fault the lack of sniping ability over the overrated goaltending ability.

nitty all the way.
Sorry marty, i love you...but you're this generations Garth Snow.

February 10, 2009 2:38 PM 

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