The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

If there's any consolation to Ray Emery getting the call to backstop the Ottawa Senators after Hasek told reporters he's not ready to go, every other goaltender in the East, with the exception of Martin Brodeur, have little or no experience heading in the playoffs which start this Friday.

Martin Gerber. Henrik Lundquist. Ryan Miller. Antero Nittymaki. John Grahame. Cristobal Huet. When you read those names, they don't exactly strike fear in your heart. Although many times during the regular season these goalies have shown us they have the potential to take over as the goalies of the future with guys like Ed Belfour, Curtis Joseph and Dominik Hasek winding down the careers, it's pretty much a clean slate from here on in and it's time to prove themselves. No team can go far with weak goaltending. The joke is the post-season shouldn't be called "playoffs" but rather "goalie" as it's usually the best goaltender that gives his team Lord Stanley.

Back home in Ottawa, almost every Sens fans is hitting the panic button and await nervously as Ray Emery gets the call Friday. Who's going to show up? Will it be the guy who picked up the NHL defensive player of the month award for March with a .925 save percentage? Or is it going to be the guy, outside of tonight's Rangers game, who lost five in a row and let in 20+ goals in the process?

I think the Senators' organization has done a disservice by having the whole Hasek situation distract the team. Once that was cleared up and they told Emery he is going to start for the team this Friday, Emery responded with a solid effort tonight making 27 out of 28 saves in Ottawa's 5-1 win. Hopefully, this will be the start of something special.

Other thoughts:

Andrej Meszaros gets his 10th goal, Patrick Eaves gets his 20th and Dany Heatley notched his 50th of the year in the same game. They get a great team effort, win the Eastern Conference title and show the fans Emery can get the job done. The stars are now perhaps aligning in Ottawa's favour.

I should warn everyone the blog is going to be pretty hockey-heavy for the next little while. The regular season is over, and this time of year is what hockey fans look forward to the most.