Talking Goalies for the Olympics

So the Senators played the Sabres tonight. The teams combined for 81 shots on goal. Sound like an exciting game? Hell yeah! Sound like a high scoring game? Uh… no. The Senators won 1-0, on an Erik Karlsson goal with less than two minutes remaining in the game. But the goalies, Ryan Miller for Buffalo and Craig Anderson for Ottawa, were absolutely fantastic, making stellar save after stellar save. Defense was kinda sloppy, as each team made multiple bad turnovers that resulted in multiple odd-man breaks that resulted in multiple phenomenal saves. Part of what made this goaltending battle interesting is that Miller and Anderson are two of the goalies in the running for the U.S. starting goalie at the Olympics this year. In 2010, Miller backstopped the U.S. to a Silver Medal and was outstanding, being named the MVP of the tournament. Obviously, he’d like to have his job back. Everyone assumes Jonathan Quick will start for the U.S. at the Olympics, and the fact that he won a Stanley Cup recently only helps his resume. But Anderson and Miller are both showing their best in their early season auditions. Miller was fantastic in the Sabres seasoning opening 2-1 loss to the Red Wings too. Speaking of those Red Wings, Jimmy Howard is also trying to get a spot on that Olympic team.

It’s quite interesting to see the number of quality possible starters for the U.S., while Canada has so many questions regarding their netminding situation. There were 5 goalies invited to Canada’s Olympic orientation camp back in August – Roberto Luongo, Carey Price, Braden Holtby, Corey Crawford, and Mike Smith. Luongo was in net when Canada won Gold in 2010, but he also lost (and then re-gained) his starting job in Vancouver. Carey Price has struggled in Montreal recently, especially at the end of last season and into the playoffs. Mike Smith has only had one outstanding season, 2011-12, after being a mediocre goalie for all the preceding years. How much of his success is due to the system Dave Tippett has the Coyotes play? I’d say a lot of it. Look what happened to Ilya Bryzgalov after leaving Tippett’s system. Braden Holtby is only 24, has never had a full year as the Capitals number 1, and allowed 8 goals in his first two games this season, including getting pulled against the Flames yesterday. Yes, Crawford won the Stanley Cup and had a great season last year, but he has no experience at the international level. So yeah, for everything else Canada has going for them, they’ve got some goaltending questions. The U.S. has goalie questions too, but of the, ‘we have too many elite goalies, who do we play’ kind of questions.