St. Louis Blues 2010-11 Season Evaluations: Goalies
BlueNoteZone’s newest Author, Curt Chaplin, evaluates the St. Louis Blues goaltending for the 2010-11 NHL Season for his first post.
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Jaroslav Halak came out of the gate to start the 10-11 season as he finished up the 09-10 season in a Montreal uniform posting an 8-1-1 record to start the season. Jaro seemed to hit a wall and lose some confidence as the injury bug spread throughout the Blues lineup. One big question heading into the season was if Halak was fully capable of handling the bulk of the load as the clear cut #1 goaltender, Halak claims he was fine physically, but was he mentally drained? Leads one to believe so. Jaro was positionally sound and virtually unbeatable early on in the season but began to play deeper in his crease which you cannot do against NHL shooters.
Inconsistency is the best word that describes the Blues goaltending this year, whether it was Halak, Ty Conklin or Ben Bishop, the trio was average at it’s best and really only a couple of games stick out that the goaltenders “stole” for us (Pittsburgh,Boston,Buffalo,Edmonton-Bishop). Jaroslav Halak has the ability to steal games for a stretch of time as we have seen in the past whether it was for Slovakia in the Olympics or Montreal in the playoffs.
There is no question to as the coaching staff had very little confidence in giving Halak more rest with the dreadful play of veteran backup Ty Conklin this year. It was mid February when we learned of an injury to Jaro. He was placed on IR after posting a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks and the team said he had injured the hand during practice. A credible source told me that the injury bothered Halak longer then it was advertised. This could be another reason as why Jaro struggled with confidence issues. If your hurt and focused on not hurting yourself more you are taking your mind off playing the game and focusing it on the injury. Speaking of injuries, the Blues were hit hard by them and is another reason for the up and down play of goaltending. Blues fans thought the Ty Conklin era had come to an end when he was placed on waivers right before the trade deadline, with no takers the Blues were forced to hold onto Conklin. I was very shocked to not see a playoff team add a veteran backup like Ty, he’s been there before and knows what it takes to win.
To sum up the Blues goaltending as a whole it was disappointing and left a lot to be desired. Where do they go from here? We shall see, one believes Ty Conklin is pretty much seen his days as a Blue pass. Where does Ben Bishop stand? There have been rumors that the Blues will shop the local boy this summer. Sit back folks, enjoy some playoff hockey and let the summer play out.
