Testing the waters

My little profile over there on the side sums it up pretty well. I love to scour the 'net for interesting goalie-related news, but make no claims to provide all the news that's out there. This is mostly a place for me to comment on stories I find interesting as well as providing a little info for the goalie-minded. My focus will be mostly on goalies, because that is my passion (some would say obsession....), but I will definitely be talking about other things too. Bascially, whatever strikes my fancy. Living in the USA, my primary focus is the NHL, but I have become a fan of the Swedish Elite League as well, thanks to my curiosity about Henrik Lundqvist's old team, and a fellow hockey fanatic friend who lives in Sweden. My two favorite teams over there are the Frölunda Indians and HV71 (who desperately need a new name). Besides Sweden, any news from Finland, Russia, and the Czech Republic catches my eye as well.

And I suppose any introductory post in a blog like this one would be incomplete without a list of my favorite goalies. As my friend is quick to point out, I like just about any goalie, just because they're goalies. But I do have my favorites, and I do have the ones I love to hate.

Favorite of all time:
Mike Richter (yeah, I'm a total homer)

Current Favorites:
Nikolai Khabibulin (despite his crappy season... I know he can do better!)
Henrik Lundqvist (what Ranger fan wasn't completely dazzled by him?)
Tomas Vokoun
Dominik Hasek

On my S-List:
Martin Brodeur
Dwayne Roloson
Robert Esche

International Goalies I have my eye on:
Milan Hlinicka (CZE)
Stefan Liv (SWE, will be in Detroit this fall)
Fredrik Norrena (FIN, recently signed by Tampa)


Those are just the ones on the top of the list. This year provided quite the crop of new and not-so-new goalies that are really fun to watch. This was definitely the year of the "unseating of the #1". I have to really hand it to Kevin Weekes for handling a difficult situation with such class. Who would have ever thought Bryzgalov would start playoff games ahead of Giggy, Toskala ahead of Nabokov, or Ward over Gerber? And where the heck did Cristobal Huet come from? Marc-Andre Fluery? Ryan Miller? Antero Niittymaki? What a great year it's been for goalie-gawking. It will be very interesting to see if all those new success stories can provide repeat performances next season.

But first, the Stanley Cup. Bring on the finals! Let's go 'Canes!