Puck Daddy's Ryan Lambert made quite the case for the Vancouver Canucks being 'the best team in the West..NAY the NHL.
He seemed to cover all the angles, I thought i had NOTHING to write about..then Lambert wrote this..
"a genuinely terrible Northwest Division sure isn't going to hurt."
This got me thinking. The NW, in my mind is still pretty close. Some teams got better (Minnesota, if you call John Madden an upgrade, Vancouver) Some stayed the same (Colorado) others have a lot of work to do (Edmonton, Calgary) but for the most part, this division is usually pretty close, even if it's between two teams (we can't all be in the Southwest div can we?)
One thing that always pisses me off about Canuck fans is their religious devotion to their Saviour. Roberto Luongo.
A goalie with exactly zero conference or cup final appearances.
A goalie who's GAA and SV% was inflated in the past due to being on a defensively dismal Florida team.
A goalie that can't beat those pesky Blackhawks two years and counting.
Thanks to Bryan Reynolds of Hockey Wilderness (a blog you can check out to your right) showing me Lou's terrible 3-8-1 record at Xcel Energy Centre in St. Paul, (and the subsequent Yahoo stats page that breaks down Lou's record 6 ways from monday, his worst day statistically) here goes my attempt to stick it to the people who think the NW will be Lou's playground.
First his record vs. the NW div
13-7-2 2.71 GAA .909 SV%
not bad, but let's break that down even further, to see how he fared vs. each 'pathetic' NW team.
vs. Colorado 3-1-1 (that OTL got us to the playoffs) 2.76 GAA .902 SV%
14 goals against
vs. Calgary 3-2-1 2.79 GAA .914 SV%
16 goals against
vs. Edmonton 4-2 1.84 GAA .935 SV%
11 goals against
vs. Minnesota 3-2 3.65 GAA .876 SV%
17 goals against
Those pesky Wild really had Lou's number this year didn't they?
Some of the other teams that got into double digits:
Detroit - 14
L.A - 10 (CONSPIRACY!!)
St. Louis - 10
Far and away, out of the entire League, the ones that put the most rubber past Bobby Lou are the teams in the NW div. (likely because they played each other the most) but it's still funny that one of the most boring teams in hockey (sorry wild fans) popped the most behind him.
This begs the question..Is it Lou, or his D?
I say Lou, what say you?
Your comments are always welcome, also feel free to harass me on twitter, you can find links to all the writers on the right under 'PKLC writers on Twitter'
- Jaye