Good, Bad and Ugly on Opening night...

Acrobat wrote:I think that part of the frustration is that the "excuse" has always been that Gerber was distracted by Emery's antics. Emery is a bit too far to distract him now, so he should be back to form, right?

One thing that I hadn't considered until now is that he may have been playing in front of a significant amount of family - it can't be that hard to fly family up from Switzerland, and he would have been allocated tickets, and maybe scrounged a few from teammates.

Or is this just another excuse?

He may have had a few family/friends watching (although Alfie may have grabbed all the tickets allocated to players), but it's a bit of a poor excuse, don't you think? When you're getting $3.7M/year you are expected to be more of a professional than that. If you can't hack the pressure, be a solid backup and get by on $1M.

All that talk aside, though, let's hold off on our evaluations until 15-20 games into the season. Like saying Heatley is on pace for 123 goals and 164 points, Spezza on pace for 164 points and 41 short-handed goals, evaluation of Gerber's season is a bit premature.

But he'd have a pretty short leash if it were me, and I wouldn't go making excuses for him by blaming the loss on one of the best players on the ice during the game.

Phoenix30 wrote:

Number Twenty Nine wrote:Spezza's antics are correctable. For Gerbs, you can send him to a shrink, but in the end, he's at the tail end of his career, where Spezza is on the cusp.

If Spezza had 1/2 the work ethic as Crosby, he'd be much greater than he is right now. The puck through the legs thing was cute a few years ago, but they're onto it now.

Crosby is a big baby (and I hate him), but I'll give it to him that he loves the game and goes above and beyond to hone his skills...

Auld is in net. Watch Auld's play and you'll agree that him and Gerber are the same - back up goalies at best. My nick is homage to Gerber, so it pains me to say this....

Your right if Spezza who is 4 years older and played 2 more seasons than Crosby had the same work ethic of Crosby he would be that much better....So why hasnt he corrected his problems by now and man would I love to see what Spezza can do if that were the case. I just find it frustrating that after the start of one game people are willing to throw the Gerber under the bus. I truely believe that this team will rise from the ashes from the disaster season of a year ago but I do believe they need to be given some time.

I hope to be proven wrong by Gerber, but my gut tells me nope.

Number Twenty Nine wrote:

Phoenix30 wrote:

Number Twenty Nine wrote:Spezza's antics are correctable. For Gerbs, you can send him to a shrink, but in the end, he's at the tail end of his career, where Spezza is on the cusp.

If Spezza had 1/2 the work ethic as Crosby, he'd be much greater than he is right now. The puck through the legs thing was cute a few years ago, but they're onto it now.

Crosby is a big baby (and I hate him), but I'll give it to him that he loves the game and goes above and beyond to hone his skills...

Auld is in net. Watch Auld's play and you'll agree that him and Gerber are the same - back up goalies at best. My nick is homage to Gerber, so it pains me to say this....

Your right if Spezza who is 4 years older and played 2 more seasons than Crosby had the same work ethic of Crosby he would be that much better....So why hasnt he corrected his problems by now and man would I love to see what Spezza can do if that were the case. I just find it frustrating that after the start of one game people are willing to throw the Gerber under the bus. I truely believe that this team will rise from the ashes from the disaster season of a year ago but I do believe they need to be given some time.

I hope to be proven wrong by Gerber, but my gut tells me nope.

Gerber will never be a solid goaltender.. It's just too bad his stock is so low, we'll never be able to get rid of him..

wprager wrote:

Acrobat wrote:I think that part of the frustration is that the "excuse" has always been that Gerber was distracted by Emery's antics. Emery is a bit too far to distract him now, so he should be back to form, right?

One thing that I hadn't considered until now is that he may have been playing in front of a significant amount of family - it can't be that hard to fly family up from Switzerland, and he would have been allocated tickets, and maybe scrounged a few from teammates.

Or is this just another excuse?

He may have had a few family/friends watching (although Alfie may have grabbed all the tickets allocated to players), but it's a bit of a poor excuse, don't you think? When you're getting $3.7M/year you are expected to be more of a professional than that. If you can't hack the pressure, be a solid backup and get by on $1M.

All that talk aside, though, let's hold off on our evaluations until 15-20 games into the season. Like saying Heatley is on pace for 123 goals and 164 points, Spezza on pace for 164 points and 41 short-handed goals, evaluation of Gerber's season is a bit premature.

But he'd have a pretty short leash if it were me, and I wouldn't go making excuses for him by blaming the loss on one of the best players on the ice during the game.

Kuba is on pace for 164 assists.. Goodbye Gretzky...

wprager wrote:

Acrobat wrote:I think that part of the frustration is that the "excuse" has always been that Gerber was distracted by Emery's antics. Emery is a bit too far to distract him now, so he should be back to form, right?

One thing that I hadn't considered until now is that he may have been playing in front of a significant amount of family - it can't be that hard to fly family up from Switzerland, and he would have been allocated tickets, and maybe scrounged a few from teammates.

Or is this just another excuse?

He may have had a few family/friends watching (although Alfie may have grabbed all the tickets allocated to players), but it's a bit of a poor excuse, don't you think? When you're getting $3.7M/year you are expected to be more of a professional than that. If you can't hack the pressure, be a solid backup and get by on $1M.

All that talk aside, though, let's hold off on our evaluations until 15-20 games into the season. Like saying Heatley is on pace for 123 goals and 164 points, Spezza on pace for 164 points and 41 short-handed goals, evaluation of Gerber's season is a bit premature.

But he'd have a pretty short leash if it were me, and I wouldn't go making excuses for him by blaming the loss on one of the best players on the ice during the game.

Agreed, it's a very poor excuse (even at $1M a year). But he's human and it happens.
My point (poorly worded, I admit) was that if that was the case, we can't expect better, since there will always be something distracting him, and it may just be better to cut bait now, before his value drops further.

I like the idea of 41 short-handed goals for Spezza, though - especially given the number of penalties we seem to be taking :D

MurderOnIce wrote:

wprager wrote:

Acrobat wrote:I think that part of the frustration is that the "excuse" has always been that Gerber was distracted by Emery's antics. Emery is a bit too far to distract him now, so he should be back to form, right?

One thing that I hadn't considered until now is that he may have been playing in front of a significant amount of family - it can't be that hard to fly family up from Switzerland, and he would have been allocated tickets, and maybe scrounged a few from teammates.

Or is this just another excuse?

He may have had a few family/friends watching (although Alfie may have grabbed all the tickets allocated to players), but it's a bit of a poor excuse, don't you think? When you're getting $3.7M/year you are expected to be more of a professional than that. If you can't hack the pressure, be a solid backup and get by on $1M.

All that talk aside, though, let's hold off on our evaluations until 15-20 games into the season. Like saying Heatley is on pace for 123 goals and 164 points, Spezza on pace for 164 points and 41 short-handed goals, evaluation of Gerber's season is a bit premature.

But he'd have a pretty short leash if it were me, and I wouldn't go making excuses for him by blaming the loss on one of the best players on the ice during the game.

Kuba is on pace for 164 assists.. Goodbye Gretzky...

Damn - and I was going to take him in the pool....

Acrobat wrote:

Damn - and I was going to take him in the pool....

I did take Kuba. I was going to take him before opening weekend.

The reasoning was simple... Ottawa has a big 3 up front on the PP and Kuba is the biggest offensive threat from the D. I figure him for 45-50 points this year... so good value at 3.5.