Who in their right mind would have thought that Antti Neimi and Michael Leighton would have been the two NHL goalies fighting for the Stanley Cup Final? Both were back up goaltenders for the regular season and now are in the center spot light because of injuries to Christobal Huet and Bryan Boucher. The following with introduce you to both net minders:
Antti Neimi (Chicago Blackhawks):
In the 2009-2010 NHL season Neimi went 39-26-7 with a save percentage of .912. Although not the best numbers, he had a good season has he had to be the starting goalie when Huet got injured. Even if he is a rookie he still brings a lot of the table as he is a big body to handle. The weakest aspect of his game is his rebound control as he always lets out big, juicy rebounds. The Flyers know this as they have studied his game play a lot in their “land” class rooms. Watch, because I am 100% sure that they are going to throw a lot of pucks at the net hopefully for a Neimi juicy rebound to occur, resulting in a goal. Overall in the series I believe Neimi is the weaker of the two and will have a much more difficult time handling the pressure.
Michael Leighton (Philadelphia Flyers):
This truly is his time to shine as no one in the world of guessed in him being here. He was dropped by many teams, including the Flyers and was brought on board to only fill the back up role. With Bryan Boucher getting injured in the second round of the playoffs (against Boston), Leighton had to step up his game and deliver his greatest importance. The one aspect that Leighton does not have which Neimi has is pressure. Leighton has nothing to prove in this series as nothing is except from him in the sense. I expect that due to having no stress, he will do a lot better than Neimi in the long run and plain out, play better.
This concludes the goaltender match up and stay tuned for more.
Antti Neimi (Chicago Blackhawks):
In the 2009-2010 NHL season Neimi went 39-26-7 with a save percentage of .912. Although not the best numbers, he had a good season has he had to be the starting goalie when Huet got injured. Even if he is a rookie he still brings a lot of the table as he is a big body to handle. The weakest aspect of his game is his rebound control as he always lets out big, juicy rebounds. The Flyers know this as they have studied his game play a lot in their “land” class rooms. Watch, because I am 100% sure that they are going to throw a lot of pucks at the net hopefully for a Neimi juicy rebound to occur, resulting in a goal. Overall in the series I believe Neimi is the weaker of the two and will have a much more difficult time handling the pressure.
Michael Leighton (Philadelphia Flyers):
This truly is his time to shine as no one in the world of guessed in him being here. He was dropped by many teams, including the Flyers and was brought on board to only fill the back up role. With Bryan Boucher getting injured in the second round of the playoffs (against Boston), Leighton had to step up his game and deliver his greatest importance. The one aspect that Leighton does not have which Neimi has is pressure. Leighton has nothing to prove in this series as nothing is except from him in the sense. I expect that due to having no stress, he will do a lot better than Neimi in the long run and plain out, play better.
This concludes the goaltender match up and stay tuned for more.
No comments:
Post a Comment