Chris Mason proving Blues right

I felt that looking at the begining of the season for Nashville last year that the players in front of him played atrociously and he kept them in games. Then his confidence went down and he started letting in the kind of goals I’d never seen him let in especially the year before when he compeltely blanketed us.

So I felt hey maybe he can pull his game together. I’m a fan of big netminders because logically they take up more net and it’s harder to score off of them.

Then at the begining of the season he was letting in goals that no NHL netminder should let in and remain a NHL netminder.

Something clicked for him. I mean really, in the game against Vancouver he came up big. There was that one goal that after a deflection and as Sundin lazily skated from behind the net the puck dropped onto his stick with a gaping net wide open. There some tough bounces and at least one goal I think he’d want to have back. Right away I’m thinking, great, back to this bull shit again.

Against Nashville that last goal was another miracle bounce and a seeing-eye puck. Can’t really fault him for it. All Nashville was doing was throwing whatever they could at net because they’ve had a tough time scoring.

I think when a guy plays this solid you can forgive him an off night. That said we can’t really afford too many of those anymore.

His record is lopsided because even back when the Blues were tossing in four goals a night he wasn’t the recepient of that. He lost a game 1-0.

A big trick in this game is get shots on net and crash it. The Blues failed to do it that night and one got by the bearded dragon.

I forgive him. But if he starts reminding me of Hannu after the Colorado tradgedy then I will hate.

Manny had no right. Manny’s a great back up but we never could depend on him to take the full load. He always got injured at important times and always appeared fatigued in the second half of the seasons here.

As far as completely trusting in Mason. I don’t feel it. Hi shistory isn;t as a true starter. The big seasont hat got him the contract came when Vokun was injured and he filled in the majority of the second half in front of a highly talented team. He was great. But then with the mantel on his shoulders to begin last season, a crappy start by his team, he then further faltered, and once Nashville again tried to make him the starter in the second half he was yanked in favor of Ellis. Nashville has little patience with their goaltenders. Why they ever let Vokun go I still can not comprehend. Great goaltending is hard to find.

So unless Mason finds that weird thing some goaltenders tend to find later in years as the trend goes lately, I’m thinking the Blues would serve themselves best trying to find the elite starter they need. Mason is giving them sometime to draft and develop one and that’s good. But history appears not to weigh on Mason’s side yet I’d add a caveat that says history is showing that netminders have strange going ons upstairs and sometimes it takes them a spell to develop. Hell look at our backup.

He’s unproven as a steady starter, so no at this point I don’t trust it will last. But he is the right guy for now, he’s on a roll, I bet he lasts the rest of the season if the rest of the team are still competing.

Plus he’s got a midget’s face or head or something…

As for the questions at hand, I think it’s a wait and see. He’s obviously the man for the rest of this season, but he’s really not a proven every game starter yet.

He’s not very quick, so he tends to anticipate from the corner. That’s pretty much why you see some short side goals scored against him. He starts to cheat towards the middle.

That having been said, it’s not like this team has a lot of options in net. I agree that he has been steady, and has given the team a chance to win each night he’s in net, especially when the team limits scoring chances against him. I still think he’s a career backup, but that’s because while he gives the team a chance to win almost every night, but other than the rare headstand (like in Nashville), he’s not going to steal games for you on a regular basis, like Lundqvist almost did last night.

As long as the team is in the playoff hunt, and his limbs are attached, Mason is the guy this year. If the team drops out of the chase, I’d like to see what Chris Holt can do. I think the Blues need to find a goaltender who can help bridge the gap between now and Bishop/Holt/Allen/??? time.

Since they gave Dan Ellis that huge contract, and RInne’s outplaying him, I think Nashville’s going to be looking to dump him.

I’d scream if they traded for Ellis- He’s expensive and unproven. Giving goalies a huge contract after 1 good round of playoffs usually isn’t a smart thing to do. But other than price, why Nittymaki?

I don’t know that he’s unable to carry the mantle of starter; he’s young. I think you need to see 3 consecutive years of high productivity before you invest big money/years in a goaltender, then it becomes less of a crapshoot, but it’s still a crapshoot (see Khabibulin, Nikolai). Anybody can have a good year.

But why would the Blues go after a young, unproven goaltender with potential when they’ve got 4 in their system now? That’s why I’d scream. Maybe with the Russian economy in the crapper, Baraulin will change his mind about the US. At least you get paid what they say they’ll pay you, when they say you’ll get paid. I hear that a few KHL teams have had problems with that this year.