12/6/06 GAME DAY: Habs vs Devils

[Devils731]

Just wanted to make this mention since it may have been hard to see on TV. The Devils 2nd PP unit finally seems to be putting some sort of strategy together. The goal is to get Parise the puck in the corner with Zajac on the same side half boards. The Parise will drift behind the net as Martin will drift down from the opposite point. Zajac will drift towards the net from the half boards. This gives Parise an opportunity to pass to Martin if there is a lane, back to Zajac if the goalie overplays the pass to Martin, Parise can come out in front if he likes, or he can continue around the net and reset the play. I tend to think Martin isn't a good enough shooter for teams to really care about defending him so the play loses its luster if teams just disregard defending an option but it was nice to see them try and put things together on that unit.

[NJDevs4978]

Every time I see Huet he's always getting rocked or looking shaky - bad luck on my part I feel. I watched him get pulled in the 2nd period against Boston - he looked terrible.

According to the stats that's the first time he was pulled this season. Still, he's not a guy I'd want starting for me. The Montreal defense is terrific and covers up a lot of possible problems with Huet. Any goalie can get super hot for a month - I feel like he's league average or slightly worse.

Terrific defense? Montreal's D has allowed 916 shots in 27 games, that's close to 34 shots a game

Huet's numbers are much better than Aebischer's which leads me to believe it's Huet hiding defensive deficiencies instead of the other way around. Granted he's played a total of just over 50 games in Montreal, he does have to prove is can he sustain his performance level over an 82-game season (and playoffs) but so far he's done pretty well and the Kings must be about giving him up with their wonderful netminding of Cloutier and Garon.

Edited December 7, 2006 by Hasan4978