If you're Team USA GM Don Waddell or head coach Peter Laviolette, you probably have some concerns about how things have shaken out since you've named your three goalies for the Turin Olympics.
For starters, none of the three you've named to the team, Rick DiPietro, John Grahame and Robert Esche, have exactly set the world on fire so far this season. What's worse, the presumptive number one, DiPietro, left Friday night's game in Ottawa with a sprained knee. On the night that DiPietro was named to the team, he was chased from a game in Toronto after giving up six goals to the Maple Leafs. Just a few days later, he followed that up by letting another six by against the Rangers at home.
As for Esche, well, he's been on the shelf with a groin tear since the middle of December. And in Tampa Bay, where the front office had expected Grahame to step up now that he had an opportunity to be a starter...
Well, I'll let Lightning head coach John Tortorella tell you about it:
"We can't have four goals go in our net on 10 (scoring) chances," Tortorella told reporters very, very loudly while pounding a fist on the podium. " . . . Especially the fourth goal. It can't happen! You're telling me you want (the team) to get up there and get aggressive, but when a goal is scored like that, they're going to be tentative. And that has to stop for us to get any type of consistency here. Or we're done."
Gee John, tell us how you really feel.
"I am (expletive) at what is happening there because I thought our team played very well tonight. And this has gone on for quite a while. Is there other options out there? We can't do (expletive). I'm not up here trying to rip anybody apart, but let's be (expletive) honest about what's going on here. And it's getting old. We're going nowhere, nowhere until that situation is straightened out."
I know we've got another six weeks to Turin, but this isn't exactly encouraging (for more local color, talk to John Fontana).
While Tortorella might be out of options, there are others for Team USA. Team USA has yet to name its three-player taxi squad for Turin, and one would expect that one of the three positions would be filled by Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, the only American-born goaltender who has looked solid this season.
Unfortunately, Miller, who has been playing behind a revived Sabres team, has yet to spend a full season in the NHL. Here's how one commenter over at TSN sees the situation:
Ryan Miller? Why take a guy with 10 games of NHL experience? That would be really dumb. It doesn't matter who they have in net. They are going to get crushed. They'll be lucky to finish in the top 5. Average defense (Leopold isn't even a top four defenseman in Calgary alone), average goaltending (just saw DiPietro get pulled after allowing seven goals) and average forwards (Chris Drury and Mark Parrish? please). Yep, sounds like 5th.
Considering the top four teams in each pool make the quarterfinals, 5th is a definite possibility for Team USA. For it to be any better is going to take a tournament-stealing performance by the man in net. And while some might not think that Miller is that man, I'm not sure I can be convinced that any of the other candidates are either.
But there is a bright side. At least Belarus isn't in the torunament this time.
