the one with the stupid lightning rod. I cannot do it to save my life and i need help! how do you do it??
I can't look at it as a goalie vs. goalie matchup. The goalie's job is to stop pucks shot at him by the opposing team. Back to the question I would say that clearly Niemi had a tougher road. The Hawks faced Nashville (225 goals scored, 16th in NHL), Vancouver (272, 2nd), San Jose (264, 4th) and Philadelphia (236, 10th). The total of goals scored by those teams was 997. The Flyers meanwhile beat New Jersey (222, 19th), Boston (206, 29th), Montreal (217, 23rd) and Chicago (271, 3rd). Total goals scored is 916. Niemi conclusively faced better offenses during his run to the championship. If we look at it the way you phrased it we also need to consider how the goalies were playing at the time of the matchup. Obviously Halak was a stud in earlier matchups with the Caps and Pens and Rask would have run away with the Vezina had he played all season and produced the way he was the whole time. However, Luongo and Nabokov were the biggest names of the group. They have struggled during the playoffs in years past though. Using your criteria I will still go with Niemi; mainly because Leighton and Boucher split time in goal. Niemi handled the playoffs essentially on his own.
He was out of uniform, they pointed it out and he refused to change, so they fired him, where's the problem? He was in the wrong. I support both his statement and his grit for not backing down, but Home Depot has a policy for dress code and he was violating it. They have every right to fire him.He's pushing the religious angle hoping to win money out of the case. Not very christian of him is it?
