Somebody At The Denver Post Is Wrong

In his defense, his mullet appears somewhat shorter this year than in past years.

With the exception of some guy called “BiB” and a couple others, everyone that comments at the Denver Post tends to display little in the way of rational thought. I don’t blame Frei one bit.

Or maybe he’s just old school and is stuck to the print journalist maxim that he talks to the people but the people don’t talk to him.

because last year Frei was writing even worse than Dater is doing this year. If he would’ve allowed comments back then, he’d be annihilated.

I know that personally I will regularly take the opposite side of an argument with my friends and co-workers just for the sake of having a good debate

I do that a lot with my students…not so much because I want to disagree/argue with them, but because I want them to think about what they are saying. Too many people today speak without thinking first. At least Frei sources the points he is trying to make. Who knows where Dater is getting his material lately?

One last thing;how many games as the #1 goalie do we give Budaj,before we should react?10?,20?or do we just miss the playoffs because he deserved his chance and its really the defense’s fault for allowing any shot to reach the net.

Well Scotty Bowmen always wanted around 20 games to judge his team…most around here have said some where around 10. So we are there, but ycan you fairly judge the goalie when the shots he is facing are repeatedly in his kitchen. No one expects the defense to keep every shot from the net. You expect them to cut the quality of the shots down, mostly by keeping them to the outside and putting a body on the shooter. You expect them to clear people out in front of then net and not allow those guys to get a clean shot. When that isn’t happening and you are allowing the opposition forwards to unload within 5 feet of the goalie, good things can not be expected from any goalie.

Through 14 games (11 for Budaj) We have seen a little bit of everything. He has shown some bad tendencies that can get him in trouble if his defense is having a bad night. He has shown the presence to be a good goalie even when his defense leaves him stranded on an island. When the defense actually plays in front of him, he can make the big saves needed to maintain the win, and maybe even record the rare shutout (like he did vs Nashville). He normally puts his rebounds towards the boards or in areas that reduce the likely hood of creating a scoring chance. When he doesn’t or can’t (physics is physics people) he must rely on that defense to clear that rebound and not give the opposition a clean shot on it. It still has to be a team effort. Budaj needs to continue to improve and the rest of the team needs to play a full 60 minutes EVERY night.

Or what does JC mean?

do you REALLY think that Budaj is the only problem with this team?

no one here thinks Budaj has been great, in fact, this very article agrees with Frei that he’s been inconsistent. He could have been much better. but to focus in on this one issue seems a bit out of place when the offense hasn’t been scoring and the defense has been passive and plain awful. To point to Budaj’s stats as definitive proof that he’s the problem is even more asinine — goaltender stats are linked to the play of the team. What I can say is that i’ve watched them play and Budaj has been an issue some nights, and the D has been the issue many more.

THATS the issue we have with Dater. He continues to rail against Budaj like he’s the source of all issues with the Avs. He’s not, there’s more to it. I do wish Budaj’d be more consistent and help to cover some of the other flaws that the team has, but all we can do is wait and see.

I mean seriously,just start another web site Dater’s hater’s, or how about blind for Budaj or some such nonsense, because this is all getting old.

You hate this blog and yet you’re still here commenting. And with such excellent grammar. I encourage constructive criticism and disagreement, but next time try to leave a little less spittle on the keyboard.

I definitely saw that sentence in Frei’s post, and I agree with him. But he also mentioned that players were dumping the blame on each other instead of on themselves, and that Budaj was being scapegoated unfairly. It’s one thing to lose confidence in the goalie if it really is his fault. It’s another to lose confidence in the goalie when you’re as much to blame and you’re too big a dick to accept responsibility yourself.

Frei’s comment carried a far different implication than Dater’s in this case.

And at any rate, if there was a crisis of confidence, Boots has gone a long way to shoring that up with his last two games.