Stephen Valiquette

The two teams that I thought from the outside of the season that didn't defend well enough off the rush that was ultimately going to break down their goalies was Anaheim and Carolina.

Both teams just give up way too much off the rush, and both teams have, to a certain degree, taken a lot of the confidence out of their goaltending.

Guys, it's...

It's really difficult math every night.

And it's really difficult with the trust systems that you have with your defensemen to know what's taken away.

The goalie is reading off of the positioning of his teammates, not what the offense is gonna do.

And in both cases, the floodgates have opened now.

And I thought that we were going to see it sooner in the season.

But it's really been since post-Olympic break.

And both teams, I think, are in trouble.

And Bussey, he's the worst performing goalie since the Olympics.

Frederick Anderson, I think the last time I looked, was fifth or sixth worst performing goalie since the Olympics.

But Carolina's got a great team.

They've got a lot of puck possession in their favor.

They can have a lot of offensive zone time while their goalies aren't facing a lot and then have the threat of an odd man rush.

Those are the toughest saves in hockey.

If we had a poll with 100 goalies right now and said, what's the biggest challenge about playing in the NHL?

They would say not getting any shots and then facing a two-on-one.

That's tough.

And I feel like it's just taking a little bit of time, but that was ultimately going to happen.