Kings Gameday: "Lolita" is Overrated Too

tsk tsk Rudy – dont’ you know? Nabby = stud!! He has saved the Sharks ass too many times and for that should be worshipped!

This is a great post, start to finish. <3 RK.

Ya know who Nabby really is? Not Quick. He’s Osgood. No, seriously. He’s a mostly average goalie, who has moments of above-average play. He regularly lets in goals that make you facepalm. He has had a huge advantage in concealing his league average-ness by playing on a great team for a long time. He was challenged by other goalies, and even occasionally lost the starter’s job earlier in his career, but then was given the job, and never did much to keep it, aside from not having any serious competition from backups. I think its a pretty valid comparison.

Clearly, the Sharks future is to trade Nabby and spare parts for Martin Brodeur near the end of his career, and ride him to a Cup, and then bring back Nabby after Brodeur retires.

*One thing you learn quickly as a goaltender is that you never ever ever ever blame a defenseman for a goal. If he tips it in, you say, “Ahh, don’t worry about it, we’ll get the next one.” If he screens you, you tell him so he doesn’t do it again but only if he asks you. And you certainly don’t ever point out that he should have blocked the shot. You never blame your defenseman because it’s mean and it’ll hurt his confidence and it’ll make him think instead of react the next time a forward bears down on him, but the most important reason you never blame a defenseman is simple: it’s because you don’t want them blaming you when you fuck up.

truth and a half

“Lolita is overrated too”

So, who is Humbert Humbert in the Shark’s scenario? Blake? Marleau? My money is on Thornton. He seems way too nice and you just know he has some weird peccadillos hiding in his closet.

Rudy – you couldn’t be wrong more about Nabokov.

First, how do you overlook the fact that Nabokov have won trophys (for example, when you compare him to Quick, who’s won what)? He’s didn’t win the SC, or the Olympics, but this should be taken care later this year. He’s won at junior level, he’s won the Russian Super League and he’s won the World Championship. Before famous PP goalby your favorite Kovalchuk, there was a shout out of Finland in the semi-final, and everybody on that team acknowledged that Russia does not win that tournament if Nabokov wasn’t there to beat Finland, following that loss to Dallas Stars in playoffs. Or was he just lucky to be Russian and to play for Dynamo back in the day?

Second, you’re forgetting that he’s Russian. Most Russians don’t give the same boring interviews that Vlasics and Marleaus and Crosbys give. They speak their minds and Frolov is the same, as you might have read in a recent interview to Sport Express I posted for you. Do you really think every goalie in the NHL should take a blame for every goal he allows? It’s not uncommon for a Russian athlete to blame another athlete in a press. You should read some of the interviews from Russian team following a shocking loss to Finland in the last Olympics in the semi’s.. Everybody was blaming everybody – not an usual thing.

Third, how do you ignore Nabokov’s stellar performance in playoffs right before the lockout, or in Ron Wilson’s last year that Nabokov should have won Vezina, or this season when he’s won multiple games for the Sharks?

I bring up several points to counterargue.
1. He picks up his game during the playoffs, with the exception of the last 2 years (2008 because he played 147 games that year, and last year the whole team sucked), his save percentage has increased during the playoffs. His career save percentage in the playoffs is about 10 percentage points above his career regular season SP%.
2. In his early years when the team up front wasn’t nearly as good, he put up impressive numbers. Some even better than during his last couple of years.
3. In terms of letting wrist shots in……. What goalie stands a chance against a wrist shot from someone like Nash, or Ovechkin, or some other world class sniper. They are called snipers for a reason, because their wrist shots are laser fast and laser accurate.

Plus, I just think your jealous because he’s Russian, he’s probably a better goalie than Quick (Although Quick is American and he’s young with plenty of potential, so I’ll give him that), and did I mention he’s Russian and not on the Kings?

Pale Fire is a trip, though. As might be gathered from my love of BoC, I like pretty much anything that seems like it was written on crack.

…is the association of Sharks players with characters from Lolita. Hopefully this will create some sort of weird chain reaction on search engine rankings. If we make a post called “Don’t stand so close to me” the circle will be complete.

“Lolita” by Cassino is sure as hell not overrated. Whatasong.

Although I think Nabokov is put on a pedestal by Sharks fans, it’s hard to debate that he hasn’t been excellent this season. A contract year will do that for you, but as of this point, that’s really the only thing that concerns me. Looking forward baby.

Also, just to clarify, I think Nabokov got the most heat out of any player following the playoffs loss to the Ducks, at least at Fear The Fin. There really wasn’t a whole lot of blame thrown around at Thornton, at least when compared to the second line and goaltending.

Is this the Devin Setoguchi is overrated chat room?

My bias disagrees against your bias a little bit but I liked this line:

They can’t idolize Joe Thornton because of his playoff pratfalls, Patrick Marleau is the single most awkward guy that ever lived, Dany Heatley killed a guy, Danny Boyle is too new (although you can feel it starting), and Marc-Edouard Vlasic is too young.

hopefully they keep running Doughty, he gets a point for each attempt.

Things kept happening too fast for me to type and still eat pizza…YAY for the return of Thunder Raccoon!

Also, it was funny seeing Fro get mad at that non-call. He doesn’t even get mad if you punch him in the face.

DREWWW. You are magnificent, Drew! Have ten babies so we can draft them.

That last goal. Sigh. I dunno if we can play that fast and freewheeling and win.

The oh noes face of Handzus was classic.

Lolita made some big saves

Prescient is the word I would use to describe this post.

Teddy, Anze, Stoll, and Doughty all score in regulation and Brown scores to win in overtime. Unfortunately for them, first star of the night went to Padma’s boobs on Top Chef.

Speaking of Vesa Toskala … anyone who reads the below article, and still thinks Nabokov is a great goaltender needs math lessons:

Nabby by the numbers

-He has no real back-up so he gets to play a ton

-The Devils have been in the top 10 of shots against every year since the lockout (except this one, so far)

-He can suck ass in the playoffs (like he did last year) and no one will point to him because they’re too busy blaming the coaching staff (i.e., Brent Sutter, Larry Robinson, Claude Julien, Robby Ftorek)

The first argument could apply to all the No. 1 goalies in the NHL: Luongo, Turco, Fleury, Brodeur, Nabokov, Lundqvist, etc

Second point. Many of the best goalies have played on winning teams. Winning teams will boost defense to prevent high shots against. Only makes sense right? Winning teams probably also score more goals than they let in, so it’s natural to assume that they might spend more time in the opponent’s offensive zone?
Red Wings, Devils, Stars were notorious for this. They also won quite a few Stanleys.

Nabokov had one stinker of a postseason, but…. ahem Roman Cechmanek