Yes, she is!
This made me so angry? It was in the Bleachers Report 30 Teams in 30 Days presentation:
"While Patrick Lalime returns to the club, he seems to be slowing down with age. The 35-year-old goaltender from St. Bonaventur, Quebec, has Sabres prospect Jean-Phillippe Lamoureux looking over his shoulder, but expect Lalime to hold the backup spot, at least for the time being."
I am so freaking sick of hearing about how Jhonas and/or JP are going to suddenly kick Patty out of his spot. Newsflash, GM wannabes, NEITHER OF THEM HAVE PLAYED IN THE NHL! There is no way in hell that Lindy, or even Darcy on a bad day, is going to let two goalies- one who has merely sat on the bench of a NHL game- take over a veterans spot. NO WAY IN HELL! I have nothing against either JP or Jhonas, I think they're both great and will be NHL material in the future, but for now do your job in Portland!
And slow down with age? He's 35! It's not like he's scrambling around Buffalo with a walker! His hip surgery was not a hip replacement, and people seem to have trouble understanding that. Adam JUST had the same surgery, and he's five years younger, it has nothing to do with age.
Patty played 24 games with the Sabres (including ones in which Ryan was pulled). His first, which was a win, was the second game of the season against the Islanders. It also includes 3 games that Ryan was pulled (including the game where he was hurt) and 11 games of Ryan's injury, not including the one where he was initially hurt.
So, that means Patty played 12 games prior to Ryan being hurt, 10 of which he was a starter. I believe Tellqvist played two or three (pretty sure it's one, actually) games during Ryan's injury, and then after that Patty was hurt.
That is not a lot of games people, despite how big it looks bulked up. Granted, it is more than T-Bo ever played (it's double, actually) but when your starter goes down all of the sudden- and not dangerously close to the playoffs, but the injury would have been less effective if it was in November or something- you want a somewhat experienced back up, right? Not only someone who has a number of good years behind him (like Patty does) but someone who has seen enough ice time, so that an understandable rusty beginning is out of the way a lot faster.
Instead, he plays in 12 games- just over 660 minutes including the Rangers game in which Ryan was hurt- from mid October to late February- a little over four months. Which is, since I still have the calculator out, about 165 minutes a month. This, after five-ish months of an offseason, not to mention playing a good 32 games with Chicago the season before.
Is this a situation that only effects Patty? Heck no, and I know that. If T-Bo is by any chance reading this, he's probably nodding because the same damn thing, if not worse, happened to him (hey, buddy!). If you're going to brush aside the back up goalie and be like ' oh yeah, it's Patrick Lalime' because you're too busy kissing Ryan's feet, that's fine. I'm so use to it, I almost accept it. But, when he goes down, and our VERY skilled and still somewhat young back up goalie can't get things down fast enough, don't blame him.
That's all I ask. Don't look for reasons to blame him, they're not there. He would go in when Ryan was having a bad game, try to dig them out of the hole, then get crap for it. He played even after getting on- ice stitches in Anaheim.
He played through the flu against Carolina, if nothing more than to make sure Jhonas slept at night. Etc.
Is the the only goalie that would do that? I hope not. I'm sure Ryan will, or has. My point is, don't say there is something wrong on his end. That's all.
In case you're not convinced, here are his stats from the O-Town days:
| 1999–00 | Ottawa Senators | NHL | 38 | 19 | 14 | 3 | - | 2,038 | 79 | 3 | 2.33 | .905 |
| 2000–01 | Ottawa Senators | NHL | 60 | 36 | 19 | 5 | - | 3,606 | 141 | 7 | 2.35 | .914 |
| 2001–02 | Ottawa Senators | NHL | 61 | 27 | 24 | 8 | - | 3,582 | 148 | 7 | 2.48 | .903 |
| 2002–03 | Ottawa Senators | NHL | 67 | 39 | 20 | 7 | - | 3,943 | 142 | 8 | 2.16 | .911 |
| 2003–04 | Ottawa Senators | NHL | 57 | 25 | 23 | 7 | - | 3,324 | 127 | 5 | 2.29 | .905 |
Old? Pfft. Hasek and Chelios sure took their time limping around Detroit, and everyone knows THATS a good club.
Just saying.
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