Tart Cider: Do no wrong

December 18, 2005

Do no wrong

Goalie Derangement Syndrome in full bloom:

Goalie Eddie Belfour had one of the more embarrassing nights of his career, thanks to a team that gave up on coverage and got outshot 43-29.

The first part's right — Belfour embarrassed himself alright — but as is usually the case with embarrassment it was his own actions, not those of his teammates, that brought him into disrepute. I direct you to this most telling section of last night's scoresheet:

TOR, B. McCABE (11), 05:16
OTT, B. SMOLINSKI (6), 05:53

Nothing is more embarrassing to a money goaltender, and rightly so, than giving up a stinker at an absolutely crucial moment in the game. The Leafs were in trouble even after McCabe's goal, and there's certainly no reason to believe they would have won, but they were back within two and they had momentum. Belfour chose that moment to let in his first of several thoroughly nasty goals. I don't doubt he's embarrassed — he should be. He turned a semi-respectable 4-2 loss, give or take, into an 8-2 shellacking.

It doesn't take Jack Adams to see when Belfour quits. You can almost hear his shoulders droop. You can almost smell the quatrogenarian antipathy in every absurd pockecheck attempt. Why Pat Quinn doesn't pull him in situations like these is a mystery to me. Embarrassing the team for letting down their goalie only works when the goalie isn't busy embarrassing himself.

Posted by Chris Selley at December 18, 2005 04:23 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.tartcider.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/190

Comments

Um. Who cares? Get back to the interesting topics that you used to write about.

Posted by: Just at December 19, 2005 11:12 AM

Uh-oh, sounds like someone's thinking about cancelling their subscription.

Do you even offer refunds?

Posted by: Matt at December 19, 2005 02:51 PM

Sorry, Just — guess it's a franco/anglo thing. I posted something just now, though, just for you.

Posted by: Chris Selley at December 19, 2005 07:16 PM

You don't understand. Belfour getting touched up for a snowman by the Sens is the hot chocolate. Selley raving about it is simply the layer of delicious marshmallow on top.

Posted by: Colby Cosh at December 19, 2005 07:27 PM