With Keen Insights Like This, He Really Belongs on a Messageboard

Just two games into the respective seasons of the Caps and Blackhawks and our old friend Larry Brooks has already declared the goaltending shuffle a bust.

Just to recap if you're slow (or Larry), the Caps matched Christobal Huet's demands before the UFA season started and UFA moved the goalposts, thereby showing not much interest in staying in Washington. On the other hand, Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore wanted to play for the Caps and (though we don't know for certain) very likely took less $$$$$ for the privlege. Funny isn't it how Ol Lar' talks about the cap being squeezed by the NHLPA's laziness this year but doesn't realize that the Caps are one of the teams right up near the cap. Had the Caps matched or beat the contract that the Blackhawks gave Huet, somebody currently on the Caps roster would have been gone. Finally, while Huet backstopped the Caps into the playoffs last year, he did it against teams that didn't make the playoffs and once he faced a playoff team in the playoffs, his play dropped considerably.

As for the Blackhawks, Khabibulin's numbers speak for themselves. You could say that he's "improved" since his first year in Chicago and you can also discuss the differences between the defense he played behind in Tampa vs. Chicago but the bottom line is this, he has yet to provide the type of goaltending you would expect for somebody who is getting paid $6.75 million a season. In case you didn't notice Larry, he was placed on waivers recently and nobody claimed him.

Don't you think that there are teams out there that could use a goaltender? Columbus has about $7 million in cap space and could have easily picked him up but passed. So could have the Maple Leafs. They went and got Curtis Joesph out of moth balls to be the backup this season.

There's a reason for that Larry, quit reading the message boards. They aren't insightful.