The Sens need a wakeup call, and a new goalie

In one of my earlier posts I stated that Ray Emery was the key to the Sens' chances to win the cup. When I wrote that, I had my reservations regarding Emery and his ability, but he had seemed to play solidly enough up to that point in the playoffs. I said he needed to have a good series for the Sens to win.
That said, I'm not shocked the Ducks are up 3-1 in the series. I am however shocked that the three wins the Ducks have slid by with have not been blowouts. Has the Ducks' coaching staff not noticed that Emery shells out bigger rebounds than Shaq in his prime, facing the Nets? Ryan Getzlaf has the idea, stepping over the blue line, putting on a single move to gain some space from his defender, then letting loose a hard slapper. If the Ducks had a body crashing toward the opposite side of the net more often in those cases, we'd be seeing 4-1 and 5-1 blowouts. Before this series began, many people (myself included) were talking about Giguere's immobility moving side to side in net. You got a first-hand example of that tonight on a weak Heatley goal, (Did you see that thing go in the net? It was wobbling and flopping harder than a Euro-league striker), but surprisingly enough it has been Emery's immobility that has cost the Sens in this series. More than once has a Duck player put on a single move in front of Emery, causing him to commit, then slide the puck through his five-hole (case and example tonight, goal number two for McDonald). I realise that its a tough situation to be in as a goalie, facing a player head on, but my argument lies more in the fact that Emery is supposed to be the Sens' number one goalie, not out of necessity, but based on performance, and he has let in far too many weak goals this series. I don't expect the Sens will win another game unless one of two things happen: Either Heatley, Alfredsson and Spezza get out of their funk and earn their paycheck giving us a few shootout-type games, or Emery's defensemen step it up, play some hard-nosed 'd' and allow nothing to get -to- Emery.

Don't be surprised if the cup is lifted on Wednesday in California.

Disagree with me? Post your comments.