1/2/09 Florida Panthers off day story for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Who's No. 1? For Panthers goalies, nobody
By Denis Gorman
Special Correspondent
January 2, 2009
Consider Tomas Vokoun and Craig Anderson officially on alert.
"Real tired," Panthers coach Pete DeBoer replied when asked if he was tired of pulling his goalies, minutes after Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the host New York Islanders. "But we'll keep doing it until we get one of them to give us 60 minutes."
In three of the past four games, DeBoer has had to replace the starting goaltender, including Wednesday, when he pulled Vokoun for Anderson at the start of the third period. The Panthers are 0-4 in that stretch.
"I thought he was fine," DeBoer said of Anderson's play in the third, when he stopped 12 of 13 shots. "He'll go [Saturday] in Pittsburgh. Right now it seems neither of them can [take the No. 1 job].
"It's not all on them; other players have to help in certain situations, but I don't think it's any secret in this league [that] you need your goalie. It's such a big part of the game. We're a team with a tiny margin of error and we need our goaltending to give us a chance to win."
Vokoun, who is 8-11-1 with a 2.78 goals-against average, said: "It's hard mentally when something like this happens; when you go through a stretch like that. You don't want to give up a goal, don't want to get pulled. That's the worst for a goalie.
"[This] has never happened to me in my career and I'm sure Andy doesn't like it, either. It's not our decision. When you get pulled two out of three games, it's going to shake your confidence."
When asked whether he has talked to DeBoer, Vokoun said, "No. He's the coach; he makes the decisions that are right for the team. I haven't talked to him and I don't think anyone had talked to him about that. It's his decision."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/hockey/panthers/sfl-flspanthers02sbjan02,0,3283006.story
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Denis Gorman
Special Correspondent
January 2, 2009
Consider Tomas Vokoun and Craig Anderson officially on alert.
"Real tired," Panthers coach Pete DeBoer replied when asked if he was tired of pulling his goalies, minutes after Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the host New York Islanders. "But we'll keep doing it until we get one of them to give us 60 minutes."
In three of the past four games, DeBoer has had to replace the starting goaltender, including Wednesday, when he pulled Vokoun for Anderson at the start of the third period. The Panthers are 0-4 in that stretch.
"I thought he was fine," DeBoer said of Anderson's play in the third, when he stopped 12 of 13 shots. "He'll go [Saturday] in Pittsburgh. Right now it seems neither of them can [take the No. 1 job].
"It's not all on them; other players have to help in certain situations, but I don't think it's any secret in this league [that] you need your goalie. It's such a big part of the game. We're a team with a tiny margin of error and we need our goaltending to give us a chance to win."
Vokoun, who is 8-11-1 with a 2.78 goals-against average, said: "It's hard mentally when something like this happens; when you go through a stretch like that. You don't want to give up a goal, don't want to get pulled. That's the worst for a goalie.
"[This] has never happened to me in my career and I'm sure Andy doesn't like it, either. It's not our decision. When you get pulled two out of three games, it's going to shake your confidence."
When asked whether he has talked to DeBoer, Vokoun said, "No. He's the coach; he makes the decisions that are right for the team. I haven't talked to him and I don't think anyone had talked to him about that. It's his decision."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/hockey/panthers/sfl-flspanthers02sbjan02,0,3283006.story
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 2:54 AM
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