Starters for 08/09 openers

Sorry guys, but this section was dying for a thread (and I was sick of staring at the word "THE" on the Forums Page for the past month ever since ramrod put up the last post many,many,many days ago).

So who will be the opening game starters. I know it's obvious in most cases but where will we see a surprise.

ANA - Giguere
ATL - Lehtonen
BOS - Thomas
BUF - Miller
CAL - Kipper
CAR - Ward
CHI - Huet
COL - Budaj
CLB - Leclaire
DAL - Turco
DET - Osgood
EDM - Garon
FLA - Vokoun
LAK - LaBarbera
MIN - Backstrom
MON - Price
NSH - Ellis
NJD - Brodeur
NYI - Dipietro
NYR - Lundqvist
OTT - Gerber
PHI - Biron
PHX - Bryzgalov
PIT - Fleury
STL - Legace
SJS - Nabby
TBL - Kolzig
TOR - Toskala
VAN - Sanford........j/k - Luongo
WSH - Theodore

If anyone sees any discrepancies/errors in my list by all means speak up or mention who you think will be a starter on opening night. I wasn't too sure about LA and Minny.


I'll take a risk and say Kolzig wins the starting job in Lightning camp. I also think Rollie will take the retake the starting job in Edm in the first 15-20 game, and Mason also takes over Legace early on in the year. Colorado is going to have a goalie crisis in the first half and make a move/trade.

Other thoughts anyone?

Cheers.

Bernier starts once again in LA

Looks pretty clear cut to me unless someone hits the IR

BOS - FERNANDEZ makes a big push to come back fully healthy and prove he is still NHL starter material. His injured status all last season lends to inspired training camp and pre-season play and the right to start the season opener in Colorado, a team he has experience playing against from his days in Dallas and Minnesota.

CHI - KHABIBULIN is in desperation mode from Day 1 of training camp and staves off a complacent Cristobal. Huet knows he's around for awhile and The Bulin Wall gets the courtesy start due to his veteran status and prior success helping Chicago become competitive again.

MIN - Backstrom will be injured and HARDING will be the surprise, but steady, starter.

STL - Legace will have a slight non-serious injury and MASON will once again display the sickest helmet in the league with something eerily similar to his Nashville Predators dinosaur-skeleton-looking-awesome artwork.

TBL - Kolzig??? SMITH. Just because I think it's an awesome goaltending tandem and I like them both. Smith and Kolzig. Hell yes. That's going to be awesome!!

i'll suggest that colorado starts raycroft.as much as i agree that kolzig has the chance to be huge in T.B. i still feel they have to start smith , otherwise he's going to star and wonder what he's doing there.

Stephane Richer wrote:
Bernier starts once again in LA

I would like that.

smoothfun wrote:
i'll suggest that colorado starts raycroft.as much as i agree that kolzig has the chance to be huge in T.B. i still feel they have to start smith , otherwise he's going to star and wonder what he's doing there.

It has been said in all the Colorado papers and articles, Budaj wil be the #1 heading into this season. I can see Raycroft potentially pushing him but no way he starts opening night. Until Budaj faulters, Raycroft won't get much of a sniff imo

Any paper that says "Budaj will be the #1" over Raycroft is just purely speculating or making a stab in the dark. There's absolutely no way the coaching staff has guaranteed Budaj the start (or starting role) on opening night.

Even though I happen to agree with you that Budaj ends up out-playing Raycroft in pre-season, what you read in the paper, especially from what I consider slack-jawed ignorami regarding goaltenders, should have no impact on your own personal thoughts...

Plus, it's terribly too early to be making those kind of comments in the paper...although I'm really not surprised.

Right now, in Colorado, it's totally up for grabs. Whoever is playing more consistent will get the playing time, it's NOT going to be a "Budaj is starter no matter what" or "Raycroft deserves the starting role no matter what" type of situation...it's going to be handed to whoever proves their worth in training camp and pre-season.

I bet the papers in Colorado ALSO failed to mention the value of Tyler Weiman and Mike Wall.....both of which could easily land the backup job. It's wide open right now.

Also let me give you an example - Toronto last year.

The most over-looked blunder of Paul Maurice's tenure...

He started RAYCROFT over TOSKALA on opening night. Toskala was "hands down the #1" coming into the season after the trade and happened to play better in pre-season ... but obviously it mattered not ... for some reason Maurice had it in his mind that Raycroft was labeled for a revival season no matter what...and I'm sure you saw how big of a mistake THAT was. My point being - no matter what the situation, coaching staff must always go with the more comfortable, consistent goalie once pre-season is over.

If Ellis is going to have a season similar to Mason's last year (which is possible, because he is by no means proven) You can bet your ass that Rinne will start a lot of games, if not take over for #1.