In Defense of Jacques Lemaire

Looking at the boxscore, you might think that last night’s Flames/Wild game was a throwback to the worst of the early-aughts NHL. But you would be quite wrong. It was a terrific game: fast, plenty of chances, great goaltending. As long as the league is enforcing the anti-obstruction rules, looking at total goals scored is the wrong metric to evaluate the quality of play. All of which reminds me that I’ve always thought that Lemaire’s great Devils teams always got a bad rap. There certainly were teams of that era that tried to win through tedious clutch-and-grabbing, but the Devils were an exciting, hard-hitting, highly skilled team that happened to specialize in defense and goaltending. If you don’t allow goals because you’re fast and well-coached, that’s still fun to watch. The other good thing about the game is that the Flames had been so bad in shootouts it was difficult for me to argue against them without seeming to be acting out of self-interest, but now that we’ve won a few in a row I’m free to reiterate what an abomination they are.

Also, for Brad, Darcy et al. allow me to graciously congratulate the Pigfuckers Canucks on clinching a playoff spot.