the inanity of mike schopp concerning faceoffs

a day after the sabres lost to the bruins in boston, in overtime, paul hamilton made his usual appearance on wgr's mike schoppsie and the bulldog...the subject was faceoffs and their importance in games with the underlying theme of paul gaustad, his lack of production and his value being inflated and overstated because of his ability to win draws...

hubris



(schoppsie on faceoffs) "it's dramatically overstated...there are a handful of goals a season that come from the faceoff...i hear constant references to statistics and there's this sense that it's all important, well, show me, let's see how many goals are actually scored from draws"...



goose provides an "in your face"
moment for schoppsie



goose honks at schoppsie

ironic that the gaustad won a draw in the sharks zone last night, cody mccormick snagged the puck and sent a shot that pinballed off of gaustad's skate and the face-shield of san jose's dan boyld before floating over the shoulder of sharks goalie antti niemi for the first goal of the game which was credited to gaustad...

sabres take a 2-0 lead

the second sabres goal was a series of events that was caused by the sabres winning a faceoff in the sharks zone:

derek roy wins the draw from jamal mayers which goes directly to thomas vanek who sends a slapshot far-side forcing niemi to kick the rebound to an open wing...in a matter of one second, the sharks are on their heels...defensman chris butler pinches from the point and sends the puck to nathan gerbe in the slot who fires it wide...roy corrales the puck behind the net and sends it to a wide open vanek in the slot...vanek rifles a slapshot five-hole past niemi...that sequence took seven seconds...

diggin himself deeper

schoppsie, who was on his heels defending his inanity, came up with this:  "one thing i will not do...is ask hockey coaches to tell you"...ummm, you mean the guys who are ice-level and responsible for wins and losses on a team?...the guys who's career depends upon knowing the intricacies of the game?

if sharks coach todd mclellan didn't realize the importance of winning faceoffs in his own zone before this game (having blown the gaustad goal off as a fluke,) i'm pretty sure he understood the importance afterwards, "I had the wrong guys out for a faceoff in our zone," the coach said, "and it ended up costing us."

big hands?

yes, schoppsie, "lets actually watch games and count just how many times goals are scored from faceoffs."

i count two in this game alone...hope you got some big hands