Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarywinning
Hiller had some shaky games where the confidence and quick goals were painful to watch. He did battle back on many occasions. He put up some solid numbers and helped us win games on stretches. I think the most insightful analysis was from Hrudey who commented that he drops down two quickly and this was a style of goaltending that was encouraged and taught that is no longer favored. Maybe someone here could speak to this.
Ramo was a battler and more confident in net. Made some fantastic saves and numbers were very good. More upside because of age here with this goaltender.
So it's a tough choice. Would probably lean to Ramo based on the upside, but appreciate Hiller coming to Calgary and the games he played for us.
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Yup, exactly to the point about Hiller from Hrudey. When you compare Ramo's style to Hiller, it's a case of two goalies with opposite ends of the spectrum.
Hiller likes to stay close to the net, yet his positioning is slow from one side to the other. This has improved over the season, but it's still not as fast as someone who can do splits like Quick or Kipper or even Ramo. When Hiller stays at the mouth of the goal line, he can leave wide open spots for shooters to shoot over his pads or through wrap arounds. When Hiller's on his game, he's pretty fast in blocking and gloving all the rising shots. But when he's off, the net is a big hole.
For Ramo, he likes to challenge oppositions to shoot the puck from any angle. Ramo will position himself further out so that most of the net is taken out of sight basically opposite of Hiller and effectively making himself bigger than the net. He's also more athletic, however from time to time, he does get out of position deep in his net when he starts sliding across.
Both goalies have improved from the start of the season, but I just think Ramo has a lot more upside with his style than with Hiller. Ramo seems to be able to bounce back quickly, like Kipper after a loss. Judging from the Vancouver series and into the Ducks series in the playoffs, Ramo was pretty solid after Hiller couldn't get the job done as a starter. I just feel that Hiller is a good backup, not a starter. The Ducks felt the same way.
