I must admit that with Irving and Karlsson as the Flames backups, virtually every shot on net by the opponents made me nervous.
From what I have seen of MacDonald so far, he seems to be a confident goaltender. He's solid positionally, and he's made some amazing saves that I doubt the previous backups would have.
My early impressions of MacDonald are great, and I think he's the goaltender that really can reduce Kipper's work load once he gets better.
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Last edited by Kipper is King; 02-24-2013 at 10:35 AM.
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Kipper's going to have a light workload this season anyway, so when (if?) Kipper is ready to go this season I expect he will play most games, as he should.
After that, who knows what next season will bring? Last season of Kipper's contract, MacDonald is UFA, Irving and Taylor are RFAs, and Ramo is waiting in the wings.
As far as I'm concerned, our back up situation is resolved this season. Nobody else has even seemed like they could win a game without the team playing lockdown defense the whole game.
He's not always going to be as good as he has been. I've seen him before and he's not always such a great goaltender, but the mere fact that you can put him in net and NOT get embarrassed is a big upgrade over what we had before.
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"You know, that's kinda why I came here, to show that I don't suck that much" ~ Devin Cooley, Professional Goaltender
He's a competent backup. Not much more, not much less. I personally had more confidence in Toskala, but to play 15-20% of a season, I would accept MacDonald. He did well in the last game.
His lack of style concerns me at times because he ends up on the ice so often. Then again, some goaltenders (Hasek, Thomas) are willing to dispose of their style to make any save, so this could be a visual effect of his saves more than an actual goal concern.
re the mask: he has probably ordered a new one and is just waiting for it to arrive
re him as a backup: he brings some stability to the position, and that is all that is required of the backup.
He will probably get 3 to 5 more games before Kipper is ready to go on an every-night basis. If he can keep them competitive in those games, he has done his job.
As for next year, he adds a bit of competition to the Ramo situation - and there's nothing wrong with that.
Kipper's going to have a light workload this season anyway, so when (if?) Kipper is ready to go this season I expect he will play most games, as he should.
After that, who knows what next season will bring? Last season of Kipper's contract, MacDonald is UFA, Irving and Taylor are RFAs, and Ramo is waiting in the wings.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in a few other threads that Irving will be UFA at the end of this year. If so, it's all but guaranteed this is last season as Flames property. With Ramo, Brossoit, Gillies, and to a lesser extent Ortio waiting in the wings, can't say I'll miss Leland all that much.
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"Illusions Michael, tricks are something a wh*re does for money ....... or cocaine"
I was going off of CapGeek, so you could be right MisterJoji. Regardless of his status, it's for sure that he's not under contract for next season as of now.
From what I remember, when Toskala was traded to Anaheim, he got a new mask made and it had just arrived when he got traded to the Flames a month later.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
From what I remember, when Toskala was traded to Anaheim, he got a new mask made and it had just arrived when he got traded to the Flames a month later.
If i remember correctly didn't D Sutter make Toskala and Kipper wear white masks until theirs arrived?
I highly doubt that MacDonald would get away with wearing a redwings mask if D Sutter was still around.
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He's 33, a UFA at seasons end and almost certainly will not be re-signed by the flames. Add on top of that, having to move 3000km from one country to another. If i were him, the last thing i'd be worrying about is rushing out and buying a new mask for a team I won't be with in a few months.
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The Delhi police have announced the formation of a crack team dedicated to nabbing the elusive 'Monkey Man' and offered a reward for his -- or its -- capture.
Joey MacDonald
