Goalie News – Thursday October 8, 2009

It was a quiet night in hockey though all four NHL  goalies starting were newsworthy to some extent.

Before we get to the round-up you might want to go see if you can score on Blues goalie Chris Mason.

While you are there, check out the photo of Chris – how the heck can he see? I wonder that about Brodeur sometimes too.

The Penguins signed Brent Johnson in the off-season to provide an experienced backup for Marc-Andre Fleury and Johnson got his first start tonight. Giving up only two goals in a decent performance, he was outshone by Ilya Bryzgalov recording a shutout for the – ahem – undefeated Phoenix Coyotes.

• Bryzgalov, Coyotes blank Pens.

Here’s a nice sequence by Johnson:

In Vancouver there were two story lines – the red-hot Carey Price making his first pro start in his home province of British Columbia and Roberto Luongo’s early season struggles (see Luongo is ripe for picking).

Both stories ended tonight with Price cooling off and eventually being yanked from the game as Luongo stopped 27 in a strong performance.

• Price pulled as Canucks crush Habs

Here’s some solid second, third and fourth effort by Captain Canuck:

Meanwhile the goalie circus continues in Toronto as Jonas “the Monster” Gustavsson made news simply by not practicing today - Monster missing at Leafs practice as reporters continue to pick apart the Leafs goaltending situation  - Leafs used to have goalie stability even from as far away as Europe - Goalie graveyard? | eishockeynews.ch

In Tampa, Mike Smith is critical of himself and wants to improve his puck-handling.

Elsewhere in Calgary where just about everyone but Kipper believes Mikka Kiprusoff needs a few days off this year we hear that Backup McElhinney may see action soon.

In Nashville they can’t decide who is number one and Pekka Rinne will give way to Dan Ellis for tonight’s game.

In Colorado Craig Anderson has a nifty 0.973 save percentageto start the season but also a minor groin injury. Looks like he’ll be OK, but you never know where this could go - Sharks Need Defense; Avs Need Goalie Luck

And finally, in the continuing roller-coaster of early season analysis where people are already counting out Brodeur and Luongo and starting to talk about Carey Price for the Olympics (wait – see Montreal vs. Vancouver from tonight and rewrite this script again!)  we now have Mason Making Olympic Case.

I have a feeling there will be one or two more Olympic prediction stories this year…oh what the heck – Luongo starts, Brodeur number 2 and Steve Mason number 3. There, I got my 2 cents in. Now watch this space as I change my prediction until I get it right.