Brain Dump: Hip wiggles, Panthers, Hiller and more

My poor blog has been all boring game recaps and Brusty-gushing for a long time now. I figured out it's because I toss my random thoughts on Twitter and don't really ever do anything else with them. I'm not sure they're even worth expanding on, but when you're bored with your own blog, you know you gotta do something. Hopefully I'll be doing brain dumps like this a little more often. 

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I know I generally only let my cougar purr loose for goalies, but I gotta say, one really sexy skater thing is a tall defenseman skating backwards. I was just watching Brent Burns skating backward into the zone. Man, I dunno what it is. That hip wiggle? Whatever it is... it's hot.

I run across the occasional rec d-man who is a pretty enough skater to inspire a tingle. Always a special, but distracting, treat to get to see the those long legs and swiveling hips coming at me on the ice. Mmm.

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Is Zetterberg cute? I can't tell. I feel like if he'd shave, I'd know. He's so furry.

Speaking of which, HOORAY DECEMBER!!! All my hockey boys are pretty again....

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Hiller is a really weird looking goalie to me. It looks like he keeps his knees pressed together all the time. Maybe it's just the shape of his pads? Gotta be an illusion.

But somehow he can get in such a ridiculously low stance. I think I've seen Rask do this, too. It's almost like they're half-way down in the middle of dropping into a butterfly, but they HOLD that position, with the pads maybe a foot off the ground at the highest point in the middle.

Some kinda crazy sharp skates combined with really bendy ankles? That's all I can figure. The strength to pull off the physics of that kinda boggles my mind. I get that low, my cowlings are wiping me out and hello groin pull.

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I'm watching the Panthers only because Vokoun is one of my fantasy goalies. Well, fantasy TEAM goalies. Haha. Big difference. They look like an AHL team. I was so disappointed with the Wild tonight until I started watching the Panthers, and now I see what a team who really doesn't give a shit looks like.

I think they're trying to get moved. That's all I can figure. I haven't seen hockey this bad at the NHL level in a long time. So inept.

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TSN.ca came out with their AHL player rankings. Dex, Irving, and Brusty were the only goalies in the top 50. Not sure how that ranks as fantasy news unless there's AHL Fantasy Hockey somewhere. But nice to see he's continuing to get positive press.

Not a single Houston player in the top 50, BTW. Ballzzzzz.

Gotta say though, Dex was fuckin' unbelievable in Houston last week. Not so great on the shootout, but when it mattered in regulation and OT, he was the best AHL goalie I've seen all season. I think shootouts are in his head a little though. His body language changed.

Khudobin's almost the reverse. He's like a puffer fish in the shootout. You can see him sticking his chest out, he gets more and more amped and confident with every save. I don't know anybody I'd rather watch in a shootout (beside the obvious). It's a lot of fun.

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Got some good advice on my post earlier today. Apparently a lot of NHL goalies are using the "toes just at the top of the paint" as the depth rule of thumb. Any higher and you're opening up too much space behind you. Lower and you're showing too much net.

So, I'll experiment with that for a while and see if I can get some comfort. At the very least, it probably means I get to shove people more often.

But when, if ever, DO you move back off the top of the crease, assuming the puck carrier is coming from somewhere between the faceoff dots? Or do you just hold your ground?

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John Madden has no lips. He's like a Muppet.