EHM The Blue Line

The Penguins are starting 9 rookies tonight(4 at center). Most I have seen what brings up the question what is the most you seen play in one NHL game?

Another question I have is that Fleury our young goalie wears bright yellow pads which looks good but I would think that shooters would be able to see it very clear and be able to pick up the open spots to shoot more clearly what do you think? If I was a goalie I would have a bright red outline on the side of my pads and paint black stripes going vertical to look like the post and net.

Winnipeg also had a very young squad in the mid-eighties, but you're right - Pittsburgh is exceptional. About Fleurys pads, I think the shooter imagines the pads being igger than they are, and fire the shots somewhere else, presumably on the goalie.

I think that when you get to a certain level, what the opposition is doing and wearing becomes irrelevant to a certain extent. A top level sniper releases the puck before the goalie knows he has it, and that sniper is sending that puck to an area, the color of the pads, to me, would be a nonfactor.

I was just reading a book about ex-leaf great Bill Barilko, when they embarked on winning 4 cups in 5 years in the old 6 team NHL in the 50's, and when they went on that run they introduced half a team of youngsters to a veteran NHL, 4/5 of their defence corps were rookies at one point.
Now, thats impressive!

But nine rookies? That's insane...Pittsburg are going to ruin those kids...they're paying too much attention to their bottom line and not enough to their future...there plenty of guys seasoned in the minors that could play if they're that dollar concious...

sometimes I wish North american sports were two or three tiered with relegations and promotions..it would elimienate a lot of rubbish like that...

Remember that a lot of those rookies played for Therrien and they know his system well. The Wilkes-Barre team and those young players are hard workers and he (Therrien) is probably more worried about winning right now than the bottom line. Just my two cents.

Nine is pretty astounding Los Angeles a few years back had darn near their whole AHL team up playing with them due to an unreal amount of injuries but I'm not sure what the numbers were. The other team that comes to mind is the Capitals of maybe 6 years ago that had a league record number of man games lost to injury. Not sure if LA topped that mark or not but those are the two that pop to the front of my mind.