Linz bids 2008 adieu

With the end of 2008 upon us, the Black Wings bid goodbye to another year of rebuilding. It seems to be one step forward, two steps back with this team and what I am not ashamed to say, I wonky 2008-2009 season disc. I've never seen so many 1D's, centre-only designations, and a 15 goal game is becoming the norm these days.

Kyle Wellwood (one of the 1Ds mentioned above) is no longer lining up with Jason Spezza and Marty St. Louis on the 1st line. Patrick O'Sullivan has taken over the role and performs about as well as Wellwood did last season. Those three score the lion's share of the points for the Black Wings as scoring depth remains an issue. Martin Hanzal's numbers are decent though he needs more work in his own end. Eric Perrin's rating were a disappointment and thus he's not contributing what we expected he would this season. The addition of Steve Reinprecht hasn't sparking any new offense though some line juggling is on the way and after only two games it's too early to tell.
The defense, formerly a Linz strong point, has taken a beating thanks mostly to injuries. The new top pairing of Norstrom and Robidas is sounds, but it falls hard after that. Jordan Leopold's bright spark was snuffed out thanks to injury last season and he's not looked the same since. Andy Greene and Jeff Schultz have also battled injury already this year.
The emergence of Pascal Leclaire in goal has helped, but he's sputtered in 2008 -2009 in the NHL and has lost his job to Steve Mason. Unless he gets traded soon, Linz will once again be without a goaltender in the off-season, a common theme seemingly year after year.
Next year's crop of rookies looked promising at the beginning of this year's NHL campagin. owever, that too has been snuffed out by injury and poor play. The above-mention demotion of Leclaire will hurt, Patrick O'Sullivan spent a good chunk of the early season in the doghouse and this has affected his ratings. Zach Bogosian and Derrick Brassard both started out on fire, but now both are out with long-term injuries. Martin Hanzal hasn't grown as expected, Boyd Devereaux wallows in the minors, and neither back-up goalie is even playing in the NHL anymore.
On a bright note, Michael Ryder has re-emerged as a scoring threat and is on pace for a 30 gaol season. Kyle Wellwood also has found new life in Vancouver and shouldn't be far behind Ryder's totals. Hopefully we've either moved from APBA by then, or he doesn't get saddled with a 1D again. All in all, Linz's fortunes this year have been very much like the NYSE's, a little up, and a lot of down.

Free Agency and Draft Over - Linz Reflects

With summer coming into full swing, the Black Wings management got down to business continuing the rebuild of the team's roster before heading to Croatia for some much needed beach time.
Linz had a few holes to fill with the retirement of Eddie Belfour and the departure of some of the character players that really round out a team. To that end, Linz signed up Bobby Holik, JS Aubin, and Matthias Norstrom.
Bobby Holik played last season with the Dayton Musicmen, but mostly in a supporting role. The massive Czech will likly find a little more playing time in Linz in perhaps a 3rd line centre role, mentoring players like Patrick O'Sullivan and Martin Hanzal in honing their defensive skills.
JS Aubin, a perennial back-up goalie will fill the same role with the Black Wings after the emergence of Pascal Leclaire.
Matthias Norstrom played with the Ronin last season and he's the defensive defenseman that Linz really found lacking last season. He won't find much time on the power play but will be called upon to battle against other teams top forwards.

With free agency tinkering complete, Linz turned to the future and the draft and with their first two picks selected Atlanta Thrashers prospects. Obviously the biggest splash that the Black Wings made was coming up with a gold nugget in Zach Bogosian. Zach is a big, smooth skating defenseman with a big shot and who is not afraid to get physcial. While it might be a stretch to say he'll be in the CCHL next season, don't be surprised if he is.
Linz also selected Daultan Leveille, a 17 year old speedster who surprised many when he was drafted in the 1st round out of Ontario Jr. B. Daultan could be a future offensive star, or could be a complete bust, this pick was a gamble for Linz.
For thier 3rd round pick, Linz selected another defenseman in Quebecker Yann Sauve. We were surprised to see this young man still available this late in the draft but there has been some question about whether or not Yann is developing as well as he could be. Being drafted by the Vancouver Canucks and moving to pro hockey should light a fire under him and get him back on track.
Linz didn't have a 4th round pick, but round 5 saw the Black Wings land Jerome Flaake, a German left-winger who tore apart opposition in the Koln Haie (Sharks) of the DEL last season.
Round out the draft, Linz used their last two picks to grab Darryl Boyce (and over-aged Toronto Maple Leafs prospect) and Samuel Groulx (another Quebec defenseman to join Yann Sauve).

2007-2008 Season Ends - Goodbyes Begin

The 2007-2008 CCHL season mercifully ended last night with a 4-3 loss to the Havana Moon at Eissporthalle Linz. The game was close all night, and tied 3-3 with only 8 seconds to go in the third period when unlikely goal scoring Shane Hnidy scored (his first goal of the season no less) on the power play after Todd Fedoruk took a stupid penalty with less than a minute to go. In the game, Michael Ryder managed to hit the 30 goal mark, and Derrick Walser scored his 9th and Jiri Hudler scored his 2nd.

While some teams get set for the second season, the Black Wings began saying their goodbyes. Tops on the list was Eddie Belfour, who announced his retirement at the end of the season. Other Black Wings that have likely played their last game with the Linz team include enforcers Donald Brashear and Todd Fedoruk and non-scoring centreman Shawn Bates.

The season's best Black Wing was of course Jason Spezza, who with linemates Marty St. Louis and Kyle Wellwood, formed a fearsome scoring line. Spezza managed 38 goals and beat the 100 point mark, a first ever for a Linz Black Wing player (in 2002-2003, Marty St. Louis led the team with 51 points). Kyle Wellwood's 79 points were a happy surprise and leading the team in +/- was a shock considering his well documented defensive liabilities.

Looking to the future, the Black Wings in 2008-2009 will likely see some players providing a much bigger presence while others may fade into the woodwork. Patrick O'Sullivan, Jiri Hudler, Eric Perrin and Scottie Upshall all look to provide more punch next season. They will have to help replace Michael Ryder and Kyle Wellwood who perhaps played beyond expectations this season but will both reutn next year. Pascal Leclaire is the goalie of the future and with Belfour's retirement, Leclaire will look to be the #1 man next year between the pipes. Martin Hanzal also looks to be ready to join the big club full time next season as well.

The Wings would like to thank all their fans for coming out this year, and putting up with a lot of frustration. The team prosmises to be better in the future while maintaining a core of talent that's been with the team for years.

Losing Skid Continues

The Black Wings seem to be heading into the end of the season looking like a train wreck. The Black Wings, perhaps having enjoyed a few too many mojitos, looking like they were playing the wrong sport as the Moon manhandling them 6-0. Outside of the final score, the Moon dominated every aspect of the game, 40-18 in shots on goal, faceoffs, passing. Linz only was able to get one power play in the entire game, and by the time is happened, the score was already 3-0 late in the 3rd. It also marked the second bad outing for Pascal Leclaire after a string of decent if not entirely productive outing of late.

With only four games left in the season, the Black Wings have nothing left to play for than pride, and it doesn't come easy these days.

Leclaire Finally Nets First Win of the Season

Pascal Leclaire (pictured) shone tonight as he picked up his first win of the season, beating the Havana Moon, 3-1. The first line of Jason Spezza, Kyle Wellwood, and Marty St. Louis continued thier hot streak (2 points each) and Michael Ryder added a goal just as Havana looked like they might get back into the game. Jason Spezza was a shocking 22-3 in the face-off circle on the night as well, ripping mainly into Eric Staal and brought his season point total to 95.

Linz took the lead early in the 1st period on Kyle Wellwood's 19th goal of the season on a stellar pass from Spezza. Early in the 2nd period, Spezza added one of his own, this time on a rebound off of a Martin St. Louis shot and Linz headed into the 3rd on unknown ground, holding a 2-0 lead, perhaps the worst lead in all of hockey. Only 32 seconds in the 3rd period, Alex Ovechkin scored his 32nd and brought the Moon within one and many of the fans in the Eishalle thought this was the beginning of another Black Wings 3rd period meltdown. However, midway through the third, Michael Ryder intercepted a Ric Jackman pass and was left all alone to spring down the ice and deposit the puck behind Marty Biron to make it 3-1 and seal the deal.

Overall the game was a small bright spot after a loss against Southwest the night before (despite the heroics of Spezza-Wellwood-St. Louis) and the night before travelling to Karlstad for their third game in three nights. Making tomorrow nights game even more difficult will be the fact that Jordan Leopold, Linz' #1 (when healthy) defenseman left the game again. He'll not suit up in Sweden and may indeed be lost for the rest of the season after managing only 52 games this year. Andy Greene will take his place in the line-up as the Black Wings play out the rest of the season.

Wisborg blows away Black Wings

Scott Gomez and Martin Straka of the Wisborg Donuts dismantled the Black Wings tonight 5-2 in Linz. Heavily outshot 58-22, the Black Wings spent most of the game playing in their own end of the rink and even more time shorthanded as some rather unbalanced refereeing led to 9 power play opportunies (and two goals) to Linz's one chance with the man advantage. The lone bright spot for the Wings was two goals by Jordan Leopold (pictured), his 7th and 8th of the season (with Spezza assisting on both goals). Stephane Robidas took 4 minor penalties himself and Donald Brashear added three of his own.

Linz will continue to play out the season on Sunday against River Cities. Pascal Leclaire and Kyle Wellwood should both be back for that match. The playoffs continue to slide out of view as well, as Portland won tonight.

Linz and Predators play dirty in Stinktown

Linz fell behind three goals early against the Hamilton Predators in Steeltown in a rough and tumble affair for a Tuesday night. Hamilton owned a 2-0 lead 1:11 into the 1st period on a goal by Sheldon Souray and it seems that at that point the Black Wings had already decided the game was unwinnable and began taking it to the Predators physically.

Just over a minute after the 2nd goal, Todd Fedoruk (pictured), perhaps in an attempt to spark his team, laid a beating on Jordin Tootoo and the game only got uglier from there. Midway through the 2nd period, Mark Streit lacde Boyd Devereaux into the boards. This led to an long delay at Jordin Tootoo took revenge for his Fedoruk beating out on Donald Brashear. Neither Devereaux nor Streit returned to the game after the incident. Donald Brashear also got a 10 minute misconduct for instigating and saw no more ice this evening after the incident. Kyle Wellwood also left the game in the second period in an apparently unrelated incident.

The rough play continued in the 3rd period as Todd Fedoruk and Sheldon Souray got into it again, however, only roughing minors were called but in the ensuring chatter, Sheldon Souray was given a 10-minute misconduct was hit the showers early. Somewhere in this mess, Garnett Exelby scored his first goal of the season.

Pascal Leclaire started again tonight and is still hunting for his first win of the season. He faced 35 shots on a night when the Black Wings defensive woes were glaring, 44 completed passes to 16 intercepted, but if you take out Greg Zanon's 13-0 record it's 31-16.

Kyle Wellwood, who has played a surprisingly successful role on the left wing of Jason Spezza and Martin St. Louis will miss a game or two. Boyd Devereaux, not so lucky, will likely be gone for the remainder of the season. Scottie Upshall is rumoured to be replacing Wellwood on the first line tomorrow night. Rookie Patrick O'Sullivan will replace Devereaux on the 2nd line against the Sandblasters of Hawaii on Wednesday to show of parts of what will likely be an integral part of the Black Wings 2008-2009 team.

Lahr power play drops Linz

Linz got into penalty trouble early and paid the price, eight minor penalties in a row to start the game. Lahr scored 2 first period power play goals and added another one in the third to put the Black Wings away 4-2. A shallow defense continues to doom Linz and sloppy play at both ends of the ice (almost 30% of thier passes are intecepted) make games difficult to watch.



Jason Spezza scored his 31st of the season and Greg Zanon added his 4th in the losing effort.

The rotating defense corps saw Derrick Walser benched as Andy Greene returned to the line-up.

Linz is off until Tuesday when they skid into the Hammer.

Linz Drops Two more

Denver and Long Island turns turns dropping the Black Wings, both with final scores of 6-2.



In the Long Island game, youngsters Sidney Crosby and Zach Parise each tallied four points in their win. Long Island dominated the game throughout but Boyd Devereaux scored his 11th of the season and Marty St. Louis scored his 26 in their losing effort. Additionally, Greg Zanon left the game early in the first period and did not return. He was also scratched from Wednesday night's game against Denver.

In the game against the Spurs Vicent Lecavalier scored a hat trick, with Marion Hossa assisting on all three goals. Ryan Smyth also grabbed three points and newly acquired Teemu Selanne got two assists. The Spurs shelled Eddie Belfour with 52 shots on goal as Linz diced with disaster as they played their second game in a row with now back-up goalie as Pascal Leclaire couldn't suit up once again and Wade Dubielewicz was trade to North Dakota at the trade deadline.

On the horizon, Pascal Leclaire and Greg Zanon should both be back for Saturday night's game in Lahr, Germany.

Linz Beats Niagara Falls, adds Robidas

Greg Zanon had a goal and an assist and Marty St. Louis added two assists as the Black Wings beat the Niagara Falls Thunder 3-1 on trade deadline night. On this night Linz made a couple of minor deals sending prospect Phillipe Gogulla to River Cities in exchange for unrestricted free agent defenseman Stephane Robidas. Additionally, back-up goalie Wade Dubielewicz was sent to North Dakota for goalie prospect Adam Dennis and forward Troy Brouwer.

Wade was a great back-up goaltender, however, with his limited GP and the upcoming retirement of Ed Belfour, we'll have to resign someone who can take on a bit more of a load for next season. In the meantime, up and coming Pascal Leclaire will back up Eddie Belfour. In his first start in months however, Pascal Leclaire was injured early in the first period and will not play in the next two games.

Stephane Robidas was playing in River Cities but was not expected to be resigned next season by the Renegades. However, Linz without an alternate auto-resign, picked him up with the full intention of keeping him on for at least another year. He'll be thrown right into the fire too as Darius Kasparaitus was waived after last night's game and it's expected Robidas will take his place in the Black Wings line-up.

The additions of Troy Brouwer and Adam Dennis bolster the Linz minor league system. Currently playing in Rockford of the AHL, Troy scored 41 goals last year and already has another 29 this year in the AHL. The jury remains out on what he can bring to the big leagues but 3rd line winger sounds about right.

Adam Dennis is a Buffalo goalie prospect mired behind Ryan Miller. He's small for a goalie and will liekly not amount to anything but a back-up. He will currently back-up Justin Pogge on the Black Wings minor league team.

Belfour shuts out Springfield

Once again the Black Wings got off to a strong start and, backstopped by Eddie Belfour, they kept a clean sheet against the Homers. Secondary scoring was the key tonight with Derrick Walser, the injury fill-in defenseman, scored twice with enforcer Donal Brashear adding one, and oft-benched Jiri Hudler scoring his first goal of the year. Jason Spezza assisted on three of Linz' four goals.

Doug Janik played a particularly strong game assiting twice, blocking shots and laying out hits all night long.

The sad part of the night for Hudler, Janik, and Walser is that with the return of Exelby and Devereaux from injury, there's a good chance that two of the three will be relegated to the press box for the next game against Beverly Hills.

The win puts the Black Wings only two points behind Portland for the final playoff spot in the Jazz Conference despite the poor play over the past month and the recent jettisoning of players.

Linz Waives Two

After tonight's loss against the Hawaii Sandblasters, Linz waived wingers Jeff Hamilton and Craig Adams.

Craig Adams, an old-hand Linzer has played the penalty kill in Upper Austria for years. However, with free agency impending and a rebuild project underway Craig was waived with hopes that another team will pick him up and give him a chance to contibute for a contending team.

Jeff Hamilton signed last season with Linz and has chipped in secondary scoring when called upon and the Black Wings organization wish him well.

Wings blasted in Hawaii

As usual the Black Wings got off to a decent start in tonight's tilt against Hawaii. However, fatigue set in and the Sandblasters were able to take over, scoring their game winning goal late in the 2nd period en route to a 4-2 win. Ilya Kovalchuk of the Sandblasters got assist on all four goals.
Again, the Black Wings were massively outshot (43-14) as the Linz defense, already missing Jordan Leopold and Frantisek Kaberle also lost Greg Zanon and Garnett Exelby leaving such names as Nolan Pratt (36 minutes on the ice tonight), Derrick Walser, Darius Kasparitus and Andy Greene to face down Kovalchuk, Alfredsson and the rest of Hawaii's elite club. Boyd Devereaux also left early in the game.
Linz will host Quebec tomorrow, short three defensemen.

BlackWings drop Wolves

Linz struck hard and fast at home to the Thunder Bay Timberwolves. Unsung heroes Shawn Bates and Derrick Walser scored two goals in ten seconds to give them a 3-0 lead and the defense was able to clamp down and hold Thunder Bay to one goal giving Linz a rare 3-1 win. Jason Spezza tallied another two assists and now closes in on 50 for the season.

Of note, no Linz defenseman has not missed time this season. Frantisek is the healthiest Linz backliner by missing only 6 games this year, followed by Jordan Leopold who's missed 8. All other defenders have either spent time in the ER or riding the pine.
Derrick Walser has only played 18 games, has 6 points in those games but is a brutal -14.
Linz already has three 20+ goal scorers so far this season. Last season Linz had only two, Ryder with 43 and Eric Lindros with 21 (most of which were scored elsewhere)

Week End Early for Black Wings

With no games on Saturday or Sunday, the week ended with back-to-back losses (outscored 15-7 in aggregate) Thursday and Friday nights.
Thursday's 7-4 drubbing at the hands of the Dayton Musicmen saw the wings outshot 50-24 but worse still, it saw defensemen Jeff Schultz, Frantisek Kaberle and Jordan Leopold all injured for the long-term. This pretty much ends the season for the Black Wings as the likes of Derrick Walser and Greg Zanon won't be able to hold back the tide of CCHL forwards for a month as the rest of the defense corp gets healthy.
On Friday night the Wings moved onto Portland, were doubled up in shots on goal (46-23), and actually held onto a lead going into the 3rd period but Portland was able to score 6 third period goals to end up winning 8-3.
Monday night sees Linz up against Lahr in a game that the Wings could win....but don't hold your breath.

Linz Falls Again, Adds Goc

The Black Wings worldwide whirlwind tour continued Monday night as they slid sideways into Calgary and came out scratched and dented. Out shot 35-16, including 16-1 in the 2nd period, the Black Wings came out of the gate early but sputtered fast and paid the ultimate price falling 6-1 to the Chinook. The ever-eloquent Darius Kasparitus got the Black Wings on the board in in the first but after that it was all Calgary, evening the score a couple of miutes later. In the second period Eddie Belfour managed to survive a Chinook bombardment allowing only one goal finished the period 2-1. However, once fatigue set in, the Wing stopped skating and Calgary exploded for four unanswered goals in the 3rd.

An ugly incident in the 2nd period saw Donald Brashear run David Aebischer right out of the game, for which he did not receive a penalty call. However, on his next shift Steve Montador of the Chinook came to his goalie's rescue but was promptly pummeled by Brashear and got a 5 minute major for taking a beating. Brashear also got a 5 minute major and was ejected from the game. For Linz, it was the only victory they would be taking out of this game.

After the game it was announced that the Black Wings have acquired forward Marcel Goc from the Dayton Musicmen for cash. The General Manager feels that this is a low risk/high reward deal for the Black Wings as they gain a young forward with some possible upside, who speaks German as an additional bonus. To make room for Goc, Jeremy Roenick was put on waivers after scoring 11 points in only 21 games. While we appreciate his contributions to Linz, there is no future in Upper Austria for the aging vet as the team continues on it's long term rebuilding project.

1 point Week-end for Linz

Linz was able to only must one point this weekend in back-to-back games against Southwest and Havana. In the Havana game, the Black Wings actually held a one goal lead going into the third period before dropping the ball. The Moon's Petr Cajanek set-up both third period goals, taking advantage of a very tired Linz defense to finished off the Wings.

Recent free agent signing Bates and doghouse escapee Jeff Hamilton were able to muster 4 points each over the two games as secondary scoring, those two combined with Michael Ryder, has come to life over the past few games. Sadly, defense still is and will remain the issue.

Doug Janik will also miss at least the next game, tonight against Calgary, as he left the Havana game early in the second period. Linz finds themselves solidly in 9th heading into the 3rd game in three night tonight. Travel for these games included a night in the desert of the American Southwest, travel halfway around the world to the hills of Upper Austria, with a return trip to the Canadian deserts of Alberta.

Linz comes from behind to beat River Cities

Finally the blog-losing streak ends as Linz comes from behind in the 3rd period to take two points from the Renegades. Micheal Ryder's power play goal, right off an offensive zone face-off (20th of the year and 2nd of the game) with just over five minuets left was enough as the Black Wing hung on to win. Jason Spezza continued his torrid scoring pace too, collecting two assists on the night.

Some of the same old problems continue though as Linz was outshot again, but nothing like the more recent lospided affairs and got into quite a bit of penalty trouble. More quality goaltending from vet Eddie Belfour and strong penalty killing managed to pull it out.

Micheal Ryder was buzzing the night all night, perhaps showcasing himself prior to the trade deadline.

Linz's next game is against the Scorpions in the desert on Saturday, followed by a 12 hours flight back to Upper Austria to make it back in time to host the Cuban Moon. Word has it that Hugo Chavez will be taking in the game while in Austria for an OPEC meeting.

Black Wings die fast in Winnipeg

The Linz Blogger Losing Era continues as the Winnipeg Ferrets staked themselves to a 4 goal first period lead and never looked back. Linz made a game of it (coming back to 4-3 at one point) but being shelled 46-19 in shots on goal takes it's toll and Mike Knuble put it away for the Ferrets with a last minute goal (giving him a hat-trick on the night).

Jeff Hamilton, inserted into the lineup to provide some secondary scoring for the team ended the game with no points, no shots and a -2, not doing himself any favours. Hamilton, O'Sullivan, Pahlsson, Roenick and Jiri Hudler, have all spent time on the 2nd line with Ryder in an attempt to find some consistant production but to no avail.

Tomorrow, Linz continues on their roadtrip to River Cities to take on Cam Ward and the Renegades. Shot-blocker Greg Zanon will return from injury for the Black Wings and may provide a little assistance in front of Eddie Belfour.

Linz drops another one

I am starting to question the wisdom of this blog. Since starting it the Black Wings are 0-4-1 and have been heavily outshot in every game. Tonight's 5-0 shut-out at the hands of the Hawaii Sandblasters saw the Wings outshot 47-27. All five goals for the Sandblasters were even strength and Frantisek Kaberle was a -4 on the night and his passes were getting picked off with alarming regularity all evening.

The playoffs are beginning to slip out of view for Linz. Luckily they get two nights off before playing Winnipeg on Tuesday night, though both Garnett Exelby and Greg Zanon are both expected to miss this game leaving the team thin on the blue line.

Black Wings crash in North Dakota

A familiar trend continued last night with the Black Wings being heavily outshot (this time 49-13) against the Ibex of North Dakota. Falling behind early and getting into some bad penalty trouble in the 2nd period build up a mountain that even some late game heroics could not overcome resulting in a 4-3 final score. Additionally, Patrick O'Sulllivan and oft injured Jordan Leopold both left the game in the second period and did not return.

The game also saw the introduction of Shawn Bates in a Linz uniform, however, he was a non-factor playing 12 minutes with no real notes to speak of.

Linz will try again tonight in a game they must win if there's really any conceivable hope of making the playoffs, against Gale's Long Island Express.

Linz and Lahr Draw

Special teams got to work as the Black Wings crossed the border in Germany to do battle with Lahr. Nine penalties were called in the first period alone but amazingly the only goal scored in the period was an even strength marker by Lahr rookie Braydon Coburn. His happiness would be short-lived as he left the game shortly afterwards and did not return.

Frantisek Kaberle and Kyle Wellwood scored the Black Wings goals, both on the power play. Once again, the Black Wings were heavily outshot, 35-22, however, the Lynchjustiz were held scoreless on the power play in ten opportunities.

All in all, this was a game the Black Wings were really hoping to win, however, given their play of late, it's not too bad to come away with a point on the road.

BlackWings downed by Ronin

After some promising play in January, the Black Wings skid into February sideways with a 6-3 loss to Victoria. As usual Linz was heavily outshot 43-18 and the Wings allowed six separate Ronin to score. The only bright spot of the night was the two goals by an otherwise struggling Michael Ryder.
2-2 after the first period (in which Ryder scored both Linz goals), the Black Wings managed to hang around until late in the second when Naslund capitalized on a Darius Kasparaitus penalty to put the Ronin ahead. Leading 4-3 after two periods, the Ronin salted the game away with two goals late in the 3rd.
Garnett Exelby was injured late in the 2nd period and will be out almost a month (he was alraedy a -3 in the game before he was injured).
Word in Upper Austria is that Wade Dubielewicz will start against MittelEuropa rivals Lahr, giving Eddie the Eagle a much needed rest. Belfour's faced so many shots this season he'll likely have to retire when it's over, hahaha.