Is being a good guy enough to keep your job as backup to Miller?

The Sabres have been better lately. Much better. The team I envisioned before the season began, in fact. I, however, was very disappointed in the choice Darcy, Lindy and Ryan made for their backup goaltender. There were some quality guys out there, and instead they brought back Mr. Lalime. Was it at Miller's insistence? Was it because Patty came at the right price? Was it because he is the ultimate cheerleader? Well, I know one thing.

IT WASN'T BECAUSE OF HIS SKILLS TO KEEP PUCKS OUT OF HIS OWN NET.

I've been told not to get caught up in numbers, because numbers don't tell the whole story.

Tough s#)t. Here are the numbers.

Lalime is 9-25-0-5, or basically 9-30, as a Sabre. He has given the Sabres 23 out of a possible 78 points. Translate that over a whole season, and that would be in the bottom 3 point totals in team history. 

Now I realize you can't pin every loss on Patty, but a backup goaltender has got to give his team a chance to win 50% of the time. If Lalime was 19-20 as a Sabre, I would be very happy with that. 5 more wins last season would have given the team 50 wins and 110 points. Now, we all know what they did in the playoffs, but 110 points would have given them 2nd place in the conference. And a different 1st round opponent. Yes, that would have been the Flyers, but things could have been different. They have had playoff dominance over Philly lately, so who knows? We'll never know.

Yes, last night he "only" gave up 2 goals. Well, he should have only given up ONE! The way that 2nd goal came about has been a theme with this guy since he got here. He has no control of himself or the puck when he is in the net. He flops around too much. His anticipation of the play is almost non existent. He seems to be a step behind, or a second too late way too often. He gives up that "deflating" goal much too often, and I could probably count on one hand the times he made that one ridiculous save that gave Buffalo a favorable momentum turn.

I don't care how good a guy he is. I am sure he's the nicest guy you'll ever want to meet. I don't care. I'm sure Jhonas Enroth is a great guy too. Marty Biron is a great guy. I'd imagine Johan Hedberg is a swell SOB, as well. I want my back up goalie to STOP the damn puck. Just like I want my $7 million a year "sniper" to shoot it. (And he IS, finally).

I think the Patrick Lalime era needs to come to an end. If Miller is going to be battling his knee injury for any length of time this year, and his being on the sidelines again could be an indication of that, then the reigns need to be given to Enroth. Even if Miller declares himself ok to go, Lindy should scale his playing time back a bit. Let the kid play. Either that, or Darcy needs to go get himself another Mikael Tellqvist. 

One way or another, I have ZERO confidence when #40 mans the pipes. I wonder how his teammates feel.

How do you feel?