As a concerned fantasy owner, put my vote for Biron.

GF/GA totals don’t match the team GF/GA you’ll see in the standings, because for some insane reason the NHL counts shootout W/L as a GF or GA in the standings, just one of many reasons the shootout is an unholy affront to Western civilization.

Amen to that. I can tell you the reason the NHL does it, though — it likes to brag about artificially-inflated offense.

and the most telling stat isn’t even up there: playoff performance. One very telling stat that IS up there is the PK %. Thats’ when a team really needs its goalie to shine and Roly has. I like Marty, but Roly’s the guy.

I’m a fan of Birons after watching him the last two years for Philly when I did manage to get a game. I think the GF/GA is most telling between them. The Isles have scored nearly twice as many goals with Rollie in net then Biron.

But it doesn’t really matter. Both of them are doing exactly what we needed from them. They’ve come in, and solidified the goalie position which was awful last year. Its not Rollie Vs Biron as long as the team wins. There haven’t been any games which Biron or Rollie lost that you say to yourself “If only (Other Goalie) was in net instead of him”. The weak showings from either of them seem to be in the past, and if they have a bad game its more because of whats in front of them.

Also, Biron is definitely the trade bait of the two. I think the whole reason for Roloson being signed was so the Isles had a solid backup for the next two seasons while the prospects in Bridgeport came along.

has been slightly better this year from what I’ve watched, but those numbers say Roloson has been a little better. Either way, they have been about equal this year. One thing about Roli: he’s been really slow moving inside the crease and doesn’t always get to the spot that quickly. Might be his age catching up with him. If I had to pick one going forward, I’d take Biron, just because he is younger and the difference between him and Roli is minimal.

Numbers be damned I would love to say that they were dead even in terms of play but the numbers don’t exactly tell you who is on the ice or what the demeanor of the team is at game time. From watching the games I would have to say that in the beginning of the season I would have said Biron…hands down. It just appeared that the team played a little better for him than they did for Rollie. Then there is the fact that he may have only stopped 1 shot on net during the shootouts in the Isles extensive body of work during the deciding activity of a tied/blown game.

That doesn’t make me get all warm and fuzzy. However it appears that after the team figured out his baseball swing clearing method and his desire to win in regulation,they appeared to come back a little more and and the backchecking appears to be helping the dmen to level a couple of people ie.Sutton’s Section of the tv side of the home net.

Where I once would have said Biron hands down there is now a lot of momentum with Rollie. However, I will stick with Biron because I believe that he has the energy to finish and stop at least one shot in the shootout when needed…which seems to happen a lot with this team.

both have had their ups and downs, if rollie was a little better in the shootouts, he’s looking like the far superior play…

that bogosian goal was weak, as was that blueliner in the devil game… they both have had some holes so far…

personally i prefer roloson as he’s less prone to shrinking low when he can’t find the puck, but i don’t think it’s a big margin between the two

He was at the Dogcatemy Awards for the North Shore Animal League the other night.

No casts or crutches in this pic Click Here

Personally, couldn’t they have gotten him a hip high dog so he didn’t have to bend over to pet him?

We know quite a bit about both these guys from their tenure here. Roloson came in during the ‘99 EC finals against the Leafs when Hasek was injured and while he was not spectacular, he did what he needed to do to get a win in Toronto. He’s a competent backup and will certainly win you games as a starter but he’ll never be anything more than an average NHL goaltender.

The knock on Biron has never been talent. He is probably one of the most skilled goaltenders playing. Why he’s been a backup/marginal starter for most of his career instead of the elite goaltender he could have become is because of his work ethic. He doesn’t practice well. He’s easily distracted because of his legendary gift of gab. He is probably better than Miller but what makes Miller a top-tier goaltender is that he works like a fiend to get better. Biron won’t and never has.

Biron is the better goaltender but he will lose his luster over time the more you play him and recognize his flaws. Start Roloson.