Goaltending is the one position in hockey where a contending club absolutely cannot afford to be suspect. You can get by with modest scoring and an average blueline can be largely overcome through strong team defense.
Shaky goaltending will get you every time, even if the team D is solid. Unfortunately, any approach the Flyers take this offseason is likely to end up with the club going into next season with a big question mark in goal.
When it comes to goaltending, it's not about stats -- goals against average is as much a reflection of team play and even save percentage isn't necessarily indicative of someone's play. It's all about when and how the goaltender lets in goals that matter. Those are the factors that affect the confidence of the team in front of him, either positively or negatively.
Looking at the body of work Martin Biron turned in over the course of the 2008-09 season and playoffs, he was too inconsistent to merit the kind of raise he's looking for as an impending unrestricted free agent. Given the team's salary cap problems, I understand why they're looking in other directions -- possibly attempting to run leaner depth-wise at forward and trying to upgrade the blueline and overall team D. It remains to be seen whether that can be done.
Even if the club does restructure some of the roster, I'm not confident in that the club will be able achieve its playoff goals without a definite upgrade in the net over Biron and/or fellow free agent Antero Niittymaki. Both ar Ray Emery is a huge question mark on the ice as well as off-ice.
Paul Holmgren has always been a believer in giving players with checkered personal histories a second chance. Homer has made the most of his own second chance in life, and he's willing to provide others the same opportunity. Is Ray Emery worthy of it? That remains to be seen.
At his absolute best, I think Emery can be superior to Biron. Focusing strictly on his play on the ice, Emery has remarkable athleticism and can at times play at an elite level. He can also be absolutely horrid in stretches or, in a one-game setting, go south in a hurry because he lets a mistake in front of him get to him. I don't doubt his competitiveness, but he has yet to show the mental approach of a goaltender who will enjoy sustained success as a number one goalie.
That said, it's not like Marty Biron doesn't have his own share of brain cramps on the ice at inopportune times. His puckhandling and sojourns from the crease are adventures, he showed a strange propensity for reacting too late to wraparounds because he anticipated something else happening and too many of the stoppable goals he lets up result in dramatic momentum changes in games.
But with Biron, there's never a doubt about his professionalism. It doesn't matter that he's one of hockey's nicest people (which is saying something) and he is universally liked around the game. What's far more important is the fact that at least you know that he has his priorities straight and that he will always give 100% of what he has to give on a given day. Biron is always a positive presence on a team.
Can you confidently say the same thing about Ray Emery? He doesn't have to be a saint or win any popularity contests to be effective, but he does need to be reliable and professional.
Are you eager to see the Flyers' 2009-10 season staked on hoping Ray Emery has achieved newfound maturity off the ice and consistency on it? I'm not. I don't think the Flyers have any slam-dunk options available to them at this point, but if the club has to roll the dice and hope for the best in goal, I'd sooner see them trade for a talented underachiever (such as Kari Lehtonen) than potentially rise or fall on a hope that Ray Emery has grown up.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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