The Ice Sheet: For 1 Night, Theodore Not an Overpaid Backup/Ex-Paris Hilton Boy Toy

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Wait, Jose Theodore Did What?
The incredible decline of Colorado Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore's reputation has been well-documented. Winning the Hart and Vezina trophies, and then ending up as a $6 million bench-warmer, with the stats to match. Propecia-gate before the Olympics. His public tryst with noted scholar Paris Hilton.

Last night, all of that was back-burnered, if at least for a game. After the Calgary Flames chased Avs starter Peter Budaj with four goals, Theodore came off the pine and stopped 17 shots, winning the game in a glorified skills competition the shootout, 5-4. "I was trying to keep it simple, give my team a chance to win, and they showed a lot of character coming back," he said after the game. Don't you love it when the male models play humble?

I found it interesting that the Associated Press led with Theodore's unexpected performance, but that Adrian Dater of the Denver Post didn't drop his name until the eighth paragraph and downplayed his efforts while lauding those of the team in front of him. Perhaps he knew other publications would be playing the Theodore angle. Perhaps Dater, and Avs fans, have been conditioned in the post-Roy years to expect a goalie to lose a game and a team to win one. Or perhaps even on a redemptive night, Jose Theodore will always be seen as a cap-killing financial albatross and an unqualified bust between the pipes in Denver.

(Coming up next: The Hartley/Waddell Death Watch continues, Marty Brodeur's afraid of his own stats, Most Embarrassing Stat Line of Last Night, this week's "Aitch Effy," and Tonight's Games You Should Be Watching.)

The Bob Hartley/Don Waddell Death Watch
Before we get to the team putting the "blue" in Blueland, let's give a nod to the first-place Philadelphia Flyers (4-1). Check out the balanced scoring, with Danny Briere and Jeff Carter off to four-goal starts. Check out Marty Biron, who has won four of five starts and is sporting a 1.81 GAA. Not bad for a team that features a collection of "street thugs disguised as hockey players." In fact, the only awkward thing about the Flyers thus far this season is the officially-requested name change for Mr. Briere. If you go from "Danny" to "Daniel," it's clearly a sign of overt pretension; but what do you call it when someone goes from "Daniel" to "Danny?" Regression, maybe?

Meanwhile, it's condition: critical in Atlanta. Six games, six losses -- in regulation, no less, so the Thrashers haven't even been able to grab any wussy points. Not even getting Marian Hossa back after missing three games could juice the offense in last night's 4-0 loss to Biron and the Flyers. As bad as Edmonton's power play has looked, Atlanta's has been just as putrid: 2-for-26 after Tuesday. Craig Custance of the AJC had an interesting look at the team's first five losses, and reported on some changes to the lineup in last night's game, conceding that "Hartley is trying, you have to give him that."

There's also something else Thrashers fans would like to give Hartley: a cardboard box to collect the items from his desk. GM Don Waddell is likely safe until after the season -- unless this turns into a combustible situation like last year's Flyers -- but Hartley needs to turn this thing around pronto. Who knew the Hawks would have as many regular season wins as the Thrashers at this point in Atlanta?

Marty's Bitter
Until the Devils defeated the Thrashers last Saturday, the joke amongst NJD fans was that Kevin Weekes had more wins this season than Martin Brodeur. Even with that victory, Brodeur's stats this season should have a good number of fantasy hockey owners cursing their first-round pick: a 3.26 GAA and an .879 save percentage.

So what does Marty think about his start? As he joked to Colin Stephenson of the Staten Island Advance: "Until my stats are good, I don't look at them ... I might not look at them all year. Who knows? When they put the goalie match-up on the (arena video) screen, I put my head down." But when Stephenson asked if the work-horse Brodeur would be OK playing around only 68 games this season under coach Brent Sutter, the conversation turned a little more serious:

"We'll see how I feel. I'm used to playing a lot, so I don't know how I'm going to feel going out and not playing as much, and not winning (a game) and the next thing you know, you've got to wait, you've got to wait (to play again). I'm used to just rolling over my games. That's how I get my momentum."

Frustrated chatter from the struggling goalie? Or the team's most important player letting it be known publicly that he's not about to accept a significantly reduced workload?

Most Embarrassing Stat Line of Last Night
Michael Handzus, Los Angeles Kings: 0 goals, 0 assists, -2, 1 shot, 0 PIM, 15:09 TOI. The Kings had a big win over the Minnesota Wild last night, but Handzus -- a much-lauded pick up for the Kings in the off-season -- hasn't scored a goal since leaving London and has two points in seven games. Which means "Zus" has as many goals on North American ice this season as this "Zeus" does.

This Week's Glimpse Into the Maddeningly Awesome World of the HF Boards:
You may have heard the NHL will be allowing its players to test new state-of-the-art heated skate blades. This news brought out a Luddite streak over at the HF Boards, where the technophobes started raving about rocket skates and robotic limbs being next. But the post of the week goes to Vancouver-based member "topher0805," who really isn't cool with technology and hockey mixing:

It's a sport, no form of electricity should be used to power anything directly involved in the sport.

It's different in Nascar and other racing/motorsports, the whole idea of those sports is to use technology and machinery and electricity.

You don't see football players with magnetic gloves, or UFC fighters with machine guns. Why is this needed in Hockey?

For comparing heated skate blades to UFC fighters with machine guns -- Congrats, topher0805: Your Aitch Effy is in the mail!

Tonight's Games You Should Be Watching
Dallas has blown two consecutive third-period leads for losses as the Stars head to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets, who are 2-0 at home. And Peter Forsberg will fix this how? ... The Devils continue the road trip from hell against Sidney and the Pens, as Darryl Sydor tries to get that Norris Trophy write-in campaign going ... In a battle of two teams that were "teh suck" last year but are looking solid so far in 2007-08, the Blackhawks travel to the Blues ... Finally, the Nashville Predators visit the Ducks. And don't forget that tickets are still available for the Hamilton Predators as well -- or at least they were until Tuesday.

Gratuitous YouTube Embed
Jason Spezza should stop talking about how much he loves living in Ottawa and more time scoring a damn goal already.