Allan Muir is the new Garrioch

by TylerG on Apr 17, 2009 12:07 PM EDT

"Boudreau's option is Simeon Varlamov, a 21-year-old Russian whose resume is pretty much babysitting and lawn mowing at this point." -- Sports Illustrated's Allan Muir.

As usual, Muir is under-informed. His credibility is approaching Garrioch-level.

Varly has a distinguished resume for a 21-year-old G. He was 5-1 with a 1.51 GAA int he 2006-07 world juniors. That same year he had a 2.17 GAA in 33 games while in the top Russian league. In Hershey this season, Varly was 19-7-1, 2.40, .916, numbers significantly better than any other Hershey G.

Is Varlamov Marty Brodeur? No. But should Muir know what he's talking about (for a change)? Uh, yeah.

If this FanPost is written by someone other than one of the blog's editors, the opinions expressed in it do not necessarily reflect those of this blog or SB Nation.

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Not the first time Muir has hated on Varly for no good reason either.

Further to the substantive point, the NYT nailed it:

But despite his youth, Varlamov has been through the playoff grinder. Last season in Russia he led Lokomotiv Yaroslavl to the deciding game of the K.H.L. playoff finals, which Loko lost to Salavat Yulaev. The Caps, especially the team’s four Russian skaters, know that he has proven himself in a professional postseason. In early April, when discussing whether Varlamov would be the backup for the playoffs or whether the veteran Brent Johnson would be back from hip surgery, Boudreau told the Washington Post he would not hesitate to put Varlamov in a playoff game.

Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world

by J.P. on Apr 17, 2009 12:18 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs

Is he a Don Cherry, Jr.? Or does he not care about facts? Maybe he’s just kind of uncurious, even dumb?

Modern Art Notes

by TylerG on Apr 17, 2009 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions

The latter.

Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.

by PPP on Apr 17, 2009 1:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Unfortunately, we’re talking about a profession where the standards set by guys like Strachan and Fischler are ridiculously low. Guys like Muir get away with spouting crap like that because there has heretofore been nobody to call them on it. With time, hopefully enough people like Mirtle will percolate into positions where they can call BS where they see it. Baseball went through a similar revolution over the last 10-15 years. There are still a lot of dinosaurs in the profession, but guys like Rob Neyer did a lot to change the paradigm and make it more analytically rigorous (although he’s fallen off the wagon himself over the last several years working for ESPN). I think the transition in hockey will be more difficult, because there isn’t an underground army of statheads poring over every boxscore in quite the same manner as the SABR crowd. Sadly, this place, behindthenet, Mirtle and the Forechecker are about it when it comes to statistically oriented hockey analysis.

by D'ohboy on Apr 17, 2009 1:59 PM EDT up reply actions

Fischler is not a journalist. He’s a home-town, TV fanboy.

Modern Art Notes

by TylerG on Apr 17, 2009 3:26 PM EDT up reply actions

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	GP	W	L	OTL	PT
Washington Japers' Rink	53	28	21	4	60
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