I was saying the same thing as this play happened. It’s great to see Sauer get out of Q’s dog house and get a chance to prove he can actually play the game.

I can also agree with the comments on Phanuef. Yes he’s a hard hitting D-man, one of the few who actually looks to make a hit anymore….but he showed his lack of composure in the little things he did to gain and edge last night. Kudos to Statsny for standing up in his face and then shoving that goal up Phanuef’s…..a few minutes later (would have been better had it actually been Phanuef and not Regehr in front of the net). Statsny got the better of Phanuef last night.

Finger was rough to start but I found his stay-at-home commitment refreshing later in the game. He also cleared the puck well. In sum, he’s already better than Ossi.

Richardson should have been up on this line well before Svatos and probably Wolski. It’s all water under the bridge but how do you not look at a kid’s greatest strengths and mesh them with the right line?

I share your sentiments about Phaneuf. I’m so jealous he’s not on the Avalanche. I’m not sure if he’s going to get a dirty player rep. I see him as a more offensively adept Adam Foote (that’s very scary). I think he will overcome any prejudices in other areas because of his performance/reputation on the offensive end and his clean open ice hitting. He will drop the gloves and pay the price so he doesn’t have the rep of someone who won’t back it up. I think he’ll get away with all of that stuff like Hatcher, Pronger and Chara did for years. I’m not saying he shouldn’t get the blatent calls like his broken stick on Paul. But his little bump on Guite is great stuff if your a Calgary fan. It’s the face washing irritant that Foote, Chelios, Stevens etc.. have employed to the benefit of their teams for years. Even when you look at the thing with Stastny. He identified the hottest guy on the ice and he tried to get in his head. He didn’t try to do this with veterans like Sakic or Brunette. He’s trying to get that edge and in this case it didn’t work because Stastny is a really level headed character. However, I’m not so sure that wouldn’t have thrown off guys like Wolski or Svatos. Ok, let’s face it I love Phaneuf and I’d pay restricted free agent type prices to get my hands on him for the Avalanche.

If it was, we’d be up 2-1…