First of all, where were all of you bashers during the past few seasons when Pogge was, for the lack of a better term, less than stellar in the minors. His struggles were well documented (by both Leaf haters and Leaf fans) but the majority of Leaf fans seemed to think, “Oh he’ll turn it around” or “You’ll see, he’s still our goalie for the future.” As soon of news of the trade broke, these same people seem to have flipped their position entirely, and now his is magically considered a bust, because they say so. Yes, a goals against average hovering close to 3, and a save percentage barely over .900 in the minors is weak, maybe even bad, but as much as it pains me to say this, the statistics don’t tell the whole story.

Over the course of his 3 years with the Marlies, I watched him. Although many nights he was off, he DID show improvement. For some reason he had the immense pressure of a high first round draft pick, even though he was a late 3rd rounder. There is a reason why he was drafted in the 3rd round, folks. He is still currently improving his game, and adjusting to the professional game. Yes it has been 3 seasons, but he still needs more time. People seem to forget that he is barely 23 years old. Goaltenders take a lot of time to reach their full potential. His potential is still there, which leads me to my second point.

HE IS NOT A BUST. Justin Pogge is still fully capable of being a starting goaltender in the NHL. I stick with the position I took in a scouting report I did on him a year ago. He was traded because he does not fit into the Leafs’ plans anymore. With Toskala and Gustavsson there for the time being, and Brian Burke very high on the other young Leaf netminder James Reimer, it was Pogge’s time to go. He was not traded because he is a bust (despite what people seem to think all of a sudden) he was traded because he wanted to get a fair crack at a starting NHL job, which he wasn’t going to get in Toronto.

Unfortunately for him, he isn’t going to get that crack in Anaheim either. Anaheim is absolutely loaded with depth at the goaltender position. Giguere and Hiller are going to be around long term, and according to HockeysFuture, there are at least 4 other goaltenders in Anaheim’s system that are ahead of Pogge in the depth charts.

Another small problem? Anaheim has no AHL affiliate. The Iowa Chops and the Ducks cut ties, and it has left the Ducks affiliate-less. That means Pogge will have to settle for playing maybe 20 games with some random AHL team that will take him aboard (seriously, who wants some other team’s goalie starting all the games for their AHL affiliate?) or accept a job playing in the ECHL for the Ducks affiliate in Idaho. It will be a trying year for Pogge.

If you can take one thing away from this article, it’s that Pogge is definitely not a bust, and he was traded because of the situation he was in didn’t allow for him to move up the depth chart.  Anaheim isn’t exactly the greatest situation for him either, though.

The East:

I really do not want the Rangers to make it in, but looks like they will sneak in, in either the 7th or 8th spot. If they stay away from a first round matchup with the Devils, I’ll be a bit happier, but I feel safest if they don’t make it in at all. There’s something about playing the Devils that changes the Rangers’ game. Suddenly the team with the second-least amount of goals in the east (196, better than only the Islanders) goes on a scoring tear and makes Marty look like a career AHLer and not the all time wins leader (Woo hoo!) In the Rangers place I would like to see the Panthers. They are far less menacing, in my opinion, and I want to see fans get excited in Florida once again. We haven’t seen real excitement there since the 1996 playoffs when they reached the finals. The team is full of hard-working, and deserving guys. Stillman, Bouwmeester, Vokoun. If the Panthers make the playoffs it sure makes Bouwmeester’s contract situation interesting. Does he decide that maybe Florida is getting better, and chooses to stay? That’s all I would change, Florida in, NYR out. I want Montreal in because it would calm some of the fans down, plus who doesn’t want to see more Canadian teams in the playoffs. Nobody rocks harder in the playoffs than Canadiens fans.

The West:

I’m really happy seeing Columbus sitting in 6th place as we enter these final few weeks. It seems like they’ve tried everything to get in, but it has never worked. I’m not sure how Steve Mason will fare in the playoffs, but it makes for some interesting stories for sure. I like that Anaheim is out. Part of me wants them to get in, to prove to everyone that teams can succeed without Brian Burke, but I really want another team to get in. I was shocked to see St. Louis so far up the standings at this time of the year. Not much has been said about that little team from Missouri, but they are making a real case. I’m not sure how far they can ride Chris Mason in the playoffs (Come on, the guy was scored on by Wade Belak of all people), but they have some really good, young talent that should be fun to watch. Guys like Brad Boyes and Dave Perron. Oh, they also did all of this without the services of Eric Brewer, one of their top d-men. And they made a pretty nice pickup when they acquired Carlo Colaiacovo and Alexander Steen for spare-parts forward Lee Stempniak. By the way Leafs fans, Colaiacovo has more points than Stempniak does since the trade (Stempniak is 10 + 16 and Colaiacovo is 3 + 25). I’m sure ol’ Burkie is thanking trader Cliff for that one!

Things are gearing up in the NHL. I love this time of year, with baseball starting and hockey games that mean so much every night. Get ready for an intense few weeks, hockey fans!