Habs Watch - Ciao Theodore

Stardate 5433.2

Well the trade has been talked about as "stunning the hockey world" but frankly, I have been waiting for this one for some time now. At the deadline, Montreal traded the struggling starter, Jose Theodore to Colorado for David Aebischer. This is great news for me, as I was growing increasingly frustrated with a goaltender who is getting $4.5M this year, $5.5M next year and $6M the year after and was frankly, not focused on the game. His stats show this, and coming off of an award winning season in 2002, he has a GAA of 3.46, a save percentage at a dismal 0.881, no shutouts and a record barely over 0.500 at 17-15-5.

David Aebischer will make $1.9M and his stats are far superior so far, with a GAA of 2.98, a save percentage of 0.900, 3 shutouts and a record of 25-14-2. He joins Mark Streit as the second Swiss player on the Habs team now. He reminds me a lot of Patrick Roy, who despite his blow up and eventual trade, remains one of my hockey heroes and favorite goaltenders.

At this point, I think they could have traded for nearly any goalie in the league and came out on top. Christobal Huet has played great, and started 11 straight games now, but is definately showing signs of fatigue and can't take the load he is getting. I wonder if Aebischer will start tonight on the road, against the Bruins.

I was a little surprised that Montreal didn't move big and useless Radek Bonk but then many teams now know what he is really made of. Of course, John LeClair used to be a Bonk-like player until he was traded to Philly...