It starts at about the 8:45 mark. To clarify a few points:

a) It’s a damned shame that CBC didn’t get my entire Twitter backdrop up, which is as follows:

b) I wasn’t really commenting pro/con on Kelly Hrudey’s hair - although he may well be the most notable hair guy in the NHL in the post-helmet era, what with the head band and now this - so much as I was commenting on how amazing it looked in HD. You can see every individual strand of hair. Amazing work by the CBC hair people.

c) Much as I’d like to take the credit for Dustin Penner, I think Ron’s confusing me with Derek Zona - I limited my praise of him last year to “He’s probably a better option when you’re down one late in the game than Ethan Moreau” which is a universal truth, like “All men are created equal” or “Signing Nikolai Khabibulin for four years was a bad idea.

* * *

You can always tell when you’re dealing with an old pro. It’s a timing thing. I wrote a post offering a little snark about Robin Brownlee’s proclamation of JDD as “a competent NHL starter” a few days back. Since I wrote that, JDD has cruised along at a .906 save percentage, which sucks. Small sample, to be sure, but nothing to suggest that he’s a competent NHL starter. He’s let in a ton of just crap goals along the way - Giordano for Calgary and then all of the goals last night.

Brownlee though, he’s an old pro - so old he doesn’t know how to hyperlink. So when does he post his detailed attack on my logic? Immediately after JDD led the Oilers past the mighty Maple Leafs - currently a point ahead of the Oilers despite playing what is basically an AHL schedule and holds them in against the Flames in Calgary. I’m a young guy (although from a different generation than Elliotte) and know how to hyperlink, so here’s Robin’s piece.

Not long ago, I praised Deslauriers for, in my estimation, proving his many critics wrong during a 10-game stretch. That prompted some numbers nerds at another website to take shots at me for doing it — a 10-game sample size, that’s absurd, they sniffed. Not surprising to me, really. I’ve made it known I don’t put much faith in their numbers and they, in return, enjoy making it clear they don’t put much weight in my words. Fine. Good. Whatever.

To be clear: I think that Robin is a fine writer and good journalist. I just think he’s lousy at analysis.

I said it before, I said it in that piece last week and I’ll say it again after watching him stiff the Flames on a night the Oilers should have lost by a half-dozen goals: Deslauriers is an NHL starter. I’m not basing that on 10 games, I’m basing that opinion on eight years of watching him stop pucks — something I maybe didn’t make clear enough in the item that had the geeks scoffing at my take.

Now, in all fairness to me, here’s what Brownlee wrote that set off the initial piece: “I don’t know about you, but from where I sit Jeff Deslauriers has pretty much shoved it up the backsides of his critics once and for all as to his ability to be a competent NHL starter during the 10 straight games he’s played since Nik Khabibulin’s back gave out because of wallet strain.” So, even if Brownlee wasn’t basing his opinion of JDD on ten games, he was basically saying that everyone else should. The initial criticism - ten games isn’t anywhere near enough for JDD to prove anything to anyone - is still entirely valid.

But let’s take a look at Brownlee’s other statement - “I’m basing that opinion on eight years of watching him stop pucks.” How much JDD has Brownlee actually seen? Well, Robin’s been to training camp every year. So he would have seen JDD there. I don’t think he was covering the QMJHL so I doubt he saw him there. He covered the Roadrunners in 2004-05, if I recall correctly. JDD played 22 games there. After that, JDD was out of Edmonton, and I’d guess that Brownlee didn’t see him outside of training camp until he returned to Edmonton to stay. When Brownlee says that he’s basing his opinion “on eight years of watching him stop pucks”, he hasn’t actually seen anything like that. He’s seen the guy play maybe 50 games - getting hammered all the while. As Jonathan Willis pointed out (another hyperlink!), JDD seems like a good quote and has a tendency to acknowledge when he’s played poorly, which the reporters probably appreciate. I’d imagine that doesn’t hurt him in Brownlee’s eyes either.

What Oilers fans are seeing in this stretch with Nikolai Khabibulin out is Deslauriers emerging as a guy who can be the No. 1 puck-stopper for this franchise for years to come.What I’m seeing now is a continuation of what I’ve seen over those eight years, not just the 22 games he’s played this season. Deslauriers numbers, as an aside, are 9-11-2 with a 2.81 goals-against average and saves percentage of .908 . That’s better in my books than just OK on a 15th-place team that can barely get out of its own way on many nights.

I don’t see this particular edition of the Oilers as being markedly worse than its recent predecessors. The 07-08 team in particular was horrific through the first 40 or 50 games. JDD’s .908 (now .906) would be the worst save percentage by an Oiler starting goalie since Jussi Markannen’s .880 in 2005-06. As others have noted, he was riding an unsustainable PK save percentage - that recently collapsed and we’re left with a guy who is barely above replacement level.

This is an interesting debate in part because I’ve never seen a beat writer so publicly marry himself to a hockey player. I don’t think JDD is an NHL level starting goalie - it would surprise me more if he was an NHL starter in two years than it would if he was out of the league although anything can happen - I just think that there isn’t enough there to support an argument that he’ll be a starter. For Brownlee to refer to him as “…a guy who can be the No. 1 puck-stopper for this franchise for years to come…”, well, that’s pretty strong stuff. If JDD doesn’t pan out, Brownlee’s pretty much guaranteed he’ll hear “Shame that they let JDD go” whenever he has anything to say about the Oilers goaltending for the next 15 years. It’ll be interesting.