Dein erstes Forum » raden Holtby, Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sha

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Chicago Bulls are playing great basketball and will try to continue the momentum Christmas night when they host the Los Angeles Lakers. The Bulls have won four straight and seven of their last eight. Chicago has also taken four consecutive home contests, and its recent run has been extremely impressive considering the competition. The Bulls started this win streak with a home victory over the New York Knicks, then knocked off the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Chicago defeated the Toronto Raptors, and, on Tuesday, toppled the Wizards in Washington, 99-91. Derrick Rose scored 25 points in the Bulls win over the Wiz. Rose shot a combined 12-for-35 in the two games before missing two with an illness. Since his return, the former MVP has been lights out in a pair of crucial wins over two Eastern Conference contenders. Rose scored 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting against Toronto on Monday and hit 10-for-17 in Washington on Tuesday. His personal 6-0 run late in the game helped the Bulls extend the best road record in the East to 13-4. Rose won the battle of elite point guards as John Wall finished with 18 points and nine assists. Theyre both dynamic players, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said about Rose and Wall. Hard to guard, transition, pick and rolls. Both are unselfish and make the right play. Pau Gasol had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Bulls. Aaron Brooks managed 13 points off the bench, followed by 12 out of Taj Gibson. Jimmy Butler, who had been on a tear, cooled a bit with 11 points and Joakim Noah grabbed 11 rebounds. Gasol will face his former team for the first time since signing with the Bulls in the offseason. The Lakers snapped a three-game losing streak in an unlikely fashion. LA beat the Golden State Warriors, the team with the NBAs best record, on Tuesday night and did so without the services of Kobe Bryant, who was sitting for rest. Bryant, of course, has been used heavily in his 19th NBA season, and given his usage rate and his recent struggles, head coach Byron Scott opted to give the veteran a maintenance day. Bryants status for Christmas night is unknown. The Lakers built a huge lead by shooting 56.5 percent over the first three quarters and held on for a surprising win. Thats exactly what we needed with that type of effort and energy, Scott said. We just went out and played...and had confidence that we could make plays. Carlos Boozer led seven Los Angeles players in double figures with 18 points and added nine rebounds. Ronnie Price contributed 17 points and eight assists, Nick Young added 15 points, and Wesley Johnson and Ed Davis chipped in with 14 apiece. Wayne Ellington finished with 12 points and Jeremy Lin added 11. The Bulls have won two straight over the Lakers and five of their last six. The teams have split the last eight meetings in Chicago, although the Bulls have won two in a row. Eric Thames Jersey . - Vince Carter, heading into his 17th NBA season, doesnt consider age a big issue anymore. Brent Suter Jersey . -- David Price didnt think he would be in Port Charlotte this spring. http://www.brewersteamshop.com/Brewers-G...on-Kids-Jersey/. -- Thirty years ago, the Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets 186-184 in triple overtime, a game that remains the highest scoring in NBA history. Cecil Cooper Jersey . Toronto has lost six of its last eight games but is coming off Thursdays 7-3 victory at Kansas City. Juan Francisco and Colby Rasmus both went deep for the Blue Jays, who are second in the American League with 34 home runs on the season. Keon Broxton Jersey . Viewers in the Canadiens region can watch the game on TSN Canadiens at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. The game can also be heard on TSN Radio Montreal 690. The Calgary Flames will see if they can take their recent hot streak on the road when they shoot for a sixth consecutive win Monday night in Montreal.It seems in todays world of goaltending, theres still a couple of contrasting styles that help netminders have success. Every goalie has a specific skill set - I call this the toolbox - and youre trying things and adding them if they work for you along the way. Certain plays, saves, reads and how you consistently play them help define you as a goaltender. With the evolution of goaltending at an all-time high over the last 20 years, most goaltenders play relatively the same way - especially in their save selection in certain areas of the crease. Where it differs is how you arrive to make the save. Some goalies play deeper in their net, while others play more aggressive. Some netminders have better lateral movement and flexibility and some play a more upright style, while others play with more patience. The bottom line is that everyone plays a little bit different from one other. When I started to look at how guys play in the league today, there wasnt much difference in what I would term the middle group. Its their modified styles that are the most noticeable difference. Lets start with the majority group - the hybrid goaltender. These are the goaltenders that have a lot of different skills in their tool box, play with structure, a near-predictability in their save selection and are basically a cross between a standup goalie and a butterfly goalie. Aggressive, But With Structure These goaltenders play the top of their crease and will try and take as much ice as they can. They use athleticism, try not to open a lot of holes and work within the confines of good crease management. When theyre on their game, they make it look easy because the puck hits them and dies. Modifications of it are also noticeable if the goaltender plays more upright or in a deeper crouch. Goaltenders in this category include Floridas Roberto Luongo, Bostons Tuukka Rask, Ryan Miller of the Vancouver Canucks, Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard, Washingtons Braden Holtby, Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks, Brian Elliott of the St. Louis Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, Chicagos Corey Crawford, Kari Lehtonen of the Dallas Stars, Ottawas Craig Anderson, Colorados Semyon Varlamov and Ben Scrivens of the Edmonton Oilers. Most goalies go down on almost every play to take away the lower part of the net because shots are rarely clean nowadays. With net-front traffic, screens and tips, the puck changes directions constantly. With the middle group comes the aggressive hybrid style - and you can lump most of todays goaltenders into that category. And theres different groups within this category based on how they react to shots. Patient With Structure These are goaltenders wwho dont go chasing the puck - they allow the puck to come to them.dddddddddddd. They still incorporate all the features of a good hybrid style, but look a lot more relaxed doing it. Theyre very efficient with their use of energy, almost to the point that they could be accused sometimes of not trying on certain shots. Goaltenders in this category include Montreals Carey Price, Phillys Steve Mason, Darcy Kuemper of the Minnesota Wild, New Jerseys Cory Schneider, Torontos Jonathan Bernier, Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes, Jaroslav Halak of the New York Islanders and Buffalos Jhonas Enroth. Aggressive And Athletic/Garage Sale These guys have all the skills and have the athleticism to get away from structure, but will stop the puck by any means necessary. Theyll use flexibility, quickness and willpower to keep the puck out of the net and throw everything they have at the puck to make the save. Were talking about Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings, Nashvilles Pekka Rinne, Marc-Andre Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipegs Ondrej Pavelec. Deep And Athletic Netminders that use their size and athleticism to their advantage. But theres also no margin for error, as they play a foot-and-a-half deeper within the blue paint. It helps to conserve energy, be more efficient on side to side plays and theres not a lot of scramble mode. This includes Tampa Bays Ben Bishop, Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes and New Yorks Henrik Lundqvist. Pure Butterfly I term butterfly as more the style of a save. Calgarys Jonas Hiller makes no apologies for playing from his knees, uses the 6-foot-2 frame to be as big as he can and tries to force shooters to go high. Standup Style This has gone the way of the Dodo in todays NHL. It used to be the style for most of the league, but the biggest adaptation in goaltending over the last 20 years has been covering that lower part of the net where 80 per cent of the shots end up going. Now the 30 NHL starters listed above each have unique traits that separate one from another. But it all comes back to structure and base and whats in your toolbox. At least 13 of 30 starters play an aggressive game with structure. Maybe thats why when it comes to goaltending chats, people always say theyre interchangeable. Its how they use and incorporate the skills that separates the good ones from the elite ones. It also includes the extras or intangibles. I know my analytics friends hate those words, but when it comes to goalies, thats just a fact. Durability and mental capacity, along with the skills Ive talked about above, are what really separate the good from the great. And that will be for another chat to come. ' ' '