Sunday, February 17, 2013
MacDonald's fresh start
By Victoria Matiash
Goalie Joey MacDonald is about to get his first plum opportunity to convince the Calgary Flames he deserves to be their No. 2, going forward. The first of several, perhaps.
With Miikka Kiprusoff (knee) on the injured shelf and Leland Irving sent to the AHL, MacDonald is in position to make a huge statement with his new NHL club. Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun reports MacDonald is scheduled to make his first start for the Flames against the Dallas Stars Sunday (call-up Danny Taylor will dress as back-up). MacDonald made his Calgary debut as Irving's first-period replacement Friday.
"... Based on the time frame Kiprusoff is to be sidelined (10 days, minimum), there are at least five more games to be played before the franchise goalie is back in action. Bank on MacDonald getting a few starts to try staking his claim as the second-stringer. Along the way, though, watch for Danny Taylor to receive a look or two ..."
It appears the Flames' general manager is willing to keep an open mind in regards to his goaltending options.
"When we claimed Joey MacDonald off waivers, we did so with the expectation that he would play games for us," Flames GM Jay Feaster said Saturday via statement. "Now that he has seen some game-action, we intend to use him more ... By sending Leland to Abbotsford at this time, he does not require waivers. We want Leland to go down and work on sharpening his game. At the same time, this enables us to continue to evaluate Danny Taylor at the NHL level. Given Kipper’s injury, we are undergoing a process of evaluating our other goaltenders, and this assignment of Leland and subsequent recall of Danny is in furtherance of that evaluation process."
In other words, the back-up job is anyone's to win.
