Ray of Hope
Sunday, January 13, 2008

Posted by HockeyReporter

The opportunity for Ray Emery is awaiting him in the very near future. After a very successful season last year, he has been nothing more than a disappointment this season. His uncompromisable behaviour has been very disappointing for the coaching staff and for the trainers, and his teammates. His players are incredibly frustrated with not only his performance off the ice but when he gets the chance he has not proven to be the same kind of goaltender in which he was last season, when he took
the Senators all the way towards the Stanley Cup finals.

Ray Emery's behaviour off the ice has been the most of his worries and he needs to concentrate more on becoming the number one goaltender in Ottawa and a little less than his ridiculous antics off the ice. From getting into a car accident during the playoffs last season, to getting to practices late and simply “sleeping in” or not caring enough to get there on time, and when on time and participating in the practice getting into fights with teammates. Emery has been the focal point for this franchise for more than 2 years now, and it went very quickly from positive attention to some very negative attention throughout the media.

Now, Ray Emery will get the chance to shine on the biggest stage for the Ottawa Senators yet this year. Ray will get the opportunity to play against the best team in the league, the Detroit Red Wings. So far this season Ray Emery has played just 15 games and has won less than 50% of those games, with only 7 wins throughout those 15 games. While it is incredibly difficult to sit here and criticize Emery due to his unbearable and nagging wrist injury which is a continuation of an injury in which Ray had last year.

This controversial goaltender has had a ton of problems throughout his fighting days in Binghamton, and now his undiscipline days here in Ottawa. Now this goaltender will get his chance to shine - and in a major way .The Ottawa Senators host the Detroit Red Wings in a battle of the two best teams in the league. The last time these two teams met it was very much the opposite type of game for Ray Emery. The last time they met Ray Emery stood on his head while making 43 saves to defeat the Red Wings 3-2 in a game that they had no business winning.

Emery will get the surprising start in nets as Martin Gerber is given the night off on Saturday night. Ray needs to start playing much more competitively when he gets the rare chance to play in a hockey game of this calabur. I am quite intrigued to see how Emery fares in a game like this when he hasn’t played game in the last 10+ days. This athletic and fundamentally challenged goaltender will get his first opportunity in a while to prove to Senators fans that he can be the Senators number one goaltender.