Cloutier makes NHL.com frontpage

(photo courtesy of www.cbc.ca)

Yeah, I know, there's the optimistic POV that says "at least a King made it there", but to tell you the truth, having watched some of the early season performances of Dan Cloutier I hardly know what to think. He came in advertised as a feisty competitor while given what I've seen he seems like he does not care about some of the more difficult shots. Like he thought he'd block the 90% of the regular bombs from the blueline, power play slapshots and close-range dekes, while he'd simply give up on the ones that require an extra effort from him. Just like the opposite of the Luongos and Kiprusoffs of this world who feed off most amazing stops. Dan would have none of this.

Moreover, he will give up bad-angle shots while covering the near post inadequately to stop short wristshots from an angle. He continues to baffle the Kings defense with odd "spit-it-out" rebound that ends up more dangerous than the original shot. And yet somehow, he's a thirty games winner in the NHL. Not once. Not twice. Three times in a row and relatively recently. He's a mystery to me. His mind and attitude are, at least:

"Everything has been fine so far," Cloutier says, although his record might suggest otherwise. He has gotten off to a sluggish start in L.A., going 1-2 with 3.34 GAA and .884 save percentage in his first three games".

Clearly, an optimist, right?

"We'll wait and see how the body feels and then go from there," Cloutier says. "They say the first six months to a year is the toughest to get over. So far it's been good, so hopefully I can build on that. At the same time, Matty (Garon) is one of the best at that position and he's going to push me, so I think we make a great tandem. Every night Marc is capable of putting a goalie in that can steal a game."

Good-natured boy, always prone to compliment his colleague, Mathieu Garon, isn't he? Dan "Mystery" Cloutier... He'd better start turning out to be a magician. We've had enough of mysterious crossword puzzles between the pipes in LA. To the extent that somehow the mere word "mystery" spells "trouble". I'm a plain guy, Dan. Just shut them out, the pucks. Keep them away as often as you can and there's no mystery to the job. Please - you can start with the Minnesota game.