Who should the US start in goal for QF's? DiPietro or Esche?

[Le Golie]

How quickly everyone has blocked from their minds that DiPietro put a clearing attempt right on the stick of a Slovak player, I can't be the only one who saw that.

From what I remember, he was looking to make an outlet pass but his man was quickly covered, instead of throwing it blindly up ice he tried to put it in a safe zone along the boards but the American defenceman tried to stop it, got a piece of it and then it went to a Hossa, who didn't really have anything to shoot at. His only option was a low percentage desperation pass to the high guy in the slot which didn't work out.

It wasn't nearly as dangerous as the announcers made it out to be.

 

[CarlRacki]

Esche has been solid, probably the best goalie on the tournament. BUT... the US team plays better in fron of DiPietro than they do in front of Esche. Plus, DiPietro looked solid in the win. Stick with the winning roster, IMO.

I think the "US played better in front of DiPietro" line is a bit misleading. That had a lot more to do with who the US was playing than who was playing in goal for the US.
Also, having been at the game Friday, I can attest that DiPietro looked pretty shaky through the first period, though the one-on-one save against Hossa was stellar. After the first he was solid, but mostly unchallenged.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

esche has generally been amazing, but dipietro looked solid, played the puck well, and won the game. esche looks a little awkward with shoot ins and long shots in general sometimes, but has been unconcious at stopping the scoring chances, so it's a toss up for me.

Dipietro played the listless slovaks while Esche played the top 2 teams in the tournament.

 

[Islanders4Cups]

Anything official on who's starting in goal or is the coach playing mind games with the Russians with not saying who will start...

 

[bennysflyers16]

I was at the game on Sat. without Esche that game was 4-0 in the 1st period. I know people don't care for Esche, BUT he has been amazing in this tourney & got to the conference finals game 7 this year by beating Belfour and Brodeur. I personally don't care who the Americans start because my heart is with Team Canada, but the ONLY reason I am scared for Canada to play the USA again is Esche !