Quote:
Originally Posted by kirant
Did TPS suck less at the time or did Kipper manage to develop his confidence and skill on a poor team? Because the GAA he had at the time is pretty high.
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First of all, obviously I don't know or remember any concrete details.
But it goes without saying that for certain TPS sucked a lot less then than now, and that's putting it mildly. I mean, this season is already legendary for TPS. Everyone's just astonished at how bad they've been.
Traditionally, TPS has been a very good team with what a strong development program. From the late 80's right through the 90's, the dominant teams in the league were Jokerit and TPS. Between 1989 and 2001, TPS won 8 championships and came second 3 times. Kipper played those 12 regular season games in 1995-96 and that year TPS lost in the finals.
Kipper won the championship in 1995, when he was a backup, played those 12 regular season games the next season, with 114 minutes in the playoffs with a 2.10 gaa according to wikipedia, and then he left for Sweden where he was a starter for 2 years. Returning to TPS for the 1998-9 season, he was the best goaltender in the league, won the championship and was the MVP of the playoffs. I don't know any details, but you can see his development.
Considering how talented he was, it's remarkable how long it took for him to get a regular job in the NHL. Spent a lot of time in the AHL after that despite how brilliant he was in 1998-9. Probably wouldn't happen today. But San Jose had pretty stiff competition for the goalie spots back then. If Ortio put up those numbers, he'd be in Calgary so fast.