Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointman
While it is true that Kiper on his peak was the best goalie in the game, it has a lot to do with long rest. He effectively had two great campaigns :
2004 playoffs - after playing merely 38 games in the regular season
2006 regular season - after 2004/05 lockout season, when he played 52 fairly low-intense games in Sweden. Ironically, his team lost in first round during the lockout season as well.
Kipper was nowhere near NHL best goalie when he had regular workload. He required prolonged periods of rest to put amazing campaigns. Was it because of his smoking or not, is anyone's guess. Nonetheless he wasn't really all that valuable year in and year out.
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His save percentages say otherwise. Plus he didn't have an allstar team in front of him like Vernon did.
