Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
He wasn’t “as elite as it gets”. That’s Hasek, followed by Brodeur/Roy. Kipper was great but the fact that Sutter never got him a decent backup is why he started so much. I never considered his start numbers as a reason he was a great goalie. I put him Kipper a zone with with Luongo, MAF, Rask, etc.
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I agree that the Big 3, Hasek, Brodeur and Roy, are the only goalies who made their teams a threat to go to the Finals and win, regardless of the quality of the roster. I know Hasek actually didn’t, but he’s Hasek and Hull’s toe was in the crease.
Every other notable goalie is in that next tier, to me - Price, Fleury, Bob, Thomas, Kipper, Quick, Lunqvist, Luongo Joseph, Belfour, Turco, Rask etc in that they’re good but they can’t/couldn’t do it themselves.
Maybe that’s just the reality of the cap world and early 21st century hockey - but I also think those three goalies had something different. An aura, a way of perceiving the game, I dunno. But they had it.
When I say he was as elite as it gets, I mean that from the moment he arrived up to the last three months of his career here, there was never a time when you would reasonably want another goalie in the league starting for us.
Not Price, not Fleury, not Thomas, not Quick, Lunqvist, nobody.
And 70 starts seven straight years tells does bely an elite goaltender. Cam Talbot started 70 games once and then took five years to throw up a GAA under 3.
Price did it once, when he was 23. Fleury has never done it. Quick did it twice. Once for Rask.
Kipper may have had his down years, but he didn’t have them because he stopped being elite. One time, his goals against was 2.84. Oh, but he also won 45 games, 6th highest in league history - even when he was off, he was doing something top-10 all time for his position.
In other years where he had a pedestrian save percentage, his GAA never broke 2.70 (Markstrom’s norm over the last 6 years).
While starting 70 games a year from age 29-35.
He was over worked. As you point out, the failure to find a quality backup probably cost this team multiple playoff rounds and millions of dollars.
He was a bad man, and we were lucky to have him.