Quote:
Originally Posted by chedder
He most definitely was top 5 last regular season. And he has proven in past seasons that he can be.
That's what so frustrating and why we're all asking what the heck happened to him in the Edmonton series. He has not been the same player since.
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He had a great year last year, no question. And I suppose by definition, a Vezina nomination and leading the league in shutouts is top-3 goaltending for that year.
But he’s a career .911 goalie. Outside last season’s 2.22, the best GAA of his career is 2.63.
Miikka Kiprusoff was 2.63 or better in 6 of 9 seasons as a Flame.
Kiprusoff played the game with a dead-eyed calm. You couldn’t rattle him and you couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
During his time in Calgary, there weren’t five goalies I would’ve wanted in net ahead of Kiprusoff. Brodeur and maybe Lundqvist. Maybe.
But not Thomas, not Luongo, Quick, Crawford, Khabibulin, Price, Fleury, Nabokov, Rinne - pick a guy. Not taking them over 34.
Maybe that makes me a homer, but I always felt like those Flames teams let Miikka down more than he did them (outside the Sharks series - he was awful that year. Old Man Curtis Joseph was better, by a lot).
Whereas with Markstrom, there’s a whole laundry list of guys I’d trade him for tomorrow.
Vasilevskiy, Sorokin, Oettinger, Hellebuyck, Saros, Shesterkin, Thompson, Demko.
That’s not a top-5 goalie. It’s top-10, but the difference between top-3, top-5 and top-10 is all between the ears.
Markstrom is an emotional goalie. If love is the death of duty, emotion is the death of effective goaltending. The position requires you to expect everything, be surprised by nothing, and never let them see you bleed.
Markstrom bleeds all over the place, and makes sure you know he’s bloodied. The big stage rattles him, it has since at least the World Junior gold medal game when he made a circus out of himself.
It’s been evident since he got here that Connor McDavid intimidates him, and a great goalie should never be intimidated by anyone.
He’s incredibly talented and physically gifted, but his Achilles heel is the most difficult thing to fix.