Quote:
Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan
Don't we have enough evidence that we haven't had an elite goalie since Kipper? Sure, one can argue many teams don't have that luxury or have ever had it, however, we seem to be a team that has struggled to have a goalie that could be consistent. Yes, we've had guys like Talbot, Markstrom, and Mike Smith who did well in their own right, but they also had their warts and wouldn't really consider any of them elite. We have also had guys like Rittich, Elliott, Hiller, Ramo, etc. Whole lot of meh. Elliott and Hiller were actually good goalies until they came to us.
Just look at the Coyotes. It's a goaltending factory over there and I think goalie coaching plays a huge role in that. In the same time frame of when the Flames last had Kipper, the Coyotes have had Mike Smith, Dubnyk, Kuemper, Vejmelka, and now Ingram all playing fantastic hockey (Vejmelka not so much at the moment). Before Mike Smith, it was Ilya Bryzgalov, who had a few great seasons as a Coyote. Might have missed one or two, but goaltending was never an issue in AZ.
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Bryz predates the current goalie coach and Smith got worse under him. Neither Vejmelka nor Ingram are doing anything anyone would probably categorize as “fantastic” but they have come out seemingly nowhere as average/slightly below average NHL-quality starters. On the flip side, you also missed Adin Hill, who caught fire with Vegas.
All that to add to the point that people kind of see what they want to see when it comes to goalie coaching, because I think people actually see so little of it. They’re not behind the bench or doing interviews very often. You don’t hear players talk about them often. It’s almost exclusively a fan-led thing, which is weird, but makes sense because it’s something you can easily single out that’s hard to actually prove right or wrong. Goaltenders good = goalie coach, goaltenders bad = goalie coach, meanwhile there are a dozen other (likely more important) factors that go into goaltending performance.
If the goalies like working with the goalie coach, that’s probably the right goalie coach for them.