HFNYR Top 6 Goalies in Rangers History Preliminary Discussion Thread

[Crease]

Mike Richter

Stats

Regular Season

Year | GP | Save% | League Average Save% | League Rank | GAA | League Average GAA | League Rank
1990 | 23 GP | 0.904 % | 0.883 % | DNQ | 3.00 GAA | 3.45 GAA | DNQ
1991 | 45 GP | 0.903 % | 0.888 % | 3/28 | 3.12 GAA | 3.28 GAA | 9/28
1992 | 41 GP | 0.901 % | 0.891 % | 6/23 | 3.11 GAA | 3.25 GAA | 7/23
1993 | 38 GP | 0.886 % | 0.887 % | 18/30 | 3.82 GAA | 3.49 GAA | 23/30
1994 | 68 GP | 0.910 % | 0.898 % | 6/32 | 2.57 GAA | 3.04 GAA | 5/32
1995 | 35 GP | 0.890 % | 0.903 % | 22/25 | 2.92 GAA | 2.81 GAA | 17/25
1996 | 41 GP | 0.912 % | 0.901 % | 6/36 | 2.68 GAA | 2.96 GAA | 8/36
1997 | 61 GP | 0.917 % | 0.906 % | 7/34 | 2.68 GAA | 2.75 GAA | 12/34
1998 | 72 GP | 0.903 % | 0.906 % | 20/33 | 2.66 GAA | 2.54 GAA | 21/33
1999 | 68 GP | 0.910 % | 0.909 % | 13/32 | 2.63 GAA | 2.52 GAA | 23/33
2000 | 61 GP | 0.905 % | 0.908 % | 23/32 | 2.87 GAA | 2.53 GAA | 29/32
2001 | 45 GP | 0.893 % | 0.905 % | 35/41 | 3.28 GAA | 2.63 GAA | 38/41
2002 | 55 GP | 0.906 % | 0.909 % | 20/34 | 2.95 GAA | 2.48 GAA | 31/34
2003 | 13 GP | 0.897 % | 0.910 % | DNQ | 2.94 GAA | 2.52 GAA | DNQ

Awards Recognition

Calder 4th Place (1991)

Vezina

• 3rd Place (1991), behind Ed Belfour and Patrick Roy
• 6th Place (1994)
• 6th Place (1997)

All-Star Teams

• 5th Place (1991)
• 4th Place (1994)

Rangers MVP

• 1990
• 2002

He is the friendly kid next door, an all-American in every way except that all his life the Philadelphia-born Richter has wanted to be a goalie. Boxers, basketball players and hoagies come from Philly. Not goaltenders.

Interest in hockey boomed in the Philadelphia area when the Flyers won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and '75, but, at the same time, high energy costs closed rinks and diminished opportunities for kids to play the game. When Richter, who grew up in the suburb of Flourtown, felt he wasn't getting enough ice time against good competition, he bought a sliding board that simulated ice so he could improve his lateral movement. His passion for goaltending got a big boost when, at 13, he was given the chance to attend a summer hockey school at which his idol, the Flyers' Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent, was an instructor.

When Richter was 15, he was selected for a national training program for the best midget (ages 14 to 16) players, and there he discovered that he could compete with the best players from Minnesota, Wisconsin and New England.

At 17, Richter enrolled at Northwood Prep in Lake Placid, N.Y., where his older brother, Joe, also a goalie, had spent his senior year. Northwood plays a schedule laced with college junior varsity teams, which provides not only tough competition but also exposure to recruiters. Richter chose Wisconsin over Harvard a month before the 1985 NHL draft. The Flyers hoped to take him in the third round. The Rangers grabbed him in the second.

He is remembered as big-game performer, with remarkable stretches of play in the 1994 and 1997 playoffs.

1990

Quick little goalies who flop, dive and overuse their gloves can succeed for short stretches. But most are only a good scouting report -- ''Wait for him to go down, boys, and then shoot high'' -- away from being back in the minors. But Vanbiesbrouck and Richter are two short goalies who stand tall. Richter positions himself as well as any goalie in the league. That means he does it as well as Vanbiesbrouck, whose picture should be featured in the chapter on positioning in the goaltending textbook.

Reflexes, of course, are still a job requisite. Vanbiesbrouck has outstanding quickness, and Richter may be even quicker. From the dropped-down, split-legged ''butterfly'' position used to protect the bottom half of the net while looking through screens and scrambles, Richter is able to spring back to his skates with astonishing speed. His short, swift but not-really-fluid movements suggest a toy goalie with a key in his back. Richter does only the most perfunctory puckhandling around the goal. Vanbiesbrouck, though, likes to roam. ''I'm more likely to beat myself trying to poke-check somebody on a breakaway than Mike would be,'' Vanbiesbrouck says.

The attribute most critical to a goalie's success, however, is his ability to concentrate. The puck bounces often and, many times, unfairly. Vanbiesbrouck, 27 years old and now in his seventh full season, has learned how to maintain his focus even when he's going badly. Richter has yet to experience the first slump of his young NHL career, but he understands that it will inevitably come and appears to have already developed the strong concentration he'll need when it does. ''You're really playing against yourself,'' Richter says. ''You have to learn what you can control and what you can't, and not let what you can't control affect your confidence.'' That philosophy allows a goalie to retain a sense of self-worth -- and to sleep at least somewhat restfully -- when times are tough. However, it does not necessarily provide comfort for his coach, who is aware that continued employment may depend on the delicate matter of keeping his goaltenders confident and happy.

1994

Until this season, consistent ice time had always been hard to come by for the 27-year-old Richter. Despite having been regarded as one of the sport's brightest young goaltenders since joining the New York Rangers in 1989-90, Richter had been platooned with John Vanbiesbrouck, never starting more than 42 games in a season. In 1992-93 Richter hit his nadir, finishing with a 13-19-3 record and even being banished to the minors for two weeks. An even greater blow to him was then coach Roger Neilson's questions about his professionalism. ''Roger seemed to be divesting in me,'' Richter said shortly after being sent to the Rangers' minor league team in Binghamton, N.Y., in January 1993.

His savior would be Mike Keenan, who was hired the day after the Rangers' season ended in April 1993. Before last June's expansion draft, New York traded Vanbiesbrouck to the Vancouver Canucks, ending the two goaltenders' increasingly uneasy partnership. Keenan would then use the same tough-love approach with Richter that he had used to turn Ed Belfour into one of the league's top goaltenders for the Chicago Blackhawks. Keenan pulled Richter from 11 games during the regular season, but, more important, he started him 68 times. Even after Richter lost his first four starts, Keenan stuck with him. Richter responded with a team-record 20-game unbeaten streak. ''Mike was impenetrable,'' says his backup, Glenn Healy, ''and I should know because I had the best seat in the house.''

Now, under Keenan, Richter finally emerged from the long shadow of the departed John Vanbiesbrouck, who had been a fan favorite. Even though Healy started the season 4-0 and Richter was 0-4, the Rangers' commitment to Richter was genuine. ''I knew going in, Mike could be pretty demanding,'' said Richter, whose 42 wins made him the first Ranger goalie since Ed Giacomin in 1968-69 to lead the NHL in victories, ''but all that he was demanding was that I be better than I had been. He showed confidence in me -- and that made me confident.''

1997

Those rare occasions when the Rangers didn't buckle down provided goaltender Mike Richter with opportunities to demoralize the Devils. Richter stopped all but four of New Jersey's 182 shots he faced in the series. Many of the saves were memorable, none more so than his stop on right wing John MacLean in the final minute of Game 2. Richter moved out to challenge MacLean, then collided with him, losing, in order, his goal stick, his blocker and his glove. As the puck bounced dangerously around the crease, the partially denuded goalie flopped onto his back and finally slapped the disk away bare-handed.

With all due respect to Gretzky--and to Tikkanen, who scored four goals against the Devils--no Ranger was more valuable in the series than Richter. After Graves's overtime heroics in the Continental Airlines Arena on Sunday, New York coach Colin Campbell was asked to discuss his team's system. After a pause, Campbell, who outcoached the Devils' Claude Lemaire in the series, replied, "Our system was mostly Mike Richter."

1998

In the view of many general managers, the 32-year-old Richter entered last season as the NHL's second-best goalie, behind the Sabres' Dominik Hasek. But in 1997-98, Richter ranked just 22nd in the league in goals-against average (2.66), had a middling .903 save per centage and was subpar for the U.S. at the Olympics.

We asked some NHL insiders the question, Whom would you rather have, Richter or Joseph?

"I'd take Richter, although I'm not a big Richter fan," one Eastern Conference coach says. "He plays too far out of his crease, and if you can get him moving east-west, you beat him. The only time I've ever seen Joseph play well is on TV in the playoffs. He's all arms and legs."

One Western Conference general manager says he prefers Joseph, who has thrived on so-so teams "because he's more consistent. When everything's right for Richter, he can be unbelievable. But when everything isn't perfect, he doesn't adapt well."

2001

At week's end the 35-year-old Richter had a .916 save percentage even though the porous New York defense had yielded the most shots in the NHL. Richter's acrobatic play, along with the fact that he was MVP of the gold medal team at the 1996 World Cup, virtually ensures that he will be one of three goalies chosen for the Olympic squad, which must be named by Dec. 22

Reflecting Back

“You just didn’t want it to end,” Richter says. “You’re coming to that seventh game, and you realize, ‘Wow. It’s really over.’ You’ve been nose to the grindstone so long that it’s almost a sense of some relief, but also almost sadness that it’s over. We were in a really good place. You get into a rhythm, especially in a seven-game series. You play a game, you have a day off, you practice, you prepare, you go watch a movie, hang out with the guys, have a great meal, you get up, you practice, you play. That journey was really, really enjoyable. It was a rhythm where nothing else mattered in the world. and there was no place you’d rather be than right in that locker room with the guys, preparing, playing, recovering, and hitting the repeat button. That was your family, as it was all across the year. We were a really tight team. You just couldn’t wait to get to the locker room in the morning and hang out and laugh. It’s still like that when we get together.”

 

[Crease]

For whoever is wondering, I get a lot of my quotes from Sports Illustrated's free archives. I could spend hours there. Also from the excellent work done by the guys on the HOH and ATD sub-forums.

 

[eKardz]

Fun fact: Dave Kerr was the 1st NHLer to be on the cover of Time magazine.

IMO Kerr and Rayner should factor pretty highly. They played a few less years than the other guys near the top but their numbers are very impressive. Kerr in particular.

Crease, thanks once again for the excellent writeups

lorne chabot was the first.

 

[mike14]

lorne chabot was the first.

You are correct, I was reading the wrong line from my sheet . Kerr was the first ( and only) Ranger

 

[bernmeister]

Ok, pursuant to the OP post 1 about submitting 9 guys by July 27, in case I don't have chance to PM this to crease before, here are my (prelim.) 9, becomes my final 9 if I am unable to reach crease.

1 Henrik Lundqvist
2 Dave Kerr
3 Mike Richter
4 Ed Giacomin
5 Gilles Villemure
6 Chuck Rayner
7John Vanbiesbrouck
8 Gump Worsley
9 John Davidson

Also, request official honorable mention designation for Dan Blackburn, who projected at one point to crack this list, prior to career ending injury.

Assuming procedure is still to PM by deadline

 

[vipernsx]

1) Henke
2) Giacomin
3) Richter
4) Beezer
5) JD, because JD is great, not necessarily because he was a great goalie.
6) doesn't matter, put Blackburn, Froese, or whoever else you want in there.

 

[Greg02]

Does anyone know why Giacomin got a 1AST in 1967?

 

[mike14]

Does anyone know why Giacomin got a 1AST in 1967?

My assumption is because he lead the league in wins that year, played more games than any other goalie (by a 10 game margin) and was also 6th in GAA. He was 2nd in voting for the Hart (Mikita won it) and the only other goalie in the top 10 was Chicago's Denis DeJordy in 10th spot.

That assumption is all based on stat work.

 

[Crease]

Tandems were all the rage from the 60s-80s. A look through award results from the 60s-80s indicates that the PHWA valued goaltenders who played a significant portion of their teams games.

 

[Cake or Death]

Does anyone know why Giacomin got a 1AST in 1967?

Looking at his 1AST selection and the Hart voting, it looks like he was considered the best goalie in the league that season by a wide margin. Hart vote: Mikita 52.50%, Giacomin 17.81%, Hull 6.56%. The next goalie in Hart voting, as pointed out, was Denis DeJordy at 10th with 0.94%.

It seems safe to say, if the Vezina wasn't being handed to the team with the least goals allowed, Giacomin would have easily won the Vezina that year.

 

[haohmaru]

My top 9:

1 Henrik Lundqvist
2 Ed Giacomin
3 Mike Richter
4 John Vanbiesbrouck
5 Dave Kerr
6 Gump Worsley
7 Gilles Villemure
8 Chuck Raynor
9 John Davidson

 

[Cake or Death]

My final Top 9:

1. Henrik Lundqvist – 328
2. Ed Giacomin – 211
3. John Vanbiesbrouck – 136
4. Dave Kerr – 125
5. Mike Richter – 123
6. John Ross Roach – 67
7. Chuck Rayner – 54
8. Andy Aitkenhead – 42
9. Gump Worsley – 39

 

[Crease]

Friendly reminder to PM me your ranked 9 by the end of the day if you wish to participate in the voting rounds.