HOH Top 60 Goaltenders of All Time (2024 Edition) - Round 2, Vote 11

[seventieslord]

This just in, team that scores a lot of goals scores a lot of goals.

 

[Professor What]

Not trying to be critical (especially since I haven't posted as much this week), but I'm not finding most of the Giacomin discussion helpful. Why are we comparing him to Hall, Sawchuk, and Parent. We have them all on the list ages ago and he's not remotely competing against them. I'm more interested in how he compares to the other guys on the list now.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Back when TV had three networks, NYers ran air time. The video i linked two posts above this atests to his reverence. It wasn't until the later part of the 80's (the Beezer!) that Ed's popularity waned. He had no statistical case to be weekend at bernie's.

Likewise, Dave Krieg and Steve Largent were HUGE in America's #1 sport, but are ignored nowadays. Counting cups and crunching stats and the multimedia age have made the 6 o'clock and 11 o'clock news superfluous.

This is an odd comparison, since a lot of Giacomin's popularity was because he was in New York, and a lot of Krieg and Largent's anonymity was because they played in Seattle.

(I was at greater than 50% of those home games between 1983 and 1988, and I agree to the point that I'd be inclined to include Steve Largent over Ed Giacomin if I had a vote this round.)

 

[blogofmike]

April 8, 1969, Dink Carroll

Gump Worsley, who is a pretty good money player, was steadier than Eddie Giacomin. The latter played 70 games for the Rangers and may have been tired going into the series. But the Rangers had been in a tough battle for third place right up to the end of the schedule and Manager-Coach Emile Francis kept him in there. The third game of the series - the first in New York - was a bad one for Giacomin and he was replaced by Gilles Villemure in the fourth one.

March 24, 1970 - Jack Cook

At the other end of the goaltending ladder in New York Rangers, where Ed Giacomin, and therefore his mates, are having all kinds of grief. Giacomin, great from October to March, has never been known as a playoff goaltender. This year the playoff pressure came early and Giacomin, and the Rangers, have faded hand-in-hand.

April 10, 1970, Jack Cook

The Boston club has awesome scoring power, but few expected them to leave Ranger goaltender Ed Giacomin in a state of shock. Giacomin, whose playoff credentials have always been suspect, couldn't even last a full game.

The following season Giacomin gets his first good playoff moment from Hockey Stars of 1972 via @Michael Farkas in the last project

Ed Giacomin - One of the more fashionable pastimes for hockey journalists was predicting when New York Rangers' goalie Ed Giacomin would crack under the strain of playing nearly every game of the long NHL season - without a face mask.

During the 1967 playoffs Giacomin folded before the big Montreal Canadiens' guns in four straight games. A year later he blew a long shot from the stick of a fourth-rate Chicago forward and the Rangers capitulated to the Black Hawks after leading the Cup series two games to none. The Italian-Canadian from Sudbury, Ontario was hardly more effective in 1969 and 1970 when the Rangers were dispatched from the first Cup round by Montreal and Boston.

No change was expected during the 1970-71 season until New York's general manager-coach Emile Francis came up with a new plan. Instead of having Giacomin play 70 games, as he did in each of the two previous years, Francis limited Eddie to 45 contests and permitted his other goaltender, Gilles Villemure, to play the reminder. In addition, Giacomin wore a mask.

The plan was successful. Giacomin's goals against average was a personal low of 2.15 while Villemure's was a commendable 2.29. Their total - 2.26 - enabled the Ranger pair to capture the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the team with the best goaltending record. Besides, Giacomin was named tot he First All-Star Team beating out Jacques Plante of Toronto, 157-111.

Some Giacomin-watchers still wondered whether he would execute his annual fold act in the playoffs. It certainly appeared that he would in the opening game of the first round against Toronto. But, gradually, Ed pulled himself together and, lo and behold, the Rangers actually made it past the first playoff round for the first time in 21 years.

Confronted by Chicago in the Cup semi-finals, Giacomin this time displayed rare courage. In the opening game at Chicago Stadium on April 18, 1970, Black Hawk ace Bobby Hull accidently slashed the back of Giacomin's left hand. It was a nasty cut, deep and long enough to compel Francis to insert Villemure as a replacement.

"I couldn't believe how bad the injury was when he came to the bench," said teammate Brad Park. "The wound was a about a quarter-inch wide and the first bandage simply turned into a bulge of blood."

But Giacomin insisted on returning. "I had no intention of coming out," the goalie explained. "Things were going too good with the team and when they're going that way you like to stay in the game."

He did and the Rangers defeated Chicago, 2-1, in sudden-death overtime. Giacomin continued to play gallantly throughout the series in which the Black Hawks finally triumphed late in the seventh and final game. For Eddie, though, it was a personal victory because he proved that the playoff jinx no longer afflicted him. He was a new man in more ways than one.

May 3, 1971, CP - Ed Giacomin wants a participation ribbon for the playoffs

Giacomin said he was satisfied in one respect; Rangers played him the full series against Chicago despite a losing image he'd had against the Hawks in recent years. "They said I couldn't play against Chicago," said Giacomin, adding the Rangers were prone to replacing him in games against the Hawks. "I played the whole series."

May 9, 1972 - Bob Strumm

If New York goaltender Ed Giacomin was wearing a Boston uniform, he probably would be in line for the Smythe award. Giacomin has been as valuable to the Bruins as anyone else in the final Cup series. Giacomin must throw his uniform in the dryer after every game, it's always soaking wet. He spends more time on the ice than the puck. The Bruins obviously know this and have been throwing their shots upstairs every time they have a clear opportunity. Gilles Villemure, a tiny goaltender with a lot of talent, has been with the Rangers two full seasons. But every time Francis faces a key situation in the playoffs, he relies on the old man, Giacomin, to pull him through. And from the evidence so far, Giacomin is not capable of supplying that kind of clutch performance.

 

[VanIslander]

This is an odd comparison, since a lot of Giacomin's popularity was because he was in New York, and a lot of Krieg and Largent's anonymity was because they played in Seattle.

(I was at greater than 50% of those home games between 1983 and 1988, and I agree to the point that I'd be inclined to include Steve Largent over Ed Giacomin if I had a vote this round.)

Geez. I grew up on Vancouver Island with the Seattle/Tacoma affiliates of CBS and ABC and the Detroit affiliate of NBC. Plus two Canadian channels and a local community channel. That's all in the mid-70's. Seattle had no NHL team so New York teams were most often featured on Saturday afternoons. Of course, Krieg & Largent of the local NFL Seahawks were constants.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Geez. I grew up on Vancouver Island with the Seattle/Tacoma affiliates of CBS and ABC and the Detroit affiliate of NBC. Plus two Canadian channels and a local community channel. That's all in the mid-70's. Seattle had no NHL team so New York teams were most often featured on Saturday afternoons. Of course, Krieg & Largent of the local NFL Seahawks were constants.

I grew up on the west side of Puget Sound and CBUT-2 was a staple for Canucks games (when I could convince my parents that it was a good thing and when we could get a strong signal).

Vancouver Island's gorgeous though - my favorite all-time hike was the West Coast Trail (we did the ladder half as an out-and-back so we could get 50 miles in with a stationary car).

 

[The Pale King]

From some of the quotes posted here, it looks like Giacomin is getting some extra mileage for playing all his team's games in addition to the league recently becoming "continent wide".

If anything, that's a point that should have worked in someone like Vachon's favour, given that he was somewhat of a workhorse and Los Angeles (and Vancouver, depending on the year) had the worst travel schedule in the league.

Speaking of Vancouver Island, the still-active Adin Hill is pretty clearly the best goalie from here (yes, better than Ron Graham and Laurent Broissoit). It's surprising there haven't been a couple more over the years, as you would think there'd be lots of money for goalie equipment here. Grant Fuhr and Olaf Kolzig played Junior on the island though (off the top of my head) and of course Hap Holmes won a Stanley Cup with the Victoria Cougars in 1924.

 

[Michael Farkas]

From some of the quotes posted here, it looks like Giacomin is getting some extra mileage for playing all his team's games in addition to the league recently becoming "continent wide".

That's right. I posted in the last round that there was literally (figuratively) no one else to vote for in his early years...I don't mean because the competition was so weak, but because no one was playing enough games.

He is just not an interesting or appealing figure for this list. If he was a Golden Seal, no one would have ever heard of this player.

 

[Professor What]

I think I'm ready for Giacomin. I feel like he needs to make this list (I think he's a top 60 guy), and we're nearing the end. I don't think we're boosting him by adding him at this point. I think he's one guy that I can say is clearly better than some of the guys we're looking at (Miller, Cheevers, Thomas, and Vernon, I'm looking at you). Anyway, I feel that he, Chabot, and Richter are shoo-ins for me right now.

Hern ranks fairly high on my list right now too. I want to see the old-timers get their fair share of recognition on this list, and Paton is the only other old-timer I think is likely to show up. I really don't think there are 60 goalies better than Hern in history. I wouldn't be at all upset to see him go in this round. This round or next though, I think he's a must.

Dzurilla is still the biggest question mark for me right now. I don't see him this round, but I see him as borderline for the last round, and I'd really like to hear some thoughts on him. I think he has the greatest potential for movement on my list, both upward and downward.

 

[seventieslord]

Okay, got it. His playoff record isn't very good. I won't vote for him 3 rounds ago.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I don't know if I'm reading it wrong, but I still can't conceptualize the concept of "ready" or "waited long enough" in this context...

I can't figure out how it could apply. So I assume my contextual lens is wrong...