How did CuJo never win a Vezina in his career?

[SeanMoneyHands]

Incredible longevity this guy had in his career. He was very very good in Edmonton, arguably even better in Toronto and very very good in st, Louis. You could say he was elite in his prime.

Never won a Vezina though but was a runner up twice.

 

[Sergei Bure]

It was a sick era to to win a vezina, during his prime you had Dominik Hasek, Ed Belfour & Patrick Roy (3 of 5 best goalies that i ever saw, the other two are Tretiak and Vasilevskiy) at their peaks. And the years that Joseph had some chances were 1996 (Cujo had a horrible season) with the worst vezina trophy winner in Jim Carey, and 2000 & 2002 which Kolzig and Théodore won.

 

[PistolPete]

Because he was never truly THAT good.

Make no mistake, he was goid bur his four years in Toronto did what it dies for any player who goes through Toronto- creates excessive hype for their talent.

Something that still makes me laugh is Leafs fans calling Mats Sundin Mr. Clutch because of a GWG record he had- IN THE REGULAR SEASON.

 

[sr edler]

Because competition is hard sometimes and he was no Hasek in the first place. Luongo also didn't win one and Scott Stevens didn't win a Norris but Subban did and Kucherov didn't win a Smythe but Vernon did. Best thing is probably to not be too blinded by the lights (awards).

 

[Jumptheshark]

Incredible longevity this guy had in his career. He was very very good in Edmonton, arguably even better in Toronto and very very good in st, Louis. You could say he was elite in his prime.

Never won a Vezina though but was a runner up twice.

The words you use are why. Very good. The guys who beat him were not very good they were great.

He is hall of fame of the very good

 

[JackSlater]

I consider Joseph overrated but he did have some Vezina calibre years. Ultimately the trophies are trivia and whether he got one or not doesn't matter. If there are five Vezina calibre seasons they give out one trophy and if there are zero Vezina calibre seasons they give out one trophy, and sometimes the voters don't even recognize who did or did not have one of those seasons. As already noted sometimes timing is a big factor. Yzerman and Sakic have no Art Ross trophies, St. Louis has two and Benn has one. It comes down to trivia in the end.

Hasek was the best goaltender of Joseph's era, and probably the best ever, so that is a significant road block. Roy, Belfour, and Brodeur are all time greats at the position and create more noise even if they don't get the trophy. Then you get things like Carey getting the trophy but Joseph wasn't healthy that year (regardless Hasek should have gotten it). Didn't go Joseph's way, but he was still very highly regarded in those years, more highly regarded than some goaltenders who did get Vezinas during his prime.

 

[Michael Farkas]

He was more of a battler than a truly elite goalie...also, as others have correctly mentioned, all time competition...

 

[boredmale]

 

[PistolPete]

If you ever get a chance, read his autobiography.

He has an interesting upbringing and he talks a lot about locker room stuff, what a given coach was like (he liked Brian Sutter, couldn't stand Mike Keenan), teammates and opponents ( he considered Rick Zombo a grossly underrated shutdown defenceman).

I also learned that he was the opposing goalie in the net when the Lumber Kings lost in '89.

 

[MadLuke]

A mix of St-Louis being not that good during his peak and Hasek in 1999 when he was on a big market, good team maybe...

92-94
Blues were allowing 39 shots a games in the playoff, shooting only 30, regular seasons it was 34.2 to 29.8, close to the worst among non expension teams...

Which for his battlers capacity-style the blues were maybe perfect to shine and made him a first round playoff heroes, but did not made it easy to win Vezina in that era, it was still pre save percentage is king days.

the 92-94 Blues with competent replacement goaltending (Guy Hebert was a perfectly capable number 2)

Joseph: .911, 3.04, 92W-71L-30T
Others: .883, 3.86, 21W-31L-3T

League average was .890. He would not have been a bad Vezina winner during that peak or Hart candidate, it was a really massive improvement over competent replacement.

Roy-Belfour-Hasek won those years.... 1999 was maybe Hasek best season of his career (and I am not sure how much of a better season than belfour-brodeur-khabibulin-Roy he had that year)...

 

[JianYang]

I found cujo to be an excellent goalie in underdog situations, but underwhelming on better teams either on the domestic or international stage.

 

[PistolPete]

I found cujo to be an excellent goalie in underdog situations, but underwhelming on better teams either on the domestic or international stage.

His own coach ditched him in '02 lol