Comparing Tony Esposito, Ken Dryden and Vladislav Tretiak in the 1972 Summit Series
Totally agree with you VMBM. I'm actually preparing an in-depth analysis for the SIHR blog based on my findings and revised and enhanced statistics.
And, looking at all 3 goalies in the 1972 Summit Series, Tony Esposito tops essentially EVERY category I could find.
Now, an important first step when I prepared my revised statistics is that I closely reevaluated the shots-on-goal, and in doing so, I found MANY more against for Tony and Vladislav, at 20 and 17 respectively, but could only find 1 more against for Ken. Thus, in terms of revised shots, Tony faced 130 in 4 games, Dryden-118 in 4 games, and Tretiak-284 in 8 games. With this now in hand, we can look at in-depth '72 Series goalie stats like never before.
Overall, the Comparison Categories Results I've been able to document include:
1) the Best Goals Against Average of 3.25 was Tony'O, (Tretiak 3.88 and Dryden 4.75)
2) the Best revised Save Percentage of 90.000% was Tony'O, (Tretiak 89.085% and Dryden 83.898%)
3) the Most Consecutive Saves between Goals - 28 in Gm 5 was also Tony'O, (Tretiak had 22 in Gm 1, and Dryden just 11 in Gm 1, 4 & 6)
4) the Best Outstanding Save Results - 14 in 4 games for Tony'O or 10.8% of the shots he faced (22 in 8 games for Tretiak or 7.7%, and 8 for Dryden in 4 games, or 6.8% of the shots he faced)
5) Most Periods Not Scored Upon - 6 out of 12 periods was Tony'O, or 50% (Tretiak as 7 out of 24 periods or 29% and Dryden was 3 out of 12, or 25%)
6) Tony Esposito also has the Best Even Strength Save % at 92.381% (Tretiak 88.382% and Dryden 86.517%) while Vladislav dominates the Power Play and Shorthanded results, which are both spectacular at 93.103% and 92.857% respectively (Tony's are PP: 84.211% and SH: 66.667%, and Ken PP: 76.923% and SH: 66.667%)
In terms of other Miscellaneous Stats,
In his 8 games, Tretiak faced 16 Breakaways/1-on-one's, 18 (2-or-3-on-ones/2-on-none's), 2 goals scored against on Deflected Team Canada goals, and had 3 goals scored against on Deflected Own Goals (one off Shadrin's foot in Gm 1, one off Vasiliev in Gm 4, and the last caused by Lutchenko on Canada's 1st goal in Gm 8).
In his 4 games, T Esposito faced 9 Breakaways/1-on-one's, 6 (2-or-3-on-ones/2-on-none's) and had 4 goals scored against on Deflected USSR Goals, and 1 goal scored against on Deflected Own Goals (off Bergman in Gm 7).
In his 4 games, Dryden faced just 5 Breakaways/1-on-one's, 9 (2-or-3-on-ones/2-on-none's) and had 3 goals scored against on Deflected USSR Goals, and 2 goals scored against on Deflected Own Goals (one off Bergman in Gm 6, and the other off White's knee in Gm 8).
It is interesting to note that only 5 of the 31 goals, or 16.1% scored against Tretiak were deflected/own goals. And, that number is 5 of the 19, or 26.3% for Dryden. However, that number is 5 of 13 goals against for Tony Esposito, or 38.5%, thus showing that he was beaten much less often by goals above and beyond those hard-to-stop opportunities.
I did one final analysis to take into account the fact that every player is bound to have a bad game/period or have bad luck. So, I recalculated the results after removing the WORST period for T Esposito and Dryden, and the worst two for Tretiak as he played twice as many games. The end result was that Tony Esposito's performance improved even MORE than the other two. Taking out the 3rd Period of Gm 5, his revised Save % rose substantially to 93.103% from 90.000%
Yet, the effect on Tretiak by taking out the 3rd Period of Gm 2 and the 2nd Period of Gm 6 resulted in his Save % rising only to 90.458% from 89.085%. That is almost the same as the effect on Dryden's results, which go up to 85.321% from 83.898% once you remove the 2nd Period of Gm 8.
One final consideration is that Dryden had a fair bit of international hockey experience, perhaps the MOST around that time of any Canadian goalie outside of Wayne Stephenson during his time with the Canadian National Team. And, he had faced the Soviet National Team before, as well as a Soviet club team during Aug/Sep1969 during the Sovetsky Sport Tournament, as well as other European teams such as Sweden during the 1969 WHC's, and likely Finland and Switzerland as well. In fact, no one SHOULD have been more prepared to meet the Soviets in the '72 Series than him.
Meanwhile, despite Tretiak's young age, he had already played internationally with the Soviet Junior National Team, in the WHC's, Izvestia and the 1972 Olympics, and faced several different Canadian club and National teams, all BEFORE the age of 20.
In comparison, Tony Esposito had NEVER seen or played against the Russians, or had any international hockey experience whatsoever.
So, even though he wasn't in the eighth and deciding game, without the superlative play of Tony Esposito there may not have been an eighth game of any consequence for Ken Dryden to have played in and win, as his stats especially in the first two games in Canada are underwhelming to say the least!
Thus, in the final summation by almost every measure Tony Esposito's performance in the 1972 Summit Series exceeds all others by a pretty significant margin, AND a very, very strong argument can be made that Tony Esposito, who is in many ways the forgotten netminder in the 1972 Series, was actually the very BEST goaltender of the three. And, perhaps with this analysis many others can learn about just how well Tony'O did play, and this will hopefully allow him to begin to be properly recognized for what is clearly one of the finest performances of his long and distinguished career!
Richard J. Bendell
Author; 1972 – THE SUMMIT SERIES: Canada vs. USSR, Stats, Lies & Videotape, The UNTOLD Story of Hockey's Series of the Century
Email: [email protected] | Facebook: www.facebook.com/72series | Twitter: www.twitter.com/72seriesbendell
Totally agree with you VMBM. I'm actually preparing an in-depth analysis for the SIHR blog based on my findings and revised and enhanced statistics.
And, looking at all 3 goalies in the 1972 Summit Series, Tony Esposito tops essentially EVERY category I could find.
Now, an important first step when I prepared my revised statistics is that I closely reevaluated the shots-on-goal, and in doing so, I found MANY more against for Tony and Vladislav, at 20 and 17 respectively, but could only find 1 more against for Ken. Thus, in terms of revised shots, Tony faced 130 in 4 games, Dryden-118 in 4 games, and Tretiak-284 in 8 games. With this now in hand, we can look at in-depth '72 Series goalie stats like never before.
Overall, the Comparison Categories Results I've been able to document include:
1) the Best Goals Against Average of 3.25 was Tony'O, (Tretiak 3.88 and Dryden 4.75)
2) the Best revised Save Percentage of 90.000% was Tony'O, (Tretiak 89.085% and Dryden 83.898%)
3) the Most Consecutive Saves between Goals - 28 in Gm 5 was also Tony'O, (Tretiak had 22 in Gm 1, and Dryden just 11 in Gm 1, 4 & 6)
4) the Best Outstanding Save Results - 14 in 4 games for Tony'O or 10.8% of the shots he faced (22 in 8 games for Tretiak or 7.7%, and 8 for Dryden in 4 games, or 6.8% of the shots he faced)
5) Most Periods Not Scored Upon - 6 out of 12 periods was Tony'O, or 50% (Tretiak as 7 out of 24 periods or 29% and Dryden was 3 out of 12, or 25%)
6) Tony Esposito also has the Best Even Strength Save % at 92.381% (Tretiak 88.382% and Dryden 86.517%) while Vladislav dominates the Power Play and Shorthanded results, which are both spectacular at 93.103% and 92.857% respectively (Tony's are PP: 84.211% and SH: 66.667%, and Ken PP: 76.923% and SH: 66.667%)
In terms of other Miscellaneous Stats,
In his 8 games, Tretiak faced 16 Breakaways/1-on-one's, 18 (2-or-3-on-ones/2-on-none's), 2 goals scored against on Deflected Team Canada goals, and had 3 goals scored against on Deflected Own Goals (one off Shadrin's foot in Gm 1, one off Vasiliev in Gm 4, and the last caused by Lutchenko on Canada's 1st goal in Gm 8).
In his 4 games, T Esposito faced 9 Breakaways/1-on-one's, 6 (2-or-3-on-ones/2-on-none's) and had 4 goals scored against on Deflected USSR Goals, and 1 goal scored against on Deflected Own Goals (off Bergman in Gm 7).
In his 4 games, Dryden faced just 5 Breakaways/1-on-one's, 9 (2-or-3-on-ones/2-on-none's) and had 3 goals scored against on Deflected USSR Goals, and 2 goals scored against on Deflected Own Goals (one off Bergman in Gm 6, and the other off White's knee in Gm 8).
It is interesting to note that only 5 of the 31 goals, or 16.1% scored against Tretiak were deflected/own goals. And, that number is 5 of the 19, or 26.3% for Dryden. However, that number is 5 of 13 goals against for Tony Esposito, or 38.5%, thus showing that he was beaten much less often by goals above and beyond those hard-to-stop opportunities.
I did one final analysis to take into account the fact that every player is bound to have a bad game/period or have bad luck. So, I recalculated the results after removing the WORST period for T Esposito and Dryden, and the worst two for Tretiak as he played twice as many games. The end result was that Tony Esposito's performance improved even MORE than the other two. Taking out the 3rd Period of Gm 5, his revised Save % rose substantially to 93.103% from 90.000%
Yet, the effect on Tretiak by taking out the 3rd Period of Gm 2 and the 2nd Period of Gm 6 resulted in his Save % rising only to 90.458% from 89.085%. That is almost the same as the effect on Dryden's results, which go up to 85.321% from 83.898% once you remove the 2nd Period of Gm 8.
One final consideration is that Dryden had a fair bit of international hockey experience, perhaps the MOST around that time of any Canadian goalie outside of Wayne Stephenson during his time with the Canadian National Team. And, he had faced the Soviet National Team before, as well as a Soviet club team during Aug/Sep1969 during the Sovetsky Sport Tournament, as well as other European teams such as Sweden during the 1969 WHC's, and likely Finland and Switzerland as well. In fact, no one SHOULD have been more prepared to meet the Soviets in the '72 Series than him.
Meanwhile, despite Tretiak's young age, he had already played internationally with the Soviet Junior National Team, in the WHC's, Izvestia and the 1972 Olympics, and faced several different Canadian club and National teams, all BEFORE the age of 20.
In comparison, Tony Esposito had NEVER seen or played against the Russians, or had any international hockey experience whatsoever.
So, even though he wasn't in the eighth and deciding game, without the superlative play of Tony Esposito there may not have been an eighth game of any consequence for Ken Dryden to have played in and win, as his stats especially in the first two games in Canada are underwhelming to say the least!
Thus, in the final summation by almost every measure Tony Esposito's performance in the 1972 Summit Series exceeds all others by a pretty significant margin, AND a very, very strong argument can be made that Tony Esposito, who is in many ways the forgotten netminder in the 1972 Series, was actually the very BEST goaltender of the three. And, perhaps with this analysis many others can learn about just how well Tony'O did play, and this will hopefully allow him to begin to be properly recognized for what is clearly one of the finest performances of his long and distinguished career!
Richard J. Bendell
Author; 1972 – THE SUMMIT SERIES: Canada vs. USSR, Stats, Lies & Videotape, The UNTOLD Story of Hockey's Series of the Century
Email: [email protected] | Facebook: www.facebook.com/72series | Twitter: www.twitter.com/72seriesbendell
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