The Demise of the Canadian Goaltender Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
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Le Tricolore
Boo! BOOOO!
And a terrific place to go fishing if you ever find yourself up there!
I would agree however that Canada is still producing goalies, just other countries have produced their share and then some as well the last several years.
a mangy Meowth
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CanadienShark
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Canada never stopped producing, it's just that other countries have been pushing out star goalies, especially Finland (compared to the rest of their star players).
Helistin
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WarriorofTime
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It's not that Canada doesn't produce goalies. Obviously hockey is kinda Canada's thing. But it's weaker in net than in forwards and defensemen.
The Nuge
Some say…
WarriorofTime
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Carey Price isn't the best goaltender in the world. And what does the gold medal have to do with anything?
Le Tricolore
Boo! BOOOO!
CaptBrannigan
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Um, yes he is..
I think The Nuge was debating Price being the best goalie, not his nationality.
crashthenet
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Um, yes he is..
And if he doesn't get run in the playoffs, who knows how far the Habs go?
I'd be really comfortable if he were on my team.
If Price can keep his play up from the past two years it certainly looks better with him as the established number 1 than it did leading up to the Olympics. There was always a lot of solid Canadian goaltenders, but since Luongo and Brodeur's decline there hasn't been that established top 5 guy. With Canada it's always in relation to the team, and the skaters right now are at a pretty high level. Plus, we were spoiled for years with a combo of Roy and Brodeur, two arguably top 5 goalies of all time playing at the same time, on top of Belfour, who I would still take over anyone today. But these things ebb and flow anyway. In the mid 2000s the defense was pretty weak, but now it's looking like one of its better periods.
Tarasenko
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- Oct 11, 2011
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I just think that other countries got on par with Canada in terms of developing elite goalies (and some surpassed it).
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LastWordArmy
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Who surpassed Canada?
Canada had 5 of 6 NHL All-stars this year (All with over a 920 save percentage), plus Holtby, Hutchinson, Pickard, Steve Mason. Thats 9 goalies with a 920 save percentage or higher.
Sweden?
Lundqvist.
Finland... Just 1 goalie over 920.
Rinne is great.
Rask is 919, almost there, he's so close lets even be generous and give them 2.
Ortio has been great but only played 5 games so does not qualify.
Lehtonen, Backstrom, Ramo have all been below league average in save percentage this year.
USA - 3 guys over 920
Howard, Schneider, Anderson.
Czechs - noone to be found in NHL leaders
Russia - 1 guy Varlamov.
In terms of developping quality netminders no one is matching Canada with 9 of the 15 goalies in the NHL currently at .920 or above in save percentage.
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TheTwelfth
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So, it is "What have you done for me lately?" now. Rask is a the reigning Vezina winner, Russia has Bobrovsky and the best prospect goaltender in the world in Vasilevsky. USA has Jonathan Quick, one of the best goalies over this decade, and Ben Bishop who was leading the Vezina race this time last year. There are huge question marks for many of the Canadian goaltenders in terms of consistency and performance at crunch time (Holtby, Elliot, Fleury).
I would rank Canada fourth on goaltending development at the moment. Sweden has produced a lot of depth goalies, but no star goalie since Lundqvist. Czech Rep. had a huge dropoff in depth and star quality after Vokoun (and before, after Hasek). Slovakia has never really had a star goaltender in the NHL.
I will give that Crawford is being criminally underrated, and Luongo has has a resurgence in Florida.
LastWordArmy
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Ok, even if we don't look at just this season, I still don't see a single country with more than 2 goalies I would call "elite".
Price and Luongo are both Elite... meaning Canada is right there with anyone else. Crawford is pretty damn close if not elite.
Add the sheer depth behind them and this idea that Canada has somehow fallen behind is nonsense.
The difference between now and 15 years ago, is not that Canada is producing less goalies... its merely that other countries are producing more.
You could go into a tournament best on best in the 90s and 2 or 3 of even the big 6 countries would have a question mark in goal. Now none do.
You can make the case that Canada no longer has the clear advantage in goal that they used to have. And hey, I buy that. But this is other countries producing great goalies... not Canada failing to produce goalies as Price and Luongo are still here.
On any given day, Price, Rinne, Quick, Lundqvist, Varlamov/Bobrovsky, put them head to head and I don't know who wins.... any goalie could. (Maybe the czechs are weak, but Mrazek could be changing that soon) And that wasnt the case 15 years ago. There would be 2 teams amongst that 6 (at least) who would have a weak starter.
Not the case today. But I don't think that makes Canada any worse than they were.
Its been massively overblown.
umm did you forget Carey price exists or did you just decide not to mention him to make your argument stronger....?
Mickey Marner
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The field has caught up and in some cases surpassed (Finland) Canada. But at the same time Canada has regressed. Regal made a good point about Belfour. He was the 3rd best Canadian goalie of his generation and I don't see any active goalie trending towards a superior career.
Hell, look at the 2002 Olympic team. Roy, who withdrew from participating, was a 1st-team All-Star and Hart finalist. While Theodore, 2nd-team All-Star and Hart winner wasn't selected. But no one cared much because Brodeur, Belfour and Joseph were all elite goalies. Canada has some flash-in-the-pan goalies this season? Big deal. Write this article when they've proven to be elite for a a few seasons, not a few games. I won't even hold you to the bar of a decade+ of excellent goaltending that was provided by Roy, Brodeur, Belfour and Joseph.
Hell, look at the 2002 Olympic team. Roy, who withdrew from participating, was a 1st-team All-Star and Hart finalist. While Theodore, 2nd-team All-Star and Hart winner wasn't selected. But no one cared much because Brodeur, Belfour and Joseph were all elite goalies. Canada has some flash-in-the-pan goalies this season? Big deal. Write this article when they've proven to be elite for a a few seasons, not a few games. I won't even hold you to the bar of a decade+ of excellent goaltending that was provided by Roy, Brodeur, Belfour and Joseph.
LastWordArmy
Registered User
By that criteria Finland has two goalies playing well this season.
Carey Price, Roberto Luongo, Corey Crawford, and Brian Elliott have all done it for multiple years now. Marc Andre Fleury has been great in regular season games for a long time, and has the most playoff wins of any active goalie. Thats not flash in the pan.
Is Corey Crawford trending to have as good a career as Belfour, sure.
Is there a Patrick Roy or Martin Brodeur? No, but there isn't a goalie as good as either of those two from any country. The last generation was spoiled with Hasek (Czech), Roy, Brodeur, all around the same age and that's just not going to happen again. Those are 3 of the greatest of all time. Do people say that Canadian Forwards have regressed because in the same generation there was a Gretzky and a Lemieux but in this generation we don't have anyone to live up to that (sorry, Crosby is great and all but hes no Wayne or Mario). Of course not... just because you can't reproduce a greatest of all-time type player doesn't mean your goalie development is off.
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It's by far the easiest position to excel in the odern NHL, wouldn't be surprised to see Kenyan and Venezuelan goalies contending for the Vezina soon
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