Penton: In today’s NHL, Canadian goalies a rarity
By Bruce Penton
What’s so special about Vegas Golden Knights’ goalie Adin Hill? In addition to him being a key member of the National Hockey League team that won the Stanley Cup last year, Hill has the status of being the only Canadian-born player to statistically finish among the top 15 goaltenders in the league last season.
Where have all the Canadian goalies gone?
A hockey fan has to be old to remember the NHL’s Original Six, but I definitely fit that category and it doesn’t take much brainpower to recollect who tended goal for the six teams. And they were all Canadians, too.
There was Quebec-born Jacques Plante in Montreal, the innovator of the face mask. Aging Johnny Bower of Prince Albert played goal for the Leafs before returning to the nursing home after every game. Glenn Hall from Humboldt, Sask., was the Chicago goalie, and he was famous for throwing up before every game. Eddie Johnston, born in Montreal, was the Bruins’ goalie in the Original Six era. Terry Sawchuk from Winnipeg played almost every game for Detroit Red Wings and Gump Worsley, born in Montreal, kept pucks out of New York Rangers’ net.
Of course, the game has changed. American players in the NHL back then were rarities. The league was a closed shop to Europeans. Russians? No way, Sergei.
Last year, the goals-against average leader was Linus Ullmark of Boston, a Swede. Runner-up was Filip Gustavsson of Minnesota, another Swede. Third was Antti Ranti of Carolina, born and raised in Finland. American Jeremy Swayman and a couple of Russian Ilyas, Samsonov of Toronto and Sorokin of the Islanders, followed. Scroll on down and … finally, a Canadian netminder, Hill, at 15th. Two others Canadians, Logan Thompson of Vegas and Stuart Skinner of the Oilers, made the top 20.
Scanning all 32 teams’ rosters showed only 34.8 per cent of goaltenders were Canadian-born. Four teams — Chicago, Nashville, Calgary and Florida — had not a single Canadian goalie on their rosters. At the other end of the table was St. Louis, which listed five Canadians among its six goaltenders, and Dallas, which had three of four.
There have been numerous Canadian goaltenders with Hall of Fame credentials in the past couple of years — Carey Price, Marc-Andre Fleury and Roberto Luongo come to mind — but it doesn’t take much studying of the NHL stats’ page to realize that non-Canadians are taking over in goal.
Maybe it’s akin to the old baseball saying — singles’ hitters drive Chevrolets; home run hitters drive Cadillacs. In hockey, a similar adage might be that the McDavids, MacKinnons, Crosbys and Bedards drive Lamborghinis while the goaltenders get stuck with Volkswagens.
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Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca