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 other 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.
Slap shots
• ESPN broadcaster Robert Griffin III, whose parents were army sergeants: “He’s got more moves than a military family.”
• Steve Simmons of Sunmedia: “ What I almost have in common in Yusei Kikuchi: He gets 13 hours of sleep a night. I get 13 hours of sleep a week.”
• Canucks coach Rick Tocchet following a 10-0 pre-season loss to Calgary Flames, on the same day Denver Broncos lost 70-20 to Miami Dolphins: “I feel like (Denver coach) Sean Payton.”
• Headline on yahoo.com, in the midst of the Taylor Swift-Travis Kielce relationship noise: “Taylor Swift visits friend at work.”
• How does a team score 70 points in an NFL game, asked yahoo.com.: “Miami had the good fortune to draw the seafood-restaurant Dumpster fire that is the Denver Broncos.”
• Bill Belichick on Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift (via @TheGregHillShow): “I would say that Travis Kelce has had a lot of big catches in his career. This would be the biggest.”
• David Vincent, on X (formerly Twitter), on the Kelce-Swift relationship: “Things are going so well between the two that she hasn’t even started writing their break-up song yet.”
• Eamon Lynch of gulfweek.usatoday.com, on the Euros’ dominance through the first two days of the Ryder Cup: “This is the most lop-sided contest in Rome since the Christians were drawn at home to the lions at the Coliseum,”
• Comedy writer Alex Kasebeerg: “Miami beat Denver 70-20. Tua Tagovailoa had six three-point shots, seven rebounds and 10 assists.”
• Comedy writer Brad Dickson of Omaha: “Am I the only person in this miserable nation who doesn’t care that Taylor Swift was at the Kansas City Chiefs game and that she has been romantically linked to Andy Reid?”
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Did you see where Colin Kaepernick is lobbying to be signed by the New York Jets? Hasn’t he suffered enough?”
• Headline at fark.com: “Dusty Baker complained about how often the Astros are getting hit by pitches while conveniently forgetting that his pitchers hit the other team more often.”
• Toronto’s Steve Simmons of Sunmedia: “This would like look nice on paper next season and certainly sentimental: Joey Votto, designated hitter, Toronto Blue Jays. Mom in Etobicoke would like that “
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca
by Bruce Penton