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Monday, March 23, 2009
Best Goalie in the last 60 years
Having grownup watching Patrick Roy, who won the Stanley Cup in his rookie season as playoff MVP, and dominated the NHL goalie scene as well as spur on a whole generation of Quebec goalies to make it to the NHL, it is very easy for me to disagree with Tom as ranking Patrick #1, and go with Dominik Hasek as the best goalie of that time period.
Both goalies were born in the same year (1965), and while Roy made his mark his first year (1985/86), Hasek set the NHL on fire in 1993/94. That is an 8-year headstart for Roy (6 if you want to include Hasek’s two backup years). Hasek however, in those missing years, was Czech goalie of the year for 5 straight years (1986-1990), and PLAYER of the year for 3 of those years, while being in the Canada Cup as his team’s starting goalie in 1987. (This to go along with his five goalie of the year and 2 player of the year in the NHL.)
This is a Bobby Orr situation in reverse. While Bobby Orr is recognized as the greatest defenseman of all time (and will continue to be for at least the next decade, even in the face of Niklas Lidstrom), his career was over at age 26. Hasek’s NHL career started in his late 20s, and so, he didn’t have the “counting” stats (in the NHL) to build on.
But, as I’ve said in the past, referring to Koufax and Pedro and Edgar, I am interested in Observed Performance Inferring True Talent (OPITT). For hockey fans outside of Detroit who see Bobby Orr as the clear #1 defenseman, and a clear top 5 player of all time, this is exactly how hockey fans (implicitly) think as well. There’s no longevity v peak discussion in hockey.
I believe this is true in most sports, and only not true in baseball because baseball has too many numbers for us to consider.
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