Where Have You Gone Eddie Giacomin?

I was sitting with a buddy at a local Ottawa establishment watching a Senators game a little while back when I took a peak at the Montreal game which was being shown on a neighboring flat panel. From the distance I sat from the TV I couldn’t make out who was playing goal for Montreal. I couldn’t read the jersey number and though Huet and Price are of significantly different size I couldn’t for the life of me make out who was in goal until they showed a close up during a stoppage. This got me to thinking about how homogeneous the goaltending position has become in hockey. Today’s goalies are all the same; same masks, same pads, same styles. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no question that puck stopping has improved tenfold since my formative hockey years growing up watching and playing goal in the seventies and early eighties. But in some ways the advancements in goaltending, both techniques and equipment, has taken a little bit of the charm away from the position and the game as a whole for that matter. I really miss goaltending, the way it used to be.

I miss the masks. Nothing distinguished a goalie more in the good old days than the customized mask he wore. It was an era of great innovation as the homemade masks of the 60’s began transform into the more conventional styles we see today. Along the way there were some classic lids as goalies experimented with different styles, shapes and eventually customized paint jobs. The great goalies of the era were easily recognizable by their masks: Cheevers, Giacomin, Parent, Esposito, Rogie Vachon and of course my favorite of all: Ken Dryden and his pretzel mask. Although I was only 6 years old I can still vividly recall the instant intrigue I had with number 29 and his strange mask as the rookie backstopped the Canadians to a huge upset of the mighty Bruins and eventually the 1971 Stanley Cup. Even some of the not so great goalies of the era are still memorable for their headgear innovation. Probably most famous was Gilles Gratton, a journeyman goalie whose detailed Lion mask set the direction for the elaborate paint jobs that are commonplace today.

I miss the old equipment. The new masks have definitely standardized the look of the modern goalie but nothing has had a greater impact on the position in the last 25 years than the advancements in leg pads, gloves and upper body gear. Modern equipment has been the great enabler of the butterfly style that is used so successfully by virtually all goalies today. I would love to see how some of the great goalies of today would fare wearing Bernie Parent’s goal pads barely covering the knees, Ken Dryden’s skimpy goal pants, Cesar Maniago’s upper body gear and Tretiak’s GM12 Cooper gloves. Wearing that old gear demands a totally different recipe; two parts puck stopping, one part self preservation. Looking back today it’s hard to imagine that these brave men stood between the pipes with such little protection, but they did. Can you imagine what Terry Sawchuk or one of his contemporaries would think of the twin size Sealy Posturepedic that J.S.Giguere straps around his chest every game. With the one piece stick technology and bigger, stronger players there is certainly an argument to be made for the need of increased protection for the goaltender. But let’s be honest here, a lot of the webbing, cheaters and protruding pieces we see today are there to stop pucks not protect the goalie. I know the NHL has taken steps in regulating the size of the gear but in my opinion there is still some work to be done.

I miss the old styles. Goaltending has been transformed from a raw, natural, instinctive art to an extremely technical and mechanical science. Can you imagine an aspiring goalie showing up at an NHL camp with a stand up, helter skelter, kick save style we witnessed back in the day; he’d be laughed out of training camp. Yet the goalies of yesteryear somehow made it work, and then some. Bernie Parent kick saved his was to two epic Stanley Cup runs in the mid seventies. Anyone who witnessed his display would have to consider this some of the finest goaltending ever seen. Contrast Parent’s style to what we see in today’s goalies. Perhaps I should correct myself here, these guys today aren’t really goalies at all, they’re Cyborgs, programmed to track the puck, remain square and fall to the ice as the shot is taken, daring the shooter to find that sliver of daylight above his oversized shoulder pads. There are still some holdouts that play more by instinct such as Martin Brodeur and Dominic Hasek, but they’re a dying breed. For better or for worse, the mechanical goalie is here to stay.

I miss the characters. For as long as I can remember goalies have had the reputation of being a bit off to put it mildly. The reasoning was that something had to be a bit off for a grown man to stand in front of a cage, with minimal protection as 6 oz pieces of vulcanized rubber are launched at him at upwards of 90mph. That reasoning no longer applies as goaltending has arguably become one of the safest positions in all of sport. As such, it seems that the personalities of today’s goalies have become as generic as their equipment. Ray Emery is perhaps the closest thing we have today to the prototypical flaky goaltender. Hmmm, on second thought maybe it’s better that goalies have now joined the ranks of the normal.

The things I miss most? Off the top of my head: Ken Dryden leaning on his goal stick during stoppages; Bernie Parent kick save (a thing of beauty); Gerry Cheevers stitch mask; Mike Palmateer flopping around in the crease for the Leafs on a Saturday night; a Billy Smith chop to the ankle; Tretiak’s Jofa birdcage (and sheer brilliance in goal)…Dryden’s pretzel mask (I think Dunc Wilson wore one too)…Gump Worsley playing without a mask; the poke check; stacking the pads; a grey haired Eddie Giacomin donning his "tools of ignorance" and facing the world's best shooters armed with nothing but courage and moxie.

A Day in the Life of a Hockey Talk Junkie

The sports explosion of the last ten or fifteen years has given birth to an interesting phenomenon, the sports talk guy. They come in all shapes and sizes, from all backgrounds: former players, coaches, professional broadcasters, recent graduates from the local college communications program, truck drivers, whomever; as long as you have an opinion on sports your qualified. They can be loud, arrogant, narrow minded and sometimes bordering on illiterate. They seem to have basically the same opinion on most subjects, or at least pull their opinions from the same repository of clichéd responses. Yet all that being said, the funny thing is just I can’t get enough of this stuff! I’m an addict. During hockey season my daily routine revolves around hockey talk. My wife thinks I’m nuts. “Isn’t that the same thing those guys were talking about this morning” she’ll ask at dinner. She rolls her eyes. She just doesn’t get it!

So you can imagine my excitement this morning at the prospects for the day. My beloved Senators are fresh off a humiliating defeat at home to Toronto and are in Montreal tonight to face the Canadiens in a must have if the Sens have any hope of turning things around and winning the division. I’m a Senators season ticket holder and huge fan but the one bright side to seeing them struggle like this is that it provides plenty of fodder for the hockey talk community. As if this town needed any more ammo. The fact is this community is losing it, big time! We’ve gone from record setting team to bums in just four months. No one can really pinpoint why but all hell is breaking loose and people are looking for answers.

On the ride to work I listen to the local sports radio morning guys, a rather juvenile show filled with sexual innuendo and high school banter. To be honest not really my cup of tea but every morning at 8am they talk hockey with “guru” Pierre Maguire. On this day Maguire doesn’t offer anything earth shattering…like everyone else he continues to pile on the Senators, in particular their defense corps. He explains how important it is for the Leafs to beat teams below them in the standings and also the importance of beating the teams ahead of them. Now that’s the type of riveting analysis I’m looking for! He also manages to take a gratuitous shot at those who dared challenge him on his year long campaign of Carey Price over Christobal Huet for the number one spot in Montreal, chastising those who criticized him in their “little blogs”. I used to really admire Maguire and enjoy his commentary but I find he has become increasingly arrogant over the years. It could be that his significant success has gone to his head or maybe I’m just jealous that this guy gets paid handsomely to talk hockey while I sit in my cubicle day after day debugging Java code. Stupid guidance counselor!

One of the hosts on the morning show is a Leaf fan who decides to have a little fun at Sens’ fans expense. He takes advantage of our fragile psyche by branding Alfredsson a sore loser for his involvement in a scuffle at the end of Saturday night’s loss to the Leafs. He also sights Alfie’s infamous slap shot at Neidermeir in the cup finals last spring as evidence. His usually quick witted co-host offers little pushback. It seems Sens fans have become as lethargic as their team. Hard to blame him in this case. As much as I admire Alfredsson for what he’s done for the community there’s just no defense for the Neidermeir affair. No matter what slant you try to put on it, frustration, temporary insanity, it was a bush league move by Alfredsson…and it pains me to say that.

The late morning show introduces what is to become the theme of the day, “flipping the switch” as in: “they can’t just expect to flip the switch once the playoffs start”. They use the term about 50 times in one form or another. I think the point has been made; the playoffs are coming and this team is running out of time.

I head out to the hospital at lunch to visit my 89 year old uncle who’s suffered a mild heart attack. While visiting, a close friend of my uncle’s pops in for a visit. The topic quickly turns to the Sens. His friend goes on a 50 second rant about Spezza’s loose defensive play. He finishes off with this beauty: ”I wish I was a young lad again so I could play against him…and beat him up!” When 85 year old men are threatening to put the boots to your star centerman you know the train is coming off the rails. Crazy thing is, if Spezza were wearing that cheesy black turtleneck that he wears in those jewellery ads I’d probably put my money on the old guy to take him out!

I listen to the afternoon show and into the pre game show as I prepare dinner for the family. The flipping the switch theory is reinforced again, about a thousand times. Everyone is putting on a brave face, looking for something to cling to but it’s obvious that most are losing hope.

Game time! And it’s not long before it’s evident that this will be another debacle….correct that, a huge debacle. Sens fall behind 3-0 after the first them proceed to get shelled for four more in the second. Seven to one after two and at this point I consider “flipping the switch” on my TV. But I hang in there and thankfully the Sens show some sign of life in the third. I give them credit for not rolling over. It may not lead to much long term but at least they’ve shown that they’re not quitters, for tonight anyway. Good work Sens, I still believe! Well, sort of.

To wrap up the day I’m tuned in to my favorite hockey talk show of all, 110%, a nightly French language roundtable out of Montreal. On this night the boys can hardly contain themselves. They’re gushing, In a world of hyperbole in sports commentary, where a player can go from hero to goat in a matter of minutes, these guys set the standard. As usual they’re all talking at once so it’s sort of difficult to make out what they’re saying but I think one guy just compared Kovalev to Gretzky; might be the same guy who wanted Kovalev chased out of town last year. Thankfully the Patrick Roy incident attracts their attention and they spend the rest of the show discussing that. Wait a minute, the Habs beat the Sens for first place and these homers only gloat for five minutes? Is that how insignificant the Senators have become? Very sad. Very sad indeed.

Time for bed. Big day tomorrow; analyze tonight’s loss, preview the Buffalo game, lots of flipping the switch talk I’m sure. And I still haven’t got that Java code working!