Winners Win, Losers Blame the Ref

I have made no secret of my disdain for former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, at least since February of 2006.

To be honest, I had little or no opinion of Holmgren before Super Bowl XL. Admittedly I found his reputation as a so called offensive genius more than a bit overstated. And I noted his striking resemblance to either a walrus or my high school soccer coach (make of that what you will). Beyond that, I truly could care less about him before that game was played.

So why do I despise him so much today? Let’s recap. That day, the black and gold finally broke their 26 year championship drought beating Seattle 21 to 10. It was one of the ugliest Super Bowls every played, unless you were from Pittsburgh. Then it was just “misunderstood.” In the end, a win is a win and a loss is a loss, except for Mike Holmgren.

The Steelers were the better team on that day. They outplayed the Seahawks, although certainly not by a wide margin. More important, Holmgren was badly outcoached by Cowher, Wisenhunt, Lebeau and company.

The Steelers completely changed their defense to a bend but don’t break strategy against the pass while shutting down Seattle’s running game. It was the perfect counter to Holmgren’s quick delivery, west coast passing system; a system ideally suited to short-circuiting the Steeler blitz. The Walrus never adapted. The Steeler coaches found a way to win on a day their QB struggled and pulled out one of the great trick plays in SB history.

Moreover on two separate occasions, Seattle looked confused and out of sorts in the two minute drill; at the end of the first half and late in the game. I amazed at how often this is overlooked, especially given Holmgren’s supposed offensive genius.

So how did Coach Walrus react to being soundly outcoached and his team being outplayed? By blaming the refs, directly, twice. It was embarrassing and pathetic for a supposed leader of men. He did it first while running off the field at halftime (even though the actual question was why did your team choke in the two minute drill). He did it a second time a few days later with his famous “I didn’t know we’d have to play against the guys in the striped shirts too” comment at the Seahawks “runners up” parade.

In that period of approximately 48 hours I lost all respect for Holmgren. In my eyes, at least as a football coach, he will NEVER get it back. Crying about the refs is a loser’s lament. I hate it when fans do it and it’s completely beneath a coach at the highest level of his profession.

Compounding my disdain was the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network in Bristol, an organization that never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. They ran with Holmgren’s crying for days, parallel to their own distorted story about the refs stealing the game from the woebegone Seahawks. Really, why worry about the facts if you can give Mike and Mike a non-story to yapp about for two weeks?

If you want to see how a real leader of men deals with outside adversity; watch the Steeler highlight video from that year. In all the complaining about a few boarder line calls against the Seahawks, everybody seemed to forget that the refs nearly kept the Steelers out of the game to begin with. Remember how they overturned Polamalu’s clear cut interception against Indy a few weeks earlier; after seeing indisputable proof that it was the correct call?

Watch the highlight video and listen to what Cowher tells his defense. He gathers them around and says (paraphrasing), “if they overturn this, we go out and play hard. We don’t worry about things we can’t control. We play.” After the game, which would have been a blowout if not for the phantom reversal, Cowher told the media (paraphrasing again), the refs are the refs. We control what we can control. He did not cry about the inequities of officiating.

I always respected Bill Cowher but my respect for him increased 1000 times that day. I’m still angry about that call in Indy four + years later and I’m just a fan. Imagine how angry Cowher must have been. That call could have cost him one of the great (and well deserved) upsets in NFL history. It could have cost him his long awaited Super Bowl win. And yet he kept his composure, accepted the situation and remained a leader of men. He did not let the officials decide the game, nor did his team. That’s what winners do.

Under far less egregious circumstances, Mike Holmgren cried and whined like a spoiled five year old.

I rehash this tail of woe today in tribute to the USA World Cup soccer team. They could easily have succumbed to the adversity of having two goals taken away from them by officials over two games. This in a sport where games are frequently won 1-0. They could have accepted a draw against Algeria and then blamed the refs, as every fan and media member is already doing. Rest assured, the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network would have been right there with them, bringing in scores of experts to bash FIFA and the refs.

Much to their credit, they did not and I could not be more proud of them as a result. Instead, they did what champions do; they overcame the officiating and found a way to win. They generated scoring chance after scoring chance and finally won on Landon Donovan’s injury time goal in the second half. It was one of the truly great moments in the history of a national team that generated far too many negative headlines at the last World Cup.

Keep this in mind as well. The USA came from 2-0 down against Slovenia which is almost unheard of in World Cup soccer. Not only were they robbed of a victory in that game, they were robbed of one of the great comebacks in soccer history. You can argue, and I won’t disagree, that they dug themselves a huge hole. That being said, give them credit for a never say die comeback for the ages. While the supposed power teams from England, Germany and Italy are underachieving and the French team embarrassed an entire nation, the USA pulled together brilliantly.

Let me clear up a few potential misconceptions before I go any further.

First, I said the USA played like champions and I meant it. Champions overcome adversity and find a way to win. That being said, I’m still not expecting our boys to win this thing. I get frustrated with the “we are happy to be here” attitude I so often hear from American soccer but I can live with the reality of it, especially given their play today.

Second, I’m not suggesting they were not angry at being robbed of two goals, nor that they should not be. The call today was boarder line; the call last Friday was a Polamalu caliber abomination of sport. Even worse was FIFA’s decision to never identify what the call actually was or admit a mistake was made. Far be it for anybody to have accountability in the most visible sporting event on the planet.

That being said, they kept their composure and played through the adversity. History suggests that’s not always the case, whether it’s bad officiating or other outside factors beyond the players’ control.

I lost a ton of respect for Dusty Baker, Moises Alou, and all of the Chicago Cubs for collapsing in the 2003 league championship, ostensibly because a fan tipped a foul ball in the stands. Alou had a temper tantrum on national TV, the Cubs imploded, and then the robotic Baker happily pinned the blame on the fan, rather than himself or his choking players.

Beyond the fact that this contributed to a criminally irresponsible media frenzy that nearly ruined the young man’s life, it also showed a total lack of character, accountability, or self respect on the part of the Cubs. No wonder they collapsed so completely in the end. Just a thought but maybe the best professional athletes on earth should be able to shake off a tipped foul ball, especially with a three run lead in the 8th inning and a 3-2 lead in the series.

So its not a given that a team will overcome outside factors. These players work their entire lives to get to this level, play their guts out and then have their efforts nullified by bad officiating. This in the biggest sporting event on the planet and the one with the smallest margin of error. If ever there was a chance for them to succumb to excuses or come unglued this was it. There is little doubt in my mind that previous USA teams would have fallen apart, even the successful teams from 94 and 06. This one did not.

Kudos to coach Bob Bradley for his leadership. I’m thrilled that the USA stayed in house rather than hiring an international ringer as coach and Bradley justified their faith. He basically told everyone to accept the situation, move on and play to win. He never lost site of the big picture.

Kudos to Landon Donovan for finally playing like the superstar he is. The best players, the Lemieux, Crosby, Malkin and the Talbots of the world come through when their team needs them the most. Donovan has been brilliant in this tournament and you get the feeling that he was not going to let his team lose today.

Kudos to Tim Howard because as we all know, the goalkeeper is a superior form of life.

And kudos to the entire team for not giving up, for overcoming adversity, and fighting to the finish. They may not win this World Cup, but during their last game and a half they played like true champions.

Much Ado About Nothing

I pondered the following question on Facebook the other day. Is anybody else concerned that as of today the Big 10 has 12 teams and the Big 12 has 10 teams? Or do I have too much time on my hands?

I’m guessing the answer is the latter. You can thank the end of hockey season for that.

Anyway, after several weeks of rampant speculation and theories about the end of the college football universe as we know it, there is surprisingly little change. Reports of the Big 12’s demise were, to say the least, greatly exaggerated as were reports that the Big 10 was prepared to add half the eastern seaboard to its membership. In fact, when it’s all said and done, we could literally end up with nothing more than two BCS teams changing conferences and perhaps one new BCS school in Utah (you may recall them trampling Tyler Palko in the Fiesta Bowl a few years back).

The initial over reaction is hardly shocking considering the flimsy amount of evidence that most sports media need these days to run with a story. If Andy Katz or Adam Schefter hears a rumor from Jim Tressel’s (aka Mr. Rodgers’) sophomore year roommate, that’s good enough for the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network in Bristol to create a half hour special.

And of course we are no closer to that illusive college football playoff. We are also no closer to Ben Roethlisberger being Time Magazine’s person of the year but that’s an issue for a different day.

At least we finally have the long awaited answer to why they never renamed the eleven team Big 10. I’m guessing it took about 20 minutes after Penn State accepted its Big 10 bid for the other members to determine they wanted a 12th school. Sadly, it then took 20 years to accept that Notre Dame was not interested. It seems possible that at long last, The Big Whatever Conference finally told the Fighting Irish to go pound sand.

Seriously, can the entire college football world please stop sucking up to this second tier program that is still living off accomplishments from the Eisenhower administration? There is little doubt in my mind that the Big Whatever held that spot open so long because they continued to hope ND would change its mind. That’s not going to happen and good riddance.

In lieu of the Irish, The Big Whatever choose the only other football program I can muster up comparable hatred for; the Nebraska Thug Huskers. I joked (sort of) during the Stanley Cup finals that I would root for a team of ex-convicts in a seven game series against the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad. Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully since the last time this happened, the ex-cons stole a national championship from Penn State (yes I’m still very much bitter about that).

We will postpone railing on Nebraska for another day. Believe it or not, I’m actually happy they are joining the Big 10. Penn State fans do not typically charge the field or turn over cars on Atherton Street after beating Minnesota. Conversely, a bi-annual grudge match with Thug Huskers should have the goal posts in fear of their safety in Happy Valley. Given the rampant mediocrity of every Big 10 school west of Columbus, adding another power program is probably a good thing, even if it is one that sold out its integrity to win a national championship.

This is hardly the conference armageddon we were told was coming. The Big 12 was deemed to be dead conference walking. The Pac 10 was going to steal 6 teams, which would in theory mitigate the short-term collapse of Los Angeles’ only professional football team, the USC Trojans. The Big 10 was supposedly going to grab four Big East Schools, while the ACC grabbed the leftovers.

The net result was expected to be four super conferences who could, in theory, have lucrative conference championship games and then send their champions to a 4 team national playoff. Or even better, four super conferences who could in theory have lucrative conference championship games and then have 8 computers and 1,500 sports writers arbitrarily determine who the best two teams are.

Maybe that will all still happen. Maybe the Big Whatever is so determined to get the Flubbing Irish in their conference that they will blow up the Big East. Maybe $25 Million per year will not be enough to make Texas happy.

My guess however is that in the end there will be minimal change. Here are a few things to consider in regards to the Big 10, the conference that got the ball rolling on this:

1) Nobody from the Big 10 ever officially stated that the conference wanted to expand to 16 teams. That was a media creation. Their primary goal was to get to 12 so they could have the all important, conference championship game. That way somebody else can ruin Ohio State’s national championship hopes before the entire country has to endure it on New Year’s Day.

2) The teams that were being thrown around as potential candidates were ridiculous. Why on earth would the Big 10 want to add Rutgers or Syracuse? The Big 10 already has a highbrow academic institution with lousy sports teams in Northwestern. They don’t need a junior varsity version from New Jersey. Syracuse has not fielded a decent team since before Philly fans were hazing Donovan McNabb. And for those financial cynics out there, I just don’t see cable subscribers in the New York market forking over $3 extra per month to watch the Scarlet Nights battle Purdue.

3) No matter how much anybody wants to believe otherwise, I don’t think Pitt was ever a viable candidate. The Big 10 wanted one of two things; either a school that would advance its football profile or a school that would add a significant new television market. For better or for worse, Nebraska provides the former (and to a very small extent the latter). Pitt provides neither (although the Wannstedt offense is eerily similar to Big 10 offenses of the mid 70s). Besides, as much as I would like to see the Pitt/Penn State football renewal, the Big 10 would be terrible for Pitt’s basketball team.

4) No matter how arrogant or stupid it may seem to the rest of us, Notre Dame is not coming. Good for them. Let them value their football independence right into irrelevancy. It might take 20 more years but eventually NBC will find something that generates higher ratings on Saturday than a 5 win team with an overrated QB (see, Powlus, Mirer, Quinn, Clausen, etc). I for one will not lose a minute of sleep when that occurs.

What this means is that the Big 10 might officially be the Big 12 (not to be confused with the existing 10 team Big 12) and that might be it. The Big East may survive, completely unchanged from a football perspective. The PAC 10 will settle for Utah and continued conference mediocrity and The Big 12 (10) will probably survive as a 10 team league. That’s unless The Big 12 (10) goes after TCU and one other school to be determined (although there is apparently some huge cat fight between TCU in Baylor, ripped straight from the truly strange stories of the who on earth could possibly give a damn department).

So much for the seismic changes in college football. So much for the potential playoff. Bring on five more years of John Saunders and Kirk Herbstreit explaining to us why you really can use a computer to pick the best team in the country and yet we are decades away from having the capabilities to stage an 8 team playoff.

The masochist in me would like to see more changes. I would like to see exactly what everybody thought was going to happen. It would add a desperately needed boost to college football which is far too reliant on the same, tired 100 year old conference match-ups. It might even force the BCS schools to play quality opponents in their non conference games, rather than battling for Buffalo and Coastal Carolina. Most important, the new conference set-up would rid us of any more mediocre Big East teams stealing BCS bowl bids through the NCAA’s charitable giving program for disadvantaged eastern conferences.

Conversely there is a side of me that hopes this does not happen. That’s the side that values integrity, loyalty and the notion, however quaint, that college athletics are supposed to be about interscholastic competition rather than billion dollar television deals. Watching all these schools ditch their conference tie ins in a desperate grab for more money is a bit sickening. It’s also a bit hypocritical given that they just admonished USC for failing to promote a proper amateur environment at their institution, around the same time the Pac 10 was consulting an intoxicated Eddie Belfour on how much to bribe Texas.

Of course there could be another round of changes and more jockeying for position. Anything is possible. That being said, in the end this story appears to be far more bark than bite. That’s fine, I can go back to ripping the moronic BCS system without all this other distraction.

Is it finally Time to Forgive Marian Hossa?

The Chicago Blackhawks are the 2010 Stanley Cup Champions. The Hawks are a great team and they deserve the cup. They combined talent and depth with a champion’s determination to win. Quite frankly, they remind me a lot of the Penguins from last year.

The Hawks win also means that the three year Marian Hossa odyssey has finally ended. Three years, three teams, three Stanley Cup finals; that’s quite a run for anybody. In Chicago and nationally the story was one of Hossa triumphing over personal adversity to finally win the Cup. That’s one perspective of it.

The perspective from the Burgh is quite a bit different. Hossa remains reviled by Pittsburgh fans. It’s somewhat amazing that a player who spent barely 4 months in the Burgh and quite honestly did everything asked of him while he was there is so hated. And yet there is no doubt that’s the case. I was reminded of that when I saw people seriously posing the question, what is worse, the Goons winning the cup or Hossa?

For the record, any Penguin fan who even has to think about this question should be required to attend extensive sports rehab. Do you want to live in a world where the Orange and Black Goon squad is carrying the Stanley Cup? DO YOU ??? I can think of nothing that engenders more hatred in Pittsburgh sports fans than that team, with the possible exception of a certain loud mouthed, ugly Russian and his merry band of soft, one dimensional cronies in our nation’s capital.

Anyway, back to Maid Marian.

This is a guy who by all accounts is a great teammate, works hard at both ends of the ice, is incredibly skilled and seems to genuinely care about winning. The fact that he’s been on three straight teams that went to the finals can not be a complete coincidence. I still say that without Hossa, the Pens are lucky to get out of the second round in 2008.

So how does a guy like that end up getting booed every time he touches the puck…in THREE cities? For those who missed it, Hossa did what was previously considered impossible and actually angered Nashville fans earlier in the playoffs. He took some nameless, faceless Predator out with a hit from behind but somehow did not get a game misconduct.

The situation was classic Hossa, at least of the last few years. He took a horrible penalty that nearly derailed his team’s championship hopes. In one of the truly amazing moments of this year’s playoffs, the Hawks tied the game up while shorthanded in the final 15 seconds. And then he scores the winning goal in overtime which by the way was the only time he made an appearance of significance in the goal column this entire post season.

So now he’s regularly booed in three cities, one of which does not even like hockey.

On top of that we can add:

· Losing the Stanley Cup finals two straight years. Losing the second year to the team you bolted after the first year for the team you lost to the first year (if you followed that).
· Losing the semi-final game at the Olympics after just missing out on a last second, goal mouth scramble.
· Blowing out his knee during the world junior championships.
· Nearly blinding Bryan Berard on an innocent follow through play with his stick.
· Playing three years in Atlanta.

I realize it’s hard to engender too much sympathy for a guy making $60 Million but if it was possible, Hossa would seem a reasonable candidate.

On top of that, and scoring just three goals in the playoffs, Hossa nearly torpedoed that Hawks again Wednesday night. His second period give away resulted in a breakaway that Antti Niemi thwarted. And did you happen to notice who was standing right in front of the net when the Goons tied the game at 3? Is Hossa morphing in to Ryan Whitney?

Actually, he seems to be morphing into John Madden. I heard Doc and Edzo talk at length during game 6 about Hossa’s defensive play and hustle. Maybe the Hawks could have saved $6 Million and just signed another hard working checking line forward. I think Madden and Hossa had the same number of goals in the post season.

See the point? Maybe as Pens fans we should stop hating this guy and feel sorry for him. Until he finally lifted that Cup Wednesday night, he’d had a rough run.

There are also a couple of interesting ironies about the whole hating Hossa agenda we have in the Burgh:

--In the long run, the Pens were better off without him. There is no way they could support three forwards making a combined $24 Million per year. If Hossa signs, say goodbye to Orpik, Staal, and maybe even Fleury.

--I still think that Hossa’s primary reason for bolting the Burgh was that he did not want to play for Michel Therrien anymore. In his mind, he probably thought he was being diplomatic by saying; I want to go to Detroit to win the Stanley Cup which sounds a lot better than, “I don’t want that crazy French guy screaming at me anymore.”

--The Pens won the Stanley cup…without him…and beat him in the process.

Again, these are all reasons we probably should be thanking him for leaving, rather than turning him into the microwavable Barry Bonds. I mean it took us just 4 months of Hossa to build up the same level of hatred we had for Bonds after 8 years. And Hossa is a nice guy whose head has not mysteriously grown 3 sizes in the last decade.

Honestly, I was fine with Hossa leaving for most of last season; compelled by the logical positions I’ve taken above. And then I saw him in that gruesome red uniform standing between the Pens and the cup and logic went out the window. It hit home right there what was happening and that he could have just as easily taken one year, $7 Million in the Burgh. I succumbed to the same irrational hatred that had engulfed the rest of Penguin nation. And I celebrated his loss as much as I did Detroit’s.

As a result, throughout his maiden voyage with the Hawks, Hossa and I had an uneasy coexistence. I rooted for the Hawks and simply tried to ignore him in the process. Honestly, it was not that difficult. He missed two months with a shoulder injury and was never really a huge offensive presence.

There was one potentially awkward moment at a home game against Dallas. Hossa had a chance to win the game in a shoot out which I admit put me in a truly precarious position. Emily notes that I had a look of intense fear on my face. Alas in keeping with the season long theme he missed the net and somebody else bailed out the Hawks.

Other than that, I barely noticed him for 8 months.

So what changed in the last two weeks? Maybe I’m a new man since my wedding. Or maybe, I just wanted the Hawks to win and was not ready for a Stanley Cup parade down Broad Street (especially after a hugely disappointing Penguin flame out). Either way, somewhere in that time I went from aggressively promoting my disdain for Hossa to rooting for the guy (at least in the team context). Somewhere I went from being angry that he shunned the Penguins to being angry that he had 200 scoring chances and never finished.

I guess you could say we bonded through adversity. He was struggling to score; I was struggling to deal with the image of Chris Pronger carrying the Stanley Cup. We had a common goal. I’m not saying I learned to love the guy but at least I was no longer subconsciously hoping he would fail.

For the record, I stand by my criticism of his performance. It’s ok for Max Talbot to work hard at both ends of the rink and not score. That’s his role. When Hossa scores 3 goals in 22 playoff games, that’s not right. Truth be told, had Hossa played to his full ability last year, the Dead Wings might have beaten the Pens two straight years. That’s another reason we probably should not hate him so much, he helped the Pens win.

So in the end, I’m grudgingly willing to forgive Hossa for his sins against the Penguins. Mind you I’m not starting the Hossa fan club in Chicago and you will never see me wearing his jersey but I think I can now peacefully coexist with him in the windy city. That’s quite a bit of progress from last summer when I went from gloating over his loss to the Pens to uncontrolled angst over his signing with the Hawks. Besides, he’s only here 11 more years.

As for other Penguin fans, I can’t really tell you what to do. I suggest letting go of your Hossa hatred. There are much better targets including Ovechkin and pretty much every player in the eastern part of the state. Be like me. I’ve moved on and I am no longer angry about Hossa bailing on the Pens and/or slapping the organization and the entire city of Pittsburgh in the face with his insulting, I want to go somewhere I can win the cup comments.

Yes, I’ve completely moved on.

Goaltending Wins Championships…Right?

“In life, as in hockey, you are only as good as your goaltender” (Adam Haberman…frequently).

I have two nightmares that pop into my brain from time to time. The first is that it’s the end of a semester in graduate school and I have not gone to glass or studied a lick. Finals are coming and I do not have the faintest clue about the course material. The second is that Michael Leighton is a starting goaltender in the Stanley Cup finals.

When I wake from the first nightmare, I feel an immediate and overwhelming sense of “it’s only a dream” relief. As to the second…apparently I still have not woken up.

There are few things in life I believe in more definitively than the importance of goaltending in hockey. I’ve said for years that it is one of the few absolutes in sports…you just can not win a Stanley Cup without great goaltending.

I’ve used this unwavering belief in my staunch defense of Marc-Andre Fleury from his persistent legion of moronic critics. Somehow, in their minds, Fleury managed to lead his team to back to back Stanley Cup finals while being the worst Penguin goaltender since Peter Skudra.

I’ve pointed out that teams do not win 30 playoff games in two years in spite of their goaltending. I’ve noted that I have decades of history on my side. That includes what I’ve frequently referred to as a quarter century case study on how goaltending can torpedo a franchise, commissioned by the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad. In algebraic terms, goaltending is the constant in my hockey equation.

So if it’s not bad enough that the Penguins missed out on this year’s finals; here comes the Goon Squad to make it worse. I’ve been mocking them all year for somehow managing to deal down their goaltending from the immortal Martin Biron and Antero Nittymaki combination. For reference, that’s the same Biron who could not land a starting job anywhere in the NHL after leaving Philly and the same Nittymaki who can’t beat out Mike Smith in Tampa. That’s comparable to having a worse haircut than Scott Hartnell.

And yet the Goons somehow managed to do it. First they put their faith in Ray Emery who is as bad as Biron but less reliable. Then they trotted out Brian Boucher whose career reminds me of those fluke golfers that win the masters once and get a lifetime exemption to play into their 90s. And if all that was not enough, they turned their net over to the great Leighton. Yes, that’s the same Leighton who Carolina deemed inadequate as their third string goaltender. Apparently they were not overly impressed by his 103 NHL appearances since 2003-04.

So now I wake to the continuing nightmare; to a world where a team can get to the Stanley Cup finals while rotating third string goaltenders. Suddenly I don’t know what to make of things. It’s like the bizarro world on Seinfeld. Up is down, black is white, Feldman is Kramer. Everything I believed about life and sports is suddenly in turmoil.

Think about Fleury’s brilliant, game saving robbery of Lidstrom at the end of game 7 last year. Are we really ready to replace that picture in our minds…with Michael Leighton?

For the record, a person of non Chicago perspective might feel compelled to include Hawks goaltender Antti Niemi in the above complaint. I will not do so for two reasons. First, I would like to be able to sleep in my own bed in the near future and that’s unlikely to occur if I formally criticize Niemi in this blog. My wife is without question his biggest fan and to be quite clear, she was championing his play back in the dark days of the Huet in Chicago. If that seems like a conflict of interest to you than feel free to have the NHL revoke my press pass.

Second, it would be inaccurate. If you go back to his first start in October, a shutout in his native Finland, Niemi has been strong all season for the Hawks. Niemi is inexperienced but so was Cam Ward a few years back and we know how that ended. There is a big difference between inexperienced and having a decade long track record of mediocrity as is the case with Leighton and Brian Boucher.

If you fall back on the tired, lazy idea that the Blackhawks carry Niemi please contact the San Jose Sharks or Vancouver Canucks and ask why their supposedly superior goaltenders are golfing right now. Or call Stan Bowman and ask why Huet and his $6 Billion contract are glued to the end of the Hawks bench.

That being said, even I will admit that this is not exactly Roy and Brodeur matching up in the 2001 finals.

Which brings up the question, am I wrong? Have I been living a lie my entire life? Is goaltending not really that important? Can great teams just carry pedestrian goaltenders along for the ride (as the Fleury bashers would have us believe?). Will Michael Leighton be the end of my goaltender centric view of the universe?

The answer is emphatically no !

Here is a summary of the starting goaltenders who have won the Stanly Cup over the last 35 NHL seasons (from left to right):

Ken Dryden (4); Billy Smith (4); Grant Fuhr (4) Patrick Roy (4); Martin Brodeur (3); Bernie Parent (2);

Tom Barrasso (2); Mike Vernon (2); Chris Osgood (2); Ed Belfour (1); Dominik Hasek (1); Mike Richter (1); Nikolai Khabibulin (1) J.S. Giguere (1);

Marc-Andre Fleury (1) Cam Ward (1); Bill Ranford (1);

The first six goaltenders on that list are either in the hall of fame or sure fire first ballot inductees (Brodeur). These six gentlemen are responsible for 21 of those 35 cups (70%).

The next eight from Barrasso to Giguere have all produced elite numbers during their 10 plus year careers (even Osgood, much as it pains me to admit it). Hasek and Belfour are hall of fame gimmes and any of Barrasso, Richter, Vernon and Osgood could one day join them (for better or for worse on the last two). Regardless, this group adds 11 cups to the list.

The remaining three cups were won by two elite young goaltenders (Fleury and Ward) and a solid veteran goaltender (Ranford).

Think about that. Over the last 35 years the worst goaltender to win the Stanley Cup is Bill Ranford. And Ranford won 240 games in the NHL so let’s be clear he’s not Sebastian Caron.

It gets better. The 18 goaltenders above also lost in the Stanley Cup finals 12 times during that period. That means these elite goaltenders have taken 47 of the 70 slots in the finals over 35 years (just over 2/3rd of the total). In fact, if you go back to the start of the Islander dynasty in 1979-80, the only Leighton like goaltenders to even make the finals were…

Don Beaupre/Gilles Meloche Richard Brodeur, Jon Casey
Ray Emery Kelly Hurdey Arturs Irbe

I might even throw in the Hextall/Snow combo for Philly in 1997, only because Hextall was clearly past his goonish, cheap shot, stick swinging, cross checking prime by that point. Still, Hextall was once considered an elite goaltender back in the days when he was chasing Rob Brown around the rink (acknowledging this makes my stomach churn). He did win the Conn Smythe as the losing goalie against Edmonton in 1987.

Truth be told, in a fascinating bit of coincidental irony, the only goaltender on the list above who truly compares with Leighton is Emery; the guy Philly started the season with. You could also argue that Casey was closer to being a back-up than a starter as well (although he was fairly decent until Mario Lemieux single handedly destroyed his career). The others were all solid NHL goaltenders, just not superstars.

So take a deep breath folks and relax. Leighton does not represent a sign of the apocalypse nor a colossAL shifting of the sports universe. He is what sports experts refer to as, a fluke. We all remember that Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson won Super Bowls. Let’s not forget that Rex Grossman and David Woodley lost Super Bowls. That’s probably closer to what we are dealing with here.

Keep in mind that Leighton and Boucher have split the work. Keep in mind that they played three low scoring teams in NJ, Boston, and Montreal in the first three rounds. Now that they are facing a team with some serious firepower, they’ve allowed 21 goals in 5 games and Leighton has been hooked twice. I don’t think Roy, Brodeur or Hasek are losing sleep over their place in history.

Since the end of game 4, I’ve been wresting with the possibilities of both a Stanley Cup parade on Broad Street and the end to my cult like beliefs regarding goaltending. I’ll rely on the Blackhaws to solve issue number one, hopefully on Wednesday night.

As for issue number 2, regardless of how things turn out I’ll sleep well knowing I have 35 years of precedents to back my beliefs. One way or another my nightmare will end with my convictions undaunted that in life as in hockey you really are only as good as your goaltender.