Thanks, Rick. You have a good point about today’s players being much better than the players of old. I guess my point is that there are too many teams, in too many markets, some of which care nothing for hockey. Regardless, I wonder why we have to put up with (for example) Arizona-Nashville matchups. Does anybody in Canada–outside of the players’ families–really care?
You’re right about the hype. There seems to be the idea, perhaps promoted by the sports channels you mentioned, that if a Canadian cannot watch hockey every day between September and June, he will shrivel up and die. My local sports bar did a great job of Monday Night Football this year–there was a host, and trivia questions (with prizes), very nice door prizes (TVs and jerseys–I won a Ben Rothlesberger signed jersey back in November), and it’s a lot of fun. But as soon as the game is over, the bar switched over to hockey. No post-game wrap-up, no “what this means for these teams next week.” Just another hockey game. I did mention this to bar management, but I was told, “Hey, we’re Canadian, we watch hockey.” I like this sports bar, and I know a lot of staff and patrons, so I’m not going to make a stink. But still.
As a friend once described me, I’m a sports fan, not a fan of one sport. Many Canadians seem to be fans of one sport. I just wish hockey was not rammed down my throat at every opportunity under the guise of patriotism.
That was an awesome nail-biter of a game. We watched it, and we almost never watch hockey. But if you must only watch one game a year, that was a pretty good one to watch.
While I don’t disagree that modern players are generally bigger, have superior conditioning and advanced systems, they are not more fundamentally sound and they don’t make fewer mistakes. Modern players take bad routes to the puck—especially when pursuing pucks into corners—leaving them vulnerable, they make terrible decisions when making outlet passes. Because of the rules tightening up on head shots and fighting, the modern players would struggle with how physical the 70s game was, even against a relatively non-physical team like the 70s Habs.
The '76-'77 Canadiens were arguably the finest NHL team ever assembled. Larry Robinson was plus 120 that season. Ken Dryden, in an age where scoring was much more common than it is now, had a 2.14 goals against average, which would be impressive even now. Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt both scored 55+ goals that season. You put Jonathan Bernier into mid-70s goalie gear and his save percentage will drop at least five percent, probably closer to 10 percent. Toronto’s top three scorers this year are awful defensively—Kessel is a -9 right now, van Riemsdyk and Bozak are -7; Lafleur was a +89, Shutt was a +88 and I already talked about Robinson.
While I grant you that today’s Leafs might win a game or two against Scotty Bowman’s Habs based purely on some superior training, all the conditioning in the world wouldn’t keep Toronto from losing a seven-game series against a team that was years ahead of its time. 6’0" Phil Kessel does not push 6’4" Larry Robinson around; 6’5" Pete Mahovlich does not get intimidated by 6’3" Dion Phaneuf. And I doubt Guy gets manhandled either. And honestly, if the series comes down to goaltending, it’s no contest. Montreal backup Michel Larocque is head-and-shoulders better than Bernier could ever hope to be.
They did in 1977, too, just more often; watching classic NHL games I am utterly amazed at how many passes are made that in today’s game would be picked off like a cherry. They could get away with it more because the opposition was slower.
Jonathan Bernier is a better goalie than Ken Dryden was.
I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true - in a sense - if, again, you put Bernier in a time machine. Conversely, if you put 1977 Dryden in a time machine and had him try out in 2015 he would not make any NHL team as a starter. NHL scouts would wonder why nobody had taught the guy how to play goal.
Of course Dryden is a Hall of Famer and Bernier isn’t, because we correctly compare players to their PEERS, not to people who played 35-40 years later. Dryden was the best goalie of the 1970s, and had he grown up at the same time as Jonathan Bernier and thus gotten the same training, learned the ProFly method, and so on, he’d probably kick ass. Similarly, had Bernier grown up at the same time as Dryden he would have learned to play goal the way they did then - standing up a hell of a lot more - and would have been what he is, an OK NHL goalie.
Obviously we’ll have to agree to disagree here, because when I watch classic NHL hockey, I see players taking the man and finishing their checks, not playing the puck. I see outlet passes up the wings in safe spots, not directly in front of the net (a lesson Steve Smith learned in the 80s that players still don’t seem to get). I see guys curling into corners after pucks so they’re never in a vulnerable position, unlike the guys these days who take the most direct route and open themselves up to getting blown up from behind.
And frankly, I’m not convinced that the butterfly that is the standard goaltending technique now would be as effective then when the pads were so much smaller and heavier—take up as much space in the net as possible and stay mobile on your skates, something Dryden was really good at by being physically huge. In particular, without the massive gloves modern goalies use, protecting the upper half of the net becomes a near impossibility if you’re on your knees all the time. The upright stance was at least in part a function of the equipment available; the butterfly without the huge catching glove, without the huge chest protectors, without the high-tech masks, and without the modern foam-filled, superlight, water-resistant box-style leg pads guys have today, simply was not as effective a technique, which is why I can count the number of top goalies using the butterfly back in the day on one hand (Glenn Hall and Tony Esposito are the only ones who come to my mind before the 80s).
Certainly, the butterfly and hybrid fly techniques have had a major impact on the effectiveness of goalies since the mid-80s, and it would be foolish to argue otherwise (you could reasonably attribute as much as a .010 save percentage gain in the NHL to the butterfly, although I’ve seen guys argue for more), but technique and equipment advances came along hand-in-hand.
Send Bernier back to the 70s, put him in 70s gear, and his save percentage will drop like a rock due to lost mobility, lost vision, and lost net coverage.
This has been a good debate to follow. I’ve stayed out of it because there really isn’t any right answer.
I saw someone, and I forget who, talking abut Patrick Roy recently. He said when Roy started with his ProFly style players just thought they’d go upstairs and beat him every time, but when you play positionally well, which Roy was superb at, the top of the net is taken away as an option.
I admired Dryden as a kid, but re-watching the 1972 series a long time ago I thought that Esposito was the better of the two.
If Bernie could take his equipment back with him he would be amazingly better than Dryden in the day. If he had to wear the old equipment I still think he’d be better, due to conditioning and the style of goaltending, which is a huge advantage from stand-up goalies of the day who stayed in the net and relied on reflexes rather than taking away the angle.
The greatest goaltender was Bobby Baun, who was Jacque Plante’s primary face mask (Plante was the first goalie to regularly wear a mask). Bobby had a remarkable talent for throwing his face in front of shots on goal. Now some would say that he was a defenceman with an annoying habit of falling on his knees and screening Plante, but for those of us who were fortunate enough to watch him on the ice during Plante’s later career know that he was really the goalie. I can’t begin to count the number of saves Bobby made with his face. Plante should have loaned Bobby one of his face masks.
In order to be effective up top you have to get in tight or you’re just going to hit the many bodies between you and the net, so scoring top shelf on Roy wasn’t as easy as it might seem. This has remained the case since everyone has adopted a similar style, although high shots are becoming more common in recent years.
According to NHL.com at this exact moment, Bernier’s GAA is 2.75 and his save percentage is .916; unfortunately the save percentage records from back in the day are incomplete, but Ken Dryden’s GAA in the 75-76 season was 2.03 and his save percentage was .927, according to hockeydb.com. So the evidence suggests that Dryden in his old crappy gear, with his old upright style, behind what RickJay has already characterized as a mistake-riddled, slow, sloppy defense, was still better than Bernier with his modern profly style, with his fancy, lightweight gear, and his modern, highly effective defense. So I have to disagree with you there.
I won’t dispute that Espo might have been the better goalie during the Summit Series, but to be fair, Dryden had only just completed his rookie season (plus a handful of regular season games and the Stanley Cup run in 71) when he participated in that series, while Espo was three-plus years in, had won two Vezina Trophies, and was obviously in a position to be considered the Number One guy.
I take it you don’t watch the Leafs. This is the number one issue of the team; their defence is ANYTHING but effective. They have been outshot 2-1 in just about every damned game since Carlyle took over. This appears to be turning since Carlyle was fired two games ago, but it’s too early to tell.
Holy shit the Leafs defence is one of the worst in the NHL.
I watched the Leafs enough in the 80s for a lifetime and will be a happy man if I never see them again, even though they’re on TV more than any other team in the NHL.
That said, you’re right—they’ve given up the third most shots per game in the league, although they’re only being outshot by three and a half shots per game.
The one season I actually completed a hockey card collection was the 70/71 season. Bob Baun was definitely a member of the Leafs. Wore number 21. In later years, he would write his autobiography, “Lowering the Boom.” (His nickname was “Boomer.”)
In much later years, Bob became a family friend. He was a guest in our home in Calgary a few times. I’ve got autographed pucks, an autographed photo of him hoisting the Stanley Cup, and an autographed copy of “Lowering the Boom.” And he and I had cigars and brandy after a wonderful dinner at Hy’s in Calgary, back in 2004 or so. Great guy, had plenty of stories of the old days of hockey.
