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Keepers

Thursday 4/16/20

NESN is replaying the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. I have the games on DVD somewhere. I won't find the DVDs again until and if I get my house back. I watched a little last night and the night before, by which I mean, I looked up from time to time while working.


Roberto Luongo is going to make the Hall of Fame and Tim Thomas probably won't, which is an interesting thing to keep in your mind as you watch that series. I started thinking about the goalies I've most enjoyed watching, and Thomas is number one for me. He played the most cerebral style of goalie keeping I've seen. Reading the play, anticipating, being so aggressive. It's pretty exciting to watch if you know hockey, because you can see how he thinks the game. I'd put him in the Hall of Fame.



The second most-exciting goalie I've ever seen is Grant Fuhr. He was the most athletic, and his saves look like routines out of a ballet. You couldn't play goal that way in today's NHL and last very long, but it was more visually appealing. Those crazy glove saves he made with the splits. Coolest looking saves there have ever been.



Those two are far and away my top pair. The others following would be Mike Palmateer--sort of like a poor man's Fuhr--when he was on the Leafs, and Tony Esposito with the Blackhawks. Both super athletic. The saves were dramatic. Almost theatrical. Life and death!





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