Although Don Cherry wasn’t happy about it, the Globe and Mail recently got around to agreeing with a point I made over a year ago, when I noted that Canadian goalies are rather quickly disappearing from the creases of top-level NHL nets.
As the Globe pointed out, over the past 20 years the percentage of NHL goaltenders born in Canada has shrunk from about 85 per cent to less than 45 per cent, and three of the final four goalies were European born, although Canadian-born Michael Leighton has been the feel-good story of the playoffs by leading the Philadelphia Flyers into the final round, at least before being chased in game one.
Generally considered the number one Canadian goalie, Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo wasn’t a liability for Team Canada on its way to the Olympic gold medal, but neither was he a key figure in its win, and Luongo once again gagged in the playoffs as the Canucks crashed and burned in the second round, which ended with a 5-1 thrashing by the Chicago Blackhawks to eliminate the Canucks.
The reasons are many for why not as many Canadian goalies are elite puck stoppers, such as European teams providing more resources with both coaching and financial help for young goalies. But the best reason may have been given by Jacques Plante when he said, "Do you know a lot of jobs where every time you make a mistake, a red light goes off over your head and 15,000 people start booing?"
Plante was referring to what it is and has always meant to be a goalie, in that it is a physically and emotionally solitary position, with the burden of being the final — and for some teams, the only — line of defence, as Montreal Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak demonstrated earlier this spring.
The margin for error for goalies is thin to non-existent compared to other positions in the game, where a 40-save performance can be ended by one shot, as compared to a forward with a one-shot "Golden Goal."
It may be that overly protected kids not being allowed to experience a few bumps, scrapes and failures as they grow up may not be willing to fail, not just in a net but more importantly as they go through life, which will be far more serious than who is standing in Canada’s crease in 20 years.