Fifth Avenue Forum

For McDavid Winnipeg appears to be his version of the Flyers with Sid. Doesn’t matter how good they are, he’s getting points.

I’m not crying!

Who is your best US goalie in history? And don’t pull a mikey and name someone that played before film was invested and you watched his hand drawn highlights on a View-Master.

Lol

I’m not crying!

Who is your best US goalie in history? And don’t pull a mikey and name someone that played before film was invested and you watched his hand drawn highlights on a View-Master.

Not a very deep pool, since American goalies weren’t a thing until the mid-80s. I also don’t really like throwing in current guys into this too much. I like to think of it in tiers moreso than a ranking

Tier 1:
Ritcher
Vanbiesbrouck
Quick
Tommy B
Brimsek

Tier 2:
Ryan Miller
Mike Dunham
Garth Snow

Then it starts to get thin. Really thin.

Billy Smith.

Looks like it gets pretty thin in Tier 2...

While you don’t like dealing with current guys, I imagine that the like of Gibson and Hellebuyck are on pace to be Tier 1?

For sure. Cory Schneider was on his way there for me too.

For sure. Cory Schneider was on his way there for me too.

Miller was probably on his way to that tier as well before falling off a cliff after his Vezina season. Guess that’s the problem with ranking current players.

I like Miller’s career. Almost 800 games played over 18 seasons. At his peak, he was top-3 in the world. A real professional.

would have never guessed Corey Crawford was Canadian until I thought about that list

At his peak, he was top-3 in the world

This doesn’t seem right. He had his Vezina/Olympic season and then the number 3 goalie in the world heads right to the middle of tier 2 and never gets back to the top group? I dunno...all signs point to a guy who went on an unsustainable heater and then came back to earth.

Was he derailed by injury or something?

I see we're just going to ignore Billy Smith.

I see we're just going to ignore Billy Smith.

Ontario native Billy Smith?

I see we're just going to ignore Billy Smith.

Ontario native Billy Smith?

Wow, I have no idea what I was thinking there.

Take a knee, G

At his peak, he was top-3 in the world

This doesn’t seem right. He had his Vezina/Olympic season and then the number 3 goalie in the world heads right to the middle of tier 2 and never gets back to the top group? I dunno...all signs point to a guy who went on an unsustainable heater and then came back to earth.

Was he derailed by injury or something?

What doesn’t seem right about it? His peak peak was about 10 months long and he was lights out. He has/had a reputation of wearing down and playing a billion games for Buffalo then the Olympics wore his ass out.

Seems like he just had an extended period of good luck, I guess. Or is that not possible for that amount of time?

I guess he could have permanently shot his wad and then just never got back to square one after the Lucic play, but I dunno...seems unusual to have a brief period of success like that and not have it be circumstantial

We are talking goalies here. Enigmas. You can’t put logic or reasoning into this. Miller was en fuego for 1/18th of his career and then slightly above average for the 17/18ths. Point being, he played for damn near two decades.

I’m not crying!

Who is your best US goalie in history? And don’t pull a mikey and name someone that played before film was invested and you watched his hand drawn highlights on a View-Master.

1. Frank Brimsek
[Gap]
2. John Vanbiesbrouck
3. Jonathan Quick
4. Tom Barrasso
5. Mike Richter

Hellebuyck and Gibson can get on to this list without too, too much effort. Hopefully Spencer Knight will save us all...

mikeys list starts with a guy born in 1915 because of course it does.

He let pucks coincidentally bounce off his skate blades better than any goalie before they realized they could move their limbs.

So did meow's and it's a such slam dunk answer...it's not even a little bit close either. He played until 1950...Gordie Howe was established in the league, Y.A. Tittle was in the NFL, Stan Musial was in the MLB...it's not like we're in some prehistoric time...we have enough film of sport by then to see where it was at...this isn't some guy taking sled dogs to the Challenge Cup in Kenora in 1905...

1950's NHL is better than early 1980s NHL...

It’s a hat tip to the granddaddy of American goalies. But there is nothing to talk about between him and Ritcher/Beezer

mikeys list starts with a guy born in 1915 because of course it does.

Show some god damn respect. That guy survived the Spanish flu

Long ago, I could beat Nintendo Contra in one life. It exactly matches my video game abilities. Not everyone could do it. In fact, nobody I knew could. But I could.

I can’t play any video game these days because there’s more dedication, muscle training, thinking and all kinds of extra complexity.

I wouldn’t expect to be in the video game hall of fame because I could do something ridiculously basic compared to modern equivalents. Even though I could do that basic thing at an elite level.

Is that an argument in agreement of my stance or against my stance?