Money and masked men (November 2002)
$8.6M. So much is being made of that number. It's the combined salary of the Montreal Canadiens' number-one goaltender Jose Theodore and their other number-one goaltender Jeff Hackett. Both of these masked-men are winning - Jose finally playing confident hockey again. Whew! The team in front of them doesn't discriminate either. All hands play just as hard for Hackett as they do for last season's MVP. The Habs have a great thing going. So why is everyone bothered by it? I'm not.
Before I tell the numbers story, let me make my case. There is nothing wrong with having a pair of good goaltenders on the team. Historically, it used to be the norm rather than the exception. Who could argue with the New York Islanders in the early 1980's? They would split the regular season games equally between Billy Smith and Glenn "Chico" Resch or later, Smith and Rollie Melanson. They would then have a healthy, rested Smith to lead them through the playoffs. Four Cups in a row ain't too shabby.
When the Oilers grabbed the dynasty baton from the Isles, they did it with Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog splitting the netminding duties. Again, these two number-one goalies would split the regular season and the well-rested Fuhr would be fresh and unbeatable for the playoff run. Four Cups in five years. Do you see a pattern?
Even in the early days of expansion the St. Louis Blues were led by a couple of aging masters in net. Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante were the tag-team that took the 1968-69 Blues to the Stanley Cup Finals. In fact, that regular season they had 13 shutouts between them! Not bad for a couple of future Hall of Fame geezers!
Of course salaries finally caught up with the tandem theory. Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck of the Rangers were the last high-powered duo to share number-one duties. As soon as Florida agreed to pay the Beezer the big bucks, the two-goalie system was done. In the present day NHL, an elite goaltender is paid his weight in gold.
Let's compare some numbers starting with the elite goaltender story:
Colorado - Patrick Roy and David Aebischer = $9M
Detroit - Curtis Joseph and Manny Legace = $8.9M
New Jersey - Martin Brodeur and Corey Schwab = $7.45M
Toronto - Ed Belfour and Trevor Kidd = $7.15M
Washington - Olaf Kolzig and Craig Billington = $6.9M
True, Montreal is in the high roller game with some pretty heady company. But are they over the top? No, they're simply paying their best player, their goaltender(s), the highest salary. Colorado has to pay Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Rob Blake huge cash on top of Patrick Roy. The Red Wings pay dearly for Steve Yzerman, Nik Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan and so on. The Devils' Scott Stevens, Patrik Elias and Joe Nieuwendyk all make more than any Montreal skater does. Of course Washington pays big ($11.5M) for Jaromir Jagr while Robert Lang and Peter Bondra aren't cheap either. And the Leafs are stuck with huge salaries for Mats Sundin and Alex Mogilny. Is Montreal spending over the top? Not by my account.
Of course there are interesting numbers in the goalie bargain bin:
Tampa Bay - Nikolai Khabibulin and Kevin Hodson = $4.1M
Philadelphia - Roman Cechmanek and Robert Esche = $4M
Dallas - Marty Turco and Ron Tugnutt = $3.45M
Minnesota - Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson = $2.2M
Well, let's just eliminate the Lightning and the Wild from this one; they're both young teams in build mold that haven't had to pay anybody very much and their patience is paying off this season. But Dallas, for instance, Bill Guerin, Mike Modano and Pierre Turgeon make more than half of the Montreal skaters combined. And Turco isn't going to be cheap forever. In Philly, John LeClair, Jeremy Roenick, Mark Recchi and Keith Primeau make a combined $27M, around two-thirds of the Canadiens' payroll.
And just because I'm on a roll, in the off-season the New York Rangers spent $13.7M on Bobby Holik and Darius Kasparaitis. The blue-shirts have played more games than any other team but find themselves in 10th place in the Eastern Conference and going nowhere. Wouldn't you rather have a goalie debate than an outright fan revolt?
The one thing that hasn't been touched on is ego. How does a team maintain two world class goaltenders without tarnishing their confidence. Over in Carolina, Arturs Irbe is getting a little peeved because Kevin Weekes is getting more starts. He may ask for a trade before the year is out. But in Montreal, was Jeff Hackett peeved last season when Jose Theodore took away his number one position? No. And this year when Jose struggled out of the gate and Hackett reminded us why he is a number one stopper, Theodore supported his mate and made no grumblings.
Montreal's secret weapon is a man who was once part of a successful duo, goaltending coach Rollie Melanson. In fact, he was member of the Islanders' 80-81 team that split net duties between 3 goaltenders (Smith, Resch and Rollie the goalie all contributed in the regular season of that championship team.) So if any team can handle a 2-goalie system, Montreal is that team.
My advice to Montreal management, leave well enough alone. You're paying the best player on the team a league-standard top salary. Who cares if that player has two heads?