The Chiefs have thus far proved me wrong in playoffs and right now are sitting cute with a 2-0 series lead over the Portland Winterhawks.
Onto other matters: Dustin Tokarski.
We all know I love and adore him and an alarming amount of the archives are about his skill and all around awesomeness. It seems whenever an article is written about him it is the same thing and can be summarized with the following points:
- Tokarski is “short” at 5’11″.
- Tokarski was passed over by several teams.
- Tokarski has a tremendous work ethic and skill.
Ok. I wonder anymore if questioning his height is even relevant because he’s proven his skill. Is him being short those two inches that much of an issue? From observation, he moves exceptionally well in the pipes. And compared to taller goalies, he doesn’t have to cram himself into the net. He stands comfortably in position and doesn’t have to scrunch over. Really, I’m more interested in seeing a graph/scatter plot. Is there a correlation between height and saves percentage? Or height and goals against average? Someone make a graph of that from the past fifteen years or something. How are the other, more tall goalies that were drafted recently performing in comparison to Tokarski?
It is just tiresome that this is the go to story when an article is written about Toka. I’m sure he laughs it all off. Because haterz are gonna hate no matter what.
Unfortunately, with the prevalence of butterfly goalies in the NHL, people think they all need to be big to be successful.
Having had a quick look at nhl.com, there are very few goalies of note who’re under 6′ tall these days.
Of course, two of them are Tim Thomas and Marty Turco. Who haven’t exactly been bad through their careers.
Basically it’s just an easy story for lazy journos. Leo Messi’s 5’5″ and he’s comfortably the best footballer in the world. In the end, it’s about talent and that’s what they should write about.
By: a on March 25, 2010
at 1:35 am
I attribute (or blame, take your choice) Vesa Toskala for the height concern in goaltending. Toskie’s general, all-around struggles has made analysts point to his height as not helping him. Perhaps, they have a point, but height wouldn’t be an issue if a goalie plays the angles and is positionally sound.
Even the Green Giant can’t help himself if he’s allowing pucks to go through his arms and legs. So, Toskala sucks is probably the summary.
By: bkblades on March 27, 2010
at 1:48 am