Canada Believes Russia Announces Canadians as Hockey Goaltenders – January 13, 2023
Maxim Zamyatin
Some Canadians have a test at the last frontier.
While in Russia they are lamenting for the hundredth time that the national mass destruction team has disappeared and cannot be a warrior even in the Eurotour (which for many years has been asked to be abolished or reformed by volume), Canada is sounding the alarm for another reason. With a very interesting perspective, which later became known as the French-speaking Canadian broadcaster TVA Sports Felix Seggenwho claims that in Canada there is a crisis of hockey goalies, and Russia beat the Canadians in the skill of goalkeepers and went far ahead.
“I have the pleasure of working on several games NHL every week. And what struck me this year is how many goaltenders of the Russian people dominate the league.
See for yourself, there are a lot of them. Igor Shesterkin, Andrey VasilevskyAlexander Georgiev (born in Bulgaria, but moved to Russia at the age), Ilya Sorokin, Ilya Samsonov, Petr Kochetkov, Sergei Bobrovsky — they all play solid roles in their lineups. You can add the names of Semyon Varlamov and Daniil Tarasov, who are also important for their own. I took part in the voting among Russian goalkeepers. Sorokin and Varlamov play twice for the Islanders, eight of 32 teams NHL (25%) rely on Russian goalkeepers to guide them in the right direction. Every fourth club! It’s just incredible”Seggen wondered in his column, which is called “Russia has overtaken Canada.”
There are really a lot of Russians in the top 30. Here are the statistics on the use of the moment (wins and the percentage of reflection of throws were chosen as the selection criterion).
The best goalkeepers NHL in the 2022/2023 season:
1. Linus Ullmark (Boston) – 22 wins, 93.8% saves
2. Connor Hellebike (Winnipeg) – 21 wins, 92.5%
3. Igor Shesterkin (Rangers) – 20 wins, 91.7%,
…6. Andrey Vasilevsky (Tampa Bay) – 18 wins, 91.7%,
…8. Alexander Georgiev (Colorado) – 16 wins, 91.5%,
…13. Ilya Sorokin (Islanders) – 14 wins, 92.6%,
…nineteen. Ilya Samsonov (“Toronto”) – 12 wins, 91.4%,
…27. Petr Kochetkov (“Carolina”) – 10 wins, 91.4%,
…thirty. Sergei Bobrovsky (“Florida”) – 10 wins, 89.5%.
“All Russian goalkeepers are good, exciting. I think Russian goalkeepers of the 2020s are like Vasilevsky. They are tall, developed and athletic. Vasilevskiy has won two Stanley Cups, won the Conn Smythe Trophy and has been a Vezina voting finalist four times in the past five years, winning the trophy in 2019.
Several Russian goalkeepers have returned over the years. I mean Yevgeny Nabokov, Nikolai Khabibulin or even Ilya Bryzgalov. But the same number of Russian goalkeepers at the same time, and even in gripping positions in NHL “This is unheard of for me.”Seggen says.
The French-speaking observer shows very boldly in modern times, when it is almost indecent to grab Russia and everything Russian in the West. Seggen was not afraid to express irritation, and at the same time, he did not mention the investigator either in words or hints. And he spoke much more critically about the Canadian goalkeepers.
“Canadian goalkeepers are in free fall right now. If Russian goalkeepers are popular, then this cannot be said about Canadians. Things are so unimportant that I have a question: if the Olympics or the World Cup were held tomorrow, who would be the starting goalkeeper for Team Canada? And who will be the reservist?
Tristan Jarry, Jordan Binnington, Marc-André Fleury, Carter Hart, Mackenzie Blackwood, Logan Thompson or even Darcy Kemper? The choice from these families was less clear cut than in the past, when Canada relied on a plethora of star goaltenders. We are far from the time when we had Grant Fuhr, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfort, Curtis Collections, Roberto Luongo or Cary Price. And these are just some of the goalkeepers who played around the same time.
Now Russia has clearly overtaken Canada in the goalkeeper position.Seggen said.