[News Archives] Super Savers

Crease

Chief Justice of the HFNYR Court
Jul 12, 2004
23,975
25,013
In an article from Sports Illustrated titled Super Savers dated Dec 3 1990, writer Jay Greenberg talks about the budding success that veteran John Vanbiesbrouck and rookie Mike Richter shared together.

This is a funny quote looking back:

Like most teams, the Rangers could use another scorer, but general manager Neil Smith says he will not deal either Vanbiesbrouck or Richter for help at another position. "I drafted goalies for years in Detroit [as the Red Wings' director of scouting] and came up with only one NHLer, Tim Cheveldae," says Smith. "Good goalies are just too valuable."


On similarities and differences in playing style:

Reflexes, of course, are still a job requisite. Vanbiesbrouck has outstanding quickness, and Richter may be even quicker. From the dropped-down, split-legged "butterfly" position used to protect the bottom half of the net while looking through screens and scrambles, Richter is able to spring back to his skates with astonishing speed. His short, swift but not-really-fluid movements suggest a toy goalie with a key in his back.

Richter does only the most perfunctory puckhandling around the goal. Vanbiesbrouck, though, likes to roam. "I'm more likely to beat myself trying to poke-check somebody on a breakaway than Mike would be," Vanbiesbrouck says.


On Vanbiesbrouck's love/hate relationship with the organization:

"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of being on the Ranger team that finally ends the 1940 stuff," he says. But since establishing himself as a top-notch goaltender in '84-85, Vanbiesbrouck has been frustrated by two general manager changes and resulting turnovers in personnel. In the past, he has criticized teammates privately, questioned the organization publicly and seethed during the '86-87 season when Phil Esposito, the general manager then, traded defenseman Kjell Samuelsson and a second-round draft choice to Philadelphia for Froese. Vanbiesbrouck was coming off a season in which he had gone 31-21-5 with a 3.32 goals-against average, had backstopped a pedestrian New York team to consecutive playoff upsets of powerful Philadelphia and Washington clubs and had won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goalie.

Even if Vanbiesbrouck could have accepted the notion that continuing the 61-game workload of the previous season would eventually be counterproductive to the Rangers' and his own good, he could not buy the idea that New York needed a former member of the hated Flyers to share starts and locker-room chitchat. "We have a big rivalry with Philly," he says. "It didn't sit well with me."

Full Article Here

Richter is my favorite Ranger of all time. But I still maintain that he is also one of the more overrated. And Beezer one of the more underrated.
 

Blue Seat Spartan

Permanent Vacation
Apr 24, 2012
832
0
Richmond County, NY
I never realized Richter incorporated the butterfly style into his game. What I remembered #35 most for was his explosive lateral movement, cutting the angles, and challenging shooters. And his signature saves were when he did the splits to kick away low shots or flash the leather -- which we saw on display in 1994, namely the Stanley Cup Finals. What a great exhibition of goaltending by Richter and his opponent Kirk McLean back then; two stand-up netminders facing each other in the days before the goaltending craft emphasized the butterfly and positioning in the crease...
 

Crease

Chief Justice of the HFNYR Court
Jul 12, 2004
23,975
25,013
I never realized Richter incorporated the butterfly style into his game. What I remembered #35 most for was his explosive lateral movement, cutting the angles, and challenging shooters. And his signature saves were when he did the splits to kick away low shots or flash the leather -- which we saw on display in 1994, namely the Stanley Cup Finals. What a great exhibition of goaltending by Richter and his opponent Kirk McLean back then; two stand-up netminders facing each other in the days before the goaltending craft emphasized the butterfly and positioning in the crease...

For the brunt of his career, I would consider Richter a hybrid goalie. He certainly was pure stand-up when he began his professional career, but evolved over time. McLean was probably the last real pure standup goalie the NHL has seen.

Here's a quote from Richter in 1997 talking about the evolution of his game:

I’m proud of the fact that I made it to the NHL, but even more proud of the fact that I learned to be a better goaltender. Times change and if you don’t change with the times, you’re lost. I remember playing for the famed Eddie Shore in the American Hockey League and having him tie me to the crossbar so that I couldn’t leave my feet and had to stand up and face the shooter. But I wouldn’t be in the game anymore if I was still a standup goaltender all the way with the way the game is played today — so much east to west with the European influence we have seen in the way the puck in passed from side to side. Look at the flow of the game, from up and down the wing to a criss-crossing skating and passing game — especially the quick passing game in front of the net that has forced goalies to go from side to side. Let me tell you, you can’t do that if you stand up.

Funny visual.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->