TORONTO (Apr. 10) — When Curtis Joseph, the best goalie to play for the Leafs since they last won the Stanley Cup 42 years ago, re-signed with the club in July, he made it clear he would have retired had his home-town club not shown interest. Almost a year later – with a second-half renaissance sparking a desire to play again next season – Cujo admits that his self-proclaimed options haven’t changed. In other words, unless the Leafs call again this summer, he has more than likely played his final game in the National Hockey League.
“I feel pretty much the same as last July – it would be difficult to play elsewhere with four children [in Toronto],” Joseph told me earlier today, after the Leafs’ final practice at the old Lakeshore Lions Arena. The club moves to its spanking new facility across the park for training camp in September. “If the Leafs aren’t an option next season, I might consider going to another team, but it’s not something I really want to do at this point. Obviously, wearing the Maple Leaf to finish my career would be tremendous. I was able to re-focus this season and the body feels good; I still enjoy playing and I’m a happy person in general.
“Certainly, I could move on and do other things, but hockey is what I know and what I love. I’m from the old school – play as long as you can until they rip the jersey off your back. But, I’m not sure I’d go to [another city]. I’d have to give that some long, hard thought.”
Joseph was signed as a free agent last summer by Cliff Fletcher, who is no longer in charge of personnel decisions with the Maple Leafs. And, there is no indication that Brian Burke plans on retaining Cujo in a playing capacity. Joseph had a veiled understanding with Fletcher that he’d stay in the organization as a goaltending coach/mentor after his career, even though Corey Hirsch currently holds the position. And, that role appeals to him. “It wasn’t a promise [from Fletcher], but it was certainly discussed when I came back to the Leafs,” Cujo said. “I love working with young people in the game, so if that’s a possibility, I’d enjoy doing it.”
In recent weeks, the spotlight has been focused on Joseph’s place among goalies with the most career regular-season losses in the NHL. A 3-1 defeat against Buffalo on Wednesday night moved him into a tie in that dubious category with the late Lorne (Gump) Worsley – both men at 352. It has temporarily diminished a far-more attractive placing for Cujo: His 454 career victories stand him fourth on the all-time list, behind only Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy and Ed Belfour. The fact he has more wins than such legendary puck-stoppers as Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante, Tony Esposito, Glenn Hall, Grant Fuhr and Dominik Hasek should ultimately land Joseph in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Career numbers in both categories are largely the result of longevity – Roy, Belfour, Sawchuk, Esposito and Hall also retired with more than 305 losses.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Cujo said today about the recent focus on his career defeats. “Certainly I’ve played a long time and I have a lot more wins than losses. I’m also pleased with my career playoff numbers. When you’ve been around as long as me, a few things probably won’t stack up in your favour.”
Though he hasn’t won a Stanley Cup, Joseph stands 11th all time in career playoff victories [63]; sixth, behind Roy, Brodeur, Belfour, Fuhr and Mike Vernon in games played [133], and third [behind only Roy and Brodeur] with 16 post-season shutouts.
When I suggest Joseph is the best Leafs’ netminder since 1967, I occasionally get an argument. “What about Belfour?” I’m asked. “Or Felix Potvin? Or Mike Palmateer?” All were outstanding goalies for the post-expansion Maple Leafs, but none were as spectacular over a four-year span as Joseph was between 1998 and 2002. The Leafs of Pat Quinn were often entertaining and high-scoring, but they certainly were not among the NHL’s tidy defensive squads. Innumerable regular-season and playoff games were decided as a result of Cujo’s brilliance.
During Joseph’s four-year reign in blue & white, the Leafs appeared in 10 playoff series and 60 playoff games. To put that in perspective, the club played only 59 post-season games in an 11-year span from 1968 and 1979.
Potvin guided the Leafs through 52 playoff matches in six full seasons as No. 1 goalie [1992-93 to 1997-98]. The club missed the Stanley Cup tournament in his final two years at the helm.
Belfour had a three-season reign as No. 1 man [2002-03, 2003-04 and 2005-06]. The Leafs appeared in 20 playoff games and he won only one series – a spectacular effort against Ottawa in ’04.
So, there’s little question – numerically and otherwise – that Cujo has been the premier netminder to don a Leafs’ jersey since 1967. It’s no wonder he wishes to retire as a member of the Blue & White.
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THE LEAFS ARE IN the hunt for goaltending prospect Jonas Gustavsson – who just led Farjestads BK to a five-game championship triumph over Jonkoping in the best-of-seven final of the Swedish Elite League. At 6-foot-3, 181 pounds, the 24-year-old is looking to play in the NHL next season; the Leafs and Dallas are said to be among a half-dozen prime suitors.
In the Swedish playoffs, Gustavsson had five shutouts in 13 games – a performance reminiscent of New York Rangers’ star Henrik Lundqvist with Vastra Frolunda in the spring of 2005. But, Leafs’ defenseman Jonas Frogren, who played with Gustavsson last year at Farjestads, warns not to take the Lundqvist comparison too far.
“He’s a good goalie and I think he can play in the NHL, but it’s a bit early to expect that he’ll be like Henrik,” Frogren told me today. “[Gustavsson] uses his size well and takes a lot of shots in his chest. It would be cool to play with him again. But, comparing him to Henrik? We’ll have to see about that.”
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THOUGH HE UNDERSTANDS AND expects that the Leafs’ top rookies – Luke Schenn, Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin and John Mitchell – may regress during their second NHL seasons, coach Ron Wilson doesn’t believe there’s any such thing as a sophomore jinx.
“It’s no jinx,” Wilson said today. “What happens is these guys all think they’ve made it and have achieved their dream, and in the summer time they don’t do a damned thing. They come to training camp out of shape and not prepared, mentally, to play. That’s pretty standard throughout the league. People call it a sophomore jinx, but it’s usually the result of a player’s head getting too big.
“Your buddies at home are telling you it was great seeing you play in the NHL and you start listening to them. It’s our goal this summer not to let any of [our players] think they had great years. It was a [first] step and next year’s going to be even harder for them.”
Wilson said he has spoken, directly, with Schenn about this issue.
“I would advise Luke to stay here most of the summer, and obviously not read the papers or go on the radio,” the coach warned. “[He should] stay away from his friends back home who will want to catch a ride with him. ‘Let’s go out here; let’s do this… you’re a star now.’ He has to stand clear from that stuff and realize how much work he still has ahead of him.”
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