Roenick, Mason and the Lazy Narrative
Stop me if you've heard this one before: A hockey analyst says that the Philadelphia Flyers lack an upper-echelon goaltender who is capable of taking the team deep in the playoffs.
That's what former Flyers' forward Jeremy Roenick
said yesterday on CSN Philadelphia's
Philly Sports Talk Live .
"I like Steve Mason," Roenick said on Philly Sports Talk, "but I don’t think Steve Mason is the answer to winning a Stanley Cup...."I think you need an upper echelon defenseman, I think you need an upper echelon goaltender. The Flyers do not have [either]. I think that’s something that you’re going to have to look at in terms of improving your team."
Specific to Mason, Roenick added, "He was a starter at one time [in Columbus]. "He became a backup and has moved a couple of times, and now he’s in Philly as another starter."
Let's work backwards here and start by correcting a factual mistake.
Mason has moved exactly once in his career, coming to Philadelphia from Columbus at the 2013 trade deadline. He has actually been his NHL team's primary starter for most of his career, except for when he was unseated by eventual Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky in Columbus in what proved to be Mason's final season with the team.
As for the main point of Roenick's comments -- let it be said here that colorful opinions are JR's forte, not any sort of in-depth analysis -- it is merely the latest variation of what I call the "lazy narrative." That's the one that casually trots out as "fact" that the Flyers have perennially had subpar goaltending -- especially in the postseason -- ever since a rookie Ron Hextall won the Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy in 1986-87.
It's a lazy narrative, because it's a false one.
There have certainly been years where inconsistent or leaky goaltending was one of the primary culprits in the Flyers' falling short of their aspirations in the playoffs. There have been other years where the goaltending more or less ended up being a non-factor in a playoff outcome (Roman Cechmanek vs. Ottawa in 2002, for example). There have also been a couple years where the goaltending has actually been just fine and it has been failings in other areas that cause Philly's playoff ouster.
Brian Boucher's stellar rookie run in 1999-2000 was one such year in which goaltending was the least of Philly's playoff concerns. Robert Esche had far more good games than bad one in the 2004 playoffs, as the Flyers came within one win of the Stanley Cup Finals. Martin Biron basically stole the team's 2008 playoff series against Montreal, leading the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Steve Mason's 2013-14 season was actually one of the more underrated full seasons that a Flyers goaltender has put together in the last decade. He had a few hiccups in December and January along with the entire team. Otherwise, Mason's play was excellent both before December and from February onward.
When he returned from an end-of-season concussion suffered on the next-to-last day of the regular season, Mason's play against the Rangers in the playoffs was otherworldly. He was the number one reason that series even got to seven games and virtually the only reason Philly even held close enough in Game Seven to keep the final score to 2-1.
Actually, pretty much from the time of his arrival in Philadelphia from Columbus, Mason has rather consistently shown a more mature version of the form that propelled him to the Calder Trophy in Columbus. He experienced severe growing pains after his early success, but the potential was always there to be a fine NHL starting goaltender. He just had to grow up a bit, which is exactly what happened.
Over the last couple years, Mason overhauled his mental approach and practice routine. It finally started to pay dividends on the ice. Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, Mason formed an outstanding working relationship with goaltending coach Jeff Reese. He also has good chemistry with backup Ray Emery.
As a matter of fact, Mason was so good for the majority of last season that it can fairly said that as long as he stays healthy and performs to a similar level, the Flyers needn't worry about their goaltending being good enough to win. He just turned 26 in May and should be entering the prime of his career at a position where lengthy learning curves are the rule. Many top NHL netminders do not emerge until their mid-to-late 20s.
Team defense is still a major concern. A hot-and-cold offense is a periodic issue. The depth in goal in the event of a prolonged Mason injury is a concern. Mason himself is actually a source of confidence among his teammates and coaches.
I seriously doubt that Roenick paid enough attention to Mason over the past year to be able to formulate an informed opinion. He seemed to be going primarily off Mason's underachieving reputation behind mostly bad Columbus teams after his rookie year.
This is what I saw from Mason last season (incidentally, a former NHL goaltender and a current NHL goaltending coach agreed this in an accurate summation): When Mason moved back in his crease, he became far more effective in general. Working with Reese, he did a very good job at staying on top of his mechanics and angles, and made some minor adjustments when he hit a midseason bump in the road.
Mason moves very well laterally. He has one of the quickest gloves in the NHL and is one of the top-five puckhandling goaltenders in the game today. When he's fully locked into mechanics, his rebound control is good (it's not as good at other times). As he has matured as a goaltender, he has done a much better job of putting a bad goal or a bad game behind him and generally exudes a high degree of focus and confidence that rubs off on his teammates.
That was the goaltender the Flyers had most of last season: Mason was a goalie in whom his teammates had a lot of faith.
As long as he stays healthy, there is no reason why Mason cannot duplicate or even improve upon what he did last season. However, he could use more consistent defensive support from the team in front of him. His .917 regular season save percentage last year could have been pushed to .920 or higher with a little better team-wide commitment to defense.
I liked Roenick as an NHL player. He was colorful and fun player to watch and a competitor who hated to lose. If he fell short, it was never for lack of caring or effort. As a commentator, I find his shoot-from-the-hip style to be entertaining in small doses. However, he'll never be a go-to source for detailed analysis or well-crafted preparation. JR is all about the emotion of the moment and saying whatever comes to mind.
As such, Roenick's casual dismissal of Mason's 2013-14 season as a potential long-term breakthrough is neither surprising nor worrisome. He does not have his finger on the pulse of the current Flyers' team simply by virtue of being a former Flyers player. His opinion on the defense is closer to hitting the mark than his Mason assessment.
Final point: There have been plenty of goalies in recent history who have gone deep in the playoffs despite "lacking postseason credibility." Antti Niemi was the starter on a Stanley Cup champion. Marc-Andre Fleury, who has had more bad playoffs than good ones, won a Cup in 2009 with a pedestrian .908 playoff save percentage that year. Michael Leighton got the Flyers to within two wins of the 2010 Stanley Cup. Dwayne Roloson and Jussi Markkannen got the Edmonton Oilers within one win of the Cup in 2006.
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FRIDAY QUICK HITS
* Alumnus Birthday: Defenseman Ted Harris, a member of the Flyers' second Stanley Cup winning team, turns 78. The Flyers acquired a 38-year-old Harris, who had won four previous Stanley Cup rings as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, before the 1974-75 season in a cash purchase from the St. Louis Blues. He went on to dress in 70 games during the regular season plus 16 of the Flyers' 17 playoff games en route to the championship. Harris retired after the season to become a coach with the Minnesota North Stars. After his hockey days ended, Harris owned a New Jersey hardware store for many years.
* Alumnus Birthday: Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg turns 33. Drafted by the Flyers in sixth round of the 2001 NHL Draft, Seidenberg developed quickly in Germany's DEL and went on emerge as a bonafide NHL prospect. A converted forward, Seidenberg settled in as a solid two-way defenseman for Adler Mannheim. Coming to North America in 2002, he surprisingly earned a spot in coach Ken Hitchcock's lineup before experiencing the typical growing pains of a young NHL defenseman.
Thereafter, Seidenberg shuttled back and forth between the big club and the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms. A broken leg suffered in January 2003 was a setback for his full-time NHL ambitions with the Flyers. However, Seidenberg became a key blueline member for the Phantoms during the team's run to the 2004-05 Calder Cup championship.
Seidenberg entered the 2005-06 season with a realistic shot at finally earning a full-time job with the big club. Unfortunately, the German defenseman continued to struggle with a variety of injuries, missing time with a concussion, a fractured wrist and a left knee sprain. As a result, Seidenberg only dressed in 29 more games for the Flyers.
With Peter Forsberg shelved due to an ongoing groin problem (which turned out to be related to the congenital foot problems that eventually ended his Hall of Fame career), the Flyers traded Seidenberg to the Phoenix Coyotes on Jan. 20, 2006. In return, Philly received veteran center Petr Nedved.
Since leaving Philadelphia, Seidenberg has finally gone on to become a solid regular NHL contributor. Most notably, he was a mainstay on the Boston Bruins' Stanley Cup-winning team of 2011-12. This past season, Seidenberg was limited by injury to 34 games. His prolonged absence ultimately prompted the Bruins to trade with Philadelphia to rent Andrej Meszaros in exchange for the third-round 2014 Draft pick that the Flyers recently used on the selection of defenseman Mark Friedman.
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