Mike Keenan on Fire in Calgary

Throughout his entire coaching career Mike Keenan has always been known to strike up some controversy. Nicknamed ‘Captain Hook’, this current Calgary Flames bench boss has often had players, fans and media questioning his strategies for pulling his starting goalie and that’s what everyone is talking about in Calgary these days.

After starter Miikka Kiprusoff performed exceptionally well in the second half and ended up with a respectable 39 wins and a 2.69 GAA this season, Keenan virtually blamed him after their game seven loss to the quicker and hungrier San Jose Sharks. In an eight-minute span during the second, on Tuesday night, San Jose took 21 shots on goal and scored four times. Calgary had trouble containing the San Jose forchecking and were left running around their own zone. After facing 30 shots, Keenan instead of calling a time out decided to pull his meal ticket for an aging Curtis Joseph who was coming in stiff and cold from sitting on the bench. At the time, there was still over 31 minutes left with the Flames losing 4-2. “He flunked the test,” Keenan who has 500 coaching wins said about his starting goalie. During the press conference after being eliminated, Keenan was blunt about his sensitive starter who didn’t get a lot of help from his defenseman. “I thought he’d give us his best game tonight but he just wasn’t on tonight.” The only questionable goal that Kipper would like to have back is the second Sharks goal, which was a shot that went along the ice and between his legs. In a do or die game, Joseph surrendered a goal right away as the Flames could only muster one more in the 5-3 defeat.

In all sports, it’s an unwritten rule to live or die with your big guns. Rookie Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price had a rough couple of games against the Boston Bruins in the first round but was never pulled. New Jersey Devils future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur who let in a couple of questionable goals in this year’s playoffs is someone who would never get pulled. Over the years, since leading the Flames to the Stanley Cup finals in 2004, Kiprusoff has delivered All Star goaltending and on Tuesday Keenan gave him the ultimate insult. Kipper didn’t deserve to be pulled or singled out by coach Keenan.  

 

 

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