At the end of each season, the NHL’s 30 general managers sit down and vote on which goalie they deem to be best at his position. The reward for said goaltender is the coveted Vezina Trophy and this season it could go to Philadelphia Flyer's netminder Ray Emery.
The list of goaltenders who have won the Vezina include, Turk Broda, Tony Esposito, Grant Fuhr, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur and the legendary Jacques Plante, who owns the NHL record with six Vezina awards.
Prior to the start of the 2009-10 NHL season, many writers listed the “usual suspects” as their favorites to win the Vezina.
Veterans Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, Evgeni Nabokov, and 2008-09 winner Tim Thomas were often mentioned, as was sophomore goaltender Steve Mason and, to a lesser extent, the Calgary Flames' Miikka Kiprusoff.
Try as you might, one name you will be hard-pressed to find on any of the lists is Emery's.
Coming off of a successful season in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), where Emery posted a very respectable 22-8-0 record with a sparkling 2.12 GAA and .926 save percentage, there were still a ton of doubters unwilling to give Emery a shot wi ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Mark Ritter
Flyers’ Ray Emery Playing Like an All-Star, Vying for Vezina
November 15th, 2009 by Mark Ritter Leave a reply »
Advertisement