Jonas Hiller Provides Calgary Flames With Playoff Optimism

By Jordan Wevers @JordanWevers on October 16, 2014

Hockey is a team sport. There are a lot of moving parts. But a Vezina Trophy worthy season from a goaltender can often lead to a playoff berth. It’s not uncommon for a goalie to carry an average NHL club through the regular season. On Wednesday night in the Windy City, Jonas Hiller gave a performance that may have caused a flickering notion of hockey in Calgary this spring for Calgary Flames fans.

Hiller was outstanding, stopping 49 of 50 shots against the Chicago Blackhawks, one of hockey’s best teams in recent years. Patrick Kane fired six shots Hiller’s way, and Patrick Sharp eight. Neither had an answer for the Swiss keeper, with the Flames eventually emerging with the victory in overtime.

This game was a perfect example of how a dominant goalie can change the course of a game. When one is dominant over a stretch of games, it can be the difference between making playoffs and hitting the golf course in April.

The Flames were terrible in transition and on offense. The most shots they mustered on net in a given period was seven. They had no business winning this game.

Outliers happen all the time in sports. It would be illogical to say Hiller is capable of being the next Patrick Roy or Martin Brodeur year-in year-out. Those are Hall of Fame players, kings at their position. Hiller will turn 33 in February. He likely will not have a Hall of Fame career. But a season inspired by playing at the level of a Hall of Famer is a different story. It’s entirely possible.

Miikka Kiprusoff did it in the 2005-06 season — his first season in between the pipes for Calgary as their top goaltender. Playing in 74 games, the Flames finished first in the Northwest Division and made the playoffs. He won his first and only Vezina Trophy that season. Before Kiprusoff, Jim Carey came out of relative obscurity for the Washington Capitals to win a Vezina in 1995-96, his second season in the NHL. The Caps went on to lose in the conference quarter finals, and Carey was out of the league by 1999. Sergei Bobrovsky is a more recent example. True, it was a lockout shortened season in 2012-13, but he won the Vezina and his play left the Columbus Blue Jackets only a single point away from qualifying for playoffs.

Hiller is a smart contract by Flames management — even a necessary one, perhaps. Strong performances by goalies can sometimes result from being the product of ample support, surrounded by fundamental defense and an overall beneficial environment. Sometimes, however, a keeper just stands on his head. That is exactly what Hiller did Wednesday versus the Blackhawks. If he can steal a game here and there for the Flames that they have no business being in, Cowtown may just find itself engulfed in the Red Mile again.

Jordan Wevers is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JordanWevers, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.