Knights' goalie issue back on centre stage
By MORRIS DALLA COSTA -- London Free Press
Two No. 1 goaltenders on a hockey team, no problem.
Then again, maybe it's a big problem.
That's what's facing the Ontario Hockey League London Knights going into their Memorial Cup tournament season.
The Knights circumnavigated through their record-breaking season last year with two 18-year-old goaltenders. Ryan MacDonald and Gerald Coleman shared goaltending duties throughout the season. They both accumulated impressive statistics. When playoff time rolled around, both played, leading to daily conversations about who would start the next game.
By the end of the season, neither was happy with the arrangement. Most observers, and both goaltenders one would suspect, might have thought the last thing the Knights needed was to head into another season with the same questions being asked.
Yet two days into training camp, that's what's happening. The focus is yet again to the goalies and their battle for crease supremacy.
Here's the party line, although it may not be a complete word-for-word representation of comments made or about to be made, but the spirit is pretty darn accurate:
"A lot of teams would love to be in our position with two No.1 goaltenders," the London Knights say.
"We don't see a problem with it. Look at the season we had last year. What problem?"
"I'm sure both players would like to be No. 1, but they're thinking of the team first," the team says.
"Boys, that's the way it is. We won't be making any changes for a while."
Here's the non-party line. Again, the following may not be a complete word-for-word representation of comments made or to be made but the spirit is still accurate.
"We're 19 years old. We aren't getting any younger and we aren't going to get any better playing half the games," say the goaltenders.
"Yeah, yeah, we want the team to do well but I've got my hockey life to worry about."
"If I had a choice of playing here and sitting on the bench for 30 games, or being traded and playing 50 games, I'll get my suitcase ready," they say.
Unfortunately, there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered.
How much are the goaltending statistics a reflection of the ability of the goaltenders or the ability of the team in front of them?
Which goaltender has improved more after a year of performing under the microscope?
Which goaltender has the greater upside?
How will they react to the pressure of thinking that one bad game means the other guy will be playing?
For all Dale Hunter and Mark Hunter's careful verbiage, there's no doubt the coach and general manager would love to see one or the other of the goaltenders actually take charge and force himself into the No. 1 role. The fact neither has after a year of getting the chance is a cause for concern.
What Hunter, Hunter et al would like to do is to keep both until either one or the other makes a statement.
Failing that, they'd like to wait until later in the season when another team is in need of a goaltender and may want to make a deal.
Heck, they'd probably be happy if everything remained as it was last year until a move is ready to be made.
It wasn't until late last season that Coleman and MacDonald expressed displeasure at the situation.
They have the opportunity of hating it from the start this year.
And the longer the situation remains the same, the unhappier the two of them will get.
