The Most Powerful Weapon in Sports

I rarely make rash or extreme predictions, but with the New York Rangers up 2-0 on the Washington Capitals it's a very good possibility that the Rangers could sweep them out the door because of something I've been saying for years: A hot goaltender is the most powerful weapon in all sports.

More effective than a hot pitcher who only pitches every few days.

Better than a hot slugger who only comes up four times a game.

More dominant than any top football player who only plays offense or defense - not both at the highest level.

The high-scoring dominant basketball player comes the closest but even he comes out to rest now and then or can get in foul trouble. If a goalie gets penalized, he stays in the game while somebody else serves the time.

Unlike any other player in every team sport, the goalie is the only player who is in the game for the entire duration (Legendary goaltender Glen "Mr. Goalie" Hall played every minute of every game for seven consecutive years from 1956 to 1963. The season was 70-games long at that time). Even the goalie's teammates get to rest between shifts. By definition, there are no substitutions for the goaltender. His only breaks are the same ones the rest of the team gets between periods. Otherwise, he's out there for all 60 minutes and has to be 100% focused at all times, even if his own team is on the power play. In no other team sport is so much pressure involved for one position. That pressure, along with the fact that goalies didn't wear masks before 1959, caused some to suffer from shell shock and retire early. It was a very rough occupation. Hall-of-Famer Jacques Plante received over 200 stitches in his face over the course of his illustrious career. After getting hit flush by a slap shot in 1959, they stitched him up (right) and he finished the game wearing a mask, the first goalie to do so.

In short, if the goalie is stopping virtually every shot for 60 minutes (and overtime, if necessary), nothing else matters - except, of course, his teammates scoring at least one more goal than the opposition. This kind of one-man dominance that no other team sport can produce explains why there are so many more short playoff series' in hockey then in basketball. In many cases a hot goaltender has taken an otherwise mediocre club very far.

If Henrik Lundqvist, who's already one of the best in the business, kicks his game up even further - and he's showing signs of it so far - he could single-handedly take the Rangers pretty close to the Stanley Cup in spite of their weak offense. Hopefully for the Rangers they can score at least a little more so that they don't put too much of a load on Lundqvist.

BTW: What the Rangers DO have in that low-octane offense is two of the better clutch players in the game: Chris Drury and...Sean Avery. Yes, Sean Avery. Avery's no sniper and he's a royal pain in the ass, but when he does figure in a play it's often at a crucial point in the game. To borrow the old, tired, used-up, but very true addage: Like noted agitators Claude Lemieux, Die Domi, Ulf Samuelsson, Esa Tikkanen and Chris Nilan, as much as you hate Sean Avery, you love having him on your team.