Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Leafs coach implores NHL to protect goalies

Brian Gionta;  James Reimer

Montreal Canadiens right wing Brian Gionta (21) falls after running into Toronto Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer (34) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct, 22, 2011, in Montreal. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz)

AP

Leafs coach Ron Wilson thinks the NHL needs to do a better job protecting its goalies. Given his team’s current goaltending situation, you can hardly blame him.

Wilson, of course, is being forced to deal with the absence of starter James Reimer, who’s missed the last three weeks after colliding with Montreal’s Brian Gionta.

Milan Lucic’s intentional collision with Ryan Miller on Saturday that left Buffalo’s starter with a concussion has Wilson wondering what it’s going to take to stop the carnage.

“It’ll be interesting to see the direction the league’s going to go,” said Wilson, as per the Globe and Mail. “There’s no white papers out there to describe that kind of an injury or hit with regards to goaltenders. If it was a defenseman, you’d say that it was a clean hit.

“However, a goaltender’s more or less defenseless in some of those situations. They’re not wearing the same type of equipment, they’re not built to absorb a 250-pound freight train running you over. Whereas a defenseman may. That’s the debate that’s going to go on in the next couple of days. Should we be protecting goaltenders?”

For what it’s worth, I can’t believe people are saying stuff like, “If Miller doesn’t want to get hurt, he should stay in his crease.”

Ridiculous.

Whether you think goalies should be fair game or not, the fact is, they aren’t. Miller deserves absolutely none of the blame for getting injured. That’s all on Lucic.