Author's Note: Many (if not all) of you probably already assume I do not have much of a life. This entry should take care of anyone still thinking that I do.
I was watching D3: The Mighty Ducks the other day and started thinking about the beloved goalie of the team, Greg Goldberg (played by Shaun Weiss). I watched him get benched by the freshmen team coach. When they scrimmage the varsity team he declares himself the starter and promptly allows 3 goals on a whopping 4 shots (I will give him a pass on 1 of them because he was interfered with). I asked on both Twitter and Facebook if he was the worst goalie in the history of hockey.
Dave Craven and Ryan Dempsey both jumped to Goldberg’s defense. David went as far as to call him a “gamer” and that he won at every level. This wasn’t completely true since he got switched to defense at the high school level. I decided to go back and re-watch the films and see if I was being too harsh and if in fact he truly was a “gamer”.
(Yeah, yeah, like I need an excuse to watch the defining sports movies of my childhood…)
After watching the first and second films again I have decided to soften my stance on Goldberg…
He’s not the worst goalie of all-time.
But he is the worse big game goalie in history.
In the first movie the underdog Ducks sneak into the playoffs and make a surprising run to the championship game. In the finals they play their rivals the Hawks. Goldberg responds to the championship pressure by allowing 3 first period goals to put his team in an early hole.
The Ducks battled back with 2 second period goals and they went to the third period down 3-2. Holding all the momentum in the game, Goldberg gives it right back to the Hawks allowing a goal with 4 minutes remaining to put them back in a 2 goal hole.
The Ducks showed their resiliency and came back to ultimately win the game 5-4 on Charlie Conway’s penalty shot with no time remaining, but they had to win in spite of their goalie.
They only show Goldberg making 2 saves throughout the course of this game. He allowed 4 goals, so that accounts for 6 shots on goal. The games had 12 minute periods and the Hawks carried play for much of the game from what we are shown. I figured that it would be reasonable to say that the Hawks had 30 shots in the game.
Ducks 5 Hawks 4 |
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State PeeWee Championship |
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| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Tot |
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Hawks | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
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Ducks | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
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| Summary |
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| 1st Period |
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| Scoring |
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| Hawks- Brown (Larson) 2:10 |
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| Hawks- McGill (Larson) 6:40 |
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| Hawks- Brown (McGill) 11:00 |
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| Penalties |
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| None |
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| 2nd Period |
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| Scoring |
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| Ducks- Banks (Conway) 4:30 |
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| Ducks- Reed (Germaine) PPG 4:45 |
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| Penalties |
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| Hawks- McGill (slashing) 4:30 |
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| 3rd Period |
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| Scoring |
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| Hawks- Blake (Brown, Larson) 7:00 |
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| Ducks- Ta. Duncan (To. Duncan, Averman) 7:35 |
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| Ducks- J. Hall (T. Hall) 11:05 |
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| Ducks- Conway Penalty Shot 12:00 |
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| Penalties |
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| Ducks- Reed (game misconduct) 7:35 |
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D2: The Mighty Ducks saw many of the same faces from the first edition return. In this installment the team is selected to represent the United States in the Junior Goodwill Games. They are joined by some new faces as well, including a new goalie, Julie “The Cat” Gaffney. Coach Bombay decides to stick with Goldberg between the pipes for the tournament even though Gaffney appears to be the stronger player.
The Ducks main opponent in this film was Team Iceland. The teams met twice in the tournament, once in the group stage and again in the tournament final. Iceland had a lot of offensive firepower, led by their captain Gunner Stahl (a personal favorite of Mr. Craven). Against a team of that caliber exceptional goalie play is needed.
Of course Goldberg gave them the complete opposite.
The preliminary round game was a 12-1 Iceland rout. Goldberg gave up all 12 goals but only because Gaffney was given a game misconduct as she came on to relieve Goldberg. Goldberg deserves some credit for sticking out the rout, but he once again put his team in a hole, allowing 5 goals through 2+ periods before he was supposed to be relieved. Goldberg finished the game with 12 GA on approximately 45 shots (20 minute periods and Iceland dominated throughout).
The Ducks bounced back (with some guidance from some Los Angeles street hockey players) and eventually got a second shot at Iceland in the championship game.
Goldberg was so determined to make up for the previous game against Iceland that he promptly allowed 4 goals in the first period to once again stack the odds against his team. Team USA/The Ducks battled back again to make the score 4-2 early in the third when Goldberg struck again allowing Stahl to score and putting Iceland back in command.
Yet again the Ducks clawed their way back in spite of their goalie and tied the game 5-5 and forcing a shootout. Goldberg allowed 3 goals on 4 shots in the shootout. Coach Bombay finally realized that he could not win with Goldberg in net and put Gaffney and her quick glove in to stone Gunner Stahl on the final attempt and bring home the gold.
USA 6 Iceland 5 (SO) |
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Junior Goodwill Games Championship |
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| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | SO | TOT |
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USA | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
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Iceland | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
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| Summary |
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| 1st Period |
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| Scoring |
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| Iceland- Sanderson (unassisted) |
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| Iceland- unidentified |
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| Iceland- unidentified |
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| Iceland- Sanderson (Stahl) |
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| Penalties |
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| Iceland- Sanderson (slashing) |
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| 2nd Period |
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| Scoring |
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| USA- Wu (Reed) 1:05 |
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| Penalties |
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| USA- Wu (roughing) |
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| USA- Reed (misconduct) |
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| USA- Portman (misconduct) |
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| USA- Robertson (roping) |
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| 3rd Period |
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| Scoring |
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| USA- Moreau (Germaine, Wu) 1:12 |
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| Iceland- Stahl (unidentified) |
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| USA- Banks (Robertson) 11:42 |
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| USA- Mendoza (unassisted) 18:00 |
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| USA- Tyler (Mendoza, Germaine) 20:00 |
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| Penalties |
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| none |
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| Shootout |
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| USA | GOAL | (Hall) |
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| Iceland | GOAL |
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| USA | GOAL | (Germaine) |
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| Iceland | NO GOAL |
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| USA | NO GOAL | (Robertson) |
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| Iceland | GOAL |
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| USA | GOAL | (Reed) |
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| Iceland | GOAL |
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| USA | GOAL | (Banks) |
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| Iceland | NO GOAL | (Stahl; Gaffney save) |
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Greg Goldberg’s Final Stat Line*:
4 Games Started
17 GA*
94 Shots Against
77 Saves
5.67 GAA
81.9 SV%
*: only counted 5 GA in first Iceland game, GAA based on 2 full games (Hawks, 2nd Iceland) and 2 partial games combining as 1 full game (the 2+ periods of the 1st Iceland game with approximately 1 period against the varsity in D3)
So it is true to say that the Ducks won 2 championship games with Goldberg in net, but the fact is Goldberg never played well in a big game situation. The Ducks were a resilient, offensively innovative team that won in spite of their goaltending.
Roberto Luongo rest easy, you are no Greg Goldberg.
