Sports Greats - By Moses

Curtis Joseph

A man who has never won the prized Stanley Cup yet has won 450 Games in his career, to this point. Measuring success for Cujo should not be based on the prized cup.
For years, playing for underachieving teams, Curtis Joseph stood on his head advancing his teams to win after win. Starting his career with the St. Louis Blues, Cujo was well renowned as a shining star. The Blues made the playoffs most years he was with them. Once Joseph made a move to his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs (originally from Keswick, Ontario), he performed admirably, guiding us to two Semi-Final appearances alongside Mats Sundin. In fact, without his performance, the Leafs were a borderline playoff team. With Joseph and Sundin, the Leafs were respected throughout the League as a play-off force.
Moving to the Detroit Red Wings in 2002, Cujo looked poised to capture his first Stanley Cup ring. It didn’t happen. In his recent years with the Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames and now back with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Joseph has become sidestepped as one of the best Goalies in the game. This has been a common occurrence for Joseph. In making the Canadian Olympic Team twice, Cujo was awarded one start. Make no mistake though, in the Hockey Community there is almost no other active Goaltender, neigh Martin Brodeur and Domenic Hasek, with the statistics Cujo has put up. He will surely be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame once he hangs up his skates for good.
Keep this in mind when thinking of Cujo; a lifetime save % of .907, 450 wins (to this point of his career), and 51 lifetime shutouts. Without him his teams, the year following, declined in just about every instance aside from his Red Wings’ days. Number 31 is a marquee professional, in every sense and a hero to children aspiring to take the game to the next level’ in making Pro.
Aside from Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur, there was no other clear-cut choice to start a big game than Joseph, and Joseph has certainly won his share.