Curtis Joseph

       A man who has never won the prized Stanley Cup yet won an incredible 454 Games throughout his storied career.  Measuring success for Joseph 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 Sundins’ guidance the Leafs were respected throughout the League as a play-off force.

  Moving to the Detroit Red Wings in 2002, Curtis looked poised to capture his first Stanley Cup ring.  It didn’t happen.  In Joseph’s’ last years in the NHL he still pulled off two decent seasons with the Phoenix Coyotes (then sent his taillights fading in Calgary with the Flames before retiring after about 20 games back in Toronto with the Maple Leafs).  Joseph has become sidestepped as one of the best Goalies in the game.  This has been a common occurrence for Cujo.  In making the Canadian Olympic Team twice, Cujo was awarded one start.  Make no mistake though, in the Hockey Community there was no peer, no other active Goaltender of his time, neigh Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, and Martin Brodeur with the statistics Curtis Joseph put up.  He will surely be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame once he becomes eligible in the Hall of Fame Voting. 

  Keep this in mind when thinking of Cujo; a lifetime save % of .906, 454 wins at the end of his fine career and 51 lifetime shutouts.  Without Joseph his teams the year following year 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, Dominik Hasek and Martin Brodeur there was no other clear-cut choice in his era to start a big game than Joseph.