I honestly cannot believe anyone would argue the point, but whatever:
By Terry Frei
Special to ESPN.com
The most important position in sports?
Randy Johnson doesn't pitch every day ...
The hockey goaltender.
No contest.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2003/story?id=1557003
Monday, November 10, 2008
Whats the most important position in sports?
#1 NHL-Goaltender
Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy - these elite goaltenders can put a team on their backs and carry them to victory. This is one position that can dictate a game and win a Stanley Cup. No Stanley Cup winner has ever had questionable goaltending. When looking around the league, most if not all the teams that are contenders have solid goaltending. When a goalie sucks, the team sucks - when the goalie rises, the team rises. Look at Roberto Luongo and his recent streak of 3 shutouts. When the other team can't score, they can't win. Simple as that.
Posted by JH29
at 8:31 PM
Labels: 2009 nba championship, for a team, goaltending, important, mlb, most, nfl, nhl, pitcher, point guard, position, quarterback, sports
http://jib-sports-culture.blogspot.com/2008/11/whats-most-important-position-in-sports.html
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Rangers coach John Tortorella said he is happy with the results, so far, but didn't kid himself or his players that they have played perfect hockey.
After saying that the goalie is the most important position in all major sports, Tortorella took comfort in having Lundqvist — the one he considers the best in the NHL.
"The goaltender has more to say about winning or losing, than the starting pitcher, the point guard, whatever," Tortorella said. "Your goaltender is your mind as a team. How he's playing is how your team will react off of him.
"I like his fight. That's important for his teammates to see."
http://news.realclearsports.com/news/ap/sports/2009/Apr/19/rested_lundqvist_ready_for_garden_party_vs__caps.h tml
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Few positions in sport are as influential and directly tied to franchise success as the NHL goalie. Only the NFL quarterback is as important to victory, but that is another discussion for another day.
http://www.examiner.com/x-2141-Colorado-Avalanche-Examiner~y2009m3d1-Who-is-the-best-goalie-ever
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"Centers are important in the league and centers are very important to the Minnesota Wild," assistant general manager Tom Lynn said.
"We feel it's the second most important position behind the goaltender and a position we wanted to upgrade. Wes has played that position and played it well for years."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2925301
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Starting pitcher, please. At BEST a starting pitcher can guarantee you a .250 winning %(and more often a .200 since most teams use a 5 man rotation- and that's assuming a 1.000 win % and 0 no decisions, which is ridiculous), at most he will play in 25% of your games(and usually only 20%), he rarely offers any offense at all(whereas a top passing goalie is an invaluable offensive tool), and he spends fully one half of the game sitting on his butt in the dugout.
The only other position remotely close to a goaltender is a QB.
That's it, the only one. Of course, i already said that.