Who is the most maligned goaltender in NHL history?

Question

Other sports have one position where the performance of a singular player predicates the standings of their team. For instance, the quarterback in football bears the burden of expectation moreso than a defensive lineman. In hockey, the goaltender is the so-called "marked man", and the NHL has plenty of hapless victims to choose from. Within that list, who is the league's most maligned (failry or unfairly) goaltender?

Answer 1

Brodeur, this year his team was ranked 25 in offense yet they still led the conference at a point in the season.  I watched him and he would just rob everyone.  Even against my flames, it was an exciting games 1-0 OT victory for the devils he single handedly won that game, the offense was nowhere, the defense was decent, yet he still got the victory, and he does this night in and night out.  he is the most interesting and excitng goalie today

Answer 2

Andre "Red Light" Racicot.  The man was a diva.  They just didn't give him a chance.

Answer 3

By maligned I am assuming His performance was/is poor.

If I understand it correctly.So I am thinking of two guys.1 Would be Marc Denis,who struggled for years behind Columbus and our weak D.

The second is Robert Esche,I think I spelled it correctly.But I think Esche suffered from support and from confidence.

Hopefully Denis can do well in Montreal,I would love to see him come back after the Tampa failure.

Answer 4

I am going to say Patrick Roy comes to mind...no explanation needed.

Answer 5

Jacque Plant was the first goalie to wear a face mask (in the 1960s).  He was maligned for wearing a face mask.

Answer 6

anyone that has played goalie for the Wings. Cheveldae, essensa, vernon, Cujo, Hasek, Ozzie of Old. we tear our goalies up in Motown. i guess we just expect the best?

Answer 7

anyone that has played goalie for the Wings. Cheveldae, essensa, vernon, Cujo, Hasek, Ozzie of Old. we tear our goalies up in Motown. Vesa Toskala, Eddie belfour, ray emeray

Answer 8

Being a Sabres fan we loved this guy:

Andrew "Red Light" Raycroft... the game where Buffalo was down 4-1 in the third comes to mind... but then again we did that against Ramo and the Lightning too lol

ps - to better illustrate Raycroft's bad reputation, the nickname "red light" was told to me by another fan... a leafs fan.

Answer 9

Salo. I can still see that long shot in the playoffs going by him into the net and him lying on the ice hands over his face. He was never the same since. Heartbreaking

Answer 10

Names like Dan Cloutier, Andre Racicot, and Hardy Aastrom come to mind.