Several players were furious but couldn’t say anything for obvious reasons.
Team members watching from the press box also lost their minds.
Miikka Kiprusoff bit his tongue.
Even the San Jose Sharks players were so surprised by the minor league move, they side-stepped the controversy altogether.
One day after Mike Keenan scuttled any chance of a comeback in Game 7 by pulling Miikka Kiprusoff late in the second period of a 4-2 game, the debate rages on over Captain Hook’s panic move.
Fuelling the fire is Keenan’s post-game decision to try pinning the loss on Kiprusoff – the very player who kept the Flames in a game they were being badly outplayed in.
It wasn’t self-preservation – Keenan has two years left on a guaranteed contract and has never worried about future employment.
It’s about losing touch with today’s game.
Make that Tuesday’s game, a 5-3 loss in Game 7 against San Jose.
Following the Sharks fourth goal of the game – none of which were Kiprusoff’s fault, Keenan chose to try shaking up the team by pulling the star keeper in favour of 40-year-old Curtis Joseph.
The players on the bench were shocked as Kiprusoff had not only been the team’s best player that night – stopping 26 shots in 36 minutes of play – but he represented the best chance the club had at climbing back.
No timeout was called to allow Joseph time to warm up and 52 seconds later the game was put away when the backup surrendered an insurance marker on the second shot he faced.
Keenan was brought in to win big games like that, not squander them by interfering when he didn’t have to.
After the game he said Kipper struggled and added that he didn’t think the move was controversial.
Kipper might disagree, which is a shame given how the backbone of the franchise will now spend a summer contemplating having to play for a coach who continually disrespects goalies.
In Game 3 Keenan pulled Kiprusoff after allowing three bad goals in the opening three minutes, setting up a stunning comeback. Difference being, Kiprusoff wasn’t at fault for the four goals, which were all screens or rebounds.
The soft goal was the one Joseph let in.
Patrick Marleau smiled when asked how his bench felt when they saw Kiprusoff being lifted but tried carefully not to admit it was a huge boost at a critical time.
Reams of furious Calgary Sun readers responded to my game column chastising Keenan for panicking/choking with 75% of respondents agreeing it was unnecessarily disruptive.
The other 25% think I have a hate on for Keenan, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
He just dropped the ball.
At the most inopportune time possible.