In last week's edition of "Wednesday's Challenge" it was record-breaking Pats wide receiver Randy Moss knocking off post-season Red Sox hero Josh Beckett to move up the RBSF Ladder from #91 to #84. This week it is Celtics star Kevin Garnett, currently at #81 on The Ladder, attempting to knock of Bruins Hall of Famer Tiny Thompson and move up the maximum 10 spots up to #71. A look at this week's candidates...
THOMPSON: Played 11 seasons with the Bruins (1929-39). Helped lead Bruins win the Stanley Cup as a rookie in 1929. In 468 games with Bruins he posted a record of 252-153-63 with a 1.99 GAA and 74 shutouts. Playoff record of 15-18 with 1.72 GAA and 6 shutouts. Won Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender 4 times. Names to "All NHL" teams 4 times. League leader for games played (by a goalie) 9 times in 11 seasons. Also led the league in wins 5 times, shutouts 4 times and goals against average 4 times. Is franchise all-time leader in games (for goalie), minutes, wins and shutouts. Elected to Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959.
GARNETT: Has played 1 season with the Celtics (2008). Helped Celtics win the NBA Championship in his first year with the team in 2008. In 71 regular season games he averaged 18.8 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks while shooting .539 from the field and .801 from the free throw line. In 26 playoff games his numbers improved to 20.4 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. Voted an Eastern Conference starter for the All Star Game. Was first Celtic ever to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Finished 3rd in MVP voting. Named 1st Team All-NBA and All-Defensive 1st Team. Is "Player Efficiency Rating" was 4th highest in the NBA and the 5th highest in franchise history behind only Larry Bird (4 times).
VERDICT: While KG accomplished nearly all one can accomplish in a single season, one great year is not enough to knock out the best goaltender in Bruins history. As special, and fresh in our minds, as Championship #17 was this past year, Garnett still has a ways to go before accomplishing as much as Tiny did during his stay in Boston. Thompson gets my vote here.
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4 comments:
Perhaps most impressive of all Thompson's stats...he leads #2 on the B's all-time shutouts list 74-35, and beats #2 & #3 combined 74-62.
If Thompson played from 1998-2008 and had the same resume he would likely be much higher and this would be a no-brainer. I'm sticking by a body of work being more important than "what have you done for me lately".
If KG can get us a 3peat i might have to go with KG. But the numbers for Tiny are just to hard to overlook. I will admit lookng at the headline i was going KG. Then i looked at the not so Tiny stats, and changed my mind.
I appreciate you actually looking at the numbers GMAC. I'm convinced most people don't read my postings on these Challenges, they just vote for whoever they like, etc. Oh well...tie game here with 2 to play....
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