With the 109th pick in ATD2010, The Regina Pats are proud to select...
Bernie Parent, G
- 5'10", 180 lbs
- Member of the HHOF
- Stanley Cup (1974, 1975)
- Stanley Cup Finalist (1976)
- Conn Smythe Trophy (1974, 1975)
- NHL 1st All-Star Team (1974, 1975)
- WHA 2nd All-Star Team (1973)
- Also 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 7th in All-Star Voting
- Vezina Trophy (1974, 1975)
- Top-5 in Hart Voting Twice (2nd, 4th)
- Top-10 in sv% 9 Times (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th)
- Top-2 in Playoff sv% Twice (1st, 2nd) - Combined sv% in these two seasons was .929, the rest of the NHL averaged .899!
- After a rough start with Boston, Parent never finished below 11th in sv% among the 23-35 goalies with 1000+ minutes. In the season that he was 11th, this was among 35 goalies with 1000+ minutes, and he was still 8 points above the league average! (.899-.891)
For more on sv% in Parent's time, see here:
http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=698806
loh.net said:
In the early part of his career, Parent tended goal with the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he was best known for being the clutch netminder on the Philadelphia Flyers' championship teams.
Parent was a stand-up goalie, a technique he learned from his boyhood hero, Jacques Plante. Many years later, when the slumping Parent talked about retiring, Plante talked him out of it. In addition, Plante coached Parent on some fundamental points that Bernie had been missing in his game. Plante watched him practise in Philly for two days and didn't say anything. Then he told Parent exactly what he was doing wrong - sitting back on his heels, backing into his crease and losing concentration.
...Parent became a sports hero in the City of Brotherly Love. One local bumper sticker read, "Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent." Now part of the Flyers' Broad Street Bullies, Parent and his teammates won the Stanley Cup twice in a row, in 1974 and 1975. In both seasons, Parent won the Vezina Trophy as best goalie and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Sadly, Parent's remarkable career was short-lived. In a freak accident, a stick hit him in his right eye when he was 34, causing permanent damage to his depth perception and his ability to focus. Parent was forced to retire from hockey in 1979.
Joe Pelletier said:
Beset by troubling injuries that robbed him of many of his best years of his career, Bernie Parent doesn't always get consideration for the greatest goalie of all time. Yet anyone who saw him play in the mid-1970s knows few goalies have ever played at a higher level than Bernie Parent.
Much like Dominik Hasek 20 years later with Buffalo, for a period of time Parent was simply incredible. He was "the second coming of Jacques Plante" and the Flyers "undisputed MVP." Neither of the Flyers' much celebrated back to back Stanley Cup championships would have been possible without Parent.
...Parent returned to the City of Brotherly Love in 1973 to find the Broad Street Bullies at their disgraceful best. Parent gave them the goaltending they lacked to lead them to Stanley Cup.
"When Parent is out there, we know we can win games we have no business winning," said XXXXXXXXX.
In 1973-74 he established himself as the best goalie in hockey. He played more minutes (4314), had more wins (47), had more shutouts (12) and had a better GAA (1.89) than any other goalie, earning the Vezina trophy. In the playoffs he would impossibly take his game to a higher level, upsetting the heavily favored Boston Bruins, sporting Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, for the Stanley Cup. Parent was the obvious choice as playoff MVP and earned the Conn Smythe trophy.
The following season Parent proved his success was no fluke. He notched another 44 wins, another 12 shutouts, another Vezina Trophy in the regular season, and another Smythe trophy en route to another Stanley Cup in the playoffs.
The THN Top-100 Players Of All-Time said:
A superb positional goalie...
Goaltenders: The Expansion Years said:
Parent turned in one of the best goaltending performances ever during the 1973-74 season and did not stop there... had an encore performance the following year... was still as dominant a goaltender as there was in the game.
Lord Stanley's Cup said:
Without him, there is no cup in Philadelphia.
Players: The Ultimate A-Z Guide Of Everyone Who Has Ever Played In the NHL said:
It is almost a universally accepted fact that the most talentless teams to win the cup were Philadelphia's in 1974 and 1975. It also is an even greater surety that the Flyers never, ever would have won had it not been for the mind-boggling goaltending of Bernie Parent.
Ultimate Hockey said:
Parent always seemed to know where the puck had the best chance of hitting him. Rather than flail at shots, he accepted them, cleanly snatching or deflecting the puck out of harm's way. His movements were economical and fluid. Such serenity seemed to rub off on his teammates and make them believe they couldn't lose with him in net.
Kings Of the Ice said:
Parent was a master at moving out to cut down a shooter's angle.
Without Fear said:
Reaching the finals for the first time in their history, the Flyers weren't expected to beat the mighty Bruins led by Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. But Parent had other ideas and with every sparkling stop, he installed that belief system within his teammates... No goalie in the league controlled rebounds better than Parent. he stood up and challenged the shooters, rarely presenting an opening to them. "He was so patient, that was his best quality", says XXXXX. "he didn't make the first move. He'd wait the shooter out."... In the decisive sixth game of that 1974 final, Parent made the first period goal stand up, stopping 30 shots for a 1-0 victory... "If you look at that era, Dryden was coming up, but if you said 'who would you want in a seven-game series, Dryden or Parent?' it would be Parent", says XXXXXXX. Even opponents marvelled at Parent's capabilities. "There was a year or two when he was invincible", former NY Islanders GM Bill Torrey says. "He never got the credit. It was always the Broad Street Bullies or Bobby Clarke. he never got the credit for how important he was to that team."... Often he'd laugh in the midst of the most significant games. "He would lean over to me and say 'hey XXXXXX, how's she going?' and he would laugh. I think it was to relax me, to break the tension, and to relax himself. And part of it was his sense of humour. In the middle of the heat of battle he would do this."
Philadelphia Sunday Bulletin said:
What has been happening to Bernie Parent the past week and a half should only happen to crooked politicians and oil company executives. It is cruel what they are asking the little guy to endure... Too many times during this current Rangers/Flyers series, Parent has been asked to stand there and parry a mass of flying hockey pucks that, around the Flyers' goal, look like exploding popcorn kernels. But with reflexes that, to describe, would result in a whole paragraph of superlatives, the guy has survived and the Flyers with him.
Score! My 25 Years With the Broad Street Bullies said:
Granted, Parent had a losing record at the time, but that was because he often had to have a shutout to earn a tie. To many people, the first blockbuster trade in Flyers history was a depressing one. Fans cried. Bernie cried. his teammates cried. I cried.
Score! My 25 Years With the Broad Street Bullies said:
What an extraordinary year his first Vezina season was. And when I say "season", I mean that almost literally, since Bernie played all but six games. He lost only thirteen of his 72 starts, tying twelve, and winning 47.
Score! My 25 Years With the Broad Street Bullies said:
Bernie was the artist and charmer whom everyone loved to cherish and adore... for those two back to back seasons, no goaltender was ever better, and no goaltender could have been any better...
Score! My 25 Years With the Broad Street Bullies said:
In the 1976-77 season, principally because of Bernie, the Flyers won their fourth consecutive Clarence Campbell Bowl as the best in the West.
Score! My 25 Years With the Broad Street Bullies said:
XXXXXXXX and Bernie were both perfect through the first two periods (of that 1975 Finals game), although the desperate Sabres repeatedly stormed Bernie, just the way the Bruins had the previous year. I still to this day don't know how at least some of the Sabres' laser shots didn't go in, especially during several powerplays - both 5-on-4 and 4-on-3. Yes, I suppose I do know. It was because Bernie was just that good!
A couple snippets following the Flyers' second cup win:
The Evening Bulletin said:
Their sluggishness and uncertainty was reflected in the number of penalties (7) and PP chances (6) they afforded the sabres during the first two periods. During the same span, the Flyer offense managed only 10 shots, none of the taxing sort. What all this did was put tremendous pressure on Parent, who, in effect, was being asked to carry the whole team until such time as his teammates awoke and realized that Lord Stanley himself was watching from the Great Blue Line Club in the sky... If Bernie has a fault, it appears to be his inability to combat boredom. Against teams like the Islanders and Leafs, neither of whom was able to pressure him with any regularity, his concentration might wander. Hence, he might allow an easy goal. That should rarely, if ever, be the case against buffalo. If last night's opening final round game can be offered as evidence, Parent is at his best under pressure.
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin said:
In a game that demanded total perfection in the art of goaltending, the Flyers' Bernie Parent last night reinforced the simple truth that he is the foremost master of his trade.
To say that Parent was spectacular does not do him justice. "Flawless" and "perfect" are superlatives closer to the truth. In a game that would be decided by the first errant movement by either goaltender, Parent outdueled the Buffalo Sabres' ***** ******* in what was a classic match of skills.
Parent, in fact, acted as though he would shut out the Sabres for a month, if need be, until such time as his teammates could find a weakness in *******.
...the greater the challenge, the more he thrives... in the first period alone, Parent was asked to face four Sabre power plays. They peppered him with 13 shots, each one handled by Parent without flaw... "He carried our whole team when we needed him. I was afraid our penalty killers were going to run out of gas then, Bernie would come up with one of those clutch saves and that seemed to give everyone a lift to keep going... Sometimes, I think we should all give him parts of our paychecks."
Philadelphia Daily News said:
"Did he get the trophy?", Rick Martin asked, referring to the Conn Smythe. "He did? Well he deserves it. Bernie was the difference." ***** ***** agreed, reverting to a simplism that seemed acceptable under the circumstances. "You can't win a game if you can't score a goal", he sighed. "And Bernie Parent just wasn't going to let himself be scored on tonight."... "I think we outplayed them in every game except the fifth game in Philadelphia", *********** insisted. But Buffalo coach ***** ***** put that in perspective. "Outplaying and outscoring are two different things."
What teammates, opponents, and other coaches and GMs said about Parent:
Retired Coach/GM said:
I sit now and think about that 1975 final and know that if we had changed goaltenders, it would have been no contest. I'm not taking anything away from Gerry Desjardins, he played as hard as he could but he was not Bernie Parent. Few goalies are.
Johnny Bower said:
Not only was he a tough-as-nails goaltender on the ice, he was the team joker. He would keep the guys loose and alive in the dressing room by cracking jokes and pulling pranks... bernie had two things going for him. He had good quick hands and played angles well. He wouldn't race out to the shooter, rather, he'd coolly edge out to cut down the angle. Before the shooter was ready to let the shot go, there wasn't much net exposed. He basically said to the shooter, "Go ahead, try to beat me. You're not going to score."
Retired Goalie/Coach/GM said:
Parent did many things that were reminiscent of Jacques Plante. the way he stood up. the way he played his angles. The way he played the puck behind the net. He had much the same demeanor as Jacques. Those two years in the playoffs, they can say whatever they want, but there is no way the Flyers would ever have won the Stanley Cup without him. In those two years, Parent was as good a goaltender as I've ever seen in the playoffs.
Bobby Clarke said:
Bernie is the most valuable player in all of hockey... Bernie makes you feel like you can walk on water.
Backup Goalie Bobby Taylor said:
You talk about money players, and let me tell you, whenever we needed a game, there was Bernie, ready to deliver it to us.
Darryl Sittler said:
It became apparent to anyone with 20/20 vision that Parent represented our goalie of the present and the future.
Flyers GM Keith Allen said:
Bernie always talked about the pressure, but he seemed immune to it.
Punch Imlach after Game 1 of 1975 Finals said:
Bernie Parent was the difference tonight. This was one of those games where the first goal decided everything. We had about four good chances in the second period, but Parent came through. If we had scored two goals, it would have been a different story. Bernie ranks with any goalkeeper I've ever seen play this game. And I used to have a couple of good ones in Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk.
Rene Robert after game 3 of the 1975 Finals said:
They got beat because we were able to get 46 shots on Bernie Parent... That is too many shots, even for a goaltender as great as Bernie. You cannot expect him to stop them all. Against him, I think we have to get more than 40 shots.
Jerry korab following 1975 Finals said:
"Only God saves more than Bernie Parent"? Ha! God should have a season so good.
Danny Gare following 1975 Finals said:
We got beat by the guy in the nets. It's so frustrating. He played unbelievably well. When you come into the league and see that, you tend to wonder.
Bobby Clarke following the clinching game of the 1975 Finals said:
You could tell nothing was gonna get by Bernie tonight.
Bernie Parent following 1975 Finals said:
If you want to take a picture of me with a trophy, take me with the Stanley Cup. That's what this game is all about.
Ed Van Impe following 1975 Finals said:
Having Bernie Parent in goal makes the difference. He makes up for the mistakes we make.
Bobby Clarke when accepting 1975 Hart said:
What can I say? It's a real honour and a great way to cap the season. I still consider any award I win as a team thing. Bernie is the only guy who can win games by himself.
NHL Coaches Polls from the 1970s said:
BERNIE PARENT
Best goalie | 3rd | 1971
Best goalie | T-1st | 1974
Best goalie | 3rd | 1979
MVP | 3rd | 1974
Complete handbook of Pro Hockey 1972 said:
Considered to be the finest young goalie in the game.
Poll of NHL Correspondents From 1975 World Almanac Guide To Pro Hockey said:
BEST GOALTENDER:
Bernie Parent - 52 pts
Ken Dryden - 29 pts
Tony Esposito - 17 pts
Ed Giacomin - 5 pts
Complete Handbook Of Pro Hockey 1978 said:
A textbook perfect goalie when he's sharp... a fun-loving guy and good team player.
Complete Handbook Of Pro Hockey 1979 said:
Completed sensational comeback after neck surgery threatened career two years ago...
Fun with Numbers!
A. Playing for a Dirty Team
As you know, save percentages plummet when facing a powerplay. A goalie who faces more powerplays than another, all things being equal, will have a harder time posting a high sv%. Last season, for example, the NHL save percentage versus the PP was .8677, and .9185 against all other shots. So a PP shot was about 62% more likely to enter the net than any other average shot. I already showed you how Bernie Parent's save percentage was often awesome, now consider that he played on the Philadelphia Flyers, the team that faced an awfully large number of powerplays.
Here is the year by year league ranking in PPOA for Parent's team in all of his NHL seasons, and the number of teams in the league:
2/6
4/6
1/12
4/12
2/12
4/14
8/14 (Leafs)
1/16
(35% more than 2nd place!)
1/18
(37% more than 2nd place!)
1/18
1/18
1/18
1/17
During Parent's 9 full seasons with the Flyers, here are the total PPOA/GP for all 18 franchises:
1. Philadelphia 4.64
2. Boston 3.94
3. Detroit 3.92
4. NY Islanders 3.80
5. Toronto 3.68
6. Washington 3.51
7. St. Louis 3.50
8. Los Angeles 3.50
9. Chicago 3.46
10. Buffalo 3.38
11. Vancouver 3.34
12. NY Rangers 3.34
13. Atlanta 3.29
14. Pittsburgh 3.24
15. Minnesota 3.23
16. California/Oakland/Cleveland 3.15
17. Montreal 3.09
18. Kansas City/Colorado 3.06
Not only is Philadelphia at the top of this list, but the difference between them and 2nd-place Boston is the same as the difference between Boston and 14th-place Pittsburgh!
Yet, here are the save percentages of the 15 goalies with the most games over these 9 seasons:
1. Parent .918
2. Dryden .917
3. Esposito .912
4. XXXXXX .902
5. XXXXXX .900
6. XXXXXX .899
7. XXXXXX .899
8. XXXXXX .898
9. XXXXXX .897
10. XXXXXX .896
11. XXXXXX .896
12. XXXXXX .889
13. XXXXXX .886
14. XXXXXX .884
15. XXXXXX .879
That's right, Parent even edged Dryden in sv% over these seasons,
even though he faced 50% more powerplays per game than Dryden.
B. Playoff Domination
There have been 96 instances of a goalie having a 900-minute playoff, all post-expansion. For each of these instances, I calculated the goalie's error rate (1 minus sv%) and then calculated the error rate for the rest of the league (not the league average, but the league average with the goalie in question removed) - I then divided the goalie's error rate by the league error rate and ranked the results. At the top of the list you would find the goalies whose error rates were the best compared to the field, and at the bottom you would find those who performed the poorest. Here is what I found:
XXXX | XXXX | 0.615
XXXX | XXXX | 0.636
1993 | Roy | 0.654
1995 | Brodeur | 0.660
1998 | Hasek | 0.664
1983 | B.Smith | 0.673
1974
|
Parent
|
0.674
XXXX | XXXX | 0.676
1995 | Belfour | 0.696
XXXX | XXXX | 0.701
XXXX | XXXX | 0.704
XXXX | XXXX | 0.710
1986 | Roy | 0.710
1974 | Esposito | 0.721
2001 | Roy | 0.724
1989 | Roy | 0.724
1999 | Hasek | 0.728
1978 | Dryden | 0.734
XXXX | XXXX | 0.740
1975
|
Parent
|
0.744
- The top score of .615 means that the goalie was just 61.5% as likely to allow a goal as an average goalie. Or, inversely, an average goalie was 62.6% more likely to allow a goal than them.
- Parent's 1974 and 1975 seasons occupy 7th and 20th out of the 96 instances.
- Parent is one of just three goalies to show up twice or more. Hasek (5th for 1998 and 17th for 1999) and Roy (3rd for 1993, 13th for 1986, 15th for 2001, and 16th for 1989) are the others.
C. With or Without You
Another way to assess a goalie's dominance is to compare their statistics to the sum of other goalies to play for their team during that same time. Backup goalies are generally of similar quality and generally play weaker teams. I decided to run some quick comparisons on some already-drafted goalies. Keep in mind that they need to have had a decent sample of other goalies playing for that team during their career, so a guy like Glenn Hall is not included, for obvious reasons, and neither is Terry Sawchuk, who missed just 13 games in his 5 dominant seasons. Also, this is not favourable to someone like Bower, who formed a HHOF tandem with Sawchuk. I will only do comparisons with the one franchise the goalie is best associated with. I could analyze sv% for all goalies, but for the pre-1983 goalies this would take a lot of work so I will use GAA for them as this can be done easily with hockey-reference.com. (shots against should be fairly steady on the same team, so GAA would work as a reciprocal of sv%) - Here is a list of some drafted goalies and the percentage by which they outperformed the rest of their team's goalies. (for GAA analysis it is goalie's GAA/teammates GAA, for sv% goalies it is goalie's error rate/teammates error rate.)
Goalie | Team/Years | GAA/err% | Team GAA/err% | Goalie/Team
Hasek | BUF 1994-2001 | 0.072 | 0.101 | 0.71
Parent
|
PHI 1968-1979
|
2.42
|
2.98
|
0.81
Roy | MTL 1986-1996 | 0.096 | 0.113 | 0.85
Dryden | MTL 1971-1979 | 2.43 | 2.83 | 0.86
Esposito | CHI 1969-1984 | 2.93 | 3.39 | 0.86
Brodeur | NJD 1994-2010 | 0.088 | 0.100 | 0.88
Plante | MTL 1953-1963 | 2.23 | 2.43 | 0.92
Belfour | CHI 1991-1997 | 0.095 | 0.098 | 0.97
Smith | NYI 1973-1989 | 3.16 | 3.13 | 1.01
Fuhr | EDM 1984-1991 | 0.118 | 0.114 | 1.04
