Kari Lehtonen Reaches 300 Win Club

Two men hit this number within 24 hours of one another. Kari weathered a storm to get to this number.

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[JoshuaWSiegel]

I've always thought Ward and Lehtonen were pretty similar. Both getting their 300th win in the last couple nights and these videos reaffirms that belief for me.

[matttroxell]

Shannon: "I love having arguments"
*Yvonne nods in agreement * 😂

[JHockeyFan]

I think you said Kipper when you meant Lehtonen.

[mattwhisenhant]

Kari has always been under too much scrutiny here in Dallas. He has held several bad defensive Stars teams together, by his solid play. As a Stars fan I truly respect Kari, but you are right, he has been very inconsistent in the playoffs.

[JHockeyFan]

Subscriber numbers have jumped a lot the past couple days, big props to you Shannon! You're a beast!

[maxd]

You should do a video on the rise and fall of Antti Niemi. He was actually pretty good in the early 2010s

[lyndaramirez]

I watch your videos daily, but I just stumbled upon these journeyman goaltending videos you made. You have done something that no one else would try, be it nhl.com, the hockey news, et al: video subjects of NHL goalies that had relatively unspectacular careers, yet toiled for many sub-par teams. I love the subject matter, as I played in net for 23 years.

at some point I would love to see a video on iconic tandem goaltenders, like Pokey and the Bandit or Fuhr/Moog. Your video on Ron tugnutt was outstanding! Keep them coming!

[ianzang]

I’d been critical of Lehtonen over his career but he had some great seasons for us. The 2016-17 season was a blessing in disguise looking back on it. Without that awful year we don’t get Heiskanen, Oettinger, and Robertson

[joshhale]

I'm a Stars boy so, I still love my kari

[XxHarounXx]

I'd love to see that top 5 goalies for each franchise video

[VompoVompatti]

I think you mentioned Kipper few times there by mistake but that just made me think that you should do a little look into his career.

[jarryd]

At the end of the game someone slashed at him and he straight up socked them in the face. For a mild mannered guy like Kari, that was fun to watch.

[jordanmccallum]

Miikka HOF for sure same with the guy he was in SJS with Evgeni Nabokov

[txhockey]

I don't think the numbers here are necessarily reflective of what he has managed to do here while he was in Dallas. The last couple of years it really wouldn't of mattered who was in net for us as the defense was terrible. Ruff's system really made it extremely hard on our goaltenders. Not saying the system is necessarily bad, it just wasn't a good fit our players and the coach never adjusted for that. I would keep track of the number of times the team left our goalies out to dry in the games I would watch and it was disheartening to say the least. Goalies are supposed to be able to come up with big saves. Coming up with 2 or 3 a game would be expected, Ruff's system was requiring them to pull 8 or 9 a game. That doesn't include the bad PK in front of our tenders, or the bad play coming out of our zone in 5 on 5 play. The wedge on the PK killed us. A penalty against us meant a goal 9/10 times. And the way they attempted to stretch the ice on 5 on 5 play, led to many turnovers in the defensive zone with no forwards back to be able to help in result of a turnover. That takes a toll mentally on the goaltenders. They weren't great the last couple of again I don't think there is a goalie who could have succeeded in Ruff's system with the players in front of them. Having said that - Lehtonen and Niemi were never going to be the answers here. Lehtonen really got us through a dark time. The first couple of years he was here, he was the only bright spot on the team. Watching the games he played....he would stand on his head and still let in 3 or 4 goals a game. But he played well....he took a bit of a dive when he ended up with a concussion in the game against Minnesota (I think it was minnesota anyways). But there were better options when Lehtonen was brought in, and there were several better options when Niemi was brought in. Now I like Bishop, but I would have rather seen Nill make a play for Grubauer or Darling. But Hitch has really cleaned things up quite a bit, and the system in place is going to make it easier for any goalie to succeed. I would argue that Hitch's system has helped Kari more than the rest. The rest definitely the bad turnovers and bad play in front of our goalies has been cleaned up quite a bit.

[kylec.]

I think the question becomes, and I think (?) you mentioned this in another video, when does the defense get the blame, and when does a goaltender? Dallas has had pretty rough defenses in recent years, but Kari can also overextend himself and leave the net open for bunny shots. So, who's to blame there? It's tough without numbers.

I'll say this - Kari is a fine backup in the NHL, for my money, but if I'm starting him more than 20-30 percent of the games, I'd be a little worried. Of course, my experience with hockey is not as extensive as yours is.

[tylertoestoes]

Are you going to make a Lundqvist makes 20, 000 career saves video

[arianttila]

Lehtonen was a great talent when he was younger but he was lazy and often injured. He could have been a lot better if he had trained more. I hope Rinne or Rask takes that Finnish goalie record from him. Good achievement but that kind of merit belongs to better goalie.

[TheAtlashead]

Always known Kari was more of a glorified backup than anything. And it's showing right now. He's hot when he's not under pressure and it's awesome. That being said I'll never count him out for laying an egg and if Hitchcock keeps playing it's only a matter of time.

But hopefully it lays a fire under Bishop.

Either way, I'm happy for him. He's a good guy and always gave what he could.