GL Pascal. You put in the work and never complained. You didn't deserve any of that crap and you should be tending the goals right now.
I remember you keeping us alive in the 09-10 playoffs. You put up a hell of fight. If only Elliott didn't **** the bed... when your head was clearly in the game and didn't get to play... Clouston obviously picked the wrong goalie to open game one.
I will never, ever, ever forget the games against Pittsburgh in games 5 and 6 of the playoffs. He played as if his life was on the life and he played brilliantly, IMO, those were his peak games. Wow, was he amazing.
Too bad he was as durable as bog roll... Still remember his phenomenal performance against the Penguins... Probably the best decision for him really... shame if I'm honest, he definitely had the potential to be ****-hot...
I believe he will get a insurance payment for the next while. If he played again he would lose it.
That was one of the main reasons Dan Blackburn opted to not try a comeback.
Anyone else remember Blackburn's brief comeback attempt? The guy had major nerve damage in his arm, and couldn't rotate his wrist, so he tried to play with two blockers instead of the traditional blocker+stick / trapper.
Full frigging credit to Blckburn, the guy wanted back in so bad he tried this:
Best of luck to Pascale, no hard feelings whatsoever. The guy was just a walking triage waiting to happen, there's not much he could have done about it. It's a shame his health didn't match his skill: he was an NHL starting caliber goalie in every other metric, his bones just kept refusing to cooperate.
Leclaire still had the fastest legs for a goalie I had ever seen in my entire life. I almost always wondered that his legs were too fast for his body, resulting in the injuries he had.
Really sucks for him, surely not the way he wanted to end his career. When it's all said and done, he can appreciate the fact that he made it much farther in this game than a whole wack of people.
With that said, getting injured on that bench will sadly be the defining moment of his career. Could be worst, it could have been falling on your ass and whiffing on an empty net only to see the opposing team tie the game seconds later (Here's looking at you Patrik Stefan).
I guess he wont even get the NHLPA pension? Not enough games I imagine. For the pension, do games as a backup goalie count?
Not sure about the qualifications for goalies at the moment, but player pensions are up for grabs right now in the CBA, and the players might get a sweeter deal in exchange for other concessions, so who knows what the threshold will be in the new deal?
I doubt Leclaire files his official retirement papers until the CBA is figured out, so I guess we'll see what the new CBA has to offer him.
Leclaire was the poster boy for high draft picks with flash in the pan success.
Yes, he was amazing for us during a single playoff game. He then proceeded to completely **** the bed in the third period the next game, losing us the series. That was his career arc. Great, terrible. Guy had physical tools but could never deliver consistent results.
e: physical tools don't mean **** when the parts aren't greater than the sum. Leclaire's career in a nutshell.
Maclean on hockeycentral today said that after leclaire's first knee injury after the 9 shutouts, the doctors came back to him and said leclaire would never be the same.
