Yeah, I understand that... But I think it's wrong to disregard all that they did in their era. Dryden and Plante were some of the best goalies that the NHL ever had, and all because the game has changed so vastly doesn't mean that they didn't have the talent. Who's to say what kind of goalies they would have been like if they played in today's game? No one will ever know for sure, but what is known is that they were incredible when they played, and that's all that matters.

It's the same with Gretzky...some argue that he wouldn't be as effective today as he was in the 90s because of how the game has changed. But so what? He's always going to be the Great One.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

I tend to think that in attempting to define a "greatest ever," you almost have to only compare like to like, that is grade players based on what they did in their own era.

OF COURSE conditioning and training methods are better, practices are longer, players are bigger, stronger, faster and recover faster nowadays. Most mediocre players in virtually every sport are probably better than the all-time greats of a generation ago.

But I don't think that should hide the fact that Dryden, Tretiak, etc. were great players within their own eras. I think that alone means they deserve to be mentioned among the greatest of all time.

If you're going to say that players of a bygone era shouldn't count, it seems kind of dumb because then the greatest players ever are always going to have played in the last 10-20 years of a sport with maybe a dozen exceptions

Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Wayne Gretzky, Ty Cobb, and Michael Jordan to name a few.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Clint Benedict was the first to don a protective mask - he was also the first to play a "Butterfly/Falldown" style in net (which is why he needed the mask - he only wore it when he had broken bones in his face), they used to call him Praying Benny because of the time he spent on his knees in the crease.

His circumventing style of play (pretending to fall unintentionally) is the reason the stand-up rule was changed in the 1920's, not because of Plante's mask.

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benedict only wore the mask for an extremely short period of time. it was to protect his broken nose. he only wore it 5 games.

plante was the one who finally said, fuck this, im wearing a mask full time during games. (alot of goalies would wear them during practices)

they didnt change the rule of the drop down to knees because of the mask, the mask came about because of this change in rules.

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When I first saw this topic I thought it was about Drew "Softie" Stafford, I was wrong

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13