CBC-Sports

Toskala learning all over again

October 9, 2009 11:59 AM | Posted by   Elliotte Friedman  

I was going to write about Vesa Toskala earlier in the week, but got tied up with Andrew Ference.

Really didn’t see the need to re-visit the Toronto situation until I talked to a goalie familiar with the two principals – Toskala and consultant Francois Allaire. There is a theory going around that one of the reasons for Toskala’s poor start is he’s having trouble adjusting to Allaire’s different style.

Tuesday morning, Toskala disagreed with that hypothesis.

“Who’s saying that?” he asked.

I told him I’d read it in a couple of articles and heard it discussed on television.

“All the big things are pretty much the same,” he said. “Every coach is similar, there is nothing unusual. I feel good.”

He felt he’d only given up one bad goal – Alexander Ovechkin’s game-opener last Saturday in Washington – and that people were overreacting. Then, he added: “The media makes everything up. I feel great.”

One thing about Toskala, he’s got a bit of an edge and isn’t afraid to say exactly what’s on his mind. Last season, he publicly disagreed with a Ron Wilson suggestion that some of his struggles were due to overuse. Sometimes, his Finnish accent makes him difficult to understand, but I appreciate his honesty.

Anyway, I relayed this story to another goalie on Thursday, and he disagreed. He understands Toskala’s refusal to make excuses, but says there is a big difference between the two men’s preferences.

“Toskala is all about getting out and challenging [the shooters]”, he said. “Francois is adamant how he wants his goalies to play. He is all about being a blocker ... taking away the net, covering up all holes and limiting gaps.”

That perfectly describes Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s style. Allaire rebuilt him into a Stanley Cup champion

It probably doesn’t help that Toskala is physically smaller than Giguere or Jonas Hiller, because their size gives them an advantage in playing the way Allaire wants.

Strelow was Vesa's muse

Toskala’s champion was the late Warren Strelow, who had a pretty spectacular resume. Strelow chose Jim Craig to be the starter on the 1980 US Olympic Team, became the NHL’s first-ever full-time goalie coach and worked with Martin Brodeur early in the future Hall-of-Famer’s career.

In San Jose, he trained Toskala, Evgeni Nabokov and Miikka Kiprusoff. All of them will tell you they’d be nowhere without his teachings.

Strelow’s style was less rigid than Allaire’s. Like most good coaches, he preached repetition. But, he was willing to look at what a goalie did well and go from there. Allaire, as mentioned above, gets goalies to adapt to him.

Jonas Gustavsson’s groin injury hands Toskala the job for the next week, with the first challenge being Saturday’s HNIC matchup against Pittsburgh. It’ll be interesting to watch.

Is Toskala challenging? Is he blocking?

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