CBC-Sports

Kipper can't expect Olympic guarantee

November 26, 2009 05:25 PM | Posted by   Scott Morrison  

Okay, so you are Jari Kurri, general manager of the Finnish Olympic team, what do you do?

Miikka Kiprusoff, certainly a leading candidate to be your starting goaltender in the 2010 Winter Olympics next February, has declared he will only play if he is, indeed, the starting goaltender.

So what do you do?

Needless to say, the Finns would want Kiprusoff, who did not play on the 2006 silver-medal winning team because of a hip injury, to be part of their Olympic team.

But do you promise him starting status at the end of next month, when rosters have to be declared? Or has Kiprusoff effectively earned himself a two-week vacation? And what does he really want?

He says he wants to play, but only if he starts.

Fact is, Kurri and the Finnish head coach Jukka Jalonen can’t promise him he will be the starting goaltender. How do they know how well he will be playing come February? How well do they know the other candidates will be playing?

It’s impossible.

"If I'm not going to start for sure, I think I'm going to take that time off and rest," Kiprusoff was quoted as saying earlier this week. He added that if he was relegated to backup status, "I'd probably not go in that case."

Instead, he would take the time to rest and prepare for the stretch drive with the Calgary Flames. That’ s exactly what he did four years ago, when he decided to skip the Games to rest his sore hip.

But he still played 74 games that season for the Flames and he declared the hip injury well before the Games began.

As it turned out, of course, the Finns fared pretty well at the Olympics with Antero Niittymaki as their starter.

Now it is understandable and honourable that Kiprsuoff would want to be healthy and rested for the Flames. But injury is one thing, starting role is another.

It’s interesting that the Detroit Red Wings starters Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk were suspended for a game last season for missing the all-star game because of “injuries”. In many ways, the Olympics are the all-star game magnified for the NHL.

This time around, Kiprusoff just might be the Finnish starter but it’s not a lock. Niittymaki is playing well for Tampa Bay and was leading the league as of Wednesday with a .932 save percentage. And he was there in 2006. Minnesota’s Niklas Backstrom is having a strong season in terms of goals-against average and save percentage.

Nashville’s Pekka Rinne has been terrific and young Tuukka Rask had the league’s best GAA at 2.13. So there is plenty of competition for not only the starting goaltending position, but for all three roster spots.

Of course, competition also means viable options. Which means the Finns likely can’t and shouldn’t promise Kiprusoff anything and if he decides to opt out, well, they aren’t exactly left empty-handed.

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