Got a lot of deserved crap because of the contract but on his own merit was a perfectly fine backup goalie in the NHL.
I mean we've had pretty shit goalies going back to those days though too. Dubnyk is really the only one that couldn't get traction going hereSay what you want, but he did have a good stretch of games for the Oilers.
It's pretty wild looking at wins per season over the years. Only Talbot, Salo, Skinner, CuJo and Roloson had a season with more wins than Koskinen did going all the way back to the days of Moog and Fuhr.
Good job Jimmi. I was too. But the guy was a pro, knew he wasn't well liked by the fan base and rarely let it get to him. As a person you can respect that. My memory of Koskinen most involves how Duncan Keith taught the younger upstarts on this team that everybody, even when struggling has to be supported to be a team, to build team. I remember Koskinens game improving after that and the players remembering to give him pats etc.I was unfairly hard on him. That idiotic extension was a killer. I hope he has a good post career with his tiny dog lol.
Not just that, but Mikko played in Lugano - a city on the lake in the absolutely gorgeos Italian-speaking region of Swizerland - surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards. There's definitely worse places to wind down your pro career!I mean we've had pretty shit goalies going back to those days though too. Dubnyk is really the only one that couldn't get traction going here
As for Mikko good for him. The guy got to play in many different leagues and had a chance to finish it off in Switzerland where by all accounts is a must play for guys that want to continue to play, but also want to have a fun experience.
When I started reading your post my mind jumped to, he’s gonna say “goalie coach”, before I read the last half of the sentence.He can probably get a pretty sweet gig as a short order cook with that frying pan of his.
Pickard has done pretty well though so I am not at all sure if (hypothetically) replacing him with Koskinen would have improved anything.If we had him as our backup this year we would all be singing his praises. He's actually almost the perfect backup, just the money and number of games he played here killed him.
Pickard has done pretty well though so I am not at all sure if (hypothetically) replacing him with Koskinen would have improved anything.