To be a goalie in the NHL, you have to be a different breed of person. A job where you are asked to stop ninety mile an hour shots streaming at you from every angle. Some nights, you can have razor sharp focus and can seemingly stop a golf ball. However on those bad nights, with a bad bounce, bad defense, or if you’re just not on your game, that same goalie seemingly can’t stop a beach ball.
On those bad nights where nothing seems to be going right for the goalie, the coach will normally elect to go ahead and make a goalie change. Maybe it is to shake things up, wake the team up to their poor play, or simply just get the guy the heck out of there for it isn’t his night.
On this night in Washington D.C, Flyer goaltender Rick St. Croix had a bad night. A really bad night. A historically bad night – and no change was made. With that, he set the team record for the most goals let up by a Flyer goalie in a single game.
Ten.
Just 33 seconds into the game, Paul Homgren took an elbowing penalty and Bobby Clarke took another 2 minute minor for unsprtamankilike conduct. Just for good measure, Clarke also was given ten minute misconduct. This was definitely not the best way to start the game.
Within the first two and a half minutes, the Capitals struck on power play goals by Dennis Maruk and Greg Theberge. A few minutes later, Tim Tookey and Theberge again would score and it was 4-0 with the game just over eight minutes old. Thankfully, that was all that would go by St. Croix as he faced 15 first period shots.
For the second period, the Flyers got on the board as Reggie “the Rifle” Leach scored some three minutes in. After a Ken Linseman tripping penalty brought on another power play for the Caps, Darren Veitch scored to make it 5-1. Tookey would score again a minute later with Clarke in the box again for elbowing and the rout was on at 6-1.
Maruk banged home another for the Caps seventh goal, followed by Tookey getting the hat trick, at 9:47 to make it 8-1. Just thirty minutes in and eight goals for the Caps. The Flyers needed a white towel in the worst way not withstanding a goal at 11:46 by Brian Propp to make it 8-2 after two. St. Croix had given up eight goals on just 23 shots.
The third period was at least a 2-2 tie for the Flyers, but they saw Maruk get his hat trick, scoring just 17 seconds into the period to make it 9-2. Two goals by the Flyers Tim Kerr and Brian Propp, his second of the game, closed the gap to 9-4 but the Caps’ Bobby Carpenter scored with just under three minutes to play. The Caps hit double digits and “capped off” a 10-4 victory.
For the evening, Rick St. Croix stopped 29 of 39 shots. He did not see the crease for the Flyers for almost another month, as coach Pat Quinn decided to ride Pete Peeters for ten straight games as he went 7-3-0 over that span. Rick did make amends for his brutal outing on December 16, beating the NY Rangers in Madison Square Garden, 7 to 3.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99
