WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 Okay, let's unpack this. Yeah, let's do it. Welcome 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:06.620 to another Deep Dive. We're really thrilled you 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:08.419 could join us today. Absolutely. We've got a 00:00:08.419 --> 00:00:10.519 really fascinating mission ahead of us. We are 00:00:10.519 --> 00:00:14.060 digging into the Wikipedia archives to explore 00:00:14.060 --> 00:00:16.820 the National Hockey League's Vizina Trophy history. 00:00:17.079 --> 00:00:18.940 Right, and before you skip ahead thinking this 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:22.019 is just... Some, you know, dry recitation of 00:00:22.019 --> 00:00:24.460 old sports trivia. Stick around. Yeah, please 00:00:24.460 --> 00:00:26.559 do. Because you really don't need to know the 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:28.699 first thing about ice hockey to get something 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:31.940 out of this. Not at all. Today's deep dive is 00:00:31.940 --> 00:00:34.259 actually about a century long identity crisis. 00:00:34.780 --> 00:00:37.899 We're looking at how a massive organization attempts 00:00:37.899 --> 00:00:43.579 to define. and reward the best individual within 00:00:43.579 --> 00:00:45.820 a system that relies entirely on a collective 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.600 team. It is a problem that extends far beyond 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:51.359 the ice rink. To frame this for you, the listener, 00:00:51.539 --> 00:00:54.539 imagine a scenario in your own career. Think 00:00:54.539 --> 00:00:56.939 about being the absolute best at your job. Right. 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.179 You're putting up record numbers. Your individual 00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:01.920 daily performance is flawless. And within your 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:04.439 industry, you are widely considered the top talent. 00:01:04.579 --> 00:01:06.939 You're a rock star. Exactly. Yeah. But when the 00:01:06.939 --> 00:01:09.659 time comes for the major annual awards. The tangible 00:01:09.659 --> 00:01:12.819 recognition you've earned. Right. You lose. You 00:01:12.819 --> 00:01:15.579 are passed over entirely simply because your 00:01:15.579 --> 00:01:18.120 broader department underperformed. Man, that 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:20.480 sounds like a fast track to absolute burnout. 00:01:20.859 --> 00:01:23.379 Oh, yeah. You do all the heavy lifting, but the 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:27.209 overall group grade just. drags you down it creates 00:01:27.209 --> 00:01:29.489 a massive amount of resentment and this exact 00:01:29.489 --> 00:01:32.450 scenario this is what plagued the national hockey 00:01:32.450 --> 00:01:35.430 league for decades which is wild to think about 00:01:35.430 --> 00:01:37.909 it really is it makes the whole history of this 00:01:37.909 --> 00:01:41.140 specific award The perfect case study in how 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:43.920 we measure success, how we calculate true value, 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:47.099 and just how incredibly difficult it is to isolate 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:49.319 individual brilliance from the environment that 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:51.040 surrounds it. It really is the ultimate test 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.680 case for organizational psychology, just disguised 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:55.700 as a sports award. Totally. To understand how 00:01:55.700 --> 00:01:57.700 complicated this got, we really need to go back 00:01:57.700 --> 00:02:00.299 to the very beginning, to the namesake of the 00:02:00.299 --> 00:02:03.060 trophy itself. Right. The award is named after 00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:06.219 Georges Vizina, who was this exceptional goaltender 00:02:06.219 --> 00:02:08.099 for the Montreal Canadiens in the early days 00:02:08.099 --> 00:02:13.909 of the... He played from 1910 to 1925. But reading 00:02:13.909 --> 00:02:16.430 through the history, the origins of this prestigious 00:02:16.430 --> 00:02:19.550 award are steeped in a pretty sudden, shocking 00:02:19.550 --> 00:02:22.430 tragedy. The history is incredibly sobering. 00:02:23.110 --> 00:02:25.669 Georges Vizina didn't just retire. He actually 00:02:25.669 --> 00:02:29.030 collapsed during a game in 1925. Just right there 00:02:29.030 --> 00:02:31.219 on the ice. Yeah. He was subsequently diagnosed 00:02:31.219 --> 00:02:33.680 with tuberculosis, which, you know, is a devastating 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:35.860 illness at the time. And he passed away shortly 00:02:35.860 --> 00:02:40.280 after in 1926. Wow. It was a massive sudden loss 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:42.659 for the sport and for the Canadians organization. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.680 So in the wake of his passing, the owners of 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.620 the Montreal Canadiens, that was Leo Dandaran, 00:02:47.819 --> 00:02:50.599 Louis Letourneau and Joe Katarnich, they decided 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:53.020 to donate a trophy to the league to permanently 00:02:53.020 --> 00:02:56.349 honor his legacy. And there's a really deeply 00:02:56.349 --> 00:02:58.409 poetic detail here that I love. Oh, about the 00:02:58.409 --> 00:03:00.629 first winner? Yeah. The very first winner of 00:03:00.629 --> 00:03:04.129 this memorial trophy in the 1926 -27 NHL season 00:03:04.129 --> 00:03:06.889 was a man named George Hainsworth. The symbolism 00:03:06.889 --> 00:03:09.550 there is just striking. Right. Hainsworth was 00:03:09.550 --> 00:03:12.169 the exact goaltender who came to Montreal to 00:03:12.169 --> 00:03:14.409 succeed Vizina in the net. Talk about pressure. 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:17.300 Seriously, he picked up the torch for the Canadians, 00:03:17.539 --> 00:03:20.800 stepped into those massive shoes, and then proceeded 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:24.060 to win the first three Vizina trophies ever awarded. 00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:26.479 But even with that beautiful passing of the torch, 00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:28.599 the identity crisis we mentioned, it started 00:03:28.599 --> 00:03:31.379 almost immediately. What's fascinating here is 00:03:31.379 --> 00:03:34.580 the absolute confusion in the media reports from 00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:37.039 that era. Yeah, the league accepted the trophy 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:40.740 in May 1927, but it seems like nobody in the 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:43.060 room actually agreed on what the piece of hardware 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:45.699 was meant to represent. You had major newspapers 00:03:45.699 --> 00:03:48.460 covering the exact same meetings and walking 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:50.259 away with completely different interpretations. 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:52.780 The Montreal Gazette reported that the trophy 00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:55.319 was meant for the goaltender with the best goals 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:58.330 against average. Let's pause there for a second 00:03:58.330 --> 00:04:00.189 for anyone not familiar with the math. When they 00:04:00.189 --> 00:04:02.830 say goals against average or GAA, what exactly 00:04:02.830 --> 00:04:05.229 are they measuring? Think of it like an ERA in 00:04:05.229 --> 00:04:07.949 baseball. Okay. It's a mathematical average of 00:04:07.949 --> 00:04:10.789 how many goals a goalie allows per a standardized 00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:13.830 60 -minute game. If you play half a game and 00:04:13.830 --> 00:04:16.149 let in one goal, your average for a full game 00:04:16.149 --> 00:04:18.730 would be two. It's a purely statistical measure 00:04:18.730 --> 00:04:22.009 of individual performance. So one paper says 00:04:22.009 --> 00:04:24.480 the award is about the math. But then you have 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:27.139 the Toronto Star reporting that the trophy was 00:04:27.139 --> 00:04:29.160 going to the most valuable goaltender. Which 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:31.660 is a totally different concept. Completely different. 00:04:31.819 --> 00:04:35.000 Most valuable is incredibly subjective. A goalie 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.209 could have slightly worse math. But if he's the 00:04:37.209 --> 00:04:39.230 only reason a terrible team is winning games, 00:04:39.430 --> 00:04:42.569 he is theoretically more valuable. And the definitions 00:04:42.569 --> 00:04:45.250 just kept expanding. Yeah. By the time Hainsworth 00:04:45.250 --> 00:04:48.290 won his third in a row at the end of the 1928 00:04:48.290 --> 00:04:51.769 -29 season, reporters were calling it an award 00:04:51.769 --> 00:04:54.790 for the most outstanding goaltender. Best statistical 00:04:54.790 --> 00:04:57.009 average, most valuable, and most outstanding. 00:04:57.329 --> 00:04:59.829 Yeah. Those are three profoundly different philosophical 00:04:59.829 --> 00:05:02.410 concepts. They really are. It sounds like the 00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:05.649 classic workplace evaluation problem. The company 00:05:05.649 --> 00:05:08.110 says they want to reward the best employee, but 00:05:08.110 --> 00:05:10.449 Human Resources is looking at a spreadsheet of 00:05:10.449 --> 00:05:12.990 sales numbers. While your direct manager is looking 00:05:12.990 --> 00:05:15.350 at your leadership skills. Exactly. And the CEO 00:05:15.350 --> 00:05:19.009 is looking at overall profit. That early ambiguity 00:05:19.009 --> 00:05:22.990 set the stage for a decades -long struggle. Eventually, 00:05:22.990 --> 00:05:25.790 the NHL governors decided they had to step in 00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:27.850 and remove the subjective feelings entirely. 00:05:28.269 --> 00:05:30.290 They wanted objective mathematical certainty. 00:05:30.610 --> 00:05:34.550 So in February 1946, they codified a very strict 00:05:34.550 --> 00:05:37.310 rule. They decided to turn it into a team defense 00:05:37.310 --> 00:05:40.569 award. They boldly declared the Vizina Trophy 00:05:40.569 --> 00:05:43.189 would go to the goaltender playing the most games 00:05:43.189 --> 00:05:45.629 for the team that allowed the fewest goals in 00:05:45.629 --> 00:05:48.329 the regular season. Period. Period. No more voting. 00:05:48.370 --> 00:05:50.970 No more debates about value. It was so rigid 00:05:50.970 --> 00:05:53.410 that Tommy Gorman, who's the manager of the Montreal 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:56.889 Canadiens at the time, he openly stated that 00:05:56.889 --> 00:05:59.689 if his team allowed the fewest goals, team management 00:05:59.689 --> 00:06:01.769 would just decide for themselves which of their 00:06:01.769 --> 00:06:03.870 two goaltenders would get to keep the physical 00:06:03.870 --> 00:06:06.189 trophy. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:06:06.350 --> 00:06:08.689 you can see the corporate logic at play. They 00:06:08.689 --> 00:06:10.850 wanted an indisputable metric. Right. Goals are 00:06:10.850 --> 00:06:13.329 objective. Fewest goals against means the best 00:06:13.329 --> 00:06:16.589 defense. Therefore, the goalie on that team gets 00:06:16.589 --> 00:06:19.759 the hardware. But this created a massive, glaring 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:22.120 blind spot. The blind spot being that the best 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.360 individual employee is not always on the most 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:27.220 successful team. And the historical data proves 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:30.019 this flaw existed from the very beginning. Because 00:06:30.019 --> 00:06:32.680 the league had often informally leaned on this 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:36.759 team -centric criteria even before the 1946 rule. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:40.720 Like going back to that inaugural 1926 -27 season. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.319 Exactly. We mentioned George Hainsworth won the 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:46.199 first Vizina because his team, the Canadians, 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:49.660 allowed the fewest goals. But another goalie, 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:52.100 Clint Benedict of the Maroons, actually had the 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:54.199 lowest personal goals against average in the 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:56.379 league that year. So Benedict performed better 00:06:56.379 --> 00:06:58.899 individually, statistically speaking. Yeah. But 00:06:58.899 --> 00:07:01.199 because Hainsworth's team let in fewer goals 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:03.839 overall, Hainsworth got the trophy. It really 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:06.420 is the ultimate group project dilemma. You see 00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:09.699 it again in the 1933 -34 season. A goalie named 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:12.079 Wilf Kude had the lowest goals against average. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:15.139 He played brilliantly. But the Vizina went to 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:17.040 Charlie Gardner. Because Gardner's team, the 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:19.519 Chicago Blackhawks, allowed the fewest goals. 00:07:19.779 --> 00:07:22.639 Kude's individual brilliance was entirely overshadowed 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.439 by Chicago's collective team defense. This disconnect 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:28.019 between individual performance and team results 00:07:28.019 --> 00:07:31.839 created a massive rift between the cold, hard 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:34.420 numbers and the people actually watching the 00:07:34.420 --> 00:07:36.439 games every night. Because if you are a sports 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:39.420 writer watching a guy stand on his head every 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:41.899 night for a bad team, you know he's the best 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:44.199 goaltender. Even if the math says otherwise. 00:07:44.620 --> 00:07:46.980 This raises an important question. Who do we 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:50.560 trust more to determine greatness? The raw team 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:53.560 statistics were the eye test of the experts covering 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:56.500 the sport. Right. There is no better illustration 00:07:56.500 --> 00:07:59.399 of that rift than the contrast between Glenn 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:02.480 Hall and Jacques Flante, two undeniable legends 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:05.060 of the crease in the 50s and 60s. Put us in the 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:07.319 shoes of Glenn Hall for a minute. What was his 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:09.779 experience like with this award? Glenn Hall played 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.579 for Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis. The hockey 00:08:12.579 --> 00:08:14.639 media, the writers who voted for the first -team 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:16.819 All -Star, clearly thought he was spectacular. 00:08:17.180 --> 00:08:19.220 They voted Hall as the first -team All -Star 00:08:19.220 --> 00:08:21.540 a record seven times. Seven times the people 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:23.899 watching every night said, this is the best goalie 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:26.120 in the world. But the Vizina Trophy requires 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:29.000 you to be on the team that allows the fewest 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.819 goals. Because he didn't always play on the absolute 00:08:31.819 --> 00:08:35.320 best defensive squad, Hall only won the Vizina 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:38.909 Trophy three times. Wow. And then you have Jacques 00:08:38.909 --> 00:08:41.309 Plante on the exact opposite side of that coin. 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:44.129 Plante played largely for the Montreal Canadiens 00:08:44.129 --> 00:08:47.090 during their absolute dynasty years. They were 00:08:47.090 --> 00:08:50.269 a phenomenally dominant team that suppressed 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:53.570 goals brilliantly. Because of that incredible 00:08:53.570 --> 00:08:56.769 team defense in front of them, Plante won a record 00:08:56.769 --> 00:09:00.269 seven Vizina trophies. But the media? They only 00:09:00.269 --> 00:09:02.730 voted him a first -team all -star three times. 00:09:03.210 --> 00:09:05.570 That is wild to think about. The media said Hall 00:09:05.570 --> 00:09:07.850 was the best seven times, but the math said Plante 00:09:07.850 --> 00:09:10.330 was the best seven times. It perfectly encapsulates 00:09:10.330 --> 00:09:12.649 the entire problem. Are we awarding the individual, 00:09:12.909 --> 00:09:15.029 or are we awarding the environment they operate 00:09:15.029 --> 00:09:18.190 in? As the seasons grew longer, this group project 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:21.389 problem became impossible to ignore. In the early 00:09:21.389 --> 00:09:23.769 days, it was common for a single goaltender to 00:09:23.769 --> 00:09:26.480 play every minute of the season. Sure. But as 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.700 the schedule expanded to 70 games and beyond, 00:09:29.019 --> 00:09:32.080 the physical toll demanded that teams use more 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:34.879 than one goalie. You suddenly had two guys contributing 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:37.759 to that overall team defensive metric. Here's 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:39.840 where it gets really interesting, because the 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:42.059 players themselves eventually had to step in 00:09:42.059 --> 00:09:44.419 and fix the glaring unfairness of this system. 00:09:45.060 --> 00:09:49.960 Let's travel to the 1964 -65 NHL season. The 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:52.659 race for the fewest goals against was an absolute 00:09:52.659 --> 00:09:55.299 nail -biter. A three -way race right down to 00:09:55.299 --> 00:09:56.980 the wire. At the end of the season, the Toronto 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:00.840 Maple Leafs allowed 173 goals. They barely squeaked 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.879 by the Detroit Red Wings, who allowed 175, and 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:07.419 the Chicago Blackhawks, who allowed 176. Just 00:10:07.419 --> 00:10:09.679 a three -goal spread between first and third 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:13.360 place across an entire grueling season. So Toronto 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:15.759 wins the team metric, which means the Vizina 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:18.440 goes to Toronto. Now, the Maple Leafs had a legendary 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:20.700 tandem, Terry Sawchuck and Johnny Bauer. Sawchuck 00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:24.159 played 36 games, Bauer played 34 games, and Bauer 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:26.299 actually had the best individual goals against 00:10:26.299 --> 00:10:28.700 average in the entire league that year. But under 00:10:28.700 --> 00:10:31.240 the strict letter of the NHL law, the Vizina 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:33.120 went to the goalie who played the most games 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:35.399 for that winning team. Sawchuck played 36 games, 00:10:35.539 --> 00:10:38.179 Bauer played 34, so Terry Sawchuck was the sole 00:10:38.179 --> 00:10:40.700 winner of the Vizina trophy. Poor Johnny Bauer. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.500 Despite having the best average in the league 00:10:43.500 --> 00:10:45.419 and essentially splitting the season right down 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:47.299 the middle with his partner, he gets absolutely 00:10:47.299 --> 00:10:49.620 nothing on paper. The players had already seen 00:10:49.620 --> 00:10:52.279 this coming though. Behind the scenes, during 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:54.860 the season, Sawchuck and Bauer actually made 00:10:54.860 --> 00:10:58.230 a secret pact. The Vizina came with a $1 ,000 00:10:58.230 --> 00:11:01.049 prize, which was a significant amount of money 00:11:01.049 --> 00:11:04.210 at the time. A huge bonus. The two goalies agreed 00:11:04.210 --> 00:11:06.889 beforehand that if either of them won, they would 00:11:06.889 --> 00:11:09.389 split the cash right down the middle. But Satrak 00:11:09.389 --> 00:11:11.509 took it a step further than just splitting the 00:11:11.509 --> 00:11:14.470 money quietly. He showed incredible solidarity. 00:11:15.070 --> 00:11:17.590 When the season ended and he was named the sole 00:11:17.590 --> 00:11:20.470 winner, Sawchuck publicly stated that he would 00:11:20.470 --> 00:11:23.450 refuse the trophy entirely if Johnny Bauer's 00:11:23.450 --> 00:11:26.009 name was not inscribed right alongside his. He 00:11:26.009 --> 00:11:28.549 essentially held the NHL's prestigious award 00:11:28.549 --> 00:11:31.549 hostage over basic workplace fairness. He forced 00:11:31.549 --> 00:11:34.490 their hand and it worked. The NHL realized how 00:11:34.490 --> 00:11:37.190 absurd the situation was and changed the rule. 00:11:37.470 --> 00:11:39.649 They decided that any goaltender on the winning 00:11:39.649 --> 00:11:42.389 team who played at least 25 games would qualify 00:11:42.389 --> 00:11:45.190 to share the Vizina. They even applied it retroactively. 00:11:45.330 --> 00:11:48.529 So Sawchuck and Bauer. officially shared that 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:51.529 1965 award it's a great victory for teammates 00:11:51.529 --> 00:11:55.210 but of course because this rule was still inherently 00:11:55.210 --> 00:11:58.190 based on a team metric the sharing criteria led 00:11:58.190 --> 00:12:00.970 to an even more bizarre anomaly a decade later 00:12:00.970 --> 00:12:05.590 in the 1973 -74 season the ultimate tie yeah 00:12:05.590 --> 00:12:08.029 the chicago blackhawks and the philadelphia flyers 00:12:08.029 --> 00:12:10.509 finished the season tied exactly for the fewest 00:12:10.509 --> 00:12:14.149 goals against Dead even. So the NHL had to award 00:12:14.149 --> 00:12:16.909 the Vizina to the top goalies for both teams. 00:12:17.330 --> 00:12:20.370 Tony Esposito for Chicago and Bernie Parent for 00:12:20.370 --> 00:12:22.769 Philadelphia. It remains the only time in history 00:12:22.769 --> 00:12:25.110 that the Vizina trophy was shared between two 00:12:25.110 --> 00:12:27.509 goalies playing on completely opposing teams. 00:12:27.649 --> 00:12:29.870 It perfectly illustrates how far the league had 00:12:29.870 --> 00:12:31.929 drifted from the original intent of the award. 00:12:32.129 --> 00:12:34.389 You have two guys on opposing teams sharing an 00:12:34.389 --> 00:12:36.789 individual award because their respective defensive 00:12:36.789 --> 00:12:39.009 squads happened to allow the exact same number 00:12:39.009 --> 00:12:40.950 of pucks into the net over the course of a year. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:43.240 The math had completely taken over common sense. 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:46.539 So what does this all mean for the modern era? 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:49.639 If you watch hockey today, they obviously don't 00:12:49.639 --> 00:12:51.539 have goalies from different teams sharing the 00:12:51.539 --> 00:12:55.220 Vizina. How did they finally fix this mess? The 00:12:55.220 --> 00:12:58.759 breaking point arrived before the 1981 -82 season. 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:02.399 The NHL essentially had an epiphany. They realized 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:04.899 that their attempt to purely objectify the award 00:13:04.899 --> 00:13:07.940 had failed. The team defense criteria was fundamentally 00:13:07.940 --> 00:13:10.860 flawed for assessing individual goaltender greatness. 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:13.039 They finally admitted the math wasn't telling 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:15.159 the whole story, but they didn't want to just 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:17.799 abandon the team metric either. Because a team 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:20.220 allowing the fewest goals is still a massive 00:13:20.220 --> 00:13:22.679 accomplishment that deserves recognition. Exactly. 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:25.440 So they split the baby. They created a brand 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.600 new NHL award, the William M. Jennings Trophy. 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.279 OK, so they essentially cloned the old Vizina 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:33.759 rules. Precisely. The William M. Jennings Trophy 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:36.809 took over the old criteria. It honors the collective 00:13:36.809 --> 00:13:38.990 defensive effort given to the goaltenders who 00:13:38.990 --> 00:13:41.570 play a minimum of 25 games for the team that 00:13:41.570 --> 00:13:43.789 allows the fewest goals. Which freed up the Vizina 00:13:43.789 --> 00:13:46.870 trophy to return to its roots. The Vizina reverted 00:13:46.870 --> 00:13:50.649 to its original, deeply subjective purpose. Honoring 00:13:50.649 --> 00:13:52.970 the most outstanding individual goaltender in 00:13:52.970 --> 00:13:56.110 the league, regardless of how good or bad their 00:13:56.110 --> 00:13:59.049 team's overall defense might be. To figure out 00:13:59.049 --> 00:14:01.710 who that most outstanding individual is, they 00:14:01.710 --> 00:14:05.100 completely overhauled the voting process. Today 00:14:05.100 --> 00:14:08.580 the winner is decided by the 32 general managers 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:11.720 of the NHL teams. This change revolutionized 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:14.019 the award. Suddenly you didn't need to be on 00:14:14.019 --> 00:14:16.500 a powerhouse team to be recognized as the best. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:19.960 Phenomenal goalies on mediocre or even bad defensive 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:22.860 teams finally had a chance to win. How does that 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.159 voting process actually work in practice? At 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:26.960 the end of the regular season each of the 32 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:29.669 general managers gets a ballot. They rank their 00:14:29.669 --> 00:14:32.009 top three choices. Their absolute favorite gets 00:14:32.009 --> 00:14:34.690 five points. Their runner up gets three points 00:14:34.690 --> 00:14:37.110 and their third choice gets one point. They tally 00:14:37.110 --> 00:14:38.809 up all the points across all the ballots and 00:14:38.809 --> 00:14:40.649 whoever has the most points takes the trophy. 00:14:40.789 --> 00:14:43.049 And nobody took advantage of this new subjective 00:14:43.049 --> 00:14:45.889 era quite like Dominic Hasek. Oh, the perfect 00:14:45.889 --> 00:14:48.460 example. Hasek holds the record for the most 00:14:48.460 --> 00:14:50.879 Vizina wins under this modern voting system, 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:53.960 taking home the trophy six times in the 90s and 00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:56.519 early 2000s, primarily with the Buffalo Sabres. 00:14:56.659 --> 00:14:59.519 He wasn't relying on a flawless team defense 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:01.980 in front of him. No, he was winning because the 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:04.200 general managers watched him play and realized 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:06.799 he was single -handedly carrying his team on 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:10.059 his back. He was undeniably the most outstanding 00:15:10.059 --> 00:15:14.029 individual. We see that continuing with modern 00:15:14.029 --> 00:15:16.309 active goalies who have multiple wins under this 00:15:16.309 --> 00:15:18.750 voting system, like Sergei Bobrovsky and Conor 00:15:18.750 --> 00:15:21.029 Hellebuyck. Which brings up the ultimate rarity 00:15:21.029 --> 00:15:23.590 in the sport. If you are so good that you are 00:15:23.590 --> 00:15:26.169 undeniably the best goalie, occasionally you 00:15:26.169 --> 00:15:28.149 are so good that you are undeniably the most 00:15:28.149 --> 00:15:30.830 valuable player in the entire league, outshining 00:15:30.830 --> 00:15:33.429 even the goal scorers. It is incredibly rare 00:15:33.429 --> 00:15:35.990 for a goaltender to win the Hart Memorial Trophy, 00:15:36.110 --> 00:15:39.259 which is the league MVP award. Winning both the 00:15:39.259 --> 00:15:42.080 Vizina and the Hart in the same year is the ultimate 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.399 validation. It says you aren't just the best 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:46.919 at your specific job. Your performance was so 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:48.779 transcendent that you were the most valuable 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:51.919 asset in the entire sport that year. It's a highly 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.460 exclusive club. You've got legends like Jacques 00:15:54.460 --> 00:15:57.159 Pointe back in the 60s, Dominic Hasek doing it 00:15:57.159 --> 00:16:00.059 twice in the 90s, Jose Theodore, Carey Price, 00:16:00.299 --> 00:16:02.840 and most recently, Connor Hellebike of the Winnipeg 00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:06.360 Jets in the 2024 -25 season. But because hockey 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:09.000 history is always full of contradictions, there 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:12.220 is one fantastic piece of trivia about the MVP 00:16:12.220 --> 00:16:15.779 award. We have to talk about Chuck Raynor. Chuck 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:19.059 Rayner is the perfect embodiment of the old system's 00:16:19.059 --> 00:16:21.860 flaws. He actually won the Hart Memorial Trophy 00:16:21.860 --> 00:16:25.399 as the league MVP in the 1949 -50 season. He 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:27.320 was deemed the most valuable player in all of 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:29.740 hockey by the media. But he never won a Vazina 00:16:29.740 --> 00:16:32.320 Trophy in his entire career. Because of those 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:35.529 old rigid team defense rules we talk about. His 00:16:35.529 --> 00:16:37.870 team didn't allow the fewest goals, so he wasn't 00:16:37.870 --> 00:16:39.590 mathematically allowed to be called the best 00:16:39.590 --> 00:16:42.090 goalie, even while being the most valuable player 00:16:42.090 --> 00:16:45.049 overall. It perfectly sums up the entire century 00:16:45.049 --> 00:16:47.309 -long struggle we've been talking about. So to 00:16:47.309 --> 00:16:49.590 wrap this all up for you. we've traced the incredible 00:16:49.590 --> 00:16:52.330 journey of the Vizina Trophy. It started as a 00:16:52.330 --> 00:16:54.789 memorial donation for a fallen legend. Then it 00:16:54.789 --> 00:16:57.590 morphed into a very confusing, heavily debated 00:16:57.590 --> 00:17:00.149 team statistic. It became a prize that had to 00:17:00.149 --> 00:17:02.570 be shared after a player rebellion. And finally, 00:17:02.710 --> 00:17:05.069 it evolved into a subjective vote conducted by 00:17:05.069 --> 00:17:07.559 team management. It highlights just how nearly 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:09.980 impossible it is to completely separate individual 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:12.220 performance from the context that surrounds it. 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:14.319 This leaves us with a critical thought to examine, 00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:16.799 especially regarding how we evaluate performance 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:20.240 today. Right. We established that the old system, 00:17:20.339 --> 00:17:23.200 the purely mathematical fewest goals against 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:27.220 criteria, was a deeply flawed equation. It ignored 00:17:27.220 --> 00:17:29.640 individual context and punished great players 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:32.279 on bad teams. But look at the modern system. 00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:36.200 Today, the 32 NHL general managers decide the 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:39.079 winner. Using that 5 -3 -1 voting system? But 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:42.119 general managers are not impartial judges. They 00:17:42.119 --> 00:17:44.680 are highly invested architects of their own teams. 00:17:44.819 --> 00:17:47.380 True. They possess their own rivalries, their 00:17:47.380 --> 00:17:49.900 own strategic blind spots, and deeply vested 00:17:49.900 --> 00:17:53.000 interests. A GM might be evaluating a goalie 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.700 who just single -handedly eliminated their team 00:17:55.700 --> 00:17:58.289 from playoff contention. So we have to ask, did 00:17:58.289 --> 00:18:00.829 the NHL actually fix the problem, or did they 00:18:00.829 --> 00:18:03.029 just replace a flawed math equation with human 00:18:03.029 --> 00:18:05.529 subjectivity? I want you to think about who decides 00:18:05.529 --> 00:18:08.650 who the best is in your own workplace. Are the 00:18:08.650 --> 00:18:11.369 metrics they use to evaluate you purely mathematical, 00:18:11.750 --> 00:18:14.230 or are they based on the subjective opinions 00:18:14.230 --> 00:18:16.869 of managers who have their own agendas and blind 00:18:16.869 --> 00:18:19.779 spots? When the people evaluating the talent 00:18:19.779 --> 00:18:22.599 are also competing in the same ecosystem, is 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:25.619 their vote ever truly impartial? Exactly. That 00:18:25.619 --> 00:18:28.099 is a phenomenal question to leave off on. We 00:18:28.099 --> 00:18:30.119 hope this deep dive gave you a whole new perspective 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:32.480 on what it really means to measure success, whether 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:34.839 you're on the ice or in the office. Thanks for 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:37.079 listening. Keep questioning those metrics, keep 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:39.160 looking at the bigger picture, and we will catch 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:40.700 you on the next deep dive.