Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
From: vv1@dgp.toronto.edu (Marc J. Ouellette)
Subject: Re: How is Manon doing?
Date: 12 Nov 92 08:57:26 GMT

dja1@mulch.picst.bellcore.com writes:
>In article <Bx97uz.4Dv@ccu.umanitoba.ca>, rwieler@ic17.umeeng (wieler) writes:
>|> Lets be honest here, nothing personal against Manon,  but there is no
>|> way she should be playing at the level she is.  She only played 20 minutes
>|> of Junior hockey and let in three goals.   She has been elevated above her
>|> status only because she is a female, and an ok goalie.  There are probably
>|> hundreds of other goalies out there who could do a better job than her,
>|> who are currently unsigned.  This is simply a huge media hype for the
>|> Tampa Bay organization.
Actually, there are probably many female goalies who are at least as good as
Manon, if not better.  From talking to many players and goalies in the COWHL
(Central Ontario Women's Hockey League) who play at the AA level (the highest
level of women's hockey in Canada) it seems that Manon Rheaume isn't *clearly*
(as opposed to clearly isn't) the best female goalie out there.  Before she
played that famous 13 minutes in Trois-Rivieres, she was a virtual unknown...
She was not part of Team Canada that won the first Women's Ice Hockey World
Championships in 1990 in Ottawa...  Which doesn't mean that she wasn't good,
but being in the spotlight turned out to be very beneficial.
>|> 
>|> On the other hand give her credit for taking advantage of a good
>|> oportunity. Like I said before nothing against Manon personally,  but if
>|> she were a guy ther not a chance in hell she'd be signing any contracts.
True, nobody faults her for taking advantage of an awesome opportunity...
I think she made the most of it, and probably surprised some people.  She can
only keep improving.  Which makes me wonder how some other female goalies
might be able to do given the same opportunity...
>     What hopefully will be the grand result of Manon Rheaume is that she
>will be able to show that indeed, maybe some women CAN compete at least in
>thje goalie position given the proper training. And just maybe then, way
>back when they are in squirts and stuff, coaches and parents will give the
>future Manon Rheaumes a fair and realistic opportunity to really accumulate
>the proper credentials to get a fair and equal shot at the 'show'. Till then
>I think this is a great start and every journey starts with one step.
On TSN, they had an inside hockey report on this situation (or something like
that, I didn't see it)... they interviewed Geraldine Heaney and Angela
James (the best defenceman and forward in women's hockey...)... apparently,
the conclusion was that the real travesty was not if a woman might have
taken a man's try-out spot, but rather *if* it was not the best female goalie
that landed this try-out(they didn't say one way or the other).  Of course,
this experience could very well make her the best female goalie out there,
even if she wasn't to begin with.  She certainly is already a very good female
goalie.

Having seen a lot of women's hockey, I would definitely rank Angela James and
Geraldine Heaney as the highest impact players in women's hockey, ahead of
Manon Rheaume.  There are a lot of other great female goalies out there... Joan
Weston, Leslie Reddon, Carrie-Lynn Perry, Heather Zakary, Cathy Phillips, just
to name a few that I've seen play.  I haven't seen Manon play enough to judge
whether or not she is better or worse than any of the above.  However, I did
see her play at the National Try-outs for Team Canada in 1992.  The 35 players
there were split into two teams, and she shared the goaltending duties for
one team with Carrie-Lynn Perry.  They each played one half of each of 3
exhibition games, with Carrie-Lynn only letting in a total of 1 goal in all
the games, while Manon let in 4 or 5.  BTW, Carrie-Lynn was not picked for
Team Canada; the other goalie was Marie-Claire (no relation to Patrick) Roy
from Montreal.

Marc
--
Marc J. Ouellette  (vv1@dgp.toronto.edu)         Les Canadiens sont l`a!
"Angry words won't stop the fight, two wrongs don't make it right" - U2