Curtis McElhinney shares incredible speech Mike Keenan gave to Miikka Kiprusoff
Curtis McElhinney called it quits on his NHL career following the 2020-21 season, where he won the Stanley Cup for a second consecutive year with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
During his career, he made stops with eight different franchises in the NHL, but it all began back in the 2007-08 season with the Calgary Flames, who drafted him in 2002.
In a recent post on his Instagram account, McElhinney shared an incredible story about a speech Head Coach Mike Keenan gave to Miikka Kiprusoff.
McElhinney says that the Flames were arriving in Denver to take on the Avalanche, with the team arriving at the hotel around 2 a.m. Upon getting off the bus, Mike Keenan grabbed Kiprusoff, who had already played two games on the team's road trip, and proceeded to tell him about Hall of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall.
According to McElhinney, Keenan asked Kiprusoff if he knew who Glenn Hall was, to which the Finnish netminder said "no". Keenan responded by saying that Hall played 400+ consecutive games in the NHL, but Kiprusoff was confused why he was being told this story and said "so?".
Keenan then looked at Kiprusoff and told him, "so..it means you're playing in net tomorrow night."
Upon hearing this, McElhinney said he felt disappointed that another opportunity to play a game in the NHL during his rookie season was taken away. But he went on to add that Kiprusoff had an incredible performance against Colorado, stopping 35 of 36 shots, calling him one of the best he's ever seen play.
When it comes to Flames franchise history, Kiprusoff is one of the best goaltenders they've ever had and a few weeks back, it was announced that his number 34 would be retired and sent to the rafters at the Scotiabank Saddledome on March 2nd, 2024.
| POLL | ||
Do you think Miikka Kiprusoff is the best goaltender in Flames history? | ||
| Yes | 35 | 54.7 % |
| No | 8 | 12.5 % |
| Not the best, but definitely top-three | 15 | 23.4 % |
| See Results | 6 | 9.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
