Nabokov, Vokoun playoff foes...and draft-mates

The Isles will face Tomas Vokoun in nets tonight in Pittsburgh.

As Kenny Albert pointed out to me yesterday, Vokoun's last five playoff appearances were against Nabokov in the 2007 playoffs. The Sharks won the series in 5 games.

The 9th round of the 1994 draft certainly produced some goaltenders -- check out this excerpt from picks 217-226

(thanks hockeydb.com)

9	217	Quebec	Tim Thomas	G	U. of Vermont [ECAC]	378	0	6	6	39
9	218	Philadelphia	Johan Hedberg	G	Leksands IF [SEL]	373	0	10	10	96
9	219	San Jose	Evgeni Nabokov	G	Kamenogorsk (Russia)	646	1	13	14	112
9	220	NY Islanders	Gord Walsh	L	Kingston Frontenacs [OHL]
9	221	Vancouver	Bill Muckalt	R	Kelowna Spartans [BCJHL]	256	40	57	97	204
9	222	Chicago	Lubomir Jandera		Litvinov CHP HC [Czech]
9	223	Washington	John Tuohy	D	Kent H.S. (Conn.)
9	224	St. Louis	Marc Stephan		Tri-City Americans [WHL]
9	225	Buffalo	Craig Millar	D	Swift Current Broncos [WHL]	114	8	14	22	73
9	226	Montreal	Tomas Vokoun	G	Poldi Kladno (Czech.)	700	0	23	23	125

There were some other NHL'ers taken in that round too - the last two picks were Steve Sullivan and Eric Boulton.  John Grahame, who backed up for the Isles at the end of 2011-12 but never got into a game was also taken in that round, as was Kenny Jonsson's brother Jorgen.

The Isles' first round pick in 1994 - the "better Lindros", Brett.  He was taken 9th, three picks after Ryan Smyth went to Edmonton.

BTW, if Vokoun wins a game, does it mean that the Penguins won't win the Cup?  In 17 of the last 20 seasons (including each of the last 4), the Stanley Cup Champion had a single goaltender record all 16 wins.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick