Jarome Iginla is my favourite Flames player. And yet when I read these little online or Sun polls that pick Jarome as the greatest Flame ever, I snort a bit: he's only played 9 full seasons, hasn't won a Cup yet, hasn't shown the longevity yet, etc. whatever.

At the same time, when I read a similar poll calling Miikka Kiprusoff the greatest Flames goalie ever, I give Mike Vernon a little courtesy nod, and then think, Yeah, I'd agree with that.

Before this season, Kipper had played a grand total of 64 games for the Flames.

I say all of this by way of a respectful, near-apologetic preamble, because now I'm going to talk about how the Flames can get along without him: and I believe they most certainly can.

I have a strong suspicion that there are factors that contribute to Kipper's goaltending success beyond awesome talent. And I'm not just talking about strong team D; I think the Flames' organization is presently a place that maximizes the likelihood of strong goaltending. Here's our goalie coach's bio, for starters:

David Marcoux returns for his third year with the Flames organization as the teams goaltending coach... Marcoux successfully introduced the concept of Mental Training (mental toughness, relaxation, concentration, confidence and goal setting) to the Flames goaltenders along with the Quebec technical style of goaltending.
[...]
Prior to joining the Flames, Marcoux spent the previous 12 years teaching goaltenders in a sports academy (Profil Hockey Cap-Jeunesse) in St-Jerome, Quebec. He also held the position of Goaltender Coach with the Hull Olympiques of the QJMHL from 1997 to 2001. During this period, the team made the league finals for two consecutive years.

Marcoux also works closely with Flames scouting staff and management in the areas of goaltender coaching and advising, pro scouting and in goaltender personnel decisions.

...[I]n 1990, Marcoux continued his education and in 1997 received his Masters Degree from the University of Montreal. His final thesis was The Development and Evaluation of Ice Hockey Goaltenders.

I'd be interested in seeing a copy of that. Regardless, you can take three things out of this:

1. He spent a lot of time figuring out how to make goalies better before he was ever a team's goalie coach
2. He spent a lot of time figuring out what kind of goaltending skills are most easily coached, and what skills a good goalie is essentially born with
3. #2 was a factor in why the Flames picked up Philippe Sauve as their 2nd goalie

I've said before, although it might have been in the Comments somewhere else, that I think Darryl Sutter is probably a better GM than coach. And he stressed repeatedly, when they traded for Sauve, that he was the guy they wanted, not the guy who was available. (There were a lot of questions: the only time Flames fans had ever seen Sauve before was when they torched him for 7 goals in March 2004). There is very good reason to believe that the Flames acquired Sauve because they believed that his weaknesses were things that could be corrected, and that his strengths were things that can't be taught.

The evidence so far this season, in his limited performances, supports this. His GAA and SV% are virtually identical to Kipper's. He's played so rarely that I remember most of the goals he's allowed, and they weren't bad ones. On top of that, he's seemed improved every time he plays, and the numbers bear that out as well.

And for a bit more evidence that the Calgary Flames organization is a good place for goalies, you can look to Kipper's own actions. I think it's a safe assumption that his withdrawal from the Finnish Olympic team was not made lightly or happily (if you're skeptical, name one Finn who begged off a big int'l tourney on dubious grounds). He clearly feels like he owes the Flames something: his best possible performance.

He also signed a 3-year, $10M contract this past offseason. The guy has the lowest season GAA in the modern era--he probably could have driven a harder bargain (or negotiated a shorter contract). But he didn't, which shows me that he wants to play for the Flames. I suppose it could be because of all his buddies on the team, but I doubt it: I think it was because he thought this was where he had the best chance to succeed.

So....I think there's a pretty good chance that however much Flip Sauve is called on over the next 6 weeks, or the remainder of the season, he'll turn out to be at least average (by which I mean significantly better than, say, Jussi Markkanen), and that furthermore, the Flames will continue to be a very good team with Flip in the net. I totally reject the notion that Kipper has "carried" the Flames anywhere. He's excellent, but team success and goaltending success are pretty tough to separate. Yes, he's stolen them some games in his time, but show me a good team whose goalies haven't.