Five Questions with Curtis Joseph

NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Five Questions With ..." runs every Tuesday. We talk to key figures in the game and ask them questions to gain insight into their lives, careers and the latest news.

The latest edition features former NHL goalie Curtis Joseph, who played 19 seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes and Calgary Flames. Joseph is seventh in League history with 454 wins and had a 2.79 goals-against average, a .906 save percentage and 51 shutouts in 943 games. He played in the NHL All-Star Game twice (1994, 2000), and was voted winner of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2000 for exemplifying leadership qualities on and off the ice and making noteworthy humanitarian contributions to his community.

Curtis Joseph said goalies will have the advantage when the Stanley Cup Qualifiers begin in Phase 4 of the NHL Return to Play Plan.

"At least that's the way I always looked at it when I played," Joseph said. "When I came out of training camp, I always thought I had the edge. Of course, the skaters will tell you differently.

"When these teams leave their camps, which they are calling Phase 3 (expected to open July 13), it's not like they'll be going into a first week of a regular season where you can take some time to get into form. These games are going to be vital right from the get-go, and an in-form goalie could make all the difference. There will be no time, no wriggle room to work out the rust, especially for a goalie."

The qualifiers are scheduled to begin Aug. 1 in two hub cities to be determined -- one for the top 12 Eastern Conference teams and the other for the top 12 Western Conference teams based on points percentage when the season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. The top four teams in each conference will play in a round-robin to determine the top four seeds for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The teams that finished fifth through 12th in each conference each will play in best-of-5 qualifier series. The winning teams will advance to the playoffs, and the losing teams will have a chance at the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft in the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery.

Joseph believes the Stanley Cup winner will be one of the winning teams in the Cup Qualifiers. He also discussed his hope of one day getting inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and wondered why former Maple Leafs teammate Alexander Mogilny isn't already in the Hall.

Here are Five Questions with… Curtis Joseph:

You mentioned the importance of a hot goalie for teams entering Phase 4. What other edge do you feel certain teams will have, especially given the unique circumstances of coming off an extended pause in play due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic?

"Those teams that win that first best-of-5 round and go on to play one of the teams that pretty much got a bye and played in the seeding round, they have an advantage. You need to be playing at a high tempo. Those teams that come out of those best-of-5 series, they're going to have a big advantage. I would bet on those teams to go further. There may be a few upsets because those teams already have played what amounts to a playoff round at a high level. You get hot. Look for that, a team coming out of that best-of-5, look for them to go all the way."

You say that with certainty. Why do you feel so strongly about that?

"The more you play for your lives and get through it, the better you're going to be. You've already survived the threat of having to go home the minute training camp ends and you are thrown into a do-or-die situation, which the top four teams in each conference don't have to deal with. It makes you mentally tougher. And if you've won a qualifier series, chances are your goalie is in form. That's huge. I've always said that you can lose with a poor goaltender, but you can't win without a good one. And as a goalie, when you get on a roll, you're seeing pucks well, you're playing with confidence, and at times you feel you can stop anything. Once you get past that first series, you have confidence in your team and your team has confidence in you. That's a relationship that can take both parties a long way."

Given the importance of what a goalie means to a team like you just stressed, why do you think there are so few of them in the Hockey Hall of Fame? According to the Hall's official stats, 38 of 284 members in the Players category are goalies.

"Good question. The goalie plays 60 minutes or more in the playoffs every game, so I'm not so sure what more you can do. It's an extremely important position. Maybe it's harder to quantify that position than any other position. Maybe as advanced stats and advanced analytics come into play, it will be easier to quantify that position. Because Cups or individual awards are tough to come by, believe me, especially when you've got a dominant guy at the position playing at the same time. In an era of Dominik Hasek winning six ... Vezina Trophies as the League's top goalie, for example, he was unbelievable, he was winning Hart Trophies as NHL MVP at the time too. In those eras it's going to be tough for anybody else, no matter how good, to win a Vezina when the guy is winning Harts too. And championships, well, it's very tough to win a championship. I always say, and it's what I love about hockey, it's the greatest team sport of any sport. Because you can't take the best player on the best team and put him on the worst team and that worst team suddenly goes on to win the Cup. You can't. There's no chance. But you can take a team like Vegas (Golden Knights), a team of unprotected guys, and put them all together and they're like-minded and they band together, and they can go to the Final in their first season (2018) and be the second-best team in the sport. How great is that? That's my best analogy of how it's the best team sport. You couldn't take Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin and put him on the worst team and they'd win. There's no way. It wouldn't happen."

You've been eligible for the Hall since 2012 yet still haven't been inducted. You outlined reasons why you didn't win the Vezina Trophy or the Stanley Cup, yet you are seventh on the all-time wins list with 454, an impressive number. How disappointed were you last month when you didn't get a call from the Hall?

"I never see it or think about it until that day comes. And then I see it on Twitter or something, and then it occupies my mind all day. Unfortunately it hasn't happened yet. And, honestly, it's the pinnacle of anyone's playing career. It's not the feather in the cap; it's putting (on) the whole cap with the feather. It would be amazing. The guys that have come before me are obviously so deserving. It's a special day. It's a special day for hockey around the world. It's great. But the reality is, I can't stop any more pucks now. It's out of my hands. I played with some great people obviously, and I played against some great people. In the end, I'm very happy with my career."

You've been a backer of Alexander Mogilny's bid to get into the Hall. What's your argument on his behalf?

"He's got the stats (1,032 points in 990 games), but it's more than that. Here's a story that tells you all you need to know: We were in Buffalo and this guy had three breakaways on me in the first period, maybe in the first 15 minutes. He was flying. Best player on the ice by far. And I don't know if he speared a guy, said something to an official, whatever, he was thrown out of the game and I was like, 'Thank God, get this guy out of here.' He was so dynamic. He was on fire. He was flying. That's the type of talent Alex was. Any goalie in my era or the era he played in, they would say the same thing. You had to know when he was on the ice, when he was coming off the bench, all of it. He could bring fans out of their seats. He's like Eric Lindros, not in the style of play, but in the fact that Eric had Hall of Fame talent and had to wait to get in. He did. Hopefully Alex does one day too."