Dallas Stars: Antti Niemi’s Three Best Moments In Dallas
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars bought out Antti Niemi in June in an attempt to refresh their crease and go in a new direction. Even though his 2016-17 campaign was an ugly one, he still had some bright and flashy moments with the Stars.
When I first began following the NHL as a whole (instead of just the Dallas Stars) on a religious level in 2011, I spent a lot of time in front of my TV, watching a plethora of hockey games. But that’s not the only thing I did to educate myself on the happenings around the league when I was in front of the “moving picture box”.
As a typical ninth grader, I spent a lot of time playing video games, specifically the EA Sports NHL franchise. I’ve owned every game since NHL 11 and have spent many hours gliding up and down the ice in Victory Green (or black for the pre-2014 games).
I learned a lot of the players around the league by playing that game, and came to dislike a good majority of them because of the talent and skill they possessed within the game that would make them tough to beat.
One of the names on my “dislike” list was goaltender Antti Niemi. I used to dread having to play the San Jose Sharks in my season mode or online because I always knew that it would take every ounce of skill I had to get a puck past him. When he came to Dallas in June 2015, I no longer dreaded San Jose as much.
Dallas Stars
But now it’s July 2017 and he’s gone. The Dallas Stars bought out Niemi in June after two average seasons with the team and he signed a short-term and small-money deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1.
It was a quick turnaround for the almost 34-year-old goalie. But it was clear after his ugly 2016-17 season that the Stars would have to get rid of him in one way or another and go in a new direction.
Dallas definitely wasn’t the best stop of his career. After posting impressive numbers in the early portion of his career, Niemi hit a rut with the Stars, putting up a record of 37-25-11 along with a .900 save percentage and 2.92 goals against average. And chances are if you watched him over the past two seasons (specifically last year), you remember some of the performances that led to these numbers.
Maybe you remember him almost coughing up a win against the New York Rangers this past season in a 7-6 decision. Or maybe the memory of him giving up three goals on two shots (it still must be some sort of record) in the first 4:01 of a game against the Minnesota Wild back in January still rings in your brain. Perhaps you think of his lackluster performance in the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that the Dallas Stars’ system just wasn’t meant for Niemi. Maybe he will find new success in Pittsburgh, or maybe it’s just time for him to pack it up and call it a career. He’s already hoisted the Cup, after all.
But that doesn’t mean that Antti Niemi didn’t have his bright moments while wearing Victory Green. There were plenty of miraculous saves and dazzling stops, along with a few top-notch performances that you might see on his highlight reel.
As a means of bidding him goodbye (all though this is a month late), here are Niemi’s three best moments as a Dallas Star.