NHL: Toronto Maple Leaf Goaltender James Reimer Has Divine Recipe for Success

With the Toronto Maple Leafs signing 23 year old goaltender James Reimer to a three year / $5.4 million contract, the club and its fans hope to have solved the goaltender position for many years to come.

Of course, with only half a stellar season under his belt, no one knows for sure whether Reimer can consistently excel at the same high level.

Adding to the uncertainty, the pressure to perform in hockey-mad Toronto is clearly not the most relaxing atmosphere for a young backstop to gain confidence and come into his own.

Leaf fans know only too well how many a young promising player has been unceremoniously escorted out of Hogtown, crushed as it were, under the weight of unrealistic expectations.

Yet, I will venture suggest that Reimer has something on his side that helps to ease our fears—God.

God!?

Yes, God. The Big Guy himself.

To explain, I must say that one thing that impressed me with Reimer’s surprising debut was his humility.

As the Leaf faithful hastened to crown their Save-iour, the hype seemed to miss one guy—James Reimer himself.

Indeed, far from reveling in his own stardom, Reimer did not hesitate to attribute his on-ice accomplishments to his faith—and it got me to thinking about the wisdom of this seemingly otherworldly recipe for success.

Now, the last thing I am purporting to do in this humble article is lay down a final argument for the existence of God.

In fact, the existence or non-existence of a Supreme Being is not the issue at all.

I’ll even go so far as to say that I haven’t the foggiest notion how such an ominous question could ever be solved, let alone in an article about a hockey player.

What I am concerned with here is simply assessing the tools and factors Reimer possesses that might help determine the probability of his success as the Leaf's newly anointed number one goalie.

Obviously, his relatively untested technical and natural skill is going to play a huge role in his NHL career.

But beyond that unanswerable question, I invite you to consider whether his well-known devotion to Christianity might not also play a significant role in his future.

Religion, for example, has long been associated with the historical success of armies and even societies in general. 

Quite simply, religion can provide the powerful combination of fanatic passion, stringent discipline and unwavering obedience—necessary tools for success in quite a few areas of life.

Now, certainly, one could argue that a triumphant army is itself not the pinnacle of civilization. It may even be one of its greatest banes.

Likewise, one can reasonably assert that a deeply religious society has little capacity for open-mindedness or innovation.

But these objections have little relevance to hockey, where success is measured almost solely by victory and performance on the field.

And if you think about it, what is hockey except a transmogrification of war, only set in a peaceful society? 

So then, why shouldn't the same practical advantages of religion to military endeavors and other comparable spheres of life not apply equally to NHL players?

For one thing, it's clear that athletes and soldiers have a tremendous amount in common. 

More often than not, the most successful of these are able to shut out the distractions, put their noses to the grindstone and "get the job done."

It's also true that plenty of athletes have wilted under the pressure of playing in Toronto and part of that comes from not being able to handle the limelight.

(Perhaps this explains the inordinate amount of Americans in Leaf Land? Not to mention Montreal.)

In Toronto, where molehills are truly mountains, the constant oscillation from goat to hero too often finds that player stuck in an extended period as the former.

But it seems to me that Reimer’s even-keel personality, certainly in large part attributable to his identification as a devout Christian, can potentially avoid these demoralizing vicissitudes.   

After all, when an athlete slumps, what are they told to do? “Go back to the fundamentals!”

Well, doesn’t it make a certain amount of sense that familiarity with a fundamentalist attitude may give Reimer an advantage here?

Now, I do not intend to suggest that an athlete categorically requires faith to succeed. Far from it.

That is so obviously not true, it requires no explanation.

But I do believe that as a general rule, supported by the long and comparable history of military science, that the disciplined practices of religion may be one way of furnishing athletes with the necessary skill set to overcome many potential pitfalls of the professional athlete who peddles his services in a fishbowl market.

In truth, it doesn’t matter to me how Reimer succeeds—just as long as he does—though I’m open to the idea that his faith could be a contributing factor to the young goaltender’s success in the relentless Toronto pressure-cooker.