Scott Radley: There’s no ‘n’ in ‘puckstopper’
First things first. His last name is Costantini. Not Constantini. Cos, not Con. No N.
Just out of curiosity, though, how many people spell it wrong? Or say it wrong?
It's everyone," Marco Costantini says. Even guys on our team."
The bad news? If it's gone on for all of his 19 years it's unlikely to change any time soon. The good news? That mispronunciation is one of the few things he hasn't stopped this season.
The Hamilton Bulldogs' homegrown goalie has been one of the real success stories of the team so far. Not only helping the squad carve out a spot right near the top of the standings but personally, finding himself among the league's goalie leaders.
Eight times in the Bulldogs' OHL history, a goalie has played 30 games or more in a season. Kaden Fulcher set the mark for goals against average with a 2.86 mark in 2017-18. He and Dawson Carty (the year before) tied for the best save percentage at .899.
Going into Thursday night's game against Niagara - with super prospect Shane Wright and the Kingston Frontenacs up next at home on Saturday afternoon - Costantini is at 2.83 and .910 while on pace to play 48 games.
The remarkable part about this is how he's doing it despite how little he played during COVID-19. Just two games. Hardly the recipe for excellence, you'd think.
Oh, he skated a couple times a week with the team's goalie coach and he worked out daily in his family's basement gym. The skinny kid who could never add weight put on 25 pounds of muscle by going hard in his workouts and pounding the protein shakes.
I tried to go to Europe but it didn't work out so I was stuck at home," he says.
But, for a goalie, not playing for that long doesn't help. Especially for one who has something to prove.
Two years ago, Costantini found his name on NHL Central Scouting's list of possible draft picks. It was exciting, except he watched that entire draft and never heard his name called.
Some goalies got picked that I knew I was way better than them," he says. It kind of got me mad."
The difference between him and them? Teams tend to love tall goalies. When they go down into the butterfly, their shoulders come up to the crossbar and take away open space. The guys he's talking about were all six-foot-four or taller. He's just under six-foot-two.
Not much he can do about that. So, he knew this year was crucial to stand out and eventually earn himself a tryout. Be so good that it won't matter what height he is or what the previous scouting reports might or might not have said.
You'd think he's doing that.
He hasn't lost two games in a row. Last month, he earned his first OHL shutout. A few weeks ago, he stopped 43 of 45 shots against Mississauga and then 38 of 40 against the same team.
Head coach Jay McKee says he really didn't know who his No. 1 goalie was going to be this season after that year away. There was hope Costantini could be really good but there were a lot of unknowns. With him and, frankly, everyone else.
Goalies especially. It's just so difficult for them to replicate game play simply by doing skills sessions. You can work on technique alone with a goalie coach but traffic in front, tips, screens and all those other things are unique to live action.
I think he's been a pleasant surprise," McKee says. In the sense that we didn't know where guys were going to be."
This success is almost certain to bring Costantini a little more attention and get him back on some scouts' radar. And who knows, maybe even get people to say his name properly.
Nice if it happens but he's not too worried about it.
I'm used to it now."
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com