Jim Carey: Competitive Spirit and Early Success Cost him a Career

The 90’s seemed to be filled with players who showed promise but never lived up to it, such as Patrik Stefan, or Alexandre Daigle. And there are many articles that compare the former Caps goaltender, Jim Carey, to these players. However that’s a poor comparison because, unlike them, he lived up to his potential, it may have been for a short time but none the less it happened.

In 1995 Jim Carey was nominated for the Calder and Vezina, in 1996 he won the Vezina and in 1997 everything fell apart. The question is what happened in that gap? Many people theorize that the Caps played a certain defensive game that benefitted Carey but that wouldn’t account for his stellar university statistics, or his strong numbers in Portland (Washington’s former farm team). There is an interesting case to be made for how Carey’s family life affected his career.

Carey, grew up in an athletic, extremely competitive, family that consisted of a brother, Paul Carey, that played professional baseball for the Baltimore Orioles and interestingly had a short pro career like Jim, a sister Ellen who set 11 school records in Basketball when she was a teen and then went on to become a teacher, and a mother who was shortstop on a state championship team when she was younger. Jim, being the youngest, essentially grew up in the shadow of his family’s success and was instilled with a strong sense of competition at a young age.

"I had an obsession with winning. I couldn't handle losing. I'd get so upset, I'd bite myself." said Carey in an interview with Michael Farber (whom most of this article’s evidence came from).

The extent of how cruel competition in the Carey household could be is best exemplified in this quote from his mother, Beverly, about how his doctor miss diagnosed his strep throat as competitive jitters when Jim was a child.

"He called my other children in and told them they would have to let Jim win because of his age, the doctor said it was a nervous thing, but winning should make it stop. Three weeks later Jim was still doing it. We went back, they did a throat culture, and it turned out Jim had been walking around, playing all his sports, while he had a strep throat. When we found out that was the problem, we immediately stopped being nice to him.".

“Stopped being nice to him.” the words of a caring mother. Now this isn’t to question the parenting of the Carey family because by all accounts they succeeded; two former professional athletes and a school teacher for kids. But maybe the harshness of always having to compete for everything made Carey the all star and pressure cracking goaltender that he came to be.

He was able to rise to prominence fast because he had unabashed drive to be the best. Just read this quote from Chris McDonell’s For the Love of Hockey, where he talks about the Calder Trophy.

“The only individual trophy I ever coveted was the Calder in my rookie year of 1995. I was a lot more disappointed to come runner-up for the Calder than I was pleased to come in third that year for the Vezina” said Carey. “You only get one shot at Rookie of the Year. I wanted to win the Calder so badly that when I received another nomination for the Vezina in 1996, I hardly paid attention to it. I didn’t want to get excited and then feel that letdown again.”

Understandably, he’d manage expectations to control the pain of not winning but maybe that was the issue. Losing that Calder may have been the first crack in Carey’s ego that caused him to fall apart. Think about it; he wins and then his desire to be the best is validated, he loses and suddenly he might not be the great player he thought he was. Sure, it didn’t all fall apart at once- he did go on to win the Vezina the next season- but another poor playoff performance against the offensive Penguins sealed the deal on his career. A few months later Carey found himself on the sad sack Bruins and the end was inevitable.

Now it’s important to mention that Carey’s confidence didn’t come from nothing. In fact he had success all the way to Washington. He led his high school team to three state titles, won the WCHA Rookie of the Year in 1993, and in 95 won both the AHL’s Rookie of the Year and Top Goalie- the same year he was nominated for the exact same awards in the NHL. But too much success and not enough adversity early on may have left him without the tools to cope with failure. Fans went from calling him the net detective to the net defective, the Bruins buried him in the minors, and the media tore him apart.

"Now affectionately known as the Net Defective, the hometown hero wannabe will have to get his act together as the porous Ruins' last line of defense. “wrote the Sports Forecaster Hockey in 1998.

It’s now clear that Carey came to Boston as damaged goods and remained that way.

"When we traded Jim, it wasn't under normal circumstances, we were struggling, and we traded three good, young players for three veterans.” said Dave Poile, former Washington Capitals GM. “You could already sense that the passion, the drive wasn't there in Jim. He was a nice person, but he didn't really integrate with the team. Sure, there are loners in hockey, but it just seemed that Jim didn't really want it. And you have to want it.”

When Carey finished with St. Louis in 1999 his confidence was at an all time low.

"When Jim was with us, you could see his confidence was a lot lower than it had been in Washington,'' said former Blues GM Larry Pleau. “It was like he was putting himself through a wringer. We knew it was a gamble, but we were hoping Jim could find a place in our organization to give him a chance to re-find himself.”

Jim never did re-find himself and by the summer of 99 he announced to his agent that he was done with the game.

Since then, many stories have been written about the obscure 1996 Vezina winning goaltender who went from top of the league to out of the league in a mere five years. He was a good goalie with tremendous talent that went to waste because of major confidence issues, and it’s kind of shocking to think that he’s 38 right now and could still be playing in the NHL today. 

Fans will forever have to wonder what could of been had Carey been able to get over his demons.

Here are some interesting quotes I found in my research.

Capital center Dave Poulin: "Jim will go a long way because of his demeanor, his attitude, his composure, he's controlled in the way that he plays." April 17, 1995 Michael Farber Ace In the Hole.

The Hockey News: "Did Washington's suffocating defensive system make Carey look better than he really is? Did Boston's terrible defense make him look worse than he really is? Carey calmly insists he can make any adjustments necessary. He had better be right, because at the tender age of 23, Carey went into the off-season as the only experienced goalie in the [Boston] system.” The Hockey News 1997-98 Yearbook, p. 75.

Jim Carey: "But what is it about me that made me upset when my mother beat me in around-the-world basketball games when I was 15, but if [New York Ranger defenseman Brian] Leetch beats me on a breakaway, it's like, O.K., let's go, I'll stop the next one? It's like I was bred for hockey. Like this was all meant to be." April 17, 1995 Michael Farber Ace In the Hole.

Michael Farber: “This is premature, but in the great Carey family tradition you are encouraged to get your ice-cream bets down early: Jim Carey wins a Stanley Cup before Jim Carrey wins an Oscar.” April 17, 1995 

Michael Farber Ace In the Hole.

The Sports Forecaster Hockey: "Jim Carey was absolutely awful last year. Since Colorado owns Boston's first-round pick, there's no benefit to finishing low in the standings. If Carey stinks again, they'll make a deal.” '97-'98, p. 49.

Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer: "I think Jim left school prematurely [after his sophomore year], not so much from a hockey standpoint but from a maturity standpoint. Jim made a lot of money. Maybe things came too easy too quickly.'' David Elfin, Washington Times Staff Writer, Sunday, July 16, 2000; Page A1.

David Poile: "Everybody has to deal with adversity. Olie dealt with plenty before he finally made it. Jim made it, and then he had to deal with adversity. You don't lose the talent that Jim had overnight. I think it comes down to Jim not wanting it badly enough. He didn't fight through the adversity the way we expected.'' David Elfin, Washington Times Staff Writer, Sunday, July 16, 2000; Page A1.

Carey's agent, Brian Lawton: "When Washington traded Jim, he was hurt, he felt he had done a good job for the Caps, that Washington was home and that he was going to be there for a while. He felt the trade was like someone was saying he wasn't good enough.'' David Elfin, Washington Times Staff Writer, Sunday, July 16, 2000; Page A1.