| Tuesday, October 24
By George Johnson
Special to ESPN.com |
|
Western Conference goaltenders are ducking for cover.
Not from Adam's-apple-high slap shots or kamikaze forwards flying suicide
missions into goal creases. No, they're being pelted by something even
more dangerous -- speculation.
And those targeted are hardly no-names. They're
storied, successful, seasoned campaigners with 10 Stanley Cups between them and unspoken Hall of Fame invites on their collective résumé.
In Denver, reports this week indicated that Patrick Roy is just waiting for
the Avs -- apparently looking to make that irrevocable shift to youth, in the
guise of Marc Denis -- to dish him off when the no-trade clause in his
contract expires Jan. 1.
Absurd.
In San Jose, meanwhile, Steve Shields looks to have supplanted Mike Vernon as
the No. 1 netminder for the surging Sharks.
And up in Calgary, there's been not-so-quiet whispers that the bottom has
fallen out on Grant Fuhr's magical trick trunk.
But wait. There just might be a rabbit or two left
to pull out of this hat.
Roy just happens to be 34, Vernon, 36, and Fuhr, 37. Surely, they are all closer
to the end than the beginning, but put a hold on those youth movements for
the moment; don't go eulogizing over the old fellas just yet.
Teams simply do not go after Stanley Cups (a fixation with the Colorado
Avalanche) or make serious playoff inroads (the fervent hope of the San Jose
Sharks) or somehow squeeze decidedly inferior rosters into the postseason
party (the rather fanciful goal of the Calgary Flames) without savvy at the
goaltending position.
|  | | Fuhr has struggled this season, but his coach sticks by him. |
"To win in this league you simply must have veteran goaltending," preaches
Flames' coach Brian Sutter. "You know the old saying: You can't teach
experience? Well, it's true."
The last apple-cheeked, fresh-faced, untried kid to step up to the plate and
sock his team over the top was, in fact, Roy, as rookie back in 1986. Even
Chris Osgood was 24 and had four years of pro experience under his belt when
he took the Red Wings to their second Cup of the decade in '97.
The Roy "controversy" could be one of miscommunications. Or perhaps Saint
Patrick was feeling a bit vulnerable at the moment -- even the best experience
pangs of doubt from time to time -- having just seen another golden oldie,
Claude Lemieux, bundled off out of town to New Jersey.
"In Montreal, they're saying I expect to be traded," snorted Roy the day
after the fire storm. "Well, I don't know what'll happen when I end up in
Japan. I might be traded there."
As for his leaving Colorado, he added: "I said we'll cross that bridge when
we get to the river. I don't think I'm at the river just yet. I'm happy in
Denver. I love it here. If you ask me 'Do I expect to be traded?' I'd tell you, 'No, I don't expect that.' If it happened it would be a big, big surprise to me."
To Bob Hartley, the man in charge, as well.
"It's not even an issue for us," the Colorado coach said. "I'd advise real
estate agents not to get too excited. Don't waste your time."
Nothing, it is said, breeds success like success. And between Roy, Fuhr
and Vernon there are 1,163 regular-season wins (as of Monday). All
the remaining Western Conference goalies listed -- 25 in total -- have combined
for 1,958 wins. The 11 goalies clearly considered No. 1 for their respective team (including Shields, for the moment, in San Jose) can count 1,120.
Can anyone seriously believe the Avs would entrust their playoff hopes to
24-year-old Denis, he of eight career NHL starts? Denis is undoubtedly
Colorado's heir apparent but it's customary that if a succession to the
throne is near, the understudy would've received a lot of prep under his
predecessor before the change in power is executed.
Eight games is hardly a lot of preparation.
So at the moment that's all the heir is -- merely apparent. The game's most
pivotal position at its most compelling time is best not left to untried
novices.
Similarly, does anyone around the Silicon Valley sincerely believe that
Vernon won't be the netminder of choice when April rolls around? Shields has
been outstanding thus far, no question, and he's 27 -- hardly a kid -- but he's
also been involved in only 11 career playoff games while Vernon's stood through 134.
Despite Shields playing the bulk of the minutes right now, Vernon clearly
feels comfortable with his lot in life. And he outright dismisses the notion
of any goaltending controversy.
"Controversy?" he blurted last week. "What controversy?
"Sure I like to play. Who doesn't? I wouldn't be much use to anybody if I
enjoyed sitting on my butt night after night, would I? But that doesn't mean
I'm going to throw a tantrum. Steve Shields has been great for this team. He
got on a roll and ran with it. The way he's played for us, how can you argue? I'm not mad at anybody. If somebody thinks so, they're misreading between
the lines again. Or smoking funny weed."
Vernon, of course, has been through all this before, three seasons ago in
Detroit when it appeared Osgood had wrested the No.1 job from him during the
regular season. But it was Vernon who starred in the playoffs and won the
Conn Smythe Trophy as the Wings exorcised their decades-old Stanley Cup jinx.
"It's early," he said, with the wisdom of experience. "Things change awfully
quickly in this game."
Could there possibly be a soul alive who believes Fred Brathwaite, Tyler Moss
or Jean-Sebastien Giguere can provide the Flames with good enough goaltending
to somehow make the playoffs? Yet, outsiders take a cursory glance at the
numbers, see that he's already been pulled from three games and dismiss Grant
Fuhr as finished.
"Finished?" Sutter grunts. "It'll tell you something. On that last road trip
we gave up 11 goals in the last five games, and Grant Fuhr was magnificent. He
gave us a chance to win every night. We just didn't take advantage of him.
And don't forget, we have 12 points in overtime this year. Overtime is the
closest thing to playoffs you see in regular-season hockey. And we wouldn't
have one point -- not one -- without him."
Fuhr, however, admits the season so far has been a struggle.
"I've been ... average," he confesses. "And I realize that's not good
enough. I still think a big part of it is becoming accustomed to the
situation. And I seem to open every month with, how shall I say it, an ...
interesting ... game.
"But I still have the drive. I still have the desire. I can still do the job.
If I didn't think so, I wouldn't be here."
Count him out at your own risk.
"Grant, Vernie, Patrick, those guys you're talking about have all won big
games in pressure-packed situations," Sutter said. "They've all carried the
Stanley Cup. They're a special breed. They belong to an exclusive club.
"Over the course of a season lots of things are said and written; everyone
has their ups and downs. But when push comes to shove, if you had a game to
win the Cup, you couldn't go wrong with any one of those three guys. They've still got a lot of hockey left in them. And don't think for a moment
their teams don't know that."
The Rest of the West
Rumors abound that AWOL rookie Pavel Patera of the Stars, who refused a demotion, wants to return to the Czech Republic.
At 28, he apparently doesn't need the grief of being a minor-leaguer. Patera was used as a third-line center and second-line right winger in Dallas, neither to the Stars liking.
Onlookers in the Arizona desert believe this is a pivotal time for the
Coyotes, off to such an impressive start this season. They wonder if the
"everyone is created equal" approach of new coach Bobby Francis has legs. During a recent game against San Jose, Francis benched Jeremy Roenick
and captain Keith Tkachuk for indifferent play, something unheard of in Phoenix.
"If I can sit down a young player like Deron Quint for making mistakes," said Francis, "then why not a veteran like Rick Tocchet or (Greg) Adams or Tkachuk."
Which is all well and good when you're winning games. But watch out should the fates begin to turn.
The Flames have lost the
services of captain Steve Smith for up to six weeks because of a dislocated elbow. "I've gone through shoulder surgery, have been cut and bruised and
bent out of shape and beat up," Smith said. "But I've never, never
experienced anything that painful. When the doctor popped the elbow back in,
it was all I could do to keep from screaming."
Dallas iced the puck 27
times in the third period in a game it won against St. Louis last week, prompting a Blues' defenseman to quip: "And I thought Craig Ludwig had retired."
Conn Smythe Trophy winner Joe Nieuwendyk is battling back spasms and a prolonged goal-scoring slump. Nieuwendyk hasn't scored since the season opener and was recently demoted to the fourth line for a spell.
Quote of the week:
"It hurts any team when you lose two players of those abilities. But you have
to press on. If we're looking for people to feel sorry for us, we're going to
have a tough time," -- LA coach Andy Murray, without Luc Robitaille and
Jozef Stumpel in his lineup.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com. |  |
