One flew over the cuckoo's net

With insanity faced during games, it's no wonder goalies are a little eccentric

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, December 7, 2007

Hockey goalies have a reputation for being rather quirky, but would you expect something different from people who volunteer to face slap shots that can approach 100 mph?

"They're all different birds, man," Anaheim Ducks captain Chris Pronger said. "They're all out there."

But not nearly as neurotic, eccentric or just plain different from forwards and defensemen as in past eras, when goalies isolated themselves and lived in their own little worlds.

"I think, as the younger guys started moving in, things changed," Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore said. "I mean, you can talk (to teammates) before a game now, play around with a soccer ball. I guess it's different now."

For the most part, modern-day goalies get along with one another and blend in well with teammates. The pressure of playing the position, where one mistake can be costly, hasn't changed.

But goalies no longer have to fend for themselves when in need of help, thanks to goalie and video coaches that didn't exist earlier.

"I think it's a lot of talk," Avalanche goalie coach Jeff Hackett, who tended goal for 15 NHL seasons, said of goalies' reputations for being oddballs.

"I guess there are a few crazy guys out there, but off the top of my head, I can't think of any.

"Our two guys (Peter Budaj and Theodore) are as normal as you get. They fit right into the mainstream of the team."

But Hackett, who retired in February 2004, admitted to having a few peculiar mannerisms during his playing days - behavior that surfaced on game days, when he was more intense than usual.

He didn't allow anyone, including equipment managers and trainers, to touch anything in his locker and he wasn't the most pleasant person to be around.

"I think guys knew to just let me do my own thing," he said. "It's all about focusing on what you had to do."

It isn't unusual for goalies to decline interview requests after the morning skate on the day of a game - New Jersey's Martin Brodeur is an exception - and most reporters have learned not to approach them at that time.

Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy was the same way.

"I've never seen anyone who was more focused," said Columbus Blue Jackets captain Adam Foote, who roomed with Roy on the road when they were Avalanche teammates. "They're the last line of defense, so I guess they have to be that way.

"I mean, I would see Patrick making kick saves while he was on his bed. I'd walk into the room and see him making saves. Yes, he was awake. It was funny seeing him do it in a suit."

Roy also was a little superstitious. He made a conscious effort to step over the red line and blue lines on the ice when skating from the bench to the net and back, but the notion he talked to the goal posts when he was a rookie actually is a myth.

Stuart A. Vyse, professor of psychology at Connecticut College and author of the book Believing in Magic: the Psychology of Superstition, said hockey goalies are more superstitious than most athletes.

"They face more pressure than the rest of the players," he said. "And with added pressure, usually there are more superstitions involved."

Budaj and Theodore claim they aren't superstitious, describing their day-to-day rituals as ordinary routines.

"The way you play has got nothing to do with if you put your pads on the same way," Budaj said. "Maybe I have tendencies that I don't notice."

Said Theodore: "I'll get dressed the same way just because I've been doing it a thousand times. It's not something I think about. It's like anybody who goes in a car. You sit down, put the seat belt on and turn on the radio.

"When things are not going well, you might change a few things. So maybe I am a little superstitious in a way. You might change a tape job or change sticks, change laces, but it's not going to really affect anything."

Behind the masks

Aside from the pressure, goalies have some perks.

"We have more toys than the other players," said the Avalanche's Peter Budaj, referring to his oversize goalie stick, leg pads and professionally painted mask.

A devout Christian, Budaj had an artist paint Ned Flanders, the goody-two-shoes character from The Simpsons, on the back of his mask. He got the idea from former equipment manager Terry Geer, who now works with the Lake Erie Monsters in the American Hockey League.

"One day, I walked in the room and he said, 'Oh, you're like Ned,' and he started calling me that," Budaj said. "That was my first year, when I didn't have my mask painted yet, and I didn't really know what to put on it. At first, I wanted to do something with my nationality, a Slovakian flag or something. I decided to go with this, and I really like it and I think other people like it, too."

Protective gargoyles are painted on Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore's mask.

"I had just seen a movie where gargoyles were supposed to protect a city, I think in the 16th century," he said. "So I put two gargoyles with the city skyline. It's a little bit like our job as a goalie."

No dirt on Smith

Gary Smith's nickname was "Suitcase," but it could have been "Mr. Clean." Smith, whose pro career began in 1964 and ended in 1980, would take off his uniform between every period of every game he played and take a shower before putting the uniform back on.

Budaj wondered if Smith might have suffered from dehydration and just needed to cool off. Smith played for 15 teams, eight in the NHL and seven in various minor leagues. He shared the Vezina Trophy with Chicago's Tony Esposito in 1971-72.

Knit one, save one

Jacques Plante was possibly the sanest man ever to tend goal, yet he was considered cowardly in some circles when he became the first goalie to regularly wear a mask in a game. Like Glenn Hall, Plante could become nervous, and he calmed down by knitting in the locker room. He was the oldest of 11 children during the Depression and learned how to knit, cook and sew.

Upsetting routine

502 consecutive games played by Hall, an NHL record for goalies that isn't likely to be broken. It's hard to figure why "Mr. Goalie" would become so nervous before games because he didn't miss one between 1955 and 1962 while playing for Detroit and Chicago. Yet Hall was so troubled by nerves that he, um, became ill before almost every game. A teammate once remarked: "His bucket should be in the Hall of Fame." Oh, and how did his consecutive- games-played streak end? Hall strained his back while putting on his pads.

Earth to Gratton

When it comes to wacky, Gilles Gratton just might head the list. He only played two NHL seasons, from 1975 to 1977, with St. Louis and the New York Rangers. Nicknamed "Gratoony the Loony" for his bizarre behavior, Gratton believed he was a reincarnated former soldier from the Spanish Inquisition. He once said he couldn't play in a game because of a sore leg he suffered in the Franco-Prussian War. Gratton also wouldn't play when he felt the moon was in the wrong part of the sky.

Secret passage

Minnesota Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom probably knows more about the nooks and crannies of each NHL arena than some of the architects. Backstrom prepares for games by taking a slow-motion jog around the bowels of every building.

"It's slow all the way, for 20 minutes," he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "It's just to do something to get me warmed up, get my body and my mind ready before the game."

Color him superstitious

Detroit's Tim Cheveldae took some good-natured ribbing from teammates when he arrived at the rink wearing a garish, mustard-colored sport coat before a playoff game against Minnesota in 1992. After posting a shutout to pull the Red Wings to 3-2 in the series, Cheveldae decided to keep wearing the coat. Naturally, he led the Red Wings to two more wins and a series victory. His luck ran out in the next series against Chicago as Detroit lost in four consecutive games.

He said it

"No, I'm not normal. Standing in front of pucks like that is insane. Not a chance I'm normal."

Curtis Joseph, former NHL goalie.

• December 7, 2007

  9:07 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  pcordoba writes:

  Of course Theorror is not normal. He's a mediocre golie with 6 million for year.Also, Mr. Q is mediocre, because, he chose Theodore and Cristal Leopold.
  Colorado Avalanche has problems everywhere, on the ice and even on the seats. People doesn't go.
  I want to know about Roy. I knew, he had success as a coach in the minors. Perhaps, its his time to take a control of the Avs.