Only One of Four Goalies in Whaler-Bruin Series Will Be Hero

Kay Whitmore was only 7 when Rejean Lemelin was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974. Four years later, Reggie strapped on the pads and stopped his first NHL shot with the Atlanta Flames.

“What was I doing when Reggie started pro hockey?” Whitmore said. “Probably sitting in the back of our old Plymouth, putting on my little pads and going on the outdoor rink.

“I started playing when I was 5, and I always was a goalie. My dad played some goal. Maybe it always was in my blood.”

There has yet to be a hockey playoff series where goalkeeping was not a decisive element. The four men behind the masks in the impending New England battle know this better than anyone. Lemelin and Andy Moog of the Boston Bruins and Whitmore and Peter Sidorkiewicz of the Hartford Whalers must share that immense pressure in their playoff series.

The four arrive from distinctly different points and stand at different stages of their sporting lives:

--Born in Quebec City, Lemelin, 35, is in the twilight of his career.

--From Penticton, British Columbia, Moog, 30, stepped from behind Grant Fuhr’s shadow in Edmonton two years ago and into his personal prime time.

--The only NHL goalie born in Dabrown Bialostocka, Poland, Sidorkiewicz, 26, has been thrust into the Whalers No. 1 role after Mike Liut was dealt to Washington March 5. Sidorkiewicz will play Thursday night. His age may suggest plenty of experience, but Sidorkiewicz has appeared in only 91 NHL games and in 124 minutes of playoff action.

--From Sudbury, Ontario, Whitmore, 22, is an eager, emotional kid awaiting his big shot. He has played in only 12 NHL games, but thanks to Larry Pleau’s quirky decision last spring he has played 11 more minutes in the playoffs than Sidorkiewicz.

These four have come together to form a common goal for the next two weeks. Stop the puck. Only one will emerge as the hero. The opposing goalies don’t know each other: Maybe that is best.

“They won the Jennings Trophy (fewest goals allowed, 232), so everybody will favor the Bruins in goaltending,” said Whalers TV analyst Gerry Cheevers, a Hall of Fame goalie with the Bruins. “But no Liut, right? This is Peter’s and Kay’s big chance. I believe they can compete.”

Moog may be a 5-foot-8, 170-pound Smurf, but as his 189-79-36 NHL record indicates, he can compete, too. That’s why Whalers general manager Ed Johnston pressed so hard -- although in vain -- to acquire Moog from Edmonton when Johnston was the Pittsburgh GM. In March 1988 Johnston apparently had completed a deal with Glen Sather that would send Steve Guenette and a first-round pick to the Oilers for Moog.

“It was a done deal,” Johnston said. “At 7:30 a.m., I had Guenette’s equipment changed to a different room. All of a sudden, I got a call: deal’s off. I heard Tony Esposito (soon named to succeed Johnston) squashed it. The ownership (DeBartolo family) had stepped in. It would have been a big trade for Pittsburgh, too. They wouldn’t have had to give up Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon to get Tom Barrasso.”

Bruins GM Harry Sinden also wanted Moog, but wouldn’t surrender Gord Kluzak.

“I was on a respirator,” Sinden said. “I thought it was all over, and I was shocked when Glen called at 8 a.m. to say the Pittsburgh deal was off. He said, ‘Give me your best shot.”’

Sinden offered Geoff Courtnall, Bill Ranford and a second-round pick, and the deal for Moog was made.

All Moog wanted was a chance for his best shot.

True, Moog had played the entire 1983 playoffs when the Oilers reached their first Stanley Cup final, which they lost to Islanders. And he played the last two games of the 1984 final after Fuhr separated his shoulder and the Oilers won their first Stanley Cup. But Moog was relegated to Fuhr’s cheerleader. And by 1987 Moog had enough.

Moog became a free agent and left to play for the Canadian Olympic team, signing a lucrative endorsement deal with IGA supermarkets.

“I’ve had an equal opportunity to perform in the playoffs in Boston, and that’s all I ever asked for,” Moog said. “I didn’t want the script to be written before any one of us had a chance to prove ourselves. The Olympics were nothing but positive. And coming to Boston was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Whalers center Ray Ferraro, from Trail, B.C., has known Moog since they started working at a summer hockey school together six years ago. Ferraro and John Davidson, the former Rangers goalie and now a TV analyst, paint a similar portrait of Moog.

“Andy is the most laid-back man I ever met,” Ferraro said. “Every day, he comes to the hockey school with long shorts, old T-shirt, meanders in on flip-flops. He rides in on a mountain bike. From the lack of sweat, you get the impression it took him 45 minutes to ride 35 feet.

“I looked up to him -- figuratively speaking -- because of his ability. Actually, Andy is one guy I’m taller than. But when you play against him, you realize he hates to lose. Hates to be second best. That’s why it was good for him to get out of Fuhr’s shadow.”

Moog may be laid back, but his competitive edge has spilled into public view a few times off the ice. Before meeting his former teammates in the 1988 finals, he caused a minisquawk in Edmonton by saying: “Boston isn’t the same as it was in Edmonton. This is 20 guys’ effort. Everyone feels they’ve had a hand in winning.”

And just last month, Moog made a pointed remark about forwards being allowed to invade the goalie crease: “The system of officiating the NHL uses is still in the Dark Ages.”

“Andy is a caged tiger,” Davidson said. “Off the ice, very calm. On the ice, very quick, very competitive.”

Sinden spent five days with Sather in Northern Canada fishing for Moog and Arctic share in August 1987. But within a month -- seven months before Moog’s arrival -- Sinden landed Lemelin from the free-agent pool instead.

Lemelin, as much as anyone, was responsible for the Flames’ early success in Calgary. The old Stampede Corral is where hockey chants of Reg-gie! Reg-gie! became famous. He played in the 1984 Canada Cup and from 1983 to 1986 only Fuhr won more games among NHL goalies. But as it became evident that Mike Vernon would be the Flames’ ace, Lemelin asked out.

Calgary GM Cliff Fletcher tipped off Sinden and the free-agent signing -- commanding no compensation -- was pulled off within 48 hours.

“If I stayed in Calgary and become a simple backup, within two years I’d be out of the game,” Lemelin said. “I felt I was very capable of playing. I proved it.”

“Reggie is the most relaxed goalie I ever met,” Davidson said. “He could be in a hail of bullets and be calmly brushing his teeth. He’s not acrobatic. But he relies on smarts. He’s calm no matter how crazy things get around him in the playoffs. He fits perfectly in Boston because there are not a lot of flurries in his zone.”

Lemelin was plenty calm in April 1988 when everybody else in Boston was wrapped up with the ghosts in the Montreal Forum. The Bruins had not beaten the Canadiens in the playoffs since 1943. At one point in the series, he said growing up in Quebec he was a rare bird. He didn’t like the Canadiens. That set off a French Canadian furor. But Lemelin led the Bruins to one of their biggest triumphs.

“That series gave me security,” said Lemelin, who attributes his longevity in part to use of lightweight Aeroflex pads. (He has since added Aeroflex gloves.) “But that Canadiens stuff got blown out of proportion. It started out me saying as a kid I was not a Canadiens fan. All of a sudden I hated the Canadiens. It got a little scary.

“I look calm because I do not rely on my reflexes to get me out of trouble. I rely on my sense of the game, reading plays. I play the odds, and I stick with my methods.”

And those methods have worked for a long time. One needling historian in the Whalers locker room observed, “Didn’t Reggie break into the NHL the year (1919) the Stanley Cup was halted by an influenza epidemic?” Lemelin has been around long enough to remember Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring the decisive goal in the 1970 Stanley Cup (Whitmore was 3, Sidorkiewicz 6 at the time). The picture hangs in a prominent place in the Bruins locker room. Orr is now on the Whalers advisory board.

“Maybe we ought to take that picture down for one series,” Lemelin said.

Whitmore -- saddled with the Goalie of The Future burden -- was drafted at the top of the second round in 1985 during a run of goalies that sent Sean Burke to New Jersey and Troy Gamble to Vancouver. As former Hartford scout Dave McNab recalled, the Whalers had names written on two pieces of paper: Dana Murzyn and Burke. If the Canucks had taken Murzyn instead of Jim Sandlak in the first round, the Whalers would have selected Burke. The Canucks took Sandlak, leaving Murzyn for the Whalers. Then the Devils took Burke in the second round, two picks before Whitmore went to the Whalers.

Whitmore, who loves to wear butch haircuts out of the 1950s, is quick and talented. Asked if Whitmore stirred memories of himself at an earlier age, Cheevers, who has helped Whitmore with some goalie pointers, responded: “I had a lot more hair back then. ... Kay’s got all sorts of raw skills. He just needs to polish them and raise his intensity level a little. He’s got to put the knowledge of reading plays and his skills together.”

No matter how many games he wins, Whitmore has no plans to change his first name. Occasionally, a columnist in a visiting city will make a Boy Named Sue type of comparison, but Whitmore insists he absorbed little teasing growing up.

“I don’t know the full background on the name Kay,” Whitmore said. “I’m Kay Jr. I never took much heat over it, because my dad is a big man, 6-3, 260. Once in a while, I get mail and if I don’t put Mr. on it, it comes back Ms. I was always self-conscious about it.”

But Sidorkiewicz says he gets bugged plenty about being born in Poland. He came to Canada as a toddler. Ontario was all he knew growing up. In fact, his nickname in the locker room has nothing to do with his heritage. It’s Joe Isuzu because of his facial similarity to the guy in the commercials.

“I don’t remember anything about Poland,” Sidorkiewicz said. “People ask me if I care about everything that has happened over there. Of course, I do. But I don’t spend all day reading through the newspapers about it.”

Davidson said he saw a monumental improvement in Sidorkiewicz from October to April, especially in lateral movement and balance. That physical improvement probably is related to confidence. After a 2-7 start, Sidorkiewicz went on a 17-12-7 run.

“Sid’s an intelligent boy,” Cheevers said. “Maybe at times he thinks too much about particular plays. But I love talking to him, because he’s well aware.”

Whitmore said he first bumped into Sidorkiewicz in Ontario juniors.

“His last year in Oshawa was my first year at Peterborough,” Whitmore said. “The teams were archrivals. We more or less met during a couple of brawls, holding onto each other.”

Three months before Whitmore was drafted, former Whalers general manager Emile Francis -- with some advice from Pleau, then coaching in Binghamton -- made a wise trade in sending David Jensen to Washington for Dean Evason and Sidorkiewicz. Francis has said he turned down the chance to take more highly acclaimed goalie Bob Mason instead of Sidorkiewicz.

Whitmore and Sidorkiewicz became friends in Binghamton.

“We have different styles on the ice. And we’re a little different off the ice,” Whitmore said. “But goalies seem to chum together. And we get along great. We don’t feel threatened by each other.”

Nor by Liut any more. That deal meant the end of the three-goalie albatross.

“I think it’s better for us,” Whitmore said. “Goalies worry a lot about stupid things. No matter how well Peter played, he still worried if he’d get a chance or if he’d get traded. When I was here before, I always had one foot on the bus. I was afraid with one bad goal they’d yank me and throw me on the bus in the middle of a game. That bus terminal is right down the street from the Civic Center, so I didn’t feel too secure. My head is clearer now.”