Hrudey, NHL’s Mr. Avis, Is No. 1 Again

This has been the story of the postseason for Kelly Hrudey:

Kings’ goalie Kelly Hrudey figures to be overshadowed by (fill in name of goalie) in this series against (fill in name of team).

Only the names have changed. Never the opinion.

Let’s see, there was Mike Vernon of the Calgary Flames.

And Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks.

And Felix Potvin of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And now Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens.

Each was supposed to be clearly superior to Hrudey, the guy in the other net as the National Hockey League playoffs wound their way from April into June.

Three of the four have been eliminated, and the other, Roy, failed to win against his counterpart in Tuesday’s opening game of the Stanley Cup finals.

None of this should be surprising. After all, Hrudey’s own coach, Barry Melrose, seemed to give up on his goalie at times during the regular season, benching him in favor of Robb Stauber or Rick Knickle.

Tuesday night, Hrudey admitted he was partially to blame.

“I wanted to be something special every night,” he said, “but it just wasn’t there every night. I lost a little bit of interest. Hey, I played 12 years. It’s pretty hard to keep your interest all that time.

“But it had never happened before. You always have your ups and downs . . . I just had to figure out what pays the bills. I found that the role of backup goalie was one I didn’t like.”

In the past, Hrudey has talked about the frustrations he suffered in this, his most inconsistent regular season ever. He wound up the year 18-21-6, his first losing season.

Hrudey has talked before about the pain he felt from all the criticism he absorbed regarding his play. He even stopped talking to the L.A. print media for a brief time.

But for the first time Tuesday, Hrudey acknowledged all of his problems weren’t on the ice.

“I thought there was a real possibility I might be traded,” he told reporters. “I think I was so bad I couldn’t be traded.

“Other things happened. There were other things going on as well, but they are nobody’s business, so don’t ask.”

The memory of the regular season was the only sour note on a sweet night for the 32-year-old Hrudey, who has reached the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in his long career.

He was certainly equal to the moment, in effect shutting out the Canadiens save for the goal teammate Wayne Gretzky accidentally shot into his own net. Hrudey turned away 32 Montreal shots.

So how does he explain his greatest postseason coming on the heels of his worst regular season?

“It’s a difficult thing to figure out,” he said. “I think all the criticism made me a lot better. I’m mentally stronger and I’m more aware of my surroundings.”

Who knows, the way things are going for Hrudey now, he might actually get good enough someday to actually be considered better than the guy in the opposing net.