You Can Call the Ducks’ Hebert Anything--but Unhappy

From the last row near the rafters in Anaheim Arena down to the seats on the glass at ice level, thousands of voices join together to shout at the Mighty Ducks’ goaltender in a roaring chorus.

“G-e-e-e-e-e-k!”

At least that’s the way his name used to sound to Guy Hebert’s Little League baseball teammates growing up in Troy, N.Y. The boys who knew Hebert from hockey put the Lafleur touch on the name of a kid whose mom had named him Guy, as in Lombardo. But the boys who played only baseball were baffled. He didn’t seem like a geek to them.

Goalies are sometimes seen as the left-handed pitchers of hockey--high-strung, quirky, flaky. But Hebert is from a different mold, an easygoing young man who loves to fish, is polite to reporters who think he’s French-Canadian, and will answer to whatever name you want to call him. Even if it’s occasionally Bobby, the nickname some college buddies came up with when they decided it was easier to borrow the NFL quarterback’s name than pick a pronunciation of Guy.

His ability to go with the flow has been valuable during the Ducks’ first season. He and Ron Tugnutt have shared the starter’s job most of the season in a rotation even they could never quite predict--until just recently, when Coach Ron Wilson dropped his “Nos. 1 and 1-A” designation and called Hebert his “big-game” starter, at least for now.

For the first time in his NHL career, Hebert is a regular starter. The closest he’s ever been to that role before was during a two-week stretch last season with the St. Louis Blues. He was sitting on the bench as Curtis Joseph’s understudy when Joseph suffered a minor knee injury. Hebert responded with his first career shutout and a four-game winning streak that earned him notice as co-NHL player of the week.

“It was like 15 days of glory for me--I played seven or eight (games) in a row,” said Hebert, who turned 27 last month.

This season, he and Tugnutt are playing more than either one ever has. They simply haven’t known when they would play.

“Tugger and I could never figure out what we had to do to play the next game,” Hebert said. “We don’t even really speak in terms of a No. 1 and No. 2. We’re both here trying to play the best every night for the team. I feel fortunate that I’ve gotten to play several games now. But nothing’s ever taken for granted around here. . . . You just take each game as it comes and try to play the best you can so they’ll be forced to put you back in there.”

Together, they have been the Ducks’ answer to Florida’s John Vanbiesbrouck. It’s now clear that the remarkable success of the NHL’s two newest teams is largely the result of expansion guidelines that allowed existing teams to protect only one goaltender, instead of two, from selection in the expansion draft.

Florida took a proven veteran, while the Ducks drafted two talented young backups. At times this season, Hebert and Tugnutt have both had goals-against averages under 3.00 and save percentages above .900.

Tugnutt got the team’s first victory, over the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 13, and Hebert was in goal for the first road victory, beating the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 19.

Hebert posted the first shutout when he beat Toronto, 1-0, on Dec. 15 at Maple Leaf Gardens; Tugnutt answered with a shutout of the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on Dec. 28, and Hebert added another for good measure when he shut out Vancouver on Feb. 4 at Anaheim Arena.

Through it all, they have maintained an easy camaraderie, rooming together on the road and dressing next to each other before home games.

“I’m sure Tugger is champing at the bit,” Hebert said during a recent stretch when he started six consecutive games and 10 of 12. “Things can change overnight.”

Tugnutt, who is most remembered for making 70 saves for the Quebec Nordiques in a 1991 game against the Boston Bruins only to end up with a 3-3 tie, fell out of the Ducks’ rotation about the time he stayed home from a two-game trip because of the approaching birth of his first child, Jacob Ronald Alfred, on Jan. 23.

“Before the baby came, I really had my mind on other things,” Tugnutt said. “I had a few worries in my life. I stayed home from that trip, Guy came in and played very well in those games. . . . My confidence is fine, I’m fine. I’m staying ready, so when I get the chance to play, I’ll play well.”

At least for now, Hebert is the closest thing the Ducks have had to a No. 1 goalie all season.

“I just think I have more and more confidence going into every game,” said Hebert, who has a 2.80 goals-against average and a 12-17-3 record. “If things are going well, each game kind of carries over into the next. You don’t have time to think. Once you start thinking, you think, ‘Oh, I had a bad game, I’ll have to sit out this one and wait for the next game to come.’ It’s good that the coaches have confidence in me, and if you have maybe an off period, they leave you in and let you work through it. It’s a great position to be in right now.”

It’s a position Hebert didn’t realize he was in until Wilson told reporters that Hebert would start the big games.

It was no problem for Hebert, who said:

“The coaches go about their business. I guess his way of saying he has confidence in me is by starting me right now. For me, that’s good enough. He doesn’t have to come and pat me on the back or anything. When he comes in and says, ‘You’re going tonight,’ that’s a good enough vote of confidence right there.

“I just feel very fortunate to be playing pro hockey for a living. I couldn’t have a better job in the world right now. For me, to get a chance to play 40-50 games this (season) is just a great thrill. I’m sure Tugger’s happy playing more often than he did last year.”

As for any fatigue from the extra workload, Hebert said: “I’m sure there’s some fatigue, but I’ve been waiting for the chance to do this for quite a few years. And you’ve got to take the bull by the horns when you get a chance because you might never get a chance again.”

When Hebert told his older brother, Paul, about the crowd at Anaheim Arena, they could only laugh and say in agreement: “Wait until Mom and Dad hear that .”