This Consultant Is Net Gain for Ducks

Guy Hebert came off the ice long after a Mighty Duck practice had ended, sweat dripping from his chin, looking more exhausted than if he’d just played a game.

Behind him trailed Francois Allaire, the Ducks’ new goaltending consultant. What in the name of hockey did he do to Hebert, make him skate a mile in his goalie gear?

Allaire shook his head.

“Just talked,” he said.

Hebert laughed.

“You’d be amazed how tired you can get just moving around that little crease,” he said.

Hebert is back on top of the world again, with two shutouts in his last seven games and a 1.27 goals-against average and a sterling .957 save percentage over that stretch. He is thanking Allaire for the leg up.

“When they told us early this season we had hired him, that was the best news I could have gotten,” Hebert said. “He’s a legend among goalies in the NHL.”

Allaire coached Patrick Roy in Montreal for 10 years, and has also worked with Toronto’s Felix Potvin, New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur, Islander rookie Eric Fichaud and many of the other French-Canadians so prevalent in goaltending.

“He just had a great track record,” said Anaheim General Manager Jack Ferreira, who said he had been waiting for “the right person” to work with the goalies. He had left the job empty for a season after former NHL goalie Brian Hayward focused his career on broadcasting.

“It was something we were missing, like a baseball team without a pitching coach,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “I think he’s been able to get Guy back on track. He’s identified his strengths and that allows him to play to them. You watch tape of him now and at the end of last season and he’s impeccable. As a coach you can’t always understand goaltending or have the time to look at video. Now Guy has somebody who knows goaltending better than anybody, somebody Guy trusts.”

Allaire, 41, has a soft-spoken manner and philosophical bent that appeal to Hebert.

“Goaltending’s really kind of an art form,” Hebert said. “There’s so much mentally to it. A lot of guys have the physical capabilities to stop the puck, but there’s a lot to being in the right spot at the right time. That’s what lets you get to the highest level.”

Among the philosophies Allaire preaches are precision and efficiency of effort.

“I believe in quality--quality movement, quality practice, quality games,” he said. “A guy can work hard and try all kind of things, all kind of movements to stop the puck. Or sometimes he can make good quality moves and be in the right position to make it look easy. . . . Nothing spectacular for me. Just at the end of the game, I am happy if everybody says it was an easy game. It looks easy if you do the right things.”

He uses video extensively and will point out trends and percentages to show Hebert and backup Mikhail Shtalenkov what areas of the ice are most dangerous and which are almost harmless, allowing them to focus their efforts in the right places.

Allaire also emphasizes consistency, which has dogged Hebert with the Ducks. He was so up and down last season that he was benched for two lengthy stretches, but nevertheless finished the season with three shutouts in his final 13 games and a hot streak that left him with the fourth highest save percentage in the NHL at .914.

Much to the dismay of Hebert and the organization, he didn’t pick up this season where he left off.

Three weeks ago, his save percentage was .878, one of the lowest in the NHL, where the standard is about .900.

“When Francois came here, he showed Guy where he was in save percentage, in the bottom five,” Ferreira said. “Then he showed him the middle group, around .900 to .910. That’s where 15 or 20 goalies were and that’s where we should be. That was the goal, to get out of the bottom. Our goals-against average is about a goal a game less too.”

Allaire says consistency is the most crucial factor for goalies.

“Everybody in the league can have a great game where they stop everything,” he said. “The difference between the top goalies right now and the others is they can do it a little more often. Every goaltender, you just want them to play at their own level all the time, instead of over their head or under their level.”

Allaire plays another role for the Ducks, as a knowledgeable go-between for Hebert and the coaching staff.

“He can take a lot of tension out after a bad night,” Hebert said. “I know why I did things and if they question it, Francois can really be the one to explain things.

“He’s a very nice acquisition. You don’t want to make too many waves, but I made the point it would be nice to have someone to sit down and talk to, someone who played the position.”

Those who work with Allaire tend to be butterfly-style goalies who try to take away the low shots, but he says he uses broad philosophies so goalies can conform to them without contorting their own style.

With Hebert, the focus has been on getting into position for the first shot, not counting on his ability to react and scramble.

“One thing Guy has really improved is the quality of his job before the shot,” Allaire said. “When guys shoot on him now, he is all set up. Everything is almost perfect. He doesn’t to move or dive or make a super save because he’s reading the play and he’s in the right place. As long as he keeps doing that job, he will get a good result.”

Allaire works as a consultant who makes half a dozen scheduled visits a year, not necessarily coinciding with a goalie crisis. After leaving Montreal after last season to consult more widely, he works in Europe with a Swiss team, as well as with a number of up-and-coming goalies in Quebec such as Martin Biron, a first-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 1995, and Francis Larivee, Toronto’s second-round pick last June.

Never drafted, Allaire went straight into coaching after college, working with the Canadiens’ junior team and then with Sherbrooke, their minor league team, before joining Montreal in the NHL.

“I knew from the beginning this was what I wanted to do,” said Allaire, who has written a book on goaltending and two others on training and sports psychology. “At that time, nothing was happening for goaltenders. No books, no tapes, nothing,” he said. “I knew there was an opening. I just jumped into it.”

Working with Roy was a decade-long seminar, but Allaire said he felt it was time to expand his horizons even before Roy was traded to Colorado one year ago today.

“He’s good,” Roy said as he considered the anniversary of his departure from Montreal. “He’s going to help them. He helped me a lot, and I guess I helped him too. . . . There’s a part the goaltender has to do himself, but I think he understands my style very well.”

Allaire has brought part of that with him.

“Being with Patrick and seeing what he’s done, it allows you to recognize signs, to understand what other goalies can do,” he said.

These days, Hebert is playing with an assurance he hasn’t had all season.

“You see he has better confidence. He looks bigger and stronger in the net,” Allaire said. “But for me, confidence is second to knowledge. A lot of guys say you have to be confident to play. I don’t believe that. I believe if you really know what you are doing, that is where confidence comes from.”