Ducks’ Hebert Determined to Not Let History Repeat

Guy Hebert remembers arriving three hours early for the Ducks’ inaugural season opener because he had no idea where to park his car at the Arrowhead Pond. New team, new arena, new parking lot.

“Everything was so new,” Hebert said. “I drove into the parking lot three hours before the opening faceoff and there were tailgate parties everywhere. People were just having a great time. I was walking around enjoying it all.

“That night is one of my fondest memories in my career.”

Seven years later, Hebert is the only Duck player left from their inaugural game, a 7-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings before a standing-room-only crowd of 17,320 at the Pond.

Hebert, 33, is the franchise’s unofficial historian as well as its No. 1 goaltender and leader in games played with 400.

“We didn’t play that badly, but we got killed,” recalled Hebert, who suffered the Ducks’ first loss.

Seven years later, the Ducks finally get to open a season at home again. They also get to help another new franchise get its start. And they hope to treat the Minnesota Wild, tonight’s opponent, every bit as rudely as the Red Wings treated them back on Oct. 8, 1993.

“Absolutely,” Hebert said, cracking a wide smile. “I think that would only be fair.”

Much of how the Ducks fare tonight, and for the rest of the season, depends on Hebert. Last season, he was inconsistent at best, a rarity in his seven seasons in Anaheim. Hebert’s record wasn’t all that bad at 28-31-9, but he won three fewer games than in 1998-99, when the Ducks finished sixth in the Western Conference and reached the playoffs.

Three more victories last season and the Ducks would have made the playoffs instead of finishing ninth in the conference.

“My consistency wasn’t where I wanted it to be,” he said. “Hopefully, I get into a groove that’s not a two-week groove but a two-month groove. I told myself I’ve got to try to be more consistent all the time.”

So Hebert arrived at training camp a changed man.

First, he whipped himself into the best shape of his career with an intense off-season workout regimen.

Second, he, or rather his wife, bleached his hair--or what’s left of it, anyway. It was a less drastic move than going bald or getting a tattoo of the Duck logo.

At any rate, the two off-season developments are not unrelated when it comes to Hebert’s success in net.

“I’m most effective when I’m enjoying myself,” he said. “I realized, too, that I need to keep myself in better shape during the season.”

Hebert has kept to a strict workout routine through training camp and he hopes to find time for his wife, Sarah, to dye his thinning hair again.

“It’s not like I can just skate harder out there,” he said. “I’m playing by feeling. It’s such a stressful position. In the end, after reviewing everything this summer, I wanted to come back to the team in good shape and enjoy stopping pucks.

“When you get run down, you get breakdowns in your technique. You lose your concentration when you’re tired.”

It might help to explain why Hebert seemed to give up a weak goal at the most unfortunate times late in games last season.

“I’m going to strive to eliminate the bad goals,” he said. “If I can eliminate the bad goals or reduce them, that’s going to help us gain points [in the standings]. I’m going to focus on stopping the puck and on enjoying myself. I want to make sure my concentration and focus are where they should be.”

In training camp, there were no signs of a repeat of last season’s woes. Hebert sat out several days of practices because of a mild groin strain, but it’s no longer troubling him.

“He played three of our last four exhibitions and he was very good, very confident,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “He looks great to me.”

Said Hebert: “I’m ready to start the season. I won’t dwell on last season. I learned a lot about myself last year. I won’t really talk about last season. I’m at peace with myself about it.”