Building Reputation, One Save at a Time

For every Ken Dryden, there is a Steve Penney.

Dryden had six games’ NHL experience before he was designated the Montreal Canadiens’ starting goaltender for the 1971 playoffs. He led them to the Stanley Cup and became the rookie of the year the next season, launching a Hall of Fame career.

Penney had four games’ NHL experience when he led the Canadiens to the third round of the 1984 playoffs, compiling a 9-6 record and 2.20 goals-against average. But that was his one brief, shining moment. He was traded to Winnipeg in 1986 to make room for a kid named Patrick Roy, and was out of the NHL by 1988.

Especially for goalies, reputations are forged during the playoffs. Just ask Curtis Joseph, still smarting after the Red Wings’ four-game dismissal by the Mighty Ducks in the first round. He couldn’t make the pivotal stops Jean-Sebastien Giguere made for the Ducks and so retains the label of being a big-game disappointment.

Duck General Manager Bryan Murray cited goalie Bill Smith, the backbone of the New York Islanders’ four consecutive Cup championships in the 1980s, as a prime example of a pressure player.

“He was good but not great during the regular year, and he didn’t play all the games during the year. Chico [Resch] was playing half the games,” Murray said. “Smitty became the battler and ended up with a great reputation and a great career as well.

“But I never had any of those kinds of guys in the playoffs.”

But he did have Rick Nikolchuk.

Rick Nikolchuk? He played goal for the Tier 2 junior team Murray coached to the Canadian championship in 1974 after rallying from a 3-0 deficit against Guelph. Nikolchuk never made it to the NHL, but Murray remembers how the goalie’s success gave him a psychological edge.

“It got to the point where they wouldn’t hardly shoot at him,” Murray said.

Giguere had that aura by the end of the Detroit series, but he knows sustained excellence separates the legends from the footnotes, the Drydens from the Penneys.

“Everybody in this [locker] room wants to be the player that’s playing good in the playoffs,” Giguere said. “Anybody who has that in their background is a player that’s going to be successful. Look at Claude Lemieux in Dallas [who played on Cup winners in Montreal, Colorado and twice in New Jersey]. Every team that has a chance to win wants him because he plays his best in the playoffs.

“I’d love to have that kind of reputation as well.”

Giguere was a 9-year-old kid in Montreal when Roy, a 20-year-old rookie, led the Canadiens to the Cup in 1986. Roy’s regular-season 23-18-3 record and 3.35 goals-against average gave no hint he’d be 15-5 with a 1.92 goals-against average in postseason play and become the youngest playoff MVP. Roy also won the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP in 1993 with Montreal and in 2001 with Colorado.

“It was unbelievable,” Giguere said. “It was fun to see that, when they won in Montreal. But I’m not in the same situation. It’s a lot of years after that. It’s a different scenario.”

Of the four players from losing teams who have won the Conn Smythe, three were goalies: Detroit’s Roger Crozier after his team lost to Montreal in 1966, St. Louis’ Glenn Hall after the Blues were swept by Montreal in 1968, and Philadelphia’s Ron Hextall after the Flyers’ seven-game loss to Edmonton in 1987. The only non-goalie voted the MVP in a losing cause was Reggie Leach of Philadelphia, who scored a record 19 postseason goals, despite the Flyers’ 4-0 loss to the Canadiens in the 1976 Cup finals.

Murray recalled Crozier saying he hated being a goalie and calling the day he retired the happiest of his life.

“We’re lucky with a guy like Jiggy,” Murray said of Giguere. “He’s so laid-back. On game days, you can talk to him. Some guys, you can’t look in the eye. John Vanbiesbrouck, who we had in Florida, you couldn’t talk to him the day of a game. Jiggy’s just a regular guy.”

But one who has a chance to do something extraordinary.

Capital Losses

The Washington Capitals have changed owners, logos, colors, lineups, coaches and general managers and still can’t shake their playoff failures.

For the fourth time since 1992, the Capitals squandered a two-game series lead, then lost in six games to Tampa Bay. They didn’t sell out any of their three home playoff games, drawing an announced crowd of 15,269 on Easter Sunday at the MCI Center.

“I have to really reconsider the kind of commitment and investment I’m making with this team,” said owner Ted Leonsis, whose payroll is about $51 million, $11.483 million of which is going to a pedestrian-looking Jaromir Jagr.

Kudos to Lightning Coach John Tortorella for the franchise’s first playoff series victory. Tortorella instilled a solid defensive system and got a lot out of what appeared to be not very much talent.

His best move might have been to unite Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Vaclav Prospal in Game 3. The trio, led by St. Louis -- pronounced San Lou-EEE -- had five goals, including St. Louis’ triple-overtime winner Sunday.

“You have to put your nervousness aside and step up as a team,” said St. Louis, who is listed as 5-9 in the NHL guide but is closer to 5-5. “In the last four games, we got better. It’s great to be around all these guys.”

Showdown at Seven

The Vancouver Canucks should be favorites to win the finale of their first-round series against the St. Louis Blues tonight, but not because it’s on home ice.

Their edge is the awakening of Markus Naslund, who has three goals and five points in the last three games after having been held to one assist in the first three games. He had a goal and two assists in the Canucks’ series-tying 4-3 victory Sunday.

“He’s playing with so much confidence,” Canuck Coach Marc Crawford said. “He’s captured the pace of the game, and when skilled players capture the pace and they get the puck, they know what to do with it.”

The Canucks have faced 3-1 deficits in five previous playoff series and rallied to win twice. The Blues helped them Sunday by taking a succession of bad penalties, which they can’t afford to do again.

Slap Shots

The fallout of the Red Wings’ loss isn’t clear, but Coach Dave Lewis should be safe.

“Everybody wasn’t as good as I thought they could be,” said Lewis, who described himself as empty and numb. “I’m extremely disappointed, not so much for myself as for the team.... You try to do things to get performance and production and be in position to be successful. You hope work and your exertion level matches theirs and the [superior] talent level kicks in, but it just didn’t happen.”

Without revenues from a long Cup run, General Manager Ken Holland is likely to pare his $70-million payroll next season. Winger Luc Robitaille will probably be bought out and 42-year-old center Igor Larionov won’t be talked out of retirement. Unrestricted free agent Sergei Fedorov has said he wants to return but he might not get the five-year, $50-million deal he rejected during the season.

Grind Line winger Darren McCarty, also a walkaway free agent, might have to take less than market value to stay. Steve Yzerman, also a free agent, will return unless he chooses to retire.

“Losing each game individually was not a shock,” Yzerman said. “I don’t know what happened. We knew it was going to be a tough series. We’re disappointed in how we played in tight situations. We should have been better, more comfortable in tight situations.”

The Islanders’ late-season fade slopped over into the playoffs, leading to a five-game loss to the Senators. They made too many turnovers and got merely three goals in 31 power-play chances. Team captain Michael Peca had no goals in his last 25 games.

“This is unacceptable,” defenseman Adrian Aucoin said of the early exit.

Goalie Garth Snow, one of the few players who improved his stock, didn’t buy the theory that his team was a victim of bad bounces, saying, “That’s all BS because a winning team takes that adversity and still comes out on top. We’re not there yet, obviously.”

Remember when the Boston Bruins dominated the NHL? Like the Chicago Blackhawks, the Bruins have become just another bad team with a bland arena and a shrinking fan base. Goaltending was their weakness all season, but their five-game loss to the New Jersey Devils showed they’re also short of character. Joe Thornton, who had a breakout regular-season performance with 101 points, was stymied by the smaller John Madden.

General Manager Mike O’Connell, who fired Coach Robbie Ftorek with nine games left in the season, lamented his failure to improve the team’s poor work ethic.

“Until you step behind the bench, you really don’t understand how deep it is,” he said.

Understanding it and solving it were two different concepts.