FLYING IN THE FACE OF DANGER
Jets, Ducks roll with hot netminders
Ondrej Pavelec came into a game in St. Louis in early March with his Winnipeg Jets already behind 4- 1. He stopped everything and his teammates rallied with three third- period goals to tie it.
Then, with one minute left, Blues defenceman Barret Jackman flipped the puck toward the net from almost the red line. Pavelec reached out with his glove hand and whiffed. As the Blues celebrated the winning goal, Pavelec’s teammates could be seen watching the scoreboard for a replay: How did that happen?
“It was a test,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said on Wednesday of the crushing mistake from Pavelec, coming as it did with Winnipeg fighting for a playoff spot. “It was a new situation ( for him) and clearly we have to be impressed with the way he handled that.”
Yes, he handled it OK. The 27- year- old Czech posted an absurd .955 save percentage in the months of March and April along with 9- 2- 1 record as a starter, and in the final week of the season he was unbeatable. That’s not literary licence: Pavelec posted three straight shutouts as the Jets secured the Western Conference’s final wild- card playoff spot, leading to Thursday’s opening game in Southern California against the Anaheim Ducks.
Pavelec was already the franchise leader in wins ( and losses), but after eight seasons between Atlanta and Winnipeg, it has really taken until this last stretch for him to become, unequivocally, the guy.
Maurice says some of the criticism he has endured was not entirely warranted.
“The mood swings about him are far greater than the swings in the quality of his game,” the coach said.
His statistics might move, Maurice added, but it’s not like the team played the same way in front of him every night.
“He’s been a far more consistent performer in my mind than he’s been given credit for,” he said. “But hopefully, that ( goal in St. Louis) was a defining event, because that was tough to take ... To have that happen, that hurts him personally, because he cares about those guys. But he repaid them in full and then some.”
And so, Pavelec is the starter on a playoff team, finally. How does that feel?
“I don’t know yet,” he says in front of his locker. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” He is smiling as he says it and explains that he is excited, but nervous. Good nervous. “If any goalie tells you they don’t get nervous,” he says, “I don’t believe them.”
Pavelec, though, also disputes the notion that there has been a remarkable change in his game in recent weeks. This might be because a starting goalie in the NHL needs confidence like the rest of us need water and air; you simply can’t survive by lingering on a bad stretch of games. When Pavelec is asked if, right now, he is playing the best hockey of his life, the question is put up on a tee for him to smash: Yes, this is the best I have played.
Instead, his answer, which is hard to transcribe: “Meeeeeeeeh. I feel good. It’s hard to say.” The numbers suggest otherwise. Pavelec finished this season with a .920 save percentage, the best of his career, which is all the more surprising because it was a pedestrian .908 through February, which is why he had essentially lost the starter’s job to Michael Hutchinson for a good portion of the season. But Pavelec is playing some excellent hockey now, even if he doesn’t know it.
Over in the Anaheim goal, Frederik Andersen is also talking only about the good times. He says he has had a good year, despite injuries, and feels ready for the playoffs.
“You want to say it’s just another game, but it is a little bit different,” the 25- year- old Dane said. “Everyone’s a little more into it, everyone knows what’s at stake.”
What’s at stake, for him, could be the hook, as was the case last year when the Ducks won the conference in the regular season, but switched between Andersen, John Gibson and Jonas Hiller in a playoff run that ended in the second round.
But Andersen said on Wednesday that experience was nothing but good for him. He knows what the playoffs are like — “everybody’s amped up” — and he can draw on that, he said.
His coach, Bruce Boudreau, similarly blew off the notion that his goalie situation between Andersen and Gibson might be a little unsettled.
“I’m pretty sure, after two years, I know what I’m going to get from our guy,” Boudreau said, “and I’m sure Paul is pretty confident in Pavelec and what they are going to get from him. So I don’t think either coach is worried about their goalie.”
Not that they would admit, anyway. Nor would either coach like to acknowledge how much of playoff success comes down to just that one guy. In this season, across the NHL, the save percentage of the winning goalie: .941. In games lost: .877.
This is why confidence, for the one position in hockey that is quickest to draw blame, is almost certainly the right way to go. You can’t play goalie scared.
“You have to enjoy it,” Pavelec says. “I can’t wait.”