Teammates won’t let Gilbert forget scoring Orr- like goal
Until last week in Los Angeles, you’d not often have heard the names Tom Gilbert and Bobby Orr in the same sentence.
“Probably … never,” the Canadiens defenceman said with a laugh on Monday.
But that was before Gilbert’s jaw- dropping, crease- crashing, gravity- defying, cannon balll anding goal scored against the Kings, and suddenly the Habs rearguard and the Boston Bruins legend were joined at the hip — if even for a heartbeat — by a frayed piece of Velcro.
“It’s nice to get that call- out,” Gilbert said. “But obviously, those two goals are way different.”
For the sake of discussion, let’s call Gilbert’s March 5 Staples Center effort The Goal II. After all, Orr’s airborne, spectacular overtime score against the St. Louis Blues on May 10, 1970, taking dramatic flight through Glenn Hall’s goal crease after scoring the Stanley Cup winner, rightfully claims the proper noun as the NHL’s original.
The Goal II was Gilbert’s third lamplighter of the season, and even he doesn’t truly know how he scored it.
Montreal was trailing 2- 0 and appearing dead in the water when Gilbert took a clean draw from David Desharnais and charged from just behind the faceoff circle deep into the Kings end along the half- wall.
Cutting out toward the net, digging his left skate with each of a few strides and driving toward the Kings goal, he found ice that inexplicably opened wide for him, swept past goalie Jonathan Quick and stuffed the puck home, barrel- rolling on his followthrough to crash on his butt, then pirouette on his knees to a stop.
The goal lit a fire under the Canadiens. Brendan Gallagher tied the game 94 seconds later and the Habs ultimately would lead 3- 2 before surrendering the equalizer with 45 seconds left in regulation, then losing in a shootout.
Quick didn’t have as pithy a quote about Gilbert’s highlightreel goal as Hall has about Orr’s — though Mr. Goalie has had decades to perfect his act.
“I’ve told Bobby I was out of the shower before he hit the ice,” Hall jokes. “I was thinking, ‘ At least I’m out of that rotten equipment for a while.’”
Gilbert wasn’t exactly blowing his own horn after his delicious goal, evidently not having graduated from the Institute of Self-Promotion.
“It was just one of those things. I don’t know what I was doing,” Gilbert said after the game. “It just opened up for me. “I was actually looking to pass when I was coming around the circle. I know Max ( Pacioretty) was in the slot.”
On Monday after practice in Brossard, Gilbert conceded that it probably was the prettiest goal of his hockey career, though not the biggest one; the latter would be his 2006 NCAA championship game- winner for his University of Wisconsin Badgers over Boston College.
“That was a bigger- moment kind of goal,” he said of his collegiate score, “but nothing like that one ( in L. A.).
“It’s not planned, obviously,” Gilbert added of his beauty against the Kings.
“A lot of times I’m getting that puck and just chipping it down low. But it just kinda opened up. I kept moving and the waves just kept parting and I thought, ‘ OK, I’m taking this to the net, we’ll see what happens.’”
Stunned teammates have wasted no time giving Gilbert the needle, expecting more from where that one came.
“You get a lot of heat, but in a positive way, probably too positive,” he said, laughing again.
“Every time I touch the puck now, it’s, ‘ Hey, heads up!’ It’s all a big joke and it’s funny how it turned out.”
Clearly, that goal wasn’t a conventional day at the office for Gilbert, an eight- season, mostly stay- at- home NHL veteran who last summer signed a two- year, free- agent deal with the Canadiens from the Florida Panthers.
With 42 goals scored in his 582 NHL games, you’ll count on Gilbert more for his defensive steadiness and physical presence. He’s a strong shot- blocker, having gotten in the way of 136 pucks this season — one behind team leader Andrei Markov in four fewer games — and is averaging a healthy 19: 12 time on ice per game.
“I’m not a numbers guy, I just go out there and do my job,” he said, unaware of his shot- block total. “If you’re doing the right things, numbers will take care of themselves.
“We’ve got guys on this team who do everything — power play, penalty kill, blocking shots, they’re physical. Everyone contributes in some way. Numbers are just numbers.”
With the trade- deadline arrival of defenceman Jeff Petry, a teammate in Edmonton from 2010- 12, the right- hand- shooting Gilbert has moved to his unnatural left side.
If it’s been an adjustment, he’s growing into that side of the ice with every shift.
“There’s certain parts of the game that I’m more used to on the right side,” Gilbert said. “But with more repetition, more games, it’s becoming more of a routine. There’s still a couple things I have to keep working on, but it’s going good.”
The other side of the rink is just one adjustment he’s had to make in recent weeks. Gilbert and his wife, Larissa, became parents for the first time last month, welcoming Henley into the family. Their son takes his name from Don Henley, vocalist and
Everyone knows what Montreal is all about, how passionate this city is about its team and hockey.
drummer for The Eagles, one of Larissa’s favourite bands.
The couple casually tossed names around and Henley stuck for them both.
“Larissa knows the job that I have. She’s been so great, just unbelievable,” said Gilbert, who both checked out of and left a hotel in California last week as his wife changed diapers. “I’ve been trying to help out as much as I possibly can, to give her a break.
“Just going through it, I feel for every woman out there who has to go through that … the patience they have to have. I try to contribute as much as I can to give her a break and let her try to catch up on her sleep.”
Gilbert’s focus will narrow in the days ahead, the playoffs looming for his team and its hockey- mad fan base. He has played just five career postseason games, for Minnesota in 2012- 13, and that has hardly prepared him for the bubbling cauldron of Montreal.
“Everyone knows what Montreal is all about, how passionate this city is about its team and hockey,” he said. “We’ve obviously had good success this year and it’s nice getting all that energy from the crowd and the city to win games,” Gilbert said.
“That matters more than people think, to have the city behind you. This is a great place to play.
“It will be great to make the playoffs, but we’ve got more goals than that. We want to stay on top of our division and conference. A lot has do with finding our game, pushing forward into the playoffs, and to make sure we’re playing our best when we get there.”
From now into the post- season, Canadiens fans will embrace his clean, effective work in his own end and forgive him if with one single, memorable rush, he got Bobby Orr out of his system.