Montreal Canadiens: Backup goalie Mike Condon was big training-camp surprise
When Montreal Canadiens new backup goalie Mike Condon says he’s grateful for the opportunity in front of him now, he says it with the conviction of an experienced pro athlete.
The feel-good, surprise story of the Canadiens’ training camp, Condon won the backup job over incumbent Dustin Tokarski, who was the story himself last year but struggled in camp this fall and found himself on waivers.
What Condon, a 25-yar-old native of Needham, Mass., also won this fall was a chance to put some stability in his hockey career and forget about his somewhat famous job search from several years ago.
“As a senior in college, I wasn’t getting any offers (for pro hockey). . . . In my junior year, I’d done an internship on Wall Street, so I applied for a job,” Condon said, as the Canadiens prepared for the Leafs Wednesday in the NHL season opener for both clubs.
Condon studied politics at Princeton, and that internship led to a 2011 interview with Dahlman-Rose, an information company that became an acquisition for the Cowen Group in 2013.
Condon sent out several other job applications, hoping for a fallback plan to a hockey career at Princeton which didn’t hold a lot of promise. His career, though, pivoted on a moment’s notice when he received a call from the Ontario Reign, a California pro team then in the ECHL. His career bounced from California, to the Houston Aeros, then to the Canadiens.
A dramatic turn of events for a formerly off-the-radar goalie who wasn’t drafted.
Condon, in fact, had never played a minute in the NHL, heading into the Canadiens training camp last month.
He put together two solid games, including a 1-0 shutout win over the Leafs two weekends ago. He stopped all 39 shots he faced over two preseason starts, forcing Montreal management to rethink its backup goalie situation.
Unfortunately for Tokarski, who was a strong contributor last season, training camp was a struggle that led to being cut. For Condon, though, it was the one opportunity that didn’t seem within reach a few years ago.
“No, not really,” Condon said when asked if his journey to the NHL and backup role behind Carey Price has sunk in yet.
“We’re in day three now (since he learned he’d made the team), and I’m getting adjusted to this level and to the speed at this level.”
Condon, for certain, isn’t worried about what should be a light game load behind Price, the top goalie in the NHL.
During his playing days at Princeton, the schedule often called for only two games a week. He got into the gym where he worked on his strength and conditioning via Olympic weightlifting — which has helped his ability to handle the sudden increase in intensity in the NHL.
Mostly, though, he can end his Wall Street job search, which wasn’t going well anyway. “I never got the job.”