Rivalry Between Blues Goalies Comes Second To The Team
By Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Online, 10-2-01
Fast friends, the two Blues goaltenders battling for the tag No. 1 palled around Anchorage, Alaska, and became so cozy they could joke about a prickly topic.
Ice time.
It's the fine line goalies teeter on when dueling for the right to play in every big game. When they're not on the ice, oh, do they want their team to win. Team first. But that interloper, that other guy in the net, he better have nothing to do with it.
Maybe he lets in five long-range, unobstructed, undeflected goals.
The Blues score seven.
Perfect.
From the start of training camp, Fred Brathwaite and Brent Johnson have been chums. At one point, Brathwaite did not know if he would ever get to St. Louis because the Blues still were searching for a marquee goalie. Unable to land what many observers consider the league's best, Dominik Hasek, the Blues entered camp with Brathwaite and Johnson set to duel.
They comforted the Blues so much in Alaska that St. Louis was more interested in scooting Detroit's Chris Osgood out of the Western Conference than into their lineup. The Blues even ducked trade offers from teams who would pick up Osgood for them in the waiver draft.
The Blues had their goalies to rely on.
Brathwaite and Johnson spent a lot time together in Alaska. Went sightseeing. Talked often. And that's how this conversational bridge was built.
"No offense, I don't want you in there," one said.
"No sweat," the other said. "I don't want you in there either."
"Goalies all feel the same way," Johnson said after recreating the exchange. "When you're out, you don't want the other guy playing well. You want the team to win, but you don't want the other guy to have any part of it."
That's as spicy as this joust is going to get. They are opposites, across the board, down the stat sheet and in the crease. Brathwaite, acquired in a trade that sent Roman Turek to Calgary, has a couple seasons of No. 1 stats but not one season as a bona fide No. 1. He once took an 89-percent pay cut. He has to sweat and grind for a NHL position. He's 5 feet 7, 170 pounds, and he fills the net by straying away from it.
Brathwaite, 28, plays the angles. He uses his skating ability to cut down the shooter's view. He once completely leaned on his reflexes to stop shots. Now, he's out on the fringe, closing the window on the goal and using his sharp reflexes to snare deflections.
It's an athletic, exhausting way to play. Brathwaite looks like he's gone 12 rounds with the Zamboni when he skates off.
Johnson is far cooler, far more GQ and suave with his style. Johnson, 24, is 6 feet 2, 200 pounds and creates a body wall in front of the net. "How can you get a shot by him?" teammate Keith Tkachuk asked. "He takes up the whole net."
Johnson, 24, splays and shoves the pads quickly into the spots his body isn't.
He's young. He said he got a little cocky after a 15-2-0 start last season, then watched as his record plummeted and his playing time dipped. He didn't get another shot until the playoffs. In the week leading up to Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, he watched a close friend go from hero to target. Turek had been on top, credited with sweeping the Dallas Stars out of the playoffs and then - whack, whack - let in a couple soft goals vs. Colorado and the cheers vanished in a storm of blame. Now, he eagerly wants the chance to show he's No. 1, earn the cheers and, if necessary, ride out the storm.
Barring a trade, this is the duo the Blues will turn to.
First, it will be a rotation. Blues coach Joel Quenneville has said he won't turn off a hot streak, rather he'll let a goalie cruise until it ends. Both will get their share of time. There will be a No. 1. A go-to goalie. Eventually. And these are the choices:
Johnson, who Quenneville says will be a No. 1 someday, just maybe not today.
Brathwaite, who Grant Fuhr has said was always a No. 1 even if he never was treated like it.
This all started May 21 in Denver, long before Brathwaite was a Blue and at the start of the offseason's goalie unrest. Game 5. When Johnson grew up and the Blues saw the opening for a new face in net.
"JOHNNY"
To be fair, Johnson's savvy performance in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals began the night before.
It was the night of May 20, maybe 7 or 8 p.m., when Quenneville called Johnson's hotel room in Denver. "Johnny," the coach said, calling the rookie by his nickname, "you're going tomorrow." Speculation late in the season was that Quenneville would yank Turek, the goalie that got them there, and plug in Johnson.
The day before the game, however, Quenneville said he'd "lean on" Turek as the starter. That he "has been a big part of where we are today." Behind the words, Quenneville pondered a change. Hence, the phone call to the rookie.
After the call, Johnson made his first veteran move.
He rushed to the trainer for a sleeping pill.
"Only way I was going to get any rest that night," Johnson said. "If you don't take one, you lie there all night thinking about the game. Seeing the game. Your heart beats faster and faster, just like you're in the game. That's a bad thing for a goalie to go through - thinking too much."
If ever there was a lineage or a childhood to mold a NHL goaltender, to teach one the minutiae of taking a sleeping pill and shutting down the thinking, Johnson has it. His father, Bob, played two seasons in the NHL, including 12 games in net for the Blues in the 1972-73 season.
For Christmas one year, Bob wrapped a set of pads and presented them to Brent. The son strapped on the tools and "did like it right away."
No wonder.
"Growing up in a hockey family," Johnson said, "you eat, sleep and drink hockey."
And it wasn't just his dad. His occasional chauffeur was a bigger influence.
Sid Abel played 14 seasons on the forward lines of both Detroit and Chicago before hopping behind the bench and coaching the Red Wings for 11 seasons. He served the Blues as a coach and general manager in the early 1970s. Abel won three Stanley Cups during his playing career and whisked 189 goals in 612 games.
Johnson's Grandpa Sid is in the Hall of Fame.
Abel would sometimes drive Johnson to practices or games. Johnson cherishes that his grandfather got to see him play in the NHL. Watched him go from the goalie who let in seven goals in his first professional game to starting in the highest league.
Before Abel died and while "he was in the bad part of the cancer," Johnson said, his grandson would call with updates of his performance at minor-league Worcester. Abel had a pocket schedule he would pull out to studiously keep track of wins and losses.
"He meant everything to me," Johnson said.
Abel was not there to call on May 21. He was in Johnson's thoughts as the rookie goalie crouched into the biggest game - thus far - of his life. Johnson stopped 34 shots that night against eventual Stanley Cup champion Colorado. He was, well, magnificent. He carried the Blues into overtime with a 1-1 tie.
On a power play 24 seconds into overtime, Rob Blake slapped a shot at Johnson and Alex Tanguay deflected it. Johnson nicked the puck, but it squirted to his left. He then saw the most frightening view of Joe Sakic - behind him, with the puck, licking his chops at an open net. Goal.
Johnson took a breath and settled back in.
He didn't think the game was over.
Quickly, Johnson realized the game, the series, the season was "holy smokes, it's done," he said.
But, for Johnson, it was not over. It was beginning.
"It brought everything up a whole new level for me," Johnson said. "To that point, I was just a backup. When I started in that game, I realized I can play. I can definitely handle this. It brought a whole new aspect to me. I felt like I had accomplished something, yet had more ahead.
"Almost like a graduation."
"FREDDY"
Two time zones away, Brathwaite may have caught a bit of Johnson's game on television. Brathwaite, who has never played in a playoff game, sometimes watched the Stanley Cup playoffs, and he was back from an overseas trip with Team Canada. So, yes, the TV was on.
But Brathwaite had no idea how or why it would affect him.
Calgary had been a godsend. Two seasons ago, he played in 61 games and had a 2.75 goals-against average. Last season, he played in 49 games, had a 15-17-10 record but a career-best 2.23 goals-against average. Calgary's goaltending advisor was Grant Fuhr, whose poster may still hang in Brathwaite's boyhood room. Fuhr was a close friend and trusted mentor.
"He hasn't really gotten the respect he deserves," Fuhr said of Brathwaite. "He's starting to feel the game better. He's starting to come into his own. I think he's got the perfect temperament for a goalie."
Things were so temperament-friendly in Calgary.
On June 23, Brathwaite was packaged with a couple young forwards and shipped to the Blues for Turek. Fuhr, a former Blues goalie, told Brathwaite St. Louis was "paradise." And, aware of the situation, Fuhr thought it would give Brathwaite the true shot at being what he hadn't been in name only: No. 1.
Born in Ottawa, Brathwaite got hand-me-down pads or would rent equipment so he could be like his brother. Somebody had to play goal when the older boys wanted to shoot. Brathwaite thought about going for the glory of one of the other positions but always strayed back to goal.
He emerged from junior hockey and signed a contract with Las Vegas, then of the International Hockey League. A whopper deal worth $27,000. "Thought I was rich," he said. Still, he packed up his Las Vegas gear and went north for mini-camp with Edmonton. He did well. The Oilers invited him back.
He latched on during the September training camp and even worked a contract that if he was around for 80 games he'd get a three-year, one-way contract worth $200,000 the first year.
"Oh yeah, he could move the puck well; he was quick," said his roommate at the time, Doug Weight, now the Blues assistant captain. "He was just getting the confidence."
But after three seasons and 40 appearances with the Oilers, Brathwaite found himself about to strap the gear back on in Las Vegas for the respectively meager sum of $30,000 a year.
"'Holy cow, what just happened?' That's what I thought," Brathwaite said. "I took that all for granted."
It would get worse. After signing with Las Vegas, he was traded to Manitoba, and in 1998-99 latched on with the Canadian national team, a traveling men's team different from the Olympic team. He played for $22,000 a year - but didn't finish the year. Around Christmas, injuries had ravaged Calgary's goaltending corps. Brathwaite got the call.
Calgary's minor-league team needed him.
The problem, Brathwaite explained, was his gear was, coincidentally, in Calgary. The Flames told him to come get his gear, practice with the parent club and then go to the minors. Brathwaite changed that plan. He practiced Thursday with the Flames, then shutout Dallas on Friday.
It was the first of his 11 career shutouts.
Being planted on a Stanley Cup-hopeful team doesn't quake him. Since the drop out in Edmonton, he's developed a mild-mannered approach. No swagger. No bravado. He's played in key international games, won an international tournament.
With the Blues, Brathwaite has been out of sync so far. He's learning the Blues style - from the tone of the defensemen's voices to the best way to feed them the puck. He knows Johnson has a head start. He didn't see all of Game 5, but he knows about it.
"I've been the backup that never plays," Brathwaite said. "I want to be considered one of the best goalies in the league. . . . You've got to go with whoever is hot. If that's not myself, I'm going to push him so he has to stay hot. If I get a shot, I'll do my damnedest not to ever get out of net."
