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Tuesday, November 16, 1999
Freddie or not
... here he comes
PHOENIX -- Brian Sutter's as prickly as a desert cactus on the hottest Flame topic under the relentless Arizona sun:
Goalie Grant. Gone from holy to holey.
"Everybody's asking me what's the matter with Grant Fuhr," muttered the coach yesterday, eyes alight, fully prepared to step outside, take off his windbreaker and go to battle for his netminder of choice. "And 'Why aren't you playin' Freddie?' Well, in 85% of the games, I'd say Grant has been pretty darn good. Not good. Pretty darn good.
"Sure there are some shots he'd like to have back; we'd like to have back. But that happens to every goalie.
"Two games ago he was excellent. First period the other night? Outstanding. In the five games on that road trip, he held pretty good teams down but how many goals did we score? One? Two? That's not enough."
He snorted. "Waaaaa, when Freddie came in against Florida, if we get any kind of goaltending out of him, we win that game."
Well, following a two-game sharpening stint in Saint John, the aforementioned, seldom-used Fred Brathwaite rejoined the fellas last night.
Freddie says he's ready. And he'll get the call this evening, against the slumping Coyotes, sure to be in an owly mood, at the America West Arena.
"That," admitted Brathwaite, "was the plan."
Sutter, notoriously tight-lipped about tipping his goaltending hand, would only say: "Good chance you'll see him." Which is as a good as a flat-out endorsement.
Brathwaite. Fuhr. Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Heck, Rick Kosti or Steve Guennette (wherever on earth they might be)! The Flames need a goaltender, any goaltender, to get hot - right now. Not tepid or lukewarm.
Hot. Scalding.
As a tandem, Brathwaite and Fuhr have one-upped only the expansion Atlanta Thrashers in goals-against (3.61 as compared to 3.69). But they rank dead last in combined save percentage, at a ridiculous .856.
Fuhr was brought in to lead the NHL in steals. That hasn't happened. He's kept them close in a number of games, or as Sutter says "put us in a position to win." But he hasn't committed one outright theft yet and we're heading into the holiday shopping season.
One clinker goal a night, the latest being a lamentable Chris Dingman (?!) wrist shot from a poor angle Saturday, has plagued Fuhr, and bedevilled the Flames.
"I feel for Grant, for sure," says Brathwaite. "He's a great goalie and he's played pretty well, in my opinion. And I think we all know it's only a matter of time before he starts stealing some games for us."
Time is something the Flames don't have an abundance of, not if they hope to hang around in the Western Conference playoff picture. They're already seven points in arrears of the eighth-place Ducks, who they conclude this road trip against tomorrow night at the Pond.
If Brathwaite can earn the W tonight, it'll be his first since April 14.
After being signed as a free-agent on Jan. 7, he got to play a lot due to a devastating rash of injuries and performed admirably, far above expectations. So far this season, though, confined to a scant amount of game duty owing to the presence of Fuhr, he hasn't looked the same goaltender.
"I think the games (in Saint John) helped. The decision (to go down) was left up to me.Obviously, I needed to play; needed to feel comfortable in the net again. You can practice all you want but it isn't the same."
"I looks like I might get my chance and I want to make the most of it. I want to help the team.
"I hope to roll."
Some goalie's got to. Or heads are apt to.
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