Canucks' Cloutier focused on playoffs, not All-Star snub
Kevin Woodley
For mytelus.com
VANCOUVER ? In three years tending twine in Vancouver, Dan Cloutier has been booed by the home fans, humiliated on national television, and dismissed by everyone outside B.C. as the Canucks' weakest link.
So it?s no surprise being left off the Western Conference All-Star team Thursday didn?t get under his considerably thick skin.
?Don?t get me wrong, it would be nice, but I?d almost rather have the weekend off, especially down the stretch,? Cloutier said calmly after practice Friday.
It?s easier to believe Cloutier?s claims of indifference because the game is being played in front of the same Minnesota fans that serenaded him with chants of ?Sieve! Sieve!? during the second round of last year?s playoffs.
The idea of traveling to Minnesota ? in winter no less ? to play one period, be booed, and maybe get lit up like Joe Namath before a sideline interview makes as much sense as the Red Wings spending more money on goalies than the Wild do on forwards (they do, by the way).
Besides, Cloutier is a realist. He knows the list of elite goaltenders in today?s NHL starts and ends with Martin Brodeur.
?It?s pretty much him and everyone else,? he said.
With Patrick Roy retired, there are only four active goalies that have hoisted the Stanley Cup: Brodeur in New Jersey, Ed Belfour in Toronto, Chris Osgood in St. Louis, and Dominik Hasek in Detroit.
Belfour will turn 39 by the second round of this year?s playoffs. Hasek is 39 next Thursday and, after a year of retirement, already struggling with both injuries and his form. Osgood lost to Cloutier and the Canucks in the first round of last year?s playoffs, and was never really regarded as one of the game?s great goalies.
?There?s still Belfour and those types, but it?s pretty open now,? Cloutier said. ?There are a lot of good young goalies around my age that are playing extremely well.?
At 27, Cloutier is still in that group. With back-to-back 30-win seasons under his belt ? the only ones in franchise history ? and on pace for a third, it?s easy to argue he belongs near the top of the list. None are definitively better, which makes any talk about replacing Cloutier before the playoffs all the more nonsensical.
All-Star selection Tomas Vokoun has more wins (21 to 19), but Cloutier?s 2.24 goals-against average and 91.9 save percentage are both better than the Nashville netminder (2.42 and 91.6). Minnesota All-Star, Dwayne Roloson, has better numbers than both (1.85 and 93.5), but he?s just 11-10-7-0 on a team that seems destined to miss the playoffs.
Dallas goalie Marty Turco, who was voted in by fans as this year?s All- Star starter, set modern-day NHL records for goals-against average and save percentage last season, but bowed out to Anaheim?s Jean-Sebastien Giguere in the second round of the playoffs. Both have struggled this season and are in danger of not even getting back to the playoffs.
In Colorado, David Aebischer looks like the perfect replacement for Roy, but his playoff experience consists of 35 minutes of mop-up duty.
Even among the veterans it?s hard to find a strong case for supplanting Cloutier. Rumours surrounding Washington Olaf Kolzig ? an Ottawa newspaper reported the Canucks were considering a Kolzig-for-Cloutier swap ? make little sense considering Kolzig, who turns 34 at the end of the regular season and is making $6.25 million US, hasn?t won a playoff round since going to the finals in 1998.
Phoenix Coyotes keeper Sean Burke is on the trade block, but he hasn?t won a playoff round since 1988 with New Jersey, and has a career 88.8 per cent save percentage in the post-season. Tampa Bay?s Nikolai Khabibulin is also available, but his only playoff victory came last season, and he finished the second round watching John Grahame from the bench.
Again, Cloutier is a realist. In a year that has seen Mikka Kiprusoff and Brian Boucher go from unused third-stringers to household names, he knows regular season numbers mean little if he can?t perform in the playoffs.
He knows judgment will be passed in April, and he?s working hard to make sure he?s prepared. In addition to increased workouts designed to improve durability and avoid the pre-playoff injuries that slowed him each of the last two seasons, he?s getting better technically.
He?s challenging shooters more, scrambling less, and positioning himself better for rebounds. Most importantly, he?s finally feeling comfortable with the technical changes goaltending consultant Ian Clark has made the last two seasons.
Now, when things take a turn for the worse, he goes back to those techniques instead of relying on his old, scrambling form. Bad goals no longer become bad games automatically. Cloutier is showing he can bounce back.
?It?s coming more natural now," Cloutier said. "It?s like anything, it takes time when you change. Now I see myself doing it in the games and not thinking about it.?
That should help when the heat?s turned up.
?The fundamental anchors are in place now,? Clark said. ?Danny has tremendous confidence in the approach we?ve taken, he?s got tremendous confidence in those skills he?s worked so hard developing, and those will go a long way to having level emotions as you go into a more pressurized situation.?
Cloutier knows that could go a long way towards overcoming playoff demons that started with Nicklas Lidstrom?s goal from centre ice two years ago, and continued against Minnesota last season.
He also knows no amount of All-Star saves would have changed that.
ICECHIPS
Cloutier was far more up-in-arms over the omission of defenceman Mattias Ohlund, a sentiment shared throughout the locker room, especially after minus-9 defenders Kimmo Timonen (24 points) of Nashville and Filip Kuba (17 points) of Minnesota were added. ?He would have definitely been an All- Star if I was picking teams,? he said of Ohlund, who has 22 points and a plus-14 rating despite being asked to stop the opposition?s best forwards on a nightly basis. ?
Injured forwards Jason King (hand), Artem Chubarov (groin), and Magnus Arvedson (back) all practiced with the team Friday at Burnaby's 8-Rinks. King was sent down to Manitoba after practice along with Tyler Bouck, but is scheduled to return for Sunday?s game against Nashville (7 p.m. PST on Pay-Per-View and CKNW AM980). Chubarov could also return, but Arvedson seems less likely to play yet. ?
The Predators, who lost 4-0 in Calgary Thursday, play Edmonton Saturday before coming to Vancouver.
Cheers,
Aquaman