Bruins Goaltending Issues

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The No. 1 issue

Is Shields ready for everyday load after false starts?

Steve Shields has already gone native, just as he has everywhere he's ever been. At Michigan, he was a true blue-and-maize Wolverine. In California, he got a place on the beach and paddled out on a surfboard. In Boston, Shields lives across from the Public Garden, scoots over to Chinatown for a snack, wanders around Harvard Square.

What the Bruins' newest goaltender has already discovered, what with the Big Dig, the crazy-quilt streets, and the quirky T, is that you ''cahn't get theyah from heah'' in this town.

''I can point out a place on a map,'' Shields said. ''I just can't get there.''

Time will take care of the geography, and Shields already is settling in as though he expects to be working on Causeway Street for the next decade or so. Not that longevity is in his two-year contract, which calls for substantially less money than he made last year but provides more incentives.

''I have no problems earning the money I make,'' Shields said. ''The organization wants me to prove something.''

When the Bruins got him from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in June for a third-round pick in next year's draft, they made no guarantees that the 30-year-old Shields wouldn't be sitting behind John Grahame, just as he sat in Buffalo, San Jose, and Anaheim for much of the past seven years.

''The job's open,'' said general manager Mike O'Connell. ''We don't have an incumbent, a so-called No. 1. It'll be whoever plays the best.''

That's fine with Shields, who's happy just to be in a town where the hockey team matters, win or lose, where the building is more full than not, and where missing the playoffs requires a public apology.

''I wanted to go to a place that was a great city to live in and had a good team,'' he said. ''Where there's pressure to play and the rewards are great when you win. Boston was No. 1 on the list.''

What mattered, too, was that the club had hung a Help Wanted sign from the crossbar. Byron Dafoe was going, going, gone after five seasons, and the front office was looking for a credentialed veteran.

''We wanted someone who could play 40-50-60-70 games for us,'' said O'Connell. ''We looked around and Steve was available.''

For Shields, who'd been gathering cobwebs with the Mighty Ducks, the deal represented a professional rebirth.

''I look at this as the beginning,'' said a man who has been through a couple of false starts before.

Either he was cast as understudy behind The Man (Dominik Hasek in Buffalo, Mike Vernon in San Jose) or he'd get hurt and lose the job to his own understudy (Evgeni Nabokov in San Jose, Jean-Sebastien Giguere in Anaheim).

''Steve always seemed to run into something,'' said Bruins teammate Mike Knuble, who played with him at Michigan. ''He'd take two steps forward, then be knocked back a bit.''

A star on campus

The last time Shields was the multiyear man was in Ann Arbor, where he started all four years and set an NCAA record for victories (111).

''He was one of the toughest goalies in college hockey, playing for a team on the rise,'' said Bruins teammate Brian Rolston, who competed for rival Lake Superior State.

Shields was spirited and sizable, an imposing figure standing, yet seemingly bigger sprawling.

''He reminded me of Ken Dryden,'' said Michigan coach Red Berenson. ''He was a workhorse goalie. Steve could play every night and he wanted to play every night.''

All Berenson needed was one look at Shields barring the door for his overmatched Junior B team in Ontario to know he had a keeper.

''He played an unbelievable game,'' Berenson said. ''He must have had 50 shots against him, breakaways and everything else.''

There was a lighter workload at Michigan, but a much brighter spotlight.

''It was unbelievable,'' Shields recalls. ''There would be people patting you on the back as you walked from the dorm to the arena, where there'd be 7,000 students inside.''

Shields never wanted to be anywhere else. He'd had multiple options, everything from major junior hockey in Canada to the Ivy League. But once he visited Ann Arbor with his father, ''I fell in love with it,'' he said. ''It seemed like the right fit from Day 1.''

And Shields, remembered Knuble, ''was a real Michigan guy,'' a supersized Wolverine who was sworn to the school colors for his full enlistment, even once the Sabres drafted him after his freshman year.

''I'm proud of what we accomplished there and what we helped build,'' Shields said.

And it wasn't as if there was an opening in Buffalo that would have tempted him to shuffle off early.

''They had Grant Fuhr and Hasek in goal,'' Shields said. ''So there was no reason for them to pull me out. I assumed I would play in the minors from Day 1. There aren't many who don't.''

Baptism by fire

At first, Shields struggled, playing most of his first professional season in the East Coast Hockey League.

''I started from the very bottom,'' he said, ''and worked my way up.''

In 1996, his second year, Shields led Rochester to the Calder Cup, winning an AHL-record 15 playoff games. That got him a front-row seat watching Hasek play for the big club, and a sudden call to the stage when Hasek sprained his knee in the third game of a 1997 playoff series against Ottawa.

''It was scary,'' Shields recalled. ''One moment Dominik was coming over to the bench. I thought he wanted a stick. The next moment, he was walking down the hallway. The coach looked down the bench at me. All of a sudden, you're in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was difficult, but it was the chance I was looking for to prove myself.''

Shields backstopped the Sabres the rest of the way, through a seventh-game overtime victory over the Senators and the following series with Philadelphia, which Buffalo lost in five. But when Hasek returned for the 1997-98 season, Shields went back to the bench, and in June he was dealt to the Sharks for Kay Whitmore.

Shields figured he'd either be traded or grabbed in the expansion draft, and the situation in San Jose was more promising, anyway - share time with Vernon, a two-time Cup winner, then move up when Vernon moved on.

So Shields didn't mind watching another postseason from behind the dasher.

''I did everything I could to prove I could play,'' he said, ''but they went with the experienced guy, which is fine.''

In 1999, Shields finally became The Man, playing 67 games (including a club-record 142 consecutive shutout minutes) for the Sharks and sparking a seven-game upset of top-seeded St. Louis in the first round of the playoffs. Then he blew out his ankle two games into the following season. When Shields came back, the rookie Nabokov had a hammerlock on the job.

''He was very solid and was giving the team a chance to win every night,'' Shields conceded. ''Unless you've won a couple of Stanley Cups or are making $4 million a year, they're going to stick with the guy who's on a roll.''

By March, Shields was packing his bags again, this time for Anaheim, where the season was already a bust and Giguere already had the job. Shields, who'd been having shoulder problems, flunked his physical, had surgery immediately, and didn't play for the rest of the season.

''I'm sure it was tough for Steve,'' said Bruins teammate Marty McInnis, who played with Shields in Anaheim, ''leaving a good team in San Jose which was getting ready to make a run for the Cup and coming to a place where we were already out of playoff contention by the time he got there.''

Last year wasn't much better. The Mighty Ducks were still losing, Giguere was still No. 1, and the Pond was so empty most nights that you could skip stones across it.

''There was nobody in the building and we were out of the playoffs early,'' said Shields. ''I don't do well in those situations.''

 

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was too long

was too long

Duck takes flight

What he needed, Shields concluded, was another change of address, and management empathized.

''Steve wanted to play, like any good competitive guy does,'' said Anaheim general manager Bryan Murray, who coached the club last year. And if Shields wasn't going to be No. 1 - and he wasn't - he was too costly to keep.

''It was a matter of money, basically,'' said Murray. ''We had Giguere at $900,000 and he had pretty much taken over the goal. Steve was too expensive as a backup.''

The Mighty Ducks, on the wing again with a new coach (Mike Babcock), fresh oomph up front (Petr Sykora and Adam Oates), and some depth in goal, let Shields go for a relative song.

''They were nice to give Shieldsie the chance to go somewhere else,'' said McInnis. ''Not a lot of teams would have done that.''

Nor would many players have agreed to a hefty pay cut (reportedly from $2 million a year to $1.2 million). But Shields figures it's worth it for a chance to be The Man again.

''I'm not greedy,'' he said. ''I understand that I did this for a reason.''

Shields arrived here with just his TiVo, laptop, and clothes, but quickly impressed his coaches and teammates with his enthusiasm and diligence.

''Pretty much what we were expecting,'' said Bruins coach Robbie Ftorek. ''His work ethic is really good. He's fitting in well.''

Shields also endeared himself to hard-core Bruindom when he ordered up a replica of the stitch-covered mask that Gerry Cheevers wore three decades ago.

''It was a surprise and an honor for me,'' said Cheevers, who now scouts for the club. ''I didn't think he'd know that much about us.''

Shields, after all, was born in 1972, when the Bruins last won the Cup. But he knows his spoked-B history cold.

''The first NHL game I ever saw was Boston and Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens,'' he said. ''Back when everyone fought and games used to take four hours.''

Shields may have grown up a Leafs fan, but he's been reborn as a Bruin and says he wouldn't mind finishing as one.

''I get to wear the black and gold, and I'm living in a community that's in love with the team,'' he said. ''That makes all the difference in the world to me.''

 

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...or John Grahame...

...or John Grahame...

Or is elusive goal finally in sight for Grahame?

WILMINGTON -- It's all about the work now, not the progress. John Grahame's internship three years in college, five years in the pros, eight years in waiting is complete.

It's about being relied upon, asked to do the job, being held accountable, collecting the bouquets, suffering the thorns, and above all, stopping the four ounces of galvanized rubber that could be his road to riches, or the dull-edged dagger to his spoked-B.

No one is saying that the 27-year-old Grahame is the Bruins' No. 1 goalie. Even if they did, would it matter? Byron Dafoe was the No. 1 goalie here last spring, and as of this morning, he remains lock, stock, and blocker in the NHL's unemployment line.

Precarious business, goaltending. Things change. Quickly. One minute you're the man, the next minute you're on the couch in your mom and dad's family room, leg in a cast, wondering whether the hockey gods do these deities ever smile? have another line of work in mind for you. Grahame has been there, after snapping his lower right leg two autumns ago, the last time it looked as though full-time NHL work was within his grasp.

''That was pretty awful,'' Grahame recalled. ''It was supposed to be my time.''

Now here he is again. It's his time, with one small caveat. Over the weekend, a dive to his left in an exhibition game against the Rangers put a little too much torque on Grahame's left shoulder. He departed Ristuccia Arena Monday afternoon with a file of MRI negatives under his arm, his car aimed toward an afternoon doctor's appointment, his career path again uncertain. He was back at practice yesterday, facing shots, figuring all would be fine.

''Not going to be a problem,'' said Grahame, sitting in the Ristuccia stands even before getting his diagnosis (inflammation).

If only the Bruins could be so assured about all of their netminding issues. If he's not ready, there is also Steve Shields. If not Shields, they've got Tim Thomas and Andrew Raycroft keeping their pads warm and hopes high. And if all four prove not be prime-time ready? Then they have holdout defenseman Kyle McLaren on the sideline, his trade request on file, the team's intentions to swap him for a No. 1 goalie. If necessary.

Grahame's desire is to turn all contingencies, fallbacks, and failsafes into moot points. He wakes up in the morning convinced he is the No. 1, goes to bed thinking the same. It is now more than eight years since the Bruins made him the 229th pick in the draft, and he figures it's long past the time his long-shot bid came galloping across the finish line.

''This is the first time that I've known that the ball's in my court,'' he said. ''Before, it didn't matter because of [Dafoe] - it didn't matter how I played. Now it's really up to me.

''Twenty-seven years in the making - it's a great feeling. I'm here with a great team, in a great city, there is such great hockey tradition here. It doesn't get any better.''

For the record, coach Robbie Ftorek has not named his starting goalie for Friday night's opener against the Minnesota Wild. For the record, Ftorek never publicly names his starter, and his No. 1 on Friday could be his backup on Monday vs. the Avalanche. The tea leaves, though, seem to shape themselves more into a No. 47 (Grahame) configuration than a No. 31 (Shields). Until Ftorek discloses his choice come Thursday eve, though, everyone is left to interpret the signals.

''And it's very subtle,'' said a positive-thinking Grahame. ''Sometimes it's so subtle that you don't realize it until after. It can be a pat on the back, or something that's said to you in passing. You just get the sense you're the guy.''

Victim of circumstance

In his five years under contract, Grahame has never been The Guy in Boston. Providence, yes. But never in the Hub of Hockey. In the spring of '99, he carried the Baby Bruins to the Calder Cup (AHL championship) with an impressive 15-4 record and a 2.38 goals-against mark. The next spring, he was an equally impressive 10-3, 2.50, in the AHL playoffs. And in the spring of '01, his leg fracture of the previous autumn finally healed, he was again in top form, albeit with a less impressive 8-9 record and 2.65 GAA.

All those numbers have yet to translate into a Boston accent. Be it Dafoe's No. 1 status, injury, or lack of readiness, the former Lake Superior State star has never proven to be an NHL prime-timer. In 53 games over three seasons, he stands a lifetime 18-21-7 in the NHL with a 2.80 average. Not the stuff of Vezina Trophies, obviously, but he has never been long enough on the job to give anyone the conviction that he can or cannot be the 6-foot-2-inch answer to a beguiling 24-square-foot problem.

''So far, he looks - and I say this without us yet playing a game - well, he seems more stable,'' said general manager Mike O'Connell. ''From what I've seen of him, he's not trying to do too many things out there - you know, play defense, make the outlet pass, make a check. Most of all, the job is stopping the puck, and he's been doing that.''

Hall of Fame-goalie-in-residence Gerry Cheevers has long been a Grahame guy. There comes a time, said Cheevers, when ready-for-NHL goalies figure out the position's greatest nuance: Whatever it takes to stop the puck, that is the right save, superceding all style and presentation points. Cheevers figures Grahame grasped that concept a couple of years ago, and time and circumstance have been his only roadblocks to NHL success.

Last year, noted Cheevers, Dafoe's clear-cut No. 1 status forced Grahame to adjust to a backup role. When he did play, he wasn't so much a work-in-progress as a work-in-adaptation. Now faced with the opportunity again to fill a full-time role, said Cheevers, Grahame once more must adjust.

''That's two adjustment periods in what is really a very short time,'' said Cheevers. ''I like him a lot. The thing is with John, when he puts the pads on, his No. 1 objective is to win the game, whether that means winning it 1-0 or 9-8, it doesn't matter to him. He just wants to win. I've always respected that in a player.''

Handle with care

To prepare for this once-in-27-years opportunity, Grahame over the summer incorporated martial arts into his training regimen. He took up residence on the West Coast and trained in the discipline of jeet kune do. He feels stronger, more fit, focused.

Question is: Can kick-boxing aid in shot-blocking?

''I think it helps you see things in a different light, because of the kicks and punches,'' said Grahame. ''You mess up and you pay for it with a broken jaw. I'm hoping the concentration carries over here, and if that helps my game 1 percent, 2 percent, 5 percent, then all the better.''

After stopping the puck, there is also the matter of making the right play with it. There are very few NHL goalies who could make a case for handling charges during contract negotiations. Two of the best: Martin Brodeur and Eddie Belfour (at least the Eddie the Eagle from Chicago, San Jose, and Dallas days). If the NHL remains intent on opening up the game's offense, allowing wingers/forecheckers unfettered access to the offensive zone, then puckhandling will be a vital asset for any No. 1 goalie.

Grahame will have to demonstrate those skills if he is to make a claim to the No. 1 job. In fact, ultimately that could determine whether he stays on the job and management stays away from exploring outside alternatives.

''I think if you're a goalie, and you think you're going to be one of the better puckhandlers,'' said O'Connell, ''then it's kind of like an offensive defenseman thinking he can be one of the best. Truth is, there are very few who can, as goalies or as defensemen. It doesn't seem to me, either, that you can develop it. Either you've got it or you don't. Too many of them mess it up.''

Stop and drop could be the order of the day in the Boston cage. Ftorek said last week that it's better to have a goalie not handle the puck than to have one who is trying to acquire puckhandling skills on the job. There is little room for error. Bruins Nation shouldn't be surprised this year if the Boston goalie, be it Grahame or Shields or TBA, leaves the bulk of the puck-moving to the defense.

''If you're handling it, you've got to be flawless in this league,'' said Cheevers. ''No room for mistakes.''

Future is now

Odds are, Grahame has a month, maybe two, to prove that he is Boston's goalie for now and the future. If he has finally grown into the job, he could be the answer here for the next half-dozen years or more. Goalies in their teens and young 20s often make for No. 1 NHL goaltenders, but there are just as many who don't grow into the job until they are zeroing in on 30. Conversely, if it hasn't happened by the late 20s, then it probably won't, simply because organizations begin to look for cheaper and younger alternatives.

''I've always known it's going to work out,'' said Grahame, just a toddler when his father Ron was a Bruins goalie in the late '70s, prior to being dealt to the Kings for the draft pick that became Ray Bourque. ''I didn't know when it would work out, obviously, and you always want it to be sooner than later. I think I've learned a lot of lessons, and some of that you don't learn unless you go through it - up and down with the minors, backing up last year.

''No matter what, though, you have to keep your mind on that goal, and I've always done that. I've always believed that it's going to happen. Now here it is. It's time for me to seize the day.''