If Jimmy Waite were a baseball relief pitcher rather than a Blackhawks goalie, he would be a Fireman of the Year candidate, posing for posters with a water hose in his hand and a Dalmatian at his feet.
The few times this season that games have exploded in Ed Belfour’s face, Waite has been called upon for damage control. Backup goaltending is more of a salvage operation than a save situation, as it is in baseball.
The ship is already going down with all hands struggling when the backup goalie climbs aboard, and his job is to keep the team afloat until it finds a way to either mount a rescue or stumble onto an uncharted island.
Despite Waite’s best efforts, that didn’t happen in his first four relief appearances this season. The Hawks went under every time in a loss, even though Waite allowed just five goals on 46 shots during 136 minutes in net.
In his fifth relief appearance, Wednesday night in Vancouver, Waite held the proverbial fort until his teammates came riding to his rescue with third-period goals by Frantisek Kucera and Jeremy Roenick to gain a 4-4 tie. Waite didn’t allow a goal over the last 25 minutes after taking over when the Hawks were losing by a pair.
That lowered Waite’s goals-against average in relief to 1.86.
Now, he wants a chance to be a starter. He has started only once in the last 16 games, a 5-2 loss last week in Winnipeg.
Coach Darryl Sutter is expected to give Waite a start either Friday night here against San Jose or Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Sutter has depended so long on Belfour that it’s hard to shake the habit. After all, Belfour was seeking his eighth straight victory going into the Canucks game, which would have equaled Tony Esposito’s Hawk record.
The Hawks are 7-1-1 in their last nine games. The loss and the tie belong to Waite, who hasn’t won since shutting down Montreal 2-0 on Dec. 6.
“I can understand why,” Waite said of his fate of watching more than playing, “but at the same time it’s tough.”
Waite hasn’t received much support from his teammates in his recent starts. He is 1-4 in his last five starts, partly because the Hawks have scored just eight goals in those games.
There has been speculation General Manager Bob Pulford might complete a deal for goalie Jason Muzzatti, a Calgary prospect currently on loan to the Hawks’ farm club in Indianapolis, to protect the Hawks from the likelihood of losing Waite in an expansion draft.
“We don’t know yet that Anaheim and Miami are coming into the league next season,” said Pulford, who gets to protect only one goalie (Belfour) if there is an expansion pool. “We’ll find out when there’s an owners’ meeting the day after the All-Star Game.”
If the two expansion franchises do enter the league immediately, Pulford expects he will try to trade for a young goalie like Muzzatti-if not Muzzatti himself-as well as seek to complete a trade for Waite that will have to wait until the Hawks complete the playoffs.
“The problem is, a lot of other teams are going to be trying to do the same thing with their goalies,” Pulford said.
In the meantime, Waite has to stay focused on helping the Hawks win whenever he gets the chance. And that means he will have to come out of the bullpen a few more times as well as start.
“I do feel like I want to play more than I have,” he said. “But I understand why I haven’t. I do.”
