Patrick Roy had to win his first playoff game sometime too.
The fact he did it 11 years, 86 victories and three Stanley Cup rings ago makes the Colorado Avalanche a huge favorite in its first-round playoff series, which begins Wednesday night against the Blackhawks.
In the opposite goal will be Jeff Hackett, who has played in three playoff games in his career, going 0-1, the loss coming in a nightmarish 5-1 setback in the second round last season against Colorado.
“I’m not even thinking about it,” Hackett says of last year’s emergency start for Ed Belfour, who had fallen ill. “That has no bearing on anything. I hadn’t played for three weeks. Then you get put in–it’s a pretty tough situation, especially when you’re playing a team as great as Colorado.
“I’m just going to relax and have fun with this. We’ve all worked hard to get here. This is when the fun starts.”
“Fun” in the Blackhawks’ World Dictionary is defined as taking on the defending Stanley Cup champions and the team with the most points in the regular season. “Fun” for Hackett will be trying to stop Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Valeri Kamensky, Adam Deadmarsh and Sandis Ozolinsh, all of whom scored 60 or more points this season.
Hackett was solid in two starts against the Avalanche during the regular season, going 1-1 with a 2.02 goals-against average. But, wouldn’t you know it, Roy was better, allowing only four goals in three games as the Avs took the season series 3-1.
“Patrick has three Stanley Cups for a reason,” says Hackett.
Denis Savard, who played with Roy on the Montreal Canadiens’ championship team in 1993, says when playoff time rolls around, Roy “turns it up another notch.”
That’s exactly what Hackett did down the stretch during the regular season, helping the Hawks slip into the playoffs. When the Hawks had to beat Calgary to start the final week of the season, Hackett came through 2-1. He was in goal again for the playoff clincher last Friday, again against Calgary.
Pressure? This is the guy who replaced Belfour, who won 201 games as a Hawk, as the No. 1 goalie on Jan. 25, when Belfour was dealt to San Jose for Ulf Dahlen, Michal Sykora and Chris Terreri.
Hackett finished with a career-high 19 victories, a fantastic .927 save percentage and a 2.16 goal-against average.
“We had a lot of big games,” he says. “It’s not quite the same, but it’s as close as you’re going to get to a playoff game.”
” `Hack’ is very underrated, and he always has been,” says Jeff Shantz. “You always see the guys that score the big goals in the papers and on the news, but you never see the guy, that little guy like Hackett, that keeps them out. It’s real good to see him playing as well as he is. We have confidence in him.”
And the Hawks have confidence they can shock the hockey world by beating Colorado, even though no one is giving them a snowball’s chance in 120-degree playoff heat.
“The only thing that matters is what we think,” says Brent Sutter. “We believe in ourselves. I believe we can win it.”
“It wouldn’t be the first upset in the history of the playoffs,” says coach Craig Hartsburg. “This is sports, this is what it’s all about–upsets.
“I think there’s a lot of pressure on teams to repeat. We want to add to that pressure by the way we play.”
The way the Hawks will come out and play Wednesday is physical. If they can find a way to shut down Forsberg and Sakic and avoid too many penalties, they’ll be in the game. Then it will come down to beating Roy.
“He’s a great goaltender–if not the best, one of the top two in the world,” Hartsburg says of Roy.
But that takes nothing away from the confidence Hartsburg and the Hawks have in Hackett, playoff experience or not.
Says Steve Smith: “The only thing in question about Jeff’s game was whether or not he could play under pressure situations, and he’s shown that the last two months, because every game has been a must-win situation for us just to get in the playoffs.”
“It’s been a battle all year,” says Hackett. “There have been a lot of changes and a lot of difficult situations. I’m just happy we made it to the playoffs.”
Let the fun begin.
