The Blackhawks’ workaholic goaltender, Jocelyn Thibault, helped make Patrick Roy what he is today: the goaltender of the two-time Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
Roy came to Colorado along with Mike Kane in a Dec. 6, 1995 trade with Montreal. To get Roy, the Avalanche had to give Thibault to the Canadiens along with Andre Kovalenko and Martin Rucinsky.
On Nov. 16, 1998, Thibault was traded again. This time he accompanied Dave Manson and Jeff Brown to Chicago in return for Jeff Hackett, Eric Weinrich and Alain Nasreddine.
Thibault has been the Hawks’ No. 1 goalie ever since. But he played the unusual role of a spectator Saturday night as Steve Passmore made his 11th appearance of the season in the Pepsi Center, where the Hawks clashed with the Avalanche in the last of their five consecutive road games.
Roy, meanwhile, was back in goal for the Avalanche, after watching his understudy David Aebischer record a 6-0 victory Friday night in Minnesota. He was seeking the 507th victory of a career that has seen him win more regular-season games than any goaltender in NHL history.
Roy was already one of the top goaltenders in the game when he was traded to Colorado. Thibault, on the other hand, was considered a potential star, not only when he was traded to the Canadiens but also when they dealt him to the Hawks.
“Before I came to Chicago, I always played for a pretty good team and my progression was going well,” Thibault said. “But playing for a good team sometimes hides the mistakes you make.
“I came and the team was struggling. I had to be on top of my game every night to win games, and my mistakes were magnified because they would cost us games.
“I came into this league when I was 18, and I never really had a chance to be with a veteran goalie to learn about the game and preparation. It slowed my progress. Lots of stuff I had to learn by myself to get where I wanted to be.”
Thibault’s journey is still a work in progress, but this season he seems to have made considerable headway. He had a setback Friday night when he suffered a 4-2 loss in San Jose. Still, he leads the league in games played with 53, and his 29 victories are second only to Detroit superstar Dominik Hasek’s 30.
Thibault’s goals-against average of 2.50 and his save percentage of .901 also suggest that he’s en route to a career year.
“Jocelyn is capable of making the great save once in a while,” coach Brian Sutter said. “That’s a good goaltender’s responsibility–that and making the normal saves all the time.
“Jocelyn has been playing his best hockey in a tough schedule (designed to cram in games before the Olympics). It’s going to be like that in the playoffs–the key is to stay focused.”
Thibault’s last playoff game came in 1988 with Montreal. It was also the first of four successive years that the Hawks failed to make the playoffs.
Drought ends: When center Igor Korolev scored the Hawks’ second goal early in the third period of Friday’s 4-2 loss in San Jose, it was his first goal in 20 games and his first point in 14 games.
Another Olympian? Sutter would like to see Hawks defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev added to the Russian Olympic team as the replacement for Toronto’s Dmitry Yushkevich, who has a blood clot in his leg.
After the Hawks’ 4-2 win in Phoenix on Wednesday, Sutter said Karpovtsev “played as good a game as anybody in the league can play. If Potsy is considered that’s quite a compliment to the way our team has played. If he is selected it would mean three of our eight defensemen are going to the Olympics.”
Karpovtsev’s defense partner, Boris Mironov, and center Alex Zhamnov are on the Russian roster; right wing Tony Amonte and defenseman Phil Housley will play for the U.S.; defenseman Jaroslav Spacek will return to the defending gold medal team from the Czech Republic; and center Michael Nylander will skate for Sweden.
Sutter isn’t worried that his Olympians will be weary when they return.
“All these guys are used to playing 20-25 minutes, and they’re not going to get that much time in the Olympics,” he said.
“I’m more concerned about the emotional letdown than the physical letdown. I’ll be giving them some days off.”
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The outcome of the Blackhawks-Avalanche game was unavailable until later editions because of its late start.
