HOCKEYTALK.BIZ: BRIAN KENNEDY

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Brian Kennedy
HOCKEYTALK.BIZ

JANUARY 31, 2010 -- “The Sox traded Bullfrog!”  So Ralph Parker’s dad announces as he walks into the kitchen in an early scene of A Christmas Story.  Nobody else in the family is all that moved by the proclamation, and the rest of the family go about their breakfast routine.

J-S Giguere

Maybe this was the reaction your family had when you said in stunned disbelief, “The Ducks traded Giguere!” as you opened your internet browser Sunday morning.  Hopefully, there was someone in the room who cares enough about hockey and the Ducks to share your moment of grief.

The news is upsetting, if not unexpected.  Giguere has been a fan favorite for as long as many people in the OC have been hockey fans.  He’s the only player left from the 2003 finals run.  He’s the one who brought the Conn Smythe trophy home that year, and, arguably, the one who brought the Cup to the team, and the local fans, in 2007.

Perhaps of more concern, at least in the immediate sense, is that Jonas Hiller now must carry the day.  Psychologically, this has to be an adjustment for him. It’s one thing to spell the main guy and do well, as he did.  It’s another to outplay the main guy and take his job.  He did that, too.  It’s quite a different thing to see that other guy depart on the trade train and know that now, it’s up to you.  If you blow it, the team sinks. 

Can he stand that pressure?  Having a capable backup like Vesa Toskala might give him an incentive, knowing that the second man is more than able to step in, and maybe even make a case for the number one job if the circumstances are right.

For the rest of the team, though, this may create some doubt.  Hiller has played great this year, but the book on him says to shoot high, and he hasn’t seemed to be able to fix that problem.  He lets in a goal every game or two that both he and everyone else knows probably shouldn’t have gone in, signalled by his exasperated look to the rafters.  That’s pee wee hockey stuff, not NHL mettle, and it’s something that he’s got to get past if he wants to carry the team to the playoffs, which is now solely his responsibility.

But in light of this trade, fans who are new or new-ish to the game might need a little help digesting the news.  So speaking as someone who has loved hockey since just after the Montreal Canadiens traded Rogie Vachon to the LA Kings, let me make a few comments.

First, this happens.  Frank Mahovlich won the Cup in Toronto, but I know him as a Montreal Canadien.  Phil Esposito looked to be a Boston Bruin forever, until he was dealt to the New York Rangers in the 1975-76 season.  Bobby Orr, also a Bruin, was moved to Chicago to end his great career.  Ray Borque went from Boston to Colorado.  Rob Blake from LA to Colorado and later San Jose. 

Nothing, especially in pro sports, is forever.  It only seems like it should be.  But time heals and all that stuff.  The Bullfrogs of the world don their new uniforms, fans remember that misty past with fondness, and the games go on.

Second, Giggy, for all the love of local fans, wasn’t playing.  For him, a proud athlete who had earned the number one spot in Anaheim and then seen it go to Hiller, must be respected for what he has given the city.  Part of that is understanding that he feels the need to play.  He’s just thirty-two, though it seems like he’s been in the league forever, and nowhere close to the place where he’s ready to sit on the end of a bench in a baseball cap for days and weeks on end.

We should therefore wish him the best and be glad that he’s got another chance to prove himself.  And at the same time, know that he’s going to need all the good karma he can get what with the pressure in Toronto and the way the team is playing.

Third, but related to the prior point, is that, to say it gently, Giguere does not look physically all that good these days.  This is not a criticism, but a fact.  Seeing him up close, your impression is that he’s not in the greatest shape.  Is that because he’s not playing, or is his lack of playing time due to the fact that’s he’s lost something due to his apparent lack of trim?  Not for me to say, but either way, the chance to revive his game in Toronto is something that he probably needs to give him some push to get back to the Giguere of old.

And finally, think about the economics.  Giguere’s cap hit is about six million bucks, and he was due to make about seven million next year, according to media sources.  What can you get for that?  A lot of forward.  A lot of defense.  What you can’t do is have that much money sitting on the bench opening the door for the defensemen you have.  Something had to happen, and whether due to age considerations or the simple fact that Hiller has played his way to where he is and been able to maintain it, this is the best thing for the team.

What remains for fans to do is bond with the new guy (Hiller that is, not Toskala, at least not yet).  If the kids of Orange County are anything like I was as a boy in Montreal, they’ve got goalies’ pictures on their walls.  For most, for most of the time they’ve known hockey existed, the biggest and best wall space has been reserved for JS Giguere.  Some may have replaced his mug with Hiller’s over the past few months or year.  Most probably were holding on to their hopes that Giggy would regain his form and take to the nets once more. 

That’s off now, and so all over the OC this week, kids will take the old pictures down, rearrange things to create a shrine to Hiller, and hope that GM Murray’s move makes enough sense that its logic overcomes the sadness of losing a guy who has been the face of the Ducks for nearly a decade.

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