Giguere Handles His Demotion With Grace

DENVER —  Jean-Sebastien Giguere was the last player off the ice at the Pepsi Center on Monday and by far the sweatiest, skating off with his hair plastered to his skull and rivers of perspiration running down his neck.

By the time he reached his stall in the Mighty Duck locker room, most of his teammates had showered and made crumbs of the sandwiches that had been piled on a table at the center of the room. The TV cameras were gone too. They’d captured a few words from the man of the moment, rookie goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, so they coiled their cords and departed, confident that they’d gotten the big story of the Ducks’ playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche.

Three years ago, Giguere was the big story in the Ducks’ improbable run to the Stanley Cup finals. He was funny and bright and chatty, obliterating the stereotype of the nervous, fingernail-gnawing goalie. Playing for a low-scoring team that denied him the luxury of being merely good, he was exceptional for two months and became the fifth player judged the most valuable in the playoffs as a member of a losing team.

Times and teams change, and so has Giguere’s vantage point.

Hampered by a mysterious “lower-body” injury, he was replaced by Bryzgalov 21 minutes 3 seconds into the fifth game of the Ducks’ first-round series against Calgary. Bryzgalov has since given up one goal and recorded three straight shutouts in compiling a shutout streak of 229 minutes 42 seconds, almost 12 minutes longer than the shutout streak Giguere put together in blanking the Minnesota Wild in the first three games of the 2003 Western Conference finals.

“The only thing I have to do now is be ready,” Giguere said. “You never know when that’s going to happen. It could be this year, it could be next year.”

Giguere, who will be 29 next week, has been consigned to backup status on game days and to taking extra shots to stay sharp after the regulars leave the practice ice. It’s not what he anticipated, but he’s handling this unexpected and unfortunate twist of fate with as much grace as he handled success three years ago.

“I’m having fun. The games are great to watch,” he said Monday. “I’ve got the best seat in the house for free too.”

He hasn’t sulked or distanced himself from his teammates -- in fact, he organized a team dinner before the Ducks’ Game 7 triumph in Calgary and picked up the check, which he insisted was easier than trying to get 20 hockey players to decide who owed what to whom.

“I’m sure he’s not jumping for joy that he’s in the situation he’s in,” Coach Randy Carlyle said, “but the reality of it is that he’s part of our team and when he’s called upon he’s expected to perform to the highest level. Right now he’s not getting the call but he’s handled it like a true professional.”

It’s not an act. Yet, Giguere acknowledged that he’s having a tough time being a spectator, not because he’s jealous of Bryzgalov or because he craves the spotlight he so ably filled three years ago, but because he wants to do more than be a cheerleader and practice target.

“It’s really tough,” he said. “I’d love to be playing and help the team out, but there can only be one goalie playing, and what Bryz is going through right now, what can you do? It’s fantastic what he’s going through. Not often does a goalie get in a zone like that. It might happen only once in your career. It might happen a few times in your career, so you’ve got to be happy for the guy.

“He’s going through this because he worked hard all year and he did what he had to do. And when he was asked to play he was confident because he was prepared. You’ve got to be happy for the guy. I’m happy for him and I’m happy for the team.

“For me, I’ve got to keep positive. It’s hard, but you know, there’s a lot worse in life. Bryz said it the other day, there’s people dying everywhere. I went through worse in my life, for sure.”

Bryzgalov said he has not sought Giguere’s advice about how to handle his celebrity status, but they have discussed the demands of playoff hockey.

“What we’re talking about, I can’t tell you. It’s goalie secrets,” Bryzgalov said, smiling. “He works hard. He stays ready and focused and prepares for games because you never know what’s going to happen.”

Giguere says that Bryzgalov needs little guidance of any sort. “He knows what he has to do. He’s paid his dues in the minors -- three, four years, like I did,” Giguere said. “Every time he played this year, he gave us a chance to win. He doesn’t need to ask me. He knows his job.

“If I have anything, I won’t be shy. I’ll go tell him. And he can ask me.”

If Bryzgalov were to seek his counsel, Giguere said he’d tell him to be sure to enjoy this moment, because it may be fleeting and it won’t last forever.

“When you’re playing well like this, it could happen only once in your career,” Giguere said. “You never know when that’s going to come back.”

Or if it ever will.