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PLAYERS NEVER FORGET their NHL debut.
In goaltender Adam Hauser’s case, a touch of short-term memory loss might be beneficial.
Last Saturday in Buffalo, Hauser was backing up Kings starter Mathieu Garon when Hauser was thrown into his NHL debut. He never expected to play.
“That wasn’t the plan at all,” said Hauser, the Monarchs’ usual starter, who has since returned to Manchester.
Garon was stung for three goals in the game’s first 4:33. Hauser played the next 1:37 while Garon tried to unscramble on the bench. Garon returned and in 4:36 gave up a fourth goal. He was yanked and Hauser played the rest of the game, allowing six goals for the first time in his four-year pro career. That’s a 10-1 loss to Buffalo.
“Not the way you think about your first NHL start,” said Hauser with a soft laugh. “I had fun on the inside.”
Hauser’s NHL debut totals: 6 goals, 50:49 minutes played and a career 7.08 goals against average. His existing NHL shutout streak is an unmentionable 4:24.
“When I went in the second time, I don’t even remember the time on the clock. It was already 4-nothing,” said Hauser of the surreal debut. “So when I went in to stay it had already shown itself to be a pretty tough game.
“It was tough. It was definitely tough. By the end of the first period, I think we were just wanting to do the best we could. But we kept taking penalties and just everything was stacked against us.
“It’s probably going to end up on a DVD somewhere,” he laughed.
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MOVING RIGHT ALONG
The only six-goal calamity of his pro career aside, how’s “Brick” Hauser doing?
“I’m just trying to do all the same things that got me here,” said Manchester’s all-time leader in wins with 53 and shutouts with 14. “You never stop (playing for next contract) even in terms of the next game. There’s just a number of goalies in this organization and I’ve got to fight for time all the time.”
Hauser’s next game will be his 100th as a Monarch. An unrestricted free agent next season, Hauser is the top goalie in the AHL in shootouts with a 5-2 record and only six shootout goals against. Brick by brick, Hauser is a much better fundamental goaltender than when he made his AHL debut for the Providence Bruins in a 3-3 tie against the Monarchs in the Verizon Wireless Arena in 2004.
“I was there for almost a month and only got to play one game,” said Hauser.
He will never forget the moment of truth early in his pro career.
“I remember very early on (then Providence assistant coach, now head coach) Scott Gordon pulled me aside and said, ‘What are you doing?’ He asked who taught me how to play this way. I said Robb Stauber (University of Minnesota goalie coach and a former Los Angeles King).
“Does anybody in the NHL play the way Robb Stauber’s teaching you?
“I said, ‘No.’
“He said, ‘The best goalies in the world are not playing the way you do.’
“I was really nervous, but everything (Gordon) said, in essence, all the very fundamentals and basics for anybody coming out of Quebec, I was just now learning a year removed from college.”
Since that time, Hauser has carefully studied the French-Canadian school of goaltending that gave rise to some of the greatest butterfly-style keepers of all-time, topped by the retired Patrick Roy.
“I’m a better goalie and a lot of it has to do with fundamentals. I’ve learned a lot of stuff and everything I’ve learned, I’m trying to implement on a consistent basis,” Hauser said. “I don’t think I’m an expert. If I was an expert I’d be playing in the NHL. Goalies are just consistently great at the NHL level and at the American League level there is just some inconsistency.”
And some nights those “levels” are nightmarishly blurred.
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THE WAY HE WAS
“I was cleaning out my stuff at home this summer and I watched an old videotape and it was comical the way I played in college,” said Hauser.
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666: At the University of Minnesota, Hauser was lit up 14 times for six goals or more. The last time was his junior year, March 2, 2001, in a 6-1 loss to St. Cloud State. In his senior season he backstopped Minnesota to the NCAA championship.
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ON THE ROAD AGAIN
This week the Monarchs are playing four road games (one of only two such stretches this season).
For the first time this season they meet the Omaha Knights (Calgary Flames) Friday at 8, the Iowa Stars (Dallas Stars/Edmonton Oilers) Saturday at 8:05 p.m. and the Peoria Rivermen (St. Louis Blues) Sunday at 7 p.m. Each of those teams will visit Manchester later this season.
Iowa features center Yan Stastny (Notre Dame), 21, who is the son of NHL Hall of Famer Peter Stastny. The Iowa all-star is rookie defenseman Matt Greene (North Dakota), who is still up with the Edmonton Oilers. Omaha and Peoria will look familiar since Omaha’s players skated in Lowell last season and Peoria is the former Worcester IceCats.
Omaha is coached by former Hartford coach Ryan McGill and past Lowell assistant Scott Allen. In goal Omaha features the 6-foot-5 Brent Krahn. Peoria’s familiar forwards are Colin Hemingway (UNH) and past Monarch Brendan Brooks. On defense in Peoria is Trevor Byrne (Dartmouth). Peoria is coached by Steve Pleau (UNH), who assisted in Worcester.
The Peoria game also marks the first meeting between Manchester center Yanick Lehoux and defenseman Brendan Buckley (Boston College) since midway through last season, when Buckley knocked Lehoux out for the rest of the year after hitting the forward’s knee with an open-ice cheap shot.
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D-BACK
Russian defenseman Denis Grebeshkov returned to Manchester last night from Los Angeles and will fly out with the Monarchs today for Omaha. In six games with the Kings, the two-time AHL all-star collected two assists. At the time of his promotion to the Kings on Dec. 26 he was leading all Monarchs defensemen with 16 points, all assists.
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DOG FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The Monarchs host the Hamilton Bulldogs (Montreal Canadiens) for the only time this season on Saturday, Feb. 4. That is ’70s Night. See fans and staff dressed in their grooviest ’70s threads. Join the Monarchs for a post-game party at the Center of New Hampshire Radisson Hotel. Tickets to the event (not including a game ticket) are $10 each and available on monarchshockey.com or by calling 626-7825. There is a deal that includes four party tickets and four upper deck game tickets for $80 (a $12 savings).
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USELESS STAT OF THE WEEK
The Monarchs are 8-0 when they score five goals or more. They better be.
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PARTING SHOT
Monarchs right wing Brad “Shooter” Smyth is a top-10 scorer in the league and is not an AHL all-star.
Players are often unable to participate in the all-star game because of injury. In that case, the healthy Smyth should be named to the game as an alternate and the injustice corrected.
Kevin Provencher covers the Manchester Monarchs for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is kprovencher@unionleader.com
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