CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

Jason LaBarbera arrived in Vancouver, played well in four games and poorly in two.  And yesterday he played an excellent game against Dallas.

Vancouver fans have thus viewed a video precis of Jason’s NHL career – sometimes brilliant and always inconsistent. 

courtesy of sportsnet.ca

LaBarbera played for the Portland Winter Hawks – and briefly for the Spokane Chiefs and Tri-City Americans – and was named to the WHL All-star team in 2000. He was drafted 66th overall in 1988 by the New York Rangers.

“Somewhat of a dark-horse prospect for New York,” The Sports Forecaster wrote. “This ‘98 pick has the size and mobility to one day play in the NHL. LaBarbera is used to work, playing on weak clubs before landing on a contending Spokane team late last season. Save percentage has always been good. Needs to work on consistency.”

LaBarbera played in the Rangers’ organization for 4 seasons, with the Hartford Wolf Pack and the ECHL’s Charlotte Checkers. 

The Wolf Pack’s website described Jason’s rise in the organization: 

“Defensively … the team was a world-beater, led by an unlikely hero in goaltender Jason LaBarbera … who had spent much of his first two years in the ECHL and had never been a number-one man in the AHL until late in 2002-03, LaBarbera was slated to battle for the backup job in Hartford until 2001 Ranger first-round pick Dan Blackburn suffered a shoulder injury during offseason workouts. LaBarbera seized the opportunity and … provided the Pack with a reliable go-to guy in net….”

He was voted to the AHL’S First All-Star Team, was awarded the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Award as the league’s Top Goaltender and won the league’s MVP (Les Cunningham Award) in 2004. In 2005, he was awarded the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for the AHL’s fewest goals against. 

During the 2003-04 season, he was called up to the Rangers and played in four games. He had set an AHL record with 13 shutouts, won his first NHL game against Washington, and then let in 7 goals his next contest – against Pittsburgh.

It was a sign of things to come. 

Jason LaBarbera had little formal goalie training until he was 24-years-of-age. He did, however, attend the Spruce Kings school, which didn’t offer any goaltending instruction.

“It was target practice basically,” he said.

Jason practiced with his first goalie coach when Benoit Allaire joined the Rangers in July, 2004.

“I learned more in one year with Benoit than I did in my entire career before that,” LaBarbera says. “He completely changed my game.”

courtesy of dobblerhockey.com

LaBarbera played his last season in the Rangers’ organization – during the lockout 2004-05 campaign – and once again won the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for allowing the AHL’s fewest goals. 

After four seasons, Jason had set three Wolf Pack records: Wins 34 (2003-04); GAA 1.59 (2003-04); SV% .936 (2003-04) and the AHL record: Shutouts 13 (2003-04).

The Wolf Pack website wrote: “No AHL backstop in the previous 67 years of league play had registered more than nine shutouts in a season, and LaBarbera surpassed that in mid-February. He finished with 13 whitewashes….”

The Rangers, however, had a glut of goalies and didn’t re-sign Jason.

The Wolf Pack’s website wrote: “…netminder Al Montoya, the sixth overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft by the Rangers, racked up 23 wins [for Hartford during the following season].”

The Kings, on the other hand, liked what they saw and inked him immediately.

“He has a tremendous upside,” GM Dave Taylor said. “We really like his size.”

“He’s a huge guy and he gets in front of the shooter,” added fellow assistant Mark Hardy, “and takes up a lot of the net. The team has really responded to him.”

Jason’s success throughout junior – and four years in the AHL – had been the result of his size and some athleticism, but very little formal goalie training.

Jason next worked with consultant Andy Nowicki – now the goaltending coach with the Red Deer Rebels – in L.A.

LaBarbera began 2005-06 by winning his first five games – to tie a Kings’ record – and finished the season with a record of 11-9-2 – one shutout, a goals-against-average of 3.25 and a save-percentage of .907. 

“LaBarbera made his Kings debut,” wrote Gann Matsuda, ”and after playing lights out in goal in his first handful of games, he was mostly shaky the rest of the season….”

Jason described playing then, versus two seasons later: ”[It's due to having] a little bit more experience, understanding the situations better, understanding the league better. Everything from the schedule to just being in LA, everything was new to me then. It’s still kinda new but it’s just being more comfortable.”

After his 23 games with the Kings, LaBarbera was once again stuck in the AHL  for another season – with the Manchester Monarchs this time. The Kings were afraid to call Jason up – and lose him on waivers – so left him in the “A” (Anaheim had tried to bring up Michael Leighton and lost him to the Nashville Predators, so the Kings were nervous.).

“…LaBarbera spent the entire season in the minors as Mathieu Garon, Dan Cloutier, Sean Burke, Barry Brust, and even Yutaka Fukufuji rode the Kings goaltending carousel,” wrote Derek Van Diest.

That campaign, Jason was once again named to the AHL’s First All-Star Team, won the fewest goals against award, and was named the league’s best goaltender (as voted on by the players and media). 

“A 2006-07 First Team AHL All-Star,” AHL.com wrote, “LaBarbera (39-20-1) has been the busiest goaltender in the American Hockey League, leading the league in appearances (62), minutes played (3,619), shots faced (1,995) and saves (1,862). He is also first in wins (39), first in save percentage (.933), tied for first in shutouts (7) and fourth in goals-against average (2.21) while anchoring the AHL’s top-ranked defense and backstopping Manchester to the Atlantic Division championship….”

Two other positives were: Bill Ransford had become the Kings’ goalie coach – not that he spent much time in Manchester; and Jason beat his former team, the Wolf Pack 3-2 in overtime after stopping 59 shots.

“To me, I’ve really developed my game,” he told AHL.com at the end of the season, “and gotten it where it should be to be in the NHL. I think I’ve improved a lot.”

Former Monarchs’ teammate Mike Cammalleri talked about Jason – when they were later playing together in L.A. –  ”I said to him after the game, ‘great game, but that’s average for you.’”

“Because I know him well enough, I know how good he is. That’s (a shutout) an average night for him.”

L.A. was a bad environment for Jason that season.

“The goaltending became a quagmire,” wrote Helene Elliott of the L.A. Times, ”partly because of Crawford’s misplaced loyalty to Dan Cloutier and Lombardi’s signing of Cloutier to an extension before he proved anything (Crawford ended up using 11 goalies during the two seasons when Jason was in Manchester and L.A.)”

“[Marc Crawford] was a tough guy to read,” Jason told Ted Clarke, “he’s pretty intense and likes things done his way. Obviously he has a good track record and is a respected coach because he’s won a Stanley Cup but it seemed it never was a good fit having Crow there, with the group of guys we had.”

“After getting off to a slow start in the pre-season,” wrote Gann Matsuda, ”and in [Jason's] first two games in the regular season (He let in nine goals on 52 shots, resulting in a .827 save percentage), Jason LaBarbera has come on strong in his last three games  (two goals allowed on 56 shots, good for a .964 save percentage), and appears to be establishing himself as the Kings’ number one netminder.”

Jason talked about his head space at that time: 

“…you can’t think about it too much or it’ll just mess your head up. I think earlier in training camp, I was a little too worried about that stuff and tried too hard. I feel a little more relaxed now. A little more comfortable. The biggest thing is getting the opportunity, but it’s doing something with it.” 

“I just feel more comfortable in the net,” LaBarbera added the next day. “I was probably pressing a lot earlier in the year. I was trying too hard. I knew the opportunity was there, I just tried too much. I’ve just taken it back a bit and for me, it’s how I feel in practice. It’s been a lot easier having two goalies–I get more reps.”

Then LaBarbera was injured.

“Jason had been very good up until he got injured,” Crawford explained. “Ryan Smyth ran into him in the crease in late November and then he missed three weeks [8 games] with a rib injury. We played him then after Christmas and he just wasn’t quite right … But he’s been better the last little while and I think most of that has to be attributed to the fact that he’s been more comfortable.” 

Crawford would have been happy because Jason had beaten Roberto Luongo 4-2 in Vancouver. LaBarbera would return from his injury to beat Luongo a second time 4-3 – on January 19th. 

So, Jason was playing in a bad environment, having troubles with his confidence, and learning the science of goaltending as we went along – at 27-years-of-age. He told sportshubla.com:

“For me, it was always about ‘Just stop the puck.’ That’s all that mattered.

Now it’s like, ‘Why? What’s the reason for it? What do I need to do in this certain situation? There’s a process for it.’

“It’s little things. I always used to get up (off the ice) with the same leg. For a casual fan, they might not understand that, but for a goalie it makes no sense to get up with the same leg every time. If the puck’s to my left, I should get up with my right leg so I can push.”

The last game he played was on February 18th, 2008. At first it was thought that he had a groin injury, but then the team doctors decided he should have sports hernia surgery.

That 2007-08 season, Jason had played in 46 games, won 17 and lost 23, had a 3.0 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.

                                                                                                                         courtesy of dallasnews.com 

Jason was inconsistent again – earlier this season – playing for his new coach, Brian Murray. 

“It’s been an up-and-down week for Jason LaBarbera,” wrote Rich Hammond on October 27th, ‘who went from getting pulled after two periods (Monday) to turning in a shutout (Friday) to getting pulled in the first period (Saturday). LaBarbera is scheduled to be back in goal tonight when the Kings host the Red Wings. Here’s what he said yesterday about his odd week…

“That’s hockey,” LaBarbera said. “I didn’t think I played that bad (Saturday) night either. It was just one of those games where (the Predators) came out really hard and they got a couple breaks and it was 3-0. I felt good. It was just one of those games where it didn’t work out.”

Including the “saturday” and Detroit games, Jason would give up 13 goals in four contests.  

Erik Ersberg then started the next nine contests and was benched in the ninth – before LaBarbera beat Edmonton 2-1.

Jason was getting some general advice – throughout all of this – from Bill Ransford:

“(Ranford) said I just have to stick with it. There aren’t going to be very many games like that where it just doesn’t go your way. I really didn’t feel like I was bad or anything. It just didn’t work out. In years past, I might have beaten myself up over it, but I went out (Sunday) and I had a great practice, so it doesn’t deter me at all.”

“The thing was, I didn’t feel like I was playing that bad before,” Jason said. “I just wasn’t getting the results. The biggest thing was just keeping my head above water and not getting too down on myself. Now it seems like it’s turning the corner and pucks are bouncing my way.”

Then Jason shut out Columbus 3-0 on December 6th, 2008.

“LaBarbs keeps himself ready,” Terry Murray said. “He’s a hardworking guy. He’s got a lot of pride in his game, and he came out tonight and showed great things … He was a real asset tonight.”

“I don’t think LaBarbs had to re-establish himself,” Murray added. “I just think at the time, Ersberg had moved pretty confidently in the right direction with his game and was getting some wins. It’s a hard thing, playing goal in this league.”

Murray shook his head two weeks later:

“…when [Jason] played against Columbus and won 3-0, I thought he could get himself on a roll and keep it going for a month or two months. He seemed to be calm and collected and under control. Then he came back and played in Colorado and it looked like a different person altogether. I’m hoping that in this game he will be able to show us the same game he gave us against Columbus.”

Vancouver fans have seen Jason LaBarbera seem like “a different person altogether” in consecutive games.

But, he won’t be playing many consecutive games while wearing a ‘nucks uniform – the Captain will be the work horse.

A couple of seasons ago, LaBarbera had told Brian Kamenetzky: 

“For me, I’ve always been a number one goalie, my whole life. I’m used to playing all the time, and it’s a lot easier to get into a rhythm. It makes you feel more comfortable when you’re playing all the time. You don’t have to think as much. When you’re playing once every two weeks or once every month, you have way too much time to think.” 

Two days ago he told Brad Zimmer:

“It’s been different for me. Everywhere I’ve been my whole life I have played. So not playing has been different, but at the same time I have been able to work on things with (goaltending consultant) Ian Clark and improve my game, which I think has helped me a lot. I feel like my movement has got a lot better the last couple of weeks.”

Clark has also been teaching Jason not to think: 

“The key is trying to pace yourself, I think, and not get too excited the first five or 10 minutes of the first period. Just try to stay composed. It’s so easy to get amped up and the whole day you are kind of anxious and uppity, so you have to relax a little bit and pace yourself.”

And get away from playing like two different people.