Goalie drama rearing its ugly head

Just a week into the Stanley Cup playoffs, we've got goalie drama on the Chicago Blackhawks and the Ottawa Senators -- and more to come, to be sure.

Goalie decisions are always dicey, but at this time of year, when athletes' sensitivities are even more acute, it's a tough thing to manage.

It's certainly nothing new, though.

It was the morning of Game 4 at Buffalo in the 2006 Eastern Conference finals and Cam Ward was none too pleased.

Head coach Peter Laviolette had just informed him that he was out, after making 12 straight playoff starts, and Martin Gerber was back in net for that night's game.

"The competitive spirit comes out, and you're disappointed with the decision," Ward saidto ESPN.com.

"I remember walking from the morning skate after I found out, I walked from the arena back to the hotel, just to cool off,"said Ward. "That's just the competitive spirit. I'm sure these other guys now want to be in there and playing. At the same time, you have to support your partner in net because at the end of the day it's about winning. And you're being a good teammate. Just know that when you get the opportunity again, you don't want to let go of it. You want to take advantage of it."

Former Detroit Red Wings netminder Chris Osgood, he of the 401 career regular-season wins, has felt both ends of a coach's decision.

"I would say the time I was mad was when Mike Vernon played ahead of me in '97. We ended up winning the Cup, so I got over it fast," Osgood told ESPN.com. "But I had had a good year, and I played lots. I thought I would be playing. Scotty Bowman went with a more experienced guy."

The skate was on the other foot in the spring of 2008, when Osgood replaced Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek in the Red Wings net five games into the playoffs and never looked back while leading Detroit to another Cup.

Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock chose Hasek over Osgood to start the playoffs, but switched over to Osgood for Game 5 versus the Nashville Predators, and that was it from then on.

"We both played pretty close the same amount of games in the regular season, but Dom being a future Hall of Famer, I pretty much knew he would probably start in the playoffs," said Osgood. "But I remember approaching it thinking I was going to be ready. I remember doing extra work with [goalie coach] Jimmy Bedard, before and after practice, and stayed ready.

"When Mike told me Dom was starting, I just told him I was ready if he needed me. I didn't want to be sitting on the bench and being worried that I wouldn't be ready. I was over-ready. When my name was called, it would be natural, just go in and play. And that's what happened."

Hasek took it like a pro, which surprised some at the time, but not Osgood.

"Dom was awesome the whole time," said Osgood. "We were both older guys and it probably helped we had both won [a Cup] already. That had a lot to do with it, too."

Andrew Hammond has been nothing but a pro since being pulled in favor of Craig Anderson in Ottawa.

Obviously, the Hamburglar would rather still be in net, but he has to channel that properly.

"I mean, it's a little bit of a poker face," Hammond said Tuesday after practice. "You can't let on to your teammates that you're disappointed or anything like that, because you don't want to take away from anything that they're doing. I'm still 110 percent in on us winning every game, whatever I can do to help the team do, that I'm all for. It's a natural part of being a goaltender is that you want to be there to make that big save. Part of that is playing. But you can only really control what you can. For me, that's my approach and how I am with the team. That's all I can do at this point."

If it makes Hammond feel any better, not only was a Hall of Famer like Hasek replaced in net during the playoffs, but Patrick Roy was too.

It was the spring of 1987, Roy was coming off a sensational playoffs the year before in which he led the Montreal Canadiens to a surprise Stanley Cup championship.

But the sophomore blues opened the door for veteran goalie Brian Hayward to play in 13 playoff games for Montreal in the spring of 1987, compared to six for the more celebrated Roy. A lot of people forget that.

"Certainly we were at different stages of our careers, Patrick was still a young kid. Hehad won the Conn Smythe the year before but he was still pretty raw at that stage," Haywardsaid to ESPN.com this week. "There were probably still some flaws in his game, technically and mentally, that weren't there later on. That probably made him more vulnerable to having some lapses.

"For me, I was probably in the wheelhouse of my career," said Hayward, for years now a color analyst on the Anaheim Ducks' telecasts. "Whatever my career was, that was probably my peak. When I got to Montreal, I always felt like Avis: 'We Try Harder.' I was that guy. I had to fight and scratch and claw. So, to have the opportunity to play in the playoffs, I knew there would be one shot or maybe a second shot to go in and win. But that was it. I had to win. Nothing else mattered. We had a very good team back then, a team that was coming off a Cup and had a shot at winning another one."

Montreal played rival Quebec in the second round, Roy in net as the Habs lost both games at home to open the series.

"That's when I went in for that series," recalled Hayward, who led the Habs over the Nordiques.

In the conference finals, both Hayward and Roy saw time.

"In the Flyers series, they moved back to Patrick for one game, I think when it was 2-1 in the series for them and Patrick played the next game," said Hayward. "Then they pulled him and I went back in and played the rest of the series. We lost in six games."

Hayward said the numerous goalie switches in that playoff year weren't as tough as people think.

"I mean, you want to play every game but I always felt it was a different relationship there because Pat had won the Cup the year before," he said. "I didn't completely expect to stay in unless I won. I had to win, it wasn't good enough just to be good. For me that wasn't tough. That role was laid out in front of me that I was the veteran guy being brought in to mentor this incredible young talent."

Ward was that young talent back in the 2006 playoffs, trying to unseat the veteran Gerber. And he would once and for all, starting Game 5 in the conference finals against Buffalo and the rest of the way in winning the Conn Smythe Trophy and a Stanley Cup.

"It's a mentality, right? It's a mentality for the goaltender to take the opportunity and run with it," said Ward.

Does that mean Corey Crawford never sees the net again from Scott Darling for the Chicago Blackhawks? Probably not.

"Honestly, I think the coaches' position on goaltending is changing," said Osgood. "It was always one guy no matter what. But I think one of the reasons it might be changing is that the first round is like the final round now, there's no gimme rounds, no easy series, no cakewalks. They're all physical and they're all tough. It's harder for a goalie to play all the games. Jonathan Quick did for 26 games last year, which is incredible.

"The old belief that you can only win with one goalie, I think that's going away now," continued Osgood. "Because Crawford isn't playing right now, does that mean Chicago doesn't like him? Not at all, he's won them a Cup. He just doesn't have his game right now. That's all that is. It's good for him and good for the team that Darling has his game and is playing well. Chicago goes farther, Crawford might get back in there."