Huet, Aebischer, Gerber share Swiss connection

RALEIGH -- When you look at the most important individual matchups in a National Hockey League playoff series, you don't expect the common thread to be Switzerland.

The Swiss League is not exactly a hockey hotbed, and its graduates who have made it to the NHL are few and far between.

In fact, it's much more common for a player to make a stop in Switzerland on his way down the hockey ladder, rather than on his way up.

But when the Carolina Hurricanes kick off their playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens tonight, they'll have Switzerland's Martin Gerber in net.

Canadian fans remember him as the guy who stopped 49 shots (well, 48 actually, but the video officials gave him one) in Switzerland's 2-0 defeat of Canada in the recent Olympics.


Down at the other end, in the Montreal goal, will be Cristobal Huet, a native of France but twice named goaltender of the year in the Swiss League.

Should Huet run into difficulties, he'll be replaced by David Aebischer, the first Swiss goalie to crack the NHL and a good friend of Gerber.

"For David and me, it must be 11 years that we have trained together in the summer," Gerber said. "Every summer we met in Switzerland and trained with Francois Allaire. We're going to do it again this summer.

"We've been playing against each other since junior."

The fourth goalie in the equation is Cam Ward. He's a good old Canadian boy from Sherwood Park, which is just on the fringes of Edmonton.

But Ward isn't likely to see a lot of action in this series, whereas a number of hockey people feel that the Canadiens will have to turn to Aebischer before it's all over.

Huet loves to drop to his knees at the first hint of a shot and already, the word in the Carolina room is that every shot must go high. If the puck goes over the net, so what? If it goes low, it's not going to get past Huet anyway, so it might as well go high.

But then again, don't rule out a modification of Huet's style. The Montreal goalie coach, Roland Melanson, already has done a lot to help Huet become more effective.

If you look at the way Huet prepares to face a shot today and the way he did so when he first joined the Canadiens, you'll see two significant differences.

First, he is more upright. He had a natural crouch, but Melanson encouraged him to take the curve out of his spine. As a result, he not only appears larger to the shooter, he covers more of the net.

Also, Huet used to keep his catching hand down by his hip. Now, he bends the elbow and keeps it around his waist. He doesn't have to move it as far to catch a high shot, and again, it makes him appear larger.

Aebischer is not as forthcoming, but he does concede that Melanson has helped him "with a lot of little things."

He's certainly more under control. In Colorado, he had a tendency to come charging out of his net toward the shooter. Granted, that cuts down the angle, but sometimes a quick pass would catch him well out of position.

Gerber says he doesn't care whether he faces his buddy. "I don't think about the Canadiens goalies," he said. "In any case, there are two very good goalies in Montreal. It's Huet who has carried the team for the main part of the season."

With these three goalies knowing each other so well, it would seem likely that they'll be able to deliver excellent scouting reports on each other, and the shooters on both teams will have a good idea of their weaknesses.

Aebischer admitted that he'd have to spill the beans on his friend, but added, "There are a couple of things you can say about his tendencies, but you still have to put the puck in the net."


QUELLE: TORONTO SUN, 22. April 2006