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Thursday, December 23, 1999
No hard feelings
Freddie's ready for old team
Freddie Brathwaite has a pretty good idea how people up north remember him.
"We had one game, the last game, to make the playoffs (against Toronto, in '96) and we lost," he was reminiscing yesterday. "It wasn't one of my, shall we say, better nights.
"So the feeling was 'Freddie can't step up to bat when it counts.' That's how they remember me in Edmonton."
And that's not how Brian Sutter wants Fred Brathwaite's epitaph to read when his Cowtown days are done.
While an entire city chants "Fred-DEE! Fred-DEE!" in delirious celebration, while the little fella takes his almost-nightly spin as the game's first star, while the Flames continue to piece together points and astound the pundits by putting themselves squarely back in the playoff hunt, the coach has remained oddly unaffected by Freddie Fever.
Brathwaite's statistics are nothing short of glittering: a 2.06 goals-against-average, a .928 save percentage and a winning record.
"Freddie's been pretty phenomenal," someone said in the course of casual conversation recently.
Sutter blinked. "I wouldn't say phenomenal ... ," he retorted.
It's all been fairly mystifying. Sutter, in fact, has almost gone out of his way to deflect praise from the man most responsible for this surge up the standings. He's left the pom-pom pushing, the mushy-gushy quotes, to others.
"I don't care," says Brathwaite, shrugging, when asked about the lack of coaching kudos. "As long as he lets me play the next night."
But mightn't there be a method to the madness? Sutter wants -- no, needs -- Brathwaite to maintain his edge, especially now that Grant Fuhr has been shelved by arthroscopic knee surgery, and despite this almost-unprecedented outpouring of public support.
Brathwaite, it must be said, has never had to lug an entire team around for six months. It's quite a burden. And there's a very fine line between maintaining your balance and buckling, caving in under the weight.
"People that get comfortable get complacent, lackadaisical," Sutter was saying yesterday, on the eve of a critical clash against the Oilers, Brathwaite's old team.
"Early in the year, it wasn't there for him. He can't forget that. He's got to keep pushing himself. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. You've got to be consistent. You've got to want to be the best, like the Larry Birds and Michael Jordans and Wayne Gretzkys."
In other words, it's a mindset. A drive. A self-belief. Sutter clearly doesn't think Brathwaite's reached that peak yet, but wants to push the right buttons to get see him to plant his flag atop the summit.
Another big Freddie performance could push Calgary to within two points of the Oilers in the Northwest Division standings, and depending how Colorado fares in Buffalo, to within three of the front-running Avalanche.
And, no, the Calgary goalie doesn't see this test as any sort of opportunity at personal redemption.
"I've got no problems with the Oilers," says Brathwaite, who played in 40 games for the big oil drop before being cut loose. "Slats gave me the chance to play straight out of junior when no other team would even give me a tryout. And while I was there, so were Bill Ranford and Curtis Joseph.
"It didn't end badly there. It just kind of ... ended.
"To me, this is just another game we have to get points in. No different than Dallas or Long Island."
That said, he couldn't be happier than where he is right now.
"It's like any other athlete, like a pitcher in baseball ... the more you play, the better you are.
"I'm more confident than I was in Edmonton. If you only play every two or three weeks, you're nervous when you do get in there. If you make a mistake, you wonder if you'll ever play again. When I went to Manitoba in the IHL, I played 52 games, more than I had in three years in Edmonton.
"Here, I know I'll get to play, even if I have an off night. Maybe not the next game, but I'll get another chance. So you can get in a rhythm. You get comfortable."
Comfortable?
Comfortable! Geez, Freddie, whatever you do, don't use that word around the coaches' office.
"Is Freddie playing good?" asks Sutter, breaking tradition for just a moment. "Darn right he is. I'm not downplaying anything he's doing. But we want Freddie to expect that out of himself every night."
Including, and especially, this night.
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