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Tuesday, September 28, 1999
Fuhr's right man for the job
Grant, you see, has a lot of heavy lifting in front of him. And not just the sofa/loveseat and bed frame into his new Calgary digs, either.
Lugging an entire franchise around on your back is more than enough to send a fella to the chiropractor trussed up in traction. For that sort of job, awfully broad shoulders are required.
"Saviour?" Fuhr, man of few words, frowned. "Saviour is a pretty big word."
Just seven tiny letters. But, yes, such an awesome amount of responsibility. Yet that's what the locals brought the 37-year-old here to do, paid the better part of $3 million for, are banking oh so much on.
Twenty-six of the Flames 40 losses last season were by two goals or less. The thinking is that Fuhr, who'll one day sail into the Hall of Fame on his ability to make the crucial save at the pivotal moment, can spin more than enough of those games back Calgary's way to make the difference.
They needed the name to win back the fans; the goalie to win back the games. It was a bold move. And a necessary one.
"With Grant," says coach Brian Sutter, who is especially demanding of goalies, "you know what you're going to get every night."'
Fuhr's pre-season numbers -- 0-3, 3.42 GAA and 87.1 save percentage in two full games and a partial -- certainly won't send the writers on the dead run to their thesauruses to ferret out new adjectives of praise. But then again, no one should expect Kentucky Derby winners to get wired up for $10,000 stakes races.
They need the crowd, they need the urgency, they need the importance, they need the moment.
The moment for this team, this franchise, is at hand.
"It's been long enough,"' snorts Fuhr. "Now it's time to get down to business."
That'd be the business of winning and putting warm bodies back into the seats.
"It's a lot of fun being on such a young team," says Fuhr, "for an old guy like me. There's an awful lot of talent here. This is going to be a good team for a long time."
It may be just a line, of course, the usual rhetoric for a goalie who understands he's going to be a puck punching bag but doesn't want to rat on the boys, either. Regardless, "a long time" doesn't cut it here. Right now is of paramount importance. A year ago, the Flames finished 22nd in goaltending, with a 2.93 GAA and .895 save percentage among the six men who divvied up the chores.
It wasn't good enough.
"With a guy like Grant, you just know," said Oiler coach, and longtime teammate, Kevin Lowe. "Just his presence inspires confidence. Last year with Bobby (Essensa), he played well for us, you thought he could do a great job, you hoped he could do a great job ....
"But, as I said with a guy like Grant, you just know."
Yes, we know. We know that he doesn't get rattled, by a bad goal or a poor play in front of him. We know that more than any goaltender of his generation, he's been able to focus on the moment, produce the game-saving stop, write the happy ending.
We know he'll carry a team's future, and a city's hopes, on his shoulders into battle. 'Saviour' may indeed be a big word, but this guy is a big-time goalie.
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