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Wednesday, December 8, 1999
Essensa has been a big find for the Coyotes
(CP) -- Bob Essensa is loving every minute of an NHL trip he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams."I go from playing golf to this," the veteran goaltender said from Phoenix before Wednesday night's game against the Florida Panthers. "If you'd told me this was going to be the scenario, I'd have said you were crazy."
Essensa, who contemplated hanging up the pads this past summer, was undefeated this season (9-0-1) going into his start Wednesday. And all he was supposed to be was an insurance policy.
Essensa, 34, was told by the Oilers after three seasons in Edmonton that he wasn't in their plans for 1999-2000. Agent Mike Liut should look elsewhere.
"If I never play another game in the NHL or pick up another paycheque, hockey has been way better to me than I ever thought it would be," Essensa said at the time.
Summer dragged on.
"There wasn't a whole lot going on," Essensa recalls. "We had conversations with Phoenix, and with Washington a little bit, but I wasn't sure anything was going to happen."
He had an offer to play in Sweden. He nixed that idea. The phone wasn't ringing. He flew to Edmonton for two weeks of workouts with some other NHLers then returned to his Hilton Head, S.C., home to golf and wait.
"If something hadn't opened up NHL-wise, I'd have given serious thought to calling it quits," he says.
Retirement was coming at him as fast as an Al MacInnis slapshot. But on the first day of the Coyotes' training camp, his life changed when GM Bobby Smith called. Essensa agreed to sign with Phoenix for $400,000 US -- well below the league average -- but beggars can't be choosers.
Smith hadn't been able to work out a new deal with No. 1 goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, a restricted free agent. When the regular season began, Essensa took his place at the end of the bench while last year's backup Mikhail Shtalenkov assumed the starting role.
"I was just happy to have a job," says Essensa. "I didn't really know what was going to transpire.
"Shtalenkov was to play most of the games. I was definitely on the shelf for the beginning of the season, at least, and Nik was always in the picture. Obviously, those negotiations came to a standstill. I certainly didn't expect to be sitting here in mid-December and not have Nik in the dressing room."
Essensa occasionally got a chance to play, and he won every time. Then Smith got a chance to acquire Sean Burke from Florida, and sent Shtalenkov to the Panthers in a trade. Essensa would remain No. 2 in Phoenix.
"Sean got hurt after a couple of games and that was another shock," says Essensa. "He said to me, 'I think I really did something bad with my thumb.' Sure enough, he was out."
Essensa went to the rescue, and posted win after win. He took a .909 save percentage into the game against the Panthers.
"I'd like to tell you it was something I learned over the summer," he says. "But we're just finding ways to win.
"It's not as if I'm standing on my head. We've established ourselves as one of the better defensive teams in the league, and we're getting timely goals from a lot of different guys."
He only has a one-year deal, with the Coyotes holding an option on 2000-2001. If he keeps this up, he'll be back.
"From being nowhere, all of a sudden I could extend my career for a couple of years in a city where it's enjoyable to play," he marvels.
The Coyotes occupy first place in the overall standings in the 28-team league, and Essensa is the goaltender they are relying on to stay there.
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