THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230508
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH LENGTH: 140 lines
Superman never looked so scrawny.
Patrick Lalime may have plenty of things going for him these days as a rookie sensation for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but a body sturdy enough to withstand a decent breeze doesn't appear to be one of them.
Underneath all that goaltender's equipment, Lalime, two years ago a Hampton Roads Admiral, today an NHL prodigy, owns a rib cage that screams out for mashed potatoes and extra-rich gravy.
He is 6-foot-2 and whippet thin at about 170 pounds, give or take a sweaty night in the net. But with his scruffy whiskers, matted black curls and that little nagging cough, you almost want to throw a blanket over him and order him to bed.
When you think about it, though, greyhounds are a little like that, painfully lean natural athletes who can run all day. Change the pedigree from greyhound to goalie and you have Lalime, who has bolted from the pack with blinding speed and evidently has never met a puck he couldn't stop.
``He is truly having fun,'' says his friend Katherine ``Petey'' Reynolds of Virginia Beach. ``This is where Patrick is supposed to be, and he's doing what he's supposed to be doing.''
What you need to know about Lalime is that his name rhymes with dream, which begins with D, which stands for defense, which is what the last six weeks in this man's life have been all about.
They have been six weeks of impeccable, almost perfect, goalkeeping that have turned a quiet 22-year-old well driller's son from the Quebec village of St. Bonaventure (pop. 1,140) into a raging feel-good story, overflowing with fairy dust.
Since Dec. 6, Lalime has played in 16 NHL games in which he was the goalie of record. The Penguins have won 14 of them (three by shutout), tied two and lost none.
In that time, Lalime has set a league post-expansion record for an unbeaten streak at the start of a career - he passed the 14-game streaks of Ken Dryden and Ross Brooks on Jan. 15 - and been named the NHL's rookie of the month for December and its latest player of the week.
The signs in St. Bonaventure keep going up - ``Congratulations, Patrick'' - and the records keep falling. Tuesday, Lalime set two Penguins marks: most saves in a home game, 49, in a 4-2 decision over Calgary; and the longest unbeaten streak by a goalie.
Tuesday's victory, which star Mario Lemieux left with back spasms in the first period, improved Pittsburgh's record to 26-15-5; it was 17-15-4 when Lalime, who started the season with Cleveland of the International Hockey League, supplanted injured veteran Ken Wregget the day after Christmas.
Tonight, though, could be Lalime's grandest turn yet - a meeting with the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, which not only has the NHL's best record (28-11-8) but also features Lalime's idol, goaltender Patrick Roy.
``I'll try to meet him after the game, just say hi, maybe,'' says Lalime, whose 1.82 goals-against average is better than Roy's 2.25 and leads the league. ``He's the Man.''
And Lalime is, what, the savior? Maybe it's not that dramatic, but there's no question Lalime has represented a salvation of sorts in Pittsburgh. He stepped in when injuries floored Tom Barrasso, then Wregget, having never logged a second of NHL ice time, and has been a key in the Penguins' recovery from a 6-13-1 start.
Nobody, of course, could have anticipated it. Even if you looked ahead at the modest field Lalime would break in against - he has faced only three opponents with winning records - who could have guessed Lalime would turn nearly every Pens game into St. Patrick's day?
He had talent, but Lalime, a sixth-round draft choice in 1993, never put up mind-bending numbers in the minors. Actually, his best success came as a first-year pro with the Admirals, when he was 15-7-3 with a 3.35 goals-against average before going to Cleveland.
Yet Penguins general manager Craig Patrick claims he wasn't mainlining Maalox when coach Ed Johnston was forced to entrust the crease to Lalime.
``We weren't worried about it,'' Patrick says. ``We knew he would do a decent job, but not like this.''
When Lalime took over, Patrick says the Penguins in general tightened the ship, as they would for any rookie: ``We became much more attentive to defensive responsibilities.''
In no time, though, the Penguins, fueled by the newly formed line of Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis, reverted to a shoot-first, backcheck-later style that has produced 4.4 goals per game during Lalime's streak.
``It didn't take long for us to have trust in him, let me tell you that,'' defenseman Kevin Hatcher says. ``He's handled all the pressure in the world.
``He's reading about breaking Ken Dryden's record every day in the paper; I think we'd all agree about the amount of pressure that would have on somebody. But he's answered the bell.''
That's an appropriate analogy, because Lalime says he's at his best when he is like a dog in a laboratory, that is, reacting instead of analyzing. Lalime will tell you he's never stopped a puck with his brain. Rather, it is his quirky ``butterfly'' style, common to Quebec goalies such as Roy, and instincts that have paved his path.
``The more you don't think, the better it is,'' Lalime says. ``When you're in there for three hours, it's easy to start talking to yourself. But every time I think, I stop and focus on the puck, you know. I know I can do it, why start complicating things?''
Good question. As far as Lalime is concerned, the mantra in Pittsburgh is don't confuse, don't muddle, don't change a thing, perhaps even after Wregget returns in a week from his hamstring problem presumably looking for his starting spot back.
``It'll be a hard decision in view of how the other guy's performed,'' Johnston says of Lalime.
Early on, Lalime was just some other hockey-nut kid in St. Bonaventure before he tried on the goalie pads, so comically oversized at first that a referee had to pick him up every time Lalime went to the ice to make a save.
His village had never turned out an NHL player, but Lalime rose with a flair and a self-confidence that indicated he could be the first.
That faith in himself, in fact, led to his arrival in Norfolk. When contract negotiations went nowhere after Pittsburgh drafted him, Lalime acted on his agent's advice and had the temerity to walk out of Cleveland's camp rather than sign what was considered an unsatisfactory deal.
He hooked up with Hampton Roads instead and went to live in Kempsville with Reynolds, who offers Admirals players a place to stay during the season.
``Patrick just exuded self-assurance,'' Reynolds says. ``He was very mature, very stable already. He had his head on straight. And he's still one of the nicest kids that you'll ever run across.''
And, as it turns out, one of the biggest bargains going. Lalime is pulling down all of $190,000 this season, no savior's ransom, but enough to buy his parents a satellite dish. The better to invite all of their ``new friends,'' as Lalime calls them, over to watch the games in St. Bonaventure.
It seems Lalime's got a bunch of new buddies now, too, autograph buffs, talk-show hosts and people with microphones and tape recorders, all eager for a piece of hockey's next big thing. And the refreshing part is, Lalime has welcomed everyone onto his bandwagon so far.
``The day to day grind hasn't affected him yet,'' says Admirals general manager Al MacIsaac, ``because he's riding on a cloud.''
That's Lalime. Weightless, but wonderful. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Only 16 games into his career, Patrick Lalime already holds the
Penguins' record for an unbeaten streak.
Color AP file photos
Color photo
[No cutline]
Patrick Lalimes's 49 saves against Calgary on Tuesday night were the
most ever for a Penguins goalie in a home game.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE