Eight months after the Avalanche acquired Jose Theodore from Montreal, this is coming into focus.
He’s good. Yes, Todd Bertuzzi, he is what he is. He’s good.
The problem is, that’s not good enough.
When the trade came down last winter, I raised all the red flags and said that while I was keeping an open mind, I believed it could turn out to be an unmitigated disaster for the Avs.
I’ve come around to the view that Theodore will be no calamity. He might end up a moderately popular figure on the Colorado sports scene, honored with bunches of No. 60 Avalanche jerseys on the backs of fans in the Pepsi Center seats and even No. 60 on the backs of kids playing goal at the North Jeffco Apex Center.
His teammates like him, and at least since his arrival in Colorado, his work ethic has been admirable. His $5.3 million cap number, which will hold through 2007-08, becomes slightly less jarring as time passes, especially if – as expected – the cap goes up next season and he at least plays well enough to remain the No. 1 goalie.
But to be a bona fide threat in the Western Conference, the Avalanche needs him to get to another level – the plane of superstardom they believed he once was on.
Theodore is capable of being larcenous some nights, as he was in the Avalanche’s 3-2 victory over the Canucks on Saturday. He made 36 saves and, for the second time this season, outplayed Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo, who the last few seasons has been portrayed as the only reason his previous team, the Florida Panthers, didn’t go 0-82-0.
That’s funny in a way, because that – picking out a beleaguered goaltender as being far better than the team around him – used to be the fashionable attitude about Theodore during his run of glory at Montreal. Theodore was the darling among the hockey cognoscenti then, when he lifted a bad Canadiens team into the playoffs in 2002 – and it was enough to win Theodore the NHL’s Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP.
But then, and to a point for good reason because of his shaky play last season, it became fashionable to tear down Theodore, including when his family and private life were brought into the tabloid headlines. It’s the North American way: Once you make People magazine and become famous for being a celebrity as much as for actual accomplishments, you’re subject to backlash.
Those issues were pertinent only here because they illustrated the scrutinization he faced at Montreal, and the Avalanche hoped a fresh start – in a city where he could go watch a football game in a restaurant without being recognized or bothered – would rejuvenate him.
To a point, I think it all has. And that’s the scary part, because it raises the question: Is this all there is?
What the Avalanche has is a 30-year-old goaltender who probably will stay in Joel Quenneville’s good graces enough to play 55 games. He can steal a few wins, be great some nights, but also let in awful goals often enough, and be shaky enough to diminish that reservoir of confidence among his teammates. His numbers so far this season, a bit skewed because he was left on an island in his return to Montreal and gave up eight goals, are pedestrian – a 3.12 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage.
When you have a “good” goal- tender, your general manager is supposed to be keeping his ears open for alternatives, whether that’s Martin Brodeur deciding he’s had enough of New Jersey and needs a change of scenery; or it’s some other scenario that seems unimaginable until it happens – as when Patrick Roy said, “I have just played my last game for Montreal.”
You’re looking for the goalie who on the nights his teammates are awful, gives them a chance to win. Theodore perhaps did that Saturday against Vancouver, keeping the game from getting out of hand in the first period. But it’s got to happen more often. When Roy stunk, he was steamed and angry, even if it involved some denial and transference of blame, and he channeled it into a rebounding game his next turn in the crease. And his teammates played as if they both had exceeding faith in him, and almost a fear of ticking him off. That’s because Roy undeniably was great.
A “good” goalie? That’s like having David Aebischer, and the Avalanche didn’t think he was good enough.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
