Martin Biron, one of the top ten talkers who ever laced on skates, retired today. I covered his first NHL game when he was an 18-year-old emergency call-up. Buffalo vs Pitt. Unusual in that he started the game, watched the second period and went back in net in the third. As the story I wrote shows, he was a helluva talker even back then. Rookie goalie survives to tell the tale of NHL debut Gare Joyce 28 December 1995 The Globe and Mail BUFFALO MARTIN Biron might go on to a long and glorious career in the National Hockey League. This would be the forecast for any player who was selected 16th over all in the NHLs entry draft, as was Biron by Buffalo last summer. But in his pro debut Tuesday night, the 18-year-old Biron faced the Pittsburgh Penguins, a star-studded lot of high fliers, in their home rink. And if you dont know or couldnt guess, the poor lad is a goaltender. At 6-foot-1 and 155 pounds (a good portion of it situated in his Adams apple) Biron doesnt look like the latest phenom out of the goaltending school of net guru Francois Allaire, mentor to Patrick Roy. Biron looks more the product of the brush of Norman Rockwell. The ancient Greeks had a word for potential tragedy of this sort: Gulp. In starting Biron in the Steel City game, Sabres coach Ted Nolan could have been accused of abusing a near-minor. Nolan pointed to extenuating circumstances. Dominik Hasek, the best goalie in the biz, is down until tomorrow at the earliest. Capable backup Andrei Trefilov is out for four weeks after injuring a knee in Ottawa last Saturday. Steve Shields, heretofore a backup in the American Hockey League, was pressed into emergency service. We had to play Martin, Nolan said yesterday. We didnt have a choice. In a way, that should (have taken) some of the heat off the kid. Were not asking him to lead us to the promised land. Even if the Sabres did their best to reduce the pressure on the stop- gap puck-stopper, Nolan did not, he stressed, take the decision lightly. Getting thrown in like that could hurt the confidence of a kid (if he played poorly), Nolan said. But Martin seems to me like a confident, cocky kid that wouldnt be affected one way or the other. During training camp, he played well, but when he let in a bad goal, he said, My fault, Ill get it next time. Thats the right attitude for any goalie. I thought training camp was going to be my only experience this year with Buffalo, Biron said. Im called up on the 24th and after the practice on the 26th they tell me Im playing that night. I didnt really have a lot of time to get nervous. Things happened very fast. A few days ago, I was the goaltender with the Beauport Harfangs. Two minutes into the game against the Penguins, Biron realized that he wasnt in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with Beauport any more. And if things were happening fast before, they were cranked up considerably with Lemieux, Jagr and company on the ice. Petr Nedved scored a couple of minutes into the game and the Pens scored three more during the first period. Though Biron will need seasoning to fulfill his promise, a 16-shot peppering was not what he or Nolan had in mind. After the first period, the coach told me that I was going to sit and watch for the second period, Biron said. He wanted me to see what the Penguins were doing. He told me that it would be good experience for the next game. After the intermission, Shields went in and stopped 15 of 17. Then, down 6-1 going into the final frame, Nolan went back to the kid from Lac- Saint-Charles, Que. Stuff like that indicates that Nolan, in his first season as head taskmaster in the NHL, may not be just a good coach but a special one. Though they would end up losing 6-3, the Sabres held the Penguins to eight third-period shots and Biron knocked them all back. I like how he responded to the challenge in the third period, Nolan said. Indeed, the coach liked it so much that he picked Biron to start last nights game against Ottawa in Buffalo. After the game he said, Mario (Lemieux) never beat me. You know, 18-year-old stuff. In Buffalos 4-3 loss to the usually inept Senators last night Biron looked alternately competent and wobbly, more 18-year-old stuff. The Sabres lost centre and resident scorer Pat LaFontaine to a mild concussion on a hit by Ottawa blueliner Lance Pitlick 10 minutes in. Thereafter the teams engaged in something of a garbage-goal shootout. Biron looked lost on the first Sens goal, Martin Strakas dinky one-banker from behind the net off the skate of defenceman Alexei Zhitnik. And Biron should have had Ottawas second goal too, a 50-foot slapshot by Rob Gaudreau, whos hardly a sniper. Though the kid didnt have much of a chance on Ted Drurys power-play winner with two minutes to go, its easy to imagine Hasek making the save. When Hasek rejoins the wars, Biron will be off to Beauport, playing with the Harfangs and studying postsecondary sciences at his CEGEP. Everything happened fast, Biron said. I was the backup goaltender at the start of last season with Beauport. I got a chance to play and we won 12 games in a row and I won the starting job. Then the draft, first round, second goaltender to go. The first taste of adversity wasnt the Pittsburgh troupe but rather the selectors of the Canadian team for the world junior tournament. Biron was among the last slashed. It was my goal to make the team, he said. But I didnt play very well at the winter camp, so Im disappointed, not angry. Still, playing with Buffalo during the Christmas holidays is a great experience. When Biron gets back to his CEGEP, his classmates inevitably will ask him, What did you do on your vacation? One suspects that unimpressionable youth will respond with the standard: Nothing much. Or perhaps: I stoned Mario.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 21:08:02 +0000
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