Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
When goalie Anders Lindback was traded to Buffalo for Sabres netminder Jhonas Enroth on February 11th, it was a somewhat curious trade for Buffalo. Not that they weren't intent upon getting a return for the soon to be unrestricted Enroth, but the return of Lindback was a bit of a head-scratcher.
From the Stars perspective, they were just three points out of a wild card spot at the time without any help from Lindback so an upgrade at the No. 2 spot was a necessity. As Kari Lehtonen's back-up the 26 yr. old Lindback was sporting a 2-8-0 record with a bloated 3.71 gaa and an AHL-worthy .873 sv%. Of note, both of Lindback's wins came in relief of Lehtonen.
Enroth was dealt a tough hand as the Sabres No. 1 goalie this season. Coming out of camp he got the nod as a starter over Michal Neuvirth, proceeded to get shelled, firmed up his game then capitulated under the relentless pressure of being a sitting duck in a shooting gallery. Yet, as the Sabres plummeted to a 16-36-3 record with a league low of 103 goals-for, Enroth was able to maintain a sense of dignity. He left Buffalo with a 13-21-3 record, a 3.27 gaa, a .903 sv.% and was a perfect 5-0 in the shootout allowing one goal on 21 attempts.
Dallas had been looking for a back-up to Lehtonen for a few years and with former Sabres coach Lindy Ruff behind the bench, GM Jim Nill was ready to make the switch from Lindback to Enroth, who'd been Ryan Miller's backup for his entire NHL career. The trade, for posterity's sake, was Lindback to Buffalo for Enroth and a conditional 2016 3rd round pick (should Enroth start and win four games for Dallas in the playoffs, the pick becomes a 2nd.)
Just over a month after the trade, the Stars find themselves worse off as they're now six points back of the final playoff berth with only 13 games to play. Enroth has yet to fully acclimate himself to his surroundings and is sporting a 1-5 record with a 3.35 gaa and a Lindback-like .873 sv%.
So it goes.
Lindback, on the other hand, seems to have found his game in Buffalo. The former 7th round pick (207th, 2008) of Nashville with a 6'6" frame and once thought of as having Pekka Rinne potential has a 2.68 gaa and a .925 sv% in the five games he's played for Buffalo. Unfortunately, thanks to an offense that has produced a total of five goals in with him between the pipes, he's 0-3-1 as a starter with a no-decision in relief of Matt Hackett.
This is not to say that Lindback is ready to live up to his billing as a Rinne-type goalie with All-star potential. But it does raise the question of why he's doing so well.
Lack of pressure may be one reason for it as he went from a team in Dallas that is expecting to make the playoffs to a Buffalo team that was for all intents and purposes out of the playoff race by the end of the 2014 calendar year. Regardless of that, his turnaround has been remarkable.
Neuvirth was a 2006 2nd round pick (34th overall) of the Washington Capitals. At one point in his Caps career he found himself in a three-horse race for the top spot with Semyon Varlamov and Brayden Holtby. It was 2011 and the goalie coach at the time was present Sabres goalie coach, Arturs Irbe. Neuvirth won the job and took Washington to the second round of the playoffs.
Washington was Irbe's first coaching job in the NHL. At the end of the season, Katie Carrera, who covers the Caps for the Washington Post, talked about Irbe's contributions to the goalies. She credited Irbe with "helping the organization’s trio of young goaltenders make the transition to the NHL. This past year," she wrote at the time, "the Capitals became the first team in league history with three goaltenders age 22 or younger with 10 or more wins in a season, with Irbe credited for the development of all three players."
Irbe and the Capitals soon parted ways and "Archie" as he was once known, headed back to his homeland of Latvia soon coming in contact with one, Ted Nolan.
Nolan had found himself in Latvia after two stints as head coach in the NHL. He met up with Irbe for the 2013 World Championships with the Latvian National team. Irbe and the Latvian National Team would part ways briefly before Nolan summoned him back for the 2014 Olympics.
Ted "the Master of the Underdogs" Nolan and Arturs "Like Wall" Irbe would hook up and do something for hockey in Latvia that had never been done before. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the Latvian team made it to the quarterfinals for the first time ever. And they almost pulled off an upset of epic proportions taking a star-studded Canadian team to the limit in a 2-1 loss.
The star of the Latvian/Canadian Olympic tilt was goalie Kristers Gudļevskis, a 5th round pick of Tampa Bay Lightning. He stopped 55 shots in a very tight game that was tied 1-1 until late in the third period.
Erik Erlendsson covers the Bolts for the Tampa Tribune. While writing about Gudlevskis last year he noted that, "Nolan credited Irbe for discovering (and working with) Gudlevskis, who was serving as the backup for a Junior B team in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League but rarely played."
"I’ve seen him do miracles with (Gudlevskis),” Nolan said of Irbe's work. “I mean, this kid came from junior-B level of hockey. I think he had about 10 minutes of pro hockey experience going into the Olympics and facing the shooters we did there. I thought he was tremendous. I just watched the progression of Kristers from a month that we had to work with him was incredible.”
When Nolan was recruiting his coaching staff for the 2014-15 season, he picked Irbe to replace long-time Sabres goalie coach Jim Corsi, who's now in Dallas with Ruff.
Irbe inherited Enroth and Neuvirth and proceeded to do what he could to stabilize the crease as this edition of the Sabres would hit the ice with one of the youngest teams in the league. The 2014-15 Sabres featured a defensive mix with some 3rd-pairing d-men amongst a host of youngins and an offense that was poor in puck possession, worse at finishing. Yet somehow they managed to surprise at times.
On traded deadline day, the Sabres traded Neuvirth to the NY Islanders for goalie Chad Johnson, who was backing up Jaroslav Halak at the time. Neuvirth has a 1-1-1 record on Long Island with a respectable 2.57gaa but a very pedestrian .889 sv%. It may be safe to say they he's still adjusting to life away from the Sabres as well.
Irbe's been coaching since 2008 with stints in the KHL, NHL and the Latvian National Team, but the brevity with which he's held each position leaves question marks as to his effectiveness short-term and long-term. And with the Sabres heading towards a bottom finish again this season, coaching changes are quite possible meaning that we'd conceivably only have one season worth of work from Irbe. But from the looks of it right now, Irbe seems to be pretty good at what he does.
“He’s doing a tremendous job with all the goaltenders this year,” said Nolan. “I thought Lindback is no different. You can see the progression of him getting better and better and better and his confidence really coming. Between Lindback’s work ethic and Arturs’ teaching, I think he’s doing a tremendous job.”
It would seem as if Irbe's been able to work a little magic with the goalies he's been given thus far. For that he should be commended and retained regardless of what happens.
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