In 1999, the Phoenix Coyotes were in the midst of a playoff year. And in this feature story from THN's archive, Coyotes goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was put under the spotlight.
In the 1998-99 season, the Phoenix Coyotes were in their third year of operation after relocating from Winnipeg. And one of the reasons why the 'Yotes made the playoffs in their first three seasons was the standout play of goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.
The Russian netminder's performance made him the subject of a feature story in THN's Jan. 1, 1999 edition (Vol. 52, Issue 17). Here's the feature, courtesy of THN's archive and writer Mark Brender:
‘BULIN WALL’ STANDS TALL
By Mark Brender
Now that Nikolai Khabibulin has stopped flipping through other goalies’ stats, his own are better than ever. It’s another piece of that Phoenix Coyotes’ master plan coming together.
“When you don’t know your stats you think less,” Khabibulin said. “I don’t know if it was hurting too much, but it obviously wasn’t helping.”
To hear coach Jim Schoenfeld tell it, Khabibulin’s commitment to sports page abstinence is part of an attitude adjustment he and goalie coach Benoit Allaire asked their acrobatic starter to make before the season.
A proud man, Khabibulin has always wanted to establish his place in the game by playing a great deal and comparing his fortunes to those of his peers. He scoured the newspapers, pored over games notes, knew where he stood compared to every starting goalie who ever strapped a pair of telephone books to his shins.
The more games he played, the better he liked it. He appeared in 70 for the Coyotes last season and 72 the year before that-three more than Dominik Hasek in that span. But when it came time for Khabibulin, 25, to play three games in five nights, or, more importantly, when the playoffs rolled around, his numbers didn’t look so good. In his three seasons as a No. 1, he has never won a playoff series.
Hence the coaching staff s instructions. Focus on quality over quantity. Being a workhorse doesn’t pay off if it pulls up lame at the end of the race.
As Schoenfeld told him: “It’s not the number of games you play, but how well you play in the games that you’re in… Allowing two goals, allowing one goal and then allowing five goals is not what we want.”
The message appears to have gotten through. It’s not just the goaltending tandem of Khabibulin and Jimmy
Waite alone that allowed the Coyotes to jump out to a stunning 17-5-4 start. The defense, led by a deep top five of Teppo Numminen, Keith Carney, Oleg Tverdovsky, Gerald Diduck and Jyrki Lumme is steady and adept at moving the puck out of danger. Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick, among others, have supplied goals and a winning attitude.
But when a team goes 17 straight games without allowing more than two goals as Phoenix did from Oct. 15 through Nov. 28, the one thing you know it’s getting is consistent goaltending. Khabibulin’s save percentage of .930 was seventh in the league and the highest of his career; it was even higher before he was pulled after giving up four goals on 18 shots in a trend-bucking 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Dec. 16.
Remarkably, one of the six goalies with a better save percentage was his partner Waite, the eighth overall pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 1987.
“They don’t put me in goal just to give a rest to Nikky and that’s a good feeling,” said the 29-year-old Waite, who hasn’t given up on being a No. 1 NHL goalie. “They put me out there because they know I can win just as much as he can. It helps my confidence a whole bunch.”
And so another piece of the puzzle falls into place. The Coyotes say only when Waite is healthy and playing well-with a 6-1-2 record, 1.64 goals-against average and .935 save percentage-can they allow Khabibulin (11-4-2, 1.87 GAA,) to take time off to work on technique when he needs it.
Khabibulin is a stubbly-cheeked, laid-back personality who rarely gets upset at anyone but himself, and then only after giving up a terrible goal.
But he has always had his manic side. The stats fascination bordered on obsession. He went through a stage where he drank multiple cups of coffee before games to give him the caffeine rush he felt he needed. Khabibulin could make up for the resulting jumpiness on any given night with remarkable athleticism, but on other nights…
“Sometimes maybe he can be less technical and stop the puck,” Allaire admitted. “I think short term that’s good, but long term you will pay for that.”
Waite played two games in a row in early December while Khabibulin and Allaire worked out some kinks. When ‘The Bulin Wall’ returned, he stole a win by shutting out the Ottawa Senators and earned the Coyotes a hard-fought, perhaps undeserved 2-2 tie against the Montreal Canadiens.
Then came the Toronto stinker. Fortunately, Khabibulin is not dwelling on one evening’s ugly numbers.
“I’ll check,” he said, “at the end of the season.”