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Today's story is a feature on one of the Hurricanes' first stars, Keith Primeau.
It’s three hours until game time and Keith Primeau is already well into his routine.
Sticks groomed to perfection? Check. Skates sharpened? Check. Stretching completed? Check. Minor injuries and ailments attended to by the medical staff? Check.
By all appearances, Primeau is loosey-goosey as he wanders the hallway of the Melson Centre. On the inside, who knows? Primeau’s inner fires bum white hot.
He has been accused by teammates of putting his ’game face’ on way too early. There’s nothing wrong with being intense and wanting desperately to win, but Primeau can be downright creepy to be around. Because his role with the Carolina Hurricanes is so huge. it’s important for those around him to feel he’s in control. Visibly, at least on this Saturday morning, he seems to be at peace.
“Keith Primeau?” says Hurricanes’ defenseman Paul Coffey, speaking loudly enough for the subject of the conversation to overhear. “I guess he has played OK this year.”
A-OK is more like it.
The leading candidates for the Hart Trophy at the midway point of the season were the usual suspects-Dominik Hasek, Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr and Paul Kariya. Primeau isn’t in that group, but he is within a couple strides of the pack.
The ’Canes are making sweet music this season and Primeau is the maestro. Only the Florida
Panthers, enjoying a revival since Pavel Bure arrived, stand between the Hurricanes and a likely No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs as winners of the Southeast Division.
Of Primeau’s 23 goals (to go with 20 assists) in 50 games, nine came on the power play, one was scored while the Hurricanes were shorthanded and four were game-winners. Playing on a line with left winger Robert Kron and veteran right winger Ray Sheppard, Primeau was easily on pace to eclipse his single-season high of 31 goals in 1993-94.
“He’s heads and shoulders above where he was even a year ago,” says Carolina defenseman Steve Chiasson.
The Hurricanes have managed to overcome numerous injuries to their defense corps to remain atop the division. Carolina GM Jim Rutherford has done a nice job of integrating youth into the lineup over the past few seasons and making key acquisitions of influential veterans; players such as Gary Roberts, Ray Sheppard and Ron Francis to go with the likes of Jeff O’Neill, Sami Kapanen and Marek Malik. Goaltender Arturs Irbe appears reborn having signed as a free agent after being cast aside by the Vancouver Canucks. And fellow stopper Trevor Kidd, the team’s No. 1 goalie last year, has handled the competition and reduction in playing time admirably.
-’HE’S TRYING TO RELAX MORE, BUT IT’S A CHORE FOR HIM’
There are questions though. Can Irbe and Kidd come through in the playoffs? And, if Chiasson doesn’t make a successful recovery from shoulder surgery, who will they get to replace him?
Make no mistake though, the Hurricanes are Primeau’s team. How well he performs will be a huge determining factor in how far the team goes. The 28-year-old center, who is in his ninth pro season, is coming into his own as a star performer.
Better late than never.
Some suggest the 6-foot-5, 220-pounder was an underachiever in his six seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. Then again, a strong case could be made that he was rushed into the NHL before he was ready and was never given a real chance to show what he could do, stuck behind Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov. Under the circumstances, he actually did more than hold his own as he developed nicely.
There was a day when Yzerman’s presence stood between Primeau and the opportunity to shine. Now Primeau is every bit as important to the Hurricanes’ cause as Yzerman is to the twotime defending Stanley Cup champion.
“Keith is one of the best forwards in the NHL who is not the best at any one particular thing he does, if that makes any sense,” says Carolina coach Paul Maurice. “In other words, he’s dominant in every aspect of the game. He could be a heavyweight (fighter) in the league if he wanted to be, but he’s too important to our team in other areas. He’s solid defensively, too. And he might not score 60 goals, but he’ll get you between 40 and 50 through sheer hard work.”
Adds Montreal Canadiens’ defenseman Eric Weinrich: “He has always been very physical; now he has added a lot of skill to his game. His hands are as good as anybody I’ve played against with the exception of Mario (Lemieux).”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Chiasson says. “The thing Keith does have, though, is tremendous skating ability. He gets that long stride going and if he gets a half a step on you to the outside, you’re not going to catch him.”
Mike Primeau had a big decision to make in 1982.
Every morning when he would leave his home in Markham, Ont., for his job at the hydro plant in neighboring Pickering, he would drive the hilly back roads directly into the sun. Then at night as he made his way home, he again drove with the sun shining brightly in his eyes.
It was hell.
“He honestly felt one morning he, wouldn’t be able to see because of the sun and he’d come over a hill and. somebody would be in his lane and that would be it,” says Keith Primeau, his oldest son. “That’s when he finally made the decision to move.”
The family relocated to Whitby, Ont., where Mike Primeau could leave home in the morning with the sun at his back and return home under the same circumstances.
Playing in Detroit for Keith Primeau was like driving into the sun. Like his dad, he loved his occupation, but ultimately he knew if he was to stick with it, or as he likes to say, “keep my sanity,” he would have to leave. Either leave… or quit.
Primeau’s stay in Detroit got off to a rocky start, right from the day he was drafted by the Wings third overall when he expected to go No. 2 to the Vancouver Canucks. In one of the best draft years ever, the Canucks took Petr Nedved instead.
While Jaromir Jagr, picked fifth by the Pittsburgh Penguins, is clearly the best player to emerge from the Class of ’90, Primeau is No. 2 in the top five that also included Nedved, Owen Nolan and Mike Ricci.
Often during his first few years in the NHL, Primeau found himself playing out of position, on the left wing instead of at center where he was most comfortable.
It wasn’t until his fourth season with Detroit that he found his niche on the team. Slotted into the No. 3 center position behind Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov, he offered dependable two-way play.
“I was really happy with what they had me doing, playing 15 minutes a game on the third line, often in a checking role,” Primeau says. “Quite often I was lined up with some pretty talented wingers. I could have played like that for a long time and stayed happy.
“Then, after my fourth year, they brought in Igor Larionov. I’m like, ’What the hell is this?’ Getting Igor was a great move for the Red Wings; it was not a great move for Keith Primeau. That’s when I knew I had to get out”
It took a holdout after his sixth season for Primeau to finally get his way, but he ultimately landed in Hartford, traded to the Whalers along with Coffey and Detroit’s No. 1 pick in the 1997 entry draft for left winger Brendan Shanahan and defenseman Brian Glynn. While most of the hockey world wanted out of Hartford, Coffey included, Primeau loved it.
“I guess there are some regrets that I don’t have a Stanley Cup ring,” Primeau says, “but I will never regret my decision to leave.”
If Primeau has gone unnoticed for the most part by Joe Fan, his talents have at least been appreciated by those who piece together Canadian teams for international competition. In that regard he has been recognized as one of the best players in the NHL. He played for Team Canada in the 1996 World Cup and again last year in the Winter Olympics in Nagano. He was an alternate captain on Canada’s gold medal-winning entry at the 1997 World Championship and captain of last year’s team.
This season he was determined from the outset to raise his profile in the NHL. During a Sept. 22 pre-season game in Detroit, of all places,
Primeau played it like it was the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final. Late in the game he drove hard to the net with such force that, after firing the game-winning goal, he flew backwards into the end glass with his arms raised high in the air in celebration. Then, with less than a minute to play, he went toe-to-toe with former teammate Darren McCarty.
Primeau is the first to admit he’s an emotional player. And sometimes in the past he let his emotions get the better of him. When teammates played a practical joke on him during a practice in Detroit, he wound up slugging it out with Bob Probert. Two years ago in a game against the Buffalo Sabres, he beat up his younger brother, Wayne. Upset by the incident and banished for the rest of the period, Primeau raced to a telephone and called his dad. Mike Primeau assured his oldest son that young Wayne had it coming and told him to calm down and go finish the game.
“He’s trying to relax more, but it’s a chore for him,” Maurice says. “He’s improving though. In the past we’d lose a game and I’d show up to the office the next morning at seven and he’d be there, on the treadmill or riding the bike. He’d whip himself. It has helped having guys like Ronnie (Francis) and Paul (Coffey) around.”
Coffey, who has played with all the great ones-Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Eric Lindros, Yzerman-says Primeau has the makings of a superstar. “Sure he’s a serious guy, but there’s nothing wrong with that,” Coffey says. “He’s a lot like Eric and people say Eric is too serious. But like Eric, Keith is a great guy to be around if he wants to be around you. And he’s not going to change for anyone. Look at how he’s playing now. Why would he?”
The game against the Canadiens isn’t one of the Hurricanes’ better efforts of the year in spite of the fact they win 3-1. They are outshot 45-10 and fail to register a single shot on goal in the third period.
Though Primeau draws just one nondescript assist in the game, he is easily the most physically imposing player on the ice. Early in the game he steps into Weinrich who glares at his opponent, but doesn’t take the confrontation any further. Later, Primeau and Montreal’s Igor Ulanov nearly come to blows. Ulanov is not known as a fighter and with Primeau towering over him as they stand chest-to-nose, he’s not about to start carving out a reputation as one.
Even in an otherwise off-day for the team, Primeau is noticeable.
“People often ask me if I’m where I think I should be as a player and I always answer, ’No,’” Primeau says. “I feel like I’m getting there, but there’s still work to be done. That’s what drives me.”