THN ARCHIVE: He Came, He Saw, He…Conquered

Evgeni Nabokov is a fan favorite amongst San Jose Sharks fans and is arguably this franchise's best goaltender of all time.

His journey to the NHL was improbable. During his rookie year, he had the Sharks in first place at the All-Star break. 

In today's archive story, we look at a story from Chuck Carlton about Nabby.

He Came, He Saw, He…Conquered

February 23, 2001 – Vol. 54, Issue 24

No way, no how should Evgeni Nabokov be doing what he is doing now.

Having the San Jose Sharks in first place at the all-star break as a rookie goaltender is only the latest stop on an improbable journey He was all but forgotten for three years and almost left North America after just three months.

This is a guy who learned English from Bruce Willis movies and a drop-dead gorgeous, basketball-loving American girlfriend he met in the hockey hotbed of Kentucky. He sounds more like a software program than a flesh-and-blood goalie, some computer image created for a video game by a Sharks-obsessed techno-nerd working on his second decade between dates. Move over Duke Nukem and Lara Croft.

Rest assured, the 25-year-old Nabokov is solid and three-dimensional as NHL rivals are discovering this season.

“He’s a solid goaltender with not a lot of holes,” said Dallas Stars’ coach Ken Hitchcock. “You’re going to have to work for your goals against him.”

At the all-star break, only Patrick Roy had more victories than Nabokov’s 25. And only the under-siege Sean Burke had a better save percentage than Nabokov’s .923. No starting goalie had a lower goals-against average than Nabokov’s 2.02. And at the All-Star Game in Denver, he finished second to Burke in the skills competition, narrowly missing winning himself a new car.

He still goes by Evgeni though Sharks’ management types refer to him as John and teammates opt for Nabby. The pronunciation is nah-BOK-off.

“He’s always in front of the puck and he moves laterally as well as anyone in the league right now,” Los Angeles left winger Luc Robitaille told reporters after Nabokov made 29 saves in a 2-1 San Jose win earlier this year.

Did somebody say encore?

“I’m not thinking what’s next,” Nabokov said. “I’m trying to go out and play every night the best I can play I try to play every game and win every game.”

As much as Nabokov has starred on the ice and relegated a pretty good goalie in Steve Shields to backup status, (though Shields did get back-to-back starts after the all-star break), the team loves the way he has blended with tough-minded teammates and old-school coach Darryl Sutter. “He has been confident without being cocky, respectful without being timid,” said Sharks’ GM Dean Lombardi. “He was always ready.”

The Nabokov story began in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, in the town then known as Ust-Kamenogorsk. Hockey was the family business. His dad Viktor was a hometown hero and goalie for 18 years.

“He was a coach and a father, he was everything for me, Nabokov remembers.

“He was building me, exactly the word I can use. He was teaching me all the time to play He never told me what type of goalie to be. He said to play the situation. If I got down, go down. But if I need to stand up, I stand up.

“As a kid, he was always watching the practice and telling me what I needed to do. Sometimes we’d talk and laugh, sometimes we’d have an argument.”

Nabokov was good enough to play internationally for the Soviet Union, before the populace of Kazakhstan decided being a separate nation was in its best interest, if not Nabokov’s. The republic declared independence in 1991.

At that point, Nabokov’s international exposure ceased. He seemed ready to follow his father’s path. Then came the first in a string of unlikely events that led to the NHL.

Konstantin Krylov, then the Russian scout for the Sharks, suggested Nabokov’s name when the ninth round of the entry draft rolled around in 1994.

“Where did they see me?” he wondered “I was just playing for two years in my hometown.”

He remained in Russia for three years, until Sharks’ scout John Ferguson saw him while on a European scouting mission playing for Dynamo. Lombardi still remembers the transatlantic call.

“He was really excited and said we have a player,” Lombardi said. “I remember him saying, ‘Wow, this guy is really something.’”

Ferguson even invoked the name of Johnny Bower in describing Nabokov’s stick process. A cache of videotapes was shipped to the Sharks’ offices, with just one problem. The tapes were a couple years old and Nabokov was only a raw talent.

A week or so later, an excited Ferguson called again.

Did Lombardi get the tapes?

Uh-huh.

And?

“We really didn’t know what to say,” Lombardi said. “At least we know what Johnny Bower looked like.”

But Ferguson’s recommendation was good enough to land Nabokov a contract. He came over early and went to Minnesota to meet with Sharks’ goaltender guru Warren Strelow. Nabokov went through a workout with all new equipment and stunned Strelow, who had worked with NHL goalies for three decades.

“He didn’t miss a beat,” Strelow said. “I knew right then how good an athlete he was.”

Things soured when Nabokov arrived with the American League’s Kentucky Thorough-blades, though. He didn’t play much and when he did see action, he didn’t show much. He was 10-21-2 with a 3.92 GAA.

After three months, he called his assistant agent and friend, Anna Goruven, in frustration.

“That’s enough,” Nabokov remembers saying. “I’m not getting enough playing time. It’s probably the best thing to go back to Russia.”

Goruven’s response stopped him cold.

“You can come back any time you want,” she told him, “but you won’t prove anything to anybody.”

The conversation lasted about an hour. “She told me to quit whining and get back to work,” Nabokov said.

He decided to play through his contract and by the next season was second in the AHL in wins and shutouts. Along the way, he made the acquaintance of one Tabitha Eckler, Kentucky’s best export this side of Jim Beam. The two started their relationship even with Nabokov knowing virtually no words in English.

“She’s everything for me, she’s my heart and soul,” Nabokov said. “I didn’t speak English at all. We tried to explain everything with our hands.”

Eventually, they managed to work out communication, thanks to a dictionary Nabokov’s English is now more than passable and his game is more than adjusted to the North America style.

Nabokov played 11 NHL games last season, but Lombardi saw enough to make side deals with both Minnesota and Columbus to protect him in the expansion draft. The opening he needed came when Shields injured an ankle in the second game of this season.

“I was kind of waiting for an opportunity, trying to prove myself,” Nabokov said. “From the beginning of the season, I was hoping to show what I can do. You never know what’s going to happen, how you’re going to handle every game.”

Strelow has worked with goaltenders from Pete Peeters and Jim Craig (in 1980) to Burke and Martin Brodeur and says Nabokov is special. He loves Nabokov’s mental toughness, his composure and his ability to recover. Nabokov may be the quickest goalie at going down to the butterfly and then getting back to his skates for rebounds. He’s always in good position and is almost Brodeur-like in his mechanics and ability to play the puck.

“People ask me how good he can be,” Strelow said. “He can be as good as he wants to be.”

Lombardi’s biggest concern is the intensity of the spotlight on Nabokov.

“The next step is dealing with success,” Lombardi said. “That’s very difficult, every bit as difficult as coming up. It’s a different mindset.”

At least dealing with success beats the alternative.

SHARP SHARK

Evgeni Nabokov has taken the NHL by storm with the San Jose Sharks after a three-year apprenticeship in the minors. ■