Meet the man behind the net

Sporting News, The, April 26, 2004 by Kara Yorio

Forget about Francois Allaire, the butterfly-only goalie coach who mentored J.S. Giguere into a Conn Smythe winner. He is last year's news. This time around, the Sharks' Warren Strelow is the goalie guru.

He has touched many of this year's playoff teams directly and indirectly. Strelow coaches Evgeni Nabokov and Vesa Toskala and coached Miikka Kiprusoff, Johan Hedberg and Sean Burke. Robert Esche attended one of Strelow's camps. Strelow coached Craig Billington, who now coaches David Aebischer, and he coached Roland Melanson, who now coaches Jose Theodore. Even Martin Brodeur--Strelow was the Devils' goalie coach in Brodeur's first season in the AHL.

You won't see it in their playing styles. It's not like the trademark hand of Allaire and his butterfliers. Strelow's only trademark is the street shoes he has always worn instead of skates when he runs on-ice drills. As for a style, it's whatever the goalie wants, usually a combination.

"They're all so fundamentally sound," says Predators goalie coach Mitch Korn. "Nobody is scrambing or out-of-control. Everyone is patient and systematic."

Strelow pushes patience. He uses repetition, drill after drill, until it's automatic. And, he helps with the mental approach.

"Warren is a unique guy in the sense that he's got a feel for goalies and their emotional state and can do a lot along those lines," the late coach Herb Brooks said before the 2002 Olympics, Strelow's second Games with Brooks.

Yes, second. Strelow coached some guy named Jim Craig--did pretty well, too--in 1980 in Lake Placid. The man has credentials. Strelow coached with the Devils and Capitals before the Sharks. He has learned and evolved with the times, and he still knows how to pull possibility out of potential and performance out of possibility.

"A lot of goaltending is mental," Strelow says from his home in Minnesota, where he is recovering from a September kidney transplant. "It's learning by experience. It's handling good and bad things with the same mental approach and stability."

Despite being home, Strelow is in frequent contact with the Sharks and Nabokov and Toskala.

"He's here, not physically, of course, but he's always available on the phone, Nabokov says. "He had a tough surgery ... but he's with us. We're still doing the same things we've been doing the past six years."

Assistant general manager Wayne Thomas is helping out as Strelow recovers.

"I talk to Warren on a personal and professional basis five or six times a week," Thomas says. "As far as Evgeni, we just put him through the drills on the ice, and if there's anything glaring, I'll talk to him about it. But if it's not broke, we don't need to fix it, and he has had a pretty solid year. So, it's just a maintenance program to keep him sharp."

San Jose became the first team to advance to the second round by dispatching the Blues in five games. Nabokov finished that series with a 1.56 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage.

When Nabokov came to North America from Russia, he spoke no English. Strelow patiently worked out a communication system. The patience ingrained in their relationship parallels Nabokov's approach on the ice. He usually waits for the shooter to make the first move.

"He's very intelligent about the game," Strelow says. "He's good at reading rushes, recognizing what's happening as it's happening. He's very patient; he very seldom takes himself out of position."

Kiprusoff, who was traded from the Sharks to the Flames this season, is also patient, although not to the extent that Nabokov is. The Flames' playoff hopes rested on his shoulders, and when Canucks No. 1 goalie Dan Cloutier suffered a serious ankle injury in the first round, Kiprusoff found himself at times facing another Strelow alumnus, Hedberg.

Strelow says Hedberg and Toskala talked about returning to their home countries at different points in their progressions through the minors. Strelow told them they came to North America because they had a dream to play in the NHL. If that was dead, they should go home. Neither did, and both have realized that dream.

Billington, who was coached by Strelow in the early '90s with New Jersey (when Flyers backup Burke and Melanson also were in Strelow's hands), is helping Aebischer, a rookie, as the Colorado goalie coach.

Esche, who attended Strelow's weeklong U.S. goalies camp before the 2002 Games, was handling himself well early in the playoffs. At the other end of the ice from Esche in the first round stood Brodeur.

Jacques Caron is the coach who, along with the goalie himself, has made Brodeur into Brodeur. Caron has been with him starting with his first flail NHL season, so stories of Strelow's enormous impact on Brodeur can be apocryphal.

But Strelow was Brodeur's coach when he played for Utica of the AHL. At the time, Brodeur said he learned a great deal. That means Strelow's hand is in there, a small piece of the puzzle that has become the game's best goalie.

From net to net in these playoffs, it's six degrees of separation--often much less--to Strelow. He's home resting, but the impact of years of hard work can be seen on the ice.