May
11, 2004
Postcard:
Praise Warren-ted
Strelow's students engaged in Western Conference duel
By
Mike Eidelbes
Like a lot of us, Warren
Strelow settled in at his suburban St. Paul home Tuesday night
to watch Calgary and San Jose play in the second game of the NHL’s
Western Conference finals. Unlike a lot of us, Strelow looked
on as two of his former pupils battled for the right to advance
to the Stanley Cup Finals.
As San Jose’s
goalie coach, Strelow not only tutored Evgeni Nabokov, the Sharks’
starter, but also worked with Calgary’s Mikka Kiprusoff,
who backed up Nabokov prior to being traded to the Flames in November.
Pressed into duty with Calgary due to injuries to Roman Turek
and Jamie McLennan, Kiprusoff seized the number one spot in the
team’s goaltending pecking order. Not bad for a guy whose
college career consisted of one start between the pipes for Minnesota
during the 1952-53 season.
“Kipper is an
outstanding goalie, always was,” Strelow said. “The
problem is Nabokov was Rookie of the Year and is one of the best
goalies in the National Hockey League.”
Watching Nabokov and
Kiprusoff duel is the latest chapter in Strelow’s incredible
story – he’s been around enough significant events
in hockey history to make Forrest Gump jealous. Herb Brooks added
him to the Minnesota coaching staff in 1974. By the time he left
in 1983, Strelow had been part of three NCAA titlists. Brooks
summoned him to work with the goalies on the 1980 U.S. Olympic
team – we know what happened there – and later called
on his old friend to serve in the same capacity with the 2002
U.S. Olympic team.
His professional coaching
career started with Washington in 1983. In six seasons with the
Capitals, his goalies posted the NHL’s lowest combined goals
against average six times. He then moved onto New Jersey, where
he worked with a young Martin Brodeur. And while it seems Strelow
leaves a path of first-rate goaltenders in his wake, he credits
the scouts who’ve scoured the world to unearth talented
prospects.
“You’re
only as good as the guys they give you,” said Strelow, a
former scout himself. “(In San Jose) we had Johan Hedberg,
who we traded to Pittsburgh and is now in Vancouver, we’ve
got (current Sharks backup Vesa) Toskala and Nabokov and (had)
Kiprusoff. We got all those guys at about the same time.”
Once he gets the goalies
under his wing, Strelow uses the same techniques he employed for
18 years as a teacher in Minnesota. In fact, he says there’s
no difference between his former career and what he does now.
It’s a classroom
with ice,” Strelow said. “Repetition, good habits,
not taking away their creativity and their abilities…if
they do something you don’t like but they do it well, you
leave it alone. My goal is to make them the best they can be with
their God-given talent, work within their style, throw in good
basics and perfect their weaknesses.”
A recent kidney transplant
has kept Strelow in Minnesota during the playoffs, but he’s
maintained his role fine tuning Nabokov’s game with the
help of former Wisconsin goaltender Wayne Thomas, the Sharks’
vice president and assistant general manager.
“I talk to Wayne
Thomas every day,” Strelow explained. “We agree on
philosophy and we agree on teaching methods. I don’t think
there’s a lot lost between the two of us. I talk to Nabokov
two, three times a week. Sometimes after the game, he calls me.”
Strelow’s idea
of a perfect series was a San Jose sweep with the Sharks winning
every game 1-0 in overtime. That dream, of course, went by the
wayside Sunday after the Flames beat the Sharks 4-3 in OT. And
regardless of the outcome, don’t expect Strelow –
who’s become the game’s hot goalie guru, usurping
the handle Anaheim’s Francois Allaire enjoyed at this time
last season – to take credit for the play of either Nabokov
or Kiprusoff.
“I don’t
teach these guys how to play goal,” he says. “I help
them to be the best they can be. It’s their game. They have
to play.”
