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Belfour's second season Dallas goalie tries to put late-season arrest behind him
Posted: Wednesday April 12, 2000 09:21 PM
By Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun DALLAS -- Eddie Belfour will be remembered from this season as the guy who allegedly got drunk, took a woman to a hotel in his home city, got in a fight with a security guard, got maced, got taken to jail and offered police a billion-dollar bribe. Now, if the Edmonton Oilers took the same approach as Paul Newman in the movie "Slap Shot" into this Stanley Cup playoff series, there's plenty to work with. Newman, as Reggie Dunlop, drove the oppossing netminder beyond distraction by with taunts about his wife's sexuality from behind the net. "What this series comes down to for us is to stop Mike Modano and get to Eddie Belfour," said Edmonton Oilers GM Glen Sather. But he didn't mean it that way. This is the new millennium. Hockey is a kinder, gentler more politically correct game. "I don't think that'll be on the ice,'' said the Oilers' Bill Guerin. For Belfour, there's only one thing to try to do about it now and that's give Dallas Stars fans and the hockey world a more recent freeze frame to remember him by than '`Who Wants To Be a Billionaire.'' Like the same one he left them with last year. The one with the Stanley Cup held over his head. "I don't think anyone has a problem with Eddie,'' said Mike Modano of the goalie who goes into Game 1 of the first-round series of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Oilers tonight knowing if he plays poorly he'll be a target for all sorts of spit and abuse.
No Eddie Problem"We've never had a problem with Eddie and we never will. He's fierce and a bit of a warrior when it comes to the game. He was a monumental reason why we won the Stanley Cup last year. I'm sure he's here to prove it was no fluke and not a one-year-wonder sort of thing. "He's been under the microscope all year long and is definitely going to be under the microscope now. We have all the confidence in the world in him.'' They should have all the confidence in the world in him in this series. Against Edmonton Belfour is 12-1. Belfour is the subject of a lot of pre-series talk involving the Oilers going into this first-round Stanley Cup playoff series which opens here tonight. "We have to get a lot of shots and a lot of traffic,'' says Doug Weight. The captain suggests they drop the "aim" out of "ready, aim, fire." "Just shoot it,'' suggests Weight. "In the past he's been really frustrating. I think we spent too much time trying to stick the puck under the bar. Just hit the net. '`Just get the rubber on the net. If Eddie stops 50 shots and we lose 1-0, we'll tell everybody how great he is and go back and try to do the same thing again in the second game.'' The problem with Belfour is it's not just Belfour. "We have to get the puck past the defence,'' says Guerin. "We have to get it past Darian Hatcher, Darryl Sydor and Richard Matvichuk. They block about seven shots each every game.'' Belfour had a 32-21-7 record with a 2.10 goals-against average and the best save percentage in the league at .917 this season. "This is the best he's ever played for me,'' says Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "He's had a whale of a year. We've given up more shots and more odd man rushes than any other year.'' As for The Incident, as it is now referred to here, Hitchcock says Belfour has handled himself well. "Eddie has been very mature in his relationship with the players and the coaches. "I hate to suggest that a positive came out of it. But coming back was easier for him because he's so highly thought of in our group. "It was a serious mistake on his part, not a misunderstanding. But his relationship with the players on this team has really grown. They've really embraced him. "They really believe in him and they know they need him more now than ever.'' Belfour, unlike Brett Hull, met with the media after practice here yesterday. Obviously he wasn't talking about The Incident. But he was clearly enjoying talking about the start of the Stanley Cup season and a new challenge, a new focus.
New Situation as Defending Champs"This is all new for us now. We're the defending Stanley Cup champions,'' says the Eagle. "But it sort of seems the same as every other year because it's Edmonton again. It seems we always end up meeting each other. "It's a good matchup. Rivalries are born in the playoffs and that's certainly where this one was born.'' He offered no theory for his 12-1 record against the Oilers since he came to the Stars. "I don't try to get into stuff like that. "I know how I can play and what I've done in the past. I've had a few spots here and there but I think I've played well my whole career. '`As for Edmonton, as a team, I think the reason we've done well against them is that we're motivated to play against them. When we're motivated to play, we play well. "As for my personal record, I don't know. You have good luck against certain teams in certain buildings.'' Skyreach Centre is a good-luck building for Belfour. The Mansion at Turtle Creek hotel, where The Incident happened, on the other hand, is not.
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