Ed Belfour will miss only his second Stadium start of the season Tuesday night when Buffalo visits. Jeff Hackett has replaced Belfour in the third period of his last two starts, so coach Darryl Sutter decided Belfour would benefit from a short rest.
“I talked to him this morning and told him to get three good days of practice with (Vladislav) Tretiak,” Sutter said, referring to Belfour’s mentor and the team’s goaltending consultant.
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Belfour, as dedicated as they come, was on the ice Monday for 90 minutes with Tretiak. “I worked a lot on movement, up and down and coming across,” Belfour said.
“There’s a time to get mad and time to sit back and analyze,” he said when asked if his famous temper could work for him. “I’m old enough to know how to use my temper as motivation.”
Belfour really didn’t play badly in a 4-2 loss to Edmonton Sunday, the third straight defeat for him and the team. He doesn’t believe that he has fallen into a slump.
But Sutter said: “When Eddie is on top of his game there are no rebounds, loose pucks are his and he makes the right decision handling the puck.”
The Sabres historically have been a tough team on Belfour. He is 0-6 lifetime against them with a 4.75 goals-against average. Hackett has had his problems, too, 0-3 with a 5.28 GA.
Back in town: Ex-Hawk Dominik Hasek returns to Chicago Tuesday as the hottest goalie in the NHL. He leads the league with a 1.92 goals-against average, five shutouts, save percentage (.930) and is 11-6-3 in starting the Sabres’ last 20 games in a row.
Not bad for a player whose style was once described by Sutter as a guy who looked like he was going after a fish. His flopping style is quite unorthodox.
“He still has the same tendencies,” Sutter said. “But his legs and feet are so quick the puck can be behind him and he’ll make the save, anyway. He’s down on the ice a lot.”
Hidden agenda: The Hawks’ Oct. 27 trade of defenseman Craig Muni to Buffalo for defenseman Keith Carney has weighed heavily so far in the Sabres’ direction. Muni is a plus-16, best on Buffalo, and Carney is toiling in the minors with a reputation that raises questions of whether he will ever be a NHL regular.
“That was basically a deal to satisfy Muni,” Sutter said of a player the Hawks felt was never happy in Chicago. “We weren’t able to satisfy him with the minutes he would play in a game and he was used to a situation (in Edmonton) where he was used more.”
Couldn’t the Hawks have found a common ground with Muni. “We never talked about agreeing to anything because something like that leads to trouble,” Sutter said.