HockeyChocolate-milk drinking Halak is one of the guys

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BROSSARD, Que. -- On most NHL teams, players walk on egg shells when around the club's goalies.

The masked men have their routines. They like to be left alone. They are indeed a different bunch.

But not so with the Montreal Canadiens. Jaroslav Halak is just one of the guys. The 24-year-old is fair game to kibitzing, practical jokes and some hijinks from teammates.

Canadiens sniper Mike Cammalleri described his news making teammate as unassuming. He told a story to illustrate Halak's regular-guy status. The incident occurred in the morning skate on Monday before Halak's club playoff record 53 saves in Game 6 that forced a seventh and deciding game against the Washington Capitals.

Normal, not quirky  

Halak was facing shots from the blue-line with a couple players in front of him trying to tip the shots and knock in rebounds. The purpose of the drill is for the goaltender to get accustomed to traffic in front and for the forwards to pounce on loose pucks. Instead of tapping home rebounds, Cammalleri and teammate Andrei Markov kept feeding each other goal-mouth passes for easy scores that Halak didn't have a chance on.

"He ended up getting mad at us," said Cammalleri, who leads all scorers in the opening-round series with five goals in six games. "But you can razz him. He's not like most goalies. You don't have to worry about messing with his routines."

So is Halak "normal?" Other than his penchant for drinking litres of chocolate milk, as he told the Montreal Gazette's Dave Stubbs earlier this season, does he have any other quirks? Is he funny?

"Nice guy, not funny," Cammalleri deadpanned. "I wouldn't put him on stage."
Maybe, Cammalleri added, the Slovakian goalie's humour gets "lost in translation."

Halak's outstanding work, certainly needs no explanation. By stopping 90 of 92 shots in the past two games, the blue-eyed Halak has pushed the Canadiens to the possibility of upsetting the Presidents' Trophy-winning Capitals.

Halak's outstanding play has hockey fans wondering if he can do it one more time at the Verizon Center in Washington on Wednesday.

"The key is that he has to turn the past and prepare for the next game," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said.

Montreal has been good on the penalty kill, stopping the Capitals on 29 of 30 power-play opportunities in the series. The Canadiens know that they have to be better defensively, although it hasn't gone unnoticed that the more shots fired at Halak, the stingier he gets. He now is 9-0-1 this season when he faces 40 or more shots in a game.

Drawn to the mask

Not bad for a player that was taken 271st overall in the ninth round of the 2003 NHL entry draft. There were 24 goalies selected before him and two after him, including Brian Elliott of the Ottawa Senators. Even the Habs selected Swedish goalie Christopher Heino-Lindberg in the sixth round of that draft.

Halak was raised in Bratislava and played in a rink named after Vladimir Dzurilla, the legendary goalie who, if not for Darryl Sittler's game-winning goal in the 1976 Canada Cup, almost led then Czechoslovakia to an upset of monumental proportions.

Like most youngsters, Halak was drawn to the crease because he liked the mask. He collected hockey cards and was over the moon when he got his hands on a Patrick Roy keepsake as a youth. From afar, however, he idolized the recently-retired Curtis Joseph and his acrobatic style.

The middle child of three Halak boys decided to come over to North America to play for Lewiston in the QMJHL. He learned English by watching the popular cartoon Family Guy on television as well as professional wrestling. He then made his way through the pro ranks with stops in Long Beach and Hamilton before sharing the goal with Carey Price in Montreal.

Halak is scheduled to become a restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights on July 1. His performance this season, in which he won 26 times and was dynamite down the stretch to get the Habs into the final playoff spot in the East, means Price should be the one moved in the off-season in order to strengthen the roster.

Ovechkin's nemisis?

Halak also turned heads for Slovakia at the Vancouver Olympics. He made 36 saves to upset Alexander Ovechkin and Russia 2-1 in the preliminary part of the Winter Games hockey tournament and was the main reason his team finished fourth ahead of powerhouse teams from Sweden, Russia and Czech Republic.

Now Halak has the opportunity to disappoint Ovechkin for a second time in two months. The city of Montreal and Canadiens fans from coast-to-coast can't wait to see if the chocolate milk-loving goalie quenches his thirst for another upset on Wednesday.

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