Ein ganz schöner Bericht, den ich eben auf der NHL-Seite gefunden habe:

Jean-Sebastien Giguere did his best impersonation of David slaying Goliath when he stood on his head in goal in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs carrying the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to a sweep of the defending Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
The Ducks' netminder has once again been "Mighty" in the second round, helping Anaheim to a pair of road wins against Dallas in the Western Conference Semifinals.

"Any team can beat any team," Giguere said. "The intensity level is definitely very high. You can't really be worried about who you're playing against. I think in the end, if a team wants to be successful, they have to worry about themselves, what they're going to bring to the rink every day, how you're going to do it."

What the 25-year-old brought to the rink in the first round was an entire bag of tricks that left the Red Wings baffled. In his first NHL postseason, Giguere stopped 165 of Detroit's 171 shots, including 63 in an overtime spectacular in Game 1. His 63 stops in his first Playoff start was a record for goalie's making their postseason debuts. He also posted an eye-opening .965 save percentage and a 1.25 GAA in the conference quarterfinals.

Giguere credits Anaheim's goaltending consultant Francois Allaire with much of his success.

"Francois gave me confidence by giving me tools in my bag to work with -- a technique that's very simple to use, a foundation that, whenever things go wrong or whenever things go right, I always try to stay with the same foundation," Giguere said. "You can't change your game plan. If I give two, three goals in the next game in the first period, I'm not going to change the way I play because of that. Playing with those skills gave me a lot of confidence."

But Giguere didn't always trust in his skills. As a matter of fact, the former first-round pick of the Hartford Whalers bounced around the League before landing in Anaheim. When the Whalers franchise moved to North Carolina Giguere became property of the Carolina Hurricanes, who traded the goaltender, along with center Andrew Cassels, to the Calgary Flames for left wing Gary Roberts and goalie Trevor Kidd on August 25, 1997.

After appearing in only 22 games over two seasons with Calgary, the Flames traded Giguere to the Mighty Ducks on June 10, 2000 in exchange for a second-round choice in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The Flames decided to deal their young netminder instead of taking the chance of losing him in the Expansion Draft to either the Minnesota Wild or the Columbus Blue Jackets.

"As far as Calgary is concerned, I think they did what they had to do," Giguere said. "At that time I wasn't ready to play in the NHL and they needed somebody that was ready to go. With the Expansion Draft and all that, nobody knows what's going to happen. They probably got as good as they could have got back then. I wasn't playing as well as I could, I was struggling in the minors. There's not much I could have done different."

But Allaire took the Ducks' new goaltender under his wing and restored his confidence by bringing him back in time.

In the 2002-03 regular season, Giguere also had a solid campaign by setting career highs in wins (34), games played (65), minutes played (3775) and shutouts (8).
"I think I just got him back to the style he had when he was really good in junior. He was a first round draft pick in '95 and I knew of him at that time and I watched him play. He was really, really good back then, but I think he lost a little bit of direction after that," Allaire said. "We just did some moderate things to get him back on track and as soon as he realized what we were doing he was like 'oh yeah, now I remember.' When a guy knows the direction we're leaning towards I think the confidence starts to come back."

Allaire's work with Giguere started paying off for Anaheim last year when the Quebec native ousted Steve Shields as the Ducks' No. 1 goalie and posted 20 wins, a team record 2.13 GAA and a .920 save percentage. In the 2002-03 regular season, Giguere also had a solid campaign by setting career highs in wins (34), games played (65), minutes played (3775) and shutouts (8).

"He's taught me a lot," Giguere said. "When I came here to Anaheim three years ago, my game wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. My confidence level was very low. I wasn't sure if I could ever play in the NHL. He just brought my game back to a very simple way of playing. Every time there's a situation happening on the ice, I know a very simple answer to make every time. He's given that to me. He's given me a lot of confidence, a lot of experience. He's got 20 years' experience in the NHL."

According to Allaire, win or lose, the experience Giguere is getting playing against some of the top teams in the NHL in the 2003 postseason is invaluable as it will help turn him into a better NHL goaltender.

"For him it's a new occasion to learn about his job and get better," Allaire said. "It's a great opportunity for a young kid to play against those teams who are used to the Playoff experience. There's nothing better than for a young kid to meet with those teams because that's the fastest way to improve in this League."

nhl.com

Jens Keller - FUßBALLGOTT: \"In Frankfurt ist immer etwas los. Mir ist es lieber, für einen Verein zu spielen, bei dem es auch mal Theater gibt, als für einen Klub wie Unterhaching zu kicken, für den sich keine Sau interessiert.\"