Carbonneau's a warrior

6/14/99

By Jim Matheson
The Edmonton Journal

For a guy who may be in the Hall of Fame some day unless he plays until he is 75, Guy Carbonneau never fetched much when he was traded.

Montreal thought Carbonneau's legs were shot in 1994 when he was 34 and gladly took Jim Montgomery from the St. Louis Blues.

St. Louis general manager Mike Keenan unloaded him the next year for Paul Broten.

Carbonneau, 39, played 30 shifts Saturday for the Dallas Stars.

The only thing he did not do in Game 3 against the Buffalo Sabres was drive their bus the 30 miles to the team hotel after the game.

One day, he will be coaching the Canadiens, the team that gave up on him after three Selke trophies.

But Sunday, he was trying not to limp through the hotel lobby after he had blocked three shots and thrown his body in front of a host of other Sabres shots.

He is the poster boy for what makes the Stars so special. Nobody works any harder or smarter.

"People are always talking about the age of our hockey club," said Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock. "But I only view the age of a guy's heart, and Carbo really believes in his heart and in his head that he's the best player on the ice.

"That's what has carried his entire career. He wants the challenge of playing against the other team's best player. Age means nothing to him. His fierce pride carries him.

"... You have to look farther than their birth certificate. Age is nothing. It's how old a person's heart is."

Carbonneau's heart is closer to 19 than 39.

He was not happy with the way he played in the 3-2 loss to Buffalo in Game 1, and visualized past plays in the days and nights that followed to make sure it did not happen again.

It eats at him when he is on the ice for a goal against or he loses any faceoffs, something that rarely happens when anything is on the line.

He won 17 of 29 Saturday, many against Sabres captain Mike Peca.

He also won over an eager group of media after the 2-1 smothering of the Sabres when somebody asked about not having Brett Hull for almost the entire game.

"We lost Brett and it took us 15 minutes to see he wasn't out there. But don't tell him that," said Carbonneau, with his droll humour.

Do not tell Hitchcock he has to play without Carbonneau, though.

In a weird way, he may be more valuable at 39 than Hull is in the fabric of the team. He is like Craig MacTavish was with the Oilers.

"I think that the key for veteran players like Carbo and Mike Keane, Brian Skrudland and Craig Ludwig ... a lot of good older players in this league is that there's this common denominator there," Hitchcock said.

"When they go onto the ice, they have an arrogance about them. That's the quality you want in an older guy, that they can somehow establish their game and affect the outcome regardless of whether they're a role player or checkers or impact physical players.

"It's a throwback when Carbo was playing in the '60s ... was that when it was? He's a throwback to when the game was like match play (golf). One on one. Head-to-head competition.

"Carbo often talks about the times he played against the Quebec Nordiques. He relishes that," said Hitchcock.

Carbonneau does not like talking about himself much.

"I started yesterday (Friday) to get ready, to concentrate on what I had to do ... to see the plays, the puck," said Carbonneau.

He was on the ice with two minutes and change left killing a late penalty to Tony Hrkac, and on the ice on the last shift, throwing his body in front of a blast.

He has had highlight reels to draw on, like shutting down Wayne Gretzky in Game 2 of the 1993 Cup final against Los Angeles. Like going against Peter Forsberg in the last series, in Game 2 in Dallas, and in the crucial Game 6 in Denver when they trailed 3-2.

He went to Hitchcock before the sixth game and convinced his coach to let him check Forsberg -- the oldest player against one of the best.

"I'm the guy," said Carbonneau.

"I'll do it."

He did.

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