Audio: Gorges celebrates role as Habs sniper

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The Gazette

How thrilled is Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges to be playing Detroit tonight? He’s scored half of his career NHL goals against the Red Wings.

One against Detroit on Jan. 4, 2007 in San Jose while he was with the Sharks, his other against the New York Islanders as a Canadien on Monday night.

So Gorges was a little off in his long-ago prediction that he’d score his first goal as a Canadien by his 10th game with Montreal; it took him 89. That’s 10 more than it took him to hit the back of the net as a Shark.

Today, the 24-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., was revelling, quietly, in having become a Canadiens sniper. For that reason, you almost didn’t want to remind one of the nicest guys you’ll meet in an NHL dressing room that references to his first career goal invariably include the word “knob.”

The official NHL game report says Gorges’s first goal was a 52-foot tip-in at 14:54 of the first period, which suggests he was camped in front of the net for a deflection.

In fact, the tip was off the top end of the stick of Red Wings goalie Dominik Hasek, Gorges having wristed the puck from along the boards, a couple of strides inside the blue line.

“It was so long ago,” Gorges joked today, “but when you’ve scored just one, you can remember it pretty well. All I wanted to do was get it past the guy rushing out at me and get it close to the net. My shot was actually going wide.”

Until Hasek stabbed his blocker at it, missed, and the puck caromed into the net off the knob of his goal stick.

Video shows a scrum of modest congratulations, nothing special for Gorges’s historic goal which cut Detroit’s lead to 3-1. But it began a stunning Sharks comeback, San Jose scoring nine unanswered goals, eight of them on Hasek before he was chased, in a 9-4 victory.

(Hard to imagine a game involving the Red Wings in which a coach leaves his goalie in net for eight goals, or even nine, before finally giving him the hook.)


“Everyone thought (Sharks’) Mike Grier tipped it – the refs, even myself,” Gorges said, laughing. “I remember Grier looking at me, going, ‘I didn’t touch it, it’s yours.’ I was like, ‘What?’ and he said, ‘It’s yours.’

“I was going, ‘Man, that sucks. I didn’t even get to celebrate my first NHL goal. I thought you scored it.’ Then they went to video review because they thought Grier tipped it with a high stick.”

But the goal stood, someone retrieved the puck and Gorges tucked it away as a souvenir, probably thinking it wouldn’t be nearly two years before his next one.

Prettier, he says, was his first of four goals with the 2000-01 major-junior Kelowna Rockets, scored against the Swift Current Broncos as a seldom-used 16-year-old.

“Probably the nicest goal I’ve scored in my entire career,” Gorges said, detailing how he twice faked slap shots and took advantage of the Broncos covering Rockets forwards to walk in and score a backhand through the five-hole.

Then there was his record-setting first with the American league’s Cleveland Barons in 2004-05, another four-goal season. It came 20 seconds into a game against Syracuse, the fastest Barons goal from the opening faceoff.

“Same kind of deal as (Monday) night,” Gorges said. “A seeing-eye shot from the blue line that found its way through traffic.”

Sadly, Monday’s monumental goal was lost in the glare of Ryan O’Byrne’s discovery of his own net. Gorges, one of the most popular guys in the Canadiens room, would otherwise have been swarmed by interviewers who were as happy as his teammates for his success.

The welcoming committee on the Canadiens bench made sure to knock his helmet off in tribute.

“That was (Christopher) Higgins, of course,” Gorges said. “He’s always a tough guy when no one’s looking. He and Carey and Ryan said they were going to crazy when I finally got the first one out of the way.”

Teammates had done their part to lift the increasing weight. In Raleigh, N.C., a week ago Tuesday morning, Price and Tom Kostopoulos sacrificed one of his sticks in an offering to the hockey gods, Price hacksawing it into a half-dozen pieces and scattering the remains around the RBC Centre arena bowl.

While the Hurricanes were on the ice.

“They’re skating and they see me putting pieces of a stick all over the place,” Price said. “I’m sure they wondered what I was doing.”

Said Kostopoulos: “Carey and I offered it in exchange for a goal. It didn’t happen that night, but now it has. It’s nice to see Josh finally rewarded.”

Gorges was having his skates adjusted at the time, “and the next thing I know, they come back and say, ‘It’s done, your stick has been sacrificed.’ I saw one piece in the bleachers.”

Monday’s goal puck was retrieved and is now in the hands of the Canadiens, loaned to him yesterday for a dressing-room photo. The details circle the puck on a strip of adhesive tape, until it’s mounted on a plaque.

“I take a lot of grief from the guys. They like to bug me a lot,” said Gorges, playing rock-solid defence since being given additional responsibility and ice-time following the injury seven games ago to Mike Komisarek.

“They’ve been saying, ‘Oh, you came close tonight.’ I’d watch TV highlights and see guys getting goals like (Monday’s) all the time. I’d always say, ‘Why can’t I get one? Just one?’

“Now I have. Now I don’t have to hear ‘came close’ any more.”

Better for the Canadiens, Gorges owns the Red Wings. And he arrives in Detroit red-hot, riding a one-game scoring streak. Which is more than 373-goal scorer Alex Kovalev can say.

Goalie Carey Price is doing what he can to fend off the high, hard shots of teammates in practice with this additional protection. He jokes about their shooting. Kind of.
Allen McInnis, Gazette