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SENShobo

Gerber Descends On Binghamton With Dignity

by SENShobo on 01/16/09 at 09:34 AM ET
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From the Ottawa Citizen, on Martin Gerber’s conditioning stint in Binghamton,

“He’s a man who understands this business,” Murray said. “He understands that when you play well, people like you. When you don’t play well, people don’t like you.”
....
“The plan is to get (Gerber) playing again,” Murray said. “It gives him a chance to be important on a team and get some ice time. For his sake, hopefully someone (in the NHL) will give him a chance. That’s pro hockey. Guys fit on one team, but not necessarily on another team.”

His 49-36-8 record with a .907 Sv% and 2.76 GAA with the Senators was not what his $11.1 million contract was hoping for, but the man, without a doubt, had character that this club really needed at the worst of times.

Updated with notes from Gerber’s arrival in Binghamton

His first season, he comes in after being dumped by the team he helped lift to the playoffs, before illness sidelined him and allowed then-backup Cam Ward to carry the Canes to their first Stanley Cup, and Gerber was released. This marks the first season that Ward’s Sv% and GAA have been better than Gerber’s.

He comes to the Sens, can’t get a handle on things for one reason or another, and Ray Emery sweeps the team out from under him. Never mind that Gerber closed out the season after that usurpage with 12 wins and only a couple losses while backing up this brash rookie who ate cockroaches off the dressing room floor for tattoo money.

Then he finally gets a chance, and plays well as the team does, helping them to a League record start. As the team tumbles, he too falters. No matter that he was the only part of the team that had any soul or spirit in their playoff sweep at the hands of the Penguins, that he faced more shots a night (40) than any other playoff goalie, and still managed to be in the top third in Sv%, ahead of household names like Lundqvist, Huet, Nabokov, Backstrom, Brodeur, and Price.

Again, this season, he fails to fully establish himself, looking a little lost in Sweden and then back in Ottawa, and then at times playing great, hard-fought games, only to be let down by his low-scoring, defensively confused at times team. With three goalies now fighting for the spot, his numbers, contract, and salary made him the odd man out.

So why conditioning in Binghamton? Why not assign him outright and hope he walks, clearing the salary from the Senators’ cap ($1.67 remains)? Gerber has been a class act, never being a distraction, rarely being emotional, and always being a hard working, dependable goalie. Two weeks in Binghamton gives rewards all around in a hardly positive situation.

Elliott of course gets his chance to have a real go at the NHL, possibly at the expense of his AHL All-Star starter status on January 26th, the day after the NHL All-Star game. Gerber actually gets a chance to prove himself again. In Ottawa, he’s third string, and wouldn’t have any shot to show teams what he’s worth. Tonight, he’s expected to start against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, one of the better teams in the AHL. He will have a chance down there to show that he can handle the workload, maybe get his form back, but also hopefully brush off some of his character onto Glass and O’Keefe.

Two weeks from now, he may have shone brightly enough that when waived, a team might take a chance, perhaps a team that would otherwise have let him pass. If it came to recall waivers and the salary split they grant, the same may apply, that he could get a serious consideration for NHL minutes with all the goalie instability that’s always present in the League. At the very least, it’s a classy move to pull out all the stops to give Gerber the best chance possible to continue on in the NHL, to continue on with hard-fought dignity.

That’s exactly how you treat a professional like Gerber, how you treat players on a team that’s aching to brand itself as a model franchise that could catch the eye of free agents and other talents.

A classy move for a classy man; I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Updated - 12:00PM EST

Michael Sharp has some quotes from Gerber after his arrival in Binghamton on his blog. Gerber sounds quite positive. Considering the Binghamton Senators have had their best start ever, reported by Michael Sharp, they have some aspirations at last of a Calder Cup (yes, a better midseason mark by 1 point than even the lockout-stocked team, and they have one game left to better it by 3 if they win tonight, the official 40-game halfway mark).

As Gerber sounded excited to play, you have to wonder if he might think his career options for next season could be improved should he be able to guide Binghamton to a strong or successful Calder Cup run. My guess is that if he gets good starts, a good reception, and good success with the team, a good AHL playoff run could be the best thing for his career right now, barring some successful NHL team wanting him as a backup.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
 Tags: Martin+Gerber,

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