Tom Hanson, Associated Press Senators goalie Ray Emery plays with an aggressive edge.

By Dave Molinari
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette If the pet python doesn't get you -- figuratively, of course -- the tattoos will.

If his willingness to trade punches with opponents -- even large, ill-humored ones -- doesn't grab your attention, the gaudy earring should.

You know how goaltenders have a reputation for being a bit, well, different?

Don't blame Ray Emery of Ottawa for that, because he's nothing like most of his colleagues in the NHL.

Or almost anyone else, for that matter.

That hasn't changed recently, and perhaps it never will. What has changed in the past six months or so is Emery's role with the Senators -- he has become their undisputed No. 1 goalie -- and the popular perception of him as a guy worthy of attention mostly for his appearance and personal quirks.

"All that stuff that kind of got him noticed last year -- the tattoos, the [dyed] blond hair and that -- disappeared," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "And he just became a good goaltender and a good guy."

Emery beat out Martin Gerber, signed as a free agent last summer, to become Ottawa's go-to goalie after Dominik Hasek went to Detroit as a free agent, and finished the regular season with a 33-16-6 record, 2.47 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.

Enough of the Penguins, who will meet Ottawa in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series tomorrow, faced Emery when he was with the Senators' American Hockey League affiliate in Binghamton to know that what he did in 2006-07 is not a fluke.

"He's very agile, for how big he is," forward Erik Christensen said of Emery, who is 6 feet 2, 202 pounds. "Usually any big goaltender, you want to make them move as much as possible, and he's a guy who likes to go down.

"Most of the time, you're just trying to pick the high parts of the net because when he goes down in that butterfly, unless you get him to open up and put it through his five hole, you have to shoot high."

This will be Emery's second playoff run with Ottawa, because an injury to Hasek a year ago forced him to step in against Tampa Bay and Buffalo.

"Last year, I just kind of got a taste of things," he said. "I was just excited to play and realize there was a tiny margin between succeeding or packing your stuff up.

"This year, I feel like I'm more suited to playing in the playoffs, more confident. I know how to react to different situations. I'm just a better goalie, all around. I'm exciting to kind of get the opportunity to redeem myself from last year."

What he doesn't have to do is polish his image, at least among his teammates. For while Emery's idiosyncrasies tend to get most of the attention outside the Ottawa locker room, his teammates view him as a fairly normal guy.

Fairly.

"Everybody sees him with the hair dyes and the pet python and things that people on the inside don't see," center Jason Spezza said.

"We don't see the same guy that you see. But we don't mind that you see the crazy one who loves to fight, the Ray Emery with the mystique around him."

Spezza acknowledged that Emery isn't a standard-issue player -- "If you've met a normal goalie, let me know who it is," he said -- but pointed out that most observers have an incomplete picture of him.

"He doesn't want to let too many people into his world, I think," he said. "He's a little more private."

Although the Senators once put Emery through an anger-management course, he still plays with an aggressive edge. And likes it that way.

"I tend to play good if I'm [angry]," he said. " As long as it doesn't get me in trouble, I don't have a problem with it."

Sometimes, Emery's emotions are funneled into his fists, like when he pummeled fellow goalie Martin Biron, then of Buffalo, Feb. 22 and followed that up with a bout against Sabres enforcer Andrew Peters.

That doesn't necessarily mean Emery will be tossing aside his blocker to trade punches with, say, Georges Laraque sometime in the next two weeks. He seems more interested in building on his experiences last spring.

"We lost kind of a close series at the end, one I thought I could have done better in," Emery said. "I'm excited to get a chance to play one of those series again, where goaltending definitely can make a difference."