Penguins: Goligoski's approach usually not sugarcoated
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Alex Goligoski (13) has been a minus-2 in just one game and even or plus 23 times.
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Sometimes, Alex Goligoski leaves people wondering just what he's thinking.
Goligoski, a Penguins rookie defenseman, is quiet and understated and seems to take a deliberate, patient approach to things.
That includes direction off the ice.
Like the time assistant coach Andre Savard noticed Goligoski was underdressed for a team road trip.
"I know he's from Minnesota, but we went on a trip the first time it was cold and I said, 'You should get a coat,' " Savard recalled yesterday after practice. "He didn't get one. It took until the third trip. I said, 'Finally, you got a coat.' I want to make sure he stays healthy."
Goligoski, 23, is a little too important to the Penguins to risk losing him to illness.
After playing in three NHL games last season -- his first after three seasons at the University of Minnesota and a lengthy decision process before turning pro -- 2008-09 was going to be his time to ease into the lineup, maybe spend more time in the American Hockey League if needed.
His role became intensely magnified after surgery forced out two of the team's top defensemen, Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney. Neither has played, although Whitney could before Christmas. That means Goligoski not only takes a regular shift -- most recently with veteran Philippe Boucher -- but also plays the point on the power play.
As befits his personality, Goligoski accepts the accelerated status with no outward signs of anxiety.
"Everything's new," he said, "but I'm pretty much the same. I'm pretty easygoing. I just go with the flow most of the time."
An offensive defenseman with more skill than size at 5 feet 11, 180 pounds, Goligoski has 14 points through 29 games and averages 19:04 of ice time going into a game tomorrow at Atlanta. He entered last night tied for first among league rookie defensemen, and tied for seventh among all rookies, in points. Three of his four goals and three of his 10 assists have come on the power play.
He has clanged several shots off the goal frame recently, helping lead to a drought of 13 games without a goal, dating to Nov. 15. He probably makes up for that in the transition game.
"He moves the puck well to the open man," said Savard, who oversees the team's defensemen.
If plus-minus ratings are a good indication of defensive responsibility, Goligoski has been steady. He has been a minus-2 in just one game and even or plus 23 times.
"With the injuries, you need somebody to come in and do the job," Savard said. "That's not an easy job. He's got that confidence, that poise. He's got that vision."
It might be a vision slightly askew from the norm in the NHL.
In a sport full of routine and superstition, Goligoski, faced with few options, chose to wear jersey No. 13 when he got to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL last season and has kept it with the Penguins.
"Everyone thinks it's unlucky, but I'm not superstitious at all," he said.
He also so far has beaten the odds as a target, being the only rookie who is a regular in the lineup. The one notable stunt the veterans pulled occurred when they sent Goligoski and Paul Bissonnette, who has since been sent to Wilkes-Barre, on a cold, wild goose chase to an abandoned building in Detroit a month ago.
With Whitney and defenseman Hall Gill, who has a shoulder injury, due back in the coming days or weeks, and Gonchar expected back later this season, there will be a glut of defensemen.
Goligoski, whose two-way contract would make it simple to send him back to the AHL, doesn't seem concerned that the Penguins' staff has not given him the OK to move out of a local hotel and find a place of his own.
After all, he doesn't believe in bad signs.
"As of now. I don't really care too much about that," Goligoski said, allowing that an apartment would be nice, but "there's ups to the hotel, too. I get someone to clean my room every day."
NOTES -- Injured forwards Max Talbot (foot) and Mike Zigomanis (shoulder) remained out of practice yesterday, and winger Ruslan Fedotenko sat out because of illness. That left nine forwards and 18 players total for practice at Southpointe. ... After the team's lackluster performance in a 6-3 loss Saturday at Philadelphia, coach Michel Therrien showed a video "about competing" before practice and then conducted a rigorous workout that included a lot of skating and drills with heavy contact. "They did a good job. We think we got their attention ... but I want to see results," Therrien said. ... Penguins centers Sidney Crosby (793,995 through yesterday morning) and Evgeni Malkin (715,663) lead Eastern Conference forwards in fan voting for the All-Star Game and, by the time voting ends Jan. 2, could break the record of 1,020,736 set in 2000 by former Penguins winger Jaromir Jagr.
First Published December 17, 2008 12:00 am
