The Rise of a Junior Senator From Ottawa

Published: May 28, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/sports/hockey/28emery.html

OTTAWA, May 25 — As he has moved through the playoffs and closer to the stage that traditionally magnifies the feats of N.H.L. goaltenders, Ray Emery has treated that tradition with a shrug and an amused smile.

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Chris Wattie/Reuters

Ray Emery, the Ottawa Senators’ 24-year-old goaltender, was an unlikely candidate to be the starter, but plenty of hard work in the off-season paid off.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

After three series victories, Emery has a 12-3 record during Ottawa’s postseason run, including three shutouts. His team plays the Anaheim Ducks to begin the Stanley Cup finals Monday.

He cares little that the earnest world of hockey has trouble looking past his various tattoos and colorful wardrobe, or the fact that he missed a flight to a playoff game after crashing his Hummer, or the fact that he drives a Hummer at all in this most Chevrolet of sports.

All of that has overshadowed the not-so-small detail that Emery, 24, has led the Ottawa Senators to the Stanley Cup finals in his first season as a full-time starter. The best-of-seven Cup series between Ottawa and the Ducks opens Monday in Anaheim, Calif.

“I really could care less what people say or think,” Emery said. “I like winning and I like playing the game. It’s exciting for me and the team and all my family and friends who are watching. That’s all I care about.”

Emery was standing outside his team’s locker room, wearing his usual diamond-stud earrings. He had a pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses perched on his forehead; the tattoos visibly snaked out from under the sleeves of his light-blue T-shirt.

He is not only one of the few black players in the N.H.L., but he is also one of the few players whose style stands out so distinctly. Quite likely, he is the only one in the league who owns a baby-blue suit, which still makes his teammates chuckle.

“Ray is a different kind of guy,” said the Senators’ captain, Daniel Alfredsson, who once lost $500 in a bet with Emery when Emery ate a cockroach.

Behind all of that is a goalie who grabbed the No. 1 job this season against most predictions. He has gone 12-3 in the playoffs with three shutouts, a 1.95 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. He outdueled Marc-André Fleury of Pittsburgh, Martin Brodeur of the Devils and Ryan Miller of Buffalo this postseason, all in 4-1 series wins.

This performance is only one year after he was forced to become the starter in the playoffs when Dominik Hasek was hurt. Emery struggled in the Senators’ second-round exit against Buffalo. Then Ottawa went out and signed the free agent Martin Gerber to be the starter, giving him a three-year contract at $3.7 million a season.

But Emery, who is still in his initial contract that pays him $925,000 a season, came into training camp and grabbed the job. His outward nonchalance hides how personally he took his first playoff experience.

“Last year’s experience was something I’m glad I had,” Emery said. “I saw what it takes to win a series. The series against Buffalo was disappointing, but even though it was disappointing, I think it was the best experience I had just because it taught me how to deal with different things. I think you learn more from losing than from winning.”

Emery spent three weeks last summer in Calgary, Alberta, working with his goalie coach, Eli Wilson, who said that most goalies he coached might dedicate a week to such intensive work.

“I have never seen a guy at that level more committed to being a better player,” Wilson said in a telephone interview. “I think he saw how much room he had for improvement. He knew he had another notch in his game.”

Ron Low, the Senators’ goaltending coach, said the team was steadily gaining confidence in Emery this season, but that process took a huge step in a game Dec. 12 in Detroit. The Red Wings outshot the Senators, 45-22, yet Emery allowed only two goals in a 3-2 victory.

“I think the biggest thing is poise,” Low said. “Last year at this time, he was almost what I’d call jittery. Things were moving fast and he was always jumping from side to side. This year he’s got a totally different approach to the game. He stays very composed, and very few times he’s out of position because of it.”

For most of his career, Emery was regarded with skepticism. Growing up near Hamilton, Ontario, he was noticed because of his talent, but he also developed a reputation for getting into fights, not the most attractive quality in a goalie. The Senators, who drafted him in the fourth round in 2001, once sent him to an anger-management course.

This season, Emery memorably fought Sabres goalie Martin Biron in a game Feb. 22 in Buffalo, then took on the Sabres’ enforcer Andrew Peters. All three players were ejected.

His adventures, if not his fighting, have continued in the playoffs. Before Game 5 against the Devils in the second round, Emery overslept and was racing to catch the team flight to New Jersey when he crashed his Hummer on an Ottawa highway. He was forced to take a commercial flight, arriving at the Meadowlands shortly before the game, then winning the series-clinching game, 3-2.

“I think there are athletes who have a little trouble in critical situations and there are other athletes who just step up and handle the test,” Senators Coach Bryan Murray said. “That’s what I saw in Ray. We were all upset at Ray for being late. But he just stepped up and won. I think the message was very clear.”

Murray, who is 64 and coaching his fifth N.H.L. team, often wears the look of an exasperated parent. He was clearly unhappy last season when Emery invited the news media to watch him get his latest tattoo. He has bemoaned Emery’s ability to afford a Hummer but not a decent alarm clock.

But, with the Senators eclipsing years of playoff disappointment to reach the finals for the first time, Murray said that the team had pushed all that aside. So has Emery.

“You definitely have to be confident, and I think your team can sense that,” Emery said. “You can’t let things get to you too much as a goalie, and I think you have to carry yourself that way, where nothing’s going to faze you. It’s part of the job.”

The shrug and smile have become part of his success.