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NHL All-Rookie - Rod Brind'Amour

Is Shouldering The Burden Of Being A Foundation Player

Luckily for all involved, Rod Brind'Amour's shoulders are as broad, muscular and strong as the expectations and hopes that have been placed upon them by the St. Louis Blues. Brind'Amour isn't the sort to make a spin high in the offensive zone with the puck and look for others going to the net, but you'll be mesmerized by his ability to make plays while plowing through traffic. He'll take the puck to the net himself, usually along a linear route. Despite absorbing immeasurable punishment last season Brind'Amour was undeterred. "I knew he wouldn't be a fancy man," Blues General Manager Ron Caron says. "He'll never be finesse. He is strength, strong mentally and physically. If things don't change, he has the dimensions of being a carbon copy of Bryan Trottier. I don't know if we'll have enough guys playing with him to win four Stanley Cups, but Rod has that kind of ability."

Trottier, who moves to the Pittsburgh Penguins this season after a Hall of Fame career with the New York Islanders, has been among the best ever at bulling down the middle of the offensive zone. Brind'Amour? He wasn't a superstar at the age of 19 last season, but he certainly didn't disappoint. Despite playing the bulk of the year out of position at left wing, he scored 61 points in 79 regular season games, earned a plus-23 ranking and made the NHL's All-Rookie team. He is neither a fast nor quick skater and he doesn't have a big shot, but Brind'Amour has the uncanny knack of anticipating the play before it develops. He possesses great vision of the ice and will take a hit to make a play. And when he attacks the net, he has the strength to hold off defenders and stay on his skates.

Perhaps the only flaw he demonstrated last season was holding the puck for too long while around the net. If he learns to pull the shooting and passing triggers more quickly, there is no reason why Brind'Amour couldn't be a point-a-game center this season. "He possesses something with the puck that you see in guys who have played in the League 10 or 15 years," Blues Coach Brian Sutter gushes. I compare him with a young Trottier."

Sutter also compared him favorably to the other top young rookie forwards last season, Jeremy Roenick of the Chicago Blackhawks, Mike Modano of the Minnesota North Stars and Mark Recchi of the Penguins. "If you're looking at the dominant offensive player, you look at Roenick or Modano," Sutter says, drawing a line between the youngsters and Calgary's more experienced Sergei Makarov. "Roenick's an exciting individual. He's got a lot of quickness. But look at plus-minus, that tells you a lot (Roenick too was a plus-rated player last season). For a first-year player to play like Rod, in all three zones, well ... And if we were to turn Roddy loose offensively, he'd be scary."

In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that's just what St. Louis did. Brind'Amour played a little more at center and responded with five goals and eight assists in 12 games. He played particularly well in the Blues rugged Norris Division Final series against Chicago, won by the Blackhawks in seven games. "Finding Brind'Amour was a great break for them," says Quebec Nordiques General Manager Pierre Page, who coached against him eight times last year while directing the North Stars. "He can play offense. He can play defense. He works. I can name you a lot of young players who don't work." Brind'Amour has made heady progress since the Blues drafted him ninth overall in 1988, a pick the Blues received after losing in overtime to Winnipeg to finish the 1987-88 season. "This is a dream come true," Caron said after signing Brind'Amour late in the 1989 season. "If the Lord's not there, he's gone. If we win that game in overtime, the last game of the year on Easter Sunday, we flip-flop with Winnipeg in the standings and Winnipeg takes him and we have 10 minutes to collect our thoughts. We were very fortunate he was available at number nine. We knew then we had drafted a very special hockey player, a young fellow who has leadership qualities."

Brind'Amour's agent, Ron Perrick, likes to tell a story about those leadership qualities and his client's maturity. "His dad Bob and I are about the same age, and we sat down to have a chat over dinner one night, all of us, talking about life in general and hockey," Perrick says. "I kind of felt Rod was the most mature person at the table. It was a funny feeling." Brind'Amour, a wholesome liver, starred in his one season at Michigan State (he was the Central Collegiate Hockey Association's Freshman of the Year) after leading the Notre Dame prep school in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, to the Sask. Junior Hockey League championship in 1988. Then the Blues lured him from college with a four- year contract (three years plus an option) worth more than $900,000. "I had played Tier II hockey, and that's no steppingstone to the NHL," Brind'Amour says. "I needed more time to develop. I got a lot out of going to Michigan State. It was a great place to prepare. In Tier II, you don't play anybody. There's always the uncertainty about just how good you are. I had a fairly good year at Michigan State. I didn't put up great numbers (56 points in 40 games) but I showed I could play."

He made a Hollywood entrance into the NHL in the 1989 playoffs, scoring on his first shot on goal. He had some similarly spectacular moments in his rookie season last year, but really made his mark as a banger, a hard worker and a heady two-way player. "It's definitely important to play defense first," Brind'Amour says. "You've got to play both ends of the rink. We have great defense and great goaltending. We just have to do the little things." One of those little things has gone a long way toward making Brind'Amour a big thing. Brind'Amour has been an avid weightlifter since he was 14, and it shows. In the locker room he looks more like a football fullback than hockey forward. "It's a lot of mental stuff," he says. "I feel better after doing it. I think I feel stronger if I do stuff like that."

And Brind'Amour has quickly learned to use his build to advantage at both ends of the rink. "I don't mind the physical part," he says. "That's just the way I've tried to play all my life. I don't want to change too much that's how I got here. It's part of the game. You can't play intimidated. No matter who it is, you have to play the same against each player." After showing he could handle the physical rigors of the game, Brind'Amour's biggest challenge last season was overcoming a pair of slumps, including a scoring drought in the season's third quarter that probably cost him a shot at the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie. "I know I can get points," he says. "All my life I've been able to get points. But when your offense isn't going well, you have to work on other things."

Brind'Amour was benched one game and briefly demoted to a checking line. He also saw his time on the power play diminish. But he regrouped while playing a lesser role and played his way back into prominence. "Roddie's a young man," Sutter says. "He's mentally and physically mature beyond his years. At the same time, we're not going to throw him into every tough situation. If anything, we've got to tone him down a little bit. He's somebody we've got to get to relax a little more. Roddie works so hard every night. He's so intense and puts so much pressure on himself."

Caron and Sutter were convinced Brind'Amour was the real thing last season, so they decided to move him to center full-time this season. To that end, Caron traded Peter Zezel, Brett Hull's center for much of the latter's 72-goal season, to Washington during the summer for Geoff Courtnall, who will take Brind'Amour's place as a scoring line left wing. Now Brind'Amour figures to see plenty of prime time duty centering either Hull and Sergio Momesso or Courtnall and Paul MacLean. "I'd never really played left wing before," he says of last season's experiment. "I prefer to play center. That's my natural position. I feel more comfortable there. I feel at home there. But I'll play wherever I can. I'm trying every day to do my job." All while shouldering a fairly large burden.

By Jeff Gordon; Sportswriter For The St. Louis Post Dispatch, Goal Volume XVIII December 1990

Carving A Niche

Butcher, Stevens Make Mark In St. Louis

How valuable are physical, heady, wily and indefatigable defenseman? Ask the St. Louis Blues. General manager Ron Caron spent heavily to get free agent Scott Stevens from the Washington Capitals in the off-season and Garth Butcher from the Vancouver Canucks at the trading deadline. The total bill: Up to five first-round draft picks, a $5.1-million commitment to Stevens and four solid NHL players - Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning, Sergio Momesso and Robert Dirk- to get Butcher. (Caron also got center Dan Quinn as Butcher's tagalong from the Canucks.)

Vincent Riendeau

But the results have justified the staggering cost. With Stevens and the aptly named Butcher taking turns policing their zone with a vicious zeal, the Blues finished the season with 105 points and then rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Detroit Red Wings in their Norris Division semifinal. So the second-guessing of the Butcher trade has subsided somewhat in the Gateway City. "He's just what we needed," Stevens says. "He works hard, he gets in people's faces and he's good at killing penalties." No wonder Blues' coach Brian Sutter wanted Butcher all season. "We may not have won the last playoff without him," Sutter says. "He is going to compete every shift. I played against him for a lot of years. You know the people who compete, plain and simple. Some people compete once in a while and some people compete all the time. With him on the ice, we can put any of our people against any of their people and it won't matter."

Dirk & Tilley

While Stevens' value was well established when he was acquired by the Blues - he made the NHL's first all-star team in 1988 - Butcher seemed to be an under appreciated performer for the Canucks. "If you're a defensive-type player and you're down a goal or two every game, it's hard for that type of player to look good," Butcher says. "It's the offensive players which gel teams back into games. When you're leading or even in a game, that's when defense seems more important. And that's why Stevens and Butcher stood out against the Red Wings. Butcher worked over Steve Yzerman and Bob Probert while Stevens made Sergei Fedorov his favorite target.

All three vanished offensively as the Blues won the last three games of the series 6-1, 3-0 and 3-2. "They made their presence felt," says Yzerman, who was further slowed after Blues' winger Dave Lowry took him down late in Game 4, injuring his right knee. "We finished every check; you have to take the body in these games," Stevens says. "The more physical you play at the start of the series, the better chance to have to wear the other team down by the end of the series," Butcher says. "They got under the other team's skin," says Blues' defenseman Glen Featherstone. "Yzerman took a shot at Butcher. When you have a player of that caliber taking shots that way..." Butcher did more than help win a series. He helped solidify a defense which was showing signs of strain before the trade deadline. Stevens seemed to be wearing down. Paul Cavallini appeared to be losing his confidence, Harold Snepsts was getting older and Jeff Brown was hobbling around with ankle injuries. Butcher absorbed a huge workload for the Blues and also added toughness, always a plus for post-season play. "It helps a lot," Blues' goaltender Vincent Riendeau says. "If you only have one or two big guys, they will get run and the other team will try to take penalties with them. But if you have four or five back there, what can they do?"

The Red Wings tried to goad Butcher and Stevens into taking penalties, but both kept their cool and kept themselves on the ice. "You're not going anywhere in the playoffs by fighting," Stevens says. "You have to be disciplined." The Blues have assembled their best defensive corps in franchise history. For much of the l980s, they put makeshift units on the ice by combining fading veterans with too-green youngsters.

In the 1988-89 season, for instance, journeyman Gordie Roberts (77 games), rookie Tom Tilley (70 games) and tough guy Dave Richter (66 games) were their defensive workhorses.

Remember Gaston Gingras? He played 52 games that season as well. Since then, Cavallini blossomed into an all-star and Caron acquired Brown, Snepsts, Stevens, Butcher and Mario Marois and promoted Featherstone to full-time duty. Tilley, once a regular, has spent most of this season in Peoria (International League). "We have a good mix of guys who can move the puck and guys who are physical," Stevens says. "We don't score a lot of goals so it's important we don't give up a lot."

That conservative philosophy suits Butcher fine. "This team succeeds by working hard and having everybody show up every night," Butcher says. "By no means is this a finesse team. To me, these are the kind of players you want to play with."

By Jeff Gordon; May 3, 1991 The Hockey News

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