OTTAWA — Hot goalies.  

While every NHL team wants one for the upcoming playoffs, the term “hot goalies” has a new meaning these days.

On Wednesday, Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Martin Gerber was suspended by the NHL for three games after (slightly) bumping referee Mike Leggo and shooting a puck in his direction after a disputed goal late in the third period against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.

The generally mild-mannered Gerber never seemed the type to land on YouTube with a meltdown. When it comes to former Ottawa Senators goalies behaving badly, that’s usually Ray Emery territory.

To be fair, Gerber’s tirade paled by comparison with the Tuukka Rask American Hockey League tantrum that has been making the rounds on the Internet over the past few days. Gerber, though, did shoot a puck toward an an official, landing him an automatic three-game hook.

So here’s the question: Which Leafs goalie meltdown was the topper — Gerber in this regular-season game versus the Capitals or Curtis Joseph accidentally bowling over referee Mick McGeough in a Game 3 playoff against the Senators on April 17, 2000?

Both goalies were furious over what they viewed as blatant interference. During a goal-crease battle, Joseph had been cleverly slew-footed by Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, allowing a Rob Zamuner shot to score.
Naturally, the Leafs got the last laugh, taking Tom (“Do I have to stop the shots going wide, too?”) Barrasso and the Senators in six games.

Because Joseph slipped on his way to confront McGeough, inadvertently dumping him, the goaltender received a 10-minute misconduct, but no further penalty from the league.
Gerber wasn’t as lucky.

Old Gerbs had just as good an argument — he was beside himself that Washington’s Brooks Laich (do former Senators have all the fun?) used the blade of his stick to pitch fork Gerber across the goal-line with the puck underneath him.
Is that not interference?

Before you get on Gerber’s case, spend a minute in the man’s skates. After three miserable, though well-compensated, seasons in Ottawa in which he failed to earn the starting job, Gerber had to suffer the humility of the waiver wire before landing in Toronto at the trade deadline.

At 34, the native of Burgdorf, Switzerland, is playing to earn another contract in the NHL. Every game, regardless of whether the Leafs have a life after April 11, is a playoff game for Gerbs.

Now, toss in the heat of a tight game against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals, a last-minute one-goal lead by the Leafs, Washington’s goalie pulled for an extra skater — and Gerber gets played for a floor hockey ring by Laich.
No wonder he lost it.

That wasn’t Gerber’s temper on display, it was his competitive fire, underestimated because he is usually so soft-spoken.

“I’m sorry for me, for losing my cool there,” Gerber told reporters after the game. “I got shoved in the net. That’s why (the puck) went in. I was upset, shot the puck against the boards and after that he tossed me out for I don’t know what.”
Now, Gerber has to sit out for three games, hurting his late-season audition.

Though it wasn’t his intent, Gerber’s outburst sparked a string of events that provided spectacular entertainment.

Gerber, remember, is part of Toronto’s patchwork goalie tandem of Gerber-Joseph, filling in for Vesa Toskala, out for the rest of the season while recovering from hip surgery.

So, imagine the glee on the Capitals’ bench when Gerber was ejected in a 2-2 game, with 57 seconds remaining in the third period, forcing a stone-cold, soon-to-be-42-year-old Joseph into action.

What followed hardly met the Caps’ expectations. Was that a frozen goaltender or Mariano Rivera coming out of a warm bullpen? In the dying seconds of regulation, Joseph made several spectacular stops of shots from close range, including a one-timer from Ovechkin, then held off Washington in overtime when the Capitals outshot Toronto 8-0.

In the shootout, Joseph stopped all three Washington shooters, including the 51-goal-man, Ovechkin, to become the NHL’s most unlikely hero of the week.

Cries of “CU-jo! CU-jo!” rang through the building, taking fans back to Joseph’s first go-round in Toronto, when the Leafs were somewhat competitive.

“I’ve played long enough,” Joseph said. “Ovechkin is definitely the greatest player in the game right now, I would agree with that. But I’ve played against the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, and guys like that.

“Hopefully that experience helped.”

That experience probably won’t stop Cujo from setting the record for most losses by a goalie in NHL history. The native of Keswick, Ont., is two losses away from passing Gilles Meloche, who recorded 351 NHL defeats.

Joseph says he’s having so much fun, he doesn’t mind picking up the record, as long as people keep in mind he has also won 453 games — and counting.

Ottawa Citizen