The records in futility established by the Washington Capitals in their
first year in the NHL were challenged by the Ottawa Senators in their first
season, 1992 /93. The "Capitals Watch" was on in Ottawa when it
seemed that the Senators might not win as many as eight games. But they
did, finishing the season with ten victories, nine at home and one on the
road, and 397 goals against. There must be something working against new
teams that set up shop in capital cities.
Bernie Wolfe arrived in Washington for the Caps' second season, and Craig
Billington arrived in Ottawa for the Senators' season. Wolfe was a raw rookie
when he got to Washington. When Billington arrived in Ottawa he had played
111 games for the New Jersey Devils and another 158 with various New Jersey
farm teams in the American League. In his first season with the Senators
the team struggled up from ten to fourteen wins in the 84-game schedule
to finish dead last in the 26-team NHL. Billington played in 63 of those
games. A personable young man who played his first NHL game at the age of
nineteen after two years with Belleville of the OHL, Craig Billington loves
to talk about hockey, and especially about goaltending.
Don't forget that we belong to the mythical "goaltenders' union."
I like to say it's the oldest and, I'm convinced, the strongest anywhere
in sports. You can run into a goalie anytime, anywhere, at any level, and
sit down and have a conversation that last longer than one you would have
with your best friend. I get excited, charged up whenever I run into someone
who has played goal, regardless of age or if they're still playing or not.
Right away you're talking about the latest equipment, or what's going on,
or this guy or that guy and what happened to him, the old days, the new
days, and what's happening. It's unique.
Another thing we love talking about is the different styles of different
goalies. That's one of the great enjoyments. There's a tremendous amount
of respect out there. We may not like one guy's style compared to another
but we respect what he's doing. If he's doing it successfully, we admire
that.
I think most goalies feel for the other goalie during a game. If he's having
a bad night, letting in soft goals, we all know how that feels. I don't
know if that carries with any other position. I had great support playing
for Ottawa, not just from former players but from other goalies in the NHL
today who have stopped and talked with me, guys I've never had a chance
to talk to before. It's kind of ironic that within the industry you get
that kind of support even though we're competing against each other.
I started in the NHL with New Jersey in 1985-86, and I was too young. I
was with an organization that was still young. Their goalies were Ron Low
and Chico Resch, and they wanted a young guy in there too. I was the guy
but it wasn't my time. I needed to mature as a player and a person. I was
nineteen and had only played two years as a junior. I really think it hurt
me, put me back a few years because I was so inconsistent. I look back on
it now and just shake my head and wonder how I even survived one year.
What happened that year was that I was up until Christmas. I had played
in just three games and I was 3-0. Then they sent me to play for Canada
at the World Junior Championships. The tournament was held in Hamilton that
year and we won the silver medal. Then I went back to New Jersey and played
in 15 more games. The next year I became eligible to play in the minors
and I spent the first half of the year in Maine. That was my first experience
with Tom McVie. Tommy is legendary, a true character who has spent his entire
life in the game of hockey as a player and a coach. He took me aside and
worked with me. At the time I probably thought he was a tyrant and he probably
couldn't stand me. He was tough but as you get older you learn that the
people who are the toughest on you are those you support you the most.
I know a lot of goalies say they never had the benefit of good coaching
on their way to the NHL. Tom was different. he had coached players like
Pete Peeters, Pelle Lindbergh, Kirk McLean, and Chris Terreri. Maine was
co-owned by New Jersey and Philadelphia, and Bernie Parent would show up
to work with the goalies. Tom explained to me that he spent a lot of time
with Bernie and learned a lot from him. His practices were about 70 percent
geared to the goalies so it was wonderful.
He can be a funny guy. When I first went to Maine I was very light, maybe
145 pounds. One day a bunch of us were in the weight room talking about
the New Jersey Devils. Tommy came by and said to me, "You might as
well keep talking about them because the closest you're gonna get to the
Meadowlands is the racetrack next door, riding the horses, the way you look
right now." He always kept you in your place.
The best thing about Tom was that he left you alone. He wouldn't get on
your case. He let you play through tough time and was very supportive. He
was usually tougher on you when things were going well than when things
were bad. If things were bad he'd put his arm around you, give you a hug,
and send you on your way. But if things were really good he'd be ranting
and raving. I learned a lot about myself and about life from Tom McVie.
He loves what he does for a living. Perhaps the secret in out life is to
love what you do. So many people don't.
Another person who was very important to me early in my career was Chico
Resch. I lived with Chico and his family my first two seasons in New Jersey.
His wife, Diane, who had been with Chico all his years in the league, was
very supportive. She could empathize with the situation I was in as a young
goalie and it was great for me. At that stage there would have been nothing
worse for me than going home after a game to an empty place with no one
to talk to about it.
Starting with the 1987-88 season Craig Billington spent three years playing
for Utica in the American League. During that time, two promising young
goalies, Sean Burke and Chris Terreri, staked their claims in the New Jersey
goal crease. Burke joined the Devils from the Canadian National Team following
the 1988 Calgary Olympics and backstopped them dramatically to within one
win of reaching the 1988 Stanley Cup Finals. Billington, by then twenty-four
years old and obviously frustrated, looked elsewhere and found an opening
in Burke's old spot with the National Team.
Dave King was running the National Team and I was fortunate he was looking
for a goalie. I seemed like an insurance policy for the Devils. I talked
with Devils' GM Lou Lamoriello and expressed my concern. Then Dave King
came into the picture and things worked out really well.
There are many differences between playing professionally and playing internationally.
Number one is that you're playing for your country and everyone is backing
you. Secondly, there is no real issue of money, the business end of it.
Everything is geared toward developing players and the experience of playing
for your country. I felt that the players I was with that year got along
better than any bunch of guys I've ever played with and yet none of us was
making much money.
They taught us a lot in one year. They taught us about nutrition, visualization,
and the psych part of hockey. We had to take a coaching clinic and had classroom
discussions. They hammered home a lot of points, but it was an environment
where they could do that. I look at it as being a sabbatical year for me.
It allowed me to step away from the pro scene, work at my game, become stronger
mentally, and then come back to it. As it turned out it was the best thing
I ever did.
After my one year there, ironically, Sean Burke and I switched places. He
left the Devils because he wasn't happy and joined the National Team for
the 1992 Olympics in Albertville. I went back to the Devils. I had spent
the month of August in Germany with the Olympic program and then got a call
from the Devils. They were saying, "Hey, Sean's not coming back so
we need you here." They had the right to do that. When I got there
I knew I was gonna make it. I had that feeling, which I had never had before.
On the other hand, it was tough because for the first time in my career
I had really wanted to play in the Olympics. I had been geared and programmed
for a whole year for those '92 Games. So just when it was all in place I
went back to New Jersey and the NHL.
Tom McVie was coaching the Devils then. At the start of the season Chris
Terreri was playing in almost all the games. I only played twice in the
first two months so it was similar to my start as a 19-year old. But I played
more and more toward the end of the season. I played 42 games the following
season and went to the All-Star Game. So my career really took a turn after
the time I spent with the national program. It proved to me you have to
believe in yourself even when you're in the minors and you're twenty-four
years old and people are telling you you're finished.
I had grown up with the New Jersey organization. I had spent eight years
with them. I was a baby when I went there so everybody knew my story, knew
what I was all about. I felt I was finally contributing. I had just had
the best year of my career and played in the All-Star Game. Then just before
the expansion draft in 1993, because they could only protect one goalie,
they traded me to Ottawa. They decided to go with Chris, and because I wasn't
making much money, I was attractive to other teams. The Devils didn't want
to lose me in the expansion draft and get nothing in return, so they made
the deal.
When you get traded to a team that had won just ten games the year before
you're always being asked, "How did it feel?" Well, to be honest,
it was really tough, tougher than I thought it would be. I thought, okay,
Craig, you dealt with being on a poor team when you were nineteen but now
you're a better goaltender, better-prepared mentally, so it shouldn't be
as tough. But it was tougher. The expectation level for my performance was
probably higher than it had been in my whole career. I had come off a year
when I had played in the All-Star game and they were desperate in Ottawa
for a turnaround. It was extremely frustrating, even though I know I played
some of the best hockey of my career that year. [Billington's record
was 11 wins, 41 losses, 4 ties.]
A situation like that becomes one of survival. When you are in the second
half of the season you are so beat up, and it's not just in the papers.
It's everything, the kids you run into. The people in Ottawa were extremely
supportive of me and I love playing in a Canadian city. I've been in the
goalie school business for the past twelve summers so I deal a lot with
kids and, let's face it, kids like to attach themselves to winning teams.
That part frustrates me.
People don't follow teams that don't win very much, and when you're on a
losing team that works on you. And there's obviously the direct impact in
the dressing room of not winning. You know that old saying about professional
sports, winning is everything. That's what it's all about and when you're
not winning it's not a lot of fun.
The mental anguish the players go through is phenomenal. We're not bad guys.
We try our best, but the constant losing really grates on you. You have
to go out and do your best regardless of the outcome, because if you focus
on the outcome all the time and what your stats are - I've got news for
you - you won't be going to a game tomorrow. Instead you'll be spending
time in a psychiatric ward. That's how crazy it gets. About halfway though
the year Brad Shaw comes up to me and he goes, "Hey, you're gonna have
to relax. This is just the way it is. You're doing everything you can, so
relax, because otherwise you're gonna get yourself sick. You're gonna self-destruct."
That had a good effect on me and I think I played some of my best games
in the last part of the season.
It definitely affected my personal life and I blame a lot of that on myself
because I'm such a competitor. You can't be all that upbeat in that environment
ever though people tell you, "It's just a game." Well, it's my
life. I've spent my whole life doing this and I care about it. My wife,
Susan, was great, but she got as frustrated as I did. There were nights
we'd come home after a game and just sit there looking at each other and
it was kind of like, what do you do? People say you should leave it at the
rink. Well, c'mon. If you can, God Bless you. But I can't just leave it
at the rink. The families have to take it too. They're not excluded from
this because ultimately the husband and father comes home. And what about
the kids at school? They hear it, all about how their dad plays and how
his team is no good. It's true.
I remember one time, in Pittsburgh, they were all over us. It had to be
6-1 or 7-1, something like that. It was late in the game - I'm talking the
last minute of play - and I freeze the puck at the side of the net and here
are Stevens and Jagr poking away at it like crazy. I calmly look up at them
and I saw, "Do you guys really need any more? Because if you do I'll
save you a lot of trouble and put it in myself." They started laughing
and the ref started laughing. I just remember their expressions because
they were so intense. We just wanted the game to end and they were so determined
to score another goal.
It's one thing to play 63 games in a winning environment and it's another
to play that many when you're losing almost all of the time. I don't think
anyone - coaches, general managers, or players - really understands unless
they've been in that position. I don't think they understand at all.
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