Dwayne Roloson's career path has had more deflections than a 80 mph slap shot that bounces off a skate, a knee and a shoulder before finding an unpredictable ending in the back of the net.
The 36-year-old goaltender who is leading the Edmonton Oilers to their storybook first visit to the Stanley Cup finals since 1990 is not a former first-round draft choice who predictably developed into a stopper in goal. Heck, he was never drafted by an NHL team and doesn't have a long history of 30-win seasons or an impressive playoff record. In fact, he wasn't even a wee lad in 1990, when the Oilers beat the Boston Bruins in five games to win their fifth Stanley Cup in seven years. He was already 21 then and still scuffling around lower-class junior hockey programs in Ontario.
Roloson remembers Bill Ranford and the Oilers' Stanley Cup win back then coming just after he backstopped the Thorold Black Hawks into the Ontario Hockey League Junior B playoffs at Wellington.
"We lost, but I guess I did OK," Roloson told me, when I asked about his first big break in goaltending. "I guess I played hard enough to impress the goaltending coach at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell to earn a scholarship there."
Larry Wigge has covered the NHL since 1969. The longtime NHL columnist for The Sporting News, Wigge is now an NHL.com columnist and a frequent contributor to the website.
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Roloson learned of a rather bizarre story about his final game at Thorold from Mass-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald a few years later when he won 23 games his senior year in college and was a candidate for the Hobey Baker Award, which goes to the U.S. college player of the year.
It seems that MacDonald and his goaltending coach went to Wellington and Roloson was one of several players the coach was looking at. Roloson was terrific in that game for Thorold, turning back all sorts of shots to get his team into overtime. It was at that point that the goalie coach jotted down a note ... but wouldn't show it to MacDonald.
When Wellington scored in overtime, Roloson broke his stick over the crossbar in disgust ... and that's when the goalie coach showed MacDonald his note, which said.
"If Thorold loses and Roli breaks his stick, we'll take him, because he's competitive enough to play for me."
Goaltending is all about perseverance. It's a crazy profession in which you are paid to stop shots that come at you at 100 mph and from all sorts of different angles, often through the maze of legs and arms in front of the net. Goalies fit perfectly on most psychiatrists' couches in a game where even a winning result often is greeted by skeptics who thought a save should have been made with more pizzazz.
And Roloson could be considered the poster boy/man since it has taken him 12 years in the NHL to finally have the reins of a team handed over to him ... as the No. 1 goalie.
The 36-year-old Toronto native wasn't even Edmonton's first choice for the job -- Buffalo wanted too much for Martin Biron and there were also questions about Toronto veteran Ed Belfour. But Roloson, whose career playoff record was just 6-7 before this season, has gone from being career backup to the backbone of the Oilers' Stanley Cup run by posting a remarkable 12-5 record with a stingy 2.22 goals-against average and nearly-impregnable .931 save percentage.
He endured a bumpy 0-3 start after joining Edmonton following the trade, as he adjusted to his defensemen and their quirks, but since then he's become a presence in the Edmonton goal with his ability to be in position to make the first save, stay square and stay in position to be ready for the next shot. His quickness at going from side-to-side to make a key save has all the experts in hockey wondering if this rags to riches story is for real.
"No one knows who the real Dwayne Roloson is," the veteran goalie told me, talking about the life as backup in Calgary behind Trevor Kidd one year and Rick Tabaracci another, in Buffalo behind Dominik Hasek for a lot of years and while sharing the goaltending duties in Minnesota with Manny Fernandez. "I have been able to get into a routine here. In Minnesota, I'd get on a roll and, all of a sudden, it was Manny's turn to play. Now, whether I play well or not, I know I'll be back in there the next game and it's my challenge to win."
It's a comfort zone the vagabond netminder wondered if it would ever come his way.
Roloson isn't surprised by his success. He considers playing in more than 250 regular-season games in the NHL, playing in two games in the Eastern Conference finals while with Buffalo (going 1-1 while subbing for an injured Hasek) and being chosen to the Western Conference All-Star team while at Minnesota in 2002 as learning tools for the job at hand.
"I've been here," Roloson said of playing, watching and learning while playing behind Hasek in Buffalo. "I've been in the Stanley Cup Finals with Buffalo in 1999 -- and I remember a lot of things Dom had taught me ... like reading the play a lot better and knowing what was going to happen in front of me."
The steadiness of Roloson is what the Oilers failed to get earlier in the season, when inconsistent goaltending by Ty Conklin, Jussi Markkanen and Mike Morrison cost Edmonton a lot of games.
It wasn't one or two spectacular saves ...
"I think I'm right when I say we gave up the fewest shots in the league on a per-game average ... and yet on many nights we needed just one more save," said Oilers General Manager Kevin Lowe. "We saw Roli as a guy that could step in and maybe improve the goaltending that we had to that point in the season."
In other words, Lowe didn't expect the next Grant Fuhr or Bill Ranford, or one of the leading candidates for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs. But that's exactly what the Oilers have gotten.
Roloson on his comfort zone in Edmonton:
"I have been able to get into a routine here. In Minnesota, I'd get on a roll and, all of a sudden, it was Manny's turn to play. Now, whether I play well or not, I know I'll be back in there the next game and it's my challenge to win."
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"This is all about getting a chance to show what you can do," Roloson said. "The opportunity to play is the thrill of it all."
And you won't need to see Roloson to slam a stick across the crossbar to display his competitiveness.
"He's a much more in control person as far as his mental approach," said Oilers center Michael Peca, who was the captain of the Sabres when Roloson played in Buffalo. "He was the backup goalie then and Dom was the guy. So mentally, it's a different approach. Now, as a starter, you can see that he takes charge in the locker room. He used to say things before, but you can tell he's got more purpose in the things he says now. That really rubs off on guys."
The great crossroads of Roloson's professional career came in the summer of 2000, when his contract was up in Buffalo and, after a 1-7-3 season with the Sabres, the phone wasn't ringing with offers to stay in the NHL. And he had a huge career decision to make. Roloson and his wife, Melissa, who was pregnant with their first child, talked about taking a minor-league contract with the St. Louis Blues just to stay in the game. But it obviously wasn't exactly what new parents were looking to go through.
"I was 31 and had only played in 32 games with Buffalo over the past two seasons and my wife and I knew we had a big decision to make," Roloson said. "I told Melissa that maybe it would be worth it to take a step back and see what happens. I said, 'Who knows? Maybe this (an assignment with the Worcester IceCats of the American Hockey League) would be it as far as playing. Maybe it would lead to something better.'
"We wound up moving in with Melissa's parents (who lived in Framingham, Mass.). That wasn't exactly my first choice, trying to make a living for my family and all."
But this wasn't Michael vs. Archie in All in the Family or Ben Stiller vs. Robert DiNiro in Meet the Parents.
"No, nothing like that," Roloson laughed. "My father-in-law worked for International Paper and had just been transferred from Edmonton to Framingham. It actually turned out great, because while I was on the road and Melissa was able to have her parents there to help with the baby."
You could say the circle of faith, if you will, was never in doubt.
And the something better in the lives of the Rolosons came when Dwayne was named Most Valuable Player of the American Hockey League at Worcester in the 2000-01 season, which led to a free-agent tryout with the Minnesota Wild and a chance to earn a spot on the expansion team's NHL roster.
And now he's got an even greater opportunity.
What else do you need to know about Roloson? He and Melissa now have two sons, Brett and Ross. His favorite music is by Genesis. His best friend in hockey is Colorado defenseman Rob Blake, who also grew up in Simcoe. In the off-season, he likes to play golf and tennis. But that's still a long couple of weeks away.
"He's making saves look easy right now," San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton said.
"I'll never forget how he robbed me in overtime," Sharks right winger Jonathan Cheechoo said of a quick glove save he made at the end of a second overtime that allowed the Oilers to regroup for a Game 3 victory, instead of going down 3-0 in the series.
"Roli made all the big saves against Detroit, San Jose and then us," Mighty Ducks of Anaheim right winger Teemu Selanne said. "He's become a presence in their goal crease."
"He's been there every time we need him," said Oilers captain Jason Smith. "He wants the game on his shoulders ... and when your goalie wants to be a leader like that in the playoffs, you can go a long way."
That shaky start also helped establish Roloson in the locker room.
"Every goalie is different," Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger said. "Every goalie wants you to be in different spots -- where you block shots, where you stand, and so on. You had to get used to each other."
"He's made us all better players," said Oilers defenseman Steve Staios.
"I had seen him play and talked to others about his character," said Lowe. "But I didn't realize we were getting another captain."
No one, except Roloson did.
Stereotypes are hard to shake. Backup plan means it's not Plan A. Stand-ins on Broadway have been known to be second-best for years.
But when you've had to work as hard as Dwayne Roloson to get his own team, his own identity, backup is just a part of Roloson's past that has allowed him to become backbone of the Oilers ... and is clearly in the backstretch of a pretty special storybook finish.
