Too slow.
It's a comment that Andrew Brunette has heard all of his life.
Yet, here he is still scoring important goals in his 10th season in the NHL at 32 and not showing any signs of slowing down.
Just look at the great setup he made on a Milan Hejduk goal in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. Or his first-period goal in Game 2. Or his goal in the final minute of regulation time of Game 3 as the Colorado Avalanche won in overtime to take a commanding 3-0 lead over the Dallas Stars.
The line of Brunette, Joe Sakic and Hejduk combined for six goals, 11 assists and 26 shots in the first three games of the series.
"I thought the last 20 games or so we played real well and jelled as a unit," Brunette said. "I think the chemistry is much better now than it was when we played at different times earlier in the season.
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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"I think we all had to make an adjustment or two as to how we play with each other. I think we finally figured it out and we've kept it up."
Chemistry. Intangibles. Adapting.
These are all assets that the 32-year-old Andrew Brunette wears on his sleeve. He's always been a great teammate. It just took the Sudbury, Ontario, native, longer to convince people around the NHL that speed up and down the ice isn't the only gauge. Just judge him on his ability to play around the net.
"It's painful to watch him skate," San Jose Sharks coach Ron Wilson told me back in 1998 when he was coaching the Washington Capitals and Brunette was finally getting a chance to play in the NHL because he had 11 goals and 12 assists in a 28-game stint in D.C. "But, apparently, when you put him with two pretty good players, the skating deficiency is secondary to his skills with the puck."
A-ha!
Just like Game 3 in Colorado's 4-3 overtime victory over Dallas, when with less than a minute to go and Dallas clinging to a 3-2 lead ... abracadabra ... there's Brunette standing near the goal crease tapping in a shot to send the game into overtime.
And it wasn't just because Brunette happened to have Sakic and Hejduk as his linemates, either. Brunette just happens to have a knack of being in the right place at the right time. No different than other skating speed-challenged players who have had pretty nice NHL careers like Luc Robitaille and Charlie Simmer to name just a couple pretty good goal scorers.
"He doesn't dazzle you with his skating, but he's always involved in scoring chances," Sakic said. "He gets to the net and finishes the play when he gets there. He's a great player, he's smart, he's got good hands and he's really strong on the puck. Plus, he's great in the dressing room. He's a great addition.''
Indeed.
That stigma of being too this, too that, that has always had that stigma attached to his resume as he has gone from Washington to Nashville, Atlanta and Minnesota, before leaving that expansion hat trick of cities for a legitimate chance at winning something big in Colorado this season.
The fact of the matter is, however, that Brunette and his wife Lorie had become attached to the Minnesota, where Andrew played for three seasons before the lockout and a phone call from Wild General Manager Doug Risebrough told him that the expansion club wanted to give more playing time to the young, home-grown players the team had coming along. He got that call the night he was working on the game plan for a hockey team he was coaching there.
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The line of Brunette, Joe Sakic and Hejduk combined for six goals, 11 assists and 26 shots in the first three games of the series.
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After getting 69, 46 and 49 points in his seasons in Minnesota (not to mention seven goals and six assists in 18 playoff games for the Wild in 2003), it hurt to hear that there was no place for him. But it wasn't something he hadn't heard in Washington, Nashville or Atlanta before that.
Brunette eventually signed a two-year, $1.6 million contract with the Avalanche. He said he had other options and could have signed for more. But he wanted to play for a team that regularly competed for the Stanley Cup.
"I guess we haven't adjusted all the way yet," he said after setting up a goal in Game 1 of the series at Dallas. "When you move at age 25, 28, maybe it's easier. When you're 32 ... "
"He was a real leader on that Minnesota team, a great teammate," said Stars defenseman Willie Mitchell, who was also with the Wild and both made their mark in the Twin Cities when the team went to the Western Conference finals before losing to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2003.
Truth is, the Wild also thought that with the new rules enforcement in the NHL this season that Brunette's lack of speed would hurt his production, not help it. They were wrong. Why? Because Andrew is one of the best in the League at holding onto the puck ... waiting and waiting to make the right play around the net. Even if there are players around him hacking and whacking at him.
"He's exceptional in close quarters," Wild center Wes Walz said of Brunette. "He's stronger than you might think. I've seen him carry guys like Rob Blake and Chris Pronger to the net with him while still holding onto the puck, before making a play or getting off a good shot from in close."
Brunette laughs and gets a dreamy look on his face as he recalls days in Sudbury when he was growing up.
"Maybe it dates back to when I was a kid and we used to have around 30 kids who played together. It was kind of like a scrum," he recalled. "If you wanted the puck, you had to be good in tight quarters. You had to be persistent and mentally and physical strong to keep the puck, to protect it. Honestly, I've always felt I kind of rolled off people well, whether it was hockey or football or basketball, whatever sport I played."
And that knack has not left Andrew.
Brunette had a career-high 24 goals in the regular season and his 63 points were topped on the Avalanche by only Sakic and Alex Tanguay. But for Andrew Brunette the team is the thing now. Gone are the days of losing interest down the stretch because teams like Washington, Nashville, Atlanta and Minnesota (except for 2003 with the Wild) were horribly out of the playoff mix.
"It can be tough, especially in that last two months of the season," said Brunette, "but you have to be competitive and try to win every night -- even if you're 30 points out of the playoffs. You're still playing for something."
It's that kind of thinking, that kind of passion that makes you forget that Andrew Brunette maybe doesn't skate like the wind and maybe he isn't the quickest player on his feet in the NHL.
But maybe the fact that he's smarter than your average hockey player. And now he's playing on a team thinks bigger and faster and higher than most teams at this time of the year.
Too slow? That doesn't compute in Denver.
