I know a lot of people still hold a soft spot for him, myself included, so it's great to see him back in the NHL. Too bad he's going to be in direct competition with Carolina though
One of my favourite Canes of all-time. One of my favourite players of all-time. You can't not love the little latvian! Great to see him back in the NHL, sucks that it's with the Caps though. However given the choice of Barrasso or Irbe to be goaltending coach, I'd take Tom everytime. Irbe did great with what he was given but he was unorthodox to say the least. Maybe he could mentor someone like Murphy but I don't know if he's be the guy to teach solid fundamentals and such. Maybe, I'm out to lunch here but based on Irbe's style, I don't know if that would translate well over to teaching.
Will always remember him for the 2002 run and him beating Toronto in the ECF
Some of those saves are just
Last edited by GIN ANTONIC: 08-13-2009 at 10:58 AM.
I will always love Irbe, I don't know how anyone really couldn't. Very exciting for him and I'm sure that means Tripp will interview him whenever the Caps are in town.
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....and nothing dims these stars.
Apparently he still has family living in Raleigh. He mentions his son still lives there. Kinda cool. Didn't know that. Hockey players must really love the area. Everyone who comes here seems to keep a house even after they get traded or retire.
Last edited by GIN ANTONIC: 08-13-2009 at 11:54 AM.
I will always love Irbe, I don't know how anyone really couldn't. Very exciting for him and I'm sure that means Tripp will interview him whenever the Caps are in town.
This is great news. I love Irbe since I saw him and the Sharks beat the Red Wings in that 1994 series.
2nd-best moment of the 02 playoffs at the RBC, for me: Walking out of game 5 chanting IR-BE, IRBE IRBE IRBE, IRBE IRBE over and over to the tune of that annoying-ass goal song that the Godless Habominations play all the time.
Last edited by AcidQueen: 08-13-2009 at 08:11 PM.
Reason: The best was when we beat NJ to get to the 2nd round for the first time since 1986
From goalie coach of Dynamo Riga to the nhl..that's a big step. Given his very unorthodox style I'm pretty surprised they hired him.
That's what I thought too. It seems like his ability to speak Russian and communicate with Varlamov is one of the main reasons for the hiring. Don't get me wrong, I wish all the best to Arty, but I hope the Caps fail miserably.
Biggest reasons I think they may have:
1) NHL experience, and plenty of it at high levels. That doesn't always translate to being a good goalie coach, but that hasn't been a negative for Barrasso so far.
2) Proficient in both Russian and English so he's the perfect guy to translate from the bench.
3) When Thoeodore is gone after this season their most likely backup in the system is a Czech. Who better for two Eastern European goalies to relate to short of Tretiak, Hasek or Holecek?
From goalie coach of Dynamo Riga to the nhl..that's a big step. Given his very unorthodox style I'm pretty surprised they hired him.
That's about as small of a step there can be. He's going from the second best league in the World to the best. And his style was anything but unorthodox. His positioning was textbook, pure, stand- up goaltending. Hasek is unorthodox. The only problem I can see is that both Theo and Varlamov are butterfly guys.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurricane_SVT
There is a $1.1 million house in wake county registered to an Ilze Irbe
That's his ex-wife. She's about the quietest/shyest person I've ever met.
A lot of Canes fans will always have a soft spot in their heart for Arturs Irbe and we are among them. My son, who was a very young budding goalie during his era here saw Irbe as a hero, and on a number of occasions he got a chance to talk with Irbe. He was tremendous about talking with him about his play, giving good advice on how to prepare and progress as a goalie, taking and autographing pictures, etc - and he did this with lots of the kids. Those are fond memories. Never saw the man refuse to sign or talk to a kid.
As he got older my son gave up hockey and moved on to lacrosse, but he still considers Irbe one of his real heroes, and has a stick and framed pic on his wall. What a terrific guy, and I wish him well (except when preparing against us of course). Even though his tenure here didn't end the way we had hoped (looking back, he was such a proud and fierce competitor, I think it was hard for him to realize his NHL time was ending), I hope we will honor him at a game one day - maybe at a Caps game this year!
Maybe JR and Archie can bury the hatchet from 2004. That would be awesome.
