Fernandez eyes pucks, not stats
His knee, surgically repaired amid his lost season of 2007-08, is nearly back to full health. As for his game, that also has been dramatically upgraded, from a work in progress - painful just to watch at times last season - to an increasingly impressive piece of work.
Manny Fernandez, who Saturday night recorded his 15th career shutout with a 4-0 win over the Panthers, these days is the significant other in what is the best Bruins goaltending tandem since the days of Reggie Lemelin-Andy Moog. Fernandez and Tim Thomas, now a combined 18-4-0-4, top the NHL charts in the most important statistic of all, lowest goals-allowed average (2.00).
As impressive as that may be, Fernandez, now with 307 NHL appearances and 135 victories, has sworn off paying attention to numbers - good or bad.
"I don't read stats anymore," said the 34-year-old netminder, finally showing the elite form that led general manager Peter Chiarelli to bring him to Boston in the summer of 2007 from Minnesota for prospect Petr Kalus and a fourth-round draft pick.
According to Fernandez, the numbers lead to comparisons, and the comparisons can lead his mind to wander to places he doesn't prefer to go. No matter the time of day, the point of season, the place in one's career, there is always someone doing better, and most often someone doing worse.
"You always want to do better, reach the top," said Fernandez, who averaged 26 wins and a goals-against mark of 2.42 in his final two seasons with the Wild. "But you find out, sometimes it's not reachable, so you try to keep your stats strong, and help the team win."
None of which was within Fernandez's grasp last season, when the knee problem that came with him from Minnesota led him to early-December surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Back woes also limited his ability to practice or play.
Able to wear the spoked-B for less than two months, and then usually only in frustrating practices, he appeared in only four games, going 2-2-0 with a bloated 3.93 GAA.
"You know it's never going to be 100 percent," said Fernandez of his knee, "but it gets better every day, and right now I'm almost there."
The results certainly are there. The blanking he posted in Sunrise, Fla., gave Fernandez seven straight victories, the first time a Boston goalie has done that since Jon Casey (before his onset of Technicolor Five Hole-itis) did the same in 1994. He also has delivered at least one point in nine consecutive starts, the equal of an 8-0-1 run by John Grahame in 2002.
Chiarelli brought Fernandez to Boston with an eye on him supplanting Thomas as the club's No. 1. Fernandez played 58 games for the Wild in '05-06 (the season before his knee injury), which encouraged Chiarelli to believe that he could be a 55- or 60-game workhorse in the Hub.
But logic and some bad knee ligaments turned that plan into mincemeat, eerily similar to the Bruins in '94 dealing with the Capitals for elite defenseman Al Iafrate, only to have the Planet's suspect knee turn into a lost cause (happy holidays and good cheer to you, Joe Juneau).
Much of Bruins Nation, deservedly giddy over the club's results this season, counted Fernandez down and out again for 2008-09. Never mind that he felt ready to play again in April last season, and was frustrated by the organization's cautious approach, front office and coaching staff preferring to go instead with Thomas and then backup Alex Auld. Fernandez reported to training camp this season with a vast percentage of fans eager to get him gone, by trade, or even by jettisoning him to the minors with an eye on deleting his $4.33 million salary-cap hit.
"You know, if I started with a bad attitude in training camp," said Fernandez, "I don't think I would have been able to come back. It has been a lot of hard work."
Fernandez is not from the Que Sera, Sera fraternity of carefree backstoppers. For that matter, neither is Thomas, whom Fernandez praises for his exceptional work from the start this season.
"Timmy's been so strong for this team," said Fernandez before pulling off his pads following the win in Florida. "He put this team on the right path, for sure. The games I get . . . the team has already been on a good streak, in the right direction, and that's made it a lot easier for me."
But again, this is not a guy who lets lost rubber roll off his backside, which has led coach Claude Julien to try to modify the goalie's mental approach. Sounding almost irked, Julien the other day noted that Fernandez, after allowing four goals to Buffalo Nov. 19, was still brooding over his spotty performance upon reporting for the next practice.
"I told him, 'Hey, you've got to learn to forget that stuff,' " recalled Julien. "Who cares if he gives up four goals? All that matters was that we won that game [7-4]. That's all that anyone here cares about . . . wins, that's it."
Sound advice, Fernandez realizes, but this is his ninth season of regular NHL work, and being hard on oneself can be a difficult shot to stop, even if self-inflicted.
"That's the story of my career right there, probably," he said. "Sometimes I'm my best critic, and sometimes I'm my worst critic. It's a tough battle."
One that maybe he's winning, if he cared to read the stats.
Defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who filled in against the Lightning Thursday before sitting out Saturday night, was sent down to Providence and scored twice for the Wanna-B's in their 5-1 victory over visiting Springfield yesterday . . . Julien today should provide an update on the injury to veteran defenseman Aaron Ward, who appeared to wrench an ankle after playing only 3:34 in the win over the Red Wings a week ago Saturday . . . Marco Sturm's lingering whiplash injury could lead the Bruins to call up an extra forward, perhaps Vladimir Sobotka, as early as today.
Milan Lucic toned down the body slams slightly in Tampa and Sunrise but still leads all NHLers with 107 hits, a half-dozen more than the closest competitor, ex-Boston College defenseman Brooks Orpik (Pittsburgh). The Bruins face the Capitals Wednesday in D.C., where the league's most feared shooter, Alexander Ovechkin, ranks No. 3 with 97 hits . . . With 40 points in 26 games, if the Bruins were to play .500 the rest of the regular season, they would finish with 96 points. If they could keep up the same pace of the first eight weeks of the season, they would finish with a franchise-best 126 points - topping the 121 piled up in 78 games by the 1970-71 Bruins.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com. 