Unflappable

There will be days when Mighty Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere feels pressure. There is no avoiding that.

But stress? Not a chance.

Come what may, there is little reason to believe Giguere will fret too much. After all, he has been tested since he was a kid.

Try living in Montreal and rooting for the Quebec Nordiques. For the hockey-challenged, that’s like being an atheist and hanging out in Vatican City.

Try being the first goalie selected in the 1995 draft. A French-Canadian goalie at that, which pretty much demands comparisons to Patrick Roy, a name that almost makes Giguere genuflect.

Try bouncing from Carolina to Calgary and, finally, to the Ducks with potential dangling around your neck.

Little wonder Giguere is able to swat away questions with what-me-worry responses.

“You go to camp and stop the puck,” Giguere said about the pressure of being a No. 1 pick. “That’s all you can focus on. They are going to take the guy who plays the best. It doesn’t matter which round you’re drafted or where you are from.”

Or who you root for?

“Oh, I got teased a lot when I was a kid,” Giguere said. “There were a few of us Quebec fans in Montreal. We pretty much had to keep to ourselves. I’d go to games at the old Montreal Forum, wearing my Quebec jersey. I didn’t cheer too loud . . . well, until we took the lead. That didn’t happen a lot.”

Little wonder Giguere, 23, is so unflappable, even in his current situation.

Officially, he is battling veteran Dominic Roussel for the job of backing up Guy Hebert, 33. Unofficially, he seems to be Hebert’s heir.

Giguere, anointed or not, is the logical first choice.

He is a bundle of talent who cost the Ducks only a second-round draft pick. Calgary Flame officials made the trade rather than lose Giguere in the expansion draft.

“I have known this kid since he was 16 and he is a talented goalie with a lot of success behind him,” Duck General Manger Pierre Gauthier said. “All young goalies have to refine their technique and get their confidence. I think he is on the verge of developing into a strong goaltender.”

The timing couldn’t be better.

Hebert, the last original Duck from the 1993-94 season, has been a cornerstone, an all-star and fan favorite. But he is coming off a sub-par season. In two years, he will be 35 and a free agent. At the same time, the contracts for Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya and Steve Rucchin are up.

“Guy still has five or six years left in him,” Gauthier said.

Maybe so. But with the Ducks?

Gauthier has made it clear, on many occasions, he does not hand out fat “retirement contracts.” So, do the math.

The Ducks are positioning themselves for the day without Hebert.

Gregg Naumenko has made steady progress but will spend the season at Cincinnati, the Ducks’ minor league affiliate. Ilga Bryzgalov, the Ducks’ second-round pick in June, is in Russia, where he will play this season. He was rated the top European goalie in the draft.

But Giguere is here and, as Gauthier said, on the verge.

“You can tell he’s a good athlete,” Ducks Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “He’s a big guy who moves around the net well. I’ve liked him every day I’ve seen him here.”

Giguere has had two solid exhibition games. He stopped 15 of 17 shots against San Jose Saturday and 17 of 19 shots against Phoenix Monday.

“We’ve been in different practice groups, so that was the first time I saw him,” Rucchin said. “He definitely lived up to his billing.”

Of course, the Ducks have seen Giguere’s act before. He stopped 32 of 33 shots in a 3-1 Calgary victory over the Ducks last December. He turned away 15 shots in the third period, which was played almost exclusively in the Flames’ zone.

Quite a way to break in with a new organization, as Giguere was called up only days before. It was his only victory of the season. The Flames gave him few other opportunities. Giguere finished 1-3-1 with a 2.73 goals-against average.

Calgary officials decided to stick with Fred Brathwaite, 28, and let Giguere go.

“I was surprised because I thought I would have a chance to be there and work with Fred,” Giguere said. “But I’m pretty happy about it. I was happy to go somewhere else and have a chance to show what I can do.”

He has impressed teams before.

Giguere was a top junior player in the Montreal area, where he would attend Canadien games and watch Montreal’s Roy, who has won three Stanley Cups, two with Montreal and one with his current team, the Colorado Avalanche.

“When you’re a young goalie, you have this image of what you want to be,” Giguere said. “Obviously, Patrick was the best goalie in the NHL then and is still one of the best. Everyone I knew in Quebec wanted to be him.”

He emulated Roy so well in juniors--and still does, wandering from the crease to chase pucks Roy-style--that the Hartford Whalers took Giguere as the 13th player overall in the 1995 draft.

He jumped from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 1995-96 to the NHL with Hartford in 1996-97. He was 1-4 with a 3.65 GAA with the Whalers that season.

Giguere was traded to Calgary the following season.

“Goalies are a little like pitchers in baseball,” Gauthier said. “It takes a long time to develop one and an even longer time to develop a top one. You’ve got to start them young and work with them.”

Giguere will not lack for work, should he beat out Roussel, and at this point it appears Giguere has the edge in that battle. Hartsburg said he planned give Hebert more time off this season and use his No. 2 goalie in about 30 of the 82 games.

Last season, Roussel played in 20 games but started only 14.

Hebert had a sub-par season in 1999-2000, partly because of nagging injuries. He finished 28-31-9, his GAA rose from 2.42 to 2.51 and his save percentage dropped from .922 to .908.

Adding to Duck officials’ concerns is the fact that Hebert has been slowed by a groin injury the past week.

“Whoever the backup is will play a key role,” Hartsburg said. “In the past, we have relied heavily on Guy and we’re still going to rely heavily on him. But it will help the team, and help Guy, to get him some rest throughout the season.”

Giguere is eager to accommodate everyone. Though he’s not going to get stressed about it.

“The one thing I’ve learned the last few years is to not be so hard on myself,” he said. “Sometimes, you get down on yourself. Sometimes, it’s not something you can control.”

Like when Quebec played in Montreal.

’