Rats Off-Season Q&A With Goaltender Michael Leighton

Published on June 12, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


Each week during the off-season, Albany River Rats broadcaster Owen Newkirk will catch up with a member of the 2007-08 River Rats to find out how their summer is going and what training preparations they are doing heading towards the Carolina Hurricanes and Albany River Rats 2008 training camps and the 2008-09 hockey season.

June 12, 2008

Congratulations on your new NHL contract with the Hurricanes! What was your reaction when you signed on the dotted line?

I was definitely relieved and excited for the opportunity. I was kind of stressed out during the last two months. I wasn't sure what was going to happen with Carolina and I was wondering if I might become a free agent in July. My goal was to get something done with Carolina, and it did get done, so I'm very happy.

I know your goal was to play in the NHL in 2008-09, but what is it about the Hurricanes organization that made you want to play for them?

Right from the start they were truthful with me and they told me what the plans are. They told me that if I had a good season in Albany then they'd be looking for me next year to be the backup and things have gone exactly as they said. I have been in other organizations where they don't tell you the truth or they're not quite honest with you on what their plans are. I got called up this year and I got a taste of what it was like being there. I enjoyed the city, I enjoyed the guys and the organization was just top notch.

Were you set on getting a two-year contract, especially after the instability of your 2006-07 season?

Yeah. This will be my eighth year pro. My first contract was a three-year deal and I've signed one-year deals after that every year. I've spent a lot of money on renting houses and traveling to different cities. I was just looking for somewhere to stay for a few years. There's no guarantee that I'm going to be in Carolina for two years, but the two-year contract helps out with a little more confidence that I'm going to be there for that period of time and that's definitely what I was looking for.

Was going to Raleigh and playing in the NHL your first choice, was instead of going with potentially a more lucrative deal with a team over in Europe?

Yeah. I got a lot of offers in Russia, I even had offers mid-season to go over to Russia. Seeing how the situation was going and how I was playing and how the team was doing I decided to stay and it turned out well for me. I didn't particularly want to go to Russia, that's just more of a moneymaker. You go over there for a couple years, make some money and then retire. I'm 27, I'm not young, but I'm not old and I was just looking to get a good spot, where I could set myself up for the next couple of years.

You were very much in a leadership role with the River Rats last season. But now going to the Hurricanes to be the back up goalie do foresee being in a slightly different role?

As the backup goalie you always want to be a leader there. You always have to be a little more vocal in the dressing room when guys are down. When I was a starter playing a lot last year Tom Rowe said it best, ‘I lead by example,' I wasn't as vocal just because I was trying to be more focused and getting prepared for myself. Whereas this time, if I'm not playing, I've got to help out the other guys to get them prepared, to be more vocal and help them out.

Coming into last season you have a very clear plan mapped out about how you wanted to season to play out and certain goals for yourself. When you look back at how everything went are you happy with the last calendar year?

That was my goal, to set myself up for the next season. Obviously things have worked out for me and I'm happy with that. I wanted to make the All-Star team and I did that. I wanted to win a championship and if we get past the next round you never know what could have happened. I was definitely proud of what I accomplished as an individual and what we did as a team, especially considering the players that we lost. I'm satisfied all around.

Knowing how close you guys were to beating Philadelphia and getting to the next round, are there any lingering disappointments about not going deeper into the Calder Cup Playoffs?

Yeah it was frustrating, knowing we were that close to knocking off the Phantoms and they were the first place team in our division for almost the entire regular season. Plus we seemed to have Wilkes-Barre's number the last two or three times we played them, so you never know what could have happened if we had beat Philly in the seventh game.

What was your reaction to the news that River Rats Head Coach Tom Rowe was being promoted to the NHL club?

He definitely earned the spot. He's worked hard in the minors for a long time and around the AHL and I think this is the next step for him to becoming a head coach in the NHL. Usually they like guys who are around the NHL, I've seen it and I've been there. He's there now and look for him to become an NHL had coach in the next three to five years, whether it's with Carolina or another organization. Definitely well deserved on his part, in my mind and a lot of people's minds he should have been the AHL Coach of the Year. I'm working forward to working with him again.

After playing a massive game schedule for Albany last year, what have you done since the playoffs ended?

I actually had surgery a week after the season was done. I had a muscle tear in my lower abdominal area, so the surgery was done and I took about two or three weeks off in recovery. That was kind of family time for me. I also bought a new house in Windsor, so we moved into that and we've been unpacking and just trying to enjoy my time off. Now that I'm recovered I'm back into working out and I went on the ice for the first time this week.

Surgery? I'm guessing that no one knew about this outside of the locker room. Was it a serious injury?

It was lingering on probably since Christmas. It was something that if I did a certain movement it would hurt for a little while and it would be sore the next day. I couldn't do any abdominal workouts; I had to skip those whenever we had a team workout. I just took it easy and tried to rest it as much as I could. I knew probably mid-season that I was going to get it fix after the season. I talked to Tom Rowe about it and the choice was either get it fixed now and be out for a month or wait until the end of the season. I talked to the doctor and he said that it probably would not get any worse and that if I could handle the pain it would be fine to wait.

So instead you played through that and had a great second half of the season, not to mention the 98-save performance you had in the playoffs. Did it affect your play at all?

No I don't think so. It was always in the back of my mind, but it was only certain movements that egged it on. After a while I kind of got used to the pain being there and I just didn't think about it too much. I knew I couldn't do anything about it so I tried to forget about it and focus on my game.

Your daughter is still very young, are you enjoying her at this age?

She just turned two in April and she's wonderful. Her vocabulary is starting to come out a lot more and she's starting to say funny things. She is starting to repeat things, which is both good and bad (Laughs). But she is becoming a lot of fun, my wife and I were just talking about that the other day, that this is the age where you really have to enjoy it. Whether it's watching her play outside in the little blow-up pool or bringing her to Chuck-E-Cheese or other things that she enjoys; she's just a lot of fun right now.

What's your favorite thing to do with your wife and daughter together right now?

There are a couple animal farms around town and she loves to do that. There's one around Windsor where you can pet some deer and there's lots of different birds and animals. We make frequent trips to Pet Smart where she loves to see the cats (Laughs). She loves the kittens.

Any pets at the Leighton household?

We have two dogs, one's eleven years old, an older dog, and one's around four or five years old. The younger one is more wild and energetic and my daughter's more attached to the wild one. We all love animals, but with all the traveling we do it would be tough to have too many more pets right now.

What are some of the off-season training exercises that you do as a goaltender that might differ from what a skater might do?

Well it's still early in the summer, but right now I'm working on getting back into the weights. I think I do a little bit lighter weights, more repetitions and maybe a bit quicker movements than a skater would do if they're trying to bulk up or strengthen themselves, where I'm just trying to get quicker and better endurance. Later in the summer I'll go to the track and run a lot of sprints and do some quick feet work and just try to get quicker. That's pretty much as a goalie what you want to be is as quick as you can and as strong as you can.

Do you have to work on stretching constantly to maintain your flexibility so you don't lose any of your range of motion?

Yeah, I definitely do. I've kind of had groin muscle problems my whole life so I do a lot of groin exercises, ball-squeezes and things like that to warm up. Then after a workout I try to stretch as much as I can. I've gotten flexible over the years because I've really worked on it and I have to continue to work on it or I will get injured.

So your incredible flexibility in goalie pads was not something that came naturally to you?

No. When I was a kid I wasn't very flexible. A lot of people are strong within a certain range. The more natural range is in close, where I'm much stronger. If you in splits, like goalies do a lot of times, and you try to pull yourself back in or try to do a certain movement when your legs are out that far, that's where you're weak. That's where I had to really strengthen my muscles so I'm stronger outward and inward.

After your call up to Carolina last year you told me that you have to prepare yourself differently to play as an NHL goalie as opposed to an AHL goalie. What are the differences?

There have been situations where NHL guys are more skilled, they can shoot the puck harder and the puck moves a lot faster because they zip it around quicker. For an example, in the AHL or lower leagues and you're defending a two-on-one on a pass across, a lot of times the players will stop the puck first then shoot, whereas an NHL player just one-times it and still gets a very good shot off. As a goalie, you have get over a lot quicker and move faster because the puck moves faster. In the AHL, sometimes you can relax a little bit more and not move as fast. But sometimes when you relax too much in the AHL you get caught. It's tough but you just have to adjust to the speed of the game and the puck.

I know you really pride yourself on being a very hard worker in practice. Coach Rowe told me that many times he had to yank you off the ice. Do you attribute a lot of your success to the work you put in during practices?

Just in the last couple of years I've learned from a couple goalie coaches that you really learn a lot in practice and the more pucks you stop in practice the more you're going to stop in a game. Two seasons ago I was up in the NHL most of the year as a second goalie, so I knew I had to work hard in practice just in case I got an opportunity to play. This past year was a little different because I was in almost every game. I didn't stay out on the ice during practice as long as I probably could have. A lot of the times I was the first guy off the ice, a lot of the times it was because of Tom kicking me off the ice (laughs). When I am in the net and we're doing drills I try to not let guys score, I try to work as hard as I can. I definitely feel that if I had done that earlier in my career than I would have been a better goalie earlier in my career than I am now.

I've known a few pro goalies that like to play as a forward in summer hockey and think of themselves as a scoring threat, a la Wayne Gretzky. Is that the case with you?

Well, I know I am a scoring threat! (Laughs) I actually used to play out as a forward quite a bit. About three or four summers ago I played in a league that had a lot of OHL players and some NHL and AHL players and I was scoring goals, I had fun. I'm not saying I'm the best player out there, but I'm not the worst player. I know how to score just because I know how goalies are thinking a lot of the time. (Laughs) I stick to goalie now because I seem to get injured doing everything but playing goal. If I'm out playing soccer I'll sprain my ankle or water skiing I'll wipe out and hurt myself. Maybe once my career is done I'll play baseball and beach volleyball with my buddies and get back into the other sports.

Is it true that new River Rats defenseman Brett Bellemore had a hat trick on in a pick up game recently?

No comment. (Laughs) Yeah we were just playing pick up hockey and it was my first time on the ice, that's my excuse. It's tough when you play pick up hockey as a goalie because the guys aren't playing much defense, so there's a lot of breakaways. I don't particularly like playing goalie for drop-in hockey because you pick up a lot of bad habits playing that way, where guys don't shoot the puck as much as they can. Belly (Bellemore) got a couple good goals, but later in the summer he won't score on me again (Laughs).

Let's go back to Michael Leighton, the goal-scoring forward. What's your favorite breakaway/shootout move?

I am a right-handed shot, so I like to lift my leg up and fake a shot, pull it to my backhand and lift it top shelf.

How often do you score on that move?

Depends on who's playing net! (Laughs) If it's an older beer-league goalie than maybe 80-90 percent. If it's a regular goalie maybe ten percent.

Speaking of fun moves, are we going to see any more slide tackles from you during shootouts?

I don't know. I've done it twice in shootouts and it's worked both times. I don't know if you want to do that against an Ovechkin or a Crosby, you might get beat up by someone if you do that. (Laughs)

I've asked some of your River Rats teammates who would be the biggest trash talker during a team summer softball game. Who do you think would chirp the most?

I would have to go with Mormina. He has a big mouth (Laughs). He likes to flap his mouth, usually because he's not as good as everyone else. (Laughs harder) I'm just joking! He's got some good one-liners and he showed it this year when guys from other teams would skate by the bench, he would fire off a quick comment that would get all the guys laughing. He's definitely the biggest chirper out there.

In the theme of softball, what are some of the activities that you enjoy doing during the off-season when you're back home in Canada?

I like golfing a lot; I'm going out tomorrow for the first time this summer, so I'm looking forward to that. I like getting out and to me golfing is a way of getting away from everything and not have to think about anything else. My wife and I go camping once in a while also, so that's fun.

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American Hockey League Stories from June 12, 2008


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