Neither man spoke the other’s language but Jeff Glass recognized his name on the homemade sign held by the Russian agent waiting for him at the Moscow airport.
Glass smiled and made eye contact before hopping in a sedan on the way to another airport to fly to Kazakhstan, where in 2009 the goalie followed his dream to the Astana Barys, the first of six teams he played for in seven seasons in the KHL.
“The guy didn’t speak much English but couldn’t have been nicer, taking me for pizza, driving me to the Red Square for a few pictures before dropping me off for another flight,” Glass recalled in the Blackhawks dressing room. “From that moment on, I knew there’d be some things not as comfortable as I’d like or was used to, but if I wanted to reach my goal one day, I knew I had to figure it out.”
One day arrived on Dec. 29 and Glass figured it out well enough to win his NHL debut at 32 years old — 13 years, 6 months after the Senators drafted the goalie 89th overall. With Corey Crawford injured, Glass received a promotion from Rockford to put on Hawks sweater No. 30 — his 12th different uniform after playing 575 games in four professional leagues on two continents.
It’s as if the Hawks find their backup goalies by reading discarded Hollywood scripts. Scott Darling was a local product who overcame alcoholism and signed a free-agent contract with the Hurricanes worth $16.6 million. Now comes Glass, whose far-flung career should be sponsored by Rand McNally.
“Playing for so many teams almost made me more motivated,” Glass said. “Every time I’d go through some hard times, I’d think, ‘Hey, this is a great opportunity to do something special.’ I’d spin it around. Any tough times crafted me into who I am today.”
The memories flooded back in that NHL debut against the Oilers: his best season in Siberia, where it once snowed 45 straight days and “every game seemed like life or death”; his positive impressions of Minsk, Belarus; the unforgettable year in St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea.
Even the occasional rough spots seemed like character builders, such as when Lada Tolyatti waived Glass in 2014 after published comments about the Russia’s economy’s impact on KHL player salaries were misconstrued.
“In different cultures, a lot of different things can get mistranslated and I think I was taken out of context but I learned a lesson,” Glass said. “I’m better for everything I went through to get here.”
Finally getting here, in an NHL crease, only reinforced why, when it comes to optimism, this Glass is half full. And always has been, dating back to 2005 when Glass belonged to perhaps the greatest Canadian junior hockey team ever assembled.
“I feel special to have been a part of it,” Glass said.
Of that team’s 22 players, 20 went on to play in the NHL. The roster included Hawks defenseman Brent Seabrook, Glass’s roommate, and future stars Sidney Crosby, Jeff Carter, Ryan Getzlaf and Patrice Bergeron. In five starts, Glass went 5-0, posting a 1.40 GAA and .922 save percentage on his way to being named the Canadian Hockey League’s goaltender of the year.
“We needed a guy to stop 20-25 shots a game and ‘Glasser’ was a perfect fit for that group,” said Brent Sutter, a Hawks center from 1991 to 1998 who coached that team. “His enthusiasm was contagious.”
Sutter, a former NHL coach with the Flames and Devils, now coaches the Red Deer (Alberta) Rebels in the Western Hockey League. He watched his television with pride as Glass debuted for a Hawks team he still closely follows.
“It was cool, an amazing thing, because I still feel a huge connection to the Hawks and I couldn’t be happier for ‘Glasser,’ ” said Sutter, 55. “I always liked him. It would have been easy for him to give up but he stayed with it.”
That persistence drove Glass as a boy growing up in Calgary most comfortable at the rink with his two hockey-playing brothers. His dad, Glen, an engineer, routinely dropped his sons off for 5 a.m. practices before work — “Now that I’m an adult, I think, ‘How did he do that?’ ” Glass wondered — but nobody in the family ever obsessed over making the NHL.
“Jeff never thought about that, it was just something he loved to do,” said Jane, his mom. “He always saw things in a positive light.”
His parents beamed in the stands in Edmonton sitting next to Jeff’s wife, Allie, and the couple’s 2-month-old daughter, Lucy, when his hockey passion and purpose intersected. With regular backup Anton Forsberg not as sharp as Glass in Crawford’s absence, the Hawks needed a spark the journeyman has provided since that first start — in the net and off the ice. Inconsistency seems inevitable for rookies of all ages but, so far, the highs outnumber the lows.
“His enthusiasm, what a pro, great teammate — that morale part of it is noticeable,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Most guys (at 32) might have said, ‘I want to get a real job now, get on with Plan B.’ That’s a testament to how competitive he is.”
That’s also a testament to wisdom that comes with age, success fueled by failure.
“When I was 21, I wasn’t ready for this,” Glass said. “I would’ve told you I was ready, but I wasn’t. Now I am. I’m confident. It’s much different. Whenever I have self-doubt now, I remember back to what it would have been like for anybody younger and think, ‘Hey, I’m 32, and have done this a few times.”
As long as Crawford’s out for the Hawks, the sage old rookie might have to do it a few more.
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