Blues' Millen a joker, but he's serious on ice

ST. LOUIS Mike Keenan was in for a rude awakening the first timehe ran into Greg Millen. In fact, he was in for several rudeawakenings.

It was 1979 in Toronto. Keenan, a much-traveled minor leaguedefenseman, and Millen, a goaltender just out of junior hockey, wereroommates while trying out for the Canadian Olympic team.

"He was a little pistol," Keenan remembered. "I was the oldestmember of the team at 29. He was always pulling practical jokes onme, calling me `Gramps,' getting up in the middle of the night andthrowing water on me.

"But I fixed him in the end. We dressed a statue in his clothesoutside the building and we wouldn't let him back in the room."

Millen chuckled at the memory of being locked out in hisskivvies.

"Mike's got a better memory for that stuff than I do," Millensaid. "But I do remember him getting back at me. If you give it out,you've got to be able to take it as well, I suppose."

Times have changed. Millen, formerly of Pittsburgh and Hartford,now is the veteran goaltender of the St. Louis Blues. Keenan coachesthe Black Hawks. It will be more serious tonight at the Arena (7:35,SportsChannel, 780-AM) when Millen and the Blues try to get back intothe Norris Divison semifinal after dropping the opener Tuesday night.

But it won't be totally serious.

Millen is still the type to toss cold water on an unawareteammate or find new uses for shaving cream.

"I really enjoy the game," Millen said. "I enjoy the players init. If you don't do that, you certainly shouldn't be playing.

"Sometimes the business angle in professional sports takes awayfrom that a little bit and you have to replace it at times and havesome fun. I think it relieves some pressure, but as well, I thinkit's very important to enjoy the game. If you don't enjoy it, it'snot worth playing. If I'm enjoying the game, I'm playing better thanif I'm not."

In Game 1, Millen made 31 saves and some were spectacular. Butthe Hawks' 3-1 victory wiped out the Blues' home-ice advantage forthe series. Some games are more enjoyable than others.

"You always want to win," he said. "You're not here to lose.When you lose you have to evaluate your play and the team's play andtry to make adjustments to win.

"But you do your best, you work as hard as you possibly can everyday, and hopefully the chips will fall on the winning side. Butthey're not always going to. That doesn't mean you can't wake up thenext morning and be very thankful for what you have - your childrenand our family and the guys in the room. You realize today's anotherday and you look forward to playing the next game."

Millen was 6-1-1 against the Hawks in the regular season, and hisloss in Game 1 broke a 10-0-2 streak against the Hawks in the Arena.The Hawks say they want to go to the net to collect the reboundsbouncing off Millen's lightweight foam leg pads.

"They are lively at first, early in the year," Millen said. "Butat this time of the year, when the foam has broken down, I don'tthink there's any difference."

Millen thought the Hawks made a bigger difference by the way theyforechecked, and by the way they now take away the neutral zone froman attacking team.

"Mike has always been (a coach) that's locked the middle," Millensaid. "That's what he calls it. That's the new school terminology.Locking the middle is covering the wings and bringing your defensemenin to lock the center ice area.

"It takes a long time for a team that's been very flamboyant andoffensive to be committed to a more defensive checking style of play,and it's taken them a long time. But it seems to me now they'rebeginning to realize what the best approach is and adapt to it. Theylocked the middle extremely well against us. We have to realize andmake adjustments. It's like a chess game."

Millen made his own adjustment with the leg pads, which are madeof foam instead of the traditional deer hair. Each pad weighs aboutthree pounds, while traditional pads weight eight or nine poundseach. Millen began using them in 1987-88, and has had back-to-backwinning seasons, his first since he was a rookie.

"They've been a tremendous asset to me," he said. "You can'treplace taking some weight off your legs, especially when you're 31.I'll take that any day."

But despite his light approach to the game, Millen has noillusions that he can perform goaltending stunts he couldn't dobefore.

"Oh, no, I'm not a head case," he laughed. "I'm certainly not oneof those guys."