Artūrs Irbe
Artūrs Irbe (Russian Артур Ариевич Ирбе / Artur Irbe Arijewitsch; born February 2, 1967 in Riga, Latvian SSR ) is a retired Soviet and Latvian ice hockey goaltender and currently works as a goalkeeping coach of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League. During his career he played for the San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes in the National Hockey League.
Career
He began his career at Dinamo Riga in the Soviet league in the 1986/87 season as a substitute goalkeeper. The following season, he rose - due to the violation of Vitālijs Samoilovs - the first-choice goalkeeper, and brought in his first full season Dinamo Riga of the Soviet runner-up title. In the years 1989 and 1990 he played for the Soviet national ice hockey team at the World Championships, which it was entitled in both years. In the NHL Entry Draft in 1989 he was appointed by the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars ) selected in the tenth round to 196th place.
In 1991, he refused to play for the Soviet national team, because Latvia had declared its independence from the Soviet Union, the Soviets tried this but militarily to suppress.
His first NHL games he played for the San Jose Sharks in the 1991 / 92nd After two rather weak seasons the Sharks succeeded for the first time in the fledgling club history at all in the 1993/94 season the way into the playoffs, we turned off the Detroit Red Wings and lost against the Toronto Maple Leafs only slightly with 3:4 games.
In the summer after the successful season Irbe was attacked by his own dog and seriously injured. Although he was able to play again, he could not bring the full power long, was delivered in 1996 to the Dallas Stars, and of these, 1997 to the Vancouver Canucks. Only with the change to the Carolina Hurricanes in 1998, his career went uphill again. In the 2001 / 02 season, he led the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup final, where they lost 4-1 against the Detroit Red Wings. In 2004, he was released to the Columbus Blue Jackets, but came only in the AHL and ECHL farm team for use. In the season 2005/ 06 he finally moved to Austria to the Red Bulls Salzburg.
At the Ice Hockey World Championship for Men 1996 ( B group ), he first stood as a goalkeeper for the Latvian national team in goal, the team qualified this year for the A 's World Cup. This was followed by World Cup appearances in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the participation in the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006. 2006 he was a standard-bearer of the Latvian team.
"Trademark" Artūrs Irbe were his small stature (173 cm ) and its ancient -looking goalkeeper's equipment.
During the season 2008/ 09 he was goalkeeping coach at Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League and coached there among other things Martin Prusek and Edgars Masaļskis. In August 2009, Irbe was introduced as the new goalkeeping coach of the Washington Capitals. In this role, he oversees from the 2009/10 season the goalkeeper José Théodore, Michal Neuvirth and Semyon Varlamov.