Nifty Newcomer
March 25, 2007
By Ken Sins
In his first season as a Star, Mike Ribeiro is endearing himself to Dallas fans after spending his first six NHL seasons in his hometown of Montreal.
In Mike Ribeiro’s native Montreal, the Canadiens aren’t just No. 1 in the hearts and minds of sports fanatics. The truth is that Les Habitants also occupy the other nine slots in that city’s top 10 list of athletic obsessions.
The sway that the storied Canadiens hold over the collective psyche of Montreal and the province of Quebec is difficult to explain to a North Texan. Think of the Cowboys, but magnified many times over.
Player performances are routinely critiqued, not only in the media, but by fans on the street. French- and English-language journalists who cover practices on a daily basis regularly outnumber the players. Each season that goes by without the return of the Stanley Cup to Montreal turns up the criticism a few more degrees.
And it’s not just about the hockey. The private lives of Canadien players are also tightly scrutinized. That’s the atmosphere the playmaking centerman left behind when he was dealt by his hometown team to the Stars last September.
“Back home, hockey is the only sport,” Ribeiro said, ” and people treat you like a movie star. They know every player, even the guys in the minors and the healthy scratches. They recognize you and approach you on the street. Growing up there, it’s your dream to play for the Canadiens.”
Said Stars Head Coach Dave Tippett: “It’s like how the Cowboys are viewed here, but even moreso. Here, there are other major sports. But there’s one team that dominates in Montreal, and it’s on and off the ice. It’s as much about off-ice activity as on the ice.”
There were several reasons for the Stars’ trade for the 26-year-old Ribeiro. They had a surplus of defensemen, they needed more skill up front and on the power play, and they hoped that Ribeiro would thrive away from those hometown pressures.
Montreal General Manager (and former Stars coach and GM) Bob Gainey appreciated Ribeiro’s skill set, but the Canadiens badly needed some depth at the blue line and they filled that void with defenseman Janne Niinimaa in the deal.
“We were looking for a center who could play offensively,” Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas said. “You’ve got to give up something to get something. They wanted an experienced defenseman like Niinimaa, and we had too many, so both sides were happy.”
Ribeiro won’t admit that all the hometown attention got to him, but he will concede that the media glare can be blinding.
“It’s tough,” Ribeiro said. “There are French and English media and there’s a lot of competition among the journalists. They really pick the games apart, and they will ask you what happened if you had a bad game. If you play well, they prop you up, and if you play bad, they rip you.
“It goes from one extreme to the other. It’s either great or the end of the world. The media gets on your case when you’re not producing and there are 20-25 media every day at practice.”
Said Tippett: “Here, he can concentrate on just being a player. He shows up every day, gets his work done and can probably go more unnoticed. He gets critiqued in this dressing room, but in Montreal the critiquing extends all over town.”
Robidas is well-acquainted with the pressures of playing in Montreal. Like Ribeiro, Robidas grew up in Quebec as a Canadiens fan and then went on to play for the team before eventually landing with the Stars.
“There was a lot of pressure for him, especially being from Montreal, and being French-Canadian and being expected to be a top scorer,” Robidas said. “If he didn’t score, the media wanted to know what was going on. I played two years there, but there wasn’t any pressure on me to score. For Mike, he had that extra pressure of producing and that all adds up, which can be pretty hard.
“It’s a different game down here. He doesn’t have to answer the questions down here. If he goes a couple of games without a point, other guys are going to pick it up and nobody’s going to talk about it. It’s a challenge because he wants to help the team win, but he doesn’t have to worry about the other things.”
Ribeiro is a clever player, a magician with a stick who can make a sparkling play seemingly out of nothing. Teammates use words like “nifty,” “slick” and “crafty” to describe his style.
“He’s a very talented guy,” teammate Stu Barnes said. “His skill level is incredibly high, and he creates opportunities not just for himself, but for everybody else. He’s a great setup guy, he’s great on the power play and he’s played well defensively. He’s been a big positive for the club.”
The knock against Ribeiro has always been his slight build. Growing up, he was always one of the smallest players on the ice. Now he’s listed as a six-footer, but at 178 pounds he’s hardly a bruiser.
“He’s a determined little player,” Tippett said. “He’s very heady, creating chances, helping on the power play. He makes good plays and finds room. He doesn’t do it by speed, but by smarts and puck skills. He’s a guy you wouldn’t think would be getting three, four hits a game, but he does.”
Maybe 10 years ago, Ribeiro’s lack of size might have reduced him to a career as a minor-leaguer. But this is a different game played under rules that encourage skill and speed rather than big hits and the dump-and-chase style.
“With the new rules, a player of his caliber can do well in this league,” Barnes said. “He’s put the points on the board. Not only has he played the skill game, but he’s been willing to do the other stuff, to go out and battle and play well defensively and do a good job on faceoffs.”
Despite his modest physical stature, Ribeiro has also been better than expected on the defense end. The Stars’ defensive emphasis has helped make Ribeiro a better-rounded player.
“You have to play both ends, not just try to score,” he said. “I didn’t always think about that, but at some point you need to learn. I know what to do and I’m not the biggest guy, but I try to use my stick and be smart.”
Ribeiro developed into a goal-scorer for the Canadiens, potting 20 along with a team-high 45 assists and a plus-15 rating in 81 games in 2003-04. Last season, he collected 16 goals and 35 assists in 79 games. He’s been more of a setup man for the Stars, second only to Sergei Zubov in assists through his first 45 games in a Dallas uniform.
The seven-year veteran appeared in his 300th NHL game earlier this season and Dallas won its first five games when Ribeiro scored a goal. For Ribeiro, the transition from familiar Quebec to foreign Texas has been far smoother than he could have imagined. He likes the shopping and the warmer winters.
“It’s been easy,” Ribeiro said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew Robidas and that helped make me feel comfortable. It was an easy adjustment. We went on the road right away and it’s easy to bond with your teammates, so the biggest things have been the time change and longer travel in the West.”
Ribeiro grew up in downtown Montreal, near Mont Royal, the only son of Portuguese parents who emigrated from the Azores in the ’70s. Ribeiro said his parents moved to Canada for “a better life than they had at home.”
His dad, Alberto, was a pro soccer player in Portugal, later playing in a Canadian pro league. His mom, Maria, stayed home to raise their three kids Ribeiro has two older sisters, one living in Montreal and the other in Portugal. At home, Ribeiro spoke Portuguese, as well as English and French, and he remains fluent in all three languages. His neighborhood was ethnically diverse.
“There was a lot of everything French, English, India. People were very warm and I really enjoyed growing up there,” he said. “It’s safe, not really a big city.”
A natural athlete, Ribeiro learned to skate as a kid and honed his skills on outdoor rinks.
“You play until it’s nighttime, and in the summer we played street hockey,” Ribeiro said, “so it was hockey all the time.”
As a boy, Ribeiro wasn’t a regular at Canadiens games. Tickets were too expensive, but he remembers seeing two or three games in person, and regularly parking himself in front of the family television for Hockey Night in Canada.
When he played Pee Wee hockey, a 13-year-old Ribeiro participated in a major tournament in Quebec and had an opportunity to practice against the Canadiens, including a shootout opportunity against goaltender Patrick Roy.
“That was my first taste of the NHL,” Ribeiro said. “I always dreamed of playing for the Montreal Canadiens, so I was really happy they drafted me and to have the chance to play at home in front of my family.”
As a kid, he had several heroes, and among the hockey cards on his wall were Mats Naslund, Guy Carbonneau, Vinny Damphousse, Kirk Muller, and Pierre Turgeon. So was the card of Mike Modano, then with the Minnesota North Stars.
“I looked up to the skill guys,” Ribeiro said. “Now I’m playing with guys like Lindros, Modano, guys you looked at growing up and say to yourself that maybe one day I’ll have a chance to play against them. Now I’m playing with them, so it’s exciting and nice to be part of this team.”
Some scouts felt that Ribeiro, despite his skill, would be too small and too slow to be an NHL impact player. That has served as motivation.
“A lot of people at home felt I couldn’t do this,” Ribeiro said. “People said I’d get hit too hard and that I wouldn’t make it. But I had people around me who believed in me. My family pushed me and believed in me. Every year, I gradually got faster and got to know the game better. It was just a maturing process and I’m still young, only 26, so my goal is to get stronger and faster.”
Ribeiro demonstrated his scoring prowess in juniors. In 1998-99 for Rouyn-Noranda, he notched 67 goals and 100 assists in 69 games. That was enough to convince the Canadiens that Ribeiro was legit. They had selected Ribeiro in the second round (45th overall) of the 1998 Entry Draft.
“I always believed I could do it every step along the way, but I had a great year in juniors and I got drafted,” Ribeiro said. “That’s when I really believed I could do it.”
At the age of 19, he played in 19 games for the Canadiens in 1999-2000, registering one goal and one assist, giving him a taste of the big time. After bouncing back and forth between the Canadiens and the AHL, Ribeiro was selected to the YoungStars game during 2002 All-Star Weekend, posting a goal and three assists. Those were the highlights of his stay with the Canadiens. Now he’s trying to cement his position in the Stars’ pecking order.
Midseason injuries that gutted the Dallas lineup, especially to Modano, made Ribeiro’s skills even more valuable. When he arrived, he was placed on the Stars’ fourth line, but was soon promoted.
“When you lose key players, you’ve got to step it up,” Ribeiro said. “Everyone needs to step it up for the team.”
Ribeiro prefers to look to the future rather than dwell on the past. He still loves his hometown, and still reveres the Canadiens, but he’s moved on.
“I enjoyed myself and it’s my home, but I’ve matured now,” he said, “and I’m starting a new life with a new team. I’m happy to be in Dallas and I want to make sure the Stars and the Dallas fans remain happy to have me.”
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