Goalie Tom McCollum is talked about among the all-time great Griffins goalies. (Photo provided by the Grand Rapids Griffins)
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he defending Calder Cup champion Grand Rapids Griffins are having another historic franchise season. Sitting at a comfortable 30-15-2-2 and two points behind the Western Conference leaders, Abbotsford Heat, the Griffins are favorites to make another deep run in the postseason.
One component of the team’s success is the man between the pipes, goalie Tom McCollum. After winning over 60 games, McCollum has moved into the ranks of one of the all-time great Griffins goalies, mentioned alongside names like Joey MacDonald and Jimmy Howard.
“It’s a huge honor to be mentioned with Jimmy and Joey,” McCollum told The Pit. “Those two guys both were so great for so long in Grand Rapids and they were the names I always heard about when I first got here.”
McCollum said that his career didn’t quite start the same way as Howard’s and MacDonald’s, but he is fortunate to have been able to turn things around the last couple years. Beginning his professional career in 2009, McCollum never had a winning season until last year. In 2011, he made his only appearance in the NHL, replacing Red Wings goalie Joey MacDonald midway through the second period against St. Louis. He allowed three goals off eight shots and was pulled at the end of the frame.
The northern New York native helped lift the Griffins to the Calder Cup championship last season. McCollum had the best season of his career, sporting a record of 18-11-2 with a goals allowed average of 2.63. Currently in his fifth year as a pro, McCollum has already blown those numbers out of the water, but it wasn’t an easy road to success for the star goalie.
“Last year was definitely extremely exciting,” McCollum said. “That was really my first year as a pro that had gone well. I am really proud of all the hard work I put in and how I was able to persevere through a couple of bad seasons. It finally culminated into something really big and it was my first championship playing hockey.”
For McCollum to turn things around and improve on his skills, he said it wasn’t his off-ice workouts that he had to change but his mentality going into games.
“For me, it was more of a mental thing and working on getting out of my own head,” he said. “It was about letting my talent take over and not thinking so much while playing games. It was more so about having fun and going out there to play hockey.” He added that he changed up his positioning a bit and worked on becoming more patient on his feet.
At this point in the season, the Griffins lead the Midwest Division by five points over the Chicago Wolves. Despite their outstanding record and strong division lead, they have struggled in recent weeks to play at the level fans have seen them play this year.
In their last 10 games, the Griffins have a losing record of 4-5-1. In that time, they succumbed to a season sweep by the Toronto Marlies, who beat the Griffins in all four meetings this year. Toronto is four points behind Grand Rapids in the Western Conference standings at third place.
“We’ve been missing quite a few guys,” McCollum said of his team’s recent play. “We’ve had to adjust with guys getting a lot more ice time and trying to adjust to new line mates. It takes a little bit of time.”
McCollum said that one of the reasons the season started so hot for Grand Rapids was that they were all use to each other and their positions from the championship season before.
“Everybody was already comfortable with each other. Now it seems like guys are feeling each other out and trying to get use to it,” he said. “Hopefully we can pick it back up after the (AHL All-Star) break.” McCollum said that the team has performed above expectations, with guys like Xavier Ouellet, Alexey Marchenko and a lot of the young guys really standing out on the ice.
Off the ice, McCollum and the Griffins are busy in the local community. Griffins players go around Grand Rapids and visit youth hockey teams to offer insight and training or stop by local libraries to read to kids.
“It’s a huge honor for all of us,” McCollum said. “I know I have talked to the guys about it and it’s something we all feel really privileged to do just because we’ve been very fortunate throughout our lives. It’s a lot of fun for us to go out, especially to kids’ practices.”
McCollum added that he remembers being a kid going to an NHL game and having a player interact with him and how big of an opportunity it was.
“It’s fun seeing the kids get excited for us to be there for a couple hours and just hanging out with them,” he said.
Grand Rapids will pick things back up this weekend with a home set against the San Antonio Rampage.
