Huet arrives just in time

Since joining the Washington Capitals at the NHL trade deadline, Cristobal Huet and Matt Cooke have mastered a simple route to Verizon Center from their temporary housing in Arlington.

But they also have learned that in this city Plan A is not always available.

“When the guys say, ’Oh yeah, just right down Constitution [Avenue] to Sixth [Street] and bang a left,’ that’s the only way we know how to get there,” Cooke said. “Then there is a parade for St. Patrick’s Day and a marathon the week before that.

“We didn’t give ourselves any extra time to get there, we didn’t go a different route and we couldn’t go across Sixth [Street]. We’ve had a police escort once, and we fought through traffic once — we went [the wrong way] up a one-way street to get where we needed to go — but we’ve stuck through it and managed to get there on time.”

It is fitting for Huet, who has traveled quite a unique path to his current situation as one of the hottest goaltenders in the NHL and a key component of the Caps’ quest for a postseason berth. Growing up in Southeastern France, Huet became a hockey player at an early age. He started playing organized games when he was 6, and along with his father and brother, it became “a passion.”

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Always a goaltender, Huet actually saw NHL games in person when his pee wee team played in a tournament in Quebec, but by the time he was in his late teens — the age when most players are drafted — the NHL was still not in his thought process.

“I had some options of going to college, but I stayed in France,” Huet said. “It was a very unusual road. I had to climb the French league and then the Swiss league and start over again here.”

Moving to Switzerland when he was 23 helped to facilitate his career. He had not worked with a goaltender coach in France, but with the help of Tom Hedican, a former coach in the Canadian junior hockey system, he began to refine his considerable but raw talents.

Huet played for Lugano and became one of the top netminders in the Swiss Elite League. Los Angeles tabbed the then 26-year-old with the 214th pick in the 2001 draft. After another year with Lugano, Huet came to North America and was assigned to Manchester, the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate, where his first coach was a minor league journeyman named Bruce Boudreau.

He was the backup at first behind Travis Scott, a goaltender with whom Boudreau had a history, but eventually the coach realized he had to play his “rookie” in net. After a trade to Montreal, Huet outplayed incumbent Jose Theodore in 2005-06 but missed time with injuries last season.

This year began with him as the undisputed No. 1 in Montreal but with wunderkind prospect Carey Price as his backup. Once Canadiens management felt comfortable entrusting one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference with a 20-year-old rookie, Huet became expendable, and the Caps gladly acquired him for a second-round pick in 2009.

“I didn’t know what to expect really,” Huet said. “From Day 1, for me it was a fresh start. It was like a mini-season for me. Olie [Kolzig] played well even before the trade, and I just wanted to play well when asked to.”

And play well he has. Huet split time with Kolzig at first, but he is on such a roll that Boudreau again has been forced to make him the go-to guy. He is 9-2 with a 1.75 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage — Vezina Trophy-caliber numbers over the course of a full season — since joining the Caps.

He has won seven straight starts, part of the Caps’ run of nine victories in 10 contests that has them one slip-up by Carolina or Ottawa or two by Boston or Philadelphia from earning a spot in the playoffs.

Boudreau said Huet has been “unbelievable” and “I think for him it is a good time for him to be doing it as well.”

He was referencing Huet’s pending unrestricted free agency after this season. The 33-year-old Huet is going to be one of the top goaltenders on the market along with Theodore. He is making $2.75 million this season, and a new contract with an annual salary doubling that could be a reasonable expectation.

“My wife and I talk about the options, but I don’t think want to think too much about it,” Huet said. “I haven’t talked to my agent about it in a long time, and there is no rush. I want to make sure I am focused on the next game and not a contract.”