UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (06/16/96)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

He shoots, he smiles

Peter Bondra loves goals. He goes nuts every time he scores one, he goes nuts when other guys score while he's on the ice. There is no pre-meditation to his celebrations, no rhyme nor reason, just unadulterated, childlike abandon.

"When he scores a goal and he jumps and bounces off the glass, he's really pumped," said Washington Capitals' coach Jim Schoenfeld. "That pumps the crowd up, it pumps the team up, you can see that here's a guy who loves to score goals."

With 34 goals in 47 games to lead the league, last season was a love-in for Bondra. This season he picked up right where he left off, scoring in his first game back from a contract holdout in a 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Kings last October 20.

"I was sort of happy, all excited," Bondra said of his first goal. "Every goal I score, I'm happy. Even when my teammates score and I don't, I'm happy. That's why I'm playing, playing for goals and victory. Some keep (emotions) inside, I just put them outside. People seem to like it, that's OK, too."

The Capitals hoped to see a lot of on-ice celebrations after signing Bondra to a contract for $9.5 million over five years last October 20. There is also an incentive package that includes a $625,000 bonus - a figure he disputes - for every 50-goal season. Fellow holdout Michal Pivonka signed a five-year deal for $5 million plus incentives the same day.

The success and the contract made Bondra a marked man, a Capital who can actually score goals, the opponent who commands special defensive attention.

If that was the only pressure focused in his direction, things might have been easier. It was not. Inside USAir Arena, every fan knew Bondra led the NHL in goal-scoring last season and that he missed the Capitals' first six games while playing with the Detroit Vipers of the International League. They wanted to see instant returns for the monies invested.

"I signed for a lot of money," said the 27-year-old right winger. "I have to do better than I did last year, or at least try to be on the same level I was on last year," he stated at the beginning of the 1995-1996 campaign. "That's why I'm trying to play harder. Obviously, to get back me and (center Pivonka), we got to be real helpful."

They have to be helpful as well as exciting. When Bondra picks up the puck, fans sit up and take notice. They know something is about to happen, not always something good, but at least for a few seconds there will be something more than plodding motion on the ice.

"I've seen some fast guys, but when he gets going he's one of the fastest in the league," Pivonka said. "The first couple of years he had the speed, but didn't know how to use it. Now he's learning, how to drive to the net or go wide when that's smart. That's why he got a few more goals last year."

Six of those 34 goals last season were shorthanded. Another dozen came off power plays, meaning an opponent was going to pay one way or the other.

"He has a hunger to score goals," Schoenfeld said of the outgoing Bondra, born in Ukraine and raised in the former Czecho-Slovakia.

"Peter is an exciting player, brings people to the edge of their seats. Michal is more of a thoughtful player, always thinking, always trying to be one step ahead of his opponent. He's looking at the big picture all the time whereas Peter is zeroed in on the net and that's probably why they work well together."

All Bondra has to do now is avoid the one negative description that has dogged him throughout his career: inconsistency, trading hot weeks for cold months. He had never scored more than 37 goals in a season in his five-year NHL career, but last year's pro-rated total was 60.

"One year does not make anybody a goal scorer," Schoenfeld said. "You have to do it at a consistent level. We think Peter is on the move up. We think he is going to continue to score at a high pace."

This, of course, means the Capitals should be seeing a lot of wild expressions of glee after his many goals.

"I don't know why he does those things," Pivonka said in almost an apologetic tone, referring to Bondra's moments of near lunacy following goals. "I've seen some guys in junior do things like that, not on this level. But Peter, I don't know what he's doing."

Lots of pop in this cap-gun

Steve Konowalchuk is not like a lot of NHL players who are living out their dream. That's because growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Washington Capitals' center/left-winger didn't feel he had a legitimate shot at making the big leagues. Even when he moved to Prince Albert, Sas-katchewan, at 15 to pursue a higher caliber of hockey, the NHL remained a long-shot.

"I was a pretty good player for Salt Lake City, but then again Salt Lake City isn't exactly a hockey hotbed," said Kono-walchuk, who notched a surprising 23 goals for the Capitals in 70 games this past regular season. "When I moved to Prince Albert I got cut from a bantam team one year and a midget team the next. It didn't make me very happy, but I didn't give up either."

This young Ukrainian eventually found himself playing for the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western League, where he was the league's leading rookie scorer in 1990-1991 with 43 goals and 92 points and was named his team's most valuable player. He upgraded to 51 goals and 104 points the next season and was named the league's MVP.

The Capitals knew they were getting an honest worker in Konowalchuk when they selected him 58th over all in the 1991 entry draft. But they didn't really project him as a constant offensive threat.

Instead, they envisioned him as a grinder with good defensive instincts, capable of chipping in the occasional goal. Through hard work and dedication, especially in terms of getting bigger and stronger, Kono-walchuk has proved to be more of a multi-faceted performer. He weighed 175 pounds when he was drafted, but strict adherence to an off-ice training program designed for track and field athletes helped him bulk up to 202 pounds. The 6-foot-1 Konowalchuk continues to do a lot of weight training, sprints and leg work to stay in top condition.

He is not flashy, but is very determined - an attitude that has helped make him a regular on the Capitals' second line with center Dale Hunter and right-winger Kelly Miller.

"If you illustrated his development on a graph since he joined the organization, you would see a steady rise," said Capitals' GM Dave Poile. "And it continues to rise."

Konowalchuk made his NHL debut as a 19-year-old in 1991-1992, but didn't crack the Caps' line-up as a regular until 1994-1995. His indoctrination in the NHL featured a lot of fourth-line duty and more than one extended stay in the press box.

It also included several trips to the American Hockey League, where he showed flashes of offensive prowess - collecting 18 goals and 46 points in 37 games with Baltimore two years ago, and 11 goals and 15 points in eight games with Portland in 1994-1995.

The Capitals asked for more offense from Konowalchuk about midway through 1994-1995, placing him on a line with center Joey Juneau and right-winger Keith Jones. He delivered. Ten of his 11 goals were scored in the second half of the lock-out shortened season. He was also able to maintain a high standard in the defensive zones.

"The line I play on now is a checking line and we're usually out against the other team's top scorers," Konowalchuk said. "I think 'D' first, but I don't just think 'D'. If I get a chance, I'm definitely going for it."

Need proof? Konowalchuk fired seven shots on goal, scored three times and added an assist against Winnipeg last December. A month later against the Rangers, he connected for his second hat trick of the season on nine shots. And a day after Christmas, in a game against the Montreal Canadians, he had one goal on 11 shots.

"I looked at the game sheet and I couldn't believe I had that many shots," he said. "I was disappointed I only scored once. It hurt my shooting percentage."

Konowalchuk infiltrates the high-traffic zones - the corners and the slot - and gets most of his goals stabbing at the puck in crowds. On a team not known for its explosiveness - only the New Jersey Devils had fewer goals among Atlantic Division teams - Konowalchuk knows his goals are important. His 23 tallies were a marked jump from the career-high 12 he scored in 1993-1994.

Konowalchuk said scoring goals won't change the way he plays. "I guess the more I score, the more it will be expected from me," he said. "I'm just going to keep my same frame of mind - work hard and the chances will come."

(Quotes courtesy of Dave Fay and Mike Brophy, Capitals' beat writers.)

UKRAINIAN UTTERINGS: Peter Bondra hit the 50-goal plateau April 3 in Buffalo with his second four-goal game of this past regular season. He reached 50 in only 62 games. "I was just thinking about getting back and playing hard, getting some wins, getting some goals and getting ready for the playoffs," said Bondra, who missed the first six games due to a contract dispute and nine more with groin and shoulder injuries..."I never thought I'd get 50 goals...I got it, and the reason is because the team played well." Bondra finished with 52, still a ways to go to reach the team record of 60, set by fellow-Ukrainian Dennis Maruk (1981-1982).

Still more Bondra, from Steve Dryden, editor-in-chief of the Hockey News: "If voting for the Hart Trophy (league MVP) were truly done on the basis of who is most valuable to his team (as the terms of reference stipulate), Vancouver's Alexander Mogilny or Washington's Peter Bondra or Boston's Ray Bourque or Chicago's Chris Chelios would probably be the leading candidates. They were the ultimate linchpins on their teams this past season. For example, consider that Bondra (26 percent) and Mogilny (23 percent) were the only two players to account for more than 20 percent of their team's goals and Mogilny was the only top scorer 20 goals ahead of his team's second-highest scorer. If you think about it, the official voting guidelines aren't sensible. Nor have they been applied on a consistent basis. If voting were truly done on the basis of which player was most valuable to his team, one of last year's serious challengers should have been Bondra. Yet, he didn't receive any support. How could members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association have so little regard for him? Bondra scored 34 of Washington's 136 goals, exactly 25 percent. No other player in the league scored 20 percent of his team's goals. Now, who deserved MVP honors last season? The winner, Eric Lindros, or Peter Bondra???"

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