UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Russian hockey head murdered

The gangland murder of Russian hockey chief Valentin Sych has shocked, but not surprised the hockey world. Sych, president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, was on his way to work in Moscow on April 22 when his car was hit by bullets from a passing car.

Mob murders have become common in Moscow in recent years. The transition to a free market economy has channeled resources to private hands and generated a spate of contract killings of businessmen, bankers and officials.

But this is the first time it has touched a prominent sports figure. Sych was the third most influential man in Russia's sports hierarchy.

The killing is likely connected to Sych's knowledge of tax-free export-import activities conducted by sports groups, including the hockey federation. Reports in Moscow said the federation imported $4.2 million worth of tobacco in 1995 and more than $20 million worth of liquor. Organizations that received the tax breaks soon became prime targets for criminals who used them to launder money. Many inside Russian sports believe the federation is one of the few prosperous governing bodies in Russia.

Reports said Sych was killed for not wanting to share the profits with certain individuals. The killing came two months after Sych complained to reporters that Russian criminals were increasingly muscling in on sports, trying to draw stars and individuals into illegal activities.

"It is 100 percent mafia," said Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

"I knew him," said Detroit Red Wings' center Slava Kozlov. (He's Russian, folks.) "He was a bad guy. He was corrupt. That's why somebody killed him. It's not a surprise to me."

Sych has been a fixture on the Russian hockey scene since the early 1970s. Sych and veteran Russian hockey stars, notably Slava Fetisov and Igor Larionov, have feuded publicly over the years on many issues. Fetisov frequently accused Sych of mismanaging transfer fees sent to Russia from NHL teams.

"I have an alibi," Fetisov quipped. "But this is bad news."

Sych was to have gone to Helsinki for the World Championship. He then was preparing a team for the 1998 Winter Olympics.

"It's hard to say what will happen next," Larionov said.

One question being asked is who would want to assume the presidency when dealing with extortion is obviously more important than smoothing over relations with Russians in the NHL or plotting the course for the future of Russian hockey?

"After this happened, who would want his job?" said Canadian Hockey President Murray Costello. "They have had a real hard time and now it will become even worse."

Tkachuk a busy man in 1996-1997

When was the last time a player led the NHL in goals and had 200 penalty minutes?

"I'll bet it never happened before," said Phoenix Coyotes' right winger Jeremy Roenick.

Until now.

Roenick's friend and teammate, Ukrainian captain Keith Tkachuk, became the first player to ever accomplish this feat with his league-leading 52 goals and a team-high 228 penalty minutes.

Considering where Phoenix would be without "Captain Coyote," Tkachuk is an obvious choice to be the team's unofficial most valuable player.

"It just shows you how good the kid is and how fortunate we are to have him on our team," Roenick said.

Tkachuk's season certainly was quite eventful. First, he regained his captaincy in the pre-season. Then, he scored just five goals in his first 20 games. After getting his game together and earning an All-Star Game berth, he was served with a $200,000 lawsuit from an Edmonton gambler, who Tkachuk contends is trying to extort money from him because of his stature. News of the lawsuit and a $1 million counter-suit by Tkachuk hit the streets just as the Coyotes were about to begin the playoffs against those Disney Ducks of Anaheim. (More on the gambling allegations below.) The Coyotes lost that series to the Ducks in a hard-fought battle.

"I went through a few obstacles, but I hung tough and I had a lot of great support around me," Tkachuk said. "But the bottom line is I get paid well to play this game. I'm supposed to be the captain of this hockey team and I can't play average."

Tkachuk denies gambling charge

Tkachuk is threatening a $1 million counter-lawsuit against an Edmonton gambler who the left winger claims has been trying to blackmail him for the past several months.

Rajesh Kummer Sabharwal, however, won a $140,000 (U.S.) default judgment against Tkachuk, who, he alleges in court documents, made illegal bets on professional sporting events between October 1995 and January 1996 through an unnamed Boston bookmaker.

Tkachuk and his lawyers have denied the allegations and are fighting to overturn the default ruling. An Edmonton court was to have ruled on the Tkachuk motion in late April.

Sabharwal was awarded the judgment because Tkachuk failed to respond to the lawsuit within the required 15 days after being served papers.

Sabharwal contends he was owed the money because he provided "information and services" to Tkachuk in a "verbal contract." The "information and services" apparently are alleged betting tips made to Tkachuk, who had purchased from Sabharwal a sports-ticker pager, which provides users with up-to-the-minute scores and betting lines on various sporting events.

Tkachuk is alleged by Sabharwal to have bet on National Football League and possibly National Basketball Association games. He has not been accused of betting on hockey.

"There's nothing to it," Tkachuk said. "It's all (bull)."

Tkachuk's Boston-based agent, Bob Murray, in a sworn affidavit, said he informed the NHL of Sabharwal's claim of Tkachuk's illegal gambling well before the matter ever went to court. The league found no merit to the allegations, Murray said.

A source at the NHL confirmed Murray's statement and said the league has no plans to re-investigate.

"Keith and his agent and his lawyer and our organization feel very confident that this will be exposed as the meritless allegation that it is," said Coyotes' GM Bobby Smith, adding he does not believe his star player has a gambling problem. "Unfortunately, in Canada and the United States, anybody is able to file a lawsuit against a high-profile athlete. Everybody knows how much money he makes."

Tkachuk earned $6 million (U.S.) last season while playing for the Winnipeg Jets, when Sabharwal's allegations about illegal gambling first surfaced. (Taking into account that the 1996-1997 hockey season just ended, we're actually talking about two seasons ago.)

Wayne's world still full of magic

Know how to tell Wayne Gretzky is getting old? Don't look on the ice, you won't find the answer there. Especially not in Game 4 of the New York Rangers-Florida Panthers series at Madison Square Garden, where the spry 36-year-old foisted his NHL-leading ninth career playoff hat trick en route to a 3-2 victory.

No, Gretzky's age isn't evident in anything he does. It's in what he says.

"My wife keeps telling me I'm not that old," Gretzky told The Hockey News in the wake of his virtuoso Panther-killing performance. "And I do feel pretty good. But I have to tell you, I wish I knew back then, when I was 21 or 22, what I know now."

There it is, the universal old man's lament: Oh, to have youth and experience!

Let's see, when Gretzky was 21, he recorded an unprecedented 92-goal, 212-point season. What do you figure he might have done if he was as wise to the ways of the world then as he is now? Shudder to think!

The Great One keeps going, going and going. He stomped that pink bunny a long time ago.

The last time Gretzky had the look about him - that wild-eyed, stand-clear-and-watch-this look he had in Game 4 against Florida - was in Game 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Western Conference final of 1993.

He was unbelievable that night at Maple Leaf Gardens, scoring three and setting up one, rallying the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-4 win to lead them into the Stanley Cup final.

Gretzky was all fired up by a column Bob McKenzie (of The Hockey News) had written in the Toronto Star after Game 5, suggesting in the strongest terms possible that if he didn't get his game together the Kings' demise would be on his head. McKenzie mentioned something about him skating "like he had a piano on his back."

Lord, did he ever tickle the ivories. McKenzie figured on going to his grave and not seeing a more dramatic, inspirational one-man show than the one Gretzky delivered that night. Four years later, on the occasion of his three-goal solo outburst against Florida, McKenzie couldn't help but wonder, who ticked off Gretzky this time?

"Aw, I was just lucky," Gretzky said.

Yeah, right.

One New York columnist did issue a challenge to all the Ranger superstars after a horrendous 3-0 loss to the Panthers in Game 1. But there wasn't anything there that was a pure personal affront to Gretzky.

His drive this time was on general principle, knowing there must be somebody out there who was saying either he or his team couldn't do it. That has always been the Gretzky way, the core of his being.

"For whatever reason, there has always seemed to be a cloud of doubt over me no matter what I've done," Gretzky said. "I have set a high ceiling for myself to match, I understand that. But ..."

For starters, Gretzky is enjoying shattering the myth that his frail, slow-moving body wouldn't be able to handle the rigors of the much tougher Eastern Conference. All he did was lead the Rangers in assists (72), points (97) and shots on goal (286), finishing fifth in NHL scoring, two points behind Paul Kariya and the same as John LeClair.

"It's not the same game it used to be," Gretzky analyzed. "Two 100-point scorers? Fifty goals used to be a big deal. Now, it's something to get 30 or 35. Geez, I would have loved to get 100 points this year because it would have been really special to do it in such a challenging defensive game. But to be 36 years old and finish right there with Kariya and LeClair ... it's more than I had hoped for."

But the playoffs were supposed to be his downfall. The Rangers' downfall, too. Too old. Too many games in too few days, notably the three-games-in-four-day stretch that included Game 4 against the Panthers.

"As a team, we wanted to show that wasn't going to be our downfall," Gretzky said. "Right after (Game 3), we talked about, 'Let's not make excuses, let's get ready to play.' We didn't want anybody saying we were tired or too old."

It's always something with Gretzky, who played in all 82 games this season, the first time he hasn't missed a game since 1986.

"And after Christmas, he hardly missed a practice either," Ranger Coach Colin Campbell said. "He's really picked it up. (The hat trick against Florida) was another one of those oodles and oodles of challenges for him, and he thrives on challenges."

Playing in the Eastern Conference has actually helped him. Less wear and tear from travel. More nights in his own bed and more time spent with his family in a city big enough to have a life without being in the fishbowl.

"The whole experience has been even better than I anticipated, especially the part of living in the city," he said. "But I tell you, the players in the Eastern Conference who haven't played for a Western team have no idea how good they've got it, how much of an advantage the Eastern teams have over the Western teams. We made one trip west before Christmas and one trip east after Christmas. When I played in Edmonton and Los Angeles, just about every road game was a trip."

"It has been a long year for me because of the World Cup and it has been tough at times, but I can't even imagine what it would be like if I'd been playing in the West."

In Game 4 against Florida, Campbell said fatigue was hardly a problem.

"Wayne wanted to go," Campbell said. "He was asking for more ice time. It was the younger guys who were falling off a bit."

It was the Panthers who grew tired, weary of another Gretzky foray into the offensive zone. Florida contributed to his hat trick by making one horrendous clearing attempt and an ill-advised pinch. The third was vintage No. 99.

Gretzky made them pay. The first goal was an empty-net tap-in courtesy of Brian Leetch. The second was a rippin' shot over John Vanbiesbrouck's shoulder. And the third was a splendid Gretzky signature play - stop on a dime, fake a shot, curl to the middle and rifle a laser past the sprawled netminder.

"Everyone's always telling me to shoot more," Gretzky said. "I listened that night."

It could have had something to do with the fact the Ranger scouting report on Vanbiesbrouck is that he almost always plays the pass on a 2-on-1. In any case it was a special.

"What else can you say about Wayne Gretzky?" asked Panthers Coach Doug MacLean. "That's why he's the greatest player that ever played the game."

"No question about it," teammate Mark Messier said. "He was turned on. He has an uncanny ability to be around the puck every shift when he gets like that. He said before the game he was fresh."

Gretzky was just thankful some ice finally opened up in a series that had produced stifling defense through the first three games.

"I think I almost remember getting a 2-on-1 in Game 3," he said with a chuckle. "Really, Game 4 was the first time there was any open ice at all. I was just lucky, that's all. The game is so tight now."

No matter. The Great One just keeps on going, and going, and going...

(Quotes courtesy of Bob McManaman, beat writer for the Phoenix Coyotes, and Alan Adams of The Hockey News.)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 22, 1997, No. 25, Vol. LXV

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