UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (04/05/98)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

World-class shinny

No matter what changes the NHL institutes to its All-Star Game format - this year, for the first time, it was North America versus the World - it remains a non-hitting game of shinny. A goal by Mark Messier proved to be the winner as the North American side edged the World team 8-7 on January 18.

League officials hoped the new format would lead to more spirited physical play, and there were more nudges along the boards than usual, but no major collisions.

"You think guys are going to go out there and hammer each other in an exhibition game?" asked Captain Coyote Keith Tkachuk, one of three NHLers of Ukrainian descent participating in the 1998 gala event. "Not a chance. We're not out there trying to hurt each other. That would be dumb."

The closeness of the score kept things interesting, though the World team threatened to make it a blowout in the early going. Four minutes into the first period, it had built a 3-0 lead on the fastest two goals from the start of an All-Star game.

North America's comeback from the 3-0 deficit was the biggest in All-Star Game history. The excitable Tkachuk led the North American attack with a pair of goals. No. 1 NHL player of all time Wayne Gretzky drew two assists, the first of which moved him past Mario Lemieux into sole possession of first place in All-Star Game scoring. Gretzky has 12 goals and 22 points in 17 games.

Washington's Peter Bondra assisted on a tally by Jaromir Jagr. Tkachuk netted three points by setting up a goal by Theo Fleury.

Winter break reviews

The 1997-1998 National Hockey League regular season was on hiatus February 8-24 to accommodate the Nagano Winter games. Upcoming are team-by-team mini-evaluations of pre-break performances. Teams are listed in alphabetical order within divisions. Ukrainian pro hockey stars' contributions are briefly included.

All in all, the 1997-1998 NHL campaign has been quite different and entertaining. The final two months of the regular season should be phenomenally fun to follow.

Well, here goes:

The Boston Bruins kiddingly rued the All-Star break, which interrupted some of their best hockey of 1997-1998. Boston sailed into mid-January with its longest unbeaten streak of the season (4-0-3), and with a 21-16-9 record, the Bruins were actually considering the possibility of home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs A 2-6-2 skid before the winter (Olympics) break had Boston re-thinking priorities. While still sixth in the East, the Bruins had let Ottawa and Buffalo creep within one point and left themselves in a fight for their playoff lives. Forward Dimitri Khristich is enjoying a solid season playing on the No. 1 line.

The Buffalo Sabres, cellar dwellers for much of the early part of the season, were making a run in the Northeast Division. Buffalo ran up to the break with a nine-game unbeaten streak, including an impressive road win over Montreal at the end of a five-game-in-seven-night run. The Sabres actually were not pleased to see the break as they were playing their best hockey of the season. Their offense, dormant for much of the campaign, was beginning to rise above the two-goals-per-game average. Defenseman Alexei Zhitnik is logging lots of minutes on the power play and regular blueline shifts.

Frustrating sums it up best; as the Carolina Hurricanes would knock off the league's best teams - including the Devils, St. Louis Blues, les Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings - only to erase those wins with disappointing defeats. This lack of consistency left the Hurricanes in last place in the division when they had hoped to compete for first. A 1-7-0 stretch in December may be what keeps the franchise out of the playoffs for a sixth straight season. Defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn quietly continues to play steadily, though unspectacularly on the backline.

Les Canadiens de Montreal had plenty to think about - mostly bad during their 17-day Olympic break. While they remained one of the league's most improved teams with a 28-21-7 record, their play left something to be desired. They lost two consecutive games prior to their hiatus: to the lowly Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders. With three losses in their past four games and five over a seven-game stretch, the Canadiens truly needed a break.

The Ottawa Senators' first 58 games can best be described as inconsistent. The Senators were the third-worst offensive team in the league. While the club was ahead of where it was at this point last year in the standings, offensive production was down 28 goals. "Defensively, we've done a good job. Offensively, I hope that's an area that will improve in the second half," said Ottawa coach Jacques Martin.

There wouldn't be much argument if anyone picked the Pittsburgh Penguins as the surprise story in the entire NHL this season. The retirement of Super Mario (Lemieux), the influence of a new coach and a system foreign to almost anyone who has ever played in Pittsburgh left more questions than answers. But the Pens embraced the new system and through 58 games this year, allowed 54 fewer goals than in the same time slot last year. Over all, the Penguins are just "mahvelous." Veteran Eddie Olczyk is still popping in goals as an effective second-line contributor.

Coach Craig Hartsburg had three words to describe the Chicago Blackhawks at the Olympic break: not good enough. The Hawks were 22-25-9 and in seventh place in the Western Conference. Before slipping in the last week, the Blackhawks had been on an 11-4-1 run since mid December. These guys need a trade or something to give the team a spark and let the players know that management cares.

The Dallas Stars don't often need a reminder from coach Ken Hitchcock that this thing can fall apart at any time. The Edmonton Oilers' job in last year's playoffs should last as a reminder all season. But the most refreshing thing to Hitchcock and the Stars' players is how quickly this team seems to be able to right the ship after a mishap. After losing the first two games of a recent road trip, the Stars responded with some of their best hockey of the season to enter the break first overa ll with 80 points.

The Detroit Red Wings, who started the season without a top forward (unsigned free agent Sergei Fedorov), top defenseman (Vladimir Konstantinov) and goalie (Mike Vernon), entered the break tied for second place over all. The strangest part is Detroit led all NHL teams in offense. They had a league-high nine players with 10 or more goals. During that time, the defense remained strong, yielding an average of 2.34 goals against.

The surging Los Angeles Kings overtook the Phoenix Coyotes for fifth place over all in the Western Conference just before the Olympic break, temporarily putting the Coyotes' intent of catching the fourth-place St. Louis Blues for home-ice advantage on hold. The Coyotes did what they could, going 10-6-4 in their final 20 games leading up to the break. But back-to-back sloppy losses to the Blackhawks and Flyers and an 0-2-1 homestand to finish things off killed any momentum the might have had.

It's amazing what a fast start can do. The St. Louis Blues won seven of their first eight games and posted a franchise record mark of 11-2-2 in their first 15 to catapult to the top of the NHL. After that, however, they were 19-19-6 - a .500 team that still exceeded expectations considering the roster (10 players who played in the American or International leagues last season) and the injuries that plagued them all year.

Oddly, for a team this deficient in raw talent, the Toronto Maple Leafs' biggest enemy this season - and noticeably in a 5-5-0 stretch between the All-Star break and the winter break - was complacency. When this team shows up to work, despite being one of the lowest scoring clubs in franchise history, it can often compete with any NHL squad. However, after two or three consecutive solid games, it's as if the Leafs foolishly believe they can abandon their defensive style to skate and shoot with the good teams.

Ukrainian hockey stars in this Central Division include defenseman Richard Matvichuk, a stalwart on the Dallas Stars' blueline, little tough guy Joey Kocur, third-liner with the Red Wings, and the tandem of Captain Coyote Keith Tkachuk, having still another in a series of fantastic offensive seasons, and young defender Oleg Tverdovsky, back into NHL life after a long holdout. Tverdovsky, after an initial period of re-adjustment, has regained his deft scoring touch from the blue line.

The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim suffered from the absence of superstar Paul Kariya, inconsistent goaltending, an inexperienced defense, season-long scoring slumps from Tomas Sandstrom and Scott Young, injuries to Steve Rucchin and an atrocious power play. Now for the bright spot: Right-winger Teemu Selanne was brilliant at almost singlehandedly keeping the Ducks two points out of a playoff spot.

The Calgary Flames could hardly be faulted on effort - there were only a handful of games where coaches point to a lack of hard work costing a game. But with 16 wins in 57 games, it has become apparent the Flames are good enough to fall just short as they continue the rebuilding process. While the forwards, led by Theo Fleury, were relatively consistent, the defense, as a group, was guilty of major and quite costly breakdowns. Forward Todd Hlushko has thus far served two tours of duty with the parent club.

The Colorado Avalanche entered the Olympic break having won five of six games and starting to look like a dominant team again. The team didn't always look that way though. The Avs had a 29-13-16 record, but there were times Colorado looked like an average club. The low point was a loss to Dallas in late January when the 'Lanche were outshot 40-20. Goalie Patrick Roy blasted his team, saying "there is no way we're going to win the Stanley Cup the way we're playing." There were some questions still to be answered - surely chief among them whether the Avs' nine Olympians will be too fatigued to be effective through the playoffs.

The Edmonton Oilers' six-game win streak turned into a seven-game slide into the winter break. In a word, abysmal. The Oilers were beaten by the two worst teams in the Western Conference: Vancouver (twice) and Calgary. They lost three of four home games. They stunk in the first period of every loss. It was an amazing sight, given the proficiency just a few weeks earlier. Long-shot-to-make-the-team backliner Drake Berehowsky has added a needed physical presence in front of the net. Centerman Tony Hrkac, acquired in a waiver deal from Dallas, has injected a badly needed scoring presence into a team desperately needing some kind of firepower.

The Los Angeles Kings were, without question, one of the surprise teams of the season with a 26-20-9 record and fifth place position in the Western Conference. They were remarkably consistent throughout and positively brilliant heading into the winter break with a 9-1-1 record in their last 11. The Kings were already two wins shy of their total from last season and were on pace to have their best record since 1992-1993, the season they reached the Stanley Cup final. Coach Larry Robinson and his staff were getting the most from one of the youngest teams in the league.

Until losing three of their final four games before the Olympic break, the San Jose Sharks looked very much like a legitimate contender for a playoff berth in the Western Conference. Buoyed by the acquisition of forwards Mike Ricci and John MacLean, the Sharks battled back from a 9-18-2 start by going 11-7-5 from December 4 through the end of January. Continuing such a pace would almost certainly have landed a post-season berth, but San Jose's slump at the outset of February left some serious questions. Back-up goaltender Kelly Hrudey has proven there still is a definitive place for him in this league, based on his exploits as a proven NHL netminder.

In what may be a case of far too little far too late, the Vancouver Canucks began to resemble a hockey team in the final nine days before the Olympic break. They went 4-1-0 in a five-game stretch, knocking off the Devils, the Oilers twice and San Jose, while losing a narrow 2-1 decision to Colorado. Coach Mike Keenan's revamping of the roster through four trades seemed to rejuvenate the roster. "Old Man River Dave Babych has been utilized on the Canucks' blueline as needed in 1997-1998.

Despite adding unrestricted free agents Dave Gagner and Esa Tikkanen over the off-season, and tying up veterans Scott Mellanby, Johan Garpenlov and Kirk Muller with long-term deals, the Florida Panthers entered the Olympic break nine games under .500 and scraping the bottom of the Eastern Conference with Tampa Bay and the New York Islanders. The Panthers' offense was abysmal - second worst in the East. Add to that the fact that their blue line, led by Ed Jovanovski, which was very inconsistent. Forward David Nemirovsky started the season with the big club before being demoted to the minors.

The New Jersey Devils stormed into the break with a three-game winning streak and four-game (3-0-1) unbeaten streak that kept them atop the Atlantic Division. Two of the three victories were back-to-back shutouts by Martin Brodeur in a home-and-home series against Ottawa. Bobby Holik continued his career-best year, and Doug Gilmour made sure his price as an unrestricted free agent would remain high with his exceptional playmaking. Veteran sniper Dave Andreychuk is suffering through a major goal scoring drought. Tough guy-defenseman Kenny Daneyko is expected back to full time duty following a lengthy and successful battle with alcoholism.

The New York Islanders finally seemed to develop a sense of purpose in their last six games before the break, going 4-1-1 and allowing only 10 goals. The problem was that they had gone 1-13-2 before that streak, leaving a lot of ground to make up. "Too bad it took a while," said center Brian Smolinski. "I think a lot of guys were in a fog. A lot of guys had a lot of soul-searching." The winning streak seemed to have brought back goaltender Tommy Salo's confidence. He's a key.

So this is what $44 million gets you? The New York Rangers played 57 games and failed to win 40 of them. Their 17 victories placed them ahead of only three teams. They didn't have a single shutout. They didn't have a single short-handed goal. They lack speed and size, and they happen to be the oldest team in hockey. They hit the break seven games under .500. They were looking like a real longshot for the playoffs.

Hey, wait a minute. What about Wayne? Hockey's all-time top player had accumulated 56 points in 57 games with this awful Rangers' imitation of a team. Thirteen goals and 43 assists is great!

Winter break started about two weeks early for the Philadelphia Flyers, who dropped six of their last eight games before the Olympic break. Goal scoring was the team's biggest problem. Excluding a 6-2 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on February 5, the Flyers averaged fewer than 1.5 goals per game since January 24. Only four players had double-digit goal totals, causing GM Bobby Clarke to go looking for help in the form of a trade for Vancouver Canucks' forward Mike Sillinger.

The Tampa Bay Lightning's performance going into the break - aw, what the heck, make it the whole season - was simply horrendous. Its top goal-scorer, with 14, was defensive forward Rob Zamuner. Twelve new players were added since December 30. The Lightning had two different franchise-record 16-game winless streaks. Tampa had 13 straight losses heading into a February 4 game against Carolina, during which the Bolts drew a lead in the last two minutes to tie 3-3. "Most of all," said Coach Jacques Demers, "I'm just so happy that the damn (losing) streak is over."

There usually is more than one way to look at a situation and that is certainly the case with the Washington Capitals. Since January 1 the Caps had been on a pretty good roll, going 9-4-3. But they entered the Olympic break on a very depressing note, allowing Tampa Bay to end its 16-game winless streak with a 4-3 victory at the MCI Center. "We may look back at this game, and it could be what cost us home ice advantage (in the playoffs)," said Coach Ron Wilson. Winger Peter Bondra continues his Herculean efforts as the one and only Capital offender. Checking wing Steve Konowalchuk is quietly having his usual season. Center/wing Andrei Nikolishin is just rounding into true game shape after knee surgery and a rehab stint. Go, Niko!