UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE
by Ihor Stelmach
Andreychuk not done yet
Discreetly, but not silently, the New Jersey Devils wondered whether Dave Andreychuk was finished. As he struggled all of 1997-1998, it was suggested the 500-goal scorer had lost his scoring touch.
But if Devils' coach Robbie Ftorek's looser reins have proved anything this current season, it is that Andreychuk does still have it. After scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers before Christmas, Andreychuk actually shared the team lead in goals with Petr Sykora.
"He's doing the things he has always done well," Ftorek said.
Even more impressive was the fact Andreychuk, 35, was in double figures in goals (he finished the recently concluded 1998-1999 regular season with 15 goals), despite missing several games with a bruised sternum following a hit from Florida Panthers' forward Peter Worrell and assorted other physical ailments later on.
"I don't know who was concerned. I wasn't concerned," Andreychuk said. "It was a while before I felt back to normal. My first week back I didn't play great, but then I felt pretty good. Before that, I couldn't do too much. I feel more confident."
At the time, some three months into this season, Andreychuk was being mentioned among the top candidates for the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance. He basically played in some degree of pain all season long.
"I think it [the pain] is going to be there for a while. It's just going to linger on," Andreychuk said. "It's like a sprained wrist. That's what I've been told. I just have to deal with it."
In his time, he has dealt with worse, such as a very conservative defensive approach during the Jacques Lemaire era, which transformed him from a goal-scorer to a component of the neutral zone trap. He still scored big goals, but not as many as he might have scored elsewhere. He blamed himself for scoring only 14 goals in 1997-1998.
"I tried to think back to when I had a tougher year," he said. "Maybe my first year of junior. It was tougher mentally more than anything. Physically, my game hasn't changed," he noted.
Khristich productive in Beantown
Statistics like those compiled by Dimitri Khristich would normally attract a great deal of attention. However, when the numbers are put up by a quiet man who really goes all out to deflect attention, it's left to the others to express how well the 29-year-old Ukrainian right-winger performed for the Boston Bruins this season.
"You can tell he was determined," said coach Pat Burns. "When he had that face on him, he could really play the game. Dima [Khristich's nickname] was in the zone. He was in a groove a couple of times during the season where he was really playing well."
Byron Dafoe's top drawer goaltending, Ray Bourque's standard top-notch play, holdouts by Anson Carter and Kyle McLaren that were eventually settled, a short-lived comeback attempt by Cam Neely and the second-half coming-on by future star Joe Thornton managed to keep the spotlight off Khristich almost all season long.
For the year he was Boston's second most productive player. His 29 goals led the Bruins while his assist total (42) placed him in third. His 71 total points was second best. Perhaps his most compelling statistical achievement was his 20.1 percent shooting percentage - an unusually high number for a first-line forward. It was best on the club. He tied for second in game-winning tallies with six. Of course, being the modest fellow he is, Khristich downplayed all of the above.
"If I stop doing the right things, it's all going to go away," he said. "I'm trying not to celebrate too much."
Unlike their valuable right-winger, the Boston Beantown hockey club celebrated quite a bit in 1998-1999 as the Hub skated past the Carolina Hurricanes into a second-round playoff confrontation with their division rival Buffalo Sabres.
Ratchuk lands on own board
Most professional athletes are very mindful not to say things that might wind up on an offended opposing team's bulletin board. Rookie defenseman Peter Ratchuk put a whole new twist on that particular notion after notching the game-winner in the Florida Panthers' 2-1 pre-season victory over the Boston Bruins. He wound up on his own team's bulletin board.
"I don't think there are many other guys here who can do the things I can do offensively," Ratchuk said.
By the magic-marker-wielding hand of an injured veteran, those words became the bulletin board's most prominent feature in the Panthers' locker room. While it steamed a few vets and seemed awfully cocky as the goal was the result of a fluke deflection by Boston's Ray Bourque, Panthers' coach Terry Murray plainly liked the 21-year-old.
"Ratchuk's a player," Murray said. "He's going to play in the NHL. He's got great speed and the ability to carry the puck out of trouble. He's pushing for a spot." (He eventually got one.)
That willingness to be active put Ratchuk on coach Murray's good side after the first pre-season game, even as Panthers' GM Bryan Murray and the scouts winced over Ratchuk's five elementary defensive zone turnovers.
"That first game, I was thinking about making the team rather than the game," Ratchuk said. "I was really nervous. The second game, I told myself to relax and play the way I can. I just had to go out, play with confidence and know I belong here."
The Buffalo native was picked in the first round of the 1996 entry draft by the Colorado Avalanche, but never signed with that team. He scored 23 goals and 54 points in 60 games with Hull of the Quebec League in 1997-1998.
This past 1998-1999 regular season Ratchuk got into 24 games with the parent Panthers, totalling two points (1 goal) and 10 penalty minutes. He spent about half the campaign in the AHL and rode the Beast of New Haven to Florida shuttle like a regular commuter.
(Quotes courtesy of Rich Chere, Mike Loftus and David Neal, beat writers for The Hockey News, covering the New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers, respectively.)
POINTS | ||
| 1) | Jagr, Pittsburgh | 127 |
| 2) | Selanne, Anaheim | 107 |
| 3) | Kariya, Anaheim | 101 |
| 22) | KHRISTICH, Boston | 72 |
| 24) | TKACHUK, Phoenix | 68 |
GOALS | ||
| 1) | Selanne, Anaheim | 47 |
| 2) | Yashin, Ottawa | 44 |
| 3) | Jagr, Pittsburgh | 44 |
| Amonte, Chicago | 44 | |
| 14) | TKACHUK, Phoenix | 36 |
ASSISTS | ||
| 1) | Jagr, Pittsburgh | 83 |
| 2) | Forsberg, Colorado | 67 |
| 3) | Kariya, Anaheim | 62 |
| 4) | Selanne, Anaheim | 60 |
| 6) | GRETZKY, NYRangers | 53 |
| Player | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
| Dimitri Khristich | Boston | 79 | 29 | 42 | 71 | 48 |
| Keith Tkachuk | Phoenix | 68 | 36 | 32 | 68 | 151 |
| Wayne Gretzky | Rangers | 70 | 9 | 53 | 62 | 14 |
| Peter Bondra | Washington | 66 | 31 | 24 | 55 | 56 |
| Brian Bellows | Washington | 76 | 17 | 19 | 36 | 26 |
| Andrei Nikolishin | Washington | 73 | 8 | 27 | 35 | 28 |
| Alexei Zhitnik | Buffalo | 81 | 7 | 26 | 33 | 96 |
| Dave Andreychuk | New Jersey | 52 | 15 | 13 | 28 | 20 |
| Tony Hrkac | Dallas | 69 | 13 | 14 | 27 | 26 |
| Ed Olczyk | Chicago | 61 | 10 | 15 | 25 | 29 |
| Oleg Tverdovsky | Phoenix | 82 | 7 | 18 | 25 | 32 |
| Steve Konowalchuk | Washington | 45 | 12 | 12 | 24 | 26 |
| Drake Berehowsky | Edm-Nash | 74 | 2 | 15 | 17 | 140 |
| Mike Maneluk | Phila-Chi-NYR | 45 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 20 |
| Richard Matvichuk | Dallas | 64 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 51 |
| Ken Daneyko | New Jersey | 82 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 63 |
| Brent Fedyk | Rangers | 67 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 30 |
| Curtis Leschyshyn | Carolina | 65 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 50 |
| Dave Babych | Phila-LA | 41 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 22 |
| Joe Kocur | Detroit | 39 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 87 |
| Brad Lukowich | Dallas | 14 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 19 |
| Greg Pankiewicz | Calgary | 18 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
| Steve Halko | Carolina | 20 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 24 |
| Peter Ratchuk | Florida | 24 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| David Nemirovsky | Florida | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Greg Andrusak | Pittsburgh | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Wade Belak | Col-Cal | 31 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 94 |
| Lee Sorochan | Calgary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 6, 1999, No. 23, Vol. LXVII
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