UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (06/20/99)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Daneyko, teammates pick up slack for Stevens

Early in his NHL playing career, New Jersey Devils defenseman Ken Daneyko wanted to be just like Scott Stevens: a tough, stay-at-home rearguard who can pop an occasional goal or lend a hand on the offensive end, who is known as a fearless body checker. That's all.

Although they have now been teammates for eight seasons, Daneyko finally got the chance to do his best Stevens impression when the Devils' captain suffered a groin pull midway through a five-game road trip and had to return to New Jersey. Nevertheless, the NHL's deepest defense corps never missed a beat.

"I wanted to be a poor man's Scott Stevens even when he was in Washington," Daneyko readily admitted. "I know I'm not as talented, but I wanted to try to do the job and not hurt us when Scott was out. I took pride in that challenge."

Stevens was hurt early in a mid-March victory against Vancouver, which forced Coach Robbie Ftorek to play virtually the entire game with only five defensemen. The Devils came within 79 seconds of a shutout over the Canucks and, two nights later, routed the Oilers in Edmonton to extend their on-the-road winning streak at the time to four straight.

Veterans Daneyko and Lyle Odelein played tough and smart, while Scott Niedermayer played almost 30 minutes in Edmonton and collected three assists. With Brad Bombardir, Kevin Dean and Sheldon Souray playing quite steadily, the Devils raised their (at the time) league-best road record to 24-8-2.

"The guys knew ... we really had to be ready to play," Niedermayer said. "We were going out there trying to do the best we could to fill (Stevens') shoes."

Veteran Capitals plug away through storm

Ron Wilson called it a genuine flashback to the good old days - the way the game was played way before the present modern era.

"That's old-time hockey, that's all," said the coach of the Washington Capitals, referring to the play of some of his grizzled veterans as his team played out the final days of a disappointing 1998-1999 season.

While it turned out to be only a shell of the team that went to the Stanley Cup finals a year ago, it was wily veterans like Adam Oates and Brian Bellows who actually held this mongrel club together, providing the necessary spark, while some of the younger players were finding it hard to keep up the pace.

"We really didn't have much hope, but pride is a good word," said Oates after the Caps beat the Florida Panthers for the second time in a week late in the season, putting a severe crimp in the Panthers' post-season plans. (Both the Capitals and Panthers failed to qualify for the playoffs in the recently completed campaign.) "It's a hard situation. We brought it on ourselves, but it was still a hard situation. Now (toward the end of the season) we're just counting down the games. I don't know how baseball guys do it when they're already out of it with 60 games still left to play."

With a total of 17 goals, the Ukrainian Bellows continued the drive he started in 1982 with the Minnesota North Stars, zeroing in on the 500-goal plateau. He pulled to within 15 of that lofty number, passing Darryl Sittler and getting himself ready to take aim at Norm Ullman, who is 29th on the all-time list with 490 goals.

"Those two guys have a lot of pride, they're true professionals, they come out and play hard every night," Wilson said. "You either have that or you don't. You either have the will to compete or you don't. You can't teach people how to compete, it's just there, part of your personality."

That's a character trait certainly not lacking in one Brian Bellows - not since 1982, his rookie year in the NHL, some 17 years ago.

Andrusak fills hole, seeks full-time duty

A whopping total of seven (yup, seven) Pittsburgh Penguins' defensemen had to get themselves injured before Greg Andrusak got himself a chance to re-enter the National Hockey League. He certainly did not waste his precious chance.

The Penguins signed Andrusak, 29, out of the German League in late March of this year. He was originally drafted by Pittsburgh in the fifth round (88th over all) in 1988, but played only 12 NHL games over three seasons before taking off for Berlin in 1996.

Andrusak had a brief stint with the Houston Aeros of the International Hockey League before joining the Penguins on April 5 at Buffalo. He played well over the next four games, including a plus-2 with an assist in a March win at Detroit. Suddenly, Andrusak was a good bet to be part of the Penguins' playoff plans.

"He has good speed, and he caught onto our system pretty good," said coach Kevin Constantine. "If he keeps playing the way he has (at the time), then he has a chance to be with us."

Andrusak improved his one-on-one defensive play in three years on the wider European ice sheets. He also improved his attitude and outlook.

"I look at things a lot differently in my life nowadays," Andrusak said. "My wife is seven and a half months pregnant. There's a lot more important things in life than hockey. I guess I used to bite my nails and worry about everything all the time. Now I come here, and if they don't like my game, well, I've offered my best and that's all I can ask of myself, and that's all they can ask of me. I've got nothing to lose."

The Penguins figured to keep at least eight defensemen for the playoffs. It was likely six of them would play.

At the time Andrusak had the sixth spot to himself, with Victor Ignatjev, Sven Butenschon and Maxim Galanov (a United Nations delegation?) waiting in the wings. Ignatjev and Galanov were coming off lengthy shoulder injuries, however.

"They had guys coming back and I just wanted to stay in the line-up," Andrusak said. "It was a tough situation. I was playing some and the guys who were coming back, they were a little rusty because they were off a month or more.

"With the playoffs, you want to have momentum, and you're going to go with the guys who were playing well at the time. Hopefully, that would include myself."

For Greg Andrusak, it did, as our Ukrainian blue liner suited up and saw lots of game action in the 1998-99 Stanley Cup playoffs for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Maybe the second time around is the charm.

Feisty Konowalchuk = Capital work ethic

One of Steve Konowalchuk's Washington teammates was asked to describe the left-winger. There was a thoughtful pause before the response.

"He doesn't take any nights off, I'll tell you that," the veteran said. "I wish I could make the same claim."

Coach Ron Wilson seconds the motion.

"He's like a lightning rod on our team for hard work," Wilson said. "I know he's not going to have a bad night. He might not score, but he's going out, finish his checks, win battles in the corners, play with determination, block shots, does whatever it takes."

Midway through the recently concluded 1998-1999 regular season, Konowalchuk played in his 400th NHL game, which satisfied one of the goals he personally set for himself years ago.

"Yeah, it feels good, but once you get it it doesn't feel good enough, you want more," the 26-year-old said. "I didn't set many goals when I came in; I didn't know what my role was going to be. I just wanted to make the team, then do whatever it took to help it win."

The Salt Lake City, Utah, native broke into the NHL in 1991 after the Caps drafted him in the third round (58th over all) of the 1991 entry draft. His only major disappointment since joining the Capitals is missing last season's Stanley Cup run when he was sidelined with injuries.

He has been compared to former NHLer Dave Poulin because of his work ethic and tenacity, the way he becomes visibly upset when the opposition scores while he is on the ice.

"I still like to think I can contribute more offensively so I want to improve in that area," Konowalchuk said. "But I play hard and I always focus on defense. I get a bad feeling when the other team scores when I'm on the ice. I have a fear of that happening and I think that motivates me to play hard.

"I probably hate that feeling - being scored on - more than I enjoy the feeling I get when I score. When you screw up on a goal, you feel like you let your whole team down."

Ukrainian puckster Steve Konowalchuk is the ultimate team warrior!

(Thanks to Rich Chere, Dave Fay and Joe Starkey, beat writers for the New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, via The Hockey News.)

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