UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE
by Ihor Stelmach
Playoffs a memorable time for Bossy
Mike Bossy loved this time of the hockey season. Especially when his team was playing well.
"Going into the playoffs, it was a great feeling when the team was playing its best," said the retired Hall of Famer who helped the New York Islanders win four straight Stanley Cups (1980-1983). "When the team was playing well, you always felt comfortable doing the things you did best."
And what Mike Bossy did best was score goals. He had 573 goals in 752 NHL games for a goals-per-game average of .762 - second-best in league history behind only Mario Lemieux's .823.
Perhaps even more remarkable is his 85 goals in 129 playoff games, an average of .658 per game, also second only to Lemieux (.787). And, Bossy's three-season playoff total of 51 goals from 1980-81 through 1982-193 is the most ever by an NHLer.
Bossy, now 43 and living in his hometown of Montreal, takes pride in how often he scored at the most difficult time of the season.
"It's tougher to score in the sense you're playing the same team night after night for between four and seven games," Bossy said. "Defensive systems get a little tighter, individual checking gets a little tighter."
Bossy's career was a masterpiece - a paint-by-numbers masterpiece, that is. His career wasn't terribly lengthy - only 10 seasons before chronic back woes forced him into retirement - but the numbers he put up were truly memorable. Note the following:
The one number that seems odd in Bossy's career, given all he accomplished, is No. 15. That's where he was picked in the 1977 draft despite putting up big numbers in the Quebec Junior League. Seems NHL clubs were worried about his ability to check, which is a little like worrying if a super model can cook.
"I met a guy recently who shook my hand and said to me, 'I just shook hands with the softest hands ever in the NHL,'" Bossy said. "I said to him, 'Well, you just shook my hand, how did it feel?' He said, 'Pretty hard, actually.' I said to him, 'Hard, but supple.' That's what my hands are."
Bossy dabbled in the media as a radio talk show host after retiring in 1987, but didn't relish the notion of getting up at 4:30 a.m. the rest of his life.
He recently opened a restaurant in Montreal called Mike Bossy's and he's also the director of public relations for Humpty Dumpty potato chips. And, along with Bobby Orr and Canadian women's star Cassie Campbell, Bossy runs hockey clinics sponsored by General Motors, under the banner of Chevrolet Safe and Fun.
(Bossy quotes thanks to The Hockey News' senior writer Mike Brophy.)
Ukrainian Lightning strikes
The Tampa Bay Lightning signed 25-year-old goaltender Dieter Kochan, who had been playing with Binghamton of the United Hockey League. Kochan made his NHL debut against Dallas on March 28. Kochan, Vancouver's fourth-round draft choice in the 1993 entry draft, allowed three goals on six shots in less than seven minutes before being pulled. He returned to the game in the second period and stopped 11 of 12 shots in a 4-2 loss. Kochan had a 29-11-3 record, 2.59 goals against average and .922 save percentage for Binghamton this past regular season. In call-ups to Grand Rapids and Orlando of the International Hockey League and Springfield of the American Hockey League, he was 6-1-1 with a 1.32 GAA and a .948 SP. Kochan is the 21st player to graduate from the UHL to the NHL, but the first to go directly from the one league to the other. ... By playing Kochan, the Lightning had used six goalies and 52 players this past season. Only the 1991-1992 Boston Bruins, who used 55 players, were believed to have dressed more skaters in a single season.
UKRAINIAN UTTERINGS: Caps' left-winger Steve Konowalchuk got by on three hours' sleep over a 48-hour period while his wife, Leah, was in labor with the couple's first son, Cole. Sixteen hours after the tot's birth, dad scored the tying goal to send a Caps-Panthers game into overtime. ...Toronto's Dmitri Khristich lost eight teeth and required seven root canals after he was hit in the mouth by a puck fired by teammate Igor Korolev in a game against Vancouver. The hard-luck forward returned two games later and recorded a goal and an assist against Boston before leaving that game with a groin injury. ...Caps' right-winger Peter Bondra moved past retired Bengt Gustafsson into seventh place for most games played as a Cap at 630. ...Red Wings forward Joey Kocur, who did not play this past regular season following hernia surgery, was not available for the playoffs. The 34-year-old may retire at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs when his contract expires. ...Devils' defenseman Kenny Daneyko entered the post-season as the only player to appear in all 108 (and counting) of the franchise's playoff games.
| Tkachuk | $4,300,000 |
| Bondra | $3,870,362 |
| Zhitnik | $2,500,000 |
| Leschyshyn | $1,800,000 |
| Daneyko | $1,731,137 |
| Matvichuk | $1,700,000 |
| Tverdovsky | $1,700,000 |
| Andreychuk | $1,200,000 |
| Nikolishin | $1,025,000 |
| Konowalchuk | $850,000 |
| Khristich | $840,000 |
| Berehowsky | $800,000 |
| Belak | $580,000 |
| Hrkac | $550,000 |
| Halko | $450,000 |
| Olczyk | $400,000 |
| Lukowich | $350,000 |
| Player | Team | GP | A | PTS | PIM |
| Oleg Tverdovsky | Anaheim | 82 | 36 | 15 | 30 |
| Keith Tkachuk | Phoenix | 50 | 21 | 43 | 82 |
| Steve Konowalchuk | Washington | 82 | 27 | 43 | 80 |
| Peter Bondra | Washington | 62 | 17 | 38 | 30 |
| Dave Andreychuk | Boston - Colorado | 77 | 16 | 36 | 30 |
| Drake Berehowsky | Nashville | 79 | 20 | 32 | 87 |
| Dmitri Khristich | Toronto | 53 | 18 | 30 | 24 |
| Richard Matvichuk | Dallas | 70 | 21 | 25 | 42 |
| Andrei Nikolishin | Washington | 76 | 14 | 25 | 28 |
| Glen Metropolit | Washington | 30 | 13 | 19 | 4 |
| Tony Hrkac | Anaheim | 67 | 9 | 13 | 8 |
| Alexei Zhitnik | Buffalo | 74 | 11 | 13 | 95 |
| Steve Halko | Carolina | 58 | 8 | 8 | 25 |
| Radoslav Suchy | Phoenix | 60 | 6 | 95 | 16 |
| Ken Daneyko | New Jersey | 78 | 6 | 25 | 98 |
| Ed Olczyk | Chicago | 33 | 4 | 16 | 12 |
| Brad Lukowich | Dallas | 60 | 4 | 98 | 50 |
| Zenith Komarniski | Vancouver | 18 | 2 | 12 | 8 |
| Vitaly Vishnevski | Anaheim | 31 | 2 | 50 | 26 |
| Wade Belak | Calgary | 40 | 2 | 8 | 122 |
| Curtis Leschyshyn | Carolina | 53 | 2 | 26 | 14 |
| Greg Andrusak | Toronto | 9 | 1 | 122 | 4 |
| Mike Maneluk | Philadelphia | 1 | 0 | 14 | 4 |
| Lee Sorochan | Calgary | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Yevgeny Namestnikov | Nashville | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 4, 2000, No. 23, Vol. LXVIII
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