UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (11/11/01)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Blue Thunder ripped 'n ready

Keith Tkachuk enjoyed his summer vacation - all four days of it.

By his own admission, the 29-year-old left-winger, one of the NHL's top power forwards when he is so inclined, was not in the physical shape he needed to be to push his St. Louis Blues over the top last spring. When the Blues were eliminated from the playoffs in the third round by the eventual Stanley Cup champion, the Colorado Avalanche, Tkachuk came away from the series knowing he needed to work harder in the off-season to help the Blues achieve their ultimate goal.

"I know you only have so many chances to win it all in this league," said Tkachuk, just prior to training camp. "I felt we should have won last year. St. Louis is going to be a powerhouse the next few seasons. I want to do whatever I can to make sure we win."

That's why, five days after the Blues were sent packing, Tkachuk met with fitness guru Charles Poliquin, who has helped sculpt the bodies and attitudes of the likes of Gary Roberts, Jeff O'Neill and Adam Graves, as well as Tkachuk's teammates Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis. The Melrose, Mass., native, who had back-to-back 50-goal seasons in 1995-1996 and 1996-1997, but has averaged 31 goals the past three seasons, determined that physical fitness, more than anything else, was holding him back.

"I more or less looked at Chris and Al, especially Al at 38 years old, and the great shape they are in and decided I wanted to work harder and get the same result," Tkachuk said. "(Poliquin) puts you through a workout to see what you need to work on and then he designs a program for you. I knew in order for me to take my game to the next stop, I had to take my physical fitness to the next level."

"I'm in the best shape of my life," he said. "It's something I needed. You get to this stage of your career and you realize you need to work harder to get results. I'm at 8.8 percent body fat. I don't think I was born with 8.8 percent body fat ... I was more than that. It was a tough summer. I really had to sacrifice. But it was something I felt I had to do."

(National Hockey League players with between eight and 10 percent body fat are considered to be in exceptional condition.)

The Blues, like Tkachuk, have sacrificed in an effort to win their first-ever Stanley Cup. They have been one of the NHL's most active teams in terms of signing free agents the past few years and didn't hesitate to take on Tkachuk's $8.3 million salary, thinking he might be the missing piece.

When the Phoenix Coyotes - a team doing quite the opposite of the Blues - decided to hack payroll last season, their captain was one of the first players to go, dealt last March 13 to the Blues for Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy, Jeff Taffe and a first-round draft pick. Tkachuk, a member of the Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets' organization since being drafted 19th overall in 1990, had six goals in 12 games with the Blues in the regular season, but found the net just twice in 15 playoff contests. St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville insists Tkachuk's playoff numbers don't tell the entire story.

"I thought he played really well against San Jose and Dallas," Quenneville said. "Against Colorado, their defense and Patrick (Roy) shut us down. Keith still led the team in scoring chances. He just didn't finish. I think that part of his game will come back."

Was Tkachuk himself satisfied with his post-season performance?

"Yes and no," said the 6-foot-2, 230-pound bruiser. "No, because we didn't win and when you don't win, you can't be satisfied. Yes, because you can't always judge a player on his goals, assists and points. I felt I did a lot of things to create room for my teammates. I felt like I did things that people can't notice ... and things that don't show up on the (stat) sheet ... physical things that contribute to the team. In the end, though, I felt I could have played better, but I couldn't do it physically."

The Blues have clearly geared up for what promises to be a no-holds-barred battle to make it out of the Western Conference with Colorado, Detroit and Dallas all making some serious - and costly - moves to keep pace with one another.

Tkachuk is confident the Blues have what it takes to win it all.

"We have the best defenseman in the league - probably the best player in the league - in Chris Pronger," Tkachuk said. "This organization proved it was serious about winning by signing Doug Weight and Mike Keane and Rich Pilon (in the off-season). When you see your team doing things like that, it gets you motivated. I can't wait to get going."

Melnyk brought Clarke, cups, memories to Flyers

No more miles to go for Jerry Melnyk. After countless snowy evenings getting to rinks all over North America and Europe looking for players of promise, he sleeps.

Jerry died a rich guy in the only things we take with us, love and respect. "Never met a man in any walk of life better liked," said Keith Allen, Melnyk's boss for 15 years.

He left a wife, two children, two grandchildren and a franchise, the Philadelphia Flyers, which never would have been what it is today had a rookie scout not been a broken record about the diabetic who had broken all those records in Flin Flon.

Bobby Clarke had gone untaken for 16 picks in the 1969 draft. When the Flyers were about to pass him over a second time, Melnyk grew almost as short of breath as the previous fall, when a mild heart attack suffered at camp on his 34th birthday had ended his career. General Manager Bud Poile sent Melnyk home to Edmonton to scout. He wasn't told exactly what to look for, but sure as hell knew it when he saw it.

"I don't care what this Clarke kid has, you have to take him!" said Melnyk. Assistant GM Keith Allen listened, as did owner Ed Snider to Allen. Six years later, the Flyers had consecutive Stanley Cups and Jerry Melnyk had a job for life if he never hit on another player.

Of course, by the time leukemia claimed him on June 14, he had identified enough others in 30 years on the job to help produce 13 teams that got at least as far as the semifinal. After Snider, Allen and Clarke, Melnyk might be the next most important person in Flyer history. If you had to be close to the inside to understand his significance, one of the Flyer beat's purest pleasures was the opportunity to appreciate Melnyk's hearty laugh and his disdain for fancy stickhandlers, both on the ice and in front offices.

Melnyk told Allen and later Clarke, not what they might want to hear, but what they needed to know. Of course, he never had to be reminded they liked players big and mean because Jerry did, too, although he knew scouting always started and usually ended with a prospect's stride. The computer forms the Flyers began to use in the 1970s asked for ratings on a scale of 1-9 in every category, including the bottom line: "What are his chances of playing in the NHL?" The only nine Melnyk ever could remember giving was to Paul Coffey.

Had the scout been asked to grade himself, he probably would have received only about a six, and not just because there wasn't a pretentious bone in his body. "At 18, you don't know what your own kid is going to be," Melnyk always said, "and you are supposed to figure that out about hockey players?"

From corner sections of rinks from Brandon to Moscow, Melnyk took highly educated guesses by obsessing over character. "He knew tough guys from bluff guys," Clarke said. "He had a unique ability to pick a (Rick) Tocchet or a (Ron) Hextall, who weren't highly rated, but extremely competitive and mentally tough."

"I went scouting more than other GM's because I liked being with him. Every day there was a new joke. When you were in his company, you always felt good about yourself," Clarke continued.

"We stopped in Vienna after being at a World Junior tournament, went for a hotel steam and first got on the scale. We both had put on almost 10 pounds on the trip. I said, 'Holy Christ, Jerry, what are we going to do?' He looked at the attendant and said, 'Can you get us a couple of beers?'

"That trip we went into the back streets, found a bar with a wood stove and about eight guys sitting there. Jerry knew enough Ukrainian to get by and within five minutes we're all drinking like old buddies. That was Jerry. He could get information without working at it because people liked talking to him."

For a story on a hockey scout's life, a couple of Philadelphia Daily News reporters once had the pleasure of Jerry Melnyk's company on an actual scouting expedition. The trip covered some 1,260 miles from Edmonton to Prince Alberta to Lethbridge to Medicine Hat to Calgary.

One of those beat writers, Jay Greenberg, reminisced about the trip:

"We didn't find another Bobby Clarke on that trip, only five of the most enjoyable days we've ever spent. Plus, a friendship far deeper than the talent pool from which a guy we miss made more than his share of hits."

Sleep well, Jerry Melnyk. The Philadelphia Flyers and the world of hockey will miss you.

(Quotes courtesy of The Hockey News' senior writer Mike Brophy and columnist Jay Greenberg.)

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