UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (04/13/03)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Berehowsky's psychology for knee surgery rehab

While in Toronto, Phoenix Coyote defenseman Drake Berehowsky resided at The Sports Medicine Specialists facility. His job at the time: recover from his latest knee surgery. How? By spending five hours a day, five days per week, on rehab and conditioning.

This 30-year-old Toronto native completed his hat trick of serious knee injuries this current 2002-2003 season. The most recent one is the worst. Berehowsky took some time out from training to reflect.

Incident I - 1989-1990

"The first time was my left knee ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). It happened my second year of junior hockey, my draft year. I think it happened nine games into the season. I didn't come back that year."

Incident II - 1992-1993

"Three years later, this time my right knee ACL. It was my first year of professional hockey with Toronto (after getting drafted 10th overall in 1990). It happened in the last game of the season, just before the playoffs. We went right to the semi-final that year. I was playing well, getting icetime and stuff. Bad timing, no question."

Incident III - 2002-2003

"Saturday, September 21. First exhibition game with Phoenix. My third or fourth shift. Just went in and my leg was in the air, got hit and then it popped. This time, right knee MCL (medial collateral ligament) and ACL. They said five to six months. I said sooner."

Recovering from one serious knee injury is an ordeal, but when it happens three times, the mental toughness required to come back takes on a whole different meaning. Athletes prepare themselves for success. No one prepares for setbacks. Definitely not repetitive major setbacks. How they ultimately handle it comes from within.

* * *

"It's part of the game. These things happen. You just have to deal with them. I look at some players and they've had no injuries their whole career. But these are the cards I was dealt. One of my old coaches left me a message: 'There's always a silver lining in everything.' That really hit home. There's something good that's happening from this or it wouldn't have happened. You have to believe there's a plan."

Plan?

"Mine is to beat the odds and come back and show the people who believed in me that they were right. Everybody I think knows how much I want to play and how much I love the game," he said.

"You've got to focus. Re-think your strategy. I'm not going to lie," continued Berehowsky.

"It's a pain in the butt, I know it's cliché saying you love the game, but there's nothing better in this world than going out and playing hockey. To walk into a rink and smell the ice. It's phenomenal and I miss that. It's one of the reasons why I recuperated in Toronto and not Phoenix. I didn't think I could be around the guys. I know my limitations for staying a positive person."

"If you surround yourself with negativity, you're going to be a negative person and you're going to take this setback hard. That's why your support group is the most important thing. I have an agent who believes in me. I have a GM who believes in me. I have an owner, Wayne Gretzky, the best player who has ever played the game, who believes in me. When you know that, recovery takes on a different perspective."

"A lot of people say a career is like a roller coaster. Well, mine is like 30 roller coasters in one. I've had so many ups and downs. I'm just a regular guy who goes in, punches a time clock and gets to do something I really love to do. So, whether it's working out in rehab, I'm still part of what I've always dreamt of, I'm still part of the game."

* * *

In mid-November of last year, Berehowsky and clinical therapist Rory Mullin travelled to Birmingham, Ala., to see orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews and physical therapist Kevin Wilk for a progress report.

"Two thumbs up was the progress report at the time," said Berehowsky. In fact, Dr. Andrews actually reported he was ahead of schedule.

"Part of the mental challenge for Drake," Mullin said, "is that he has been through this before. However, in six weeks (the first part of the recovery) it was already a much more rapid process."

The last phases of his recovery allowed him to get on the ice for some light skating. He never lost sight of the fact he'd have to prove himself all over again when he eventually made it back to the Coyotes.

"I'm going to beat the odds," Berehowsky remembers saying more than once. "I'm going to come back harder for the people who believed in me."

Guess what? Ukrainian defenseman Drake Berehowsky made his season debut on February 26 after missing the first 61 games of the season. Mission accomplished.

Semenko vital part of Oilers dynasty

Dave Semenko knows as well as anybody the power the Stanley cup has over people.

"I remember driving the Cup around Edmonton in Kevin Lowe's Mercedes," said the burly Ukrainian (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) left-winger, who collected two championship rings from his years with the Edmonton Oilers. "It was myself, Kevin and Mark Messier in the car, and every so often, Kevin would pop the sunroof open and we'd stop the car and stick the cup out of the roof."

"The response was amazing - people would come out of nowhere to applaud and cheer," Semenko said. "They were in awe, and we were in awe of their reactions to seeing the cup."

Born in Winnipeg, Semenko spent 10 seasons in the Edmonton organization, dating back to the franchise's World Hockey Association days. One of the most feared intimidators in NHL history, Semenko said the Oilers dynasty - which took home five Stanley Cups over seven years from 1984 to 1990 - would be hard to duplicate in today's National Hockey League.

"I think one of the keys to our success in Edmonton was that we all matured together," Semenko said. "I was 22 years old, we were all fairly young and the core of the team didn't change that much. [Oilers GM] Glen [Sather] might make changes to the fourth line, but that was it. So we had the time to learn how to play as a team and I'm not sure that teams today have that same level of patience."

Despite icing a line-up that included names like Gretzky, Messier, Coffey, Kurri, Anderson and Fuhr, the Oilers were not weighed down by any oversized egos, Semenko said. "Everybody was equal in that dressing room," he said. "When the media entered the room, they had their own ideas of what the pecking order was, but every player on that team valued their teammates equally and that made us a stronger team on the ice."

Drafted 25th overall by the Minnesota North Stars in 1977, Semenko spent nine seasons in the NHL, where he amassed 65 goals and 88 assists for 153 points and 1,175 penalty minutes in 575 games. He experienced his best offensive season in 1982-1983, scoring 12 goals and 27 points for the Oilers.

Although coaches didn't look to Semenko for his offensive abilities, he valued a playing style that mixed offense with toughness, as evidenced by his respect for a 2002-2003 Hall of Fame inductee.

"Clark Gillies was a guy who was a tough player and who did his job quietly," said Semenko of the former New York Islander great, inducted this year. "The combination of skill and presence he possessed was something I respected."

After being traded to Hartford in 1986, Semenko split his final two NHL campaigns between the Whalers and Toronto Maple Leafs before retiring in 1988. He went on to dabble in real estate and also worked on Oilers television broadcasts before joining Edmonton's scouting staff in 1995, where he has served as a pro scout for the team ever since.

"Scouting is something I really like," said Semenko, now 45. "If you don't like travelling, the job isn't for you, but scouting is something that keeps me in the game and I enjoy being on the management side of things now."

Semenko doesn't have to look very far to find the player he believes best fills the intimidator role today.

"Georges Laraque is very good at his role," he said of the current Oiler tough guy. "He knows how to play the game, he has deceptive speed for a guy his size, and he doesn't show anybody up."

Edmonton Oilers fans have never forgotten Semenko's contribution to the team's great glory days.

"All across Canada, fans still come up to me," Semenko said. "They're grateful for the good memories we were able to provide."

Big No. 27 in navy blue with orange and white, patrolling the left side, with The Great Gretzky at center ice and super sniper Jarri Kurri on right wing, was one of the most imposing and productive forward lines of the modern era. The mere presence of Semenko on this trio opened up lots of ice for his linemates to wheel, deal, shoot and score.

Dave Semenko did indeed play a most vital part on one of the NHL's legendary dynasties.

(Thanks to Marylene Vestergom and Adam Proteau for quotations in above two sections.)

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