UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (08/04/96)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Parity has arrived in the NHL

For parity, the NFL has nothing on the NHL. One need only look at the results of the last five years in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

"It speaks to parity that two teams from these markets (were in the Stanley Cup finals)," Florida captain Brian Skrudland said of his Panthers and the Colorado Avalanche.

With the Avalanche winning the Cup this year, it marked the fifth straight season a different team won the league's championship. The champions, in order since 1992: Pittsburgh, Montreal, New York Rangers, New Jersey and now Colorado.

That hasn't happened since the 1940s.

Also, consider what else happened this season.

The Detroit Red Wings set a record for victories, yet lost in the Western Conference finals to Colorado.

The Devils failed to make the playoffs after winning the Cup last season.

And the third-year Panthers, who had never even made the playoffs before, got all the way to the Stanley Cup finals before losing a four-game series that was actually closer than the sweep indicated.

In some respects, hockey is a different game compared to the one played when such teams as the Canadiens, New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers dominated the league for long periods.

A combination of free agency and, to a larger extent, the willingness of teams to trade big-name players because of their hefty salaries has helped change the game's face. Often, contract demands of the money-conscious modern player has forced teams to unload stars.

Claude Lemieux, last year's playoff MVP for New Jersey, wound up in Colo-rado and helped that team win the Cup after a dispute with Devils management.

Also, the rapidly increasing influx of players from outside North America, particularly from Europe, has enlarged the NHL talent pool and sprinkled skilled players around the league in greater numbers.

The champion Avalanche, for instance, boast a typical international mix with one German, one Latvian, one Swede, two Russians and two Americans, along with 17 Canadians on their playoff roster. (One of those Canadians is Ukrainian defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn.)

Another factor for parity: goaltending has been as uniformly good as it's ever been in NHL history, with most teams boasting two quality netminders. In the playoffs, of course, a hot goalie can carry a team, as Patrick Roy did for Colorado.

Roy, incidentally, was another of those superstar players who changed teams, going from Montreal to Colorado in December. Although the move was inspired by Roy's rather large ego, the Canadiens obviously thought they could let one of the game's greatest goaltenders go, offsetting his departure by acquiring another with great potential in Jocelyn Thibault.

No greater case for the impact of a goaltender in the playoffs could be made than Roy's performance in Colorado's Cup-clinching 1-0 triple-overtime thriller.

"Patrick Roy - what can you say?" noted Florida's Bill Lindsay. "Sixty-three shots, not a goal. Four goals all series. I don't know how many shots we had in the series, but his save percentage had to be around 96 percent." Roy allowed only four goals in 151 shots in the finals.

The Avalanche needed Roy at his best throughout the playoffs, considering the stiff competition.

"We're very respectful of all our opponents throughout the playoffs," Colorado coach March Crawford said. "The Vancouver Canucks gave us an unbelievable test right away. We had four overtime games with Chicago, it was grueling to say the least. Obviously we had to be at the top of our game for the Detroit series.

"Then we came here (Florida) and knew this team had played so well. They just work, work, work."

That work ethic seems to be spreading quickly around the league these days.

Bellows seeing Stars again

The type of surge the Tampa Bay Lightning experienced in mid-March and April was nothing new to Ukrainian Brian Bellows. This right winger has been there, done that.

The year was 1991. The team was the Minnesota North Stars, a club so much like the Lightning. Bellows' eyes widened with wonder as he rattled off the similarities.

"Just like this team, we didn't have any real stars on that club," said Bellows of a team that made it to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I mean, Dave Gagner was our leading scorer. But we played real smart defense, we had great goaltending, a great power play, and we just seemed to come out of nowhere at the end of the season. Just like we are now."

And just like the Lightning, that North Stars' team was going nowhere when the season started. Both teams started their respective seasons with 4-10-4 records.

The North Stars stumbled to the all-star break, but on January 30 they began a run in which they went 11-4-4 over 19 games to pull even with the playoff pack. Tampa Bay's record in the 19 games it played after January 30 was 11-5-3.

"I'm telling you it's scary how similar these two teams are," Bellows said.

What's even more scary is what happened to the North Stars down the stretch. They won just two of their last nine games and wound up eighth in the conference.

Bellows said that it would be fine with him if the Lightning repeated that trick of finishing eighth (they did), minus the slump (they didn't), of course.

"We just want to be in the top eight because that gets you there and gives you a chance to win it all," Bellows said prior to the completion of the regular season. "That's the way it was in Minnesota. We just wanted to get there and we did.

"And look what happened. The same thing could happen here."

Unfortunately for Brian, it didn't. His Lightning was bounced from the playoff's first round by the Philadelphia Flyers in a hotly contested first-round match-up.

UKRAINIAN UTTERINGS: New Vancouver coach Tom Renney announced Ukrainian assistant Stan "Steamer" Smyl will remain on his coaching staff...The Phoenix Coyotes (nee Winnipeg Jets) will not tender a new contract offer to free agent Eddie Olczyk. At press time Olczyk, had just signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Kings.... The Dallas Stars voted Richard Matvichuk the team's top defenseman and most improved player...In an abrupt turnaround, the Whalers rewarded defenseman Alexander Godynyuk with a new two-year contract and fully expect him to be with Hartford in 1996-97...St. Louis' hockey tsar, Mike Keenan, says he's considering free agent goalie Kelly Hrudey if Grant Fuhr is not 100 percent from his serious knee injury. Hrudey will not be back with the Kings...The Canucks made an offer to Joey Kocur.

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