UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (07/29/01)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Never-ending battles for Ken Daneyko

Ken Daneyko's face was a mess. One large cut sliced across the bridge of his nose. Another cut over his swollen left eye was mostly hidden by a bandage. Yet another red gash made its home on his cheek, under his right eye. Frankly, he looked like hell. Truth be told, he wouldn't have it any other way.

"At this time of year you have to do the things that you do best to give your team a chance to win," said the 37-year-old careerlong member of the New Jersey Devils, during the Stanley Cup final. "My thing is playing physically. If I don't have these cuts on my face, maybe I'm not playing my game. I'd prefer not to get them, but they don't bother me a bit. Actually, it's kind of funny. I have a two-year-old son (Shane) who keeps pointing to them and saying, 'Daddy's boo-boo...daddy's boo-boo.' "

Daddy's boo-boos came courtesy of a Steve Reinprecht high stick in Game 2. They'll leave scars that Shane can point to when he grows up and have daddy tell him about his battles on the ice.

Maybe someday Daneyko will tell his son about his battles off the ice - the ones that leave scars on the inside. Three years ago Daneyko voluntarily entered the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program in an effort to stop drinking. While he prefers not to divulge the details of his very personal ordeal, he doesn't dismiss the subject when asked.

"I don't even know if I had a drinking problem," Daneyko said. "I really don't. I don't know how bad I was. I didn't quit because of me ... more because of my family. (Drinking) didn't affect my play, but it might have eventually. I just woke up one day and decided that something had to change."

Daneyko entered the program after playing the first 11 games of 1997-1998. He missed 45 games between November 1 and February 7, returning to the line-up on February 25 and finishing the season.

On the ice, it has been business as usual. The 6-foot-1 inch, 215-pound defenseman is one of the toughest players in the game. He's not a quick skater, his shot couldn't break glass and he only knows end-to-end rushes from the back-pedaling point of view. In 1,147 regular season games, all with the Devils, Daneyko has exactly 34 goals. Paul Coffey scored 14 more than that when he set the single-season standard for defensemen in 1985-1986. Daneyko's game is not about scoring goals; it's about preventing them.

"He's a great stay-at-home defenseman," said New Jersey coach Larry Robinson. "He's very good positionally. He's a perfect complement for Scott Niedermayer. The way he plays makes it tough on the opposition, especially this time of year. The playoffs bring out the best in him."

Last season's winner of the Masterton Trophy - presented for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to the game of hockey - Daneyko has been known to occasionally go off the deep end of the ice. That's what happened after Reinprecht whacked him upside the face. Daneyko threw a fit, not because he was cut, but because there was no penalty called on the play.

"I didn't give a crap about my face," he said. "I wanted the power play. Goals are hard to come by in the playoffs, and if you can get one on the power play, you have a better chance of winning."

If the Devils held a popularity contest, Daneyko would win hands down. As he held court with the media in his dressing room stall, a few seats away journeyman Ken Sutton shook his head in amazement.

"He's a character guy," Sutton said. "And he's also a character. He's such a funny guy, he keeps everybody loose. He's the funniest guy I've ever played with. He'll take a penalty and on the way to the box he'll scream at the ref, 'You can't give a guy a penalty for brute strength; that's just not right.' He'll say it right to the ref and crack the ref up."

Daneyko said he has no plans to retire. Even after 16-plus seasons he still enjoys coming to the rink and getting his face marked up in the heat of battle. And the fact of the matter is he still has plenty left to offer the Devils in terms of leadership and grit.

"As long as they still want me, I'll keep playing," Daneyko said.

And when the time comes he's not wanted anymore, he'll turn his full attention to his family - wife JonnaLyn, daughter Taylor, and, of course, Shane.

"They call him 'Mini-Me' because he looks exactly like me," Daneyko said. "I have a picture of myself when I was 2 and he looks at it and says, 'Shane ... Shane.' "

His battles on the ice will ultimately end. Someday, he said, he'll travel to the Hockey Hall of Fame to check out his name on the Stanley Cup. His battles off the ice? They never go away.

"It's tough," Daneyko admitted. "Really tough. You have good stretches and you have bad stretches. It's tough."

But so is Kenny Daneyko. He's one tough warrior.

Final grades are in

Plumbers and plodders, point-producers and puck-stoppers, let's get ready to ... tremble! Judgment Day for your efforts in 2000-2001 has come. School is out for all NHL teams and the final grades are in.

For several years now The Hockey News had published an annual grading of each NHL team's roster of players for the season just completed. Players are assigned grades by The Hockey News' team correspondents according to the system discribed below. Grades reflect a combination of regular season performance and salary expectations.

Grade: A+ to A-: 1. Stars delivering on expectations; 2. Very good players delivering beyond expectations; 3. Good/role players delivering well beyond expectations.

Grade: B+ to B-: 1. Stars performing below expectations; 2. Very good players delivering on expectations; 3. Good/role players delivering beyond expectations.

Grade: C+ to C-: 1. Stars performing far below expectations; 2. Very good players delivering below expectations; 3. Good/Role players delivering on expectations.

Grade: D+ to D-: 1. Stars performing outrageously below expectations; 2. Very good players delivering far below expectations; 3. Good/role players delivering below expectations.

Below are the 2000-2001 season's grades for 23 hockey stars of Ukrainian descent.

B TONY HRKAC - fourth-liner wound up on top unit.
B- OLEG TVERDOVSKY - iron man was asked to do too much.
B- VITALY VISHNEVSKI - potential star needs a guiding hand.
B DAVE ANDREYCHUK - you can always count on 20 goals.
C+ ALEXEI ZHITNIK - would be great with more consistency.
C- STEVE HALKO - quiet season as eighth defenseman.
C- MIKE MANELUK - hot streaks didn't last long enough.
B+ BRAD LUKOWICH - led team in plus-minus (+28).
B RICHARD MATVICHUK - solid alongside partner Sergei Zubov.
B- DENIS SHVIDKI - great improvement after too-great expectations.
C JOEY TETARENKO - NHL heart can't compensate for AHL ability.
B KEN DANEYKO - steady as ever.
B- CURTIS LESCHYSHYN - dependable veteran.
B RUSLAN FEDOTENKO - surprisingly effective 22-year-old rookie.
C TODD FEDORUK - rookie made strides as team's enforcer.
B+ KEITH TKACHUK - power forward acquired at deadline added power.
A PETER BONDRA - most complete NHL season yet.
A STEVE KONOWALCHUK - career season for defensive stalwart.
C- DMITRI KHRISTICH - early spark faded in a hurry.
C GLEN METROPOLIT - needs to work on his defense.
B- ANDREI NIKOLISHIN - good shot when he uses it.
C- DRAKE BEREHOWSKY - not much of a factor in one month with team.
C- WADE BELAK - part-time player in Calgary and Toronto.

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