The Great Kurri : Underrated, and Overshadowed by Gretzky, He’s Still a Star for Oilers, Finns

Jari Kurri may be the most underrated player in hockey.

No matter what he does, and lately he has done plenty, Kurri, a right wing for the defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers, can’t seem to skate out of the massive shadow cast by Wayne Gretzky, his linemate and star center.

Wherever you go in Edmonton, or other parts of Canada for that matter, Gretzky’s face is smiling down at you from a billboard, selling everything from insurance to cameras.

Kurri does promotional work for an Edmonton automobile dealer. His first name is misspelled (Jarri) on a billboard in downtown Edmonton.

If Kurri resents Gretzky, though, he doesn’t show it. After all, Gretzky, perhaps the best passer and playmaker in the National Hockey League, sets up Kurri for many of his goals.

Besides, Gretzky may be a national hero in Canada but Kurri is just as famous in his native Finland.

“He’s such a hero in his own country that I don’t think Jari is jealous of the attention Wayne gets,” said Loren Davis, a former Canadian Olympic hockey coach who works as a scout for the Oilers. “Jari goes home every summer and he’s able to relish all of it.”

Kurri was the leading goal scorer in the NHL this season until a broken hand forced him to miss the final seven games of the regular season.

He finished with 71 goals, just two fewer than Gretzky’s league-leading total, and was the first European-born player to score more than 50 goals in a season. He also set an NHL record for most goals by a right wing, breaking Reggie Leach’s mark of 69.

Kurri has been hot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, helping Edmonton reach the final series for the third straight year.

He has scored 18 goals and assisted on six more, and needs just one more goal to tie Leach’s NHL record for most in a playoff year.

In the finest traditions of the modest team player, though, Kurri said, “I try not to think about breaking the record. I’m more concerned with winning games.”

Kurri has also set three playoff records this season. He has had four games in which he has scored three or more goals, three of them against Chicago in the Campbell Conference championship series. He had 12 goals in that six-game series against the Black Hawks, setting a record for most goals in a series other than the final.

“Jari Kurri is a superstar in his own right. He’s a great player,” said Glen Sather, Edmonton’s coach and general manager.

Many teams tend to overplay Gretzky, leaving Kurri open.

The Philadelphia Flyers, for example, are using Ron Sutter to check Gretzky in the Stanley Cup series. Sutter held Gretzky without a shot in the Flyers’ 4-1 win over the Oilers Tuesday night in the opener.

Kurri, who was checked by Flyer left wing Derrick Smith in the opening game, got off three shots but couldn’t get a goal. Sutter also tried to intimidate Kurri when he gave him an elbow in the face. No penalty was called, however.

“I don’t think it was accidental,” Kurri said. “I was turning to go up the ice and I didn’t see him.”

Kurri, Gretzky and the Oilers will attempt to get it back together in the second game of the best-of-seven series tonight at the Spectrum.

“We have to work harder,” Kurri said. “The Flyers didn’t give us any open ice. Smith didn’t play me any differently. It was just one of those nights. I just couldn’t get away from him.”

There have been a lot of good center-wing combinations, but Gretzky and Kurri could be the best ever. Gretzky had 73 goals and 135 assists for 208 points to lead the NHL this season, and Kurri was the runner-up in the scoring race with 135 points. Kurri also led the NHL with 13 game-winning goals.

Why do Gretzky and Kurri work so well together?

“We play with instinct,” Gretzky said. “We let the puck do the work. We’re both very unselfish. It doesn’t matter who scores. We play a lot alike and we think a lot alike. There’s no jealousy between us at all.”

Kurri and Gretzky first teamed up five years ago.

“It was a natural,” Sather said. “They both have good peripheral vision. They seem to know where each other is going to be. Jari is the best right wing in the game today, and Wayne is the best center. Between the two of them, they have broken almost every record.”

Said Davis, the Oilers’ scout: “They understand each other. Gretzky knows when Kurri is going to an opening on the ice. They both have speed. And Kurri shoots the puck as well as anyone I’ve seen.

“I think he’s in the top five players in the league, but he’s underrated because of Wayne.”

Kurri, at 6 feet and 185 pounds, may have one of the hardest slap shots in the game.

“We have lot of respect for his shooting abilities,” Flyer Coach Mike Keenan said of Kurri. “He has a good shot from the right.”

Kurri, 24, may be one of the best players in the NHL now, but he wasn’t drafted until the fourth round in 1980.

Apparently, he was passed over because clubs thought he wouldn’t leave Finland.

“I was coaching in the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid, and he was playing for Finland,” Davis recalled. “At that time, I was also scouting for the (New York) Rangers. We were going to draft Jari in the fourth round because we figured he wouldn’t leave Finland. He couldn’t even speak English. But the Oilers had the pick before us and they took him.”

Kurri learned English from a couple of Finnish players he roomed with shortly after joining the Oilers.

Now, the role has been reversed. On Monday, the Oilers announced the signing of Esa Tikkanen, a 19-year-old left wing from Helsinki who was the most valuable player of the World Junior tournament in Finland last year.

Tikkanen is practicing with the Oilers here, and there is a possibility that he may replace left wing Mike Krushelnyski on a line with Gretzky and Kurri in tonight’s game.

“Jari has been very helpful to me,” Tikkannen said.

Kurri and Tikkanen are both from Helsinki and served in the Finnish Army together for seven months. They also played together on the IFK team in the Finnish Elite Division before Kurri left for the NHL.

“He’s going to be a great player,” Kurri said of Tikkanen. “I think he may be able to give our team a lift in the playoffs.”

The Oilers welcomed Tikkanen by giving him a Mohawk haircut, a traditional hockey hazing ritual. Tikkanen now has the look of a punk rocker on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

Kurri and Tikkanen have different styles though. Tikkanen is known as a brawler, but Kurri is easygoing and rarely gets into fights.

“Jari has the face of an angel,” Davis said.

Stanley Cup Notes Edmonton Coach Glen Sather, who complained about the poor condition of the Spectrum ice after the first game, pulled his team off the ice for about 10 minutes during the middle of practice Wednesday while it was resurfaced by a Zamboni. “I know they’re trying to improve the ice,” Sather said. “I don’t know what the problem is. I can’t understand why they have good ice in Los Angeles and they can’t do it here, too.” . . . Oiler goalie Grant Fuhr didn’t practice Wednesday, but he wasn’t injured. “They gave me the day off,” Fuhr said. “It was a holiday for me.” . . . The Oilers haven’t beaten the Flyers since a 4-3 win Nov. 13, 1982. The Flyers have won eight and tied one in their meetings since then.

‘We have to work harder. The Flyers didn’t give us any open ice. . . . It was just one of those nights. I just couldn’t get away from him (the Flyers’ Derrick Smith).’

--JARI KURRI