NHL NOTES : Winnipeg Remains Patient With Host of Europeans on Roster

They have Teemu Selanne, Fredrik Olausson, Thomas Steen, Evgeny Davydov, Teppo Numminen, Alexei Zhamnov, Igor Ulanov and Sergei Bautin, but the Winnipeg Jets have not approached the success expected of them.

In this breakthrough season where the NHL is enhanced by so much European skill, the Jets were expected to be a contender. Instead, they had a 7-13-1 record at the 21-game quarter pole, compared with a 9-8-4 record in 1991-92.

Can a team have too many European players?

“I don’t care if the players are from Manitoba or Moscow, Minnesota or Minsk,” Jets Coach John Paddock says. “Talent still wins in this game, and I think the Jets will play better as our European players learn the North American lifestyle and begin to communicate better.

“There is a longer period of adjustment for these players, but the extra time is worth it, even if I wake up at night feeling like a United Nations interpreter babbling in some foreign tongue.”

For every Selanne who gets 16 goals and 12 assists in his first 21 NHL games, there is a Zhamnov with one goal and 11 assists. Selanne and Zhamnov combine with American Keith Tkachuk on the Jets’ No. 1 scoring line.

But skill is still king in the NHL.

Europeans Jari Kurri, Mats Sundin, Tomas Sandstrom, Pavel Bure, Selanne and Sergei Makarov all were in the league’s Top 20 scorers at the quarter mark. And there’s more to come.

That’s why those awkward Jets, who are easily the fastest skating team in the NHL, aren’t about to cash in their chips and why they think a player such as Selanne will lead them back into the Smythe Division race.

“Some say we have too many soft players, that some of our lines try to be too fancy,” Paddock says. “Maybe they are right. But that’s my problem to deal with. The Europeans aren’t the problem.”

Paddock, asked what Selanne has to do to be a star in the NHL, says, “Not much.”

No elaboration necessary.

Selanne’s 16 goals were one more than heralded rookie Eric Lindros and six more than Brett Hull, who has led the NHL in goals the past three seasons.

“(Selanne) is just unbelievable,” veteran forward Ed Olczyk says. “His acceleration is like Pat LaFontaine’s. Once the puck is on his stick, he’s gone.

“If you give him a foot, he’ll turn it into 19 or 20 in the blink of an eye.”

Selanne’s instant success in the NHL probably has as much to do with his ability to communicate as anything else. His English is perfect. Almost as impeccable as his acceleration on skates.

Selanne was the 10th player selected in the 1988 entry draft. Former Winnipeg General Manager John Ferguson thought he was better than Mike Modano, Trevor Linden and Jeremy Roenick, players who were chosen ahead of Selanne. Ferguson tried to coax Selanne to join the Jets right away, but the youngster had a year of military service to complete and wanted to compete for Finland in the 1992 Olympic Games.

“I was flattered that John Ferguson thought I could play in the NHL right away,” Selanne says. “But I knew leaving Finland was more than just going away for the weekend on a vacation. I had things I wanted to do, had to do, before I joined the NHL.”

Winnipeg’s future was on display last week in a 6-5 come-from-behind victory at Tampa Bay, when Davydov scored his first career hat trick and Selanne broke a 5-5 tie late in the third period. There was plenty of evidence of the Jets’ big, mobile defense that includes Numminen, Ulanov and Bautin.

“They skate as well as any team in the NHL,” Lightning Coach Terry Crisp says. “We got caught up in their game and it cost us.”

You don’t win Stanley Cups by skating Figure 8’s or doing fancy twirls, unless you can back up those moves with the kind Selanne and Davydov are beginning to display.

Former Chicago Blackhawks Coach Mike Keenan is busy second-guessing coaches on Canada’s TSN network on a four-game tryout until he decides which coaching job he will take.

Keenan, who was scheduled to make $350,000 this season as the Blackhawks’ general manager, has two options. He can accept a $250,000 buyout for the rest of this season (he already had been paid $100,000 this season) if he chooses to remain on the sideline or accepts a position outside the Norris Division. Or he can go to any team for a $100,000 buyout.

St. Louis still looks like his best bet for immediate employment.

Maybe Latvian goalie Arturs Irbe has the right idea. He looks at a game as a puzzle, then takes it one save at a time.

“I like the puzzles with 1,000 pieces,” says Irbe, who recorded a 6-0 victory over Los Angeles, the Sharks’ first shutout. “It helps your concentration and focus.”

Irbe’s latest puzzle is of an elephant.

Without much talent, the Sharks are tackling an even bigger project this season.

The Ottawa Senators were closing in on the Washington Capitals’ record of 17 consecutive losses, but that didn’t stop them from announcing that ticket prices will be increased by 5 percent next season. With already the highest prices in the league, the Senators will be asking an average of $40 per ticket, with a $104 top price. Even with 6,000 names on the waiting list for tickets at the 10,500-seat Ottawa Civic Centre, it takes a lot of nerve to up the ante after getting off to a 1-19-1 start. ... If the Senators don’t improve, look for Ferguson to replace Mel Bridgman as general manager. Ferguson is the director of player personnel for the Senators. ... The Rangers offered three players and $1.5 million to the Oilers for defenseman Dave Manson last week but were turned down because Edmonton G.M. Glen Sather wanted a better choice of players. ... Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton and the Rangers all have talked to the Blues about pugnacious defenseman Garth Butcher.