MISSING LINK

The diving platform looming over one end of the hockey rink at Yoyogi Arena is merely one sign the once staid and provincial NHL has truly entered a brave new world.

Tonight and Saturday, on an ice rink built over a swimming pool, the Mighty Ducks and Vancouver Canucks will help take the league global with its first regular-season games played outside North America.

Having won over fans in recent seasons in such Sun Belt cities as Anaheim, Miami, Phoenix, San Jose and Tampa, Fla., the league set its sights on Asia last spring.

Tickets to the 10,000-seat Yoyogi Arena, site of the swimming and diving competition at the 1964 Olympics and considered the most suitable venue for the NHL games among the handful of rinks in the Tokyo area, were snapped up in a matter of minutes when they went on sale in March.

With little advance advertising and a hefty price of 25,000 yen (about $210) per ticket, that says a great deal about hockey’s burgeoning popularity in a nation whose sporting passions had tended to focus on baseball and golf.

There is a six-team professional hockey league in Japan, but the players are still developing their skills and lack the size and speed of world-class players.

Nevertheless, the quick arena sellout says a lot about the Japanese market, which is no small reason the Ducks and Canucks are here in the first place. Money, as ever, is a key issue.

Add the appearance of NHL players for the first time in the Olympics when the Games are held in Nagano in February, and it’s no wonder interest in hockey in this country is soaring.

More than 350 reporters, about the same number one could expect to see covering the Stanley Cup finals, are credentialed for the series between the Ducks and Canucks. The games will also be shown live on Japan’s WOWOW TV network. ESPN2 and the Canadian Broadcasting Company are showing the games live in North America.

Now imagine the frenzied reaction in Japan if Paul Kariya were playing. Kariya, a Canadian of Japanese decent, is by far Japan’s favorite hockey player.

He’s on the cover of glossy Japanese magazines devoted exclusively to the NHL. He’s featured in newspaper articles on the upcoming games between the Ducks and Canucks. He’s mentioned on TV programs.

He’s just not here.

Instead, Kariya is hunkered down at home in Vancouver, awaiting a new contract that’s expected to pay him between $7 million and $10 million per season.

“It’s a big disappointment because a lot of fans bought tickets because of Paul,” said Mikiko Kato, a reporter for WOWOW and a freelance hockey writer for a number of Japanese publications.

“It’s not just because of his Japanese heritage that he’s so popular, but because of his finesse and talent. It will hurt the games if he’s not here.”

The league’s official stance has been one of only mild disappointment. Commissioner Gary Bettman said last week it would be “a shame if Mr. Kariya is not in Japan with Anaheim.”

However, Kariya is seen by many as the No. 1 reason the games are being played this week in Japan and not Germany or elsewhere in Europe. The Nagano Olympics run a close second to Kariya, or so goes the popular theory.

“No doubt Paul was an attraction to the NHL and the organizers,” said Jack Ferreira, Duck general manager. “No one from the NHL ever came out and said that he’s the specific reason we’re here, but he had a lot to do with it.”

However, it doesn’t appear there will be a last-minute settlement that will enable Kariya to join the Ducks for the start of their fifth NHL season.

“There’s no latest news, there’s no update,” Ferreira said. “I’ll have no comment about the Paul Kariya situation.”

Even Vancouver tough guy Gino Odjick, who led the NHL with 371 penalty minutes last season, acknowledged Kariya’s absence leaves a sizable void for fans expecting to see the all-star left winger.

“I’m happy he’s not here from a personal standpoint because it’s good for our team if he doesn’t play,” Odjick said. “But it certainly would have been fun for the Japanese fans to see him here and to see what he can do on the ice.”

So, it will be up to the Japanese fans to embrace a different star--perhaps Odjick, whose fighting prowess will be viewed as a curiosity.

“Japanese fans are used to cleaner play,” Kato said. “There are not too many fights in the Japanese league because the players aren’t that big, but I think the fans will love it if there will be fights.”

More likely the fans who witness the games in person will cheer the skills of Vancouver’s Mark Messier and Pavel Bure and especially the Ducks’ Teemu Selanne.

Selanne’s outgoing personality seemed to catch the fancy of Japanese reporters and autograph hounds waiting in the hotel lobby and at the arena on the Ducks’ first full day in Tokyo.

Selanne happily signed autographs, posed for pictures and politely answered an endless stream of questions about his popular, but missing, linemate.

“Over the course of the next couple of days, the fans and media are going to fall in love with him,” goaltender Guy Hebert said while watching Selanne being interviewed by a horde of TV camera crews after a news conference in a Tokyo hotel ballroom.

“He’s that way with everybody. He’s always smiling. People want to be around him.”

Players and coaches from both teams spoke of accepting the role of hockey ambassadors for the week. But more to the point, they also realized they’re here to sell the game to a vast new audience.

True, the tickets already are purchased. But there are T-shirts, caps, sweatshirts, jackets, pennants and perhaps new TV rights still to be sold. WOWOW is in its third season of televising NHL games, and it’s hoped other Japanese networks will join in.

Much the way the NFL tapped into the European market the last few years, the NHL is hoping its exposure in Asia will translate into big bucks from a previously untapped source. This year, it’s yen. Next year, perhaps it’s deutsche marks as the NHL ponders opening the 1998-99 season in Germany or another European country.

“Anybody who cares about the game is going to want to try to build the fan base and build our exposure,” said Bettman, who came to the NHL from the NBA, which boldly moved into foreign markets on the tails of Michael Jordan’s worldwide popularity. “We feel this will be a positive step forward and will build interest in the game around the world.”

Europe would seem like the next logical destination.

“There’s big interest in Russia and Europe because of the number of players in our league from those countries,” Bettman said. “We’ve had discussions about playing future games in Japan and Europe. We’ll look at this experience and see how it went, how it was received, then we’ll explore coming back.

“Obviously, we’re looking at all the possibilities.”

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Tonight’s Game

Ducks vs.

Vancouver

* Site: Tokyo

* Time: 8 p.m.

* TV: ESPN2

* Radio: KRLA (1110)