MVP or Not MVP

Raise a toast to Andy Bathgate.

Another NHL regular season has almost passed and Bathgate figures to remain the last player to have won the most-valuable-player award without having led his team to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In the spring of 1959, Bathgate, with 40 goals and 88 points in 70 games, edged out Gordie Howe for the Hart Memorial Trophy. But Bathgate’s New York Rangers finished fifth in the six-team league and missed the playoffs.

Thirty-nine years after Bathgate’s remarkable achievement, Teemu Selanne gave it a go but probably will come up short--just as his Mighty Ducks did in the standings this season.

Since Bathgate, members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Assn. have selected only players who have led their teams to the playoffs. After all, if a player can’t get his team to the playoffs, how valuable is he?

But there’s this counterpoint: If Selanne couldn’t lead the Ducks to the playoffs, who could have?

Buffalo Sabre goaltender Dominik Hasek probably will win the Hart Trophy for the second consecutive season.

If he doesn’t, expect to see Pittsburgh Penguin winger Jaromir Jagr or New Jersey Devil goalie Martin Brodeur posing with the trophy at the league’s awards banquet in June.

Although it’s difficult to quibble with Selanne’s statistics and leadership, it seems the best he can hope is to be among the three finalists.

He leads the league with 52 goals, is tied for fourth in points with 86, and without him it’s possible the Ducks would rival the Tampa Bay Lightning as the NHL’s reigning laughingstock.

Consider these two facts as further evidence that there has been no one more valuable to his team this season than Selanne:

* He has 52 of the Ducks’ 195 goals, or 26.7%. Only three other players in league history have scored more than 25% of their teams’ goals in a season.

* He is second to Peter Bondra of the Washington Capitals with 10 game-winning goals. He also has three game-tying goals.

“Selanne’s speed is unbelievable,” Philadelphia Flyer General Manager Bobby Clarke told the Hockey News earlier this season. “He’s as dangerous a player as there is in the NHL.”

And to think, Selanne accomplished so much while wearing a virtual target on his back. Stop Selanne and you’ll stop the Ducks, most teams figured.

So, they punched him, speared him and elbowed him in the head.

Selanne shrugged off most of it without complaint. He also refused to be drawn into a juvenile war of words with the Chicago Blackhawks after linemate Paul Kariya was knocked out for the season by Gary Suter’s cross check Feb. 1.

But Selanne’s teammates grew angrier by the game until, at last, they lost their composure in the third period March 13 against the Dallas Stars.

Outraged at what they believed to be a deliberate attempt to injure their captain by defenseman Craig Ludwig, the Ducks fought overzealously to settle the score.

“The players all like Paul, they respect Paul, but they all love Teemu,” a Duck executive said after the brawl against Dallas.

The Selanne-Kariya relationship is among the most dynamic in sports today.

They were the second- and third-leading scorers in the NHL last season and figured to be the league’s top 1-2 combination again in 1997-98.

But Kariya, last year’s Hart Trophy runner-up, played only 22 games this season. He missed the first 32 because of a contract dispute and the last 28 because of post-concussion syndrome as a result of Suter’s hit.

“You’ve got to really hand it to Teemu,” said Edmonton defenseman Bobby Dollas, a former Duck. “There have been a lot of changes and adversity this season in Anaheim. We all knew he’s a pretty easygoing guy, but he’s proved he’s one of the best players in the league.

“And he’s done it without Paul for most of the year.”

So has Selanne been hindered by Kariya’s absence, and if so, how much better would he have been this season?

Or has Selanne simply taken advantage of his turn alone in the spotlight?

There is ample evidence the latter is true.

Selanne has 19 goals and 37 points in the last 25 games, all without Kariya. He also had an 11-game goal-scoring streak earlier this season, again without Kariya.

“It’s given him a chance to show what he’s made of,” Coach Pierre Page said of Selanne, who received a two-year, $19.5-million contract extension earlier this month. “People have always talked about Paul. And Paul and Teemu. And Paul without Teemu. . . . If I was a voter, I’d have my hands full. I think in everyone’s heart, Teemu is an MVP. There have just been situations he can’t control.”

Without Kariya, Selanne has had to carry the team.

“It would be easy to only worry about myself,” Selanne said. “Leadership has been a new experience for me. That part has been pretty much fun. Sometimes I have to wake up the team. I’ve had to learn how to handle the team. Sometimes you have to yell a little bit.”

Selanne has been as proud of his teammates as they have been of him.

“If you look at how the guys have stuck together, the chemistry has been great,” Selanne said. “The team hasn’t fallen apart. The lineup is very young. It’s been a learning process for us.”

It would be easy to imagine a millionaire superstar simply going through the motions as a lost season nears its end. But Selanne said he has been determined not to fold down the stretch.

To be sure, he wants to win his first outright goal-scoring title. But he said there’s more at stake. Providing a good example for the Ducks’ youthful roster, for instance.

“I try to show up every night and be a leader,” he said.

The message has been well received, according to rookie center Matt Cullen.

“Teemu is unbelievable,” said Cullen, who last season played for St. Cloud State in Minnesota. “Whenever I talk to people back home, they ask about him. I think people only think of him as a goal scorer. But he’s not limited to just scoring.

“He does everything well.”

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Valuable Scorer

Teemu Selanne is certainly the most valuable player on the Mighty Ducks. Selanne leads the Ducks with 86 points, 34 more than Steve Rucchin, who is second on the team. That is the largest differential in the NHL. A look:

* Mighty Ducks, 34 points

Teemu Selanne, 86; Steve Rucchin, 52

* Calgary, 30 points

Theoren Fleury, 76; Cory Stillman, 46

* Vancouver, 28 points

Pavel Bure, 88; Mark Messier, 60

* Toronto, 27 points

Mats Sundin, 73; Mike Johnson, 46

* New York Rangers, 25 points

Wayne Gretzky, 87; Pat Lafontaine, 62

* Ottawa, 24 points

Alexei Yashin, 69; Shawn McEachern, 45