Order Now Restored in Kariya’s World

It was hard for Paul Kariya to play hockey at the start of this season. Harder than Kariya ever expected and this uncomfortable feeling lasted much longer than Kariya ever thought possible.

He had taken a brutal cross-check to the jaw last season and, combined with an early-season contract squabble, Kariya played very little hockey in 1998.

But, still, Kariya was humbled and a little stunned when, for a month, maybe two, he felt as clumsy as a teenager trying to waltz for the first time.

“One-two-three, one-two-three.” It was as if Kariya were a novice dancer, counting aloud to the music as he tried not to step on his partner’s toes.

“Skating to me had always been instinct,” Kariya says now, now when the Ducks are all skating flawlessly, perfectly almost. “I didn’t have to think out on the ice and all of a sudden I found myself on the ice and having to think about what to do.

“It was an odd feeling, to not feel quite right, and it wasn’t something I expected. I thought that by the time the exhibition season was over, I’d be back to my old self. Maybe a game or two into the regular season, but not longer than that.”

This is odd, too, listening to Kariya be so harshly critical of himself. As Kariya came back from the concussion he suffered last year, there was never once a criticism of Kariya’s performance. If there had been any fear in the Ducks’ organization that Kariya might be gun-shy or might shrink away from contact, that ended on Day 1 of practice when Kariya took hits and gave some out.

“If anything,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said, “Paul came back as a more aggressive player. He is initiating things more now and I think that has been good. Paul says it took him awhile to feel comfortable? I never saw that at all. But, then, Paul is a perfectionist.”

Indeed there is not a hint of disorder at Kariya’s locker after a morning skate. There is no tissue tossed carelessly or shirt hanging by one arm off a hanger. His skates gleam. You can see yourself in them, so spit-polished is this equipment. You won’t find a ball of tape wadded up and dumped on the floor. This little space around Kariya is orderly. Kariya likes his world orderly. And for two months his skating world was not orderly.

“I never once looked back or thought about the injury or anything from last year,” Kariya said. He says the only hockey he watched last season was bits and pieces of the Olympics. “That’s all I could bear.”

So he was eagerly anticipating the start of training camp and then the games and never in his own mind did Kariya doubt he could play without a hint of fear. “If there had been even a little doubt, I wouldn’t have played,” Kariya said.

Kariya thought he had all the angles figured. And then there he was, out on the ice. Counting in his head. One, two, three. One, two, three.

“Comfortable,” Kariya said. “That’s what it was. I wasn’t comfortable on the ice. For 15 or 20 games. When you’ve played a game well and then you don’t play, I don’t know how to explain it, but something is missing when you come back. I had a routine on the ice, a routine for training, a routine for travel.

“Even travel, it took me awhile to get used to the routine of traveling, of when to pack and get to the airport, when to eat and sleep. The whole routine was just missing. I still don’t feel like I’ve got all my timing back exactly how I want it. But it’s coming along.”

No doubt.

Kariya is fifth in the league in scoring with 78 points and 37 of those points have come in the last 30 games. His upper body is chiseled to nearly sharpened points on his upper arms and chest.

Hartsburg says that if Kariya didn’t feel comfortable early in the season, it was as much about working under a new coach and dealing with Hartsburg’s experimenting with different lines. Kariya says, yes, that might have been a bit of a problem but mostly it was that Kariya needed to introduce himself to hockey again, to become hockey’s friend again, to be on the ice without any need to think, only to act.

There was another question for Kariya. Did he ever think that maybe, since he will be needing to sign a new contract for somebody next season, that he has been on trial this year, that maybe he needed to prove his mettle again to both the Ducks and to any other teams that might be interested in having him?

“No, never,” Kariya says abruptly. “That has never been a consideration.”

And by the way, Kariya is quite high on this version of the Ducks. He calls his team “young and improving.” He says it is a team that’s “fun to be around.” He says it is a team “that should have a very bright future.” And would Kariya like to be part of that future? “Yes,” Kariya says, “I would.”

A neat answer. A tidy answer. An answer that came without thinking. That came instinctively.

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com

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