Mysterious Bure Keeps Goalies Guessing

Pavel Bure dropped his paddle, raised his arms in victory, then removed the “Florida Panthers Ping-Pong Championship” belt from around his waist and returned it to his locker--proudly hanging it alongside his pads, skates and helmet.

With his 21-5 win over Robert Svehla, Bure gave another teammate an idea of what it is like to be an opposing goaltender.

Whether it is table tennis or on the ice, it has been difficult to stop the Russian Rocket this season.

Bure leads the league in goals scored for the second consecutive year and has really played well since the Panthers’ coaching change in late December. He has been one of the few bright spots for the struggling Panthers, who won just six of their first 36 games and have been all but eliminated from the playoffs.

“He’s the best goal scorer I’ve ever seen,” teammate Peter Worrell said. “There are some guys in the league who are in his category, but obviously on this team, there’s nobody like him offensively. Everyone pales compared to Pav. He’s the best pure goal scorer in the league right now.”

“I’ve seen Bure score quite a few of his goals, but he never ceases to amaze me,” Phoenix’s Claude Lemieux said.

He capped each of the goals with his signature fist pump. But Panthers coach Duane Sutter said Bure was more excited about one he scored against Buffalo on Jan. 31.

Bure split two defenders, then beat Dominik Hasek--considered the best goalie in the game--on the ensuing breakaway.

“Here was the world’s best against the world’s best,” Sutter said. “When he came back to the bench, if I would have told him I didn’t want to play him anymore that night, he would have been satisfied. Just the look on his face when he came back from that shot. He had done what he wanted to do.”

That is rare insight into Bure, the NHL’s man of mystery.

He refuses to talk about his personal life. He will not discuss any alleged ties to the Russian mafia, his marriage eight years ago, the real reasons he left an $8 million contract in Vancouver, or his relationship with--and reported engagement to -- tennis star Anna Kournikova.

Rumors and reports have followed him everywhere, yet he remains supremely secretive and quiet. “Let’s talk about hockey,” Bure says.

Some of Bure’s actions on the ice have been equally vague.

He was noticeably absent during the final minutes of the All-Star Game on Feb. 4. Reportedly, he wanted to catch the last direct flight from Denver to Miami and had a seat booked on that 4:30 p.m. flight--which departed three hours after the dropping of the puck.

With the game running long because of extended intermissions and a record 26 goals, Bure left the World Team bench around 3:15 p.m. to race to the airport. He was gone before the game was over.

But Bure denied that he had a plane to catch and instead said he felt a twinge in his groin.

“When you don’t play a lot, you get cold, so I just didn’t want to take any chances,” said Bure, who played a little more than 16 minutes of the All-Star Game.

His minor groin injury hasn’t slowed him down, though.

He is on pace to score 54 goals, four shy of his league-leading total from last season. He has accounted for 28 percent of the Panthers’ scoring, the highest percentage of anyone in the league.

“If I don’t score, it’s ‘What’s wrong?’ I don’t know,” Bure said. “When you score, it’s ‘What was different? How did you score?’ I don’t know. It’s the most difficult thing for a professional athlete to learn how to deal with yourself. You can t lose confidence when you don’t score and you can’t get really high about yourself.

“You have to know what kind of player you are and it takes years to learn that. Sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t. But you have to try to maintain the same level through it all.”

Still, Bure has room for improvement. His play on the defensive end of the ice has been criticized in recent years, even costing him ice time during his three season with the Panthers.

Sutter is willing to be patient.

“A lot of guys who are really good offensive players don’t pay full attention to the defensive side of the game,” Sutter said. “To get your team over the top or into the top, guys change their philosophy or their approach to the game. They start to think differently or the coach convinces them differently, whatever it is.

“You can’t just change it from black to white. There’s got to be a little bit of gray area. Even then, he’s going to revert back to his old ways on some shifts. But it’s just a little bump in the road.”