Cold Sets In in Quest for Cup

Paul Kariya, the Mighty Ducks’ most positive image, stood on that golden pond in the days before the 1999-2000 All-Star game, shooting a promotional video for the NHL.

With him were Jaromir Jagr, Pavel Bure and Eric Lindros, the cream of hockey’s lost generation. As they playfully passed the puck around, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux walked onto the ice.

The torch-passing message was clear. Even Kariya, who shies away from any talk about his place in hockey history, earmarked that as a moment for posterity.

“That was just a fun day with Eric, Jaromir, Pavel, Mario, Wayne and Gordie,” Kariya said. “When I’m retired, that’ll be one of the things I’ll really look back on. I’m not big on mementos, but I do have a framed picture from that day, with everyone’s autograph.”

The message since is different.

Jagr and Lindros became more trouble than their contracts were worth and were traded by their teams. Bure already had been shipped south for a fresh start by the time that commercial was shot and although he is one of the league’s top goal scorers he has not made Florida a contender.

Of course, it could be said that Kariya is worse off. He still is with the Mighty Ducks. He does not see things that way, but there are those who do.

He remains the cornerstone of a team that has regressed considerably in the last three seasons. Kariya’s hopes remain here with the Ducks.

Another photograph, one of him hoisting the Stanley Cup, would look nice on the wall. A few other trinkets wouldn’t be bad either, a gold medal playing for Team Canada at the Olympics next year and, although he does not worry about such things, a plump new contract.

The medal is there for the winning. The new contract is a given. But the Stanley Cup? His thirst for that, as a Duck, may lead him to a mirage.

Still, Kariya remains steadfast. He finds the mere suggestion that he might move on some day highly amusing.

“That is the last thing I would think about,” Kariya said. “My focus is everything I’m doing day to day with the team. My long-term focus is winning the Stanley Cup here. That’s really all I have left. That is what I want to accomplish.”

Kariya showed up at training camp ready. There is a lot he can accomplish this season and he wanted to be prepared.

Team Canada will be one of the favorites in Salt Lake City. The contract will be awarded, unless General Manager Pierre Gauthier wants to pull the plug on a franchise.

But winning the Stanley Cup seems more distant than ever, at least while Kariya is in Anaheim.

“In order to be considered a great player, I think you have to do it in playoffs,” Duck forward Marty McInnis said. “Paul has high goals for himself and the team. That’s great to see because it makes everybody else pick their game up.”

Goodwill was needed to pick up the Ducks’ game after last season, when they finished last in the Western Conference. Management has talked about improving. Kariya has talked about the team needing to make the playoffs

Maybe management is more realistic, but Kariya better understands the importance of this season.

“I didn’t expect not to be in playoffs every year at this point of my career,” he said. “That’s disappointing, but there was shift in management and philosophy after my third year, when we went to the playoffs.

“[Coach] Ron Wilson was fired. Within that year, half the team had left. We went from an older, experienced team, with a good mix, to really just a young team. That has continued. I don’t see a lot of young teams performing well, without some veteran mix.”

That mix is starting to blend now, Kariya firmly believes ... or hopes.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Kariya said. “But because of the shift in philosophy and change, you’re going to go through some tough times, and we did.”

Kariya has had an emergency-room list of injuries--abdominal strain, concussion and a broken foot ... three times. But he hasn’t cornered the market on tough times.

That All-Star commercial was good public relations, but the reality since has not made a sequel attractive.

Jagr fell from favor in Pittsburgh. Lemieux returned to the Penguins last season and Jagr was sent to the Washington Capitals this summer.

Lindros’ significant stats with Philadelphia concerned MRIs and CT scans, rather than goals and assists. His numerous concussions resulted in a year off, then a trade to the New York Rangers this summer.

Bure was shipped from Calgary to Florida in 1998. Like so many others in that state, he seems set for a comfortable retirement, even before his playing career is done.

“That tells you a great deal about this league economically,” said Duck Coach Bryan Murray, who was Florida’s general manager when the team acquired Bure. “Those are elite players. In the past, those players would have been the last ones to go.”

As an example, the Ducks traded Teemu Selanne, Kariya’s talented linemate, to San Jose last March. Kariya remained in Anaheim, the Pluto in the NHL solar system.

Certainly there is pity in hockey circles, especially in Canada, for Kariya’s situation. David Shoalts, a writer for a Toronto paper, referred to the Ducks as “Paul Kariya and 19 guys who have to bribe family members every October to take them in their hockey pools.” Similar opinions have been expressed.

There is little doubt that in a big-time hockey town, Kariya would be NHL royalty.

“I’m sure he would get more publicity,” one NHL official said. “He is one of the top five or six players in the league. There is only one thing left for him to do, challenge for the Stanley Cup. He has done everything a player can do, except win the cup.”

And that may be several five-year plans away in Anaheim. Kariya, at 26, is still young, but he may not have that kind of time.

He is in the last year of a three-year, $30-million contract and will be a restricted free agent, meaning the Ducks have the right to match any offer. Gauthier has said, repeatedly, that he will not let Kariya go. Of course, Gauthier also said he would not trade Selanne.

The Ducks have trimmed their payroll in the last two seasons. A financially fat team dangling a wad of cash at Kariya is a possibility--Lindros and Kariya playing for the Rangers?

But the Ducks’ advantage in such a bidding war is Kariya. He remains loyal to the franchise, more so than the Disney ownership, according to some hockey officials. He has not once criticized management.

His focus, he has said repeatedly, is on the ice.

“To me, he is just a really, really competitive guy and wants some recognition,” Murray said. “But he wants that recognition for what the team does. He wants the team recognition because of winning more than he wants awards.”

Kariya may have to settle for the Olympics when it comes to winning this season.

An ugly cross-checking incident by then-Chicago Blackhawk Gary Suter just before the 1998 Olympics kept Kariya out of the games. Canada went without a medal when the country believed that with Kariya wearing the maple leaf logo, a medal was a given.

In 1994, Canada, with Kariya, had won the silver. They lost in the gold-medal shootout to Sweden and Peter Forsberg, who scored after Kariya’s shot had been stopped by goalie Tommy Salo.

“We tied the game and lost the skills competition,” Kariya said. “I’ve said many times that being in the Olympics was the greatest experience or tournament I’ve been a part of as a hockey player. I missed it in 1998 and that was probably the biggest disappointment of my career.”

Or maybe it’s just that he has become used to the other disappointments.

There is a lot Jagr, Lindros, Bure and Kariya have in common. Whereas Gretzky, Howe and Lemieux have 10 Stanley Cups among them, the next generation has two. Both won by Jagr. Both won in Lemieux’s shadow with Pittsburgh.

“You can have a great year individually, and I’ve done that, and the team doesn’t do well,” Kariya said. “Even if you make the playoffs, it’s empty at the end until you win your last game in the playoffs. You really can’t judge yourself as having a successful season until you win that last game.”