Back in the driver's seat

Sporting News, The, Nov 16, 1998 by Sherry Ross

To the great relief of the NHL, PAUL KARIYA again is a force for Anaheim after a fourth concussion nearly ended yet another budding star's career

The key to Paul Kariya's comeback dangled from Teemu Selanne's fingers. It was the key to Selanne's Dodge Viper, a prized sports car in the Anaheim right wing's collection and one Selanne would refuse to loan to Kariya in the spring. That was when his friend Paul didn't look like himself didn't act like himself and, still in the throes of post-concussion syndrome, couldn't be trusted behind the wheel.

But in training camp, when Kariya asked for the use of the hot wheels to squire his visiting sister around town, Selanne didn't hesitate to hand over the key, because Kariya was his old self. For Kariya, it was better than getting a clean bill of health from Dr. James Kelly, the director of the brain injury program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

"He's got the trust back," Kariya says of Selanne's loan.

And the game has Kariya back.

The Mighty Ducks weren't alone in heaving a sigh of relief on an October Saturday in Washington when Kariya returned to the lineup for the first game of the season after recovering from a February 1 crosscheck to the jaw. Gary Suter's vicious hit on Kariya caused the superstar to miss the last 28 games of the 1997-98 season, as well as the Olympics. There isn't a red-blooded Canadian sports fan who doesn't believe the outcome of the tournament (won by the Czech Republic) would have been different if Kariya had been in Nagano.

The NHL needs Kariya. Wayne Gretzky has been holding the torch as NHL ambassador for so long it's a wonder all of the blood hasn't drained out of his arm. Gretzky was supposed to hand it off to Mario Lemieux, but Lemieux retired prematurely from a combination of illness and disillusionment. Eric Lindros plays better as a villain than a hero. Goalie stars who have dominated the game for the past two seasons, such as Dominik Hasek and Martin Brodeur, are tough to market, as are foreign stars such as Jaromir Jagr, Peter Forsberg and Selanne.

Enter Kariya, the clean-cut Canadian, half-Japanese, All-American college boy.

Since he was drafted fourth overall by Anaheim in 1993, there hasn't been a whiff of scandal involving Kariya. No brushes with the law, spats with the media, not so much as a food fight on his rap sheet. There was a contract wrangle that cost him the first 32 games of last season, but hardly anyone holds that against a pro athlete these days. Kariya takes on the business of role model the same way he approaches his game--with utter diligence and sincerity. His own role model in that respect is Gretzky.

"He's the best ever in any sport in terms of promoting the game and helping the game grow," Kariya says. "He is responsible for three franchises in the NHL, so what more can you say about him? No one is ever going to do what he's done. We don't play similar styles. I'm going to try to be the best Paul Kariya that can be, wherever that leads. Trying to promote the game is part of it, but if you're not performing on the ice, they won't want to talk to you, so I have to take care of that part first. I don't get caught up in it, but I understand my responsibility."

The best Kariya can be could turn out to be a player of astonishing achievement. Kariya, who turned 24 on October 16, might be the best skater in the NHL, and he scores at a prodigious rate on one of the least-talented teams in the league. A month into the season, he ranked second in the league with 13 points (six goals, seven assists).

It's not only that Kariya scores goals, but that they're highlight goals, like his second of the season in Chicago. On a shorthanded rush, Kariya was pulled to his knees by a Blackhawks defender. He never lost his forward momentum or control of the puck, regained his feet and streaked to the net. Jeff Hackett stopped Kariya's first attempt, but Kariya buried his own rebound for a shorthanded goal in Anaheim's 5-3 victory.

"His weapons are his speed, his quickness," Selanne says. "He can really see the game. He is a good passer and a good shooter, and he is always working hard. Those are the key things that make him a great player. He has all the tools to make him the greatest player in this game."

In his first four seasons in the NHL, Kariya scored 277 points in 220 games for a weak expansion team that made the playoffs only once in that span. Two and a half seasons ago, Anaheim made a key move in acquiring Selanne to play the right wing to Kariya's left, and the yin to Kariya's yang. Selanne is a lively risk taker, Kariya more disciplined and studious, and the best aspects of each player have been adopted by the other.

"If people don't know him well, they might get the wrong idea, because he is not a very outgoing person," Selanne says. "When you get to know him, he is really funny and open, with a good sense of humor. He needs his room and his space, because he is really focused, and on game days he is really concentrating and keeps everything else out of his mind. He is unapproachable. He wants everything to be perfect. I love that, because it shows how hungry he is and how much he wants to compete."