A wily Coyote

Sporting News, The, Feb 28, 2000 by Larry Wigge

JEREMY ROENICK is fun-loving, yet strong-willed. He's powerful, yet he has great moves. He's a little selfish, yet he's a great teammate. Most of all, Roenick is a warrior and a winner.

It's late November and Coyotes' center Jeremy Roenick is waiting to be called out as the No. 1 star after getting three goals in his second straight game. This curly, blond-haired Boston native is a classic Type-A personality, always looking for something to keep him busy. On this night, he spots a few Styrofoam cups and pounds them down the hallway with his stick like they were golf balls, and he were playing Pebble Beach or Augusta National.

"Fore," he yells.

For the fun-loving Roenick, life is a competition. It's getting into a card game with teammates-and hating to lose. It's running an opponent into the boards or scoring a goal. It's driving a golf ball down the middle of the fairway.

"For me," he says, teeing up another cup, "life was always hockey in the winter and golf in the summer. It was first tee, 10th tee and 19th hole."

But eventually, Roenick discovered there's a price to pay to continue being one of the top 20-25 hockey players in the world.

"I thought I could go along like I did when I was scoring 100 points a season," he says. "Then, I learned the facts of life. I learned that you get only so much out of your body. It took me a while to admit I wasn't producing at the same level as I did early in my career, and that my body wasn't recovering as quickly from the pounding I was giving it."

Two summers ago, Roenick, on the advice of teammate Rick Tocchet, contacted a personal trainer Tocchet had worked with at Gold's Gym in Venice, Calif. Now, after a couple of summers of daffy 3 1/2 hour workouts, Roenick's days of mediocrity are over. After never having worked out more than two or three weeks before training camp, he is fit and once again threatening the 100-point plateau--for the first time since the 1993-94 season.

"In those early days in Chicago," says Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, who was with the Blackhawks for nine seasons, "we all played aggressively. The fans really liked the way the Chicago Bears played--and (coach) Mike Keenan tried to get us to play with an edge just like the Bears.

"It was like Keenan wanted me to play like Mike Singletary on defense and J.R. to play like Walter Payton on offense. Everything we did was supposed to be a physical, all-out effort."

It has been a long dry spell for the Blackhawks since the team went to the Stanley Cup finals against Pittsburgh in 1992. The same sort of downturn hit Roenick's career.... Until now.

"I've never done anything average," he says, whacking at another Styrofoam cup. "I never have ... and I never will."

Roenick is a contradiction. He's fun-loving yet strong-willed. His play is uniquely individualistic, yet he'll go through a wall for his team. He will stand up to his coach when he disagrees, yet he's the first one to jump on the bandwagon when the two are on the same page.

"He's a real soldier," Keenan says. "He'll volunteer for any mission. He leads the way-and he'll lay his body on the line for a teammate."

Last spring, when the Coyotes were six games into their first-round playoff series against St. Louis, Roenick was working to get back in shape from a late-season high stick from Dallas defenseman Derian Hatcher. "His perseverance got him back in the lineup," linemate Keith Tkachuk says. "He knew how much the team needed him. And he wasn't going to let us down, even if he had a mouth full of rubber bands."

Instead of having his broken jaw wired shut and being sidelined for months on a liquid diet, Roenick told the doctors to cut out his bottom teeth and use rubber bands so he could get the proper nourishment and be out only a few weeks.

Roenick returned for Game 7 against the Blues-and he gave his best. But it wasn't enough in a 1-0 overtime loss.

Roenick has carried part of that courage into this season-part of the anger as well. "I think that elbow by Hatcher," he says, blue eyes sparkling, "has made me meaner. A little more vengeful."

Roenick winks and adds, "Well, maybe just a little more unfriendly."

For the past four seasons, when Roenick's statistics dropped to 67, 69, 56 and 72 points, trade rumors followed him everywhere. This year, it's Tkachuk who is facing the rumors of deals with Carolina or Philadelphia or New York.

"It's been a roller-coaster type of year," Roenick says. "It's been a soap opera from the get-go. And we've done a good job to keep focused and to make sure that we did the job at hand.

"It's been like Days of our Lives with one difference: No one's been shot."

Roenick admits, though, that his inner demons have been working overtime the past few seasons, nearly causing him to retire a year ago when fingers were being pointed at his lack of production. Those demons returned in early October, when, for a moment at least, he lost his edge and slashed his old prep school linemate Tony Amonte across the face in a game at Chicago. That same night he was seen shouting at his wife, Tracey, before the game.