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Demitra’s good; he just needs some help

By Garth McLennan, Sports
Editor

ne of the most surprising (and
O= Canadian fans, almost too

shocking) stories from the
2010 Winter Olympics has been the
remarkable play of Team Slovakia
center, and oft-injured Vancouver
Canuck, Pavol Demitra. Demitra led
the Olympic tournament in scoring.
Heading in, what do you think the
odds were on that one?

Demitra, as you may recall, has
long been perceived as a managerial
blunder by Mike Gillis. At $4 million
per season, this is a hefty price tag for
a guy who missed the first 50 games
of this year while recovering from
ongoing shoulder problems (although,
to be fair, he was placed on the long-
term injury reserve list, so for the
time he was out his salary didn’t
count against the cap). He made the
same amount last season where a
series of nagging injuries limited him
to just 69 contests.

Since his return to the Vancouver
line-up this season, Demitra hasn’t

 

exactly shed his label of being

a streaky, inconsistent type who
plays soft (ironically, it was while
attempting a body-check in the
playoffs against Chicago last year that
he injured his shoulder). In 11 games,
he has an underwhelming one goal,
and has seen his ice time dwindle
down to third and sometimes fourth
line status.

That brings us up to the
Olympics, where Demitra raised
some eyebrows with his selection to
the team despite being 35 years old
and having not played a single game
by the time the squad was picked.
Then again, Demitra has long been
a staple of the Slovakian national
team, and he has a lengthy history in
international play.

The Slovaks, who with the
Americans have to be considered the
surprise of the tournament, went into
Vancouver viewing this Olympics as
their last shot. After all, Demitra and
Miroslav Satan are 35, Zdeno Chara
is 32, Marian Hossa 31, Ziggy Palfy
and Jozef Stumpel are 37 and Richard
Zednik is 34. Sure, Marian Gaborik

is at the peak of his powers, but after
him, there isn’t a lot of talent coming
down the pipeline.

So if this truly was Demitra’s
final chance at an Olympic medal, he
sure as hell played like it. Gaborik
and Chara were the leaders of the
team, but it was Demitra right there
with them who led the charge and did
everything he could to try and win a
medal.

The Pavol Demitra who showed
up every night at Canada Hockey
Place sure as hell wasn’t the Pavol
Demitra we’ve been seeing at GM
Place. During the Olympics, Demitra
was all over the ice, skating on a
line with Hossa and Gaborik, and he
put up a very impressive 10 points
in seven games. Against Sweden in
the quarterfinals, a game in which
the Swedes were heavily favoured,
Demitra played the starring role in
leading the Slovaks to a 4-3 upset win
by scoring a goal and adding a pair
of assists. He followed that up with
a tremendous performance against
Finland in the bronze medal game,
where he was in on every Slovakian

 

 

goal (including a shorthanded one
of his own) and received gobs of ice
time in a heartbreaking 5-3 loss that
went right down to the wire.

Earlier in the tournament, with
Slovakia again outgunned going
up against the powerful Russians,
Demitra scored the shootout winning
goal in another wild Slovak upset.

If Slovakia had gone further in

the tournament, there’s a very real
argument that Demitra was the MVP
of the entire competition.

What these games proved about
Demitra is that he’s the type of player
who needs to play with other good
players. He’s not going to carry a
line and dominate single-handedly.
Looking back, wasn’t his best success
with the Canucks late last year, when
he was skating with Ryan Kesler and
Mats Sundin, two other star players?

Let’s hope that when the Canucks
resume play, Demitra is able to keep
some of that fire in his belly. It would
finally be nice to see the guy who
came close to 100 points per year
back in St. Louis a few seasons ago.

Alain Vigneault, take notice.

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