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Tuesday, August 2, 2005
Thrashers find the perfect player for their team
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
If the Thrashers wanted to sign the best goal scorer on the open market, they didn’t get him. They didn’t land the fastest skater or the best playmaker or the guy who makes you say, “Wow,� when he has the puck.
This is who the Thrashers did sign Tuesday: The absolute perfect player for their hockey team.
It’s not just that Bobby Holik played on two Stanley Cup teams in New Jersey, although that’s a nice place to start. (When you thumb through the history of Atlanta Thrasher transactions, you’ll find that’s not the norm.) Rather, Holik was coveted three years ago as an unrestricted free agent for the same reason he is coveted now: Because there just aren’t that many players who can void so many potential negatives on a team — on the ice, in the locker room and in the heads of opponents. There just aren’t that many players who can turn you into a playoff team.
“I played with Bobby when he was an 18-year-old in Hartford, and everything about him is straight ahead,� former Thrasher Ray Ferraro said. “He’s intelligent. He’s opinionated. He’s very direct, and that’s the way he plays on the ice. You’re not going to see him go around very many individuals. He goes over the top.�
It’s not easy to find an impact center. Think of football: Every team wants a great running back, but not to the extent it wants a great quarterback. Centers take face-offs. They set the tone. They have increased responsibilities at both ends of the ice. Centers have to think the game.
Holik isn’t merely a center. He is 6-foot-4, 235 pounds. (That’s also not the norm in Thrashers’ history.) On the offensive end, he will park himself in front of the net and take a beating to position himself for a goal. On the defensive end, he will clear space.
If you want to know what Bobby Holik is, just consider what Patrik Stefan too often hasn’t been: a nuisance to the opposition.
Ferraro on Holik: “I hated playing against him.�
Sometimes, it’s even hard to play with him. That’s also what makes him perfect for this team. He talks a lot. He antagonizes and complains so much at times that you half-wonder if some teammates don’t smile a little when an opponent elbows him in the mouth. (“I can’t keep my mouth shut,� he once told The New Yorker.)
The Thrashers needed that. This has been a young team too often punctuated by skilled but soft players. It’s also a team often laden with Europeans. Holik is a rarity: a Czech-born forward who plays a more physical North American style and doesn’t know the meaning of the word “tact.”
General manager Don Waddell has long embraced Holik’s “passion for the game� and his demanding nature. His roster has cried for that.
“The leadership of our team has drastically changed with [the additions of Scott] Mellanby and Bobby,� he said. “These are guys who [speak out] - and particularly Bobby, since he has won championships, the respect factor has to be there.�
Holik, as Ferraro noted, “can be abrasive.� If a teammate is fat, Holik will tell him. If a teammate is slow on the backcheck, he’ll tell him. When the New York Rangers lost a game to Toronto two years ago, Holik was upset some teammates blamed officiating. “That’s a great excuse for some people,� he said, “but you don’t allow nine goals in two games and blame it on the referees.�
He sounds like a hockey player should sound. He looks like a hockey player should look. His head resembles a block of concrete. His nose has been flattened. His hair is buzzed. His face is scarred.
He lacks finesse but hasn’t been starved for offensive production. He has nine 20-plus-goal seasons and that balance coaches love: 642 points and 1,102 penalty minutes. Of his 281 career goals, 53 have been game-winners.
Holik will lead players that need to be led, not just by words but also by his actions.
“You can say all you want about a guy being a vocal leader,â€? Ferraro said. “But he wins. He can say to guys, ‘Do you want to win the Stanley Cup? Here’s how.’â€?
The Thrashers never had that before. They’ve also never made the playoffs. One void ended Tuesday. Expect the other to end next April.
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