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Rising star Young Heatley leaves a memorable mark in All-Star debutPosted: Sunday February 02, 2003 8:54 PMUpdated: Sunday February 02, 2003 11:32 PM
SUNRISE, Fla. -- The first weekend of February has always treated Dany Heatley well. Heatley had one goal and two assists in the inaugural YoungStars Game in Los Angeles last year. And three years ago he helped lead the Wisconsin Badgers to the WCHA regular-season title as a freshman. But that was nothing compared to his All-Star debut Sunday. Four goals later, Heatley is in the company of legends. The only four players to net four goals in an All-Star Game are Vincent Damphousse, Mike Gartner, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. That foursome has a combined 2,686 goals, an average of 671.5 and a low-water mark of 410 by Damphousse. It's a tougher club to get into than Augusta National. "There are always a lot of goals scored, so maybe I'll get one," Heatley wished in his diary for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday. "With so many great passers in the game, I'm sure I'll get some chances. You have to feel a little sorry for the goalies." With emerging stars like Heatley around, you have to feel more than a little sorry for NHL goaltenders. The Thrashers' second-year right winger came into the game with modest aspirations and had surpassed his target before the game was 10 1/2 minutes old. Heatley's toothless smile and deft scoring touch were on display often on the game's biggest stage. "I was pretty relaxed," Heatley said. "After I got the first one, I was pretty happy. After that, they kept going in. I kept cruising around and shooting the puck." Growing up in Calgary, Heatley witnessed the epic Flames-Oilers rivalry while Edmonton and Gretzky were in the midst of their dynasty and the Battle of Alberta was in its heyday. Gretzky was 22 years and 13 days old when he tallied four goals in the All-Star Game on Feb. 8, 1983 at Nassau Coliseum, but Heatley celebrated his 22nd birthday just 12 days ago to become the youngest player with an All-Star hat trick. The Great One visited the Eastern Conference locker room between the second and third periods and told Heatley to get the record, but he was held without a shot on goal in the third period. Heatley was a one-man gang for the otherwise-sluggish East, teaming brilliantly with Olli Jokinen and Jaromir Jagr. And it wasn't for lack of effort by his linemates that he didn't beat Marty Turco for the record-setting goal in the third period or overtime. "When somebody has four goals you want to pass them the puck," Jagr said. "I want to be on the ice when someone breaks that record. I want to be there. If not me, then somebody right next to me. It's too bad he didn't score the fifth one. I tried my best to help him get it." East coach Jacques Martin had the Heatley-Jokinen-Jagr unit on the ice every other shift with the game in doubt, wanting to give Heatley a shot at a fifth goal. "I was aware of it," Martin said. "But I think that was the only line we had scoring today. We tried to win the game." Turco was the only West netminder not to surrender a goal to Heatley during regulation, though Heatley beat him in the shootout for the East's only goal. "I'm not surprised [at how well he did]," Turco said. "That kid can shoot the puck and he's not afraid to do it, which is important. I had a chance to play with Dany last year with Team Canada, and he's a good kid who works hard. You can just see how much development he's done already. He's already a star in this league and he's going to continue to grow." Heatley has emerged over the past four years, but he was your classic late-bloomer. Undrafted by the Western Hockey League, he was the top scorer of the 1998 Air Canada Cup tournament and scored 127 points to lead the Alberta Junior Hockey League in scoring in 1998-99. Heatley had 28 goals and 28 assists as a Wisconsin freshman, finishing as a Hobey Baker Award finalist while playing on a line with Steve Reinprecht. The Thrashers took Heatley with second pick in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, and he went back to school for one more season, scoring 24 goals and 33 assists in his sophomore season before turning pro with the Thrashers. His Calder-winning season of a year ago was impressive, but Heatley has improved every aspect of his game in his second campaign. In college he was able to dominate in the corners and slot with his imposing size, but he worked on his skating and is now a very good player on the rush as well. "He's kind of the elite, everything-in-the-package player," East assistant Ken Hitchcock said. "He's big, he's strong, he's got skill, he has quick hands, he can shoot and he can pass. If you are ever going to put a prototypical, elite player together he would be one of them. And their team [Atlanta] has two of them, because Kovalchuk is a great player, too." Thrashers general manager Don Waddell has long maintained that his team would endure the growing pains of building around two young cornerstone players. With the surprising results of the past month, Heatley is showing Atlanta has bright hopes for the future. Defense is still not Heatley's forte, but when you do everything well, even your weakest link isn't going to be too bad. His minus-13 is largely due to a terrible minus-6 night in Ottawa on Jan. 2 in an 8-1 loss. But he was plus-3 on Sunday, and it showed what he is capable of doing with better talent around him. Heatley is on pace for 82 points and has scored 11 goals in nine games coming into the break, including his first two hat tricks. All told, he has 15 goals in 10 games over the past 20 days. Jeremy Roenick had a microphone on for ABC and was commenting throughout the game about Heatley's play. And in case he wasn't aware of the All-Star record for goals, Heatley got some frequent, friendly reminders from his teammate. In fact, Roenick should get visitation rights to Heatley's new Dodge Ram pickup with the amount of PR work he did for him in the locker room after the game. It was clear that Roenick was smitten with both his skill and his modest demeanor. "I gave it to the old guys on the bench and told them that we had to help out the kid because he was carrying us by himself," Roenick said. "He is only going to do good things for our league. He's a better person than he is a hockey player. I had a great feeling just watching him. I felt like a fan watching him. I would've paid money to watch him play today." On a hot, sunny South Florida day, 19,250 did pay to see Heatley play. And they left the Office Depot Center in awe of one of the game's shining stars. Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for CNNSI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Jon? Click here. |
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