What's Wrong With This Picture?

For Canada's sake, Eric Lindros had better be good.

The nation that once provided the gas that made the NHL go, high-octane heroes like Gordie Howe, Rocket Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, suddenly finds itself running on fumes. Today many of the league's up-and-coming young stars are Russians, like Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings, Pavel Bure of the Vancouver Canucks and Alexander Mogilny of the Buffalo Sabres; Czechoslovakians, like Jaromir Jagr (page 40) of the Pittsburgh Penguins; Swedes, like Nicklas Lidstrom of the Red Wings; and Americans, like Kevin Stevens of the Penguins, Jeremy Roenick of the Chicago Blackhawks and Brian Leetch of the New York Rangers. Except for Stevens, who is 27, none of those non-Canadians is older than 24.

"There was a time when Canadians thought that only Canadians could play this game well," says Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) president Murray Costello, who oversees the nation's player-development program. "Now we know otherwise."

The decline of the Canadian presence is unmistakable, notwithstanding this season's much-anticipated arrival—in a Philadelphia Flyer uniform—of Ontario native Lindros. The NHL was 96% Canadian-born in 1966-67, the final six-team, preexpansion season; last year the figure was 71% and falling. Americans occupied nearly 17% of the jobs in last season's 22-team league. And thanks to the collapse of the Soviet empire, which made it easier to import players from erstwhile Eastern bloc countries, 12% of the NHL is now made up of Europeans.

Unprecedented quantity, to be sure, but also unprecedented quality. Last season two of the league's top five scorers were non-Canadians, as were three of the top five rookie scorers and the two highest-scoring defensemen.

In the U.S., the increase in quality has been triggered by an improvement in college programs. Americans are proving that they can go to school, play a modest schedule, get an education and prepare themselves for pro hockey. Canadian prospects, by contrast, are still expected to put the game above all else. Fewer and fewer are willing to do that.

Over the last decade there has been a marked drop in registration for the myriad of organized youth programs monitored by the CAHA. Since 1982-83, participation has gone down by more than 80,000, to a low of 401,482 in 1990-91. The figure increased slightly—to 424,785—in '91-92, but there's no denying the trend. Are Canadians losing their passion for the game?

"In the old days kids would play hockey outside, on any ice, on lakes, in backyards, on frozen sloughs," says Paul Henry, director of player personnel for Hockey Canada, which selects Canada's still-successful national team. "That's what's missing from our game. Kids today aren't as anxious to freeze their butts off outside to play the game. It isn't as important to kids as it used to be."

The endless season is a turnoff—it's not uncommon for 10-year-old Canadians to play 80 games in highly competitive leagues—as is the harsh selection process, in which the best players in each age group are culled to play at a higher level. "Are we paying too high a price for the elite athletes?" wonders Ed Chynoweth, president of the Canadian Hockey League, an umbrella organization that governs the three major junior circuits. "You see a lot of burnout. From the time they're 10 or 11 years old, these kids are pushed to win, win, win. The Canadian psyche may not be suited for that."

Ken Dryden, a Hall of Fame goalie turned author who has written two best-selling books on the game, says Canadian methods have changed in subtle ways since 1972, when Team Canada, a squad stocked with NHL stars, narrowly defeated the Soviet Union team in a watershed series that pointed out that hockey wasn't just Canada's game. "What's happened in Canadian hockey since is that kids play no fewer games, but there are more practices," Dryden says. "Kids are asked for an even greater time commitment. And if you ask for more of a commitment, you're naturally going to find fewer people who are willing to make that commitment."