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Friday, February 26, 1999
Chris Drury taking run at Calder Trophy
Only two NHL rookies had more as of Friday -- Bill Muckalt of the Vancouver Canucks and Mark Parrish of the Florida Panthers, each with 16. Ottawa hotshot Marian Hossa might be leading the pack had he not missed the first half of the season recuperating from an injury.
As it stands, Drury appears destined to be in the audience as a finalist when the NHL awards banquet is held in Toronto in late June if he keeps up his solid two-way play.
It wasn't long ago, merely six years, that Teemu Selanne was scoring a record 76 goals as a Winnipeg Jets rookie. Pretty hard to get excited about a guy with 13, eh?
"Not a lot," Drury replied when asked during a conference call Friday if he's been the subject of much Calder talk around the Denver dressing room. "There's too many things going on right now with our team.
"We're too worried about winning hockey games to be caught up in talk about individual awards."
He was unsure of his role when he reported to training camp.
"I didn't really know what to expect," said the younger brother of Anaheim forward Ted Drury. "I wasn't sure if I would spend my first season in the minors or what.
"I didn't know what their plans were for me."
Drury and rookie linemate Milan Hejduk have emerged to add a youthful spark to the Avalanche's offence.
The Calder isn't the first trophy for which Drury and Muckalt have been leading contenders.
Both were up for the Hobey Baker Award as top U.S. college player last winter. Drury, who was born in Connecticut, played for the Boston Terriers. Muckalt, a British Columbian, played for the Michigan Wolverines. Drury won the Baker, but Muckalt and the Wolverines won the NCAA title.
The switch to the longer NHL schedule took a toll.
"At the 20- to 25-game mark, I felt a little sluggish and tired," Drury said. "I had lost four or five pounds at that point.
"But I sat down with the coach (Bob Hartley) and talked about it and I started riding the bike more. Since then, I've felt great."
Drury was a member of a Little League World Series championship baseball team as a boy, but it was a hockey scholarship that got him into BU.
"Hockey gave me an opportunity to go to college for free and get an education so it was a pretty easy decision to make," he said of his choice of which sport to pursue as a pro. "I'm in the NHL now and I have my degree, so I'm pretty happy how it worked out."