Minnesota Wild's Pavol Demitra and Marian Gaborik haven't lost their magic as linemates;
Koivu's return gives Wild opportunity to reunite duo
John Shipley, St. Paul Pioneer Press | Jan. 5, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Remember last season when Pavol Demitra and Marian Gaborik were inseparable? Not only did they always play on the same line, they played as if telepathically connected.
It hasn't happened much this season, for a variety of reasons, but the old magic was back for a moment in the first period of Thursday's 6-3 victory over Dallas.
With both players on the penalty kill, Demitra got the puck along the right boards and appeared ready to ice it for a line change. Instead, he swiped it to center ice, where Gaborik was racing up center ice toward the red line.
The pass hit Gaborik perfectly, and the right winger turned it into a breakaway goal for a 1-0 lead.
"I've played a lot of games with him; I know where I can find him," Demitra said.
Though Gaborik and Demitra played only 45 games together last season – mostly because of Gaborik's long-healing groin injury – they each scored at least one point in 24 of them. Before Demitra was traded to the Wild before the 2006-07 season, the two played together in their hometown of Trencin, Slovakia, and in the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Their chemistry last season was almost preternatural; with Demitra on the left and Gaborik on the right, the pair was electric. The two hooked up to score on long lob passes out of the defensive zone, on two-on-one breakaways and on a patented give-and-go with Demitra behind the net.
The center, usually Wes Walz, was essentially there to make sure the defensemen
didn't get caught short on a breakaway the other way.
But with Walz's retirement and Mikko Koivu's 21-game absence because of a broken leg, the pair has been torn asunder. Demitra was moved to center, initially with Gaborik on his right, and then on another line altogether starting last week.
Asked why he broke them up, coach Jacques Lemaire said, "Because nothing was happening, against goals against."
But with Koivu due back soon – he practiced with the team for the first time in 43 days on Friday – Lemaire will again have the option to play Gaborik and Demitra as wingers on the same line. That is what the players would like and, no doubt, Wild fans, who remember how instrumental the pair was in the Wild's franchise-high 48-win, 104-point season.
"Obviously," Demitra said, "he's looking for me, I'm looking for Gabby."
Koivu looked sharp in a long, hard practice Friday on Vanderbilt's campus. He hasn't played since having his left leg broken by Mattias Ohlund, who gave him a two-handed slash in a 6-2 loss Nov. 16 at Vancouver.
"It felt really good," Koivu said.
His return would not only bring back one of the team's best players but could realign what have been fairly solid lines. With Koivu, Eric Belanger, James Sheppard and Dominic Moore healthy, Lemaire could move Demitra back to wing and back on the same line with Gaborik.
But no so fast, Lemaire said. He likes Demitra centering a line with Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Brian Rolston, which accounted for five points Thursday.
"They're playing fine," Lemaire said. "They move the puck and make things happen."
Gaborik was centered by Belanger on Thursday; he scored two goals and assisted on Belanger's power-play goal.
"It's good," he said of the pairing. "So I guess I'll wait until Mikko comes back."
If Demitra and Gaborik are paired tonight against the Predators, Lemaire said it likely will be when short-handed "because they're offense, and if the other team is sending too many guys up front and they're careless, it's a good duo to play against that."
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