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 Thursday, April 12, 2001
Quite a hit in St. Louis
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
Now that the cute regular season skating parties are done with -- finally! -- a talent-stocked team like the St. Louis Blues finally gets to see if its acquisitions since last spring will serve as final-piece-of-the-puzzle gems or merely as high-priced players who kept the fans off the owners for several months.
|  | | Dallas Drake celebrates after scoring on Minnesota Wild goalie Manny Fernandez last month. |
Of course, no puck knowledgeable fan would gripe to anyone -- fellow Blueshirt follower, talk radio moron or message board mongrel -- about left winger Dallas Drake, who signed a four-year deal for $9 million last summer to bring his grit and kamikaze style from Phoenix to the Gateway City. After all, the 32-year-old scored 12 goals, dished out a career-high 29 assists for 41 points and led the team in hits (162) as the gatekeeper on a line with Pierre Turgeon and Scott Young.
"That line's been good," says head coach Joel Quenneville. "Draker's one of those guys who keeps you on your toes."
But what he did from September to early April isn't why they went after the nine-year veteran.
After being totally humiliated by eighth-seeded San Jose in last year's playoffs despite leading the league with 114 points, the Blues knew they had enough stick-handlers and finesse skaters to run up on teams during the regular season but not enough grit and raw power for a meaningful playoff run. Knowing the kind of beating Drake put on the Blues in their first-round slugfest in 1999 (when the Blues rebounded from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Coyotes), they went after the free agent as soon as they were allowed to begin talks.
With the fifth-seeded Sharks standing in their way in the first round once again as luck would have it, Drake realizes that this was the series he was signed for.
"That's what they paid me to come here and do," says Drake, from Trail, British Columbia. "There's so much more energy in games in the playoffs. It seems certain players feed off it, like myself. Every shift seems to mean so much more. It seems to be more physical and more defensively, and that suits my game as I feed off it when things get more physical.
"When a lot of people are crashing and banging, I really enjoy it and I play very well in those situations."
In four exhibition, er, regular season games against the Sharks (2-2), Drake had a goal, three assists and a team-high plus-minus rating (+4). More importantly, he got a taste of the bile that has lurked within the throats of each player on the St. Louis locker room since last season's devastation.
"Just from playing them this year, it's easy to tell that guys dislike each other a lot," says the 6-foot-1, 190-pounder. "There's that extra emotion. There's a lot of guys we hate over there, and I'm sure there's a lot of us they dislike."
One of the players they surely couldn't do without is all-star Keith Tkachuk, who the Blues nabbed at the trading deadline for Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy, Jeff Taffe and a future first round draft pick. One could say the organization wouldn't have went after Drake's former linemate in Phoenix (along with Jeremy Roenick) if it wasn't for the relationship existing between them that extends even to their wives.
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No off nights for Drake
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One of the most telling statistics is how many games a hockey player misses during a season. With the non-stop hitting, endless travel and overall wear-and-tear the warriors on ice persevere throughout a seven-month period, even the toughest athletes have to miss a game for various circumstances. That's what makes it such an incredible feat for a hard-hitting player like Dallas Drake to play in all 82 games as he did this season for the Blues.
"I was pretty excited about it myself," says Drake, who played through three broken noses. "This is the first time I've played in all 82 games -- last year I played in 79. I guess I pick my spots a lot more than early in my career. I don't go out of my way as much to get the big hits, as in the system here they really try to pull the reigns back a bit. They want you to make big hits, but not go out of your way to kill somebody.
His role changed this way a little bit because of that philosophy.
"I try to create space for those guys and get to a lot of loose pucks," he says. "It's the same thing I did for J.R. (Jeremy Roenick) and Keith (Tkachuk) last year, but they crash and bang a lot more. Pierre (Turgeon) and (Scott) Young are more finesse players. It was a little bit more difficult to play with those guys at first because of that."
-- Marc Connolly
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"I think he must have gotten a bonus that [GM Larry Pleau] hasn't told him about yet," said Tkachuk at the time of the deal, referring to Drake's recruiting calls. "I think we talked more than [Phoenix
GM] Cliff [Fletcher] and Larry talked -- and from what I understand, they talked a lot."
Drake, who has known Tkachuk since they played on opposite sides in the NCAA hockey finals in 1991 when Northern Michigan (Drake) defeated Boston University (Tkachuk) in triple overtime, laughs when hearing that comment.
"Well, I didn't go upstairs [to the front office] or anything, but I talked to the assistant coaches to pass the word along that he's a real good guy to have in the locker room," says Drake of his friend he jokingly calls "Tommy Boy" referring to his monstrous size. "He's got a bad rap for that for some reason, but he's exactly the person we needed. Someone real light who is always screwing around to loosen people up a bit. He's been a leader everywhere he's been. Even though he's in his late 20s, he's actually one of the most experienced guys in our locker room.
"The guys really look up to on and off the ice."
With Tkachuk in tow along with Scott Mellanby, who was also signed in the offseason, the Blues may have registered less points (103 compared to 114 last year) during the season, but have more weapons right now heading to the playoffs.
"When you think of St. Louis, the first people you think of are [Al] MacInnis and [Chris] Pronger," says Drake. "The Blues have always had a tremendous amount of skill, but now they upgraded their toughness by getting myself and a few other guys, but most dramatically when we went and got Tkachuk. We feel we have a lot of balanced attack right now with skill guys to add a little more grit and feistiness.
"When we play and we're healthy, we can beat anyone. It all comes down to guys being healthy and, believe it or not, how we play in our own zone."
Drake ardently believes that the Western Conference is where it's at and that getting through a maze of teams that includes Dallas, Detroit and the vaunted Colorado Avalanche takes as much luck as anything.
"Anyone can win the Stanley Cup," explains Drake. "I mean, look at Florida a few years ago -- they played great defense, got some bounces here and there and went right to the Finals. I really believe we have a chance to do something special here. Something I've been looking forward to for a long time."
Something the Gateway City has never clutched -- Lord Stanley's Cup.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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 Dallas Drake follows his own shot and scores on the rebound.
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