The last time Milan Hejduk appeared in the NHL All-Star Game, in 2001, it was at the Pepsi Center and he was one of five Avalanche players divided between the World and North American teams.
“That game was a lot of fun,” Hejduk said with a smile after the Colorado morning skate Wednesday. “Now, I’m the lonely Avalanche player.”
On Thursday, Hejduk headed for Montreal, the site of Sunday’s game at the Bell Centre. And indeed, he won’t have any company from among his teammates in the Western Conference dressing room this weekend. Eight years ago, the other Avs in the game were Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Ray Bourque and Patrick Roy.
At age 32, Hejduk has evolved since his early seasons with Colorado — as has the franchise. He joined the powerful Avs as a deer-in- the-headlights Czech in 1998, requiring help from goaltender Petr Franek to do his first interviews. He was a few months from being a fourth- liner for the Czech Republic’s gold-medal team at the 1998 Winter Olympics, though it was conceded he was selected mainly to give the Czech league more representation on a roster dominated by NHL stars.
Five years later, he was the NHL’s leading goal scorer, winning the Rocket Richard Trophy in his 50-goal season. Now, he and his wife, Zlatuse, have 5-year-old twins, David and Marek, the family spends most of the year in Denver, and Hejduk can be as expressive in English as a center from Hoboken.
On the ice, Hejduk has had his ups and downs statistically, and the gap in his All-Star Game appearances is one measure of his lower profile.
Yet he has remained highly regarded as one of the league’s elite two-way forwards.
“I think there were probably some years he deserved to be there, but it didn’t work, numbers-wise,” Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. “It’s his consistency. He plays the same way every game. He’s against the other team’s top line a lot and kills penalties, and you know what you’re going to get out of him every single night.”
Hejduk has 15 goals and 34 points, both second on the team to linemate Ryan Smyth. Each scored his 300th career goal against Calgary on Sunday, and their on-ice fates seem more linked than ever. But they won’t be going to Montreal together. Hejduk was the choice of the NHL’s hockey operations department, in consultation with the league’s general managers.
“Now it means more to me,” Hej- duk said. “I’m older, and once you get older, I guess you appreciate things more. As a younger player, you think these things will come automatically, and then you realize it doesn’t.”
The Quebec Nordiques drafted Hejduk and Chris Drury in 1994, and the Avalanche tracked their progress until signing both in ’98 — Drury after his four-year career at Boston University, and Hejduk after his five seasons with Pardubice of the Czech League. Hejduk’s father, Milan Sr., a former hockey player himself, and his mother, Blanka, a tennis player and coach, both were from Pardubice, but Milan Jr. was raised in Usti-Nad Labem. His father was coaching there, in the port city on the Elbe River in the northern region of what then was Czechoslovakia.
“When I was growing up, I played both sports,” he said of his parents’ games. “I still like tennis. It’s a great sport. But I always liked hockey a little better than tennis. It’s a team sport, it’s more fun with the guys. In tennis, you’re by yourself, and it’s not as much fun practicing as it is in a team sport.”
However, the game Hejduk will play in Sunday often turns out to be as physical as a tennis match.
“I don’t know how it is now, but when I last played in it, it was fun, no hitting,” Hejduk said. “It hasn’t changed? OK, it’s not really serious. I want to have fun and enjoy my time there.”
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
