Islanders' Pyatt Sees NHL As Gift
By Peter Botte

It probably isn't easy for most of us to comprehend, since we live within the
media vacuum that hockey — and the Islanders, in particular — operate under
in the New York market.

But watching and dreaming about the World Junior Championship tournament by
the fireplace is considered as much of a holiday tradition throughout much of
Canada as Santa Claus and "Egg Nog with Paul Anka."

For Taylor Pyatt, however, it's time to forge his own traditions.

"I'll take Christmas in New York, any day," the emerging Islanders rookie
said last week.

The second of four players chosen by the Isles in the first round of the 1999
entry draft, Pyatt appeared to have cemented his ticket to join his fellow
Canadian teenagers in representing their "home and native land" this week in
Moscow for the annual marquee NHL scouting event.

Instead, Pyatt's father — former NHL player Nelson Pyatt — and the rest of
his clan arrived in Long Island on Friday, prepared to celebrate by watching
Taylor play at a slightly higher level of hockey (hold the jokes, please)
with the Islanders.

Taylor Pyatt, 19, spent the first quarter of his rookie season in the middle
of a tug of war between Butch Goring and GM Mike Milbury, who wanted the
coach to give the talented winger increased minutes as the team was
scrambling for goals.

There even was one game in Washington early on in which Pyatt dressed and
never got off the bench. The Isles needed to decide whether to keep him in
the NHL or return him to his junior club, Sudbury of the Ontario League, for
the remainder of the season.

"I wasn't really sure what was going to happen for a while there," Pyatt
admitted.

At least Nelson Pyatt was always a phone call away. Taylor's father played
seven years in the NHL, including a few seasons on expansion Washington, and
later in Europe.

He knows about hockey struggles. He played on low-expectation teams such as
today's Islanders, and against the pre-dynasty Isles in their formative years
in the late '70s.

He also has been a fireman in Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the last 15 years. So
he knows about squelching a flame or two.

"It's a similar thing to a hockey team. Everybody has their job and if they
don't do it, things break down," Nelson said. "Like with Taylor, sure I'd
like to be there when he does well. But I've been through it, and when things
go bad, that's when I can be most helpful and at my best for him."

Injuries to forwards Mats Lindgren, Bill Muckalt and others have resulted in
more minutes for Pyatt, and he has made every one of them count.

He has dropped in four goals — three more than '99 No.5 overall pick,
teammate Tim Connolly, has this season — including his second NHL game-winner
last week against Carolina and another goal Saturday against Columbus.

Pyatt's size (6-4, 220) and two-way snarliness are attributes the Isles
sorely have been lacking up front for years.

"It's hard when you're young and coming into the league and used to being one
of the best players on your team and all of a sudden you're not playing a
lot, or all your good moves don't work anymore," Pyatt said. "Your confidence
is low. But I feel like the game is starting to come to me now."

Nelson Pyatt has watched almost every Isles game off the satellite "way out
here in Thunder Bay," 500 miles from Winnipeg and nearly 900 from Toronto.

He got home just in time to catch Taylor's clutch third-period goal against
the Hurricanes after returning from watching Taylor's younger brother,
13-year-old Thomas, tear up the Ontario pee-wee circuit. "They keep telling
me he's going to be better than me," Taylor Pyatt said.

"He's more creative than Taylor was," Nelson said, "but probably won't be as
big."

Taylor always has been bigger than the other kids. Nelson's best friend and
former Colorado Rockies teammate Wilf Paiement dubbed Taylor "Bear" after
Pyatt weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces at birth in 1981.

"Growing up, he was like a big calf, all legs and just a clumsy kid," Nelson
said. "But then around 14-15 (years old) you saw that stride coming. And you
knew." Even if neither Taylor nor the Isles knew until recently where he'd be
spending his holidays.

"He's 19 years old and you learn to crawl before you learn to walk in this
game," Nelson Pyatt said. "At Christmas time, the World Juniors is what
everybody talks about and watches up here. So that woulda been kind of neat.

"But there's only one place to play, and that's the National Hockey League.
He's making it there. No reason to come back now."