Cisar Takes Wing Chief’s Fast Start Earns Spot Among League’s Elite

Five months between seasons can work like an eternity on the development of a hockey player.

Last year, at 18, Marian Cisar was eager to learn and fit in, as excited by the possibilities as he was a trifle awed by the change.

Everything was different here - the faces, the nuances of an adopted language, the city, even the game. Bratislava, Slovakia, his hometown, seemed like more than half a world away.

If it’s impressive how quickly he adapted in his rookie year, it’s even more startling to track how far he’s come in his second season with the Spokane Chiefs.

His grasp of the language, like his physical presence and goal-scoring skills, blossomed.

Despite a bothersome shoulder that cost him two games, Cisar - 8 pounds heavier and a season smarter - is on pace to shatter Valeri Bure’s single-season club record of 68 goals.

He heads into tonight’s game with the Calgary Hitmen as Western Hockey League West player of the month.

Unlike some snipers, Cisar knows something about defense and the concept of team.

“I don’t like to stereotype but Europeans can be and have been high-maintenance guys,” Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz said. “Marian is not high maintenance. He doesn’t expect special treatment.”

Cisar shrugs. “I don’t think I’m special player,” he says.

The numbers indicate otherwise. With 16 goals in 15 games, he’s a finisher whose natural skills were honed in a busy summer at home, where he says he worked out four days a week and played with his town team.

In one year he has assumed a place with the best wingers in the league.

Although he had English training in high school, Cisar had to pick up the slang and the tricky connectives of the language. Last year, early on, words and occasional sentences from Chiefs coach Mike Babcock were lost on him. “Now I know what he’s talking about,” Cisar said.

He smiles.

Cisar was a favorite with the front office last year for his willingness to meet and greet the public, especially school kids. He was the team’s humanitarian award winner.

He fought the normal short bout with homesickness, but that was smoothed over by willing new friends.

“Whitfield (Trent, the Chiefs resident star) picked me up at the airport.

He took care of me for five days. Then there was Cirjak (John, since traded to Regina). His parents are from Croatia, so I could use some (Croatian) with him.”

From that humble start, from shrugs and shakes of his head, Cisar now fills both sides of an audio tape in 40 relaxed minutes of an interview.

A sampling of Cisar in conversation:

“When we were older we had lots of fun because we could go - I don’t know if I can tell it - but we could go to the bar. Here, you have to be 21 and it’s pretty boring. At home, you should be 18 but nobody cares. If you look like 12 they won’t serve you. But 16, who cares?”

If social attitudes seem stricter, the regimen is even stranger from what he grew up with.

“Here, is more professional,” Cisar said. “You spend like 7 hours a day at the rink. There, just skate a half-hour before practice. You practice, change and go home. There’s no professionalism. Nothing. It was like practice and out.

“This is much better for hockey.”

The only negative blip so far is the shoulder.

“I hurt it two years ago,” Cisar said. “It hurts more often. It’s something with the rotator cuff. I can’t do anything about it. I want to play, so I play through the sore shoulder.”

When his parents visited 12 days last March “They were impressed,” Cisar said. “At home, in junior hockey, there’s 200 people (at games). Just parents.

“And senior hockey, the top league, there are 2,000, no more than 4,000. We have 10,000 on Saturday night. That was cool for them.”

“The association (the club) is taking care of us,” Cisar said, expanding on the subject of why his parents, Roman and Jaroslava, apparently left Spokane impressed with the Chiefs program. “We spend extra time at the rink. We have fun. Those guys at home, they don’t have fun. It’s practice and go home. This is much better for building team.”

Cisar stays in touch in a shrinking world, communicating with his 23-year-old brother via e-mail.

Toronto agent Don Meehan represents Cisar and Cisar’s fellow countryman Sanislaus Gron of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Both will play in the NHL, said Meehan, who expects contract talks with the Los Angeles Kings - who made Cisar their second-round pick in ‘96 - to start around Christmas.

“That’s pretty standard,” Meehan said. “Given his success to date it’s not that critical that we do something in a hurry.”

Cisar and Gron - now rivals - remain friends. Cisar is also friendly with two other Slovakians in the league, Ondrej Podkoncky and Marian Hossa of the Portland Winter Hawks.

“I played with Gron on the same (junior) team,” Cisar said. “He’s one of my best friends. Pods and Hossa, we played together on national teams for three years, under-16, under-17 and under-18 teams.”

Cisar said he was disappointed when the Chiefs’ pick in this year’s import player draft, center Peter Sykora, elected to stay home.

“He’s from Czech,” Cisar said. “It’s the same language, almost. I was excited about that. I think they (the Chiefs) hope he will come after the World Junior Championships (over Christmas). Maybe he will come in January. I hope so.”

Cisar has a shot at making the world junior event in Helsinki with the Slovakian team.

“Slovak association, they don’t like Slovakian player going to America and playing,” he said. “Last year they said we were deserters, something like that. They didn’t invite us (to try out).

“This year, the coach said he wanted four guys from America no matter what. It’s getting better, if four guys can play. They have 13 players here.

“They got nobody in Slovakia.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CISAR FILE Age: 19 Hometown: Bratislava, Slovakia Stats 15 goals (4th in the WHL) 30 points (sixth in the WHL) Plus/minus: plus-12 (tied for 10th with teammate Ron Grimard in the WHL)