Eating His Wheaties Still-Recovering Magarell Takes Aim At Ex-Mates

It’s homecoming.

Adam Magarell sees it in the faces in the stands, hears it in the brief applause when he’s introduced, feels it in the enthusiasm of a younger brother.

Most of the Brandon Wheat Kings were here when Magarell was a Wheat King, before his 1995 trade.

This is the rink where Magarell - the Spokane Chiefs’ 6-foot-4 defenseman - played some of his youth tournaments. This place, Keystone Centre, is where on special nights his family made the 2-1/2-hour drive from Domain, Manitoba, to cheer on the Wheaties.

When Magarell was traded halfway across the continent to Spokane for Bryan McCabe and futures, there were hard feelings of divorced loyalties.

But coping is a Magarell skill, honed in this most difficult year.

Last June 9, the car he was driving was rear-ended by a friend on a motorcycle, inflicting serious burns that Magarell still deals with.

What remains of the intense pain is “a little tenderness” but dexterity in the fingers has returned and “I started feeling my best just after Christmas,” he said.

But repair work on the second- and third-degree burns - the skin grafts that run across the back of his discolored hands - still dictate how far he can go.

He still can’t scrap.

By nature not a brawler, Magarell nonetheless is robbed of a basic tool.

His fists. The condition, temporary they say, is frustrating.

“My hands are still taped before every game,” Magarell said Saturday after a brisk skate-around at Keystone Centre, where today at 12:30 the Chiefs try to even their Western Hockey League championship series with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Brandon won Game 1 in overtime on Friday night, 5-4.

“I can’t scrap right now,” Magarell said. “Fighting’s part of hockey. When you can’t defend yourself the other team might take liberties with you. I just have to play with it. There’s nothing I can do.”

The prognosis is that “next year they (the hands) will be fine,” he said.

Until then Magarell tries to make up for lost time.

Recovering from burns cost him a month in the hospital. He dropped 20 pounds and gained only some of it back. The 195 pounds he wanted to skate at this year is down to 184.

Even at that, he is lucky.

First, if he hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt “I might not be here,” Magarell said.

“The doctor said when it first happened I wouldn’t do any skating until after Christmas. By starting the season on time I was way ahead of schedule.”

In that way Mags and the Chiefs are running parallel courses. They’re way ahead of schedule, too. They weren’t supposed to be in the WHL finals until next year.

Magarell deflects questions about past loyalties like the wingers he channels into the corners.

“Three-quarters of them are still here,” he said of the Wheat Kings with whom he played 88 games from ‘93-‘95. “I get along with them all right. Not on the ice, though. There are no friends on the ice.”

There are friends in the seats. Magarell’s 15-year-old brother Eric, his cousin and some friends came Friday night with faces painted in Chiefs’ red-and-white colors, waving a flag. Even in a full house they stood out.

“I could hear them,” Magarell said. “It’s great to have support like that here.”

It still feels like home but there’s no doubt where his loyalties lie.

“You want to win any series but I’d like to beat them, to get back at them,” Magarell said. “Anybody’s natural reaction when you’re traded, and you haven’t asked for a trade, is disappointment. But that’s part of hockey and I’m excited to be in Spokane.

“I was traded for McCabe. A lot of people thought it wasn’t the best deal but I’ve done my best. That’s all I can do. McCabe was a great player. Everybody loved him.”

Actually it was a good trade for both. Without McCabe, Brandon probably wouldn’t have won the East Division championship a year ago, and gone on to the Memorial Cup.

When Magarell arrived in Spokane a year ago last February, Chiefs coach Mike Babcock had the club pointed in the right direction. A defensive defenseman, Magarell quickly blended in. Teamed with captain Sean Gillam on the blue line, Magarell - an alternate captain - starts every game.

The recently turned 20-year-old with the long reach and big-man leverage could return next year as an over-age player.

“Since I was in the accident I didn’t really have a chance to develop this year,” said the fourth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers. “I assume I’ll be back.”

He could repeat this full circle back.

After Friday night’s series opener, the consensus from the writers who follow the league is that Spokane and Brandon could be the last two WHL clubs standing again in ‘97.

If so, if there’s a next time and Adam Magarell is part of it, it’ll be a little different.

Next time the wraps are off.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos