Klemm Claims Top Avalanche Right Wing Helped Chiefs To Cup
The morning after a tough game never felt so good.
On Thursday afternoon - not yet 24 hours after the Colorado Avalanche eliminated the Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League Western Conference finals - Jon Klemm was on the phone, being reminded of a first.
Klemm is believed to be the first former Spokane Chiefs player to go on to the Stanley Cup finals.
Klemm, the captain of Spokane’s ‘91-92 Memorial Cup championship team, and the Avalanche await the outcome of tonight’s decisive Pittsburgh-Florida game. The winner meets the Avalanche in Game 1 Tuesday night in Denver, where the locals are hooked on hockey.
“The atmosphere here last night (Wednesday, in Colorado’s 4-1 win over Detroit in the Western Conference finals) was unbelievable,” Klemm said. “I’ve never witnessed anything like it. The city of Denver is going nuts right now. At the start of the year people didn’t know who we were.”
The club relocated after 16 seasons as the Quebec Nordiques.
“As the year progressed, and now that we’re in the finals, people are recognizing us,” Klemm said. “There’s no other feeling like it.”
Nothing like it to a role-playing grinder who’s building a career on versatility.
A career defenseman, Klemm is playing right wing now, filling a need in Denver the way he filled a need in Spokane.
He came here in a trade with Seattle, a stay-at-home defenseman who became a puck-carrying D-man for one fundamental reason.
The Chiefs didn’t have one.
The reward then was a Memorial Cup ring, which Klemm keeps at his parents’ home in Cranbrook, British Columbia.
The reward now is increased ice time, with the hope he’ll become one of the few to win championships in both major junior and major league hockey.
“It’s almost harder for a player to win a Memorial Cup ring than a Stanley Cup, simply because as a junior you only get two or three kicks at the cat,” Kamloops Blazers coach Ed Dempsey said. “A pro with a long career has more shots at (the Stanley Cup).”
Klemm sees a parallel in Spokane’s run in ‘91 and the Avalanche’s roll this year.
“It’s not junior hockey now, but the pressure of focusing on each game to get to the next level is the same feeling,” said Klemm, 26. “We came to play Wednesday night. You can feel it when the guys are ready - you can cut the tension with a knife. You play with a lot more confidence knowing the guy next to you and the guy next to him are ready.”
Klemm saw his first shift as a forward in February. Since then he’s alternated between the blue line and the wing. Lately, the action has been all up front.
“We’ve got such depth on defense that I knew I wasn’t going to dress as a defenseman, unless we had an injury or something,” Klemm said. “When the chance came on the wing I had to make the best of it.”
The move was “hard to get used to at first, but I think I’ve adjusted well,” Klemm added. “I’m still totally defensive-minded. I play on more of a checking line. I’m not there to put up offensive numbers.”
He jumped up from the fourth line to the third line - the checking line - Wednesday night after Colorado’s Claude Lemieux sent Detroit’s Kris Draper face-first into the glass in front of the Detroit bench. The first-period infraction brought a checking-from-behind major and ejection.
Afterward, one wire story described Draper as looking like the victim of a car accident. Two hours later, blood still flowed from Draper’s mouth and nose and parts of his face were swollen.
“When he (Lemieux) got kicked out, I moved up,” Klemm said. “We played against (Sergei) Federov and (Steve) Yzerman’s line all night. I used to think about who I was playing against. Now I don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter. I only worry about winning.”
Now in his fifth year as a pro, Klemm spent his first four seasons in the minors, the first two in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the latter two in Cornwall, Quebec.
The toughest adjustment in Denver is “just trying to stay in the lineup every night,” he said.
“I was in and out of the lineup this year. I didn’t play the first seven (playoff) games, but I’ve played in the last 11. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I wasn’t ready for this coming out of Spokane. I needed the time in the minors to progress.
“My skating has improved 100 percent since juniors. My overall quickness is better. It’s had to be, the game is so much quicker. The travel is easier up here. We bus to the airport, jump on a charter and fly out of town. We don’t have to fight the crowds.
“In the minors, travel is a lot like junior hockey - lots of bus rides. The lifestyle is totally different. In the minor leagues it’s tougher just because of the travel and the smaller crowds. The atmosphere (in an American Hockey League game in Cornwall) is sometimes not as good as juniors. Spokane was great. In Cornwall, the people didn’t get into the team. It’s not really that much fun, playing in front of 1,600.”
Klemm has skated against his Spokane teammates Pat Falloon (now with Philadelphia) and Ray Whitney (San Jose).
“On the ice, it’s business,” he said. “You talk but you just want to win. Off the ice, you shake hands and maybe go have a beer.”
He wouldn’t get into rating the toughest goaltenders in hockey except to say, “I have trouble beating them all.”
Klemm had three goals and 12 assists during the season. He’s had one assist in the playoffs.
“Goaltending has changed so much since the ‘70s and early ‘80s,” Klemm said. “They’re quicker now. Better. They all can handle the puck and shoot it. It makes it easier for a defenseman when a goaltender plays the puck for you.
“If he doesn’t, you end up with your face up against the wall all night.”
Married, the father of girls 3 and 1, Klemm is enjoying the sudden thrust into the mainstream of a major event.
“Coming from the minors to the Stanley Cup finals is a pretty good jump - a pretty big change,” Klemm said. “It’s an exciting time in my life.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos