BOY WONDER:

February 3, 2000

Jiri Fischer never had been to Arizona. He never had seen anything quite like it.

At least in real life.

"I thought it was just in cartoons -- you know, 'Road Runner,' " said Fischer, a 19-year-old rookie from the Czech Republic. "I saw the desert. I saw a cactus. I love it."

Fischer's first season has been one of discovery, as much off the ice as on it. The other day, he met an American who never had possessed a passport. The experience blew his sharp mind.

"I've had a passport since I was 12; in Europe, you must have one," Fischer said. "But then I thought, 'Why would you need one here? Where do you need to go?' In the United States, you have everything: cold places, warm places, beaches, mountains. It's great." 1