Excited Fischer prepares like vet

October 14, 1999

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Jiri Fischer slept well Tuesday night. He woke up Wednesday morning, ate his normal breakfast of oatmeal, and drove down to Joe Louis Arena in his brand-new black Jimmy. The skies were gray and dripping with rain, but he spent the day smiling.

As expected, coach Scotty Bowman told him before the morning skate that he would dress for his first NHL game that night, against the St. Louis Blues. As expected, Fischer, a highly regarded 19-year-old defenseman, said he wasn't nervous or anxious at all. Just excited.

"I'm feeling really well," Fischer said, grinning. "I'm in a positive mood and not thinking about it. When you think about it too much, you get nervous, and you make bad decisions, bad mistakes. I'm just trying to not get a big head about it. This occasion, it had to happen once. And I'm happy it's now."

No player forgets his first NHL game.

"It just felt like I had stilts in my legs," said Aaron Ward, Fischer's defense partner. "You get so tight, so worried about how you're going to perform, everything surrounding it, playing the game's the last thing you think about."

Fischer will remember his first game, too. But he exhibited an uncommon calmness for one so green. He took his usual nap at 1 p.m. and ate his pregame meal of plain pasta.

"Quick power -- nothing heavy for my stomach," he said. Then he sat down to watch television to, as he said, "get in the mood for hockey."

What show?

"Um," Fischer said, sheepishly, "it's very weird. I don't want to say what it is."

Whether he watched soap operas or pro wrestling or -- even worse -- Jerry Springer, it seemed to work.

"Fish is a unique guy," Ward said. "He's not a normal 19-year-old. He's a player you don't have to worry about. I'm more worried about myself."

Fischer's only concern was his parents at home in Beroun, Czech Republic. "I don't want them to know that I'm playing," he said. "They would be too nervous. They can't see it. My dad, he's got a dish, but we don't have North American channels. So he would just sit and worry."