Four years ago, Zigmund Palffy could barely speak any English at all. Now, he adds to an ever-expanding, if not exactly erudite, vocabulary by listening to Jerky Boys recordings.
Offbeat is one way to describe Palffy, the Islanders' 24-year-old right wing whose knack for scoring and setting up goals has made him one of the rising stars of the National Hockey League.
Refreshing is another.
But perhaps the best description is conspicuously anonymous.
With his long, curly hair, sleepy brown eyes and a 5-foot-10-inch, 184-pound body that looks as if it's conditioned by the Czech dumplings he is partial to, Palffy hardly looks like a professional athlete, let alone a franchise player. But on a team with little identity or recent success -- the Islanders had the third-worst record in the N.H.L. last season, and their eight victories this season are tied for the fewest in the league -- Palffy has become the team's most promising talent.
In his first full season with the Islanders last year, he had 43 goals and 44 assists. In 27 games this season he has 17 goals, tied for fourth in the league.
''You look at him off the ice, he could be just some Euro-punk walking around New York,'' said Dan Plante, Palffy's roommate on the road. ''He still has a little fat. It's amazing. The guy's got no muscle tone at all. I don't even know what he does for a training regimen in the summer. But when it comes to playing hockey, the guy's unbelievable.''
Goalies marvel at Palffy's cannon shot. As a skater, he is sneaky quick straight ahead. Laterally, with the puck, he has few peers.
Mike Milbury, the Islanders' coach and general manager, quotes Mike Emrick, a television announcer for the Devils, on Palffy: ''This guy Emrick said, 'When Ziggy's got the puck, there's a little mystery to the game.' '' said Milbury. ''It's very valid.''
Despite all this, Palffy is not often recognized in public. And at his favorite hangout, the Zlata Praha, a Czech restaurant in the Astoria section of Queens, there is no picture of Palffy, who is Slovakian, on the wall along with the glossy photos of famous and not-so-famous people.
Why no photo? he was asked one autumn afternoon as he escorted a visitor to lunch there, along with his teammate and best friend in the United States, 23-year-old Derek Armstrong.
''I don't know,'' Palffy said with a laugh. ''I think they like me here.''
But if he is not very visible, he is rarely forgettable.
He has a quick smile, easy laugh, and a ready supply of comical references to whatever has his interest at the moment -- all in free-flowing language couched in a European accent but filled with American slang learned from bad movies and compact disks. In Manhattan, all that might suggest a tourist, or a foreign exchange student. Or, with that zany sense of humor, perhaps one of those wild and crazy guys from the old ''Saturday Night Live'' skits.
But a world-class athlete? As exciting a hockey player as you can get? Never. Not with that body.
Palffy's not fat. Far from it. He's just not cut.
''He's really not sculpted by any sense of the imagination,'' said Milbury, who recalled a training session two summers ago when Palffy started a two-mile drill like a road runner but finished like a tortoise. ''If you saw him on the street, the first thing that would strike you is that he would seem small, not sculpted.''
''Look at Wayne Gretzky,'' Palffy said, a little insulted when it was suggested to him that maybe he did not look like an athlete. ''Look at other players who are small like Theo Fleury. You don't have to be strong, tall. A lot of the smaller guys are among the best players in the league.''
Sometimes, though, it seems as if even Palffy has a hard time believing it himself.
