By Ansar Khan

LOS ANGELES -- During the Western Conference playoff finals last spring, Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic ran into former teammate Uwe Krupp after a game and raved about Detroit Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk.

He marveled at the young player's moves and asked Krupp, who was still with the Wings at the time, where Datsyuk came from because he had never heard of him before the season.

Datsyuk, 24, caught many opponents by surprise with his dazzling array of moves during his rookie season. Now his challenge is to do it again, but without the element of surprise.

"Last year at this time nobody knew who he was. This year the opponent will talk about him in their pregame meetings," Wings coach Dave Lewis said. "He has to find different ways to get the job done. That's just the process of going from your rookie year to the next year."

Opponents have studied tape. They saw the way Datsyuk likes to slide the puck between a defender's skates and slip past him to retrieve it and the way he stops and turns on a dime to shake off a would-be checker. They also saw him beat people a couple of times by bouncing the puck off the back of the net to himself.

It will be a greater challenge for Datsyuk to beat opponents one-on-one this season. That's why his linemate, Brett Hull, said he must distribute the puck more.

"He needs to give and go more, use his abilities of imagination and skill with other people instead of just trying to do everything himself," Hull said. "Move (the puck) and then beat a guy without the puck and get it back or beat a guy once and then move it. Try to score more goals as opposed to just having puck possession."

After collecting 11 goals and 24 assists and finishing fourth in balloting for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie, Datsyuk's role will expand this season. He'll get more ice time in the absence of Steve Yzerman, who's out for at least half the season after knee surgery. And Datsyuk will receive more power-play minutes.

"There's a lot of key minutes somebody is going to have to take up," Wings general manager Ken Holland said. "Sergei (Fedorov) is going to eat up a lot of those minutes and Pavel is one of the guys we're looking to take a step forward."

Datsyuk has started the season on the top power-play unit, flanked by Brendan Shanahan and Tomas Holmstrom, with Fedorov and defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom manning the points.

"He's good with the puck down low, has the ability to make plays from the blue line in," Lewis said. "That's what the power play is all about, you have to beat players, sometimes two-on-one or one-on-one, to get scoring chances."

Off the ice, Datsyuk is growing more comfortable with his new surroundings. He and wife, Svetlana, celebrated the birth of their first child in August. He took English lessons with a tutor last season and over the summer. He communicates much better now with his non-Russian speaking teammates. His sharp sense of humor is often on display in the dressing room as he jokes with reporters. But he still doesn't feel comfortable articulating himself in English to the media.

"It's not an easy transition when in the first year everybody expects him to speak English right away; it's going to take time," Igor Larionov said. "He's making some progress, getting used to North American lifestyle."