By Mark Herrmann
STAFF WRITER

Oleg Kvasha has no opinion on the fact New York fans welcomed a big-name athlete to town by booing him. That reception Jason Giambi got at Yankee Stadium? "I didn't hear anything about it," Kvasha said.

That is understandable. For starters, Kvasha has been busy leading the Islanders' push into the playoffs for the first time in eight years. The forward has scored six goals in the past eight games, most of them very clutch.

On top of that, Kvasha just isn't great at picking up on the latest wave in popular sentiment. For instance, after he scored a first-period goal Saturday night in the game that clinched the Islanders' postseason appearance, he didn't notice that the crowd at Nassau Coliseum literally was singing his praises. The fans that had booed him for most of his first two seasons with the team, were chanting, "O-leg! O-leg!"

"I didn't hear it during the game, but guys told me after the game," Kvasha said yesterday, after practice at IceWorks in Syosset and before the team left for its game in Nashville tonight. "It's never happened to me in my life before. I really appreciate it."

What the Islanders' fans were saying was they appreciate the way the 23-year-old has raised his game and his team. They know he was the one who basically broke the back of the Rangers' season, scoring the game-winner at the Coliseum on March 25. They recall his tying goal in a big 4-2 win over the Devils on April 1 and his overtime goal in Boston last Thursday. They knew all of it happened after he made a fast recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery on Feb. 27.

Most of all, the fans recognized that Kvasha didn't let himself get mired in the underachievement that had caused them to boo him in the first place.

"We actually had some conversations about it," coach Peter Laviolette said. "I told him he's the only one who can turn the tables. For that, he deserves a ton of credit. He's a strong kid. Mentally, he's pretty tough.

"People on Long Island are knowledgeable hockey people," the coach said. "They see Olie going the extra mile out there, winning the one-on-one battles, jumping on loose pucks, jumping on the forecheck. I think that's what everybody is responding to."

Long Islanders had responded with Bronx cheers when Kvasha failed to show the potential that general manager Mike Milbury saw when he acquired him from the Florida Panthers in the Roberto Luongo trade. Milbury was said to have been frustrated last year with then-coach Butch Goring's seeming reluctance to believe in Kvasha.

The player ultimately justified Milbury's faith when he returned from his five-game injury absence. "I missed a lot of hockey and I wanted to do 100 percent for the team," Kvasha said yesterday. "I wanted to create - skating, trying to get to loose pucks. Some nights it works, some nights it doesn't."

He never held the booing against Long Island. "It's a nice place," the Moscow native said. "People talk to me about the games, about the team. Some people ask me about Russia, about the situation there."

The situation is fine on Long Island for a resurgent player on a resurgent franchise. "The big thing in professional sports is being mentally tough. A lot of things go through your head," he said. "Some people like you, some don't. You go on the road and some people boo you. Maybe that even happens at home, like with me. But you have to fight through that and concentrate on your game."

Yashin Unlikely for Tonight. Alexei Yashin (strained left groin) did not practice and isn't likely to play tonight, although he was expected to make the trip. No one said he is being rested for the playoffs. "The focus is to get healthy as soon as I can and to get back as soon as I can," Yashin said.