The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

April 10, 1998

The Hockey News April 10, 1998

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011525/7086625-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Byron Dafoe has seized his chance and become the Bruins&rsquo; undisputed No. 1 goaltender. Pg. 10. (Photo by Jim Mclsaac/BBS)</figcaption></div><h2>Players win, Eagleson out</h2>1. Justice prevails Ted Lindsay, Carl Brewer and legends rewarded as Alan Eagleson resigns from Hall of Fame.2. A grand achievement Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Ron Francis becomes seventh NHLer to earn 1,000 assists.3. Great streak His Rangers might not make playoffs, but Wayne Gretzky on roll with seven goals, 24 points in 15 games.4. Kory Cooper Sudbury goalie stars in huge upset over Barrie, also gets two assists in deciding game.5. Hat trick Louisiana&rsquo;s Chris Valice-vic named top ECHL defenseman for third straight season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021274/7086618-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="337" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ted Lindsay</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03954/7086611-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="336" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios</figcaption></div><h2>More threats from Chelios</h2>1. Mouth that roared Chicago&rsquo;s Chris Chelios says Hawks would go after Teemu Selanne if Ducks targeted Gary Suter.2. Cheap shot I Phoenix&rsquo;s Jim McKenzie crosschecks Toronto&rsquo;s Alyn Mc-Cauley in back of head after game.3. Cheap shot II Buffalo&rsquo;s Mike Peca knocks out Vancouver&rsquo;s Mattias Ohlund with elbow to head.4. Bad brawlers Vancouver, Buffalo combine for 217 penalty minutes in March 26 scrapfest.5. Bad boy Detroit&rsquo;s Martin Lapointe suspended two games for crosschecking Edmonton&rsquo;s Rem Murray. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011713/7087255-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="388" height="545"></div>Free agent flops. Trades that didn&rsquo;t pan out. A star goalie whose star has lost its luster. Scorers who don&rsquo;t score. Injuries to key players.All of those factors contributed to the downfall of the Florida Panthers this season. But none on its own was the main reason why the Panthers were challenging their cross-state rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, for worst team in the league status.Rather, the failure of the Panthers&rsquo; youngsters to advance to the next level, to become impact players, has put the Lightning in the driver&rsquo;s seat for the first pick overall in the 1998 entry draft (as if it weren&rsquo;t already). That&rsquo;s because Florida traded its first round pick for the 1998 entry draft to the Sharks for center Viktor Kozlov, and then San Jose gave Tampa the rights to swap first-rounders-after the draft lottery is held-in a separate trade.The Panthers mistakenly believed that their young players were set to take on major roles. Rob Niedermayer, Chris Wells, Steve Washbum, Radek Dvorak and David Nemirovsky (who combined had 39 goals and 85 points through March 26,11 fewer goals and only three more points than Teemu Selanne of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) were their forwards of the future. Ed Jovanovski and Rhett Warrener were supposed to emerge as studs on the blueline. Then the Panthers traded a lottery pick for Kozlov, a center who has done little more than tease in parts of four NHL seasons.Had those players, or even the majority of them, produced to expectation, the Panthers would not be in such dire straits.That these youngsters were either not developing as expected, or worse, were slipping backwards, was a contributing factor in Doug MacLean being fired as coach midway through the campaign.Had they contributed as expected, perhaps it wouldn&rsquo;t matter as much that:&#9633; Veteran goalie John Vanbies-brouck was decidedly ordinary after four years of carrying the franchise.&#9633; Wells didn&rsquo;t turn out to be the next Brian Skrudland.&#9633; Stu Barnes was having a career season with the Pittsburgh Penguins after being traded for Wells.&#9633; Free agent Dave Gagner, counted on for goals, scored 11 of his 17 in the first 25 games.&#9633; Ray Sheppard (now with the Carolina Hurricanes) and Scott Mellanby couldn&rsquo;t find the net.&#9633; Free agent Esa Tikkanen&rsquo;s play went south when he moved south.But the fact remains, when the Panthers were smoked in four straight games by the Colorado Avalanche after their miraculous climb to the Stanley Cup final two years ago, they vowed to get younger and bigger. It was a sound strategy.The two keys among Florida&rsquo;s baby Panthers are Niedermayer and Jovanovski. MacLean said prior to the season if Niedermayer didn&rsquo;t score 30 goals and play in the All-Star Game, it would be a huge disappointment.After a solid training camp Niedermayer, 23, suffered a concussion in the season&rsquo;s first game. Then it was one injury after another. He has yet to emerge as a dependable No. 1 center. In the 33 games he played before bowing out for the year, he eight goals and 15 points. They got through the All-Star Game in Vancouver without him.Jovanovski, just 21 and in his third season, is an even bigger concern. (See pg. 8 for more on Jovanovski.)&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t know how to keep his game simple,&rdquo; said one NHL pro scout. &ldquo;You can see he has some instincts and his intentions are good. He&rsquo;s the type of player who needs to be taken under the wing of somebody and worked with.&rdquo;But, as one rival GM warned: &ldquo;The best two defensemen in the league are Chris Pronger and Rob Blake. Who would have guessed that would be the case a few years ago? It takes time for defensemen to develop.&rdquo;In other words, it would be a huge mistake for the Panthers to give up on Jovanovski at this point.Kozlov was Florida&rsquo;s best player since the Olympic break. Despite the criticism GM Bryan Murray has taken for the trade, it was a good one. It looks like he has finally arrived and is worth the first rounder it took to get him.Dvorak lacks a finishing touch, but there is a purpose to his game and he creates chances through his tenacity. Warriner continues to play physically, but at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, isn&rsquo;t the force he&rsquo;d like to be. As for the others, the jury is still out.&ldquo;I still believe they&rsquo;re going to be very effective players,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I think it has been a tough year for them as a group because of various factors. Going through this experience, if it isn&rsquo;t a character builder for these guys then nothing will be. We&rsquo;ll hire a new coach and add a few players and I believe we can turn this thing around. But I still have faith in our corps of young guys.&rdquo; &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

Young Panthers failed to step up

<div class="byline">By Mike Heika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04614/7087724-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="164" height="164"></div>Bob Gainey delivered a trade deadline message that the Dallas Stars are serious about winning the Stanley Cup this season.Backed to the wall by injuries, the Stars&rsquo; GM gave up fan favorite Todd Harvey to acquire veteran forwards Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland from the New York Rangers.&ldquo;The message of the players and fans to management is that we want to win now. And we needed to answer that,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;This is an attempt to do that.&rdquo;The complete deal cost the Stars Harvey, Bob Errey and their fourth round pick in this summer&rsquo;s entry draft for Keane, Skrudland and a conditional pick either this season or next.It also cost a good chunk of owner Tom Hicks&rsquo; money. After this season, Keane has three more years left on a contract at a total of $5.5 million, while Skrudland has two more years totalling $3 million. Dallas is picking up all of it. The Stars lost the reasonably priced Harvey ($800,000) and Errey ($600,000).Also on deadline day March 24, Dallas acquired utility forward Mike Kennedy from the Toronto Maple Leafs. The moves improve the Stars immediately as all three forwards were available right away. And with Harvey out with a knee injury and Bob Bassen (knee), Mike Modano (shoulder) and Benoit Hogue (facial fracture) out for extended periods, the Stars needed help.&ldquo;This helps us immediately and down the road two or three years,&rdquo; said coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;These are two players who can be in our lineup for years to come.&rdquo;Skrudland, 34, is a solid faceoff specialist and durable checking center. Keane, 30, is a gritty defensive winger.Both said they were happy to have a chance to play for a contender.&ldquo;We won&rsquo;t get ahead of ourselves,&rdquo; Skrudland said, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ll definitely be talking about the Cup while taking it one game at a time.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Sergei Zubov, who missed nine games with a sprained neck, returned March 26 against Toronto&hellip;Center Mike Modano (separated shoulder) and left winger Benoit Hogue (facial fracture) were expected back before the playoffs&hellip;Right winger Pat Verbeek scored his first hat trick in a Stars&rsquo; uniform in a March 20 6-1 win over Carolina. It was the 12th of his career&hellip;In Zubov&rsquo;s absence, the Stars&rsquo; topranked power play went 4-for-35 (11.4 per cent)&hellip;Prior to the deadline deals, the Stars had gone 640 days without making a trade for a player. In that span, however, they picked up free agents Pat Verbeek. Dave Reid. Shawn Chambers and Ed Belfour. &#9632;

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NHL TEAMS

Stars ‘go for it’ with trade for veterans

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01960/7088648-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01881/7088641-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="3101" height="3672"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Francis photo by Bruce Bennett Studios; Renberg photo by Jim Leary/BBS)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01946/7088634-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3117" height="3686"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01858/7088627-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3106" height="2545"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01970/7088988-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>INTRODUCING THN&rsquo;S PLAYOFF POOL ROLLER HOCKEY GUYERS&rsquo; GUIDE NO. 2WHY HASN&rsquo;T RADEK BONK FULFILLED HIGH HOPES?WHY ISN&rsquo;T JEREMY ROENICK STILL A TOP GOAL-SCORER?WHY HAS ED JOVANOVSKI&rsquo;S DEVELOPMENT STALLED?FIVE TOUGH ANSWERS TO FIVE TOUGH QUESTIONSEAGLESON RESIGNS FROM HALL OF FAMEGENIUS OF SATHER KEEPS OILERS SLICK &#9632;

Cover-01

THE WHY GUYS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Edltor-in-Chiel</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04722/7086656-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="346" height="432"></div>Let&rsquo;s be clear about this.Do not think Alan Eagleson did the right thing March 25 when he resigned membership in the Hockey Hall of Fame from his Mimico, Ont., jail cell. Eagleson did the wrong thing too many times over the previous 30 years to be accorded any praise for a no-brainer decision.There was nothing &ldquo;courageous,&rdquo; as Hall of Fame chairman Scotty Morrison suggested, about Eagleson quitting the Hall before it quit him at a scheduled March 31 meeting to decide his fate. Eagleson simply avoided another round of much-deserved vilification.More and more, it seems Eagleson had the title of &ldquo;most powerful man in hockey&rdquo; not because he earned that lofty status, but because it was in the best interests of others to bestow it upon him. It can be said one of the contentions of a class action suit against Eagleson and partners (see pg. 3) is that &lsquo;The Eagle&rsquo; was never so much the most powerful man in hockey as the most powerful puppet in hockey. He was Pinocchio (and my what a long nose &lsquo;The Eagle&rsquo; has to this day) to the NHL owners&rsquo; Geppetto.In the wake of Eagleson&rsquo;s forced resignation, some have suggested the former union boss isn&rsquo;t the only man unfit for membership and a review of others might be in order. That is a Pandora&rsquo;s box Morrison wisely declined to open. The Hall of Fame and those who care about it had best be careful not to set standards sure to trip up all but the most honorable among us.Those who have played the game know hockey doesn&rsquo;t just bring out the best in people, it also brings out the beast. An example: Chris Chelios, a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer three years after retirement, has said and done many villainous things during a 15-year career. He has been devastatingly dirty, uttered a bizarre warning to commissioner Gary Bettman and doesn&rsquo;t have the reputation of a choir boy. On the very same day Eagleson resigned, Chelios said that if the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim went after Gary Suter for his vicious crosscheck on Paul Kariya, then the Chicago Blackhawks would hunt down Teemu Selanne.Model Hall of Fame behavior? Yes.&lsquo;Bad&rsquo; Joe Hall, Eddie Shore and eighttime penalty minute champ Red Homer are all in the Hall of Fame. So are a host of others guilty of outrageous transgressions, yet they have found an honored home. Like it or loathe it, many who have reached the top of our sport have not done so without taking prisoners along the way. &#9632;

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‘Eagle’ didn’t do right thing; he did wrong thing

&ldquo;In 1989, I was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in acknowledgement of my role in the formation of the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association and with respect to the expansion of hockey beyond the confines of North America. I will be forever grateful for this honour. It is with great personal sadness and regret that I advise you of my decision to resign my place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.&ldquo;In recent days, I have been gratified by both the private and public support which has been expressed by various members of the Hall of Fame. Their kindness and generosity of spirit has been very meaningful to me, particularly under the current circumstances. At the same time I am deeply aware of those voices that have been raised against my continuing presence in the Hockey Hall of Fame.&ldquo;I have always had the greatest personal respect for the career achievements of all players whose contributions have been recognized by election to the Hall of Fame. I do not wish the board of directors to be forced to consider a review of my status and membership in the Hall of Fame under the circumstances of threatened renunciation of membership by a number of great players. Whatever the outcome of the board&rsquo;s deliberation, the Hall of Fame would suffer as a result of more controversy. I can assure the board of directors that my only wish for hockey is its continued growth and vitality.&rdquo; &#9632;

Eagleson’s letter of resignation

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Bob McKenzie</div>It&rsquo;s getting down to the nitty gritty in the former NHL players&rsquo; class-action lawsuit against the league, Alan Eagleson, John Ziegler, Bill Wirtz, etal.While a trial may still be at least a couple of years away, Judge Thomas O&rsquo;Neill of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania will, after April 14, begin deliberations on an NHL motion to dismiss the case because the statute of limitations expired before the suit was filed.&ldquo;If the judge rules against us, we will have the right to appeal.&rdquo; said Chicago-based lawyer Martin Oberman, who is heading up the suit launched in November, 1995, by former players Dave Forbes, Rick Middleton, Brad Park, Ulf Nilsson and Doug Smail, on behalf of all NHL players who played between the early 1970s and 1991. &ldquo;If he rules in favor of us, obviously it&rsquo;s a step in the right direction. Clearly, there is a lot at stake on this motion.&rdquo;The suit alleges that 22 NHL clubs, led by then NHL president Ziegler and chairman of the board Wirtz, permitted and contributed to Eagleson&rsquo;s abuse of power in his role as executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and chief international negotiator for Hockey Canada. The suit is seeking treble damages for the suppression of players&rsquo; salaries.The NHL motion to dismiss contends the players should have filed the suit four years earlier, no later than November, 1991. &ldquo;In our view,&rdquo; said NHL chief legal counsel Bill Daly, &ldquo;it has been too long.&rdquo;If the judge pennits the suit to proceed, the next potential hurdle is justifying it as class action. something that represents more than five players.Assuming that is accomplished, the process would then move to the pretrial discovery phase, which would likely take at least a year or two. followed by the trial itself.Oberman said he thinks Eagleson&rsquo;s guilty pleas in Canada and the United States will help the class-action suit, but knows, for now. everything rests with the judge&rsquo;s decision on the NHL&rsquo;s motion to dismiss. &ldquo;This ruling,&rdquo; Oberman said, &ldquo;will tell us a lot about what&rsquo;s going to happen. &#9632;

Will class-action suit get green light?

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011722/7086701-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="322" height="435"></div>TORONTO-It has been 32 years between fights with the Hockey Hall of Fame for Ted Lindsay, but the feisty 72-year-old is pleased to report he&rsquo;s a perfect 2-0.Even happier still that he no longer shares a place in the Hall with disgraced hockey executive Alan Eagleson, who made history March 25 when he became the first honored member to resign from the Hall.The resignation came six days before the Hall&rsquo;s board of directors was to meet and consider whether to expel the former executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association from the builders category, because of his guilty pleas on fraud and theft charges in Canada and the United States. Eagleson, pre viously stripped of his Order of Canada medal, is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence in Mimico, Ont.Eighteen Hall-of-Fame players, including Lindsay, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe, threatened to withdraw themselves and their memorabilia from the Hall if Eagleson weren&rsquo;t ousted.&ldquo;I was never happy he was in there in the first place,&rdquo; Hall-of-Famer Lindsay told The Hockey News. &ldquo;I thought about resigning the year (1989) he got in, but my wife talked me out of it.&rdquo;It might be the only time the man known as &lsquo;Terrible Ted&rsquo; took a pass on a fight, and it has always stuck in his combative craw.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a big supporter of the Hall,&rdquo; said Lindsay, who campaigned against &lsquo;The Eagle&rsquo; during Eagleson&rsquo;s heyday as one of the game&rsquo;s most powerful and influential men. &ldquo;I would go to all the functions and then I&rsquo;d see this arrogant ass come into the Hockey Hall of Fame like he was God Almighty, so belligerent, so overbearing, so arrogant&hellip;Well, now he&rsquo;s gone. I&rsquo;m satisfied. For the rest of his life, he&rsquo;s going to be a convicted, self-confessed crook who&rsquo;s out of the Hall.&rdquo;Lindsay bristled at the suggestion Eagleson should get credit for having acted honorably by resigning and sparing the Hall the trouble of expelling him. And the former Detroit Red Wing knows a thing or two about honor and principle.In fact, he refused to attend his own induction in 1966 because, at the time, the Hall didn&rsquo;t permit inductees to bring their families to the ceremony.&ldquo;It was a stag affair and I thought that was wrong,&rdquo; Lindsay said. &ldquo;There were a lot of times in my career when I was a difficult guy to be around at home. So I figured my family was entitled to be there when I got into the Hall of Fame. If they weren&rsquo;t allowed to go, I wasn&rsquo;t going. And I didn&rsquo;t go. The year after that, they changed it to allow families to be there.&rdquo;More changes are in store for the Hall because of Eagleson and, ostensibly, the former players, like Lindsay, who applied the pressure that clearly forced the disbarred lawyer&rsquo;s hand.On March 31, at the annual board meeting, amendments to the by-laws were to be made to handle any future Eagleson-like situations. The Hall&rsquo;s board had been somewhat hamstrung because there were no rules or regulations concerning expulsion.&ldquo;It will be up to the board to approve any amendments,&rdquo; said outgoing Hall of Fame chairman Scotty Morrison. &ldquo;But we will be recommending to them that they approve an amendment that would require a 75 per-cent majority on a show-of-hands vote to expel an honored member.&rdquo;Morrison did not expect the board to introduce any criteria for expulsion and will not be reviewing any other current honored members.&ldquo;Each (future) case will be judged individually and we want to make sure there&rsquo;s a mechanism in place if, heaven forbid, we have to go through all this again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We may discuss the issue (of what it would take to get expelled), but we&rsquo;re more interested in putting in the mechanism to do it. There will be no witchhunt (to purge any existing members), absolutely not.&rdquo;Eagleson&rsquo;s letter of resignation arrived by courier just before noon March 25. Morrison had no inkling it was coming and was pleasantly surprised, avoiding what could have been a messy debate and the possibility of a mass exodus from the Hall by some of the greatest players in the game.<h2>FAME TO SHAME</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021378/7086694-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1625" height="1643"><figcaption class="caption-body">Two visitors to the Hockey Hall of Fame March 25 look at the Alan Eagleson plaque shortly before it was taken down. (Photo by Canapress)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Yes, I was pleased to receive it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a chapter in the Hall&rsquo;s history and now we consider the matter closed. Mr. Eagleson&rsquo;s action was in the best interests of hockey and the Hockey Hall of Fame.&rdquo;Morrison immediately accepted the resignation and sent copies of it to all board members. He then penned a letter to all living Hall of Famers and sent along a copy of Eagleson&rsquo;s letter.When the Hall closed at 6 p.m. that day, Eagleson&rsquo;s plaque was taken down, with a television news camera peeking in through an outside window on Front Street.Morrison said the board will decide what to do with the plaque, but suggested it would be kept in the HHOF archives. &ldquo;We are a museum and the plaque is now certainly part of hockey history,&rdquo; Morrison said.There was, however, some unfinished business. When a player or builder is inducted into the Hall, he receives a ring, a crested blazer and an identical copy of the plaque that is on display. Eagleson currently has those items in his possession. Will he be asked to return them?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a good question and something the board will have to decide,&rdquo; Morrison said. &ldquo;Perhaps (expulsion) is enough and that will be the end of it. On the other hand, now that Mr. Eagleson is no longer an honored member, it may be that he shouldn&rsquo;t have those things any more.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03769/7086687-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="349" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">Carl Brewer</figcaption></div>Eagleson&rsquo;s resignation from the Hall represented closure of sorts for some of those who had fought the long, hard battle to bring him to justice. Former NHLer Carl Brewer has been at the forefront of that movement. but he seemed more relieved than happy the Hall of Fame issue had been decided.&ldquo;He certainly didn&rsquo;t belong in there, but I really do view this as a human tragedy,&rdquo; said Brewer. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not bitter now so much as I am saddened to see a 65-year-old man reduced to all this at this stage in his life. For him and his family to be subjected to all this&hellip;but then he hurt a lot of people. It&rsquo;s a huge tragedy.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s no telling what would have happened if Eagleson hadn&rsquo;t volunteered his resignation. It seems improbable the board could have done anything but expel him.If it came to that, the work of investigative reporter Russ Conway was once again instrumental in Eagleson&rsquo;s demise. In fact, it likely was the motivating factor for Eagleson&rsquo;s letter.Not only did Conway-whose work in the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune was the foundation for the FBI investigation that led to Eagleson&rsquo;s fall-write a story detailing the potential exodus of 18 Hall-of-Famers, he sent a letter and copy of the story to each of the Hall&rsquo;s directors. The heat was being turned up, and Eagleson knew it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m told it had a impact.&rdquo; Brewer said. &ldquo;A lot of things had an impact. It&rsquo;s good that this part of it is over now and everyone can move on.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Dishonorable discharge Saga part of hockey history

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011707/7086780-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="318" height="416"><figcaption class="caption-body">Martin Brodeur</figcaption></div><h2>MARCH</h2>Tues., March 31: The Nashville Predators hit their deadline to sell 12,000 seasons tickets.Thurs., April 2: The best U.S. college teams compete at the NCAA Final Four championship at Boston&rsquo;s FleetCenter. The title game is April 4. Sun., April 19: The NHL regular season ends. Playoffs begin April 22.<h2>UPCOMING</h2>Fri., May 1: The &lsquo;A&rsquo; Pool of the World Championship begins play in Zurich and Basel, Switzerland.Sat., May 9: The top teams in the Canadian Hockey League battle in the Memorial Cup tournament in Spokane, Wash. The championship game is May 17.<h2>MILESTONES</h2>1,000 points: St. Louis&rsquo; Al Maclnnis needed seven points to hit 1,000.600 goals: Vancouver&rsquo;s Mark Messier needed four goals to reach 600.560 goals: Detroit captain Steve Yzerman needed one goal to hit 560 in his career, tying him with Guy Lafleur for 12th place all-time.47 wins: Goalie Martin Brodeur of New Jersey needed six wins to tie Bernie Parent&rsquo;s mark of 47 in a season, set with Philadelphia in 1973-74.22 shutouts: Buffalo&rsquo;s Dominik Hasek needed only 12 shutouts in his team&rsquo;s final 12 games of the season to tie legendary Montreal great George Hainsworth&rsquo;s record of 22 in a single season. Go get &lsquo;em, Dorn. &#9632;

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March/April Upcoming Milestones Milestones

<div class="byline">By John Davidson Inside the NHL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011660/7086842-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="315" height="387"></div>As usual, the March 24 trade deadline didn&rsquo;t produce any blockbuster deals. But it is always the time where things become a little more clear.Playoff contenders begin to separate themselves from the pack and the real business of prognostication begins in earnest.With that in mind, let&rsquo;s look at the top three playoff contenders, in order, in each conference:In the Western Conference&hellip;1. Dallas Stars: Two years after missing the playoffs, the Stars have built a team tailor-made for a long playoff run. The Stars give up an average of about 22 shots a game and have the highest difference between goals for and against in the league. The players told management to bolster the ranks and it responded by picking up Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland.2. Detroit Red Wings: The Wings absolutely had to improve their defense corps on the power play and in front of their net and did it with the acquisitions of Dimitri Mironov and Jamie Macoun. Both will fit in seamlessly with the defending Cup champs.3. Colorado Avalanche: The Avs were in the top third of the league in penalty killing before getting Tom Fitzgerald, a guy who brings personality, speed, penalty killing and a bundle of energy. The way Colorado looked down the stretch, it could use some energy going into the playoffs.And in the East&hellip;1. New Jersey Devils: The Devils stood pat at the deadline and it&rsquo;s easy to see why. They&rsquo;re eight-deep at defense and five lines deep at forward. Doug Gilmour, who had just four assists in 10 playoff games last year, is a potential unrestricted free agent who is also a big-game player.2. Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers are thriving under new coach Roger Nielson and with Eric Lindros out of the lineup, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour has stepped in and played terrifically. Alexandre Daigle is playing pressure-free and it shows. Nielson will rotate goalies Ron Hextall and Sean Burke down the stretch.3. Pittsburgh Penguins: Tom Barrasso, the line of Stu Barnes, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis and coach Kevin Constantine are having career years. But by not signing Petr Nedved, Pittsburgh has only one offensive line and you wonder if it will be able to create enough offense on the road to win the one-goal games.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021193/7086835-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="2376" height="1385"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alan Eagleson was at the center of a long-brewing storm before his position as hockey power-broker finally collapsed and he was jailed.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Playoff picture becoming much clearer

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>Natalie Darwitz hasn&rsquo;t lit one Bunsen burner, done one burpee or mangled one phrase of Latin at Eagan High School in Minnesota, but she&rsquo;s already Big Woman on Campus.At 5-foot-3 and 115 pounds, the 14-year-old Darwitz is growing almost as quickly as her stature in women&rsquo;s hockey. Despite the fact she&rsquo;s an eighth grader, she led the state high school league in scoring for the Eagan girls&rsquo; varsity team with 85 goals, 143 points and a plus-112 ranking in 28 games. That came on the heels of a 123-point performance as a seventh grader in the league.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04469/7086873-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="263" height="378"><figcaption class="caption-body">Natalie Darwitz</figcaption></div>Some observers think Darwitz could have made the 1998 U.S. Olympic team. USA Hockey&rsquo;s Minnesota-based scout Bob O&rsquo;Connor isn&rsquo;t one of them, but he has no doubt Darwitz will be an impact player in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, just months after her 18th birthday.&ldquo;She has the breakaway speed of a Pavel Bure.&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connor said, &ldquo;and the hockey sense of a Wayne Gretzky.&rdquo;Like Gretzky, Darwitz has not misspent her youth. During the season she&rsquo;s on the ice six times a week. Last summer she shot 25,000 pucks in the family driveway, diligently charting every slapper, wrist shot, backhand and snapshot.USA Hockey is holding a camp for elite 15-year-olds in June in Lake Placid and Olympic coach Ben Smith is eager to see Darwitz. Asked if she is old enough to attend the camp, Smith said: &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. We&rsquo;ll make sure she&rsquo;s old enough.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Minny whiz maximum goal threat

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011846/7086904-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hartford goalie Robb Stauber is opposed to one experimental rule (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios)</figcaption></div>The Calgary Oval X-Treme, representing Alberta, won the Canadian national women&rsquo;s title thanks to a jilted national team hopeful.Dana Antal, a 20-year-old Ester-hazy, Sask., native, scored the winning goal in overtime to give Alberta a 3-2 win over Ontario (North York Aeros) March 22. Antal was released from Canada&rsquo;s national program last October, then spent the winter playing in Switzerland.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so nice to come in and beat Ontario and Quebec,&rdquo; said Antal, who is aiming to be part of Canada&rsquo;s women&rsquo;s team in 2002. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re the powerhouses in the country.&rdquo;Quebec won the bronze with a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Chimos. Quebec&rsquo;s France St. Louis was MVP.In other women&rsquo;s hockey action, New Hampshire captured the first-ever American Women&rsquo;s College Hockey Alliance championship by defeating Brown 4-1 March 21.Kali Wilson scored the winning goal for New Hampshire. Defenseman Winny Brodt added two assists and was tournament MVP.Northeastern beat Minnesota 4-0 in the third place game.New Hampshire forward Brandy Fisher won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as top player in women&rsquo;s college hockey. It is the first year the trophy-the equivalent of the Hobey Baker Award-has been awarded.Corcordia took the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union women&rsquo;s title, beating Toronto 4-1 March 1.-With a file from Murray Rauw &#9632;

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Alberta women win title

THN columnist John Davidson has been nominated for a national Emmy Award in the category of outstanding personality/sports event analyst for his TV work on Fox.It is Davidson&rsquo;s first national nomination. Davidson is a color analyst for the network and is considered among the best in the business.Meanwhile, the NHL on Fox was also nominated for outstanding live sports series. ESPN was nominated for outstanding live sports special for its coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs. ESPN2s NHL 2 Night received a nomination for outstanding sports journalism for its coverage of the Sheldon Kennedy revelations.PATRICK WINNERS: Neal Broten. Max McNab. John Mayasich and Peter Karmanos were recipients of Lester Patrick Awards March 24 in St. Paul, Minn.The award is given for outstanding service to hockey in the U.S.POILE&rsquo;S POST: Nashville Predators&rsquo; GM David Poile was named GM of the U.S. national team which will compete in the 1998 World Championship May 1-17 in Switzerland. &#9632;

J.D. up for Emmy

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>Experimental rules in the American League met with mixed reviews four games into the process.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re satisfied with the results, but it&rsquo;s still too early to assess,&rdquo; said AHL president David Andrews. The AHL is acting as a testing ground for potential rule changes in the NHL.Five experimental rules will be tested in two games apiece in selected AHL games in late March and early April. They include:&#9633; Having two-minute minor penalties served in their entirety.&#9633; Not allowing goalies to handle the puck behind the net.&#9633; Not allowing players to stop with the puck behind their own net.&#9633; Not allowing line changes prior to neutral zone faceoffs.&#9633; Ensuring faceoffs take place within a set time period after whistles.In a March 20 game with the two-minute penalty rule in effect, the Providence Bruins went 0-for-7 and the Worcester IceCats 0-for-2. A March 22 game between Worcester and the Saint John Flames also was unaffected by the rule.&ldquo;That rule may not have come into play directly,&rdquo; said NHL director of officiating Bryan Lewis, &ldquo;but in a way it did because we found out the coaches told their players not to take dumb penalties. One game lasted just two hour and 28 minutes.&rdquo;The Springfield Falcons and Hartford Wolf Pack tested the rule prohibiting goalies to handle the puck behind the net in a March 20 game won 4-2 by Springfield. Wolf Pack goalie Robb Stauber said the rule directly led to two Springfield goals.&ldquo;I made an attempt to play the puck, then realized I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Stauber, one of the best puck-playing goalies in hockey. &ldquo;A goalie being able to play the puck is an asset, not something that should be stopped.&ldquo;A goalie is like a sixth player. He sees things develop and can coordinate plays in some instances. There&rsquo;s no reason that shouldn&rsquo;t be allowed.&rdquo;The Portland Pirates and Providence Bruins played March 22 not allowing players to stop behind their own net, thereby quickening the pace.&ldquo;Speed the game up? Why?&rdquo; asked Bruins&rsquo; coach Tommy McVie. &ldquo;If the defenseman stops, the whistle blows and there&rsquo;s a faceoff. If he does it again, another faceoff. If he does it again, he gets a penalty. Is that speeding the game up?&rdquo;Fortunately, players complied with the rule experiment March 22 and there were no stoppages or penalties.&ldquo;Other than that one, I like the (experimental) rules,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;They might create more offense or at least limit the stoppages.&rdquo;&ldquo;All the feedback we&rsquo;ve received is positive,&rdquo; said Andrews, who will file a report to the NHL after the testing.Each of the games is videotaped and watched in person by a member of the NHL&rsquo;s management team. Lewis said the league won&rsquo;t be over-sensitive about any criticisms that may arise.&ldquo;They are just experiments,&rdquo; Lewis said. &ldquo;Analyzing these rules in a real game situation is invaluable.&rdquo; &#9632;

Rule testing now in effect

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021257/7086983-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="387" height="507"></div>The trading deadline passed without the Ottawa Senators having to send any game programs back to the printer, a saving of six figures that is not to be trivialized. Every cent counts and besides, whether he has much choice about the matter or not, coach Jacques Martin says he likes the team&rsquo;s chemistry.&ldquo;The bottom line is we decided to go with these players,&rdquo; Martin said.The bottom line is the Senators have to watch the bottom line. At the deadline, Ottawa, holding a playoff spot by five points, looked like a team that could use a point man such as the one, Steve Duchesne, it traded to save money, plus more of a veteran presence than merely Randy Cunney-worth. Cunneyworth works for $550,(MX) (U.S.) a year and where do you find more help like that? It might be out there, but the Senators have never wanted to pay for it. And, at times, they pay for it.&ldquo;We aren&rsquo;t always able to get through the tough stretch of a game and get back (to form),&rdquo; said assistant coach Craig Ramsay. &ldquo;It takes longer than it should. We don&rsquo;t have those five guys who slow things down.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with a good youth movement, but those can get old, too, especially when the clock is ticking on Alexei Yashin&rsquo;s contract. Speculation is that when it expires in 2000, Yashin has as much chance of staying permanently in Ottawa as did Kim Campbell.For now, the Senators are getting a decent bang for $19 million (U.S.) bucks. And the people are responding. The season-ticket base is only about 10,000, but attendance at the Corel Centre is up to about 16,200 per game, 100 of the 147 Corel Center suites are leased for the season and most of the rest are selling well on a per game basis.Still, the Canadian dollar is weak compared to the U.S. dollar and the debt service on the franchise considerable, leaving the margin for profit thinner than GM Pierre Gauthier&rsquo;s patience with the media.When you ask what&rsquo;s going to happen to the franchise in another five years, you get the kind of political answers you would expect from a team named the Senators.&ldquo;I think (management) understands the way the league is going,&rdquo; Ramsay said. &ldquo;I think as we move forward, there has to be more money spent.&rdquo;The real budget is as big a secret as Gauthier&rsquo;s home phone number, rumored soon to be changing from area code 613 to 714, anyway. Word is Gauthier is going back to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim after Jack Ferreira gets fired as boss of the Ducks at season&rsquo;s end. The Senators&rsquo; GM is ducking questions about that, like he pretty much does all questions about his team. He threw a temper tantrum over the selection of the three stars one recent night, which tells you he&rsquo;s wrapped way too tightly to run the only franchise in any town.Before Gauthier goes, however, he gets a hand for straightening out the Senators from their shaky start. Then again, pick first, second or third in the draft for five straight years and it&rsquo;s hard to stay bad. While the Senators have gotten Bonked on a few choices, a nucleus of Yashin. Chris Phillips, Daniel Alfredsson and Wade Redden is a good one.The results would be even better with some veteran help and an upgrade in goal. But Gauthier has called unrestricted free agency signings &ldquo;retirement contracts,&rdquo; which pretty well sums up the organizational philosophy. A penny doesn&rsquo;t buy the Senators&rsquo; real thoughts, except that if they can save one, they do. &#9632;

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Ottawa: story of dollars and Sens

Dominik Hasek will go down in history as one of the greatest goalies ever in Olympic competition. And he should.As far as the NHL is concerned, though, Hasek doesn&rsquo;t even come close to the top three in the game right now. The last time I checked, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur and Grant Fuhr all have something he doesn&rsquo;t-the Stanley Cup.Peter Militello,&nbsp; Glendale, N.Y.<h2>Stats for losers</h2>I am writing on the overrated Dominik Hasek, whom The Hockey News claims has put together arguably the best five-year stretch in history (THN, March 13).Please! By leaving Mike Gartner off your list of the Top 50 NHL Players of All-Time, you&rsquo;ve illustrated yourselves that the regular season is but a portion of what makes a great player.Save percentages are up and goal-against averages are down across the board this season and in this era of low goals per game, every goalie has great statistics.Hasek is not even the best goalie in the game today when you factor in playoffs. Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour, Martin Brodeur and Mike Richter are goalies I would choose ahead of Hasek for a Stanley Cup run.Randy P. Cabe,&nbsp; Cartersville, Ga.<h2>Add Dom to list</h2>Given the fact Dominik Hasek has an Olympic gold medal, three Vezina Trophies, one Hart Trophy and the eye-popping statistics you reported in your March 13 issue, perhaps it&rsquo;s time for THN to revise its list of the Top 50 NHL Players of All-Time so that Gilbert Perreault and Tim Horton aren&rsquo;t the only Buffalo Sabres on it.Peggy McMahon,&nbsp; Rockport. Mass.<h2>What a waste</h2>Why does Sergei Fedorov get let off the hook after blowing $10,000 on a recent dinner with his Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; teammates?Am I the only NHL fan who sees this as a monumental waste? Doesn&rsquo;t this lend credence to arguments that professional athletes really are incredibly spoiled little boys in men&rsquo;s bodies?Two days before Fedorov&rsquo;s spending spree, the Detroit Free Press ran a lengthy story about how Detroit homeless shelters are caring for more people than ever before-including a growing number of single women and children.Much like the rookie dinner, this is a hockey tradition that must end.Larry VanDeSande,&nbsp; Mason, Mich.<h2>Let it die, THN</h2>Hey, THN, enough already! Don&rsquo;t you guys have anything better to do than write about the stupid room trashing incident at the Olympics?Nobody cares and it is not the cataclysmic international incident you folks are making it out to be. In an age when betrayal and ratting is celebrated as &ldquo;independent&rdquo; and &ldquo;doing what is right,&rdquo; it is highly commendable to see the U.S. Olympic team remaining united in the face of witch hunting north of the border.Christopher Ferragamo,&nbsp; Edison, N.J.<h2>Lacroix a Plus</h2>I think you put Daniel Lacroix on the wrong side of your Plus-Minus column recently (THN. March 20) for his crosscheck to the head of New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Rich Pilon. He should have been on the Plus side, not the Minus.After Pilon&rsquo;s fourth attempt to injure John LeClair and Eric Lindros, the Philadelphia Flyers had to send Pilon a message. It just happened to be coming from Lacroix.You don&rsquo;t see Pilon trying to hit Tie Domi or Tony Twist from behind, do you?Milt Plummer,&nbsp; Thornton, Colo.<h2>Loco logo ranking</h2>I have been a Memphis River-Kings&rsquo; fan since their inaugural season and I would overlook THN&rsquo;s ranking of the RiverKings&rsquo; logo as the worst in lower-level minor pro hockey (THN, March 13) if not for the hypocritical and laughable manner in which you rated it.THN&rsquo;s criteria for an excellent logo is simple in design, yet colorful, with reference to the community. Yet simplicity was one of the major features for which the RiverKings were chided.We&rsquo;re sorry if you can&rsquo;t handle the decision to go with a black and gold &lsquo;M&rsquo; in medieval script with a crown and banner. By your standards, logos of similar simplicity such as those of the Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers are equally offensive. Memphians don&rsquo;t need a goofy mutant animal or Popeye the Sailor ripoff holding a hockey stick to remind us that we are looking at a hockey team.Eugene M. Howard,&nbsp; Memphis, Tenn.Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 340-1641&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, 777 Bay St, Suite 2700, Box 148, Toronto, Ont, M5G 2N8&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 142409947.&nbsp;E-mail us at <a href="mailto:THN@transc.com">THN@transc.com</a>. Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Hasek not dominant when it counts most

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011681/7087038-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

Dominant again Buffalo&rsquo;s Dominik Hasek, with 11 shutouts this season, is the first NHL goalie to get that many since Bernie Parent, who had 12 in 1974-75. Hasek, who had 10 shutouts last season, is also the first since Parent (&lsquo;73-74 and &lsquo;74-75) to post back-to-back double-digit shutout years.Buy a datebook The Lester Patrick Awards luncheon in St. Paul, Minn., March 24 was, by all accounts, a fine affair. But Ranger GM Neil Smith, Carolina GM Jim Rutherford and Anaheim assistant GM David McNab, among others, will have to take our word for it. All three should have, and would have, been there if an NHL scheduling conflict hadn&rsquo;t put the affair within hours of the trade deadline. Smith usually presents the awards on behalf of the Rangers. Rutherford is a friend and partner of award recipient and Hurricanes&rsquo; owner Peter Karmanos. McNab is the son of Max McNab, another award winner. It&rsquo;s the second time this season the NHL has fouled up its calendar. The first was scheduling a game in Toronto on the same night as the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in the same city.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021128/7087069-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="372" height="577"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dominik Hasek</figcaption></div>Either Orr Ottawa lawyer/agent Larry Kelly, who represents a stable of clients that includes Steve Yzerman and Doug Gilmour, among others, squelched speculation he is about to join forces with Boston agent Bobby Orr, although there had been some talks about the possibility.Burke&rsquo;s future NHL senior V-P Brian Burke had set late March as a deadline for deciding his future, but has now abandoned any firm timetable for a decision. The bottom line is that he&rsquo;s ready to leave his league posting, but won&rsquo;t unless he has a GM&rsquo;s job. Burke is a candidate with the Atlanta expansion franchise. &#9632;

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What you need to know about the 1997-98 season

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011739/7087100-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former 50-goal man Jeremy Roenick on pace for a 23-goal season? What&rsquo;s going on here, anyway? (Photo by Steve Babineau/SA)</figcaption></div>The Skinny: In four seasons from 1989-90 through 1992-93, Jeremy Roenick had two 50-goal seasons and averaged 48 goals. In the four seasons since then, only once has the Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; center scored more than 30. This season, he had just 20 in 70 games, putting him on pace for 23.Question: Why isn&rsquo;t Roenick a top goal-scorer anymore?Answer: He won&rsquo;t pay the price on a regular basis.Roenick, 28, said his falling goal totals are nothing more than a sign of the times. He said there are so few scoring chances now compared to before. He said lots of of guys aren&rsquo;t scoring as much.There is truth to that.Roenick&rsquo;s 53 goals in 1991-92 would be devalued to 41 this season, based on the league-wide decrease in average goals per game. That doesn&rsquo;t explain his projected total of 23 this season.&ldquo;All I know,&rdquo; Roenick said, &ldquo;is that I&rsquo;m giving 100 per cent.&rdquo;A survey of some NHL coaches and GMs suggests Roenick&rsquo;s No. 1 shortcoming is that he doesn&rsquo;t play as recklessly around the net and in traffic as in the past.He only does it occasionally, said the coach of a team that made a pitch to acquire Roenick from Phoenix at the trade deadline. The coach said J.R. can do it, but he has to be pushed.One GM said: &ldquo;Watch him. He doesn&rsquo;t go to the net like he used to, he doesn&rsquo;t stop at the net, he just flies by it. He plays a careless game now.&rdquo;Some believe injuries, notably those to his knees, have taken their toll on Roenick-that he has either lost a step or his willingness to put himself in danger has diminished.But supporters note he is still capable of playing a physical game and has become well-rounded defensively; Roenick shuts down top offensive players such as Mighty Ducks of Anaheim superstar Paul Kariya.Others say now that he&rsquo;s making big money, his ego exceeds his goalscoring ability.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard it all,&rdquo; J.R. said, &ldquo;and I disagree. It&rsquo;s just a different game.&rdquo;There is no more compelling question in sports, nor one left unanswered more often, than &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; Telling you what, when, where and who is seldom a problem. But telling you about the fifth &ldquo;W&rdquo; is always the greatest challenge. This week, we endeavor to give you that fifth dimension in stories on five ol the NHL&rsquo;s most prominent enigmatic players: Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; center Jeremy Roenick. Tampa Bay Lightning right winger Stephane Richer, Florida Panthers&rsquo; defenseman Ed Jovanovski, Boston Bruins&rsquo; goalie Jim Carey and Ottawa Senators&rsquo; center Radek Bonk. &#9632;

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FEATURES

The Bottom Lines

The Skinny: Stephane Richer twice scored 50 goals for the Montreal Canadiens, twice won the Stanley Cup, has been ultra-productive at times in the playoffs and has the size, strength, speed and skill that would be the envy of most any player. Traded three times in his career-twice by Montreal-the right winger has had only 42 goals over the past two seasons and had 14 in 38 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021329/7087131-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="272" height="379"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stephane Richer</figcaption></div>Question:Why isn&rsquo;t Richer a major star?Answer: Richer can&rsquo;t stand the pressure that goes with being a star.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if players today are as hungry as they were,&rdquo; said Tampa coach Jacques Demers, &ldquo;and Steph sometimes likes to find that comfort zone. But he has played well for us. There&rsquo;s no pressure on him here like there was in Montreal.&rdquo;Ah, pressure. According to those who know Richer, who didn&rsquo;t respond to an interview request for this story, he abhors pressure.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a kind, sensitive guy who might be the most maligned big-game player ever,&rdquo; said one club executive who has had Richer on his team. &ldquo;God smiled on this guy genetically, but Stephane doesn&rsquo;t like day-to-day pressure to perform and his inability to handle that pressure causes him to say and do unusual things.&rdquo;The 32-year-old has earned a reputation as something of a flake. With Montreal last season, when asked who he thought would win the Stanley Cup, he responded: New Jersey. Richer&rsquo;s team was playing the Devils in the first round.He has had injury problems and is often accused of being a malingerer, which ultimately led to his second trade out of Montreal.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a talent, but if he starts playing well and the expectation level gets high,&rdquo; said one who has coached him, &ldquo;he shuts it down, either with his play or an injury.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-02

Big talent Richer can’t deal with heat

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011645/7087162-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Carey was an able guy early in his career, but faltered.</figcaption></div>The Skinny: Jim Carey starred for the University of Wisconsin. In his first pro season, he was a first-team all-star, top goalie and rookie of the year in the American League and also made the NHL&rsquo;s all-rookie team. A year later, with the Washington Capitals, he led the NHL in shutouts with nine and was a first-team all-star and Vezina Trophy winner.After signing a lucrative long-term contract, Carey went steadily downhill, which led to a trade last season to the Boston Bruins. This season, despite posting a pair of shutouts, he played in only 10 games for the Bruins before being dispatched to their American League team, the Providence Bruins, where he suffered a shoulder injury and had season-ending surgery. His NHL future is in doubt.Question: Why has Carey gone from being the Net Detective to Net Defective?Answer: He can&rsquo;t deal with adversity.If there were a time prior to the past year the 23-year-old had to cope with performance difficulties, his two NHL teams are unaware of it.&ldquo;Jim was a real big star in high school and college,&rdquo; said one NHL executive. &ldquo;When he came into the pro game, he never missed a beat. A star in the AHL. A star in the NHL. It&rsquo;s as if it was almost too easy for him.&rdquo;One theory is once NHL shooters got a book on Carey, they began to pick him apart. The scouting report is he moves well north and south, but struggles going east and west. That lateral movement exposed mobility problems.&ldquo;When things went badly for him, he didn&rsquo;t do anything to adjust,&rdquo; said another executive. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t work at it and he didn&rsquo;t seem interested in listening to anyone who had suggestions on how he might get better.&rdquo;In his brief time in Boston, Carey didn&rsquo;t earn high marks for his ability to battle through his problems.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t show much devotion or passion for the game,&rdquo; said one Bruin. &ldquo;It was like he thought his game was going to come back to him like magic, without working at it. Either that, or he looked at it like a hobby.&rdquo;Carey could not be reached for comment. &#9632;

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Carey’s success came too easily

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021150/7087193-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Most people think Ed Jovanovski was a dominant defenseman in his rookie playoff year, but the fact is he didn&rsquo;t play late in games.(Jim Carey by Steve Babineau/SA; Ed Jovanovski by Rocky Widner)</figcaption></div>The Skinny: The No. 1 overall pick in the 1994 entry draft scored an impressive 10 goals in his rookie season and made an instant impact with his physical confrontations, especially against Eric Lindros, en route to the Florida Panthers&rsquo; Stanley Cup final appearance. He struggled in his sophomore season and now, in his third year, has had a tough season that mirrors the struggles of the plummeting Panthers. Sharp-tongued talk show hosts in south Florida have gone from calling the defenseman &lsquo;Jovo-Cop&rsquo; to &lsquo;Jovo-Flop.&rsquo;Question: Why has Jovanovski&rsquo;s development stalled?Answer: Because of a combination of unrealistic expectations, eroded confidence and an inability to read the play when he has the puck.&ldquo;My problem is I try to do too much (with the puck),&rdquo; Jovanovski said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to learn to keep it simple.&rdquo;His inability to do that consistently creates the &ldquo;big&rdquo; mistake that critics latch onto. That, in turn, batters his confidence, which is a critical element in any young defenseman&rsquo;s development. It&rsquo;s too early to suggest Jovanovski won&rsquo;t be a Scott Stevens-type defender-Chris Pronger&rsquo;s sudden emergence and maturity is quoted as a footnote-but it may be that the Panther defender&rsquo;s capacity to think the game at a high speed is limited.If so, his projection slides from potentially &ldquo;great&rdquo; to &ldquo;good.&rdquo;Jovanovski, 21, also suffers from the widely-held illusion he was a dominant blueliner in his rookie playoff year.&ldquo;He had those big hits with Lindros that everyone remembers, but the fact was he wasn&rsquo;t even getting on the ice in the last 10 minutes of those playoff games,&rdquo; said Panthers&rsquo; GM-interim coach Bryan Murray. &ldquo;We still believe he can be an impact guy because he&rsquo;s strong, mobile, aggressive and has good instincts even though he gets into trouble overhandling the puck.&rdquo;As is the case with most young defensemen, his immaturity shines through, but his desire to succeed remains strong.&ldquo;Next year is a big one for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident I&rsquo;ll be fine.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-02

Jovo-Cop’s confidence dives

The Skinny: Radek Bonk, the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; third overall pick in 1994, had 42 goals and 208 penalty minutes for the Las Vegas Thunder of the International League in his draft year. In four NHL seasons, including this one, the center had 31 goals in 230 games. He was recently scratched in 10 straight games.Question: Why has Bonk not fulfilled his promise?Answer: Bonk&rsquo;s skating limitations prevent him from being the offensive star he was projected to be. He has yet to adjust his own sights on what&rsquo;s possible.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03709/7087224-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="269" height="375"><figcaption class="caption-body">Radek Bonk</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Everyone&rsquo;s expectations are too high,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; GM Pierre Gauthier. &ldquo;He needs time to mature.&rdquo;As is the case with most struggling young players, the 22-year-old&rsquo;s confidence is at a low ebb. What he should be aiming for now is to become a grinding, third line center who can chip in offensively, but whose forte is tough defense and winning faceoffs, a la Mike Ricci.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re not trading him,&rdquo; Gauthier said.The scouting report on Bonk is that he must significantly up his intensity level, which has been, at best, inconsistent. He has to go to the net more, compete harder and play to his pluses (size and strength). &#9632;

f0009-03

Skating haunts Senator

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>When Byron Dafoe wants to take his mind off the rigors of being an NHL goalie, or just have a little daredevil fun, he goes one-on-one with dogs.Big dogs. We&rsquo;re not talking about poodles and chihuahuas. Try full-grown German shepherds trained to attack on command.Perhaps that&rsquo;s not so surprising for a man who gets paid to stop slapshots in excess of 100 miles per hour from the likes of Al MacInnis and Brett Hull.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of a rush when you have a 100-pound dog charging at you with its teeth bared,&rdquo; said the Boston Bruins&rsquo; goaltender. &ldquo;A Brett Hull slapshot is a little more predictable.&rdquo;We&rsquo;ll take his word for it. But before you get the impression the 27-year-old Dafoe is unbalanced, let us explain.Dafoe and his fiancee, Kim Sedgwick, raise German shepherds. They own two dogs and are involved in Schutzund training, which incorporates protection, tracking and obedience. So every now and then Dafoe will strap on a thick burlap bite-proof suit and allow other people&rsquo;s dogs to attack him, just as others do for his dogs.For what it&rsquo;s worth, Dafoe has given the Bruins some bite in goal this season-stability they lacked the past two seasons and reason to believe they have someone they can count on in the playoffs.&ldquo;He has held us in some games and won others for us,&rdquo; said Bruins&rsquo; leading scorer Jason Allison.Heading down the stretch, Dafoe had a 25-21-9 record with a 2.21 goals-against average (eighth best in the league) and.915 save percentage (eighth best). As well, he was tied for seventh in shutouts with six. Pretty good for a guy who previously had one career shutout and a 3.52 GAA in 97 games spread over five seasons.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been the No. 1 goalie everywhere I played until I hit the NHL,&rdquo; said Dafoe, who had previous stops with the Washington Capitals and Los Angeles Kings. The Capitals drafted him 35th overall in 1989. &ldquo;My two years in L.A., I was never labeled the backup, but I&rsquo;d win three games in a row and then be left wondering why I wasn&rsquo;t the automatic starter in the fourth game.&rdquo;The Bruins hoped Jim Carey, acquired from Washington late last season, would be their undisputed goalie of the future, but now the future for Carey in Boston looks grim (See pg. 9 for more on Carey). They acquired Dafoe from the Kings just before the start of this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021256/7087286-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="974" height="1974"><figcaption class="caption-body">Byron Dafoe has emerged as a legitimate No. 1 goalie this year. (Photo by Rocky Widner)</figcaption></div>The idea was for Dafoe to either light a fire under Carey and possibly split the games, much the way he did last season with Stephane Fiset and the year before with Kelly Hrudey.Or he could always take the No. 1 job for himself.New Bruins&rsquo; coach Pat Bums gave Dafoe the start for the season opener against the Kings, a 6-5 Boston win, and after 15 games, the job was his. The once-promising Carey was dispatched to the minors.&ldquo;I knew Jim had struggled in the recent past, but I also knew he won a Vezina Trophy (1996), so I expected we would provide each other with some stiff competition,&rdquo; Dafoe said. &ldquo;But this has been well beyond my expectations.&rdquo;What Bums saw at the start of the year was Carey played well when the team played well in front of him, but seemed to fall apart as his defense crumbled. Dafoe, on the other hand, battled through adversity. He is a scrambler, having spent two seasons playing behind a porous defense in L.A., who takes calculated risks.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s battler,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;For a goalie, that&rsquo;s important. The only thing I ask of him is he give us a chance to win. Make one or two big saves and give us a chance to win.&rdquo;There was one point in the year when Dafoe seemed to tire a bit, just before the Olympic break when he went 0-2-2 in four games while allowing a few softies along the way. But he regained his form after the break and went 7-2-1.Now that he has established himself as a capable starter, Dafoe has his sights set on moving closer to a pack of elite goalies that includes Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres, Patrick Roy of the Col-orado Avalanche, Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and to a lesser extent Ed Belfour of the Dallas Stars, Tom Barrasso of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Curtis Joseph of the Edmonton Oilers.Currently he&rsquo;s lumped in with the likes of Jeff Hackett of the Chicago Blackhawks, Olaf Kolzig of the Capitals and his old pal Fiset, guys who have been around a while, who are having solid seasons, but won&rsquo;t have full credibility until they make their mark in the playoffs.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m focused on at this point,&rdquo; Dafoe said. &#9632;

f0010-02

Dogged determination

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>When Chad Kilger showed up at the NHL entry draft in Edmonton in 1995, with his lucky Mickey Mouse tie tucked safely away in his jacket pocket, he had a clear vision of how his pro career would unfold.And he was convinced it was a good omen when the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who are owned by Mickey&rsquo;s creator, the Disney Corp., selected him fourth overall.&ldquo;A teammate of mine in Kingston, Marc Moro, owned the tie, but he was going to get rid of it because every time he wore it to a game he either played lousy or was a healthy scratch,&rdquo; Kilger said. &ldquo;I liked the tie so I took it. Every time I wore it I scored or played well. It became my lucky tie. That&rsquo;s why I had it at the draft with me. Ironically, Marc now plays in the Anaheim organization and I don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Kilger hasn&rsquo;t been with Anaheim since the Mighty Ducks traded him, along with defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky, to the Winnipeg Jets for superstar Teemu Selanne. That was just the first of two trades Kilger would experience as his NHL career got off to a rocky start.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t quite what I had in mind,&rdquo; said Kilger, who was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks along with journeyman defenseman Jay More from the Phoenix Coyotes (formerly Winnipeg Jets) for defenseman Keith Carney and tough right winger Jim Cummins March 4.But Kilger should be accustomed to adapting to changes in scenery. His father, Bob, has been a minor pro player, an NHL referee, a Memorial Cup-winning coach with the Cornwall Royals and is currently a Member of Parliament in Canada.The big difference for the younger Kilger now is with the Blackhawks, he is getting the chance to show what he can do. No more in the lineup one night, out the next.Playing on a line with left winger Eric Daze and Ethan Moreau on the right side, Kilger has seen his playing time increase to about 15 minutes a game from the five or so minutes with the Coyotes when he managed to sneak into the lineup. In his first 11 games with Chicago, the 6-foot-4, 215-pounder responded with two goals and nine points. And he was eagerly going into the high-traffic areas players need to be in to make things happen.&ldquo;All I wanted this year was an opportunity,&rdquo; Kilger said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t get it in Phoenix.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011543/7087317-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="969" height="1967"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chad Kilger is getting a chance to show his stuff in Chicago. (Photo by Brian Babineau/SA)</figcaption></div>That, to a certain degree, has been the theme of his three-year pro career. While some players whine about not being given a legitimate shot, Kilger may have a point.The Mighty Ducks elected to keep the 18-year-old rather than send him back to junior, which, in hindsight, they should have done, but as the season progressed, his playing time decreased.Then Anaheim couldn&rsquo;t resist the opportunity to acquire a superstar so the rookie was traded.&ldquo;I thought it was just a joke, something they pull on rookies,&rdquo; Kilger said. &ldquo;(Coach Ron) Wilson told me about the deal and asked me if I had any questions. I said, &lsquo;Yes, are you serious?&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m very serious.&rsquo;&rdquo;The Jets were in their last season in Winnipeg and were determined to make the playoffs so, as was the case in Anaheim, Kilger was spotted.Last season the Coyotes decided it was important to make a big splash in a new market right away. So they resigned Craig Janney, picked up Bob Corkum on waivers, signed free agent Cliff Ronning and acquired Jeremy Roenick in a trade with Chicago. There was little room for Kilger.He started the year in the NHL, but was sent to the Springfield Falcons of the American League at mid-season-and was unhappy with the situation. When the same thing happened this season, he re-fused to report and left the team for 14 days. One day after being suspended and taken off the payroll, he decided to report, but asked for a trade.&ldquo;All young players are impatient,&rdquo; said Anaheim assistant coach Don Hay, who coached Kilger in Phoenix last season. &ldquo;They want to play a key role right away. Most of them were key players in junior and think it will be the same in the NHL.&rdquo;The move to Chicago was a godsend.&ldquo;When you keep getting sent down and sat out for games you obviously start to question yourself,&rdquo; Kilger said. &ldquo;Like, &lsquo;Maybe I&rsquo;m not so good&rsquo; and &lsquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll never make it.&rsquo; But the way things have been going in Chicago, my confidence is back up.&rdquo;Kilger sees no reason why he won&rsquo;t develop into a 30-goal, 80-point man.&ldquo;We not only feel he has a great upside,&rdquo; said Chicago coach Craig Hartsburg, &ldquo;we like the way he&rsquo;s contributing now. He&rsquo;s an offensive player, but he can use his size and be physical.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-01

Third team lucky

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011670/7087348-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The New York Islanders hope former Sabres&rsquo; center Jason Dawe will rediscover his scoring touch. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios)</figcaption></div>Every year just before the trade deadline, rumors abound some high roller GM is about to pull off The Big Deal that will get his team&rsquo;s sweaty paws on The Big Silver Mug.Then comes The Big Day, which, if you&rsquo;re looking for blockbusters, turns out to be a Big Bust.Second and third liners, up-and-comers, tough guys, non-playoffbound unrestricted free agents-to-be all start packing their bags. Mid-round draft picks are swapped like cutlery in a flea market. Home run hitters stay put.That&rsquo;s when everyone realizes-until next year, at least-that the trading deadline is little more than a time for contenders to make fine-tuning adjustments and pretenders to start unloading dusty stock.Think about it. If an NHL GM is waiting until the trade deadline to make his team a contender, what the heck has he been doing the past nine months or even the past two seasons?It&rsquo;s myopic to say a contending team that stood pat at the deadline is a deadline day &ldquo;loser.&rdquo; It might have made its key deal months ago. (For complete list of deadline day deals March 24, see page 36.)&ldquo;The (relatively late) date of the trade deadline has really become a big element in how teams handle their rosters,&rdquo; said Dallas Stars&rsquo; GM Bob Gainey. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite a bit different from what the intent is.&rdquo;Gainey said trades normally come about when two teams have assets that fit each other&rsquo;s needs-the &ldquo;intent&rdquo; is that both will benefit. Of late, though, most deadline trades increase the short-term talent disparity between haves and have-nots for financial purposes.Invariably, better teams get older and less talented ones younger-in the hope they can develop younger talent and look to unrestricted free agents in the summer to fill in gaps.Analyzing a team&rsquo;s actions over an entire season is a different story.Start with the 1997 entry draft last summer. Since June 21, there have been 80 trades involving 164 players and 53 draft picks.The Tampa Bay Lightning leads the way with a total of 29 players coming to and leaving in trades, followed by the Edmonton Oilers, San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks with 22 each.The team-by-team breakdown (see chart below ranking trade results), yields some interesting conclusions.First, good teams generally don&rsquo;t have itchy fingers. They don&rsquo;t need to. Of the 11 teams which brought in more than six players into the organization through trades since the 1997 draft, only the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks have winning records.In Dallas, where the Stars have the league&rsquo;s top record, the deadline day trade to acquire Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland from the New York Rangers for Todd Harvey and Bob Errey was their first deal since draft day in 1996.Second, middle-of-the-road teams can significantly upgrade their talent if they wait for the right moment to deal.Look at the case of the Edmonton Oilers, who have managed to get more mobile and more skilled at defense without sacrificing youth. When GM Glen Sather acquired Roman Hamrlik Dec. 30 from Tampa, the Lighting was in chaos and Hamrlik&rsquo;s value was perhaps at an all-time low. (See pg. 13 for more on Sather.)He capitalized again on the Flyers&rsquo; need for toughness (in the form of Dan McGillis) to land talented defenseman Janne Niinimaa. The Flyers also got a second round pick, but Edmonton&rsquo;s trio of Niinimaa (22), Hamrlik (24) and Boris Mironov (25) should be a solid core for years.&ldquo;I think in the back of my mind I like a certain type of hockey player,&rdquo; Sather said, adding it&rsquo;s not often you get a chance to acquire hidden gems if they&rsquo;re not your own draft picks. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s needs change in this business. We don&rsquo;t all view hockey players in the same way.&rdquo;Two other obvious trading successes are the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings. The Aug. 29 deal that sent Dimitri Khristich and and Byron Dafoe to the Bruins for Jozef Stumpel and Sandy Moger is a major factor when explaining why both teams have exceeded all expectations this year. Stumpel was eighth overall in scoring, on pace for a career-high 84 points, while Dafoe was in the midst of a career season and Khristich has also played well.Who are the trading losers over the full season? The Buffalo Sabres, a team that has had trouble scoring goals, gave up Pat LaFontaine and Jason Dawe without receiving anyone who could score in return. The Ottawa Senators had yet to get much out of Vaclav Prospal or Pat Falloon while Alexandre Daigle blossomed in Philadelphia.It&rsquo;s worth noting some trading deadline day deals-notably Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; free agent goalie Patrick Lalime to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for center Sean Pronger-were motivated by the looming Nashville Predators&rsquo; expansion draft this summer.Teams are allowed to protect 15 skaters-either 10 forwards and five defensemen or nine forwards and six defensemen-plus one goalie. If they want to protect two goalies, the reserved skater list goes down to eight forwards and three defensemen or seven forwards and four defensemen.Players with fewer than two years of pro experience do not have to be protected. &#9632;

f0012-01

D-day: No big deal

The Hockey News picks the Edmonton Oilers as the team most improved through trades since the 1997 entry draft. Listed below, in order from best to worst by trade impact and how well deals filled needs: team; number of players acquired; the two most prominent additions (still with the team); draft picks in the first three rounds acquired (in parentheses); and similar information for outgoing assets. Not all players were/are on NHL rosters. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Chris Gratton is the only free agent signee included; the signing effectively became a trade when Tampa traded back four first round compensatory picks for Mikael Renberg and Karl Dykhuis.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021330/7087400-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="399" height="658"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Roberts</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03858/7087393-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="1060" height="551"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04498/7087386-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="1073" height="547"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-05356/7087379-1-eng-US/f0012-052.jpg" title="f0012-05" width="400" height="658"><figcaption class="caption-body">John MacLean</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-02

Lightning strikes often in NHL trading season

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011557/7087431-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="398" height="552"></div>You turn it over and examine it from every angle and you can&rsquo;t help but wonder how Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; GM Glen Sather keeps making these astonishingly one-sided deals for the NHL&rsquo;s Generation Next.When you break down 19 tradingdeadline deals involving 38 players, the one that jumps off the page is Sather&rsquo;s acquisition of Janne Niini-maa from the Philadelphia Flyers for Dan McGillis and a second round draft choice.That&rsquo;s twice this year Sather has picked up the rarest commodity in the NHL, a young, skilled defenseman.First, he pried Roman Hamrlik out from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a trio of players, two of whom are in the minors now (Steve Kelly and Jason Bonsignore) and one who is with the San Jose Sharks (Bryan Marchment).And now, Niinimaa.Admittedly, Niinimaa has slipped backward since his first season, but who among the NHL&rsquo;s sophomores hasn&rsquo;t? New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Bryan Berard was among the NHL&rsquo;s worst plus-minus players-and he was rookie of the year. Jarorne Iginla of the Calgary Flames will not come close to duplicating his 50-point rookie year.The problem with NHL teams is they all want to see steady, unwavering improvement from all their young players. The reality is player development is an uneven process that frequently includes both surges and setbacks. This is something of which Sather, long an active dealer on the NHL&rsquo;s futures market, is acutely aware. Examine his 1993 trading deadline deal, Esa Tikkanen for Doug Weight. It sounds bizarre that anyone would ever consider that exchange today, but five years ago, when Weight was just 22 and playing on the New York Rangers&rsquo; third line, it didn&rsquo;t look so far-fetched.It was only after a seven-goals-in-48-games struggle during the NHL lockout year in 1995 that Weight blossomed into a full-fledged NHL star at 24.Development can be especially uneven on defense. In goal and up front, you can rely on instinct, but to play defense well in the NHL you need to think on the ice-and that takes some getting used to.So in the span of two months, Sather gets a 23-year-old Hamrlik and a 22-year-old Niinimaa, two players with Norris Trophy potential. McGillis is a nice player who isn&rsquo;t always as physical as he should be, but his upside-compared to Niinimaa&rsquo;s-is middle-of-the-road NHL defenseman. Add Boris Mironov, a 25-year-old, to the mix and it gives the Oilers the flexibility to make another move in October if they suddenly find themselves without Curtis Joseph in goal and no one in the organization ready to step into the No. 1 job.Much has been said about Sather&rsquo;s genius quotient-and it&rsquo;s a measure of the respect he commands around the league that his teams can miss the playoffs for four consecutive years, as the Oilers did, and his mystique remains intact. Others can muddle along with the same small-market obstacles as Sather and not receive the extended period of grace that five Stanley Cups and a long association with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier et al can provide.What Sather does so well is accurately read the mood of his fellow GMs, an underrated skill. He knew just when Phil Esposito had reached the breaking point in Tampa and was ready to throw up his hands in exasperation at Hamrlik&rsquo;s indifferent play.He caught a lot of his peers napping on Niinimaa&rsquo;s availability too. Flyers&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke is about as predictable as an open-book exam in terms of his team-building strategy. No club-the Canadian Olympic team or the Flyers-is ever big or bad enough to suit Clarke.Moreover, his focus is usually narrow and focuses on one specific opponent. Clarke selected his Canadian players to ensure the club was physical enough to defeat USA. It was, but it didn&rsquo;t win a medal.Clarke has remodeled the Flyers so they&rsquo;re tough enough to compete with the New Jersey Devils. They probably are-but it still doesn&rsquo;t mean they&rsquo;ll win the Stanley Cup.Meanwhile, that sound of outrage you heard across the U. S. and Canada came from all the NHL GMs desperately seeking an offensive defenseman who didn&rsquo;t know how little it would take to pry Niinimaa loose. It is no surprise three of Sather&rsquo;s colleagues called him immediately after he made the deal to see if he wanted to flip the rights to Niinimaa right away.Eventually, Sather may well decide to move one of his three young Europeans, but it will be on his terms and to close a gap that may spring up elsewhere on his roster.No matter how you look at it, Sather wins again-for today and for tomorrow as well. &#9632;

f0013-01

NHL’s best GM Sather other GMs’ nightmare

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011659/7087462-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="164" height="165"></div>Goalie Patrick Lalime, defenseman Jamie Pushor and center Josef Marha had combined for only 190 NHL games at the trading deadline. But the three young players the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim acquired March 24 could fill at least two big holes in the organization.Marha is a creative playmaker, something the Ducks have never really had up the middle (although rookie Matt Cullen is emerging as one). Pushor is a big, physical defenseman and fills an area the Ducks have been weak at this season. Lalime gives the Ducks flexibility when it comes to the NHL expansion draft.The cost to the Ducks was defenseman Dmitri Mironov, rugged winger Warren Rychel, center Sean Pronger and a conditional draft pick.&ldquo;We lost some experience, but we got some young guys in some key positions,&rdquo; said Ducks&rsquo; coach Pierre Page. &ldquo;We said we had to get better down the middle-goaltending, defense and center.&rdquo;In Pushor, the Ducks get a rugged stay-at-home defenseman &ldquo;who has an edge,&rdquo; said Ducks&rsquo; GM Jack Ferreira. Pushor has been in and out of the lineup this season after falling out of favor with Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman. But Ducks&rsquo; left winger Brent Severyn knows Pushor. &ldquo;I got in a fight with him,&rdquo; Severyn said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big dude.&rdquo;Lalime set an NHL rookie record for the longest unbeaten streak to start a career at 14-0-2 last season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. This season he was unable to reach a contract agreement with the Penguins and instead played for the Grand Rapids Griffins of the International League.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Teemu Selanne became the first NHL player this season to hit the 50-goal milestone when he scored the game-winner in the second period against Chicago March 25. It&rsquo;s the third time in Selanne&rsquo;s six-season career he has reached that milestone&hellip;Ducks&rsquo; coach Pierre Page said injured left winger Paul Kariya appeared to be back to his old self, but he&rsquo;s still not expected to return this season. The Mighty Ducks&rsquo; captain is suffering from post-concussion syndrome. &#9632;

f0014-01

Mighty Ducks plug holes by acquiring three youngsters at deadline

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021249/7087493-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="162" height="164"></div>The March 24 trade deadline passed quietly for the Boston Bruins, a team many felt would be forced to acquire a defenseman.Already without veteran Don Sweeney (fractured shoulder), the Bruins lost 20-year-old Kyle McLaren to a fractured foot five days before the deadline. Boston, the theory went, didn&rsquo;t have the depth to survive those hits.The Bruins may turn out to be deeper on the blueline than even they dared hope. Relying more on two players not expected to be in the lineup this season, Boston won two of the first three games McLaren missed, giving up just four goals in the process.Rookie defenseman Hal Gill and waiver wire acquisition Darren Van Impe had a lot to do with that.&ldquo;We were interested to see how they&rsquo;d do with a little more responsibility,&rdquo; said assistant GM Mike O&rsquo;Connell, who obtained veteran Grant Ledyard from the Vancouver Canucks March 3-two days after Sweeney got hurt. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re excited they&rsquo;ve done so well.&rdquo;Gill has been an unsung hero since Boston recalled him from the Providence Bruins of the American League Nov. 2. Through Boston&rsquo;s 4-2 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers March 26-a game in which Gill was plus-4&mdash;he had played 56 consecutive steady games with partner Ray Bourque. A native of nearby Concord, Mass., the 6-foot-6, 240-pound Gill had also started to be assertive enough that coach Pat Bums trusted him to play entire games against opponents&rsquo; top lines, plus kill penalties.&ldquo;I look forward to it,&rdquo; said Gill, Boston&rsquo;s eighth pick (207th overall) in 1993, who was given almost no shot to make the club in the fall after quietly concluding a four-year career at Providence College. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re going against the best, you just keep your focus on limiting their chances and you don&rsquo;t worry about anything else. It makes the game a lot more intense, and a lot more fun.&rdquo;Gill had two goals and six points and was plus-9 through March 26. He was making the game fun for his future Hall of Fame partner.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a joy to play with,&rdquo; Bourque said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen him come so far in such a short amount of time. He&rsquo;s really playing great.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Kyle McLaren, who suffered a hairline fracture of his right foot in a 4-0 victory over Toronto March 19, was surprised by broadcast reports he was out for the balance of the regular season. &ldquo;I was told it&rsquo;s more like two to four weeks,&rdquo; said McLaren, whose foot wasn&rsquo;t placed in a cast. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been lucky in the past, so I hope I&rsquo;m a fast healer again &ldquo;&hellip;The Bruins were upset that a third period goal by defenseman Hal Gill in a 1-0 loss March 22 at Chicago was reversed, after video review, because of left winger Steve Heinze&rsquo;s presence in the crease&hellip;The Bruins put first and second round playoff tickets on sale at regular season prices. &#9632;

f0014-02

Gill, Van Impe fill in admirably for injured members of Bruins’ blueline

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03857/7087524-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="164" height="164"></div>Paul Kruse has played for the Calgary Flames and New York Islanders, but the big left winger is hoping he has found a home with the Buffalo Sabres.&ldquo;I really liked playing with Wayne (Primeau) and Rob (Ray),&rdquo; Kruse said after he made his Sabres&rsquo; debut during a win at Calgary March 24. &ldquo;We worked hard and got some chances. Hopefully we can do our jobs every night.&rdquo;Kruse, a 28-year-old veteran who brings size and some physical grit to the Sabres lineup, is the replacement for left winger Brad May, who was sent to the Vancouver Canucks for Geoff Sanderson just before the Olympic break. Kruse came over from the Islanders with blueline prospect Jason Holland for Jason Dawe, a right winger who appeared to have fallen out of favor with the Sabres.Most people thought right winger Matthew Barnaby would be traded at the deadline. Barnaby had gone public demanding a trade. Dawe, who struggled offensively and had been demoted to fourth line status in recent weeks, also asked to be traded, but denied it when questioned by reporters.Barnaby played in the win at Calgary and a subsequent 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks two nights later and both Barnaby and Sabres&rsquo; coach Lindy Ruff said they could continue to work together.None of that impacts on Kruse. The Sabres had been concerned about a lack of toughness and grit with the absence of May and Kruse should help fill the bill. He&rsquo;s also perceived as a character guy, one who will stand up for his teammates on and off the ice. That role had largely fallen to Ray in the wake of the trade of May and Sabres management realized it was too much responsibility for one player.Kruse is a big, strong player who can (and will) finish his checks.&ldquo;We had too many players vying for the same ice time,&rdquo; Ruff said in describing why the offen-sively-challenged Sabres swapped a scorer for a physical presence. &ldquo;We had seven or eight powerplay guys. If (Miroslav) Satan played more, then Dawe got the short end. We could never get a guy on a roll. This way we can go to the same guys, put a little faith in them and hope that it will be enough.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Captain Michael Peca was suspended one game pending a review with NHL vice-president Brian Burke for an open-ice elbow March 26 that knocked out Vancouver defenseman Mattias Ohlund. Ohlund left the game with a concussion&hellip;Defenseman Jason Holland had hoped to find his way to the Sabres&rsquo; roster, but was instead sent to Rochester of the American League. GM Darcy Regier feels the young defenseman will eventually work his way to the NHL level&hellip;The sale of the Sabres to John Rigas and the Adelphia Communications Corp., is virtually complete. The new owners issued a news release saying they had signed a binding agreement to buy the team. &#9632;

f0014-03

Addition of tough left winger Kruse takes pressure off policeman Ray

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011528/7087555-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="162" height="164"></div>Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; GM Bob Murray all but promised defenseman Gary Suter would be dealt before the NHL trade deadline.&ldquo;If the right thing comes along, Gary Suter will be gone,&rdquo; said Murray the night before the deadline.But the &ldquo;right thing&rdquo; never materialized. The deadline came and went with Suter still a key member of the Hawks&rsquo; blueline.&ldquo;I had some tough decisions to make at the last minute and I chose not to do it,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t know until a month from now or two months from now whether I did the right or wrong thing.&rdquo;Murray&rsquo;s toughest decision was what to do with Suter, set to be an unrestricted free agent after the season. Suter recently turned down a two-year contract offer and may be looking at getting close to $3 million a year on the open market.It&rsquo;s believed the Hawks nixed a lastminute offer from the Philadelphia Flyers at the deadline.&ldquo;What you get back, is the player better than he is and what effect does it have on your hockey team?&rdquo; said Murray.Both Murray and Suter said contract negotiations would continue right up until Suter becomes a free agent July 1.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still a Blackhawk and I hope I&rsquo;m a Blackhawk next year,&rdquo; Suter said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m optimistic because I want to stay here and they know I want to stay here.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Hawks acquired tough guy Ryan VandenBussche from the Rangers for defenseman Ryan Risidore. VandenBussche, a right winger, reported immediately to the Hawks and was in the lineup March 25 against Anaheim. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a character kid who will stand up for his teammates,&rdquo; said GM Bob Murray&hellip;Blackhawks&rsquo; owner Bill Wirtz spoke out against the NHL returning to the Olympics as part of the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. &ldquo;I believe in the regular season, the Stanley Cup and the World Cup,&rdquo; Wirtz said. &ldquo;By shutting down the league we demean the regular season and the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Eric Daze reached the 30-goal plateau for the second time in his three-year NHL career. &#9632;

f0015-01

Right deal wasn’t there, Hawks hold on to Suter

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03763/7087586-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="574" height="904"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jason Wiemer</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021072/7087593-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="161" height="160"></div>It was a friendly and familiar environment that Jason Wiemer discovered upon his arrival in Calgary as the newest member of the Flames.His sister Jamie, who attends the University of Calgary, greeted him at the airport. His father Wayne made a four-hour drive from Kimberley, B.C., to see him make a successful debut-scoring the winning goal in a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals March 26.Wiemer was traded to Calgary March 24 from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Sandy McCarthy and a swap of draft picks. Among his new teammates, there were a pair of ex-Tampa players, Rick Tabaracci and Aaron Gavey, along with defenseman Cale Hulse, a junior teammate for two years with the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to playing somewhere where more than one person in the stands knows I&rsquo;ve played a bad game,&rdquo; Wiemer said.No worries on that front. Flames&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter started him on a line with Andrew Cassels and Hnat Dom-enichelli, but before the second period, had moved him up to the No. 1 unit with Theo Fleury and Valeri Bure.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just starting his career,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;He has never been pushed.&rdquo;For his part, Wiemer said he was looking forward to a fresh start.&ldquo;A big thing will be to become more consistent, to know from night to night what I&rsquo;m going to bring to the table instead of guessing which Jason Wiemer is going to show up.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Michael Nylander will miss the rest of the season after a knee-on-knee collision with Washington right winger Kelly Miller March 26 resulted in a major left knee injury. Nylander suffered a severely tom anterior cruciate ligament, partially tom posterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament. The best guess is that Nylander will return next December. The Flames were expected to ask for the hit to be reviewed&hellip;Also that game, the Flames sat out their third-leading scorer, center German Titov. Coach Brian Sutter scratched Titov for four games earlier in the season. Titov was asked if he was unhappy about being singled out again. &ldquo;Unhappy?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m frigging mad. I&rsquo;m calling my agent. It&rsquo;s his job to talk to (the Hames).&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-03

Wiemer gets welcomed

<div class="byline">By Steve Politi</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04560/7087624-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="161" height="163"></div>Ray Sheppard and Keith Primeau combined for 83 goals in 1993-94 while playing for the Detroit Red Wings.The Carolina Hurricanes don&rsquo;t expect anything close to that after trading goalie Kirk McLean to the Florida Panthers to pick up Sheppard at the deadline March 24.They do, however, expect Sheppard to provide a few critical goals during the stretch run as the &lsquo;Canes fight to keep their very dim playoff hopes alive.&ldquo;Ray is a proven goal-scorer,&rdquo; said GM Jim Rutherford. &ldquo;His scoring ability will improve our overall attack, especially on the power play.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t hard to see the power play-mired in a 3-for-47 nosedive-needed the help. Now will Sheppard, who struggled with just 14 goals in 61 games this season, provide that help?&ldquo;Things weren&rsquo;t going real well in Florida,&rdquo; said the 31-year-old right winger. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re making it a transition period where they&rsquo;re going to go with youth. I don&rsquo;t want rebuilding. I want to go where I have a chance to win.&rdquo;Sheppard, whose 29 goals last season was his lowest total since 199091, was excited about the prospect of playing with Primeau again. The &lsquo;Canes&rsquo; center has been a dominant player since arriving back from the Olympics.&ldquo;Keith is very big and fast and he creates a lot of space out there,&rdquo; Sheppard said. &ldquo;For a guy who likes to shoot the puck and pick spots to get open, that&rsquo;s the type of guy you want to play with.&rdquo;Sheppard has one year remaining on a contract that will pay him $1.7 million and Rutherford insists Sheppard will remain with the franchise through next season. &ldquo;He is not a hired gun,&rdquo; Rutherford said.&ldquo;What we need to do to have any long-term success,&rdquo; said coach Paul Maurice, &ldquo;is to have more than one line scoring consistently. I think Ray gives us a better chance to do that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Mike Fountain was recalled from New Haven of the American League to fill the void left by Kirk McLean&rsquo;s departure. He was 25-196 in the AHL this season. &ldquo;Obviously, Trevor&rsquo;s the main guy,&rdquo; Fountain said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just here to work hard and have some fun.&rdquo;&hellip;Tough guy left winger Stu Grimson scored a big goal for the team and himself in a 5-3 victory over Horida March 23: the game-winner over the Panthers was Grimson&rsquo;s career-high third goal of the season. Grimson also had a career-high seven points&hellip;With right winger Ray Sheppard being inserted on the first line, Carolina&rsquo;s leading scorer, right winger Sami Kapanen, was moved to the second line with center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill. &#9632;

f0015-04

Sheppard in to provide goal spark

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011444/7087655-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="162" height="164"></div>Tom Fitzgerald lost out on his lucky No. 21, but found himself with the Colorado Avalanche. In other words, Fitzgerald didn&rsquo;t make blackjack, but in his words, he &ldquo;hit the jackpot.&rdquo;Fitzgerald, the gritty right winger/center who helped lead the Florida Panthers to the 1996 Stanley Cup final against the Avs, was acquired by Colorado March 24 for prospect Mark Parrish and a 1998 third round pick.With resident superstar Peter Forsberg already wearing 21, Fitzgerald had to settle for 14. But he wasn&rsquo;t complaining about being traded from a team that had just lost 13 straight.&ldquo;I just got a chance at a Stanley Cup and I&rsquo;m very excited about that,&rdquo; Fitzgerald said.Needing a character guy who is good in his own end and could chip in offensively, the Avs were thrilled when Florida made Fitzgerald available.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s known in our business as being one of the best leaders around,&rdquo; said Avs&rsquo; GM Pierre Lacroix.Still, the trade was a shock to Fitzgerald. He was in the midst of negotiating a long-term deal to stay with the Panthers just two hours before the trade.&ldquo;Sometimes when you&rsquo;re with an organization, you think you&rsquo;re indispen-sible, but you know what? You&rsquo;re not,&rdquo; Fitzgerald said.The 29-year-old, who is earning $520,000 this season, becomes an unrestricted Group V free agent July 1.NOTEBOOK: The Avalanche reacquired left winger Warren Rychel from Anaheim at the March 24 deadline for center Josef Marha and a conditional 1999 draft pick. Rychel previously played for the Avs in 1995-96&hellip;Center Joe Sakic, who has been out since spraining a knee ligament at the Olympics, was skating and hoped to return to the lineup in early April&hellip;Backup goaltender Craig Billington was tossed from the Avs&rsquo; 2-0 loss to New Jersey March 26 by referee Paul Stewart for throwing a stick, allegedly in the official&rsquo;s direction. That led to a confrontation between Avs&rsquo; GM Pierre Lacroix and Stewart, in which Lacroix told Stewart to &ldquo;stick with the beer commercials.&rdquo; Lacroix was referring to a U.S. beer commercial featuring a group of officials. &#9632;

f0016-01

Fitzgerald goes from loser to Stanley Cup contender

<div class="byline">By Cynthia Lambert</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03832/7087686-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="585" height="905"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dmitri Mironov</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021114/7087693-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="162" height="158"></div>The Detroit Red Wings again have the ability to ice a Russian Five, but it&rsquo;s not a certainty they will.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an option we have now,&rdquo; is all coach Scotty Bowman would say about it after the Wings acquired defenseman Dmitri Mironov from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim March 24 for defenseman Jamie Pushor and a fourth round draft pick.Since defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov was critically injured in the June 13 limousine crash, the Wings have not been the same. Not only was Konstantinov one of the best defensemen in the NHL, but his presence on the Russian five-man unit helped give Detroit a higher level of creativity. When Bowman put Detroit&rsquo;s five Russians together-Slava Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Fedorov and Vyacheslav Kozlov are the other four-their puck movement and unpredictability was outstanding. Teams needed to learn how to play not only against Detroit&rsquo;s left wing lock system, but the Russians&rsquo; patterns as well.&ldquo;That sounds good to me,&rdquo; Mironov said of playing with his countrymen. &ldquo;I will do what they want me to.&rdquo;The Wings expect Mironov to be among their top four defensemen. Detroit&rsquo;s other new blueliner, Jamie Macoun, was brought in from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a fourth round pick March 24 to be the seventh defenseman.&ldquo;With the moves we made, we upgraded our defense considerably,&rdquo; said GM Ken Holland.NOTEBOOK: Center Sergei Fedorov, who had played 13 games through March 26, said he feels fresh mentally and physically for the playoffs. His best playoffs came in the lockout shortened 1994-1995 season, when he had seven goals and 24 points in 17 games. Any similarities now? &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping so,&rdquo; Fedorov said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll try to do everything in my power to do that. But this is great. My mind is fresh and my body is fresh.&rdquo;&hellip;No. 1 goalie Chris Osgood (groin pull) and No. 2 man Kevin Hodson (hip pointer) returned from injuries. Osgood missed five games&hellip;The most expensive playoff ticket for the first round in Detroit is $95, compared to $85 last season. The most expensive ticket for the fourth round is $200, compared to $150 last season. &#9632;

f0016-03

New version of Russian 5?

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-06374/7087755-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="572" height="909"><figcaption class="caption-body">Janne Niinimaa</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05446/7087762-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="162" height="163"></div>Glen Sather has, in past years, done more at the deadline. But he has probably never done better.The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; GM swapped defenseman Dan McGillis (and a second round draft pick) for Philadelphia Flyer Janne Niinimaa, a highly coveted second year blueliner. Niinimaa, 22, is a veteran of the World Junior Championships, World Cup and Olympics and was on the NHL&rsquo;s all-rookie team last season.Sather believes Niinimaa, along with Boris Mironov and Roman Hamrlik, gives the Oilers one of the best young blueline corps in the NHL.&ldquo;Niinimaa is a great skater and passer, sees the ice very well,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got three of the best young defensemen in the game now. They&rsquo;re tough to find.&rdquo;It didn&rsquo;t seem tough for Niinimaa to go from a team with Stanley Cup aspirations to a team struggling to make the playoffs. &ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s a young team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It looks like they are building a winning team. They play an offensive game. It&rsquo;s going to be good for me. In a couple of years it&rsquo;s going to be a really good team.&rdquo;He will probably make it better immediately.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good skater, he has good skills, a good shot, he can pass the puck and he can play on the power play. Is there anything I forgot?&rdquo; Hamrlik asked.Yeah, he&rsquo;s affordable. Niinimaa is in the final year of his deal, making $650,000 (U.S.).NOTEBOOK: GM Glen Sather said he spoke to just one team about goalie Curtis Joseph in the days leading up to the trade deadline. Sources said it was the Islanders, who wanted a one-for-one swap, Joseph for Tommy Salo&hellip;Sather tried to pry right winger Matthew Barnaby from Buffalo, but sources said the Sabres wanted three young Oiler prospects&hellip;It was an interesting bit of timing in the assignment of center Boyd Devereaux to Kitchener of the Ontario League. The Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs before he even left Edmonton, so he went to Hamilton of the American League instead. Rules prohibited the Oilers from sending him directly to Hamilton. He played in only 38 games for the Oilers this season and scored once. &#9632;

f0016-06

GM is Janne on the spot

<div class="byline">By Michael Russo</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-07344/7087793-1-eng-US/f0016-072.jpg" title="f0016-07" width="162" height="158"></div>Kirk was beamed up just in time for the Florida Panthers.Goalie Kirk McLean, acquired March 24 from the Carolina Hurricanes for right winger Ray Sheppard, helped key a 5-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens March 26, a victory that snapped an ugly 13-game losing streak that spanned 54 days. The skid was just four short of the league record (17) shared by the 1974-75 Washington Capitals and 1992-93 San Jose Sharks.&ldquo;Kirk came in and gave us a big lift by making some big stops early,&rdquo; said coach-GM Bryan Murray. &ldquo;The team rallied around that.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s no secret McLean&rsquo;s stock has fallen since leading the Vancouver Canucks to Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup final. His play has been erratic the past three seasons and this year has been one of the toughest of his 13-year career after being shipped to Carolina from Vancouver in a five-player swap in early January.But McLean, who if he isn&rsquo;t taken in the expansion draft this June will be asked to help bring along youngster Kevin Weekes, is pleased with the change of scenery.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly happy (Florida) jumped on the chance (to get me),&rdquo; McLean said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m perfectly fine working with and helping (Weekes) along next year. I&rsquo;m on the upswing as far as age (31), but I feel I&rsquo;m just peaking. I understand the game and I love working with young goaltenders.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: GM Bryan Murray sent popular center Tom Fitzgerald to Colorado for junior prospect Mark Parrish, a left winger, and a third round draft pick at the deadline. Murray thinks Parrish, ranked 30th among prospects in The Hockey News&rsquo; Future Watch, can play in the NHL next season&hellip;Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck had asked to be traded by the deadline, but there was no market for him because of his pending unrestricted free agency stat-us&hellip;The contract defenseman Gord Murphy signed March 24 was worth $5.5 million over three years&hellip;Center Rob Niedermayer&rsquo;s season has been ended by postconcussion syndrome, a condition he first experienced on opening night when hit by Philadelphia center Eric Lindros. &#9632;

f0016-07

McLean happy to pitch in with saves and knowledge

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011327/7087824-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="162" height="168"></div>Injuries and inconsistency began to take a toll on the Los Angeles Kings just as they seemed on course to zoom as high as fourth in the Western Conference.Their offense weakened after left winger Luc Robitaille underwent abdominal surgery and their muscle depleted when left winger Matt Johnson (strained bicep) and defenseman Doug Zmolek (strained shoulder) left the lineup, the Kings leveled off after the Olympic break and hit a 7-6-2 stretch that resembled a roller-coaster ride.Players&rsquo; lack of focus was a big concern to Kings&rsquo; coach Larry Robinson.&ldquo;Our work habits haven&rsquo;t been what they have been usually in practices,&rdquo; Robinson said after the Kings&rsquo; 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks March 26. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been hammering down on them because we&rsquo;ve been playing so much hockey and I wanted to give them a little bit of a break&hellip;and we paid the price.&rdquo;Center Jozef Stumpel was also concerned with the team&rsquo;s slide, even though he managed to avoid being dragged down with most of his teammates and maintained an impressive scoring pace.Despite missing four games in early March because of a bruised kidney, Stumpel led the Kings in scoring and ranked among the NHL&rsquo;s top 10 scorers with 20 goals and 72 points.However, the 25-year-old knows he can play better-and so can the entire team. Although the St. Louis Blues had opened a five-point lead over the Kings for the fourth seed in the West, Stumpel hadn&rsquo;t given up on passing the Blues.At the very least, Stumpel wanted the team to avoid falling into bad habits that could carry over into the post-season.&ldquo;It looks like sometimes we want to take some shortcuts and take it easy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not the way we should play, not if we want home-ice advantage in the playoffs. I don&rsquo;t think anything is going to come easy.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s not to say Stumpel or the Kings are panicking. &ldquo;Everything can be fixed,&rdquo; Stumpel said. &ldquo;The problem is that some games, we think it&rsquo;s going to be too easy. We must be better at following the coaches&rsquo; words and we must be responsible to each other.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Rob Blake reached a career high in goals (21), a figure that was also best among blueliners this season&hellip;Left winger Luc Robitaille, who underwent surgery March 2 to repair an ab-dominal injury, resumed skating and said he hopes to return before the playoffs&hellip;From Jan. 12 through March 25, the Kings&rsquo; record of 16-6-3 was the NHL&rsquo;s third best, behind Dallas and New Jersey&hellip; With Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan and other city officials on hand, executives of the Kings and National Basketball Association Los Angeles Lakers officially broke ground March 26 for the Staples Center, the arena that will house both teams starting in late 1999. The arena will cost an estimated $300 million to build. &#9632;

f0018-01

Kings need to re-focus for strong playoff run

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02991/7087855-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="163" height="162"></div>Finally, a bit of good news for the Montreal Canadiens.When the Canadiens made a two-game swing through Florida in late March, they were closer than they had been in some time to having a full complement of players.Left winger Shayne Corson returned to the lineup for the first time since suffering abdominal and groin strains while representing Canada at the Olympics. Although the rugged forward missed 13 games, he said he returned sooner than anticipated.&ldquo;The initial report from the doctors in Nagano was there was some abdominal damage and that might have meant the end of the season for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was lucky. I&rsquo;m back, 100 per cent and I did it without surgery.&rdquo;Corson might have returned even sooner, but developed an infection in his mouth after a dentist removed an impacted wisdom tooth. That caused Corson to lose close to eight pounds.Left winger Benoit Brunet also returned to the lineup after missing two games with a strained rib. But the biggest surprise was the premature return of captain Vincent Damphousse for a March 21 game against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.Damphousse suffered cartilage damage in his left shoulder March 9. He underwent arthroscopic surgery the following day and was expected to be out at least until the end of March. Instead, he returned 10 days following surgery and missed only six games.The Canadiens were still without forwards Brian Savage (broken thumb) and Scott Thornton (broken rib), along with defenseman Igor Ulanov (tom knee ligaments). But the return of Damphousse, Corson and Brunet allowed Montreal to ice two strong offensive lines.Corson was reunited with Saku Koivu and Mark Recchi on the team&rsquo;s top line, while Damphousse was between Martin Rucinsky and the suddenly-hot Jonas Hoglund, who scored five goals over a six-game span.NOTEBOOK: To the surprise of some players, the Canadiens failed to complete a deal at the deadline. &ldquo;With our players coming back, we feel that we&rsquo;ve got the team that we want,&rdquo; said coach Alain Vigneault. &ldquo;The players know where they are, where they&rsquo;re going to be until the end of the season. All that&rsquo;s left is to play for this organization and make it work.&rdquo;&hellip;Assistant coach Clement Jo-doin didn&rsquo;t accompany the Canadiens to Florida. He was advised by team doctors to rest for at least a week because of problems related to high blood pressure. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a problem he has had for a while,&rdquo; Vigneault said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s stubborn and he doesn&rsquo;t take his medication like he should.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-02

Habs begin to get well at right time

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03690/7087886-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="163" height="164"></div>Randy McKay had several good reasons for resisting the temptation of becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer and signing a four-year contract with the New Jersey Devils in early January.For starters, the deal will pay the 31-year-old right winger $7,625 million over four years and he will remain with a winning team.The security the deal provides was also a key consideration. He wanted to guard against a potentially serious injury such as the one he suffered March 26 against the Colorado Avalanche, when he sprained his left knee while being hit by Avalanche defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre.&ldquo;(Lefebvre) put his stick between my legs and I tried to get by him along the boards. He handcuffed me and my back leg hit the ice,&rdquo; said McKay, who was enjoying his best NHL season with 23 goals and 47 points in 71 games. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s that bad. I&rsquo;ve (hurt) both knees before and I know what the pain feels like. This is nowhere near what I&rsquo;ve felt, although it&rsquo;s starting to stiffen up.&rdquo;The injury came two nights after McKay scored all three Devils&rsquo; goals in a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers for his second NHL hat trick.The Devils, who planned to have him examined, could only hope the injury wasn&rsquo;t serious.&ldquo;Yes, I&rsquo;m worried about him,&rdquo; said coach Jacques Lemaire. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll miss him.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s surgery to remove 35 per cent of the cartilage in his right knee was termed successful, but Gilmour suffered a setback when he tried skating for five minutes March 22 and felt pain in his medial collateral ligament. He was fitted for a new brace and remained off the ice for several more days&hellip;With a 3-2 victory over Philadelphia March 24, Martin Brodeur became the first goalie since Mike Richter in 1993-94 to win 40 games in a season&hellip; GM Lou Lamoriello decided not to trade backup goalie Mike Dunham at the deadline. However, if he does not want to risk losing Dunham in the expansion draft, there is still a trading window after the playoffs. &#9632;

f0018-03

McKay’s superb season snagged by knee sprain

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05287/7087917-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="575" height="905"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gino Odjick</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04436/7087924-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="161" height="162"></div>The New York Islanders made three key deals before the NHL trading deadline: they acquired left winger Jason Dawe from the Buffalo Sabres, enforcer Gino Odjick from the Vancouver Canucks and gave defenseman Rich Pilon a three-year contract extension.Coach-GM Mike Milbury sent left winger Paul Kruse and defenseman Jason Holland to Buffalo for the streaky Dawe, 24, who totalled 66 goals over the past three seasons with the Sabres. Milbury immediately put Dawe on his top line with Robert Reichel and Ziggy Palffy.Sabres&rsquo; coach Lindy Ruff was using Dawe on a line with Michael Peca and Dixon Ward. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re pretty much known for their defense,&rdquo; Dawe said. &ldquo;We were going against top lines every night. I didn&rsquo;t think I was getting very many opportunities offensively.&rdquo;Odjick, 27, was obtained March 23 for defenseman Jason Strudwick and fought Strudwick during the Islanders&rsquo; 4-3 loss in Vancouver the next night.&ldquo;We clearly added some toughness in Gino Odjick,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a heavyweight in the league.&rdquo;A deal which would have sent Pilon and defenseman Scott Lachance to the Philadelphia Flyers for Janne Niinimaa fell through at the deadline. Milbury signed Pilon, who could have become an unrestricted free agent July 1, to a contract which will pay him about $5.4 million over the next three seasons.&ldquo;My heart is here,&rdquo; Pilon said, &ldquo;and I want to be here when things turn around.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Coach-GM Mike Milbury dumped center Mark Janssens, who was unhappy over low ice time, to Phoenix March 24 for a ninth round draft pick&hellip;Left winger Paul Kruse, who had asked to be traded, took this shot at Milbury: &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t really respect him and I know a lot of the players didn&rsquo;t. It&rsquo;s probably hard to play for a guy you don&rsquo;t respect.&rdquo;&hellip;Vancouver held a 90-second pre-game video tribute to right winger Trevor Linden, a former local fan favorite, prior to the March 24 game against the Canucks&hellip;Through March 26, the Isles had used 14 defensemen this season. Rookies Zdeno Chara. Ray Schultz, Vladimir Chebaturkin and Jeff Libby played against the Pittsburgh March 26. &#9632;

f0018-05

New and old among deals

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011229/7087955-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="161" height="165"></div>Trade deadline day proved Neil Smith and the New York Rangers are entering a new era.Smith, the Rangers&rsquo; president-GM, officially began the rebuilding process with four separate trades that made the team younger, bigger and less expensive. That&rsquo;s a reversal from years past when the Rangers often traded youth for expensive veterans.&ldquo;We always hope the organization and the fans are in everything together,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Obviously, this year hasn&rsquo;t gone the way we had hoped. We made changes that didn&rsquo;t touch the core of our team. The fans can look forward to players like Todd Harvey and Harry York that, in coming years, will make us a stronger team.&ldquo;And the job isn&rsquo;t done. We&rsquo;re going to add as many good, young players as we can. It&rsquo;s an exciting time. We haven&rsquo;t been happy with what this season has brought us, but we hope today is something of a silver lining for the future of our club.&rdquo;The Rangers dealt Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland, plus a conditional draft pick (either a sixth rounder in 1998 or a fifth rounder in 1999) to the Dallas Stars for Harvey, 23, Bob Errey and a fourth round pick in 1998. They dealt Mike Eastwood to the St. Louis Blues for York, 23. Then they sent goalie Jason Muzzatti to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Rich Brennan, 25, and Ryan VandenBussche to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Ryan Risidore, 21.The key player in all the deals is Harvey, a rugged and versatile winger who is a solid 6-feet, 200 pounds. He was a first round pick, ninth overall in 1993.Harvey suffered a knee injury and had arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage March 22. Smith said he expects Harvey to make his Rangers&rsquo; debut April 14, with three games left in the season. Harvey will be a Group II free agent this summer, meaning the Rangers have the right to match any offer he may receive.&ldquo;Todd has proven to be a hardnosed &lsquo;Sutter-type&rsquo; player,&rsquo; Smith said. &ldquo;He brings a lot of youth and tenacity to the Rangers.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s career continued to hang in the balance due to a head injury suffered March 16. Because of headaches, which subsided, and fatigue, LaFontaine was unable to fly to Chicago to be examined by specialist Dr. Jim Kelly. He hoped to make the trip March 27, at which time he would have a better handle on whether he&rsquo;d played his last NHL game&hellip;Center Wayne Gretzky continued his tear, which included the 1,900th assist of his career. He had seven goals and 24 points in 15 games after the Olympic break. Gretzky received just the second game misconduct of his career after verbally berating the officials in a 4-1 loss to Carolina March 26. Gretzky saw his six-game point streak end in the same game. &#9632;

f0019-01

Team younger, bigger, cheaper

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrioch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02897/7087986-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="160" height="161"></div>Ottawa Senators&rsquo; GM Pi erre Gauthier couldn&rsquo;t find anything he liked at the NHL trading deadline, so he decided not to do anything at all.While Gauthier spent March 24 holed up at a Toronto airport hotel with his closest advisors trying to make a deal, nothing tempted him enough to take part in the annual trading frenzy.&ldquo;We just felt that a significant move was not the right thing to do,&rdquo; said Gauthier, who had director of player personnel Marshall Johnston, chief scout Andre Savard and pro scout Phil Myre at his side for the deadline.&ldquo;We believe that with the club we have we&rsquo;ve got a pretty good chance to be a Stanley Cup contender in the future. Maybe not in two years, but we feel we&rsquo;ve got a great (future). That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s a balancing act.&rdquo;Several teams called the Senators looking to make a deal. The Detroit Red Wings made an inquiry to see if a trade for defenseman Igor Kravchuk was a possibility. They were rebuffed and instead acquired Dmitri Mironov from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.The Colorado Avalanche took a long look at center Shaun Van Allen. While he&rsquo;s an important part of Ottawa&rsquo;s mixture, the Senators&rsquo; asking price may have been too high for the A vs.It&rsquo;s believed Gauthier made a pitch for Washington Capitals&rsquo; center Joe Juneau, but again the Capitals apparently wanted too much in return for an underachieving player.&ldquo;For a lot of reasons, (making a deadline trade is) a tough way to do things,&rdquo; Gauthier said. &ldquo;A lot of teams are still in the picture for the playoffs and they don&rsquo;t want to make changes. We feel good about the team we have here.&rdquo;The one area Ottawa studied changes was on its power play. Struggling this season and ranked in the bottom third of the league, the Senators tried to acquire point-man Jeff Brown from the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he landed in Washington.Senators&rsquo; coach Jacques Martin said he just wants the players to focus on the task at hand-making the playoffs.&ldquo;These are the guys we&rsquo;re going to go with,&rdquo; Martin said.NOTEBOOK: Radek Bonk, a healthy scratch for consecutive 10 games, returned to the lineup March 24 in a 3-2 win over the Rangers. Bonk, usually a center, played left wing. &ldquo;I just have to do the best I can when I get the chance to play,&rdquo; Bonk said&hellip;An NHL executive told the Ottawa Sun that if GM Pierre Gauthier is offered the GM post job by Anaheim, he&rsquo;ll &ldquo;probably take it.&rdquo; Talk around the league has Gauthier headed to the Ducks to replace GM Jack Ferreira, who is expected to be fired at the end of the season&hellip;Center Alexei Yashin&rsquo;s overtime winner against the Rangers marked the first time Ottawa had won an OT game on the road since Nov. 13, 1993, at the Montreal Forum. It was Yashin&rsquo;s first overtime goal of his career. &#9632;

f0019-02

Senators going with pat hand

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011008/7088017-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="161" height="163"></div>Bob Clarke took one look at the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; record against the New Jersey Devils (0-4-1) and realized more size and defensive skill was needed on the blueline to seriously compete in the Eastern Conference.So, the team&rsquo;s president-GM pulled the trigger on March 24-NHL trade deadline day-acquiring 6-foot-2, 225-pound defenseman Dan McGillis, plus a second round pick in this year&rsquo;s draft, from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for defenseman Janne Niinimaa.Clarke made another deal to improve his team&rsquo;s depth by getting 36-year-old defenseman Dave Babych from the Vancouver Canucks, along with the sixth round draft pick Philly sent to the Canucks in the Feb. 4 Mike Sillinger deal, in exchange for the Flyers&rsquo; third round pick this year.McGillis had 10 goals and 25 points in 67 games with Edmonton this year.&ldquo;We gave up a talented player in Niinimaa. but McGillis is only 25, he&rsquo;s a lot bigger and more physical, and a lot better defensively,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;We felt that in the division we&rsquo;re in-we&rsquo;re going to compete against the big teams like the Devils-we felt we were were going to have to be bigger on our blueline.&rdquo;McGillis knows what Clarke is looking for. &ldquo;Physical play is a big part of my game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe (Edmonton GM Glen) Sather believes (Niinimaa) will help the Oilers more than I will with my style of play.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Sean Burke stopped a penalty shot attempt by Rangers&rsquo; left winger Kevin Stevens in the Flyers&rsquo; 5-4 win March 22. Burke is now 5-for-5 lifetime on penalty shots&hellip;Center Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour scored the 202nd goal of his Flyer career in a 4-2 loss at Boston March 26, moving him into a tie with Gary Domhoefer for ninth on the Flyers&rsquo; all-time list&hellip;The Flyers reportedly have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against Philadelphia radio station WIP, which alleged last year that center Eric Lindros was &ldquo;too hung over&rdquo; to play in a Feb. 15 game against Pittsburgh. The team said Lindros had a back injury. The station reportedly will make an undisclosed donation to charity and a public apology to the Lindros family. &#9632;

f0022-01

Tough McGillis better fit for dates with the Devils

<div class="byline">By Mike Dudurich</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03492/7088048-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="583" height="905"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Francis</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02700/7088055-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="160" height="160"></div>Ron Francis may have been deemed not good enough to play on the Canadian Olympic team or in the NHL All-Star Game, but he continued his steady march to the Hockey Hall of Fame as the 199798 season wound down.Francis&rsquo; assist on Fredrik Olausson&rsquo;s power play goal March 21 in a home game against the Philadelphia Flyers gave him 1,000 for his career, making him only the seventh player in NHL history to do so. He joins luminaries Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Marcel Dionne, Raymond Bourque, Paul Coffey and Mark Messier.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s quite a club to be able to say that you belong to,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s certainly nice to get that one in the books. It was on my mind for a while and it was certainly on the minds of my teammates, also. They seemed to be squeezing their sticks a little hard, trying to help me out.&rdquo;Not unexpectedly, Francis received a prolonged standing ovation from the Civic Arena standing room only crowd of 17,145 that included his father, wife, son Michael, sister-in-law and motherin-law.&ldquo;It was right up there,&rdquo; Francis said of the salute. &ldquo;That was a special moment for me. I&rsquo;ve been here a long time and have had a lot of great moments in front of these fans, and certainly that was a highlight.&rdquo;Of his 1,000 assists, 443 have come with the Penguins. The top five beneficiaries are: Jaromir Jagr, 108 goals; Mario Lemieux, 60; Kevin Stevens, 44; Joe Mullen, 37; Petr Nedved, 21.NOTEBOOK: Former Penguins&rsquo; director of media relations Harry Sanders was named director of Iceoplex at Southpointe, the team&rsquo;s training facility&hellip;The victory over Philadelphia March 21 was the 1,000th in the history of the club&hellip;Defenseman Ian Moran got his first goal of the season in the 4-2 win over the Flyers, getting him a free dinner, the spoils of a bet with defenseman Chris Tamer as to who would score first. &lsquo;That&rsquo;s trivia in 20 years,&rdquo; said defenseman Kevin Hatcher&hellip;The Penguins did not sign or trade restricted free agent Petr Nedved, who will now sit out the regular season and playoffs. Even co-owner Roger Marino, who got involved in the negotiations, became frustrated with agent Tony Kondel&rsquo;s unyielding position on Nedved. &#9632;

f0022-03

Francis joins grand group

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04331/7088086-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="160" height="159"></div>The Phoenix Coyotes thought a 10-game stretch without a win was bad. But a certain five-game stretch afterward, in which they managed to win twice, actually was worse.That&rsquo;s because in those five games, the hard-luck Coyotes wound up losing five centers to injuries, four of them for an extended period of time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never, ever seen anything like this before in my career,&rdquo; said Jeremy Roenick, who became the fifth center to get hurt when he re-aggravated a groin injury initially suffered in the Olympics. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s crazy. I can&rsquo;t explain it.&rdquo;The madness began March 14 during a 2-0 shutout victory over the St. Louis Blues when Craig Janney, the club&rsquo;s top playmaker and second-leading scorer, suffered partially tom knee ligaments. Two nights later, they lost their top faceoff man, Bob Corkum, to a concussion.In the next two games, rookies Juha Ylonen and Daniel Briere exited with a fractured tibia and a separated shoulder, respectively. Briere injured his shoulder after scoring his first NHL goal in his second career game after being recalled from the Springfield Falcons, where he was the American League&rsquo;s leading scorer.Then it was Roenick&rsquo;s turn. He pulled up lame during the third period of a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks March 22. He was back in the lineup two days later against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but only after it was discovered he also has been playing with a hernia problem since October.That injury, which he had planned to correct through surgery this summer, flared up a week earlier.&ldquo;I thought my appendix blew; there was a lot of pain involved,&rdquo; Roenick said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got this hole in the muscle (along the stomach lining) and part of my intestines fell through it. I came out, the doctors had me roll over, and it squeezed right back up and the pain was gone.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Adding some much-needed depth because of the injury situation, the Coyotes acquired center Mark Janssens from the Islanders in exchange for a ninth round draft pick. Janssens, 28. registered an assist and won seven faceoffs in his Phoenix debut after arriving only moments before the game&hellip;The Coyotes rejected an offer at the NHL trading deadline from Philadelphia, which reportedly was offering either defense-man Paul Coffey or center Joel Otto for right winger Mike Gartner&hellip;Entering Phoenix&rsquo;s March 28 game against New Jersey, defenseman Teppo Numminen was one point shy of tying Fredrik Ol-ausson as the club&rsquo;s highest-scoring defenseman (335 career points). &#9632;

f0022-04

Coyotes’ centers fall one by one

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01897/7088117-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="161" height="165"></div>Facing the prospect of losing four key players to free agency in the off-season, St. Louis Blues&rsquo; GM Larry Pleau could have traded one or all of them to save face at the trade deadline.Instead, Pleau held onto all of the players, tweaking the roster instead of turning it over, in the belief pending free agents Brett Hull, Al Maclnnis, Geoff Courtnall and Steve Duchesne are more valuable to the Blues for a run at the Stanley Cup now than their replacements would be in the future.Pleau acquired defenseman Todd Gill, 32, and center Mike Eastwood, 30, to complement the roster, adding depth and experience. In return, Pleau sent center Joe Murphy, 30. to the San Jose Sharks for Gill and center Harry York, 23, to the New York Rangers for Eastwood.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a better team now,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;On defense, Todd Gill really makes us stronger as a group. Eastwood gives us more experience on our fourth line and gives us somebody who can play the type of game defensively that (Blues&rsquo; coach) Joel (Quenneville) wants. He fits into the type of team we have here now.&rdquo;Considering what might have happened at the deadline, Blues players applauded the moves.&ldquo;You have to admire the organization for keeping the team together,&rdquo; Maclnnis said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s many teams that would do that. Now it&rsquo;s up to us to really take a run at the playoffs.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Grant Fuhr returned to the lineup only three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. He replaced Jamie McLennan in the third period of the Blues&rsquo; 2-0 loss to Edmonton March 21. Fuhr took the loss, allowing two goals on 14 shots in the third. McLennan, 6-2-0 during Fuhr&rsquo;s absence, had left the game with a pulled groin. He was out on a day-to-day basis&hellip;Fuhr made his first start the next night, losing 5-3 at Calgary&hellip;The back-to-back losses to Edmonton and Calgary marked only the second time since the 1990-91 season the Blues were swept in Alberta, a regular occurrence when the Oilers and Flames were the class of the league. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not what it used to be,&rdquo; said former Flames&rsquo; defenseman Al MacInnis. &#9632;

f0023-01

Pleau resists temptation to trade key performers

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03406/7088148-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="576" height="902"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Murphy</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02583/7088155-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="158" height="160"></div>The San Jose Sharks had every hope that deadline trades for right winger Joe Murphy and defenseman Bryan Marchment would boost the team&rsquo;s fading Stanley Cup playoff hopes. GM Dean Lombardi, however, had more in mind.&ldquo;I like the fact this not only helps us now, but these guys could fit in the blueprint for the future,&rdquo; Lombardi said.San Jose obtained Murphy, 30, in a deal that sent defenseman Todd Gill to the St. Louis Blues. The Blues agreed to pick up half of the remaining portion of the three-year, $10-million contract Murphy signed before last season.Marchment, 28, arrived from the Tampa Bay Lightning, which received right winger Andrei Nazarov and the option to switch first round selections with the Sharks in this year&rsquo;s draft. The San Jose pick in question came from the Florida Panthers in a Nov. 14 trade for left winger Viktor Kozlov.Marchment and Murphy previously played for Sharks&rsquo; coach Darryl Sutter with the Chicago Blackhawks. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve wanted Marchment since I came here,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;And Murph is a guy I trust. He marches to his own beat, but he shows up.&rdquo;Marchment, who began this season with the Edmonton Oilers, figures to give the Sharks a rarely seen physical presence on the blueline. The NHL has suspended Marchment twice this season for a total of 11 games. &ldquo;People don&rsquo;t like playing against (Marchment), but he might have been the most sought-after guy available at the deadline,&rdquo; Lombardi said.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Joe Murphy and defenseman Bryan Marchment were happy with the trades. &ldquo;I think this is a very competitive team,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;I look forward to being a part of it.&rdquo; Said Marchment: &ldquo;Basically, I just want to win. I&rsquo;m coming to San Jose with an open mind.&rdquo;&hellip;The Sharks also acquired recently retired minor league defenseman David Shaw from Tampa Bay in the March 24 trade for Marchment&hellip;A third deadline day trade by San Jose landed goalie Jason Muzzatti from the Rangers for defenseman Richard Brennan&hellip;Defenseman Al Iafrate, sidelined since undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery Dec. 28, returned March 24 in a 4-3 loss to Los Angeles. It marked the ninth appearance for Iafrate this season. &#9632;

f0023-03

Newcomers no stop gaps

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04287/7088186-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="160" height="160"></div>On the NHL&rsquo;s deadline day for trades, Tampa Bay Lightning GM Phil Esposito sent Jason Wiemer to the Calgary Flames. He sent Bryan Marchment to the San Jose Sharks. And he sent Daymond Langkow&hellip;well, nowhere, actually.The Lightning suspended Langkow without pay March 13 for failing to accept a demotion to the Adirondack Red Wings of the American League. Esposito listened to trade offers for the team&rsquo;s 1995 first round choice, but in the end decided it was not in the Lightning&rsquo;s best interest to trade Langkow.The two sides eventually worked out their differences and Langkow was reinstated in late March.While Esposito hung onto Langkow, he did make two deadline day trades. One sent Wiemer to Calgary for rugged right winger Sandy McCarthy and the Flames&rsquo; third and fifth round draft choices in 1998.The other trade saw defensemen Marchment and David Shaw (who had recently retired from the International League) go to San Jose for right winger Andrei Nazarov, future considerations and a conditional swap of draft picks that should ensure the last-place Lightning picks no lower than second overall in the upcoming June draft. San Jose owns the Florida Panthers&rsquo; first round pick. Tampa Bay will take Florida&rsquo;s pick or keep its own, depending on which winds up higher after the May 10 NHL draft lottery. That means the Lightning will likely land one of two top-ranked centers, Vincent Lecavalier or David Legwand.&ldquo;That was very important to us,&rdquo; Esposito said.The two trades also make Tampa much bigger. Nazarov is 6-foot-5, 230 pounds and McCarthy is 6-foot-3, 225 pounds. They have something else in common, too: both wanted out of where they were.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all I wanted,&rsquo; said the 23-year-old Nazarov, who was a healthy scratch in all but 40 games this season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a new life.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Team officials responded angrily to a story in the March 30 issue of Sports Illustrated that says, &ldquo;You could make the case that the Lightning&hellip;is the worst franchise in sports.&rdquo; The article, entitled &ldquo;Team Turmoil,&rdquo; chronicled the off-ice and on-ice woes of the for-sale club, which is last in the NHL. The Lightning responded with a three-page news release saying the article was &ldquo;littered with factual errors, incomplete information and unfounded innuendoes.&rdquo; The Lightning also claimed the article was planted by &ldquo;persistent neme-sis&rdquo; Marc Ganis, former director of Tampa Coliseum Inc. Ganis is suing the Lightning, saying the team sabotaged his efforts to build an arena in Tampa. &#9632;

f0023-04

Deals done, but Langkow staying put

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01982/7088217-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="164" height="165"></div>When he arrived in Toronto, defenseman Sylvain Cote quickly figured out he had to fill not one, but two pairs of skates.After all, the Toronto Maple Leafs had moved both Jamie Macoun and Jeff Brown in separate deals at the deadline, and in return acquired two draft picks and Cote.Still, the Leafs figured they did well in dealing Brown to the Washington Capitals for Cote since Brown is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent July 1, while Cote has two years left on a contract that will pay him $1.5 million per season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s 32, has two years left on his contract and he&rsquo;s a guy I think can play for five more years,&rdquo; said Leaf associate GM Mike Smith.Macoun was moved to the Detroit Red Wings for a fourth round pick, while the Leafs also dealt winger Mike Kennedy to the Dallas Stars.Leaf head coach Mike Murphy wasn&rsquo;t necessarily happy about losing two experienced defenders and getting back just one, but was optimistic about Cote&rsquo;s potential impact.&ldquo;He has scored 40 and 50 points in this league,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;He will take some of the pressure off of Mathieu Schneider.&rdquo;Cote admitted he was initially dismayed by the deal after seven years in a Capitals&rsquo; uniform, but then realized it might be good for his career, just like the deal in 1991 that sent him to Washington from the Hartford Whalers.NOTEBOOK: The fourth round pick the Leafs acquired from Detroit for defenseman Jamie Macoun is actually Tampa&rsquo;s pick, likely the first pick of that round&hellip;Right winger Mike Kennedy, dealt to Dallas at the trade deadline, said goodbye to Toronto by calling associate GM Mike Smith a &ldquo;cuckoo,&rdquo; and suggesting the only Leafs interested in hitting on a regular basis are right winger Tie Domi and left winger Kris King&hellip;Left winger Wendel Clark was scheduled to return to the Leaf lineup March 28 against the Islanders after missing 12 weeks with a groin injury. Clark said he will likely need surgery after the season&hellip;Edmonton called about Clark before the trade deadline, possibly offering left winger Andrei Kovalenko. &#9632;

f0024-01

Two blueliners bid adieu, just Cote back in return

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03436/7088248-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="587" height="908"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeff Brown</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02666/7088255-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="162" height="161"></div>As the Washington Capitals approached the playoffs, the club&rsquo;s Achilles&rsquo; heel started to make itself more visible as goals became harder to find.To try to remedy the situation, GM George McPhee sent steady defenseman Sylvain Cote to the Toronto Maple Leafs for more offense-minded Jeff Brown, and then reached into the German pro ranks to bring back veteran right winger Brian Bellows, a free agent.Coach Ron Wilson immediately made clear he was going to use them both on the inept power play and would try to take advantage of their extensive playoff experience, hoping some of their desire to win would rub off on others.&ldquo;Now you&rsquo;ve got some guys-and put Esa Tikkanen in this bunch-who live to win the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; Wilson said.&ldquo;And I can&rsquo;t say that has been true of a lot of the guys I&rsquo;ve seen here at crunch time. This is the message we&rsquo;re trying to put across.&rdquo;At the time of the trade, the Capitals had not scored more than two goals in any of their past eight games. They lost four of them and were outscored 15-13. Anytime goaltending allows more than one goal, victory is in doubt.But Wilson seemed even more angry with some players&rsquo; attitudes, which he indicated was lackadaisical at best. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s unacceptable that you&rsquo;re whole life doesn&rsquo;t revolve around winning the Stanley Cup at this point in the season,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Peter Bondra scored a shorthanded goal against New Jersey March 20, his fourth of the season and the 18th of his career. That broke the team record of 17, held jointly by Bengt Gustafsson and Mike Ridley&hellip;Left winger Andrew Brunette was returned to Portland March 24, ending an NHL stay of nearly three months during which he went 11-12-23 in 28 games. He was 9-8-17 in 12 games in January, runner-up for league player of the month, but couldn&rsquo;t maintain that pace&hellip;After breaking a wrist and twice breaking the same foot, center Mike Eagles resumed his season for a third time March 25 in Edmonton. He is an excellent example of perseverance and, for obvious reasons, the Capitals&rsquo; nominee for the Masterton Trophy. &#9632;

f0024-03

Capital hunt for scoring

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04280/7088286-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="164" height="163"></div>Although they made no blockbuster moves at the trade deadline, the Vancouver Canucks did deal away two more longtime veterans in the continued purging of ex-GM Pat Quinn favorites.Defenseman Dave Babych and tough left winger Gino Odjick completed the mass exodus of players brought in by Quinn in the early 1990s. Only Jyrki Lumme, Pavel Bure, Bret Hedican and the injured Dana Murzyn remain from the team that went to the 1994 Stanley Cup final.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a really weird feeling,&rdquo; said Hedican. &ldquo;But we haven&rsquo;t been successful the last few years and this is the result. We&rsquo;re younger, bigger and I think we can compete with anybody. I think we&rsquo;re on the upswing.&rdquo;Odjick, an eight-year Canuck and the team&rsquo;s all-time penalty king, was dealt to the New York Islanders for young defenseman Jason Strudwick. Babych and a 1998 sixth rounder went to the Philadelphia Flyers for a 1998 third rounder. Their departure followed those of former core players Kirk McLean, Trevor Linden and Martin Gelinas.Lumme was also expected to move, given his impending unrestricted free agent status July 1, but obviously the Canucks weren&rsquo;t offered enough for his services.&ldquo;I guess you wasted a lot of ink on me,&rdquo; smiled Lumme, who loves Vancouver and could re-sign there.Odjick&rsquo;s departure was a foregone conclusion after coach Mike Keenan sat him out on a regular basis, saying he had lost his job to Donald Brashear. Odjick was upset at leaving and so was Bure, his good buddy for the past seven seasons. The Canucks and Islanders faced each other the day after the Odjick trade. Bure scored and Odjick fought Strudwick in a 4-3 Vancouver win.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel well, it felt like I was missing something,&rdquo; Bure said afterwards. &ldquo;It was hard to believe what I was seeing.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Because he signed a I contract with Toronto that was matched by Vancouver, rookie defenseman Mattias Ohlund will have to forgo any bonuses he might have otherwise received if he wins the Calder Trophy. According to league rules, teams are not obliged to match performance bonuses&hellip;The Canucks showed a video tribute to their former captain. Trevor Linden, when he returned to GM Place with the Islanders March 24. &ldquo;He deserved it,&rdquo; said coach-GM Mike Keenan, who traded Linden out of Vancouver&hellip;Center Mark Messier called the ice at GM Place &ldquo;the worst in the league.&rdquo; Messier was particularly upset with one play where he put himself offside when the puck stopped sliding. &#9632;

f0024-04

Old guard moves out in rebuilding

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01879/7088324-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sergei Varlamov wasn&rsquo;t chosen in the 1996 draft, but the Calgary Flames took notice later. (Photo by Dan Hamilton/VPS)</figcaption></div>MVP stands for Most Valuable Player. But in the case of the Swift Current Broncos, it could just as easily be an acronym for More Varlamov Points.Not only did the Broncos&rsquo; 19-year-old right winger lead the league in goals with 66 and points with 119, he finished with 34 more goals and 42 more points than any other Swift Current player. He scored 24 per cent of the Broncos&rsquo; 276 goals this season and earned a point on 43 per cent of them.No player in the 51-team Canadian Hockey League posted goal and point totals so disparate from those of his closest teammate. No player scored a higher percentage of his team&rsquo;s goals and only four were in on a higher percentage of his team&rsquo;s goals. (Ramzi Abid of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens was the highest, earning points on 49.6 per cent of his team&rsquo;s 272 goals.)It&rsquo;s on that basis that The Hockey News has chosen Varlamov as its Canadian Hockey League player of the year. Varlamov, who would be the first European player of the year in CHL history, was chosen by a panel of THN correspondents from the Western, Ontario and Quebec Leagues.The CHL will name its player of the year at its awards dinner in Toronto June 24. The award is chosen by a panel of NHL scouts.&ldquo;I would say he&rsquo;s the guy,&rdquo; said Broncos&rsquo; coach-GM Todd McLellan. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty biased, but Sergei has had an outstanding year. Our team was not supposed to be where it&rsquo;s at and Sergei has been a large part of our success. I&rsquo;m not sure any player has meant as much to their team as Sergei has to ours.&rdquo;Varlamov has prospered in his third junior season despite being the Broncos&rsquo; only explosive scorer. Of Varlamov&rsquo;s 66 goals, 13 were game-winners, 42 were at even-strength and eight were shorthanded.&ldquo;I was hoping to get 60 goals and be in the top five in goals,&rdquo; said Varlamov, a native of Kiev, Ukraine. &ldquo;I was surprised to get the scoring lead.&rdquo;Varlamov&rsquo;s brilliance continued into the playoffs. He had six goals and nine points in five games in the Broncos&rsquo; series win over the Red Deer Rebels.&ldquo;Everyone figured we&rsquo;d do bad this season,&rdquo; Varlamov said. &ldquo;We tried to show them we could do better than that. It gives you a lot of energy when people say you shouldn&rsquo;t be there.&rdquo;The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder is an outstanding skater, stickhandler and shooter. He can also be abra-sive, as evidenced by his 132 penalty minutes. Varlamov improved upon a strong sophomore season, in which he compiled 46 goals and 95 points.&ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t happen overnight,&rdquo; McLellan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not as if he was a four-goal scorer.&rdquo;As a rookie in 1995-96, Varlamov had 23 goals and 44 points in 55 games. Despite those respectable &#2404; totals, Varlamov-who missed the tail end of his freshman season due to a broken kneecap-was not chosen in the NHL&rsquo;s 1996 entry draft.Varlamov spent the summer of 1996 working out in Calgary, where the NHL&rsquo;s Flames took notice.The Flames invited Varlamov to camp on a tryout basis. Calgary management was so impressed that Varlamov was signed to an NHL contract.&ldquo;He was phenomenal in training camp,&rdquo; Flames&rsquo; development co-ordinator Jamie Hislop recalled. &ldquo;He caught everyone&rsquo;s eye in training camp-not just with his skills, but with the feistiness he always plays with.&rdquo;The Flames are delighted with their prospect&rsquo;s progress. He was recently ranked as the Flames&rsquo; sixth-best NHL prospect in THNs&rsquo; annual Future Watch.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like getting an extra draft pick,&rdquo; Hislop said. &ldquo;He has outstanding hand and stick skills and is a great skater. He also has the ability to combine all of that. A lot of guys can&rsquo;t do that-make plays at top speed.&rdquo;<h2>HARDWARE HOPEFULS</h2>THN&rsquo;s panel of major junior correspondents selected the top three players in six categories, including top player, goalie, defenseman, rookie, coach and overage player. The CHL awards are June 24 in Toronto.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02563/7088317-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="550" height="2324"></div> &#9632;

f0025-01

Valuable Varlamov

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>The Sudbury Wolves tamed the bucking broncos in the first round of the Ontario League playoffs.The Wolves, one of two wild-card entries, defeated the Barrie Colts four games to two. The Colts were THN&rsquo;s pre-season favorite to win the OHL championship.&ldquo;One playoff round has shut this city down today,&rdquo; said GM Todd Lalonde the day after the Wolves eliminated the Colts. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d swear these people are planning the championship parade route right now. They&rsquo;re forgetting we play (regular season champion) Guelph in the next round.&rdquo;Sudbury residents had reason to celebrate. Their Wolves missed the playoffs the previous two seasons after falling one game short of making the league final in 1995.The playoffs even looked doubtful for a time this season after the Wolves experienced a nine-game losing streak in January.The series hero was overage goalie Kory Cooper, obtained in January from the Belleville Bulls. After getting Cooper, the Wolves went 103-2.He had two assists in the final game against the Colts, including one on Jason Sand&rsquo;s winning goal on a breakaway in the 41 sixth game. The Colts (38-23-5) entered the playoffs 24 points better than the Wolves (25-34-7).&ldquo;Cooper was the best player,&rdquo; Lalonde said. &ldquo;He gave us a chance to win every night.&rdquo;Cooper stopped Daniel Tkaczuk of the Colts on six breakaways in the final two games.NEWS TO HIM: Barrie coach-GM Bert Templeton dismissed reports he&rsquo;s returning to the North Bay Centennials after three years with the Colts.There has been growing speculation Centennials&rsquo; co-owner John Hopper will sell his share of the team. Templeton left the Cents when he could no longer work with Hopper.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who started that North Bay rumor,&rdquo; Templeton said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never investigated it and I&rsquo;ve never talked to anyone in that regard. I am in the last year of my three-year deal here. We&rsquo;ve talked (extension), but we haven&rsquo;t put it down on paper.&rdquo;FIGHTING FATHER: Father Thomas Mohan, principal of Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s College School, wants the Majors to tum the other cheek and not fight next season. The Majors, back in the OHL after a 36-year absence, were the 11th-most penalized team in the 18-team league, averaging 25.3 penalty minutes a game.&ldquo;I would rather teach our kids to skate away,&rdquo; Mohan told the Toronto Star. &ldquo;It was very sad for me to watch the fights in our games. We&rsquo;ve got to look after St. Mike&rsquo;s and the people we teach. (Fighting) is a bad habit and it has nothing to do with the game.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01969/7088362-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="587" height="682"><figcaption class="caption-body">Regina&rsquo;s Josh Holden is sidelined after a freak accident.</figcaption></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03515/7088355-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="916" height="332"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (MARCH 20-26): Patrick DesRochers, the top-rated goalie tor the 1998 NHL entry draft, was on the Sarnia bench for Game 5 against Plymouth&hellip;Peter Campbell scored four goals for Sudbury in the final four games against Barrie&hellip;Kyle Flaxey&rsquo;s goal at 1:11 of overtime for Owen Sound eliminated Kitchener&hellip;London and Erie went to overtime three times in their series, including one double overtime. &#9632;

f0026-01

LEAGUES

Cooper stars for Sudbury in major upset

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Regina Pats&rsquo; center Josh Holden could miss the rest of the Western League playoffs due to a freak accident.Holden severely lacerated his left hand March 20 when he was cut by an opponent&rsquo;s skate. The Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; 1996 first-rounder underwent surgery within hours of the injury. Damage to a tendon was repaired during the procedure, which lasted 2-1/2 hours.Holden could be out until early May. Pats&rsquo; GM Brent Parker said there is a slim possibility Holden could return late in the playoffs. Doctors have informed Holden that a complete recovery is anticipated.&ldquo;This is pretty tough,&rdquo; Holden said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been through anything like this.&rdquo;Holden was hurt late in the second game of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal against the Moose Jaw Warriors. After losing his left glove in the Pats&rsquo; zone, Holden pursued Chad Hinz of the Warriors. One of the Pats hit Hinz who, while airborne, clipped the back of Holden&rsquo;s left hand.&ldquo;I looked down and saw a big hole,&rdquo; Holden said. &ldquo;I thought I was done for good. It was pretty scary. When I sit at home, I see it happen.&rdquo;Holden had 42 goals and 99 points in 56 games. He has also had WHL seasons of 57 and 49 goals.Vancouver drafted the Calgary native 12th overall in 1996. The Canucks signed Holden to a three-year, $2.6-million (U.S.) contract in October. After completing negotiations with Holden, the Canucks returned him to Regina for a fourth WHL season.Holden was sparkling in the playoffs, recording two goals and four points in two games against Moose Jaw.&ldquo;He was playing the best hockey of his career,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;He had taken it upon himself to do that. It was like he was on a mission.&rdquo;LANZ LEAVING: Former NHL defenseman Rick Lanz will not return as the Tri-City Americans&rsquo; coach next season. His contract with the Americans expires May 31.Lanz began the 1997-98 season as an assistant to Americans&rsquo; coach Bob Loucks. Lanz was promoted when Loucks was fired Oct. 15.Tri-City had an 0-5-1 record under Loucks and a 17-44-5 mark with Lanz calling the shots. The Americans (17-49-6) were last in the West Division, missing the playoffs for the second successive season.Lanz joined the Americans after leading the South Surrey Eagles to the B.C. Junior League title in 1996-97.NOTEBOOK: Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; defenseman Law-rence Nycholat is out for the rest of the playoffs with a broken left fibula. Nycholat, 19, was hurt March 19 when the Broncos blanked the Red Deer Rebels 3-0 in the opening game of a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02650/7088400-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="592" height="686"><figcaption class="caption-body">Moncton is wild about the Wildcats, says executive Bill Riley.</figcaption></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04362/7088393-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="909" height="240"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (MARCH 20-26): Lethbridge, the defending league champions. was swept out of the first round by Brandon&hellip;One other Eastern Conference quarterfinal ended in a sweep, as Regina ousted Moose Jaw in four games. Regina won the final three games by one goal, the last two games in double overtime. Defensemen Dmitriy Yakushin and Clint Cabana, who were acquired from Edmonton in the same December trade, scored overtime winners for Regina&hellip;Swift Current&rsquo;s Sergei Varlamov led all playoff scorers with nine points in five games. &#9632;

f0026-02

Regina loses kingpin Holden to freak injury

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>Paulin Bordeleau says he has no regrets.After seven seasons as coach of the American League&rsquo;s Fredericton Canadiens, Bordeleau felt he was ready to make the jump to the NHL. But when the Montreal Canadiens hired a new coaching staff during the off-season, Bordeleau wasn&rsquo;t included.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t going back to Fredericton,&rdquo; said Bordeleau, who received permission from the Canadiens to seek employment with another NHL team. No opportunities materialized.When Laval Titan owner Leo-Guy Morrissette fired Joe Canale Feb. 19, despite a 34-21-4 record, and offered Bordeleau the job, he accepted.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a setback,&rdquo; insisted Bordeleau, who is making his second stop in Laval after leading the Titan to the Memorial Cup tournament in 1989. &ldquo;It gives me a chance to get back into coaching and it&rsquo;s fun.&rdquo;The Titan finished the season a disappointing 3-7-1 under Bordeleau, but established a 3-1 series lead against the favored Victoriaville Tigres in the first round of the playoffs.Bordeleau has a contract with Laval through next season, but has an escape clause if he receives an offer from an NHL team.WILDCATS ROAR: Playoff fever has finally hit Moncton.After going 30-100-10 in its first two seasons in the Quebec League, Moncton finally made it to the post-season this year with a 29-32-9 record.And the Wildcats&rsquo; first taste of the playoffs was sweet as they won the first two games of their series against the Chicoutimi Sagueneens on the road. They then lost 3-2 in Game 3 March 23 in front of 4,769 fans at the Moncton Coliseum. The series stood at 3-1 in Moncton&rsquo;s favor.&ldquo;The town is ecstatic,&rdquo; said Bill Riley, Wildcats&rsquo; director of hockey operations. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s signs around town saying &lsquo;Go Wildcats Go.&rsquo;&rdquo;HOT PRdSPECT: Thatcher Bell, a 15-year-old center with the Upper Canada College high school team in Toronto, is the top-rated player for this year&rsquo;s midget draft, according to rankings released by the league&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau March 20.Thatcher, a 6-foot, 180-pounder from Prince Edward Island, had 35 goals and 50 assists in 44 games this season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a type of a center that works well on both sides of the ice,&rdquo; said Marcel Patenaude, the QMJHL&rsquo;s chief scout.HULL STREAK ENDS: The Hull Olympiques made the playoffs for the 14th straight year, but saw one impressive streak come to an end.The Olympiques finished the year at 32-37-1, putting an end to their league-record streak of 10 straight winning seasons. The Laval Titan shares the record, with 10 straight winning seasons from 1985-86 to 1994-95.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05268/7088431-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="912" height="209"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (MARCH 20-26): Quebec beat Cape Breton 5-2 to sweep its series and extend its unbeaten streak to 18 games. The Remparts outscored Cape Breton 20-6. They haven&rsquo;t lost since Feb. 8&hellip;Laval hammered Victoriaville 9-0 in Game 4 while limiting the Tigres to 17 shots to take a 3-1 series lead. Maxime Gingras had the shutout Dominic Perna had seven goals in four games for Laval&hellip;Rimouski&rsquo;s Vincent Lecavalier had a hat trick, but it wasn&rsquo;t enough as Halifax avoided a series sweep with an 8-7 win. Defenseman Derrick Walser had two goals and 15 points in four games. &#9632;

f0026-05

Bordeleau not unhappy to be back in Laval

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>In the span of one year, Tyler Moss has gone from discarded reject to quality prospect, thanks to a change of scenery and belief in himself.Originally property of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Moss struggled in spot duty as a rookie last season with the Adirondack Red Wings. He was stuck on the bench behind Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; prospect Norm Maracle and when he did play, he didn&rsquo;t stop many pucks, going 1-52 with a 4.97 goals-against average in 11 American League games.He eventually was loaned to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the International League before Tampa Bay traded him to the Calgary Flames in March for defenseman Jamie Huscroft.Then, presto, he was a new goal ie. He went 6-1-1 with a 1.91 GAA down the stretch with the Saint John Flames.This season, his stellar play has continued. Moss forms one half of the AHL&rsquo;s best goaltending tandem., Rookie Jean-Sebastien Giguere was 14-9-2 with a 2.44 GAA and.925 save percentage while Moss was 19-8-4 with a 2.50 GAA and.922 save percentage.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s basically all confidence,&rdquo; Moss said.Confidence, and a great team system.&ldquo;The coach (Bill Stewart) likes defensive hockey so it definitely helps myself and J-S,&rdquo; said Moss, who carried an 11-game unbeaten streak (9-0-2) into late March. &ldquo;Last year was a bit of misery. The first half of the year I didn&rsquo;t have any fun going to the rink. This year has been just the opposite. Calgary is always talking to their prospects.&rdquo;Moss was the AHL&rsquo;s goalie of the month for October. He was rewarded with a month-long recall to Calgary and went 2-3-1 with a 3.27 GAA in his first exposure to the NHL.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t let in any soft goals and that&rsquo;s what I wanted to achieve, to show I can play,&rdquo; Moss said.While Moss, 21, was enjoying a fine season, he was still Calgary&rsquo;s second-best AHL goalie. Giguere, the 13th overall pick in 1995 by the Hartford Whalers, is being touted as the Flames&rsquo; goalie of the future. He topped Calgary&rsquo;s list of prospects in The Hockey News&rsquo; 1998 Future Watch and was ranked fifth among the top 50 NHL prospects. Moss, on the other hand, did not make the list of Calgary&rsquo;s top 10 prospects.&ldquo;(Tyler) has to put that out of his mind and do the best he can do,&rdquo; Stewart said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s 27 opportunities in the NHL so to limit himself to one would be foolish.&ldquo;With Tyler and Jean-Sebastien, we feel very good about our goaltending. We try to play a high percentage game by giving the other team low percentage shots.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01922/7088462-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="427" height="432"></div>BURRIDGE DEMOTED: When Randy Burridge requested more playing time from the Buffalo Sabres, a demotion to the Rochester&mdash;Americans wasn&rsquo;t what he had in mind.But the 13th-year left winger was assigned to Rochester after he cleared waivers in mid-March. He had no points in his first three AHL games.Before the reassignment. Burridge, 32, had spent just half of one season in the AHL, playing 47 games for the Moncton Golden Flames in 1986-87. He had four goals and 10 points in 30 games this season for the Sabres before being phased out of the lineup.&ldquo;I started on the fourth line and it went downhill from there,&rdquo; said Burridge, who has 199 goals and 450 points in 706 NHL games. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little angry at (Buffalo), but I&rsquo;m not going to bring it in on these guys here. I just want to play.&rdquo;AHL TIDBITS: Saint John goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere spent one night in an Albany hospital being treated for dehydration after a 3-1 loss to the Albany River Rats March 20&hellip;Fredericton Canadiens&rsquo; stopper Jose Theodore was two games shy of the franchise record for appearances by a goalie in one season (48 by Patrick Labrecque in 1995-96)&hellip;Left winger Jay Henderson scored a goal in his first pro game after signing a tryout contract with the Providence Bruins following his 49-goal, 94-point season with the Edmonton Ice of the Western League&hellip;After scoring just four goals and 18 points in his first 61 games, Adirondack defenseman Duane Joyce had three goals and nine points in a four-game stretch. &#9632;

f0027-01

Moss teams with Giguere to form league’s top duo

<div class="byline">By Kevin lole</div>The Las Vegas Thunder has been near the bottom of the International League standings much of the season, but made the biggest splash at the March 26 trade deadline.Las Vegas signed center Petr Nedved, a Group II free agent who is locked in a contract dispute with the Pittsburgh Penguins, to a contract that will cover the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs.Terms were not revealed. GM Bob Strumm said Nedved would make his Las Vegas debut March 28.Nedved, 26, scored a career-high 45 goals and 99 points in 1995-96 with Pittsburgh. Last year, in 74 games with the Penguins, Nedved had 33 goals and 71 points. He was the second player chosen in the 1990 NHL entry draft by the Vancouver Canucks.He has not played at all this season, however, as he has fought the Penguins over his contract. Prior to the season, Nedved&rsquo;s agent, Tony Kondel, proposed a five-year, $18.5-million deal that the Penguins rejected. Kondel made a second proposal for a two-year, $6-million deal, but Pittsburgh did not respond and there have been no negotiations since.Strumm said Nedved may become the best player to ever play in the IHL. Right winger Peter Bondra of the Washington Capitals played briefly for the Detroit Vipers in 1995-96; goalie Curtis Joseph played for Las Vegas in 1995-96; defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh played for the San Francisco Spiders in 1995-96; and center Alexei Yashin played for Las Vegas in 1994-95.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking about a guy who is a starquality player in the NHL and in the prime of his career,&rdquo; Strumm said. &ldquo;This is huge for us.&rdquo;OTHER DEALS: Activity was light at the IHL deadline March 26.The most noteworthy deadline day deal was between the Kansas City Blades and Orlando Solar Bears. The Blades sent defenseman Jason Herter and left winger Reggie Savage to the Solar Bears for defenseman Jeff Buchanan and left winger Bill Armstrong.The Utah Grizzlies acquired defenseman Brad Miller from the San Antonio Dragons. The Dragons also dealt defenseman Todd Reirden to the Fort Wayne Komets.Houston acquired defenseman Terry Hollinger on loan from the St. Louis Blues. Hollinger had been playing for the Worcester IceCats in the American League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02585/7088493-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="382" height="432"></div>BANCROFT DEALT: Steve Bancroft, a first round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1989 who had been logging significant ice time this season for Las Vegas, was traded to the American League&rsquo;s Saint John Flames in a five-player deal that will likely get the 27-year-old some NHL time.Trades between IHL and AHL aren&rsquo;t common, but occur a few times each season.Calgary acquired Bancroft, one of the IHL&rsquo;s best defensemen this season, and rookie Justin Kurtz from Las Vegas in exchange for, defensemen Sami Helenius and Keith McCambridge and left winger Paxton Schulte. The contracts of Helenius, McCambridge and Schulte all expire after the season.Nick Polano, Calgary&rsquo;s director of player personnel, said the crackdown on obstruction makes offensive defensemen such as Bancroft, more valuable. Calgary signed Bancroft, who would have been a free agent in the off-season, to a one-year, two-way contract extension.Bancroft was third on Las Vegas in scoring with 15 goals and 59 points in 70 games. Kurtz, 21, was second among Thunder defensemen with 11 goals and 22 points.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve watched Steve over the years and could see he has made strides,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;We look at him as a depth defenseman, but he&rsquo;s certainly a scoring defensemen who can quarterback the power play not only at that level, but also in the NHL.&rdquo;I-OPENERS: The IHL named Bill Jamieson as its vice-president, communications, replacing Tim Bryant, who left to join FoxSports Detroit. Jamieson previously was director of public relations for the Detroit Red Wings before leaving in 1995&hellip;Defenseman David Shaw announced his retirement from Las Vegas March 19, then saw his NHL rights traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning to the San Jose Sharks March 24. &#9632;

f0027-02

Wayward Penguin Nedved signs deal with Las Vegas

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03387/7088524-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="282" height="304"></div>The East Coast League has its first triple crown winner.For the third straight season, Chris Valicevic of the Louisiana IceGators has been named defenseman of the year. The honor goes to the blueliner who receives the most votes for the post-season all-star team in balloting by coaches and members of the media from each of the 25 cities.It is the first time in the league&rsquo;s 10-year history that one player has claimed an award three times. Toledo Storm goalie Nick Vitucci has been playoff MVP twice.In helping the IceGators claim the Southwest Division title, Valicevic had 19 goals and 87 points. After 68 games, the 29-year-old was fifth in assists with 68 and l()th tn overall scoring.Center Sean Venedam of Toledo was chosen rookie of the year. The 21-year-old led the Storm with 28 goals and 70 points in 67 games.Vitucci, the only player to play in each of the ECHL&rsquo;s 10 seasons, is the goaltender of the year. The 30-year-old was ranked fourth in the league with a 2.73, goals-against average in 47 appearances. He was 27-15-5 with a save percentage of.919, second-best in the ECHL.The Bauer sportsmanship award was given to Tallahassee Tiger Sharks&rsquo; right winger Cal Ingraham, who had just 36 penalty minutes in 68 games. He was also ninth in the league in scoring with 39 goals and 90 points.NAILING A STREAK Behind the superb goaltending of David Brumby, the Wheeling Nailers won four straight road games to increase their franchise-record winning streak to 11 games, one short of the ECHL season-high by the Chesapeake Icebreakers.The Nailers, meanwhile, named Howard Baldwin Jr., chief operating officer. Baldwin is the son of Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; owner Howard Baldwin. The Pittsburgh Penguins recently signed a management contract with Wheeling and are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the franchise.MOVIN&rsquo; ON UP: A pair of ECHL veterans took over second place in two all-time statistical categories.Right winger Darren Colbourne of the Raleigh IceCaps moved into second in goals with 290 in 347 games. Colbourne, who twice scored 69 goals in a season, once for the Dayton Bombers and once for the Richmond Renegades, trailed center Trevor Jobe by 23 goals on the all-time list.Center Darryl Noren of the Charlotte Checkers, jumped past Jobe into second on the assist list with 313 in 411 games.COAST LINES: Right winger Don Parsons of Louisiana became the first ECHL player to reach 50 goals for the season when he connected on a penalty shot against the New Orleans Brass March 21&hellip;Toledo was on a pace to become the first team in ECHL history to allow fewer than three goals per game. It had given up an average of 2.94 goals per game. &#9632;

f0027-03

Valicevic three times a winner as top defenseman

Princeton junior center Syl Apps has one of the most famous names in college hockey. Now he also has a little history to go with it.Apps&rsquo; shot 48 seconds into the second overtime bounced in off the glove of goalie Dan Murphy to give the Tigers an improbable 5-4 win over No. 2 seed Clarkson in the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament at Lake Placid March 21. It put Princeton into the NCAA tournament for the first time in the history of the program, which dates back to 1900.The Tigers, who came in as the No. 7 seed, had to win three games in three nights. They knocked off defending champion Cornell 6-2 in the play-in game March 19 and stunned regular season champion Yale 2-1 the next night to set up the showdown with Clarkson.Apps is the son of Syl Apps Jr., who played for the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins in 1970s. Apps&rsquo; grandfather, Syl Sr., won three Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1930s and 1940s and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.&ldquo;Growing up, my dad coached me until about 14 or 15,&rdquo; said Apps, better known for his ability in the faceoff circle and defensive play than scoring goals. &ldquo;He has always been kind of a mentor. I talked to him an hour or so each week about different situations and about what to do. He has really helped me a lot in hockey.&rdquo;The final also featured a penalty shot, awarded when Clarkson defenseman Phillippe Roy dove into the crease to cover up a loose puck. Princeton junior Jeff Halpern scored.BUCKEYES SURPRISE: Despite losing the Central Collegiate Hockey Association title game 3-2 to Michigan State in double overtime March 21, Ohio State made the biggest splash.Making their first trip to the conference semifinals since 1987, the Buckeyes upset Michigan 4-2 in their semifinal game March 20. It was Ohio State&rsquo;s first victory over Michigan in 34 games (0-29-5). The last Buckeye win over the Wolverines occurred on Nov. 19, 1989.And on the day after losing the double-overtime thriller to Michigan State, Ohio State learned it qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time in history with an overall record of 2512-2. It was 19-10-1 in CCHA league play.BADGERS BACK: After an unusual two-year absence, Wisconsin returned to the NCAA tournament in grand fashion, edging regular season champion North Dakota 3-2 in the title game of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five tournament to automatically qualify for the NCAA.For the first time in Final Five history, two freshmen goalies played in the title game. Graham Melanson made 29 saves for Wisconsin and Karl Goehring stopped 33 for North Dakota. The March 21 game was played at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.Colorado College took third place at the Final Five and qualified for the NCAA tournament as well.The 12 teams named to the NCAA tournaments were Clarkson, Colorado College, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Boston College and Boston University in the East Regional March 28-29 in Albany; and Ohio State, Yale, Michigan, Princeton, Michigan State and North Dakota in the West Regional March 27-28 in Ann Arbor, Mich.Two teams advance from each region to the Final Four at the FleetCenter in Boston. The semifinals are April 2, the final April 4. &#9632;

Apps NO. 3 makes history for surging Princeton

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Tom Boggie </div><div class="byline">&#x2013;Paul Harris</div>The Hobey Baker Award is the top individual prize in U.S. college hockey, but Yale senior defenseman Ray Giroux knows his selection to the list of 10 finalists had as much to do with his team&rsquo;s success as personal accomplishments.&ldquo;This is the first year our team has really gotten recognition and if the team does well, there will be rewards for the players,&rdquo; Giroux said.In Giroux&rsquo;s case, the rewards came in bunches. Not only did he make the list of finalists for the Hobey, he was also named Eastern College Athletic Conference player of the year and the league&rsquo;s top defensive defenseman.<h2>ECAC</h2>&ldquo;Coming in as a freshman, all I wanted to do was adjust to the college game,&rdquo; said Giroux, a native of North Bay, Ont., who was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1994. &ldquo;Heck, when I was in peewee, I used to sit on the bench.&rdquo;Giroux, the first defenseman to be the ECAC&rsquo;s top player since Dan Laperriere of St. Lawrence in 1992, had nine goals and 39 points in 32 games and led Yale at plus-33.The other ECAC player named to the list of Hobey Baker finalists was Rensselaer senior left winger Eric Healey. Healey was the leading scorer in the ECAC with 37 points (15 goals) in 22 league games. Overall, he scored 48 points (21 goals) for the Engineers.HONOR ROLL: The ECAC named its award winners and all-star teams March 20.Yale&rsquo;s Tim Taylor was selected top coach, while Alex Westlund of Yale won the Ken Dryden Award for the league&rsquo;s top goaltender.Defenseman Willie Mitchell and winger Erik Cole, both of Clarkson, tied for ECAC top rookie honors, while Golden Knight center Buddy Wallace was named best defensive forward.Joining Ray Giroux, Westlund and Healey on the first all-star team were Yale center Jeff Hamilton. Brown right winger Damian Prescott and Princeton defenseman Steve Shirreffs.The second all-star team included Cornell goalie Jason Elliott, Brown defenseman Jimmy Anderson, Mitchell, Clarkson center Chris Clark, St. Lawrence center Paul DiFrancesco and Princeton winger Jeff Halpern.<h2>CCHA</h2>Michigan State goaltender Chad Alban capped off a dream senior season by being named the 1997-98 Central Collegiate Hockey Association player of the year.The 5-foot-9, 166-pound native of Kalamazoo, Mich., led the CCHA in goals-against average (1.63) and save percentage (.922). He helped the Spartans lead the nation in penalty killing and became the CCHA career shutout leader with 10 after recording four this season.Alban, a Hobey Baker Award finalist, also became the first goaltender in CCHA history to score a goal this season.SPARTAN MVP: Michigan State junior center Mike York was the CCHA playoff MVP. He had three assists in the 5-1 semifinal victory over Northern Michigan March 21 and two goals in the CCHA title game the next day, a 3-2 double overtime win over Ohio State.The Spartans&rsquo; CCHA playoff title was their first since 1990.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice feeling to be on the winning side and to be up here talking,&rdquo; said Spartans&rsquo; senior defenseman Tyler Harlton during the postgame news conference.&ldquo;For us seniors who have been on the losing side of a lot of these, it&rsquo;s nice to be on the winning side.&rdquo;HO-HUM COACH: Ohio State oach John Markell said his team didn&rsquo;t place any significance on the fact it finally defeated Michigan, 3-2 in the league semifinal.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it was important that we beat Michigan. We beat a good hockey club,&rdquo; Markell said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t look at our prior record against Michigan and I don&rsquo;t think Red (Berenson, Michigan&rsquo;s coach) does either.&rdquo;CCHA MOVES: The CCHA offices will be moved from Ann Arbor, Mich., to the Detroit suburb of Farmington, where new commissioner Tom Anastos has business interests.Anastos, who replaces Bill Beagan, said the move will come in May, at the earliest.One of the first things Anastos will address is a new television contract with Fox Sports, which ran out at the end of this season. &#9632;

Yale man Giroux earns plaudits as top player

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Larry Mahoney </div><div class="byline">&#x2013;Chris Miller</div>Some of Hockey East&rsquo;s smaller players have accomplished large feats this season.Five-foot-10, 195-pound Chris Drury became the second player in the league&rsquo;s 14-year history to be named player of the year in consecutive seasons (the first was Greg Brown of Boston College in 1989 and &lsquo;90) and 5-foot-7, 155-pound Boston College right winger Brian Gionta was selected the rookie of the year.Drury was also named the league&rsquo;s best defensive forward. Maine junior right winger Steve Kariya, who stands 5-foot-6, was recipient of the Len Ceglarski Sportsmanship Award for the second straight year.Northeastern&rsquo;s Bruce Crowder, who led his Huskies to a fourth place finish after they were picked last in the pre-season coaches&rsquo; poll, was named coach of the year.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Joining Drury on the Hockey East all-star first team were Boston College center Marty Reasoner and defenseman Mike Mottau, BU defenseman Tom Poti, Northeastern goalie Marc Robitaille and New Hampshire center Jason Krog.The second team featured BU goalie Michel Larocque and defenseman Chris Kelleher, New Hampshire right winger Mark Mowers and left winger Derek Bekar, Gionta and UMass-Lowell defenseman Mike Nicholishen.Drury and Mowers are three-time all-Hockey East selections, while Nicholishen, Krog and Reasoner are two-time choices.The younger brother of Mighty Ducks of Anaheim winger Ted Drury, Chris was runner-up for the Hobey Baker Award a year ago and is one of three finalists from Hockey East this year, along with Krog and Mowers.Boston College&rsquo;s Jerry York coached the likes of Rob Blake and Nelson Emerson during his days at Bowling Green. But he paid Reasoner the ultimate compliment after the Hockey East tournament MVP led BC to its first league title since 1990.&ldquo;Marty Reasoner is flat-out the best player I have ever coached. He is a great leader. The team follows him,&rdquo; York said.<h2>WCHA</h2>Curtis Murphy thinks there are others on his team who could be the Western Collegiate Hockey Association player of the year.But when push came to shove, North Dakota&rsquo;s senior defenseman won the award and headed the league&rsquo;s post-season all-star team. He was also the only WCHA player to be among the 10 Hobey Baker Award finalists.North Dakota, the defending national champion, won the regular season WCHA title behind Murphy, freshman goalie Kari Goehring and a cast of talented and speedy forwards.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d get it with all the great players on this team who could have won it,&rdquo; said Murphy, a senior.St. Cloud State&rsquo;s Craig Dahl was the league&rsquo;s coach of the year. His team was picked to finish seventh in the league and led at the midpoint of the season before dropping to fourth place.&ldquo;I voted for (North Dakota&rsquo;s) Dean Blais, because I know how hard it can be to defend your title,&rdquo; Dahl said.The co-defensive players of the year were North Dakota left winger Matt Henderson and Michigan Tech defenseman Andy Sutton, while North Dakota defenseman Mitch Vig was named outstanding student athlete.Three players-Murphy, center Jason Blake of North Dakota and center Brian Swanson of Colorado College-were repeat first-team allleague choices. They were joined by Goehring, defenseman Craig Anderson of Wisconsin and right winger Andre Savage of Michigan Tech.The second team included center Steve Rein-precht of Wisconsin, center Reggie Berg of Minnesota and winger David Hoogsteen of North Dakota, defensemen Andy Sutton of Michigan Tech and Calvin Elfring of Colorado College and goalie Brian Leitza of St. Cloud State.WHAT A RELIEVER: Subbing for the injured Brant Nicklin, Tony Gasparini made his first college hockey start a fantastic one, stopping a Final Five-record 47 shots for Minnesota-Duluth in a 4-3 overtime loss to St. Cloud State March 19. &#9632;

BU’s Drury stands tall after taking top honor

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02581/7088679-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01958/7088871-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">New Jersey Devils&rsquo; qoaltender Martin Brodeur collected his 40th win and the third star in a 3-2 win over Philadelphia March 24. (Photo by Scot Levy/BBS)</figcaption></div><h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals; Decdecision, charges to goaltenders of record when winning goal is scored.<h2>FRIDAY, MARCH 20</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02662/7088864-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="524" height="3131"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03520/7088857-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="503" height="1243"></div><h2>SATURDAY, MARCH 21</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04404/7088850-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="505" height="1160"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05326/7088843-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="507" height="1244"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06290/7088836-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="504" height="1245"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07266/7088829-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="517" height="3507"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01905/7088822-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="530" height="3487"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02642/7088815-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="509" height="760"></div><h2>SUNDAY, MARCH 22</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03524/7088808-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="530" height="2658"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04420/7088801-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="530" height="3483"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05352/7088794-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="514" height="1659"></div><h2>MONDAY, MARCH 23</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06320/7088787-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="513" height="1758"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07296/7088780-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="503" height="688"></div><h2>TUESDAY, MARCH 24</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08265/7088773-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="525" height="2743"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09240/7088766-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="522" height="2794"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10210/7088759-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="503" height="646"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01868/7088752-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="529" height="3523"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02585/7088745-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="507" height="592"></div><h2>THURSDAY, MARCH 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03481/7088738-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="519" height="2864"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04365/7088731-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="532" height="3514"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05307/7088724-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="531" height="3518"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06265/7088717-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="522" height="3132"></div><h2>TRADE DEADLINE</h2>The following is a list of trades made during the week prior to the NHL trade deadline, Tuesday. March 24th at 3:00 p.m. eastern timeMarch 17: D Per Gustaffson traded from Toronto to Ottawa for an eighth round pick in 1998. March 23: D Jason Strudwick traded from NY Islanders to Vancouver for LW Gino Odjick March 24: D David Babych traded from Vancouver to Philadelphia for Philadelphia&rsquo;s 3rd round pick in 1998 Entry Draft. Vancouver also returns the conditional pick previously acquired from Philadelphia in the Mike Sitlinger<h2>TRADE DEADLINE</h2>trade dated Feb. 5, 1998: D Dmitri Mironov traded from Anaheim to Detroit for D Jamie Pushor and Detroit&rsquo;s 4th round pick in 1998 Entry Draft; G Kirk McLean traded from Carolina to Florida for RW Ray Sheppard; D Jeff Brown traded from Toronto to Washington for D Sylvain Cote; RW Jason Dawe traded from Buffalo to NY Islanders for D Jason Holland and LW Paul Kruse; 0 Dan McGillis and Edmonton&rsquo;s 2nd round pick in 1998 Entry Draft traded from Edmonton to Philadelphia for D Janne Niinimaa; C Mark Janssens traded from NY Islanders to Phoenix for Phoenix&rsquo;s 9th round pick in 1998 Entry Draft: LW Warren Rychel and a conditional pick in 1999 Entry Draft traded from Anaheim to Colorado for C Josef Marha: C Sean Pronger traded from Anaheim to Pittsburgh for the rights to G Patrick Lalime; D Todd Gill traded from San Jose to St Louis for RW Joe Murphy; RW Andrei Nazarov and future considerations traded from San Jose to Tampa Bay for D Bryan Marchment, D David Shaw and a conditional exchange of 1st round picks in 1998 Entry Draft; C Mike Eastwood traded from NY Rangers to St. Louis for C Harry York; RW Mike Kennedy traded from Toronto to Dallas for Dallas&rsquo; 8th round pick in 1998 Entry Draft; RW Sandy McCarthy, Calgary&rsquo;s 3rd round pick in 1998 Entry Draft and a 5th round pick in 1998 Entry Draft traded from Calgary to Tampa Bay for LW Jason Wiemer: RW Todd Harvey. LW Bob Errey and a 4th round pick in 1998 Entry Draft traded from Dallas to NY Rangers for C Brian Skrudland. RW Mike Keane and a conditional pick in either the 1998 or 1999 Entry Draft; RW Tom Fitzgerald traded from Florida to Colorado for the rights to LW Mark Parrish and Anaheim&rsquo;s 3rd round pick in 1998 Entry Draft (previously acquired); D Rich Brennan traded from San Jose to NY Rangers for G Jason Muzzatti; D Ryan Risidore traded from Chicago to NY Rangers for RW Ryan Vandenbussche; D Jamie Macoun traded from Toronto to Detroit for Tampa Bay&rsquo;s 4th round pick in 1998 Entry Draft (previously acquired).<h2>THE WEEK THAT WAS</h2><h3>Final Standings</h3>A weekly compendium of significant events and developments (March 20-27).March 21: Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Ron Francis becomes seventh NHLer to register 1.000 assists with a helper in 4-3 win over Philadelphia.March 22: Team Alberta beats Team Ontario 3-2 in overtime in final of Canadian women&rsquo;s hockey championship.March 23: A total of 38 players and 14 draft picks exchanged in 19 deals at the NHL&rsquo;s trade deadline.Canadian Hockey announces it will not renew contract of Canadian women&rsquo;s coach Shannon Miller.March 25: Former NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson, serving 18 months in jail for fraud, resigns membership from Hockey Hall of Fame.Anaheim&rsquo;s Teemu Selanne becomes first NHLer to hit 50 goals this season with goal in 3-2 win over Chicago.March 26: Francis registers assist in 4-3 loss to Islanders to move into tie with Bryan Trottier for ninth on NHL&rsquo;s all-time scoring list with 1,425 points.<h2>WOMEN&rsquo;S NATIONALS</h2><h3>Final Standings</h3>1. Alberta (Oval X-Treme); 2. Ontario (North York Aeros): 3. Quebec All-stars; 4. Edmonton Chimos;4. 5. New Brunswick All-stars; 6. Saskatchewan All-stars.<h3>Results</h3>Gold Medal GameSunday, March 22: Alberta 3. Ontario 2 (OT).Bronze Medal GameSunday, March 22: Quebec 4. Edmonton 2.Fifth-Place GameSunday, March 22: New Brunswick 4, Saskatchewan 3.SemifinalsSaturday, March 21: Ontario 3, Edmonton 0; Alberta 2, Quebec 1.QuarterfinalsSaturday. March 21: Edmonton 5. Saskatchewan 1; Alberta 6. New Brunswick 2.Relegation RoundSaturday, March 21: Prince Edward Island 5, Nova Scotia 2; British Columbia 3, Manitoba 0.Individual AwardsMost Valuable Player: France St. Louis. Quebec. Best Forward: Amanda Benoit. Ontario. Best Defense: Therese Brisson. Best Goalkeeper: Colette Prefontaine, Edmonton Most Sportsmanlike: Dana Antal, Alberta.<h3>Round-Robin Standings</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07244/7088710-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="484" height="311"></div><h3>Round Robin Results</h3>Thursday, March 19: Ontario 15, Nova Scotia 0; New Brunswick 3, British Columbia 2; Quebec 12. Prince Edward Island 0; Alberta 4. Saskatchewan 0; Edmonton 4, British Columbia 0; Ontario 11. Manitoba 1: New Brunswick 5, Prince Edward Island 0; Saskatchewan 7. Nova Scotia 2: Alberta 7. Manitoba 1: Quebec 4. Edmonton 0. Friday. March 20: Nova Scotia 4, Manitoba 3; Edmonton 10. Prince Edward Island 2; Ontario 3, Saskatchewan 1; Quebec 5, British Columbia 1: Edmonton 3. New Brunswick 1: Alberta 8. Nova Scotia 0; Saskatchewan 2, Manitoba 0; British Columbia 7, Prince Edward Island 3; Quebec 3. New Brunswick 2; Ontario 4, Alberta 1. &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01848/7088926-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div>(OT) denotes overtime game(SO) denotes shootout gameTeam affiliations are listed in parentheses under names &#9632;

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April 10, 1998

PLUS MINUS

Young Panthers failed to step up

Stars ‘go for it’ with trade for veterans

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT