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.

May 1, 1998

The Hockey News May 1, 1998

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03826/7935090-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="159" height="159"></div>Coach Pierre Page&rsquo;s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim had just been beaten by the Edmonton Oilers in the 80th game of a season the entire franchise would like to forget.But Page had three reasons to smile: Matt Cullen, Frank Banham and Josef Marha. Each of the 21-year-olds scored against the Oilers April 15 and continued to give the Ducks every reason to believe they can be offensive contributors next season.&ldquo;We kept telling them, &lsquo;Show us who you are to make sure we remember you for next year,&rsquo;&rdquo; Page said.With two games left in the season, Banham, a left winger, had eight goals and an assist in 19 games. Cullen, a center, had six goals and 19 assists in 59 games. Marha, also a center, had five goals and five assists in 10 games.Cullen was the only one of the trio drafted by the Ducks (35th overall in 1996). After two stints in the minors this season, Cullen became a regular in the Ducks&rsquo; lineup Jan. 21.Banham, a big-time scorer with the Western League&rsquo;s Saskatoon Blades who signed with the Ducks as a free agent in January, 1996, spent the past two seasons battling a groin/abdominal injury that required surgery and extensive rehabilitation.Marha was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche at the trade deadline. With a slew of high-calibre forwards in Colorado, Marha didn&rsquo;t see much quality ice time. &ldquo;This is a good chance for me to show what I can do,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Teemu Selanne suffered a groin pull April 9 and said he wouldn&rsquo;t return this season unless he was confident he wouldn&rsquo;t risk further injury-even if it means he might lose the goal title. He led the league with 52 as of April 15, one more than Philadelphia left winger John LeClair. &ldquo;Personal things are not so important to risk more damage,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Selanne supports the idea of a new trophy for the goal-scoring leader and naming it after Rocket Richard. &ldquo;It actually was a big surprise for me that the NHL hadn&rsquo;t had a trophy for that,&rdquo; Selanne said&hellip;Goalie Guy Hebert&rsquo;s rehabilitation from shoulder surgery is expected to take three months. He should be ready in time for the start of training camp in September. &#9632;

f0015-03

NHL TEAMS

Cullen, Banham, Marha give reason for optimism

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01543/7936651-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

IN THIS ISSUE

SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011821/7934439-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="320" height="411"><figcaption class="caption-body">Grant Fuhr</figcaption></div><h2>April/May May June/Milestones Milestones</h2><h3>APRIL</h3>Wed., April 22: Schedule A of best-of-seven first round playoff series begins. Schedule B follows on April 23.Tues., April 28: The NHL makes its presentation before Canada&rsquo;s parliamentary committee studying the impact of sports in Canada.Fri., May 1: The World Championship begins play in Zurich and Basel, Switzerland. The final game is May 17.Sat., May 9: Top teams in the Canadian Hockey League battle in the Memorial Cup tournament in Spokane, Wash. The championship game is May 17.Sun., May 10: The NHL holds the draft drawing among non-playoff teams and the expansion Nashville Predators to determine the order of selections for the 1998 NHL entry draft.Tues., June 23: The last possible day for the Stanley Cup champion to be crowned. Enjoy your two months of summer.<h3>MILESTONES</h3>109 playoff goals: Jan Kurri of Colorado needed three playoff goals to tie Vancouver&rsquo;s Mark Messier for second place on the all-time list-13 behind Rangers&rsquo; Wayne Gretzky.121 playoff assists: New Jersey&rsquo;s Doug Gilmour needed six assists to tie Glenn Anderson for fifth place all-time.81 playoff wins: St. Louis goalie Grant Fuhr needed one win to move past Ken Dryden into third place behind Billy Smith and Patrick Roy. &#9632;

f0004-01

DEPARTMENTS

CALENDAR

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011448/7935290-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="161" height="162"></div>Despite entering the playoffs with the gait not unlike that of a wino after last call, the Colorado Avalanche proclaimed it was not panicked.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t wait for the playoffs, that&rsquo;s all I can say,&rdquo; said Avalanche captain Joe Sakic.Based on his team&rsquo;s record down the stretch of the regular season, those would seem like strange words, indeed. Entering its final game of the season against the Detroit Red Wings, the Avs had a 1-6-1 record in its previous eight games-the lone victory a 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks that clinched the team&rsquo;s third straight Pacific Division title.Publicly, the Avs spoke similar lines of bravado as Sakic did. But, privately, there were questions as to just how close the team was entering the playoffs.One player told the Denver Post that coach Marc Crawford was &ldquo;losing it&rdquo; and that players were getting tired of his tirades in the dressing room and on the bench.After a listless 2-2 tie against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim April 13, Crawford ripped his team&rsquo;s superstars, saying they &ldquo;need to take responsibility and called their play on the power play &ldquo;absolutely awful.&rdquo;But Sakic said concerns about team chemistry are overblown: &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a problem in the dressing room.&rdquo;Said defenseman Adam Foote: &ldquo;I feel good about this team. We&rsquo;re going to come out of this, I know we will. Last year, we kind of came in through the front door, you know what I mean? This year, there&rsquo;s not as much pressure on us.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Colorado&rsquo;s third straight Pacific Division title extended the franchise&rsquo;s overall division winning streak to four, dating back to Quebec&hellip;Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh&rsquo;s hope of landing a new contract before the season finished won&rsquo;t be fulfilled. But Ozolinsh, in the last year of a pact paying $1.5 million, said he wasn&rsquo;t mad about it&hellip;Center Peter Forsberg had two goals and two assists in the division-clinching win over San Jose, giving Colorado a 150-6 record when he scored a goal. &#9632;

f0017-01

Player says Crawford losing it’ as team in turmoil forgets winning ways

<h2>IHL sniper hits magical mark</h2>1. Top Jock Cleveland&rsquo;s Jock Callander becomes fifth IHLer to score 500 career goals.2. Chris Chelios Veteran Chicago warrior plays 1,000th NHL game April 16 against New Jersey.3. Scott Fraser Edmonton call-up scores 12 goals, 22 points in 28 games with five-game goal streak.4. Playoff Blues With Chicago out of playoffs, St. Louis now in lead with 19 consecutive post-season appearances.5. Salute! Dallas Colorado, Pittsburgh and New Jersey win division regular season crowns.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021349/7934346-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="329" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jock Callander</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-031008/7934339-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="332" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios</figcaption></div><h2>&rsquo;Canes not able to break streak</h2>1. Deja vu Carolina Hurricanes, formerly Hartford Whalers, miss playoffs for sixth straight year.2. April fools With one game remaining Tampa Bay on nine-game losing streak, pointless in April.3. Lighten up Ref Stephen Walkom penalizes Florida Panthers after fan tosses rat on ice in last game in Miami Arena.4. Goalie busted Pee Dee Pride goalie Sandy Allan charged with battery after whacking Louisiana mascot.5. Bell rung B.C. Icemen goalie Bob Bell suspended 10 United League games for slashing two opponents in same game. &#9632;

f0002-02

PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-In-Chief</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04764/7934377-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="348" height="431"></div>Any member of the Chicago Blackhawks who fights Tie Domi needs to have his head examined.Cam Russell had just that happen after an April 15 battle ended with the defenseman being wheeled off the ice in a stretcher. Russell was pounded into submission by Domi, tumbled backwards, struck his head on the ice so hard the impact could be heard in the press box and lay on the ice motionless for several minutes.To the immense relief of everybody at Maple Leaf Gardens, Russell eventually moved his arms and legs before being strapped to the stretcher.Among those happiest to see Russell show signs of movement was Nick Kypreos. &ldquo;I grabbed a reporter&rsquo;s binoculars,&rdquo; said Kypreos, who peered down from the press box. &ldquo;It was a weird feeling. You could hear a pin drop (in the arena).&rdquo; The Toronto Maple Leaf forward&rsquo;s 1997-98 season ended before it began when Ryan Vandenbussche of the New York Rangers slugged him so hard Kypreos fell face-first to the ice during an exhibition game. He has been sidelined with post-concussion syndrome since, but hopes to return next season.In an eerie coincidence, Vandenbussche, now a Blackhawk, was also in the press box and spoke with Kypreos for the first time since the incident. This time all they exchanged was words as doctors hovered over Russell far below. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a good feeling when you see someone get hurt like that,&rdquo; Vandenbussche said. &ldquo;It turns my stomach.&rdquo;A hospital examination determined Russell had suffered a concussion and shoulder injury, but he was back and well enough to accompany the team out of Toronto that night.Fighting Domi is a particularly serious workplace hazard for Blackhawks. Former defenseman Steve Smith&rsquo;s career was ruined in 1993-94 when he broke his leg in a battle with Domi, one of the NHL&rsquo;s most dangerous fighters.The fracas-filled April 15 game between the Leafs and Hawks followed an address by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman earlier that day. In a Q and A session following his remarks, Bettman was asked about both fighting and head injuries. Fighting, he said, is a very small part of the game, and the NHL is the most advanced of the pro leagues in diagnosing and addressing head injuries. Both statements are true. Mere hours later, however, both issues raised their ugly heads yet again. &#9632;

f0002-04

Tense moments follow frightful Russell fight

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011875/7934408-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">LETHAL WEAPON Jaromir Jagr is the league&rsquo;s most dangerous player, and one of its most volatile, too. (Photo by Rocky Widner)</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH-Funny, but as Jaromir Jagr steps onto the ice for practice, he doesn&rsquo;t look like the NHL&rsquo;s most dangerous player.On this day at the Southpointe Iceoplex, he&rsquo;s the last man on. He&rsquo;s wearing an old, beat-up white Jofa helmet-undone, of course-held together with a big band of black tape. Not that he&rsquo;d be wearing a helmet at all if he had his way.Not too long into practice, Jagr heads back to the dressing room. Minutes later, he returns, wearing a different pair of skates. Jagr, like many NHL stars, is fussy about his footwear, even more so because of an abnormality with one of his feet.Jagr puts the new blades to work, skating in measured strides, seemingly oblivious to all that is going on around him, which would be a Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; practice. Eventually, he gets back in sync with his teammates and carries on for a short while before leaving the ice again. The best guess is he&rsquo;ll return wearing yet another pair of skates, but he doesn&rsquo;t. Groin pull, it turns out.Funny, but as Jaromir Jagr steps off the ice for the day, he doesn&rsquo;t look at all like the NHL&rsquo;s most dangerous player. But he is-dangerous to any Penguin opponent, but also dangerous to his own team, as witnessed by a pre-playoff outburst.&ldquo;He has put me through hell,&rdquo; Jagr said of Penguins&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine in the wake of a 3-3 tie with the Florida Panthers April 11. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I deserve it.&rdquo;Jagr, like all the Penguins, was frustrated at the team&rsquo;s misfortunes of late (one win in 10 outings) and his own inability to produce (one goal in the same 10 games). But he was also angry at being taken off the team&rsquo;s No. 1 line in that game. He suggested being moved to play with countrymen Robert Lang and Martin Straka was akin to being on a checking line and, no, he didn&rsquo;t mean a Czeching line. He also opined:&ldquo;Of course, only we are (expletive deleted). (Constantine) is perfect.&rdquo;&ldquo;He cannot (expletive deleted) on somebody because they had a bad two weeks.&rdquo;A day later, while he wasn&rsquo;t busy being honored before a Pittsburgh Pirates&rsquo; home game, Jagr redirected his wrath and apologized-sort of.&ldquo;If I said something, I apologize,&rdquo; he said, adding he had no problem with the change in lines, but a lack of ice time. &ldquo;Sometimes I feel like I don&rsquo;t play a lot. I like to play a lot. That&rsquo;s my problem. If I play a lot, I can give our guys the help they need to win.&rdquo;The day after that, Jagr met with Constantine, who re-emphasized the importance of the team concept, something which Jagr has, for the most part, accepted. You would think the results speak for themselves. The Penguins have been atop the Northeast Division virtually all season. Jagr led the league in scoring. Could life be any better for a team looking for life after Mario Lemieux?On the day of his meeting with Constantine, Jagr later met with the media. Let&rsquo;s just say, the session lacked clarity. He was contrite.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my fault,&rdquo; he said of his outburst. &ldquo;Maybe I went over the edge. Sometimes those things happen. You feel mad. You say things you would never say two days later. That&rsquo;s what happened.&rdquo;Asked if he&rsquo;s prepared to do as his coach asks, Jagr responded: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to say. I look at the game different than the coaches. I&rsquo;m not saying I&rsquo;m the smartest guy or whatever, but I&rsquo;ve got a feeling for the game and I know sometimes what you need to do on the ice.&rdquo;Or how about this one, which scores high on the honesty scale, but hardly bodes well for his future under Constantine.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really like discipline. I want to have the most fun I can have.&rdquo;Clearly, that&rsquo;s not going to fly on a Constantine-coached team. It&rsquo;s not as if Constantine holds Jagr to all the same standards as his plumbers. But there are times when Jagr has to subscribe to the system or it&rsquo;ll completely break down.&ldquo;There are grey areas and there are black and white areas,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;There are times when we&rsquo;ll cut Jaromir some slack, when he&rsquo;s in the grey areas. But a coach&rsquo;s job is to know when grey goes to black or white and those are the times something has to be said or done.&rdquo;Perhaps a period of adjustment was to expected under Constantine, a demanding redhead who won&rsquo;t tolerate the country club atmosphere in which the Penguins used to exist. Constantine knows beyond the netminder and first line, his Penguins are a lunch-bucket crew which has to grind it out to be successful. There must be days when Jagr wonders what happened to the way it was and longs for the good old days.But there&rsquo;s no denying Jagr&rsquo;s talent. Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche may be a better all-around player, but no one possesses Jagr&rsquo;s combination of speed, skill, size and strength. And there&rsquo;s no disputing his passion. He loves to play the game. He just loves it more when it&rsquo;s on his terms.In his first game back after the controversy, he scored one goal and two assists in a 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. He got plenty of ice time, working regularly with first-liners Stu Barnes and Ron Francis, but also double-shifting with Straka and Lang.After the game, he was all smiles, just as he was earlier in the day coming off the ice from the game-day skate at Civic Arena. He was wearing a newer version (no tape required) of the Jofa helmet. It was sitting on his head backwards.Funny, but he didn&rsquo;t look like the NHL&rsquo;s most dangerous player. He is, though it remains to be seen just who has the most to fear when Jaromir Jagr explodes. &#9632;

f0003-01

explosive talent

<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/f0005-011825/7934501-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="312" height="384"></div>When Ken Hitchcock was working a sporting goods store in Edmonton in the 1970s, he&rsquo;d often spend his breaks at the University of Alberta.Hitchcock would sit quietly in the stands, closely watching and taking notes as Canadian coaching legend Clare Drake put his players through high-tempo practices. It was there that Hitchcock adopted the style of coaching that has forged his identity and brought him success at the major junior and minor pro levels, and now in the NHL.Hitchcock&rsquo;s numbers at every level have been mind-boggling. As a midget coach, he went 57569-0. His .693 winning percentage is third best in Western League history (behind his two Kamloops Blazers proteges Tom Renney and Don Hay). With the Michigan K-Wings of the International League, he posted a .624 mark over two-plus seasons. And with the Dallas Stars, he has twice set team records for wins and points.Clearly, the man is doing something right.The staples of Hitchcock&rsquo;s philosophy are short, high-energy practices, constant pressure on the puck and accountability.When Hitchcock first arrived in Dallas in 1995-96, he used a 2-1-2 defensive system, but has since altered that to 12-2. But where his system differs from the neutral zone trap is that there is always a great deal of pressure on the puck while maintaining an emphasis on sound positional hockey.The objective of the scheme is to keep teams to the outside from goal net to goal net. And because the system requires so much effort from the forwards, the Stars find themselves using four lines almost all the time. On a regular night (which usually means a Dallas win these days) the top forwards will see about 18 minutes of ice time, with fourth lines getting about 11. And in Hitchcock&rsquo;s system Mike Modano is as accountable for his defensive play as Brian Skrudland.Hitchcock wants a checking team that can score, not a scoring team that can check. With one game left in the season it was mission accomplished with the Stars second in the NHL in goals-against and third in goals scored.The system and high energy practices can take their toll, so Hitchcock is careful to build in days off and give extra rest to his veteran players.But as they say, there&rsquo;s no rest for the wicked-or the wickedly good. &#9632;

f0005-01

Puck pressure hallmark of Stars’ system

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021290/7934532-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Are Canada&rsquo;s six teams treated fairly by government? Gary Bettman says no. (Photo by Andre Pichette/BBS)</figcaption></div>To NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, the health of the league&rsquo;s remaining six Canadian franchises is a question of tax fairness, not escalating player salaries.His message is simple, if not so bluntly stated. If local governments value NHL hockey, they should give their teams a tax break because the reality is U.S. cities are more than willing to pull out the red carpet and sweep them away.Speaking at a business crowd luncheon before the Canadian Club in Toronto April 15, Bettman field-tested the case he will use April 28 in Ottawa during a meeting with the federal parliamentary committee on sports in Canada. He stressed the positive economic impacts NHL hockey provides for its cities.&ldquo;I think what Mr. Bettman and the NHL is doing is exactly what we are attempting to do&hellip;on the linkage between sport and job creation,&rdquo; committee chairman and Member of Parliament Dennis Mills told The Hockey News. &ldquo;What we&rsquo;re trying to do is do the analysis&hellip;on what hockey means to the economic fabric of the country. We are hoping at our committee (Bettman) will quantify just what the NHL contributes to the economy of Canada.&rdquo;The NHL says the six Canadian teams employ 8,700 people in full-time and part-time direct jobs. But if nothing is done to address tax disparities between Canadian and U.S. cities, Bettman said, net revenue disparities already compounded by a Canadian dollar devalued by 40 per cent &ldquo;will continue to get exacerbated.&rdquo;And we all know where that leads. Three years ago, before the Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets became the Colorado Avalanche and Phoenix Coyotes, Canadian teams numbered eight According to The Hockey News&rsquo; salary survey last November, three of the bottom six teams in payroll are Canadian.Bettman stressed repeatedly the NHL will only be healthy if its Canadian teams are healthy. &ldquo;I will not allow Canada&rsquo;s gift to the world to diminish here in its own country,&rdquo; he said in his address. He cited the currency assistance plan put in place three years ago and a restructuring of the league&rsquo;s television arrangements in Canada as steps the league has taken to help Canadian teams.However, in a subsequent news conference, he couldn&rsquo;t guarantee all six teams would stay in Canada for the long term: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be extremely disappointed and unhappy if we lose another franchise.&rdquo;Bettman&rsquo;s plan seems to be to put pressure on governments to provide a more-for lack of a better term-&ldquo;American-style&rdquo; business climate in which professional hockey franchises can operate. The Ottawa Senators pay $3 million annually in municipal taxes-more than the municipal taxes paid by the league&rsquo;s 20 American franchises combined, he said. The Montreal Canadiens, playing out of the Molson Centre in prime downtown real estate, pay $10 million.Bettman said the average annual total tax burden on each of the 20 American teams is $3.9 million (Cdn.). For the six Canadian teams, it&rsquo;s $12 million each. He said one of the NHL&rsquo;s three top grossing teams is Canadian-based, but its net revenues fall well down the list because money is eaten up by taxes.Bettman said the NHL brings thousands of jobs into cities, but is not being treated in Canada like some research and development companies that he said receive tax breaks to entice them to set up shop and stay put.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t about a handout, this is about what&rsquo;s fair under the circumstances,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s a difference between how some industries are being treated here and other industries. Are our teams being treated fairly under the circumstances?&rdquo;He sighted more examples of governments in Canada unwilling to match American counter-parts. New arenas in Ottawa, Montreal and now Toronto, with the Air Canada Center scheduled to open in February, 1999, were all built with private money. Contrast that to the rosy government reception extended to the expansion Nashville Predators, who will begin play next season in a new arena built with public money.Bettman also questioned a process that forced the Senators to pay $22 million for construction of a highway off-ramp and the Canadiens to cough up for lost parking meter revenue in Montreal during construction of the Molson Centre.When it was pointed out that surely Canadiens&rsquo; owners are making a profit, too, and that they went into construction of the Molson Centre aware of the tax implications, Bettman replied: &ldquo;I assure you they&rsquo;re not getting the same return on investment as they could in the stock market.&rdquo;He also took aim at provincial sports lotteries that generate millions of dollars in government revenue from NHL games, against the wishes of the league. &#9632;

f0005-02

Bettman slams taxes

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>As it turns out, the 1999 entry draft might not be the European invasion everyone thought it would be.Meet Tim Connolly, the young man carrying the hopes of an entire hockey playing continent.Connolly, a rookie center for the Erie Otters of the Ontario League, may just break that logjam of Europeans that is expected to dominate the top of the 1999 draft.Denis Svitke of Russia, Daniel and Henrik Sedin of Sweden and Patrik Stefan of the Czech Republic were the top candidates for first overall until Connolly quietly began to make scouts take notice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03831/7934563-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="262" height="418"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Connolly</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He has tremendous skill. I&rsquo;d compare him to Steve Yzerman,&rdquo; said Otters&rsquo; coach Dale Dunbar. &ldquo;There were times this year that he made some veteran defensemen in this league look silly-just embarrassed them.&rdquo;The 16-year-old from suburban Syracuse, N.Y., finished with 30 goals and 62 points in 59 games, including a league-high 17-game point streak. In the Otters&rsquo; first round loss to the London Knights, Connolly made a beautiful play to set up the overtime winner in Game 6 and with the Otters needing a goal in the last minute of Game 7, Connolly was on the ice.&ldquo;How many 16-year-olds in this league get put in those situations?&rdquo; Dunbar said.Next season the scrutiny will intensify for Connolly, whose Syracuse Stars team won the Quebec International Peewee Tournament three years ago. &#9632;

f0005-03

Erie gunner looks good for ’99 draft

During the Olympics, Swedish coach Kent Forsberg said Wayne Gretzky should retire. The last time I checked, Gretzky was just one point behind Forsberg&rsquo;s son, Peter, in the NHL scoring race with one game to go.Granted Gretzky had played 10 more games than Forsberg, but look at Forsberg&rsquo;s teammates. I don&rsquo;t think anybody would suggest Forsberg retire because he can&rsquo;t outscore a 37-year-old who is supposedly on the downside of his career.Gretzky is proving once again that he is still at the top of his game. If he played on a team with the Colorado Avalanche&rsquo;s talent, he&rsquo;d be at the top of the scoring race.Greg Sundby, Big River, Sask.<h2>What if&hellip;?</h2>What an embarrassment it would have been if Patrick Roy or Chris Osgood has sustained an injury in their recent fight and been out for the playoffs.My solution to all this silliness is add a no-fighting clause to all goaltender contracts.Eric Akins,&nbsp; Derry, Pa.<h2>Show respect</h2>What&rsquo;s going on here?I am an ardent proponent of fighting in hockey, but I can&rsquo;t believe the number of incidents I&rsquo;m seeing of one player beating on another one who is down after a fight.A recent example of this occurred April 4 during the New York Rangers-New York Islanders brawl when Dan Cloutier of the Rangers apparently decided Tommy Salo of the Islanders would be a better goalie without kidneys. Cloutier rained blow after blow on Salo&rsquo;s back as Salo turtled to the ice.Is this something new in the NHL? Didn&rsquo;t some of these guys&rsquo; fathers teach them you don&rsquo;t hit a man while he&rsquo;s down? Some of these players have no honor or respect.Jim Phair,&nbsp; Victoria, B.C.<h2>Good fighters win</h2>As a Philadelphia Phantoms&rsquo; season ticket holder, I was absolutely floored when I read in Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column (THN, April 17) that Garrett Burnett of the Phantoms is &ldquo;the best fighter not in the NHL.&rdquo;Even with my biased view as a diehard Phantoms&rsquo; fan, the truth is Burnett has not won a single fight since he was called up from the Johnstown Chiefs of the East Coast League.While Burnett is a raw talent, anyone who has watched the Phantoms knows there is no way he &ldquo;should be a big-leaguer next season.&rdquo; He is, in fact, light years away from the NHL.Bob Tyler,&nbsp; Philadelphia, Pa.<h2>No more excuses</h2>Stan Fischler&rsquo;s comment that Eric Lindros &ldquo;has been unfairly abused-if not misused,&rdquo; by the Philadelphia Flyers (THN. April 17) is way off base.The Flyers paid a hefty price to get Lindros and they expect results. If Lindros had the heart of Steve Yzerman or the determination of Theo Fleury, the man would be unstoppable.Lindros often lacks focus during games, has not stepped up in big-game situations and has had numerous injury problems.If Lindros wants to be considered among the NHL elite, it&rsquo;s time for him to step up and prove he belongs there-excuse free.Jeff Forneri,&nbsp; Thunder Bay, Ont.<h2>Grab a seat</h2>An open letter to New York Rangers&rsquo; coach John Muckier:On behalf of New York Islanders&rsquo; fans: Welcome to the party, pal.Andy Irizarry,&nbsp; New York, N. Y.<h2>No more noise</h2>Kudos to columnist Jack Falla for raising the issue of the artificial theatrics that accompany games in NHL arenas (THN, March 20).I agree they are overdone, but this problem in Washington creates more of a passive audience than the kneejerk cheerers Falla notices. Why bother to make noise if management will do it for you?Washington Capital goals are greeted by sirens, flashing lights and cacophonous music. The decibel level is so high at other times that you can&rsquo;t talk to the person next to you. No wonder Capitals&rsquo; fans appear to sit in silence, despite having a playoff-bound team.Falla does suggest one great idea-I think I&rsquo;ll start whacking my somnolent companions with a rolled up program.James Carroll,&nbsp; Washington, D.C.<h2>Tickle the ivories</h2>Whatever happened to organ music during hockey games? All we hear now is the same boring rock and roll songs every game.Is it too much to ask to have just one thing kept from old time hockey?Terry Smith,&nbsp; Ebensburg, Pa.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., 14240-9947.&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;

Gretzky continues to amaze with his feats

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012034/7934618-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0006-01

ELSTON

Golf, anyone? Going into the final weekend of the regular season, it was certain a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning would win the league golf tournament, otherwise known as the NHL&rsquo;s worst plus-minus mark. Tampa&rsquo;s Paul Ysebaert was leading the way at minus-43 followed by teammates Alexander Selivanov (minus-38) and Mikael Renberg, whose minus-37 tied him for third with Ranger Brian Leetch. Anaheim&rsquo;s Travis Green, Florida&rsquo;s Jeff Norton and Islander Bryan Berard were all at minus-32.Summer hockey If the Stanley Cup final goes seven games-fat chance if the last three years are any indication-and it starts as scheduled June 9, the final game will be played June 23. But if the conference finals end in four or five games, the final could begin June 4 or June 6, in which case a seven-game series would end June 18 or 20.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021358/7934649-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="369" height="574"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jere Lehtinen</figcaption></div>The Jere factor When Jere Lehtinen scored this season, the Dallas Stars never lost. Going into their final regular season game, they were 16-0-2 when the Finnish winger scored. Just one problem, though. The last time he had scored a goal was March 20. The Stars were 7-5-1 in games since then.Dissecting &lsquo;The Dominator&rsquo; Nobody can find a flaw in Dominik Hasek&rsquo;s puckstopping ability this season, but the scouting report of one Eastern Conference club heading into the playoffs is the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; goalie is overhandling the puck and he could get himself in trouble with it.As the Crow flies The word on the street is if the Colorado Avalanche crashes and bums in the playoffs, coach Marc Crawford will be working elsewhere next season. &#9632;

f0006-02

What you need to know about the 1997-98 season

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s resignation from the Hockey Hall of Fame wasn&rsquo;t given the automatic rubber stamp of approval.According to Russ Conway of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, there was heated debate concerning Eagleson&rsquo;s resignation when the Hall of Fame&rsquo;s board of directors met March 31.After the meeting, Hall of Fame chairman Scotty Morrison said there was little discussion: &ldquo;We accepted his resignation and that was pretty much it.&rdquo;But Conway, in the April 12 issue, said four directors told him there was plenty of intense discussion.&ldquo;John Turner and Bob Goodenow got into it hot and heavy,&rdquo; Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; president and Hall director Glen Sather told Conway. &ldquo;I told Turner (the former Prime Minister of Canada and a friend of Eagleson&rsquo;s) &lsquo;I know what friendship is, but this guy went after the integrity of the game.&rsquo; &ldquo;It was Hall director Larry Meyer, a Washington D.C. lawyer, who initiated firm action against Eagleson.Eagleson, the founder of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, is serving an 18month prison sentence after pleading guilty to hockey-related fraud charges. He sent a letter of resignation to the Hall March 25. Some directors were upset Eagleson wasn&rsquo;t more apologetic.&ldquo;There was not a bit of regret,&rdquo; Boston Bruins&rsquo; president and Hall director Harry Sinden told Conway. &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you think somebody like that, guilty, would show regret? His lawyer (is) telling us Eagleson is sad and regrets leaving the Hall.&rdquo;&ldquo;That letter was terrible, a disgrace,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;He still didn&rsquo;t apologize. He still doesn&rsquo;t get it.&rdquo;Conway reported Turner motioned Eagleson&rsquo;s letter be accepted as is. Nobody seconded the motion. It wasn&rsquo;t until two days after the March 31 meeting that the final resolution submitted by Meyer was approved. It reads:&ldquo;The board of directors has determined the conduct of Mr. Eagleson as best evidenced by his guilty plea to defraud the NHLPA and its players is conduct so inextricably intertwined with the basis for his election to honored member status in the Hall, and is so grossly morally repugnant conduct that the board hereby accepts Mr. Eagleson&rsquo;s resignation of March 25, 1998 as his past actions are not acceptable behavior of an honored member.&rdquo;All but Turner among the 18 Hall directors voted to adopt the resolution.Sinden said there is a big difference between accepting Eagleson&rsquo;s resignation and adopting a resolution.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a message: Don&rsquo;t bother trying coming back,&rdquo; Sinden told Conway. &ldquo;In effect, you&rsquo;re out forever.&rdquo;Conway was largely responsible for exposing Eagleson&rsquo;s wrongdoings and chronicled them in his book, Game Misconduct: Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey.Eagleson, meanwhile, and his lawyer Brian Greenspan caused an outburst at the Mimico (Ont.) Correctional Center during Easter weekend.The Globe and Mail reported Mimico sources said Eagleson was upset about not being given a pass to go home for Easter dinner.&ldquo;Greenspan said he was going to call a news conference to announce how Eagleson was being treated, or mistreated in his view,&rdquo; the source said. &ldquo;It was a major ruckus and it threw the whole jail into a frenzy.&rdquo;Eagleson&rsquo;s duties in prison consist of sweeping floors and dusting desks in the administration office. He is said to be taking a business-ethics course as part of his rehabilitation. &#9632;

Eagleson dismissal not so crystal clear

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011843/7934704-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Zamuner was part of Canada&rsquo;s World Championship win in 1997. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios)</figcaption></div>The World Championship is the toughest sell in hockey at the best of times. Pregnant wives, nagging injuries and touchy contract situations constantly conspire against the event.But in an Olympic year, it&rsquo;s even more difficult. &ldquo;There are a lot of extenuating circumstances out there that are quite legitimate,&rdquo; said David Poile, GM of the United States team. &ldquo;Things like injuries, contracts and free agency situations have really hurt the player pool.&rdquo;The U.S. team had seven players confirmed as of April 17. Centers Ted Drury and Matt Cullen of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, left winger Bill Lindsay of the Florida Panthers, left winger Tom Chorske and right winger Bryan Smolinski of the New York Islanders, center Darby Hendrickson of the Toronto Maple Leafs and goalie Tim Thomas of IFK Helsinki in Finland had committed.For Canada, goalie Felix Potvin of Toronto accepted, along with defensemen Ed Jovanovski and Gord Murphy of Florida, Bryan McCabe of the Vancouver Canucks, and Cory Cross of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Centers Trevor Linden of the Islanders and Travis Green of Anaheim and left wingers Rob Zamuner of Tampa Bay and Ray Whitney of Florida had also signed up.The tournament runs from May 117 in Switzerland, meaning both teams could wait until some first round losers are available to name the initial 23-man roster. Teams can drop five players to add another five NHLers later in the tournament.With the elimination of the Carolina Hurricanes from the playoff picture. Canada extended invitations to goalie Trevor Kidd, centers Keith Primeau and Jeff O&rsquo;Neill and defenseman Glen Wesley. O&rsquo;Neill has a broken kneecap and likely won&rsquo;t play.The U.S. was expected to name several college players to its initial roster, but would be strong in goal if it could get Garth Snow from Vancouver and Mike Richter from the New York Rangers. &#9632;

f0007-01

U.S., Canada find tourney tough sell

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>Don Cherry says he understands why French-Canadians are angry with him. He even says he respects them because of it.&ldquo;I sort of admire them,&rdquo; Cherry told the Toronto Sun. &ldquo;They fight for their rights and if I was French-Canadian, I&rsquo;d be like them. We here in Ontario are a bunch of wimps. We don&rsquo;t stand up for our rights, but in Quebec they do. They sort of remind me of me.&rdquo;Cherry has been in hot water with francophones since the Olympics, when he called French-Canadian politicians &ldquo;whiners&rdquo; for complaining about an abundance of Canadian flags in Nagano.Bell Canada&rsquo;s Quebec division pulled its sponsorship of Cherry&rsquo;s Coaches Comer on Hockey Night in Canada for two regular season games.WHO WON?: The Canadians outscored the Americans 3-1 in the North American university championship, but the U.S. team won 3-1. How so? Because under new rules for the second-year event, Canadian-born players were eligible to represent the United States.The April 10 game at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit featured a team of U.S. college seniors versus Canadian university seniors. Unlike last season, Canadian-born players were allowed to play for the U.S. and 11 of the 21 U.S. college players were Canadians.Scoring for the U.S. team was Ferris State defenseman Brett Colborne (a native of Clearwater, B.C.), Miami winger Adam Copeland (Burlington. Ont.) and Clarkson winger Buddy Wallace (Palatine. Ill.).Guelph defenseman J.P. Davis (Oshawa, Ont.) replied for Canada, which won last year&rsquo;s game.WRITE STUFF: Brendan Savage of the Flint Journal and THN was named a co-winner-along with Binghamton TV station WBNG-of the United League&rsquo;s first-ever media award. &#9632;

Cherry relates to francophone wrath

Former Canadian women&rsquo;s team coach Shannon Miller criticized some members of the media for their &ldquo;loud and clear&rdquo; disdain for women&rsquo;s hockey at the Olympics.Miller, who did not have her contract renewed by Canadian Hockey, told the Toronto Sun &ldquo;some of the media (in Nagano) did not want women&rsquo;s hockey in the Olympics. It was below some of them to cover our sport. And it was obvious they didn&rsquo;t want us to do well.&rdquo;She described some media coverage as a &ldquo;disgrace.&rdquo; She did add, however, that some coverage was fair and comprehensive.Miller, on leave from her job as a Calgary police officer, is considering a coaching offer from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.DURBANO PLEADS GUILTY: Former NHLer Steve Durbano pleaded guilty in St. Catharines, Ont., court to a charge of attempting to procure a prostitute.A female undercover officer met with Durbano, who told her of payment she would receive for sex acts, court was told. Durbano operated the Five Star Escort Service from his townhouse in Welland, Ont.Niagara Regional Police received complaints Durbano &ldquo;was using the (escort) agency for purposes of running a prostitution ring,&rdquo; Crown attorney Greg Barnett said.Durbano, 46, played six NHL seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins, Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies from 1972-73 through 1978-79. He had 1,127 penalty minutes in 220 games, a 5.12 per-game average, the highest of any player with more than 200 games.Durbano was living on welfare and a $300-a-month NHL pension in Welland. Sentencing is April 21. &#9632;

Miller lashes out at media

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011921/7934797-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Claus Andersen/BBS)</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH-The comeback that counts for Tom Barrasso is the one his 10-year-old daughter Ashley continues to wage against cancer.It was eight years ago that the little girl underwent a bone-marrow transplant aimed at saving her life. Though she has shown progress since then, the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; goalie said it will be another two years before doctors are in a position to pronounce her &ldquo;cancer free.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we try not to dwell on,&rdquo; Barrasso told The Hockey News. &ldquo;Of the kids who were sick at the same time as Ashley, she&rsquo;s pretty much the only one (still alive), so we&rsquo;re hoping for the best, but we won&rsquo;t know for another two years.&rdquo;Set against that backdrop, suffice to say the 33-year-old Barrasso has no problem putting what happens on the ice in its proper perspective. Which is pretty much as follows:Precisely a year ago, it was widely believed within the NHL that Barrasso&rsquo;s stormy, but productive career was effectively over. After playing only five fruitless games (no wins, a 5.78 goals-against average), he underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in January, 1997 that most everyone assumed would be career-ending. There was even talk that Barrasso had quit on the Penguins, that they no longer figured in his plans and vice versa.Now, he&rsquo;s THN&rsquo;s Comeback Player of the Year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the guy who said on Hockey Night in Canada last year that I didn&rsquo;t think he was a good team guy and that they&rsquo;d taken his nameplate out of the locker room in Pittsburgh,&rdquo; TV analyst John Davidson told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review earlier this season. &ldquo;Now, I&rsquo;m the first guy to say, &lsquo;This guy has turned this whole thing around.&rsquo; I don&rsquo;t know how or who or why or what, but it&rsquo;s quite remarkable that he has been able to get healthy, stop the puck, care about his teammates and, in turn, that they care about him. I couldn&rsquo;t be happier for him.&rdquo;With a new coach (Kevin Constantine), a new emphasis on defense and an old goaltender, the Pens reeled off a 39-24-18 record (with one game left) to nail down the Northeast Division regular season title and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the playoffs.&ldquo;We really had no idea who was going to be our (No. 1) goalie this season and how much that goalie might play,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;It was a question mark because we just didn&rsquo;t know if Tommy was going to come back from the surgery. We had no preconceived notion at all. Tommy just came in, played well in training camp and played consistently well for us in the regular season. He just took off; so did the team.&rdquo;Barrasso&rsquo;s numbers were impressive. Going into the final weekend of the regular season, his goals-against average of 2.07 was tied for third in the league. His 30 wins tied him for seventh overall. His .922 save percentage was second only to Buffalo&rsquo;s Dominik Hasek (.932). His seven shutouts ranked him sixth in that category.<h2>THE COMEBACK KIDS</h2>In truth, they are anything but kids, but they have battled their way back from adversity. It&rsquo;s The Hockey News&rsquo; annual All-Comeback Team, a squad that did not lack for candidates. Some, such as New Jersey Devils&rsquo; defenseman Scott Niedermayer and right winger Pat Verbeek of the Dallas Stare, just missed. Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; goalie Tom Barrasso didn&rsquo;t, though, and is THN&rsquo;s Comeback Player of the Year. Here&rsquo;s how the team fills out:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021443/7934790-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="310" height="154"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031021/7934783-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="315" height="157"></div> &#9632;

f0008-01

FEATURES

Barrasso back in black

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011780/7934828-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roberts efforts hardly require explanation. He played only 43 games over three WHU; years, including last season when he did not play at all, but has bounced back from what was thought to be a career-ending neck injury to be a 20-goal man and leader for the HurricanesFor the first time since 1993-94, when Blake had 20 goals and 68 points, the Kings&rsquo; blueliner has once again become an offensive force. Much-improved health this season also allowed him to be a punishing physical presence and defensive stalwart on the resurgent Kings.Defensive tough-guy Manson last season tallied just 22 points with a horrendous minus-26 rating, one of the worst marks in the league. This season he led the Habs plus-minus figures at plus-23.Bure scored as many goals this season as he scored the past three seasons combined, a rejuvenation that is rooted in a return to good health after troublesome knee and neck injuries.Corson&rsquo;s return to form this season has been well-chronicled, witness his presence on the Canadian Olympic team after suffering through an injury-riddled eight-goal season in 1996-97.</figcaption></div>Barrasso also became the first American-born goaltender to post 3(X) career wins (with 325, he ranks 12th all-time). He&rsquo;s fifth among active goaltenders with 30 career shutouts and his seven this season is a Penguin club record, as are his 12 all-time in Pittsburgh.Barrasso saved his best efforts for the road this season, where the Penguins were 18-14-8, sixth best in the league. In a stretch between Nov. 14 and Dec. 10, he gave up just one goal in 311 minutes and one second of road play, which included three straight shutouts.Barrasso was by no means alone in fashioning an impressive comeback this season. Until Pat LaFontaine had his season ended on a fluke collision with a teammate, the New York Rangers&rsquo; center was odds-on favorite for top comeback honors for his return from post-concussion syndrome. Gary Roberts of the Carolina Hurricanes returned to a prominent role after seemingly having his career ended by chronic neck woes. Shayne Corson of the Montreal Canadiens and Pavel Bure of the Vancouver Canucks both roared back after abysmal sub-par seasons in 1996-97 and the same can be said of Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; defenseman Rob Blake and Montreal rearguard Dave Manson.All are members of our All-Comeback Team, but THN opted to honor Barrasso as the most compelling comeback story.&ldquo;I never really considered (this season&rsquo;s performance) in that fashion,&rdquo; Barrasso said during an interview with THN at the Penguins&rsquo; Southpointe Iceoplex practice facility in the final week of the regular season. &ldquo;But I only played five games last season so, obviously, it is a comeback.&ldquo;But I knew going in what I was looking at. I knew there was a real high probability of coming back. In my mind, it was simply an issue of health. If I was healthy, I knew I was going to come back and play well.&rdquo;Few shared that opinion. But then Barrasso has never wanted for confidence. From the time he entered the NHL as an 18-year-old directly out of Boston&rsquo;s Acton-Boxboro High School as the fifth overall pick by the Buffalo Sabres in 1983, Barrasso has been described as everything from &ldquo;cocky&rdquo; to &ldquo;arrogant&rdquo; and beyond, some of the names quite unprintable. Outspoken and extraordinarily blunt, he has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He&rsquo;s had a running battle with the media in general, and the Pittsburgh press specifically, since an off-season incident in May of 1994.There was a bar room fracas in Pittsburgh that involved some Penguins, including Barrasso. Though Barrasso maintained he was only trying to make peace with an unruly patron, he was subsequently charged with uttering terroristic threats. The charges were later dropped, but Barrasso seethed at his treatment by the media. He&rsquo;s still extremely bitter about it.&ldquo;Here I am,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;a leader in the community, I think, as far as raising money for charity. I&rsquo;m trying to be an upstanding guy, to make a real contribution to the community I live in and the first thing everyone (in the media) wants to do is paint you as guilty without ever getting your side of the story.&ldquo;That infuriated me. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, (the media) took a lifetime of work and flushed it down the toilet. To me, that&rsquo;s just reprehensible&hellip;to take a body of work and just flush it down the toilet like that.&rdquo;So Barrasso stopped talking to the media. He forged a reputation as being surly and difficult. When he cut himself off from the media, he in many respects severed ties with the fans, who were quicker to get on his case and boo. His critics, of which there&rsquo;s been no shortage, suggested he also became an isolationist within the team, making time only for his few close friends (Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Dan Quinn and Kevin Stevens) and fellow superstars.Though he started talking to the media at the beginning of last season-at the behest of Penguins&rsquo; owner Howard Baldwin-Barrasso has no regrets on how he handled it.&ldquo;(Not talking) never hurt me,&rdquo; he said of the possibility of not getting recognition for his achievements. &ldquo;(The media blackout) didn&rsquo;t hurt my contract. It didn&rsquo;t hurt my play. If standing up for a principle you believe in is wrong, then, fine, I&rsquo;ll be wrong. I lead my life to fulfill my goals. I can&rsquo;t let my happiness be dictated by how other people view me.&rdquo;His only career regret, it seems, was getting the chicken pox in a 43-win season in 1992-93. It cost him 11 games and what almost certainly would have been a single-season record, eclipsing Bernie Parent&rsquo;s 1973-74 mark of 47.&ldquo;In the 11 games I missed, Kenny (Wregget) went 8-21,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;I know if I didn&rsquo;t get the chicken pox, I would have gotten the record. Winning is my only measuring stick. It&rsquo;s the only number that counts.&rdquo;Unquestionably, Barrasso has benefited from the Penguins&rsquo; new-found commitment to defense under Constantine. His detractors suggest his success this season is somewhat illusory because of that new system, though the coach isn&rsquo;t one of them. In truth, it probably cuts both ways.&ldquo;Tommy predicted before the season that our goaltenders, whoever they would be, would be under more pressure this year and I would have to agree,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;He said a mistake by a goalie would be critical because we wouldn&rsquo;t have the firepower to recover from it. He was right, too.&ldquo;What I really like about Tommy is that he has done everything this season he said he was going to do. He has worked hard, on and off the ice. He has won games for us. He has been a steadying influence on a team that needed that. I&rsquo;d heard all sorts of stories about him, but I have to tell you, he has been a joy to be around. He&rsquo;s articulate, intelligent and if something is on his mind, he speaks it. He has been vocal in a positive way and really interacted well with his teammates.&rdquo;The key to the resurgence, Barrasso said, has simply been a return to good health. The shoulder surgery has strengthened a joint that was breaking down and causing pain, discomfort and physical limitations. For the first time in a decade, he&rsquo;s lifting weights, under the guidance of a personal trainer, becoming as strong and fit as he has been in a long, long time. His only disappointment this season came when he wasn&rsquo;t named to the U.S. Olympic team, even though his numbers, and performance, were better than any of the three goalies (Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck and Guy Hebert) who were.Not one to let it slide, Barrasso personally asked Team USA GM Lou Lamoriello for an explanation after a Pittsburgh-New Jersey Devils mid-season game. The two go a long way back. Barrasso was going to play for Lamoriello at Providence College, but the NHL beckoned both of them, first the goalie, then the executive.They have nothing but respect for each other, but Lamoriello didn&rsquo;t choose Barrasso and the goalie wanted to know why.&ldquo;I asked Lou point blank,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;I expected the answer I got and, quite frankly, I couldn&rsquo;t disagree. It was the right thing for them to do.Would I have loved to play in the Olympics? Absolutely.But I have great respect for Lou and I understood his thinking.&rdquo;Lamoriello&rsquo;s rationalization was that Richter, by virtue of his World Cup win, should be handed the No. 1 job. Like many in the NHL, Lamoriello had concerns about Barrasso&rsquo;s health after coming off the surgery, so he was leaning toward Vanbiesbrouck as the backup.Barrasso played some of his best hockey of the season after Richter and Vanbiesbrouck had been confirmed. That left the No. 3 spot and Lamoriello didn&rsquo;t see Barrasso as a No. 3 kind of guy.&ldquo;Tommy had every right to feel he should have been there,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;I respect that, but he&rsquo;d only played five games the season before and that was something that had to be considered at the time we were making the decision (on Nos. 1 and 2). We weren&rsquo;t going to ask him to be a No. 3.&rdquo;Whatever the rationalization, it&rsquo;s clear recognition won&rsquo;t necessarily come swiftly for a rejuvenated Barrasso. For example, the Pittsburgh chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association chose Rob Brown as the Penguins&rsquo; nominee for the Masterton Trophy (emblematic of perseverance and dedication to the game). The co-winners of the Penguins&rsquo; regular season MVP, chosen by management, were Francis and Jaromir Jagr.Fine by Barrasso, who said he&rsquo;s fully expecting that history may not judge him too kindly.&ldquo;Probably not,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I know a few things. One, I&rsquo;m the first American goalie to win 300 games and that&rsquo;s for my parents, who sacrificed so much for me. Two, I&rsquo;ve won two Stanley Cups and no one can ever take that away from me. Three, I&rsquo;ve met some great people and made friendships that will last my lifetime and that, to me, is what life is all about.&ldquo;I always knew all I had to do was come back and play. The fans booed me at the start of the year. They&rsquo;re not booing me now. Why? Am I a changed person? No, I&rsquo;m doing my job, I&rsquo;m stopping the puck and that&rsquo;s all they really care about.&rdquo;And if he ceases to do that job, what then?&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through enough in my life that what people I don&rsquo;t know have to say about me doesn&rsquo;t have any impact,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;I keep a picture here in my locker of my daughter when she was near death. Any time I do get feeling too bad about something, I take a look at that picture and I realize how good I have it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Remarkable rebound

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editop-in-Chief</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011890/7934859-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur backstopped the Devils to 43 victories including 10 by shutout. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/BBS)</figcaption></div>We&rsquo;ve had our say all season.Now it&rsquo;s your turn.Tell us who should be on the annual THN Readers&rsquo; Choice All-Star Teams by filling in the ballot on this page. Top candidates at each position are listed in alphabetical order, but feel free to add write-in candidates.This is, after all, your team.It promises to be a tougher job even than Bob Clarke had in assembling the Canadian Olympic team. But since it&rsquo;s a secret ballot, you won&rsquo;t have to take the same flak for your picks.Unless you should reveal them to fellow GM wannabes.We know only this much for sure: There will be 100 per-cent turnover in all-stars from the 1996-97 team at one position.Last season&rsquo;s first team left winger Mario Lemieux has retired and second teamer Paul Kariya played just 22 games because of a contract dispute and post-concussion syndrome.Had Kariya played something approximating a full season, he would have most assuredly joined John LeClair of the Philadelphia Flyers and Keith Tkachuk of the Phoenix Coyotes as leading candidates at left wing.As it is, Kariya established league highs in goals per game (.77) and points per game (1.4), albeit in only 22 games.The Mighty Duck of Anaheim had 17 goals and 31 points before being cut down by a Gary Suter crosscheck.Second to Kariya in those categories were teammate Teemu Selanne in goals (.71), with 52 in 73 games, and NHL scoring leader Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins in points (1.31), with 100 in 76 games. Leading the way in assists per game was Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche (.93), with 66 in 71 games.Tragedy robbed another 1996-97 second team all-star of a chance to repeat. Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov&rsquo;s career was ended by a car accident last summer.Last year&rsquo;s first team was composed of Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; center Eric Lindros, Lemieux, Selanne, defensemen Brian Leetch of the New York Rangers and Chris Chelios of the Chicago Blackhawks and goalie Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres.Leetch, the leading votegetter last year, isn&rsquo;t even on the ballot this year after experiencing a cold, cold season in Manhattan. He has had the minus touch all season and was at minus-37 with one game to go.The 1996-97 second team was comprised of Rangers&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky, Kariya, Jagr, New Jersey Devils&rsquo; defenseman Scott Stevens, Konstantinov and Devils&rsquo; goalie Martin Brodeur.Your consensus choices for the 1997-98 Readers&rsquo; Choice All-Star Teams will be announced in the first June issue when we tee up the Stanley Cup final. &#9632;

f0010-01

Let your voice be heard

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011679/7934890-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="384" height="505"></div>Whodunit? Houda? Wasn&rsquo;t even in town, let alone anywhere near the scene of the crime.Almost two months later, lips remain more sealed than a goal behind Dominik Hasek. Not since the last time fans gathered at the Saddledome for a Flames&rsquo; game has there been such a conspiracy of silence.Nobody saw the ugly Americans who did the dirty deeds in the Olympic Village at Nagano. Everybody in the suites occupied by the U.S. hockey players was sleeping more soundly than the Senators during a Jacques Martin pep talk. Those not lying in their beds getting sprayed with enough chemicals to mutate Krzysztof Oliwa were out drinking milk with gold-medal winning women hockey players.Chris Chelios sent a check to cover the damage, but the Gary Bettman looked at it like Petr Nedved does his faxes from Craig Patrick. Not enough. The U.S. Olympic committee and Gary Bettman want names. They want an apology more tearful than Glen Sather everytime he has to issue Andrei Kovalenko a paycheck.The big suits want the little boys who trashed the room worse than Gino Odjick trashed Mark Messier to come forward like men. That way, they can hang them out worse than Dave Gagner when he has to reach back for an Ed Jovanovski outlet pass when Darius Kasparaitis is in the vicinity.Officials didn&rsquo;t get a confession before departure from Nagano, when they could have threatened the perpetrators with pulled passports or a middle seat between Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick on the 12-hour ride home. Instead, the team was allowed to scatter like Rangers off the Colin Campbell bandwagon.Now, there is about as much chance of finding out the truth as Tony Tavares has of getting a character reference from Ron Wilson.Mike Richter says what happened was childish and regrettable, but still overblown, that you could have cleaned up all the damage with a vacuum even faster than Mike Keenan cleaned house in Vancouver. True, there may have been more foam in that suite than has ever come out of Pierre Page&rsquo;s mouth. But the Americans also became an easier target for outrage because they lost.The guys were drunk from the time they got off the plane, cared about as much as Todd Gill does for Darryl Sutter and then used the loss to the Czechs as an excuse to bust up the place worse than Mario Tremblay ever wrecked a team. If, whoever tried to put Richter out like a campfire would come forward now, he would have to admit not only to a destructive and stupid prank, but the Lindbergh kidnapping, too.We&rsquo;ll bet there has been worse, unreported, damage in dressing room victory celebrations, more severe injuries when Petr Svoboda last missed a game because of shampoo in his eyes. But the U.S.O.C. wants blood.It is withholding the invitations to the White House. Oooohh, that really stings, as if the players are so stupid they don&rsquo;t know a joint as classy as the President&rsquo;s home would have sprinklers, not fire extinguishers. No fun there. The Olympic Committee also suggested that none of these guys be allowed to play in Salt Lake City in 2002. Sure, we have all kinds of players who could go instead. We&rsquo;ll send the Ferraro brothers.What these stuffed Olympic shirts don&rsquo;t realize is there are better ways to get the information. Granted, Winnipeg is out of the NHL, so you can no longer threaten the players with a trade. But you could make them share a locker with Claude Lemieux, negotiate a contract with Bob Pulford, go to any party with Pat Bums.You could require the suspects to drive a bus that has Scotty Bowman riding in the first seat, try to get info out of Craig Patrick, wait for an answer from Ken Dryden, attend sensitivity training with Esa Tikkanen, second guess a strategy decision face-to-face with Jacques Lemaire, hand out a Sixth Man trophy on Fan Appreciation Day in Greensboro, invite John Muckier and Ted Nolan for dinner, or speak at a &lsquo;Mike Keenan Was Misunderstood Rally&rsquo; in St. Louis.Just the threat and they&rsquo;ll crack like Tommy Salo&rsquo;s head under attack from Dan Cloutier&rsquo;s fists. We&rsquo;ll get to the bottom of this faster than the Lightning can get to the bottom of the standings. &#9632;

f0011-01

COLUMNISTS

Bus ride with Bowman may make trashers crack

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011843/7934921-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glen Murray scored the first hat trick of his career this season. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/BBS)</figcaption></div>If Glen Murray had a dash of Jeremy Roenick-like bravado, it might give him that lucrative ad campaign to match his blossoming game.Picture the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; right winger leaning on a truck outside his lakeside cottage, five minutes down the road from his hometown of Bridgewater, N.S., where his parents still live. Roll camera.&ldquo;Whenever I hit the skids, I know I have to get back to playing G.M. hockey,&rdquo; Murray says, tapping the hood. &ldquo;As straight ahead as my favorite backwoods pick-up.&rdquo;One problem: Murray would never be able to pull it off. He&rsquo;d gag trying to get the phrase &ldquo;G.M. hockey&rdquo; out of his mouth.J.R.-style self-aggrandizement from a guy who even according to his mother has a confidence problem? Not on your life.Murray, you see, is a merry, modest Mari-timer, as laid back as a Laz-boy on Sunday afternoon. He has the body of a battleship, the mindset of a schooner.&ldquo;I think he got it from his grandfathers, actually. They were both kind of quiet, shy men,&rdquo; said his mother Irene in a heavy Scottish brogue (Murray&rsquo;s father Ian is also Scottish). &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping his confidence will grow so that one day he&rsquo;ll say &lsquo;Yeah, I played well.&rsquo;&rdquo;Don&rsquo;t put much value in Murray&rsquo;s bashful, aw-shucks who-me routine. Give him a chance and he can nearly talk himself right out of the NHL.His agent, Anton Thun, called him to pass on congratulations after Murray scored the first hat trick of his six-year career April 13 against the Calgary Flames, but all Thun found out was how great Murray&rsquo;s teammates were playing. Murray sloughed off the praise like an unwanted birthday.&ldquo;Every once in a while, just say &lsquo;Yeah, I had a good game,&rsquo;&rdquo; Thun told him.It was the same story a couple weeks earlier when Murray beat Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Dimitri Yushkevich to the puck to scored an eyebrow-raising goal on a breakaway. Murray explained it by saying he had the angle on Yushkevich-not caring to mention that he blew by the speedy Steve Sullivan to get there, showing the kind of footspeed not often associated with 6-foot-2, 220-pounders.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how I was brought up,&rdquo; said the 25-year-old. &ldquo;Take it in stride and not just talk about yourself all the time. I don&rsquo;t like it and that&rsquo;s just me.&rdquo;Murray is far more expressive on the ice. Watch him closely as he barrels down the wing, sets up high in the slot and sends the red light spinning with a quick roll of his wrists. Murray will have to put together more than one season like this one, but when he&rsquo;s at his best, he looks an awful lot like Brendan Shanahan.And the comparisons may not be all that far-fetched. Murray has Shanahan-calibre size and shot. His skating is better than the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; star left winger. Their numbers this season were virtually identical: Shanahan had 28 goals and 57 points in 75 games, Murray 29 and 59 in 80 games.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s quicker than Shanahan but Shanahan may be a little tougher,&rdquo; said Kings&rsquo; coach Larry Robinson. &ldquo;Shanahan maybe positions himself a little better to get off a shot whereas Glen is just learning to do that.&rdquo;Before this season, Murray&rsquo;s highest point total of his career was 31. But before this season, Murray never really expected more of himself. With the Boston Bruins and later Pittsburgh Penguins, he was the project with potential.Until last March, when he was traded from the Penguins to Los Angeles for Ed 01-czyk, the timing was never right for him to feel he had to break through. Part of the reason the Kings&rsquo; have been so successful this season is Murray, for the first time in his career, appears ready to take on a leading role.&ldquo;It kind of helps when you know the coach wants to depend on you, wants you to be the guy to make the team go, I guess,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Now that I have that little more confidence, it&rsquo;s great, I love it.&rdquo;Still, even in what has to be considered a breakthrough season, Robinson said the player is only scratching the surface. If Murray puts his mind to it-if he decides he wants the pressure that comes with earning a reputation as a goal scorer-Robinson believes he can be a better player than his vaunted playmaking linemate, Jozef Stumpel.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about better than Stumpy. He&rsquo;s a helluva player,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Maybe, I don&rsquo;t know. I mean, strange things have happened.&rdquo;Such as the likelihood he&rsquo;ll cash in on a $250,000 salary bonus (giving him $850,000 for the year) for reaching 60 points and leading his team in goals.Yes, Glen Murray can be an impact player in this league. Stranger things have happened. &#9632;

f0012-01

Leading man in L.A.

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>Mike O&rsquo;Connell is as much of a Ray Bourque expert as anyone, and is definitely more qualified to marvel at the Boston Bruins&rsquo; captain than the next guy.O&rsquo;Connell, the Bruins&rsquo; 41-year-old assistant GM, hasn&rsquo;t played an NHL game in eight years. He says Bourque, not all that much younger at 37, isn&rsquo;t just still in the game-he&rsquo;s still the Bruins&rsquo; most important player.&ldquo;I can see where people may look at Raymond&rsquo;s point total this season, then look at his age, and think maybe his game is going down,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Connell, who played alongside, against and coached Bourque. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t see what we see, though. Sure we&rsquo;re partial, but we know Raymond has been terrific for us all year long.&rdquo;There has been speculation about whether 1998-99 will mark the end of the line for Bourque. The subject came up April 11, when Bourque&rsquo;s agent, Steve Freyer, said he made &ldquo;a rookie mistake&rdquo; by discussing the subject at length during a TV interview with THN columnist Stan Fischler. Bourque, who has said all season he&rsquo;s not ready to make a decision about playing past next year, repeated that after the 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils that day. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I&rsquo;m done or nothing,&rdquo; Bourque snapped. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re hearing that from me. That&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;That post-game exchange was one of the few times this season Bourque hasn&rsquo;t had a smile on his face. He has had a great time in his 19th season, which included a berth on Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team and his 16th All-Star Game appearance, and while his scoring may be down, Bourque has again put together a stellar season: Through 80 games (Bourque hadn&rsquo;t missed any), his 13 goals and 47 points were still top-10 figures among NHL defenders.&ldquo;This year has gone great,&rdquo; Bourque said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve changed the way we play since (coach Pat Bums) came in, and I think it has worked out great for everyone.&rdquo;Burns&rsquo; tight system is probably the main reason Bourque, who has ten seasons of 80 points or more, hasn&rsquo;t scored as regularly as in the past. His adaptation to the system, on the other hand, is one of the main reasons Boston has been able to shave a goal per game off last season&rsquo;s worst-in-the-league figure of 3.61. The result is a return to the playoffs after a last overall finish last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011687/7934952-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="920" height="1589"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque has had a long feud with Mats Sundin. (Photo by Claus Andersen/BBS)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think this season is a huge credit to Ray, because he could certainly score more points if he wanted,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;Instead, the most important player on this team bought into the system. I don&rsquo;t think you can say the same about a lot of the so-called stars in this league.&rdquo;Burns laughs at the notion fewer points from Bourque mean the future Hall-of-Famer has contributed less. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s points are down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all anybody talks about. Guys with multi-million-dollar contracts are scoring 14 goals.&ldquo;Ray has been the catalyst of the whole hockey club when it comes to our defensive play.&rdquo;Bourque, paired since early November almost exclusively with rookie Hal Gill, doesn&rsquo;t play any less than he ever has. Games in which he plays fewer than 30 minutes are rare, though time spent on the ice with Boston&rsquo;s top two offensive lines isn&rsquo;t as plentiful. Bums usually has Bourque and Gill behind Boston&rsquo;s checking trio of P-J Axelsson, Tim Taylor and Rob DiMaio.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve felt great all year,&rdquo; Bourque said. &ldquo;The way we play now, the minutes aren&rsquo;t as tough as they used to be for me.&rdquo;Last year was one of those seasons when things were tough. Bourque missed 20 games with nagging injuries, but the 62 he played might have been more painful.&ldquo;Last year was very difficult for Ray,&rdquo; Freyer said. &ldquo;It was hard for hockey to be fun for him, but this year has been a major change. I can see more of a spring in his step.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s a bit more of an edge to his game, too. Bourque, who had never been ejected from a game in his first 18 seasons, has been tossed twice in 1997-98. Once was for hitting Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; right winger Jaromir Jagr from behind; the other was for instigating a fight with Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; center Mats Sundin, with whom Bourque has feuded since Sundin&rsquo;s days as a Quebec Nordique. Bourque&rsquo;s 78 penalty minutes were the second most of his career-he had 96 in 1980-81.The Bruins have no intention of asking their franchise scoring leader (No. 2 to Paul Coffey on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time list for defensemen) when he might decide to extinguish that flame.&ldquo;Raymond&rsquo;s going to let us know when he&rsquo;s ready,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;If he decides he wants to play after next year, then we&rsquo;d definitely love to sit down and talk with him.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

Bourque still a Killer ‘B’

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>In this, The Year of the Concussion, it&rsquo;s a good thing Jarrod Skalde has been able to keep from having his bell rung.You can just picture the trainer looking at Skalde and saying, &ldquo;Do you know where you are?&rdquo;Skalde probably wouldn&rsquo;t be able to tell him and it would have less to do with his state of mind than not knowing what state he was in. Skalde has been the NHL&rsquo;s journeyman this season, bouncing between the west and mid-west with the frequency of a travelling salesman.Three different times this season Skalde has been a member of the San Jose Sharks. Twice he has been with the Chicago Blackhawks and once he was a Dallas Star. Even Michel Petit, who has played on 10 teams in his 15-year NHL career, can&rsquo;t touch Skalde&rsquo;s record of five teams in a season.&ldquo;I think at the beginning it was a little bit of a game (between the organizations),&rdquo; said Skalde, a 27-year-old center. &ldquo;It was like, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s bring him in and see what he can do as a depth player.&rsquo; Besides, that&rsquo;s what the waiver wire is for-to keep guys up. And it kept me up an extra three months.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011829/7934990-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="718" height="1159"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jarrod Skalde played 22 games with the San Jose Sharks this season&hellip; (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios)</figcaption></div>Each time Skalde changed organizations, he was plucked off the waiver wire. After three years of pro, players must be put on waivers before being demoted to the minors. Each time Skalde was claimed it cost the team taking him $15,000.There were a couple of other notable waiver wire pick-ups this season. Ray Whitney scored one goal in nine games with the Edmonton Oilers before being placed on waivers and scooped by the Florida Panthers, for whom he managed a team-leading 33 goals. And Tony Hrkac, a veteran pro, was rescued from the minors by Dallas and scored five goals and eight points in 13 games for the Stars before being placed on waivers. The Oilers grabbed him and he had eight goals and 19 points in 35 games for them.Skalde, who played in 48 NHL games with the New Jersey Devils, Mighty Ducks of Ana-heim and Calgary Flames prior to this season, managed four goals and 11 points in 30 games with the Sharks, Blackhawks and Stars. He expects to spend the remainder of the season with the Kentucky Thoroughblades of the American League-unless he gets called up to play with the Sharks in the playoffs.Skalde should be used to the travel. Even though he has only been a pro since 1990-91, he takes up as much space in the NHL Guide and Record Book as most 15-year veterans. Throughout his career, Skalde has played for the Utica Devils, Baltimore Bandits and Saint John Flames of the AHL and the Cincinnati Cyclones, San Diego Gulls and Las Vegas Thunder of the International League.The truth of the matter is the 6-foot, 175-pound Skalde is a fringe NHLer, or as they like to say these days, a depth player. He has enough skill and is priced low enough ($350,000 big league salary) that he commands the attention of a team in need of a competent third- or fourth-liner. The 26th overall pick of the Devils in the 1989 entry draft was a junior scoring ace with the Oshawa Generals and Belleville Bulls of the Ontario League, but has not been able to duplicate his inflated amateur numbers to the NHL level.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good player,&rdquo; said Chicago coach Craig Hartsburg. &ldquo;He has decent skills and speed. He&rsquo;s a great depth player. The problem was you couldn&rsquo;t get him to your minor league team without somebody taking him.&rdquo;Skalde attended the Sharks&rsquo; training camp after signing with them as a free agent over the summer, but was sent to Kentucky about 10 days before the NHL season began. He was recalled by the Sharks after six AHL games and stayed with the team until Jan. 8. During that stint he was in and out of the lineup.After being claimed by the Blackhawks Jan. 8, he played four straight games and then became a healthy scratch. The Hawks tried to send him down on Super Bowl weekend, but the Sharks reclaimed him. However, they told him to hang loose in Chicago for the weekend.&ldquo;It was kind of like a vacation,&rdquo; Skalde said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021382/7934983-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="720" height="1159"><figcaption class="caption-body">&hellip;but he almost made his first team picture with the Chicago Blackhawks.</figcaption></div>While in Chicago, he got a call from Stars&rsquo; management and was told they had claimed him. So it was off to Dallas. One day later the team left on a week-long road trip, with Skalde in tow, even though he didn&rsquo;t dress for a game.He played one game for the Stars, a home contest against the Philadelphia Flyers, before being put on waivers and being claimed by Chicago.&ldquo;The Stars were very up front with me,&rdquo; Skalde said. &ldquo;They said they had injuries and when their players were healthy I&rsquo;d be sent down.&rdquo;He played three more games with the Blackhawks before&hellip;you guessed it&hellip;he was put on waivers and claimed by the Sharks.&ldquo;San Jose told me from the beginning they&rsquo;d keep picking me up,&rdquo; Skalde said.By now, the joke wasn&rsquo;t so funny. Skalde&rsquo;s fiance, Erin Lucas, was about to have the couple&rsquo;s first child and she had been travelling with him faithfully. Each transaction meant finding a new doctor.&ldquo;I got better at it,&rdquo; Lucas said. &ldquo;I started carrying my medical records with me. Every time I&rsquo;d visit the doctor, I&rsquo;d get a photocopy of the record just in case we had to move again.&rdquo;Jarrod&rsquo;s and Erin&rsquo;s baby girl-True Elijah&mdash;was bom in Lexington, Ky., April 1. No joking.The couple, who plan to marry in the summer of 1999, have spent the entire year living in hotels. They started the season with a hockey bag each for clothes, but by the time they moved back to Kentucky after their tour of the NHL, they were travelling with two hockey bags and 10 suitcases.Skalde thinks he actually forced one of his many moves himself.&ldquo;The last time I was in Chicago a team photo was scheduled for the following day and I told one of the guys I had never been in an NHL team picture,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you know it, the next day I was gone.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Skalde’s moving experience

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03955/7935021-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="388" height="506"></div>Jokingly asked if he should be included on The Hockey News&rsquo; annual all-star ballot this season, Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman Chris Chelios responded: &ldquo;This hasn&rsquo;t been an all-star year for me. Not by a long shot.&rdquo;He wasn&rsquo;t smiling.Of course Chelios will be on the ballot-and deservedly so. Not matter what you say about Chelios&rsquo; deflated numbers this season, he remains one of the best defenders in the game.His inability to produce offensively mirrors the plight of the entire team. Chelios had three goals and 42 points in 80 games. The Black-hawks had the NHL&rsquo;s eighth best goals-against record, but were tied for 22nd in goals scored. That&rsquo;s the main reason why they will miss the playoffs for the first time in 29 years and why they suffered 21 one-goal losses this season.Chelios&rsquo; numbers are depressingly low. In fact, with one regular season game remaining, he was about to have his least productive full year since his sophomore campaign with the Montreal Canadiens in 1985-86. As a result, there&rsquo;s no talk of the three-time Norris Trophy winner winning a fourth this season.Yet the 36-year-old remains the cornerstone around which the future of the Hawks will be re-built. He led all NHL defenseman in minutes played with an average of 30.4 per game. Nobody is pointing the finger at Chelios as the reason why the Hawks wet the bed this season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the difference between the Hawks being where they are, in a playoff race, and being the worst team in the Western Conference,&rdquo; said one Hawks&rsquo; observer.Chelios said this season he has had to pay more attention to defense than worry about scoring.&ldquo;A good example is the other night against the Rangers,&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;I was out against (Wayne) Gretzky&rsquo;s line all night and I would go out with (checker) Brent Sutter&rsquo;s line. That&rsquo;s not a good combination for me to think about scoring.&rdquo;Chicago coach Craig Hartsburg said he has been pleased with the team&rsquo;s work ethic. And he said the team&rsquo;s knowledge of and willingness to play a solid defensive game has made it as competitive as it has been.&ldquo;But when you have three guys in the 20s in goals and then there&rsquo;s a huge drop off to 11 or 12 or 13, then you have a problem,&rdquo; Hartsburg said. &ldquo;Scoring goals is a talent and it&rsquo;s something you can&rsquo;t teach.&rdquo;Left winger Eric Daze led the Hawks in goals with 31, but his play was inconsistent. When he&rsquo;s good, he&rsquo;s very good. But when he&rsquo;s not, there&rsquo;s a huge dip in his performance.Two other players the Hawks count on for goals, Tony Amonte and Alexei Zhamnov, had sub-par seasons. One year after scoring a career-high 41 goals, Amonte slipped to 30 with one game to go. Zhamnov was incredible in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, scoring 30 goals in 48 games, but has been a mere 20-goal man since.Chelios has tried to remain patient, but he knows time is running out. If the Blackhawks aren&rsquo;t major players in the free agent market this summer, he knows next season will be another frustrating one.Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues has said he&rsquo;d be interested in playing in Chicago if the Blues don&rsquo;t give him a no-trade clause. Doug Gilmour of the New Jersey Devils hasn&rsquo;t been happy with the offers he has received and would move.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to give up on Chicago,&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;This is my home town. If I was going through this anywhere else, I&rsquo;d probably feel differently. I want to win with Chicago.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-03

Chelios won’t give up on Hawks

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011668/7935059-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="384" height="533"></div>This figures to be the year of the Stanley Cup upset. As in perhaps the Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks, Edmonton Oilers or Boston Bruins purloining the pewter.Don&rsquo;t laugh. It was just 60 years ago when the Chicago Blackhawks pulled of the upset of all Cup upsets. In 1937-38, the Hawks finished lower than the Titanic (14-25-9), yet beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the final.An upset like that figures to happen every half-century or so, and if it could happen then why not now? Here are the possibilities:The hot goalie factor With Dominik Hasek in net, the sky&rsquo;s the limit for the Buffalo Sabres. All The Dominator needs is an early goal from Miroslav Satan or Donald Audette and the enemy starts thinking it&rsquo;s shooting against a closed vault. What&rsquo;s more, Hasek loves his coach this year, so he should be happy enough to play through Independence Day.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021184/7935052-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="511" height="971"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Weight</figcaption></div>Super clutchability The Sharks possess four of the most reliable players in NHL playoff annals. Start with John MacLean, who provided more vital goals than anyone in New Jersey Devils&rsquo; history. Then there&rsquo;s Stephane Matteau, the 1994 New York Rangers double-overtime hero. For big stops, how about a Cup-winning goalie like Mike Vernon, who also has a Conn Smythe Trophy on his shelf. Toss in Mike Ricci, whose Colorado Cup ring still shines.Speed kills Didn&rsquo;t Edmonton pull off the biggest upset last spring, knocking out the Dallas Fatcats? The Oilers are primed again, but with an even better arsenal.Orchestrated by underrated Doug Weight, the Oilers offense makes you wonder why it nearly missed the playoffs this spring. Bill Guerin, Dean McAmmond and Ryan Smyth may not be Hall of Famers, but with blueline blasters such as Roman Hamrlik, Janne Niinimaa (what was Bob Clarke thinking?) and Boris Mironov there&rsquo;s more firepower than the entire Swiss Army.And we all know what goaltender Curtis Joseph is capable of in the playoffs.Overdue No NHL team has waited longer between Cups than Ottawa. To be precise, it is now 71 years since the Senators marched past the Houses of Parliament in their Stanley Cup parade. One might say the Law of Averages is on their side, not to mention the m.p.h. of Alexei Yashin, Daniel Alfredsson and Shawn McEachern.Both Wade Redden and Chris Phillips have Norris Trophy potential and when the moon is full, goalie Damian Rhodes has been known to do a pretty good Georges Vezina imitation.Why they are here On paper, the Bruins are the most mediocre plus-,500 club since the invention of double-runners. But Pat Bums has preached the gospel of team play all year long and his B&rsquo;s have seen the light. Nobody-with the possible exception of 26 NHL coaches-takes them seriously as Cup contenders. Why would you when their starting goalie, Byron Dafoe, has a grand total of three games of playoff experience? Or when their leading scorer, Jason Allison, has no NHL playoff games to his credit and therefore no goals, assists nor playoff points. Raymond Bourque has been asked to carry the entire team in the past, but the difference this year is he hasn&rsquo;t had to. The Bruins have Bums behind the bench. Enough said.Sleeping giants Underachievers can become achievers in spring. Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk and Oleg Tverdovsky are better than their regular season stats, Nikolai Khabibulin made a name for himself against the Detroit Red Wings in the playoffs and let&rsquo;s not forget that exactly a decade ago, Jim Schoenfeld directed the Devils to their first-ever playoff and two straight (Islanders, Capitals) upsets before losing to Boston in seven games because of the greatest save Reggie Lemelin ever made in his life.Capital offense If Joe Reekie is healthy, anything is possible! &#9632;

f0015-01

NHL dogs will have their days in playoffs

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-05419/7935121-1-eng-US/f0015-052.jpg" title="f0015-05" width="575" height="893"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michael Peca</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04604/7935128-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="159" height="155"></div>What looked to be a healthy cruise to the finish and beyond has for the Buffalo Sabres ended up as a trip onto the rocks.All-world goaltender Dominik Hasek had an inner-ear infection that caused him to miss an April 15 game with the Devils in New Jersey.Hasek was expected to recover in time for the playoffs, but the Sabres lost forwards Michael Peca, Geoff Sanderson and Paul Kruse to injuries. Sanderson suffered a hip injury against the Philadelphia Flyers April 13 and was questionable for the playoffs. Peca and Kruse were both likely to miss the start of the second season.Peca, a candidate to repeat as the Selke Trophy winner, had a mild knee strain and was expected to be out a week. Kruse suffered a more serious knee problem and was likely to miss two weeks. Sanderson, who was expected to shoulder the scoring load after Jason Dawe was traded to the New York Islanders, could return during the playoffs, but his one of his greatest assets-speed-could be limited by the hip pointer.The injuries couldn&rsquo;t have come at a worse time. After a season of experimentation, the Sabres had finally set up four workable lines. Kruse had found a home on the left side with center Wayne Primeau and Rob Ray. Peca is the Sabres&rsquo; premier penalty killer.&ldquo;Our objective had been to secure home ice and stay healthy,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; coach Lindy Ruff. &ldquo;Obviously we&rsquo;re going to have to make adjustments.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Steve Shields got the start in Dominik Hasek&rsquo;s absence against New Jersey April 15, but lost in overtime. The loss knocked the Sabres out of fourth place in the Eastern Conference race with two games to go in what ended up as a wild sprint to the finish involving the Sabres, Boston, Montreal and Washington. The Sabres beat the Bruins and the Canadiens and registered an uplifting 2-1 triumph over Philadelphia April 13 despite the return of center Eric Lindros&hellip;Hasek was brilliant in the win against Philadelphia, stopping 30 of 31 shots&hellip; Hasek has gotten a lot of attention for his league-leading 13 shutouts. He has also notched 16 games in which he allowed just one goal. &#9632;

f0015-05

Bad time for key injuries

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-06338/7935159-1-eng-US/f0015-062.jpg" title="f0015-06" width="161" height="158"></div>It wasn&rsquo;t easy for Tim Taylor to leave the Detroit Red Wings via the September waiver draft, but the way his season has unfolded, it may be almost impossible to get him to leave the Boston Bruins this spring.Taylor added two more unexpected moments to an excellent season April 15 at the Molson Centre in Montreal in a 6-2 win over the Canadiens. First came a nifty backhand goal against Jocelyn Thibault on Taylor&rsquo;s first NHL penalty shot. Next was a second-period power-play goal-Taylor&rsquo;s first of the season-that gave him his first 20-goal campaign and triggered a modest bonus contained in the contract Boston inherited from the Red Wings.&ldquo;To be honest, the milestone means more than the money,&rdquo; said Taylor, who had 15 goals in 139 NHL games entering the season. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll always remember.&rdquo;Prior to the Montreal game, Taylor had scored in almost every other situation-at even strength, while shorthanded, as the sixth attacker in a game&rsquo;s final minute and into an empty-net.&ldquo;It was a relief to get to 20,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I guess it&rsquo;s pretty rare the way I finally got there. You never expect a penalty shot, and I had kind of thought this was gong to end up being my first year without a powerplay goal. Usually I manage to end up with one or two, but this year I haven&rsquo;t seen a lot of power-play time.&rdquo;Small wonder. The 20 goals aside, he&rsquo;s most valuable centering rookie left winger P-J Axelsson and veteran right winger Rob DiMaio on Boston&rsquo;s checking line.The 29-year-old Taylor, eligible for restricted free agency this summer, has followed his former teammates in Detroit, but doesn&rsquo;t spend much time wondering what might have been.&ldquo;Maybe I wouldn&rsquo;t have done this in Detroit; maybe I would have,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You never know. The fact is, I changed teams and I&rsquo;m happy here. Personally, things have worked out for the better.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Don Sweeney&rsquo;s hoped-for return before the end of the regular season didn&rsquo;t pan out. An April 16 bone scan on the shoulder Sweeney fractured March 1, then had surgically repaired, revealed the bone wasn&rsquo;t ready for contact. That pushed his return back to Game 5 of Boston&rsquo;s first-round playoff series, at the earliest&hellip;Boston saved itself some off-season work by signing utility forward Mike Sullivan, who was headed for restricted free agency, through next season. Sullivan, 30, will probably be exposed in June&rsquo;s expansion draft, but the Bruins hope he&rsquo;s not selected&hellip;Center Jason Allison missed his first game of the season April 15 at Montreal with a minor groin strain. &#9632;

f0015-06

Taylor rides waive to great year

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011622/7935190-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="162" height="161"></div>In a year when some of their younger players took a backward step, the Calgary Flames were well satisfied with the progress of defenseman Jamie Allison.In September, the defense-deep Flames toyed with the idea of turning the rugged Allison into a winger. Allison, 22, played a lot of left wing in training camp, but didn&rsquo;t make the team and was sent to the Saint John Flames of the American League, where coach Bill Stewart put him back on the blueline.By the time Allison returned to the NHL in early November, the experiment was over.&ldquo;(The season) turned out a lot better than I thought at the beginning,&rdquo; said Allison, who recorded three goals, 11 points and 104 penalty minutes in 43 games during his rookie season. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve really accomplished something this year.&rdquo;Coach Brian Sutter developed a real appreciation for Allison, especially when he wasn&rsquo;t available to play. Allison broke his thumb earlier in the season and then suffered a concussion, keeping him out of the lineup down the stretch as the Flames faded from the playoff picture. Sutter thought Allison&rsquo;s absence had a lot of to with the team&rsquo;s late-season struggles.&ldquo;Playing without Allie and Simmer (Todd Simpson) is like trying to walk without your two big toes,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;When they&rsquo;re out, other teams try to take advantage.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Rick Tabaracci may have to undergo surgery to repair a small tear in his abdominal wall. Tabaracci had been bothered by an abdominal pull for several weeks, but the team had kept the injury quiet in the hopes he could play through it. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t tell anybody it&rsquo;s there,&rdquo; Tabaracci said. &ldquo;If I did, all I&rsquo;d do is get run over more often.&rdquo;&hellip;To replace Tabaracci, the Flames recalled 19-year-old goalie Tyrone Garner from Oshawa of the Ontario League (via Saint John of the American League). Gamer, who went to the AHL after his junior team was eliminated, had been in Saint John for less than a day when he got the word to fly across the country to Los Angeles to join the Flames. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something you always dream of,&rdquo; Gamer said. &#9632;

f0016-01

Allison enjoys fine season after getting wings clipped

<div class="byline">By Steve Politi</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03949/7935221-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="579" height="900"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Maurice</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021259/7935228-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="161" height="159"></div>You can take the Whalers out of Hartford, but you can&rsquo;t put them in the playoffs.For the sixth straight season, the team formerly known as the Whalers-now the Carolina Hurricanes-is not one of the 16 teams in the NHL postseason. Only four teams in NHL history have had a playoff drought longer than that.Despite a charge at the end of the season, including a 7-2-1 run comprised of mostly road wins, the Hurricanes couldn&rsquo;t make up for a 1-7-2 start to catch the Ottawa Senators.&ldquo;The bottom line is you don&rsquo;t rely on someone else to do your work, you&rsquo;ve got to take care of it yourself,&rdquo; said captain Kevin Dineen. &ldquo;That didn&rsquo;t happen (for us) from October until January, and that&rsquo;s where we knocked ourselves out of the play-offs-early in the season.&rdquo;With the playoff no-show comes the usual questions. Will coach Paul Maurice keep his job? Will GM Jim Rutherford make major changes? Who won&rsquo;t be with the team next year?Maurice, 31, completed his third season as coach with his third straight playoff no-show.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to sit down and talk with (team owner) Pete (Karmanos), but I doubt there&rsquo;ll be a change,&rdquo; Rutherford said. &ldquo;With the team we had. I think he did a good job.&rdquo;Maurice takes much of the blame for the playoff no-show. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll still be evaluated just like each player, and I should be,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s my job. We obviously haven&rsquo;t overachieved.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With Pittsburgh locked into the division lead and the Hurricanes eliminated. Pittsburgh forwards Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Stu Barnes, defenseman Kevin Hatcher, goalie Tom Barrasso. Carolina goalie Trevor Kidd, forwards Gary Roberts. Jeff O&rsquo;Neill. Ray Sheppard and defensemen Steve Chiasson and Kevin Haller did not play in an April 16 game&hellip;For the record, the four teams with longer playoff droughts than Carolina are Boston (1959-60 to 1966-67), Detroit (1970-71 to 1976-77), New Jersey (197879 to 1986-87) and Washington (1974-75 to 1981-82)&hellip;Kidd completed the season with an impressive 2.17 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage, both franchise records. &#9632;

f0016-03

New location, same ending

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04717/7935259-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="163" height="159"></div>For the first time in 29 years, the Stanley Cup playoffs will proceed without the Chicago Blackhawks.With only three weeks left in the season, the Hawks were sitting sixth in the Western Conference only to lose five in a row and eight of 10 down the stretch, never scoring more than two goals in any of those games.Sweeping changes were promised by owner Bill Wirtz, who in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times failed to give either GM Bob Murray or coach Craig Hartsburg ringing endorsements.&ldquo;Every poor executive has a logical excuse for each problem,&rdquo; Wirtz said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t believe in excuses. You get paid for performance.&rdquo;While Murray and Hartsburg were expected to return, the third-year coach said the organization must make wholesale changes, and not just one or two players.&ldquo;This team cannot go on this way,&rdquo; Hartsburg said. &ldquo;It needs a total overhaul. Everything. That&rsquo;s the bottom line. If I&rsquo;m a change, then so be it.&rdquo;The Hawks&rsquo; offense was pathetic from start to finish. Tony Amonte was the only consistent scoring threat. Eric Daze topped 30 goals, but was far too streaky. Alexei Zhamnov failed to reach the 50-point mark, hardly the kind of numbers expected from your No. 1 center and highest-paid forward.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still trying to figure out if he&rsquo;s a top player in this league. Maybe we overestimated him,&rdquo; Hallsburg said.In all, the Hawks had lost 21 games by one goal and 48 times they scored two goals or fewer.In addition to the poor offense, the Hawks were consistently run out of buildings physically and finished 1419-8 at the United Center.&ldquo;For some players to be nonchalant at home, I don&rsquo;t understand it.&rdquo; Wirtz said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s as if some of these players are collecting (salaries) under false pretenses.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Cam Russell was expected to miss the last two games of the year after suffering a concussion in a fight with Tie Domi of Toronto in a 3-2 loss April 15. Russell also re-injured his right rotator cuff in the fight&hellip;Center Brent Sutter was set to play the final game of his 17-ycar career April 18 at Dallas. &ldquo;There comes a time when every player has to move on,&rdquo; said the 35-year-old Sutter, who called this season the most disappointing of his career&hellip; Defenseman Chris Chelios appeared in his 1,000th career game April 16 against New Jersey&hellip;Center Alexei Zhamnov broke his right index finger April 15 at Toronto and missed the final two games. &#9632;

f0016-04

Hawks’ long playoff run hits skids

<div class="byline">By Mike Heika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021121/7935321-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="162" height="164"></div>Juha Lind had been sitting out and didn&rsquo;t know if he would play in the playoffs. Dave Reid had played just about every game, but he didn&rsquo;t know if he would play in the playoffs, either.And Ken Hitchcock couldn&rsquo;t have been happier. All this uncertainty meant only one thing-the Stars were healthy. Really healthy, as healthy as they had been all season. And not a moment too soon.&ldquo;The timing is great,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;What this does for us is it gives us a lot of options and a lot of competition within the team for ice time. It&rsquo;s a huge plus.&rdquo;Mike Modano, fresh off signing a six-year, $43.5-million contract, healed from a separated shoulder that sidelined him for 17 games. Players such as forwards Greg Adams, Bob Bassen, Benoit Hogue and defenseman Shawn Chambers were all recovered from their own hurts.That meant no Stars&rsquo; regular was injured and players such as Lind, a rookie, would push the veterans.&ldquo;Lind is a rookie in mind only. He&rsquo;s experienced at the world level,&rdquo; Hitchcock said of the Olympic bronze medalist &ldquo;He has speed, energy, tenacity. He&rsquo;s very good in all those areas.&rdquo;Even so, the 23-year-old who has played the previous four seasons for Jokerit in Finland, isn&rsquo;t stacked in the confidence department.&ldquo;What to expect, I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; Lind said. &ldquo;We have a lot of great players on the left side, so I don&rsquo;t know. I just want chance to show I can play.&rdquo;Lind, Reid, Hogue and Bob Bassen all were expected to compete for two left wing spots. &ldquo;We have Reider, Hoguey, it&rsquo;s tough,&rdquo; Lind said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to get in lineup.&rdquo;But that&rsquo;s just what the Stars needed, Hitch-cock said. The team struggled all season with injuries, losing key players at important times. The injuries created opportunities for players such as Lind, Jamie Wright, Dan Keczmer and Craig Muni. They also pushed players such as Guy Carbonneau, Grant Marshall and Richard Matvichuk to accept larger roles on the team. And once the injuries ended, they could actually be seen as a blessing.&ldquo;We said it at the time that everything we went through could help us once we&rsquo;re through it,&rdquo; Hitchcock said.NOTEBOOK: When center Mike Modano signed his six-year, $43.5-million deal, he said he wants to make his career a one-team thing. Modano said the NHL Players&rsquo; Association asked his agent Howard Gourwitz not to accept a contract this early, hoping that a foray into restricted free agency would raise salaries even more. But Modano said, &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t know where you&rsquo;ll land. (Free agency) is a crapshoot.&rdquo;&hellip;Goalie Ed Belfour broke Stars&rsquo; franchise records for goaltender wins (36 with one game to go), shutouts (nine). With a 1.89 goals-against average, he was also a cinch to break the GAA record. The Stars broke the franchise record for points in a season with a 3-1 win over Detroit April 15. &#9632;

f0017-02

Empty injury list on eve of playoffs sparks healthy fight for playing time

<div class="byline">By Cynthia Lambert</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03806/7935352-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="162" height="163"></div>The old line is injuries are part of the game. But the final games?The Detroit Red Wings, who had only one man-game lost to injury during their four-round run to the Stanley Cup last season (Joe Kocur&rsquo;s sore back), found themselves fretting over three worrisome groin injuries in the week before the start of the playoffs.The first was a lingering one to forward Brent Gilchrist, who hadn&rsquo;t played since March 4 against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. First he rested, then he attempted light workouts. At the end of March it was decided complete rest might be the answer. He began light workouts the second week in April and hoped to play in the final game of the regular season April 18 against the Colorado Avalanche.Even still, that would be his first game action in more than six weeks-not exactly the playoff preparation he would have wanted.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s coming along slowly,&rdquo; Gilchrist said.Coach Scotty Bowman was optimistic Gilchrist&rsquo;s injury was not one that would carry over into the post-season.&ldquo;If he needed to play (in the stretch run of the regular season) he could,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just being careful.&rdquo;The same was said about the groin injuries suffered by captain Steve Yzerman and Igor Larionov in the final two home games of the regular season. Larionov was hurt in the April 9 game against the Phoenix Coyotes, an aggravation of a groin injury that had previously kept him out for two games March 21 and 23.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s happening.&rdquo; Larionov said. &ldquo;My mind feels good and I am ready, but my body does this. Maybe just resting now will help it and this way it won&rsquo;t get worse.&rdquo;Because of that injury, Larionov wasn&rsquo;t scheduled to play in the final four games of the regular season. Yzerman, who sustained what was termed a minor groin injury, wasn&rsquo;t expected to play in the final three games, all on the road.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just being safe,&rdquo; Bowman said.Yzerman said he sustained that injury just by taking a stride in the first period of the April 11 game against the New York Rangers. Then again, the rest came at a good time. Yzerman&rsquo;s wife, Lisa, was expected to give birth to the couple&rsquo;s second child any day.NOTEBOOK: The Red Wings followed up their first six-game winning streak of the season with back-to-back losses at Phoenix and Dallas April 14 and 15&hellip;Coach Scotty Bowman had appealed to the league to change the 7 p.m. game time in Dallas, since there was only 22 hours between the starts of the games, but to no avail. &ldquo;When they scheduled the game they probably didn&rsquo;t realize that Phoenix didn&rsquo;t go on daylight savings time, so that makes it worse,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t realize it would be a two hour time difference from Phoenix. We wanted them to, at least, move the Phoenix game to 7 p.m. (from 7:30 p.m.). But they said they couldn&rsquo;t. So, we&rsquo;re the victims.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-03

Could injury bug take bite out of Wings plan to repeat as champs?

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021144/7935383-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="570" height="903"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andrei Kovalenko</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011502/7935390-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="163" height="162"></div>It took an entire embarrassing season to provoke the threat, but it was finally made to Andrei Kovalenko by Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; GM Glen Sather: Work hard to get into game shape or leave the team.Sather issued the ultimatum after a particularly poor effort by Kovalenko at a practice preceding the Oilers&rsquo; second-last home game. &ldquo;His sweater won&rsquo;t even be damp. He hasn&rsquo;t turned a wheel,&rdquo; said Sather as he watched &lsquo;The Tank&rsquo; dog it through skating drills and line rushes.Granted, Kovalenko is being hampered by a lower back injury, one not serious enough to hold him out of practice. However. Kovalenko said it was too sore to play that night.Sather, who was told by trainer Ken Lowe Kovalenko&rsquo;s disc degeneration is not out of the ordinary, had to take the player at his word. He cannot force him to play if he claims an injury. He can force him to work at rehabbing, however, and that&rsquo;s what Sather did. He sat down beside Kovalenko in the middle of the Oiler dressing room, and told him, in front of some media members, that if he didn&rsquo;t start working full-time with fitness consultant Daryl Duke, Sather would send him packing.It was Sather&rsquo;s last card. And he thinks he played it in vain. He doesn&rsquo;t believe Kovalenko will make a positive contribution in the playoffs.&ldquo;He won&rsquo;t play,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;Are you kidding? He has been one of our worst players all year. He frustrates the hell out of me. I&rsquo;ve never seen a player go this long and not get out of it.&rdquo;Not even former Oiler Petr Klima could work Sather into a lather like Kovalenko manages to do daily.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t find Petr that frustrating,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;He used to turn it on now and then. I&rsquo;d bet him a couple hundred bucks he wouldn&rsquo;t score. He&rsquo;d get three goals. He loved money.&rdquo;Sather would try the same thing with Kovalenko, were it not for the fact he&rsquo;s already getting $1.1 million (U.S.) this season. He had six goals and 23 points in 59 games.&ldquo;Next year he&rsquo;ll probably get 40 (goals) because his contract is up,&rdquo; Sather said. Kovalenko scored 36 times on his way to a two-year, $2.3million (U.S.) contract last summer.Kovalenko would not comment on the GM&rsquo;s ultimatum.NOTEBOOK: Rookie right winger Scott Fraser had five goals and nine points in a five-game streak in April, fresh off his award as rookie of the month in March. In 28 Oiler games he had 12 goals&hellip;Center Doug Weight was named the team&rsquo;s MVP during an awards ceremony prior to the April 15 game against Anaheim. Goalie Curtis Joseph (most popular player), left winger Dean McAmmond (unsung hero), centers Todd Marchant (community service) and Mats Lindgren (best defensive forward) and defenseman Boris Mironov (best defenseman) also won awards&hellip;The Oilers were the hottest Western Conference team in the second half of the season, going 23-16-1 before playing the final game of the year. &#9632;

f0018-02

Sather’s wrath hits Kovalenko

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03820/7935421-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="161" height="159"></div>When Nathan LaFayette suffered a concussion March 5 and was forced to sit out 18 games because of post-concussion syndrome, the Los Angeles Kings missed him more than his paltry scoring totals of four goals and seven points would have suggested.He&rsquo;s surprisingly strong, at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, his solid defensive skills make him an ideal checking center and he is adept at faceoffs. The Kings also missed his speed, a key ingredient they might have sacrificed in their efforts to build a big, brawny corps of forwards.But as much as the Kings missed him, LaFayette missed them more.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t feel that way when you&rsquo;re watching, you shouldn&rsquo;t be playing,&rdquo; said LaFayette, who rejoined the Kings&rsquo; lineup April 13 and was reunited with linemates Sean McKenna and Russ Courtnall. &ldquo;I always kept faith that I&rsquo;d be back for the playoffs, and it turned out that way.&rdquo;LaFayette, who began the season with Fredericton of the American League and was recalled by the Kings Dec. 11, reached a career-high April 16 when he scored his fifth goal of the season. However, any joy he might have felt was minimal because the goal came near the end of a 7-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues.The defeat was disappointing for LaFayette and the Kings for several reasons. It stopped their late run at the Pacific Division title and locked them into a first-round playoff matchup with the Blues, who dominated the teams&rsquo; season series 3-0-1.Although teammate Ian Laperriere said the lopsided victory a &ldquo;is a boost of confidence for them,&rdquo; LaFayette doubted the rout would have much carry-over effect. Still, he said the Kings had to get back to playing the physical but defensively responsible game that was the foundation for their success this season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to win games with flash. I think we realize that,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Luc Robitaille returned to the lineup April 16 after missing 25 games following groin/abdominal surgery&hellip;Center Yank-Perreault. who had 14 goals in his first 20 games, needed 57 games to get his next 14 goals. &ldquo;It was harder because people expect you to score, but you&rsquo;ve got to accept that role for the team to win,&rdquo; he said&hellip;The Kings&rsquo; road record was 16-178 for 40 points, 16 more points than they recorded on the road last season (10-27-4). Their 40 road points were their most since 1990-91, when they had 45 points on the road.&hellip;The Kings set a franchise record April 11 against Colorado when Perreault and right wingers Russ Courtnall and Glen Murray scored shorthanded goals. &#9632;

f0018-03

LaFayette makes return for playoff run

<div class="byline">By Dave Joseph</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04540/7935452-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="160" height="161"></div>It wasn&rsquo;t in the nicest part of the town, and it certainly didn&rsquo;t have the amenities of other NHL arenas. Heck, it wasn&rsquo;t unusual to be accompanied to your car by a rodent. But when the Florida Panthers played their last game April 16 at the Miami Arena, the evening turned bittersweet.&ldquo;This has been a great building for us,&rdquo; said captain Scott Mellanby, one of six Panthers to play all five seasons at the Arena. &ldquo;There are fond memories here.&rdquo;And so before moving into their new $185-million arena in Broward County, the Panthers and a sellout crowd toasted the Miami Arena one last time. A highlight reel allowed fans to relive Bill Lindsay&rsquo;s series-clinching goal against the Boston Bruins in 1995-96. There were also clips of that year&rsquo;s triple-overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the Cup final and the raining-of-rat-craze which started early in 1995-96.&ldquo;I think it was one of the hottest and loudest rinks in the league,&rdquo; said five-year veteran Lindsay. &ldquo;During the playoffs. I think it was 6ne of the most intimidating places to play.&rdquo;&ldquo;I like old buildings,&rdquo; Mellanby said. &ldquo;By the end they&rsquo;re crappy and rat-infested. But for guys that played there, there&rsquo;s the history and atmosphere.&rdquo;For the record, the Panthers lost their final Miami Arena game 7-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers.NOTEBOOK: Despite being the most important player in team history, goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, an unrestricted free agent not expected back next season, was not given the start in goal in the Panthers&rsquo; final game at the Miami Arena. Coach-GM Bryan Murray stuck with his rotation and went with Kirk McLean. The decision was not a popular one with fans and Murray did put Vanbiesbrouck in goal to start the third period of a 7-3 loss to Philadelphia&hellip;Right winger Dino Ciccarelli, another unrestricted free agent come July, suffered a fractured right ankle when he was hit by Ottawa defenseman Wade Redden April 14. Ciccarelli hasn&rsquo;t talked with the Panthers about a new contract since before the trading deadline. &#9632;

f0018-04

Players, fans toast ‘rat trap’ after final Miami Arena game

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-06282/7935483-1-eng-US/f0018-062.jpg" title="f0018-06" width="568" height="902"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrice Brisebois</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05363/7935490-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="162" height="159"></div>The injuries to key Montreal Canadiens just keep on coming. The latest is to Patrice Brisebois, arguably the team&rsquo;s best defenseman this season.Brisebois, the Habs&rsquo; Masterton Trophy nominee, suffered a sprained left knee April 11 against the New York Islanders. Brisebois was going for a loose puck, but as he stopped, Islander forward Tom Chorske hit Brisebois&rsquo; skate with his stick and Brisebois fell awkwardly over Chorske&rsquo;s stick.Brisebois missed Montreal&rsquo;s final three regular season games, but hoped to return for the playoffs. Before suffering the injury. Brisebois played in all 79 of the Canadiens&rsquo; games. His 10 goals matched his career high while his 37 points surpassed the 36 he had in 1995-96.&ldquo;The terrible thing about this is I was really aiming for playing in all of the regular season games,&rdquo; Brisebois said. &ldquo;That was what I was hoping to do for the first time in my career.&rdquo;He joined Stephane Quintal. Saku Koivu, Turner Stevenson and Scott Thornton on the sidelines during the final week of the regular season.Despite the loss of Brisebois, the Canadiens received some good news on the injury front with the surprise return of aggressive defenseman Igor Ulanov. Ulanov, acquired in a six-player trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning in mid-January, suffered tom knee ligaments in the opening period of his first game with Montreal. It was thought the injury was going to keep him out until next season.NOTEBOOK: Despite his recent claim no contracts would be negotiated until the end of the season, GM Rejean Houle signed left winger Benoit Brunet to a four-year deal worth $4.3 million (U.S.). Brunet can earn an extra $200,000 in incentives based on games played. Brunet, who was earning $615,000 (U.S.), negotiated the deal himself. The 29-year-old was set to become an unrestricted free agent as a 10-year pro whose salary was below the league average&hellip; Montreal&rsquo;s 6-2 loss to Boston April 15 guaranteed the Canadiens a losing record at the Molson Centre. With one home game remaining, the Canadiens&rsquo; record at home was 15-17-8. Last season, during their first full campaign at their new arena they were 17-17-7. &#9632;

f0018-06

No full season for Brisebois

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011279/7935521-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="160" height="160"></div>The New York Islanders&rsquo; biggest disappointment this season was lack of production from center Bryan Smolinski.Milbury sent defenseman Darius Kasparaitis and left winger Andreas Johansson to the Penguins Nov. 17, 1996 for Smolinski.When Smolinski scored 28 goals in 64 games with the Islanders last season, the deal looked good to Milbury. But between this past Feb. 4 and April 16, Smolinski managed only two goals and five assists in 24 games. He had 13-28-41 totals for the year and was minus-18, the second-worst mark on the team.&ldquo;It has been hard for us to understand what has gone on with Bryan,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping he bounces back next year.&rdquo;The Michigan State product said his time spent at left wing instead of center early on under since-fired coach Rick Bowness hurt his production.Smolinski was second on the team to right winger Ziggy Palffy in shots with 201, but did not finish enough chances. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any (answers),&rdquo; Smolinski said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve had too many grade A chances. I&rsquo;ve had a lot of outside chances. I&rsquo;ve hit a few posts. If they go in, I have close to 20.&rdquo;Smolinski&rsquo;s slide prompted Milbury to scratch him for a 3-3 tie in Montreal April 11. &ldquo;I have no one to blame but myself,&rdquo; Smolinski said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to work hard this summer to get back to where I was.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Sources said Mike Milbury wants to return as GM, but the new co-owners want him to continue coaching and give up some GM responsibilities such as contract negotiations&hellip;Defenseman Zdeno Chara got his first career point, an assist, in a 4-2 loss to the Rangers April 15&hellip;Defenseman Bryan Berard got his second goal in 41 games in a 4-0 win over Tampa Bay April 16. Left winger Mike Hough got his 100th career goal and defenseman Kenny-Jonsson his 100th career point in that game&hellip;Goalie Wade Flaherty&rsquo;s four wins this season all came against the Lightning. He allowed them a total of one goal and shut them out in the last three games&hellip;Oft-injured defenseman Rich Pilon had played in a career-high 75 games. &#9632;

f0020-01

Smolinski’s comeback trail starts at this season’s end

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03648/7935552-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="577" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Richter</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02913/7935559-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="160" height="157"></div>The New York Rangers have been through this before-an unrestricted free agent they say they want to keep, a free agent who says he wants very much to stay.Last time, though, it blew up in their face as Mark Messier landed in Vancouver.Now it&rsquo;s Mike Richter&rsquo;s turn. The goalie, a close friend of Messier, wants to stay in New York and the Rangers say they want to keep him.&ldquo;Yeah. I actually do, absolutely,&rdquo; said Richter, who will become an unrestricted free agent if he isn&rsquo;t signed by July 1. &ldquo;I hope it will work out sooner rather than later.&rdquo;Richter sat while rookie Dan Cloutier played the Rangers&rsquo; last home game against the New York Islanders, and later Richter admitted the thought crossed his mind it could have been his final game as a Ranger at Madison Square Garden.&rdquo;&ldquo;You look at that,&rdquo; Richter said. &ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s a possibility. But we&rsquo;re talking and we expect things to get done. It will. You never know what the future holds, but, yeah, it goes through your mind.&rdquo;Richter said he wouldn&rsquo;t be adverse to a short-term contract that would make him unrestricted again in his prime, in two or three years. That might be the way for the Rangers to go, too, if they plan on having Cloutier assume the top role in that time span. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve gone a series of short contracts my whole life,&rdquo; Richter said. &ldquo;In many ways that&rsquo;s good. You find each year is a chance to prove yourself.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Brian Leetch returned after missing four games with symptoms of a mild concussion. Leetch went through a series of neurological tests before getting the the clearance he badly wanted. Why did he play? &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re healthy there&rsquo;s no reason not to play,&rdquo; Leetch said&hellip;Leetch on goalie Mike Richter&rsquo;s contract status: &ldquo;I would think if it was a big priority, something would have been done by now.&rsquo;&hellip;Defenseman Maxim Galanov, center Marc Savard and winger Brad Smyth were assigned to Hartford in time for the American League playoffs&hellip;Several others, including goalie goalie Dan Cloutier, center PJ. Stock, and wingers Daniel Goneau and Johan Lindbom were expected to go down when the Rangers&rsquo; season ended. &#9632;

f0020-03

Goalie wants to stay in NYC

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04440/7935590-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="161" height="158"></div>Bernie Parent had a better stretch run than Martin Brodeur.Even though Brodeur kept his Vezina Trophy hopes alive with a second straight sub-2.00 goals-against average, the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; goalie was disappointed he could not at least equal Parent&rsquo;s record of 47 victories in a season.As he headed into the final game of the regular season, Brodeur had a 43-16-8 record after a slump which saw him win just one of seven appearances from March 29 to April 15. He went 1-4-1 with one no-decision during that streak, suffered a sore jaw in an April 12 scrap with Florida Panthers&rsquo; right winger Dino Ciccarelli and headed towards the playoffs hoping to mm things around.He even gave his endorsement to Dominik Hasek for the Vezina.&ldquo;Yes, right now he&rsquo;s the best goalie,&rdquo; Brodeur said of Hasek. &ldquo;He deserves the hype. But ask me again (who the best goalie is) after the playoffs.&rdquo;Brodeur did become the third goaltender in NHL history to record back-to-back seasons with a goals-against average below 2.00. Harry Lumley did it in 1953-54 and 1954-55. Terry Sawchuk did it five straight seasons from 1950-51 through 1954-55.Parent&rsquo;s record, however, remained safe for another year. &ldquo;It was within my reach,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;We went on a little slide. It&rsquo;s unfortunate.&rdquo;Coach Jacques Lemaire said even though Brodeur did not break the record, he had a sensational season in which he played consistently well until the final few games.As for his altercation with Ciccarelli, Brodeur said: &ldquo;He ran into me and I gave him a face-wash with the glove. When he went down he kind of swung at me.&rdquo;Said Ciccarelli: &ldquo;He suckered me, that&rsquo;s what started it. I thought he had a little more class than that. We&rsquo;ll remember it the next time we play.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Bobby Holik had gone 15 straight games without a goal&hellip;Forwards Randy McKay. Doug Gilmour and Jason Arnott returned from injuries April 15, although Arnott re-aggravated a sore hip&hellip;Left winger Patrik Elias said Boston left winger Sergei Samsonov would be tough to beat in Calder voting. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s going to get it, but I&rsquo;m not giving up yet,&rdquo; Elias said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing really well in the second half with some pretty good stats. He has really picked it up.&rdquo; Elias stood third in rookie scoring with 18 goals and 37 points in 73 games entering the season&rsquo;s final weekend. Toronto right winger Mike Johnson was first (15 goals. 47 points, 80 games), while Samsonov was second (21 goals, 46 points, 79 games). &#9632;

f0020-04

Brodeur aims to halt slide in playoffs

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrioch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011118/7935621-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="161" height="161"></div>Eighth is enough for the Ottawa Senators this season.When the Senators opened the season in October, the only goal was to make the NHL playoffs and they achieved it with five days left in the regular season with a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers April 14.And while they tried to make a run at seventh place in the Eastern Conference, the Senators 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens two days later booked the club a date with the New Jersey Devils in the first round.&ldquo;We match up well with the Devils and we&rsquo;ve played well against them all season,&rdquo; said Ottawa coach Jacques Martin. &ldquo;We just have to be ready to play.&rdquo;Getting to the playoffs was a rollercoaster ride for the Senators. But the club played some of its finest hockey in the last month led by strong goaltending from Damian Rhodes and timely scoring from various sources.Not only did the Senators surpass team records for points in one season (77) and victories (31) set last year, they also managed to withstand a late push by the Carolina Hurricanes to gain a post-season berth.&ldquo;Twice is just as nice,&rdquo; said Ottawa defenseman Lance Pitlick. &ldquo;This really was a team effort. Different guys have stepped up at different times to get us going. It&rsquo;s the same guys every night and that&rsquo;s what we need to be successful.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Senators&rsquo; defenseman Jason York was sidelined day-to-day after taking a stick in the eye from Tampa Bay left winger Andrei Nazarov in a game April 13. Nazarov received only a double-minor from referee Bill McCreary, which left York upset. &ldquo;It caught me so off guard. I was just going for the puck,&rdquo; York said. &ldquo;(Nazarov) came out of nowhere and pitchforked me in the head. I thought for a second he might have taken my eye out. Everybody is telling me that it was intentional. If it was, the guy should have been thrown out of the game.&rdquo;&hellip;Senators&rsquo; center Vaclav Prospal, out four games after taking a puck in the face in early April, returned to the lineup April 16 against Montreal. &#9632;

f0024-01

Second time in playoffs just as sweet for Sens

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03541/7935652-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="577" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Lindros</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02785/7935659-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="162" height="158"></div>If Eric Lindros needed a place to fine-tune his game for the playoffs, Miami Arena was the perfect stage.Lindros has always relished his role as villain when playing the Florida Panthers in their home building.In his second game back from an 18-game layoff due to a concussion, Lindros closed the building-the Panthers are moving into new digs next season-with a flourish. He high-sticked old nemesis Ed Jovanovski, ran over a few other Panthers, scored a couple goals and led the Flyers to a 7-3 win.It was vintage Lindros, bulling his way through defenders, chopping away with his stick and creating general havoc in all three zones.It was just the kind of emotional leadership the Flyers were looking for going into the playoffs.&ldquo;At times we&rsquo;re a little bit quiet,&rdquo; Lindros said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of guys who can step up, whether it&rsquo;s vocal or physical, and get things happening. Tonight that occurred.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s Lindros-speak for, &ldquo;If I make the first few big hits, these guys will follow the lead.&rdquo;Coach Roger Neilson liked what he saw.&ldquo;At times he was dominating,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly great having a guy like that coming in just before the playoffs.&rdquo;Lindros scored his 30th goal in the Florida game. He has reached that plateau in five of the six seasons he has played. In the lockout shortened 199495 campaign, he scored 29.NOTEBOOK: Left winger John LeClair scored his 50th goal in a 2-1 loss at Buffalo April 13, becoming the first American-born player to hit the 50-goal mark three consecutive seasons. LeClair tied a career high with his 51st in a 7-3 win at Florida April 16&hellip;Center Rod Brind&rsquo;-Amour played in his 400th consecutive game at Florida. That&rsquo;s the second-longest active streak behind Montreal right winger Mark Recchi, who was at 541&hellip;With center Eric Lindros returning to the lineup, coach Roger Neilson moved Chris Gratton from second-line center to left wing on a line with center Mike Sillinger and right winger Alexandre Daigle. Brind&rsquo;Amour moved back to center and scored goal No. 36 against Florida, one off his career best. &#9632;

f0024-03

Lindros just loves Miami

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04363/7935690-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="161" height="156"></div>Since the Phoenix Coyotes acquired solid defenseman Keith Carney in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, Gerald Diduck has been more underrated and overlooked than ever before.With so many big names in the lineup, the only time he gets any serious recognition is when he comes up with a rare goal.But his goals, though rare, have been huge this season. He had scored eight of them entering the final weekend of the regular season, the most since he netted 11 with the New York Islanders in 1988-89. Half of them have been game-winners.He scored two during a 3-2 upset of the Dallas Stars in the team&rsquo;s next-to-last game of the season, extending the Coyotes&rsquo; winning streak to four and nailing them down the No. 6 seed and a date with the Detroit red Wings in the first round of the playoffs. According to the Phoenix media guide, it was his first two-goal game of his career.&ldquo;To tell you the truth, it&rsquo;s not the first two-goal game I&rsquo;ve had,&rdquo; Diduck said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t know what they&rsquo;re talking about. God forbid if I remember when, but I&rsquo;ve had a couple of two-goal games because I&rsquo;ve always wondered what a hat trick would feel like.&ldquo;That would be something. If I ever get that, it&rsquo;s time to stop expansion.&rdquo;Unlike his post-game comments, Diduck&rsquo;s play has been nothing to laugh at. He has provided solid top-four defensive help since coming to Phoenix from the Hartford Whalers a year ago, and was part of a formidable tandem while playing alongside Teppo Numminen. &ldquo;He has been strong for us all year,&rdquo; said coach Jim Schoenfeld.Diduck doesn&rsquo;t get carried away with whatever praise is passed his way. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even keep up with hockey in the papers anymore,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They either make you out to be better than you are or worse than you are, so what&rsquo;s the point?&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Rick Tocchet received his third suspension of the season, a two-gamer for high-sticking St. Louis&rsquo; center Scott Pellerin&hellip;Left winger Keith Tkachuk (fractured rib) and right winger Dallas Drake (sprained wrist) were kept out of the team&rsquo;s final three games. Center Jeremy Roenick (hip flexor) missed the final regular season game, but was expected to be ready for Game 1 of the playoffs against Detroit&hellip;The Coyotes planned to host &ldquo;Whiteout Night&rdquo; for Game 3, in which fans all wear white tops, but know a lot of Detroit fans might wear red to the game. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll probably see a sea of white with some red dots in it,&rdquo; Roenick said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll look like a zit on somebody&rsquo;s butt.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-04

Underrated Diduck still appreciated

<div class="byline">By Mike Dudurich</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011004/7935721-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="162" height="161"></div>As the 1997-98 season wound down, there were plenty of things to be concerned about with the Pittsburgh Penguins, not the least of which was a stretch drive during which they won once in 10 games.Something that shouldn&rsquo;t be a concern, however, is how much fuel is left in the tanks of veterans Ron Francis and Kevin Hatcher.Those two were running on fumes late last season and it showed in the playoffs when the Penguins were eliminated in five first round games by the Philadelphia Flyers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played a little less this year than I have in the past,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;And I feel better.&rdquo;Hatcher, meanwhile, was a healthy scratch for an April 7 game against the Phoenix Coyotes. &ldquo;I think it was a good idea to give me a rest,&rdquo; Hatcher said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t feeling real strong and those are the times it can get real frustrating. But these last couple of games it felt like I had a little more jump in my legs. I feel pretty strong now.&rdquo;Coach Kevin Constantine made sure his veterans guys got even more rest in the final week, keeping Stu Barnes, Tom Barrasso, Francis, Hatcher, Jaromir Jagr and Neil Wilkinson home while the rest of the team traveled for a meaningless road game against the Carolina Hurricanes April 16.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to use the break, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; Hatcher said. &ldquo;As an athlete, you can never underestimate what a good rest can do for you.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Kevin Constantine took the high road after right winger Jaromir Jagr, upset with his ice time, ripped into his coach following a 3-3 tie with Florida April 11. &ldquo;We all make mistakes,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;We have two choices when we&rsquo;re playing poorly or making mistakes. We can either sweep it under the rug or bed, like I did when I was six, or we can do what is slightly more painful, but a lot more result-oriented. We can stare it in the face and say, &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t right.&rsquo; As coach, I sometimes have the unpleasant job of saying, &lsquo;This is right, this is wrong.&rsquo;&rdquo; (See pg. 3 for more on Jagr)&hellip;Left winger Stu Barnes reached the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his career when he scored in a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay April 15. &#9632;

f0025-01

Key vets Hatcher, Francis well-rested for playoffs

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03448/7935752-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="576" height="898"><figcaption class="caption-body">Grant Fuhr</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02672/7935759-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="162" height="158"></div>For the first time since the first week of the season, the St. Louis Blues officially were declared injury-free in mid-April.Touch wood, and all that hockey superstition stuff.Right winger Blair Atcheynum and defenseman Rudy Poeschek had recovered from surgeries, Atcheynum to his shattered left index finger and Poeschek on a herniated disc.Meanwhile, enforcer Tony Twist overcame a pulled rib muscle (suffered in a fight against Sandy McCarthy of the Tampa Bay Lightning) that sidelined him for eight games and defense-man Al MacInnis (charley horse) and goalie Grant Fuhr (bruised right knee) came back after missing only one game.All were in uniform when the Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings 7-3 in a playoff preview April 16. However, injuries remain a concern, particularly the minor pain in Fuhr&rsquo;s surgically-repaired right knee.Fuhr, 35, played a period in the Blues&rsquo; 4-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes April 11. He fell awkwardly after defenseman Chris Pronger slid into him early in the game, then didn&rsquo;t return for the second period.Fuhr subsequently went to the hospital for an MRI on the right knee, which has been operated on twice in the past two years.Although it was not serious, any injury to Fuhr&rsquo;s right knee is cause for concern. &ldquo;You certainly don&rsquo;t like to have your star goalie hurt before the playoffs,&rdquo; Pronger said. &ldquo;Hopefully, he&rsquo;ll be ready for the playoffs.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: If the Blues&rsquo; game against the Kings April 16 was any indication, they should have no trouble with Los Angeles in their first round playoff series. The Blues scored three unanswered goals beating the Kings on the scoreboard. The Blues also won all the fights, with L.A. center Ian Laperriere and defenseman Doug Zmolek leaving the ice with cuts&hellip;Right wing enforcer Kelly Chase missed the game against the Kings. He served a one-game suspension because he received three game misconducts for losing his jersey in three fights&hellip;With one game remaining, the Blues were tied for third in the league in penalty killing (86.9 per cent success rate) and tied for eighth in power play efficiency (16.9 per cent). &#9632;

f0025-03

Blues fit for a King

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04287/7935790-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="161" height="158"></div>The playoff drought in San Jose had only been two seasons, but it seemed like an eternity.The Sharks left behind the disappointment of back-to-back last-place finishes in the Western Conference when they claimed their first postseason berth since 1995 with a 3-3 tie with the Calgary Flames April 15. San Jose nailed down its playoff spot with an assist from the Toronto Maple Leafs, who defeated the Chicago Blackhawks earlier in the evening. The Sharks, though, put together a 4-0-3 unbeaten streak to cap a 6-1-3 run that began at the out-set of a daunting six-game road trip.&ldquo;We knew what we had to do,&rdquo; said center Bernie Nicholls. &ldquo;We worked hard. We earned it. We basically clinched our playoff berth on the road. That&rsquo;s tough to do. We played some tough teams. It just shows the heart this team has.&rdquo;Though the Sharks will be underdogs, they are 2-0 in opening round action, having pulled seven-game upsets of the Detroit Red Wings in 1994 and the Flames in 1995.San Jose&rsquo;s playoff appearance will keep alive first-year coach Darryl Sutter&rsquo;s personal streak of never having missed an NHL post-season, as a player, assistant coach or head coach.&ldquo;This is why you work your ass off for the last seven months,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;Sixteen teams make the playoffs, so you expect to make it. What&rsquo;s most important are those seven or eight guys who have been such great playoff players and are in the twilight of their careers. Now they get another shot at it.&rdquo;The Sharks&rsquo; roster includes 1997 Conn Smythe Trophy-winning goalie Mike Vernon and fellow Stanley Cup winners Mike Ricci, John MacLean, Stephane Matteau, Joe Murphy and Marty McSorley.In addition, Murray Craven, Shawn Burr, Tony Granato, Kelly Hrudey, Dave Lowry and Ron Sutter have appeared in the final.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Jeff Friesen scored his career-high 31st goal in a 33 tie at Calgary April 15, tying right winger Owen Nolan&rsquo;s team record set last season. The goal came shorthanded, Friesen&rsquo;s sixth of the year, which tied him with Vancouver right winger Pavel Bure for the league lead&hellip; Rookie center Marco Sturm returned to the lineup in Calgary after having missed six games with a bruised wrist&hellip;Newly acquired right winger Joe Murphy produced four goals and seven points in a five-game stretch from April 4 through 15&hellip;One night after wrapping up a playoff berth, the Sharks lost 4-1 to Colorado. That win secured the Avalanche&rsquo;s third consecutive Pacific Division championship. &#9632;

f0025-04

One more shot at Cup for veterans

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-06166/7935821-1-eng-US/f0025-062.jpg" title="f0025-06" width="570" height="897"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andrei Nazarov</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05205/7935828-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="162" height="162"></div>Andrei Nazarov of the Tampa Bay Lightning-all 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds of him-has never feared anybody.But when &ldquo;anybody&rsquo; includes 6-foot-4, 236-pound Eric Lindros and about five friends from the Philadelphia Flyers in a dimly lit parking lot, even the Lightning winger from Russia was a little worried. That is the situation Nazarov said he faced April 8, shortly after Philadelphia&rsquo;s fight-filled 6-1 victory over Tampa Bay.&ldquo;What&rsquo;s happened, it&rsquo;s happened,&rdquo; Nazarov told the St. Petersburg Times. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to really pay attention to what happens from now on. It&rsquo;s done. But next year&hellip;I can drop my gloves with anyone. If (Lindros) wants to do this, I can do it.&rdquo;The Lindros incident stems from a game Philadelphia led 3-1 when, late in the third period, a brawl broke out. Nazarov paired off with Daniel Lacroix in an incident that ended up with Lacroix needing 40 stitches. Lightning forward Darcy Tucker also got involved, and that&rsquo;s when the Flyers are accusing Nazarov of suckering Lacroix-a charge Nazarov denies.After the game Nazarov and his girlfriend were approached in the parking lot by Lindros (who did not play in the game) and several other Flyers. Nazarov said he was worried they were going to jump him.&ldquo;Nothing happened,&rdquo; Lindros said, &ldquo;(but) what (Nazarov) did was gutless.&rdquo;The Lightning reported the incident to the NHL, but as of April 17 the league issued no public reprimand.NOTEBOOK: Coach Jacques Demers left the team and abruptly flew from Pittsburgh to Tampa April 15 to be with his wife. Debbie, who must undergo additional unplanned treatment in her battle with breast cancer. Debbie Demers underwent surgery April 9, and was to have undergone six weeks worth of radiation treatment before the latest undisclosed developments&hellip; Assistant coach Rick Paterson, whose father David was in the intensive care unit of a Cornwall hospital after suffering a heart attack April 9, coached in Demers&rsquo; absence&hellip; Lightning forwards Rob Zamuner (Canada) Mikael Renberg (Sweden) and Andrei Nazarov (Russia) and defenseman Cory Cross (Canada) will play in the upcoming World Championship. &#9632;

f0025-06

Nazarov in eye of storm

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-07146/7935859-1-eng-US/f0025-072.jpg" title="f0025-07" width="162" height="158"></div>Tie Domi wanted the record, no question about it. But the manner in which he got it left even the Toronto Maple Leaf tough guy disconsolate.A first period fight against Chicago Blackhawk defenseman Cam Russell in an April 15 contest at Maple Leaf Gardens landed Domi a minor for instigating, a major for fighting, an automatic 10-minute misconduct and a new franchise record for penalty minutes.Domi entered the game with 341 minutes and picked up 22 more during the contest, smashing the previous mark of 351 minutes set by Dave &lsquo;Tiger&rsquo; Williams during the 1977-78 season.&ldquo;If I hadn&rsquo;t been hurt so much this season, I might have been over 500,&rdquo; Domi said several days earlier.But the Russell bout left many in the arena and those watching on television with a sick feeling after the Chicago blueliner&rsquo;s head smashed into the ice at the conclusion of the fight. Russell apparently lost consciousness for almost five minutes and was eventually carried off the ice on a stretcher. He suffered a serious concussion, a deep cut to his head and a shoulder injury.Domi stood in a nearby corridor watching until Russell left the ice, then tried to call the Chicago dressing room between the first and second periods to check on the defenseman&rsquo;s condition.&ldquo;I was thinking about him, how his family was feeling,&rdquo; Domi said.(See pg. 2 for more.)NOTEBOOK: With two games to play, the Leafs sent defenseman David Cooper and center Lonny Bohonos back to St. John&rsquo;s for the American League playoffs. Defenseman Daniil Markov was to follow at the conclusion of the NHL schedule&hellip; Center Mats Sundin has been named captain of Team Sweden for the World Championship in Switzerland, while right winger Fredrik Modin will also skate for the Swedish side. Goalie Felix Potvin has accepted an invitation to play for Team Canada, right winger Martin Prochazka will play for the Czech Republic, center Darby Hendrickson will be on Team USA and wingers Igor Korolev and Sergei Berezin and defenseman Dimitri Yushkevich are expected to play for the Russians. &#9632;

f0025-07

Domi’s gets penalty mark and big scare with Russell

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011127/7935890-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="163" height="160"></div>Bryan McCabe may be a player of the 1990s, but wind him up and the words tumble out like a boy still playing pond hockey on the Canadian Prairies.The Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; defenseman, who arrived from the New York Islanders in a Feb. 6 trade, fell all over himself accepting Canada&rsquo;s invitation to compete the World Championship in Switzerland.Despite an emotional cross-continent move and playing a full NHL schedule, McCabe still hasn&rsquo;t had enough hockey. If there is a game to be played, you can count him in.&ldquo;You hate when your season is over so early so this is a good way to end it,&rdquo; said McCabe, whose Canucks failed to make the playoffs. &ldquo;You get to play for another month, you meet some new guys, make some new friends, represent your country and give it your all. I&rsquo;m young, I&rsquo;m 22 and I love playing too much not to go. I&rsquo;d like to play as long as I can and it should be a lot of fun. There is still lots of time left in the summer to rest.&rdquo;McCabe was pretty well what the Canucks expected when they acquired him in the Trevor Linden deal. He plays physically, plays a ton and contributed some modest offense. In his first 24 games with Vancouver, McCabe had 12 points, was plus-10 and had 64 penalty minutes.&ldquo;I think Bryan has played consistently well and I think he has a huge upside to him,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;If we can tap into that potential, we&rsquo;ll have that much more of a better player. I think he&rsquo;s just learning the game. Like any young defenseman, it takes some time to develop. The position is difficult to play and it takes time and experience to blossom into a very consistent. high-level performer.&rdquo;McCabe, 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, has completed his third NHL season, but has yet to appear in a playoff game. All his winning has been either at the junior level or internationally. He was a member of last year&rsquo;s victorious Canadian World Championship team and twice won gold at the World Junior Championship.NOTEBOOK: The Canucks suffered their eighth shutout of the season when they were blanked 2-0 by Los Angeles goaltender Jamie Storr April 15. The eight whitewashes tied for the second worst mark in team history, beaten only by the 1971-72 expansion club that was held scoreless 12 times&hellip;Vancouver finished the road portion of its schedule at a mediocre 1021-10 but lost only three times in its last 13 outings (4-3-6)&hellip;While their penalty killing was second-worst in the league with two games to play, the Canucks did set a team record for most shorthanded goals in a season with 19. Right winger Pavel Bure had six, one short of his personal best in a season&hellip;Coach Mike Keenan experimented with winger Todd Bertuzzi at center. Bertuzzi enjoyed the work. &ldquo;I like it. You&rsquo;re more involved in the play,&rdquo; he said. The downside to the experiment was Bertuzzi&rsquo;s work in the faceoff circle, which was abysmal. He went 12-for-49 in a three-game stretch. &#9632;

f0026-01

Rest can wait for gung-ho McCabe when world tourney conies calling

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02786/7935921-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="163" height="161"></div>It was like a class reunion or maybe some extended trip during training camp.The Washington Capitals prepped for their final road game of the regular season by heading south to Greensboro, N.C., a few days early so everybody could get re-acquainted.Well, there was some golf involved, too, given that the courses at Pinehurst aren&rsquo;t that far away and given that Ron Wilson still coaches the Capitals.But the primary mission was bonding, which was made necessary when six players returned from an assortment of injuries. One of them, defenseman Mark Tinordi, hadn&rsquo;t played since Jan. 15 while another, center Michal Pivonka, had been out since the first week in February. Still another was Peter Bondra, who accounts for about a quarter of the team&rsquo;s goals.Washington was expected to finish with at least one player out due to illness or injury for every game of the 82-game season for the third year in a row. The club was expected to log at least 475 man-games lost due to injury. The club record, set last season, was 361.The low point came in games April 11 and 13 against the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders when 10 players were unavailable for each game due to injury. That figure established a club record for a single game.Wilson&rsquo;s primary focus leading up to the playoffs was to improve the power play, which had been limping along in the 15 per-cent range. That put it in the middle of the pack during the last half of the season. Wilson thought much of the reason for the mediocre showing was due to a lack of continuity, the personnel constantly changing.On the positive side, the penalty killing units looked a good bet to close the regular season No. 1 in the league for the third time in club history. Its percentage, a kill rate of nearly 89 per cent, was the highest in team history, well above the previous high of 86.7 per cent during the 1983-84 campaign.NOTEBOOK: Olie Kolzig became only the second goalie in Capitals&rsquo; history to record 30 wins in a season when he beat the Islanders 2-0 April 13. Jim Carey set the team record of 35 in 1995-96&hellip;Ranger center Wayne Gretzky went out to take the opening faceoff April 14 against the Capitals, looked across the circle and there was tough left winger Craig Berube crouching over. &lsquo;The Great One&rsquo; did not know it at the time, but Berube was in the process of winning a bet he made with former Gretzky teammate. Capitals&rsquo; left winger Esa Tikkanen, that he would win a draw against Gretzky. Berube did, winning two draws against Gretzky in the game&hellip;Aside from Mark Tinordi, defensemen Joe Reekie, Ken Klee and Jeff Brown were back for the playoffs. All three call-ups from Portland of the American League-Stewart Malgunas. Nolan Baumgartner and David Harlock-played well in fill-in roles. It means the Capitals will go into training camp again with an extensive supply of blueliners. &#9632;

f0026-02

Key wounded Caps start to return just in time for post-season play

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011072/7935952-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former ECHLer Don Jackson is now an assistant coach in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>The East Coast League has graduated almost 100 players into the NHL, but the same can&rsquo;t be said for the men behind the bench.Since the league was established 10 years ago, only one man has made it from behind an ECHL bench to the NHL, but not a single one has gone the direct route.The only ECHLer to make the NHL ranks was Dave Allison, who coached the Ottawa Senators for 25 games in 1995-96. But he was two leagues removed from the ECHL when he got his shot at The Show. After successful stints with the Virginia Lancers (1989-90) and the Richmond Renegades (199192), Allison went to junior hockey, then coached in the American League before being hired by the Senators in 1995-96.Truth be told, the ECHL might not want to hitch its wagon to Allison. The guy won just two of 25 games during an infamous reign with the Senators.While the success of graduates such as Jamie McLennan of the St. Louis Blues, Olie Kolzig of the Washington Capitals and Paul Laus of the Florida Panthers gives the ECHL credence as a secondary development league, why can&rsquo;t coaches in this league seem to get a break?One reason is simple numbers. There are only 26 jobs available and when one comes open, there is never a shortage of qualified candidates. And teams that have fired their coach are generally less willing to go with an unproven commodity.Look at this season in the NHL. For deserve at least part of the credit for doing that, which will be the coaches.&rdquo; Two other ex-ECHL coaches, Don Jackson of the Knoxville Cherokees and Roy Sommer of the Richmond example. Six teams fired their coaches during the season and two of them-the New York Islanders and Florida Panthers-replaced the coaches with the GM. The other four teams hired established coaches in John Muckier (New York Rangers), Roger Neilson (Philadelphia Flyers), Mike Keenan (Vancouver Canucks) and Jacques Demers (Tampa Bay Lightning).So can a coach in the ECHL realistically expect a shot at The Show? So far it hasn&rsquo;t been the case, but that might change in the next several years.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve probably got as good a bunch of coaches in the league right now as we&rsquo;ve ever had,&rdquo; said ECHL commissioner emeritus Pat Kelly. &ldquo;The skill level of the players is up and you have to be pretty good to coach in this league.&rdquo;&ldquo;It takes a while for a league to earn credibility,&rdquo; said David Poile, GM of the NHL expansion Nashville Predators. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s coming. The ECHL is getting recognition because a lot more players are being promoted to the AHL and IHL and eventually NHL.&ldquo;Somebody is going to Renegades, are now NHL assistants. Jackson is with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sommer with the San Jose Sharks. And of the 36 coaches in the AHL and International League, six of them apprenticed in the ECHL.Now the ECHL has many former NHL players who yearn to return to the NHL as a coach.Moe Mantha, former Columbus Chill coach, moved to the AHL Baltimore Bandits and is now in charge of the AHL Cincinnati Mighty Ducks. Another former Chill coach, Brian McCutcheon, is directing the Rochester Americans in the AHL.&ldquo;In the future with more teams and more opportunities,&rdquo; said New Jersey Devils&rsquo; director of scouting David Conte, &ldquo;those who are good, those who are aggressive, those who are ambitious will get their opportunities.&rdquo;And just maybe, some of them will come from the ECHL. &#9632;

f0027-01

Coaches chasing dreams in ECHL

Here are five up-and-coming coaches in the ECHL who stand a good chance of moving up to the next level. Included is their team, age, coaching experience and coaching style:Al Pedersen, Pensacola Ice Pilots, 33, two years as head coach. An assistant with Atlanta (IHL) for two years before joining Pensacola in 1996-97. Pedersen&rsquo;s teams play basketball version of run-and-gun hockey. Emphasizes speed and puck movement. His team&rsquo;s strong goaltending makes up for defensive shortcomings.Greg Puhalski. Toledo Storm. 33, four years as head coach. Played on two Toledo Riley Cup title teams before succeeding Chris McSorley as coach in 1994-95. Under Puhalski, Storm emphasizes defense, employing hard-nosed style. Offensively, his teams play close-to-the-vest and don&rsquo;t make many mistakes.Mark Reeds. Peoria Rivermen, 38, two years as head coach. An assistant for four years when Peoria was in IHL. Took over in 1996-97. Focuses on defense, making sure opposition has hard time setting up. Aggressive defense triggers offense, which emphasizes smart puck movement.Doug Shedden. Louisiana IceGators, 36, five years as head coach. Led Wichita to back-to-back Central League titles before joining the IceGators in 1995-96. Shedden&rsquo;s teams play intimidating, physical style that allows them to succeed on road. Offense oriented, but stresses solid defense.Rick Vaive, South Carolina Stingrays, 39, five years as head coach. Player-assistant for Hamilton (AHL) for one year before taking over the Stingrays in 1993-94. Known as a players&rsquo; coach. Employs aggressive forechecking style. Offensively, stresses quick puck movement. &#9632;

Five ECHL coaches to keep an eye on

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>Now that the Masters golf tournament is over, perhaps the Augusta Lynx will get a little more attention from the local populace.Actually, the East Coast League franchise, which officially moved to the Georgia city from Raleigh, N.C., when the season ended, has received quite a bit of recognition since the man-agement team came in January.&ldquo;The support has been unbelievable,&rdquo; said GM Paul Gamsby. &ldquo;If 10 years ago, you had told me I would be in Augusta selling hockey, I would have said, &lsquo;Are you crazy?&rsquo;&ldquo;But these people know the game better than I dreamed they would know it. The community has really gotten behind this thing.&rdquo;Gamsby, a Toronto native with a background in arena management and marketing, said the Lynx used the Masters to pick up sponsorships.About 1,500 people attended a news conference to name the team and unveil the logo and about 1,000 season tickets have been sold. The Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center, which will be retrofitted with an ice plant this summer, will seat 6,670 for hockey.The Lynx announced April 17 that Dan Wiebe would be retained as coach. Wiebe directed the Raleigh IceCaps to a 32-33-5 record and fifth-place finish in the Southeast Division. The IceCaps didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs.&ldquo;He had a lameduck situation,&rdquo; Gamsby said. &ldquo;Dan did an admirable job with the talent he had.&rdquo;GOALIE ARRESTED: Pee Dee Pride goalie Sandy Allan was arrested April 11 and charged with one count of simple battery after the Louisiana IceGators&rsquo; mascot &lsquo;T-Chomp&rsquo; was hit in the back the previous evening in Lafayette, La.Allan was booked into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center after being charged in the incident, which occurred in the second intermission of the April 10 playoff game between the IceGators and Pride. Judge Edward Rubin set bond at $5(X).&ldquo;(Allan) left the ice (between periods) and struck the mascot in the back,&rdquo; said Lt. Ken Franques of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff&rsquo;s Office. The mascot, a female employee of the IceGators, was taken to hospital and treated for a neck injury.OWNER FINED: Mark Garcea, majority owner of the Hampton Roads Admirals, was fined an undisclosed amount by the league in the wake of an April 4 incident that involved Peoria Rivermen winger Brent Cullaton.Garcea, a Virginia Beach businessman, and Cullaton exchanged words after the Admirals clinched their playoff series with the Rivermen by beating Peoria 4-3 in overtime. Cullaton jammed his stick into Garcea&rsquo;s groin, touching off a shoving match between players and fans.Garcea had been ejected from the premises after screaming at referee Joe Ernst when he didn&rsquo;t call what Garcea thought was a penalty. After the game, Garcea returned to the arena and got into the altercation with Cullaton.COAST LINES: Joe Seroski. a rookie winger for the New Orleans Brass, tied an ECHL playoff record with four goals in a 6-5 loss to the Pensacola Ice Pilots in double overtime April 4. Five other players have done it, most recently Cal Ingraham of the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks in the 1996 playoffs.<h2>ECHL PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02713/7936007-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="809" height="372"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (April 10-16): Wayne Strachan completed his hat trick 4:46 into the second overtime to give Roanoke a 3-2 win in Game 2&hellip;Wheeling took a 2-1 edge on Alex Matvichuk&rsquo;s OT goal., Louisiana outscored Pee Dee 13-6 in two games&hellip;Pensacola took a 2-0 lead when Steven Low scored in OT. &#9632;

f0027-02

LEAGUES

Lynx trying to Master art of hockey

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>He had gone from the top-rated NHL prospect to No. 2 goalie on the depth chart of the Ameri-can League&rsquo;s Hershey Bears in a span of two months, and suddenly Marc Denis&rsquo;s critics were everywhere.Denis was critical of his play, too. At Christ-mas he was 2-13-0, his goals-against average of 4.05 more resembled Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s points-per-game average in junior and he hadn&rsquo;t won since Oct. 15.&ldquo;Even on nights when I felt good, I would not make the saves I should have made,&rdquo; said Denis, the first round pick by the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. &ldquo;Camp at Colorado went fine and the first four or five games went fine. But then we struggled and I started struggling. Fortunately, Petr Franek (the backup who became the starter) played well.&rdquo;Denis&rsquo;s struggles lasted weeks, but he didn&rsquo;t give up.&ldquo;He lost his confidence, but his attitude and his working habits were great,&rdquo; said Bears&rsquo; coach Bob Hartley. &ldquo;Every day he was working hard at practice and after practice.&rdquo;Going into the playoffs, Denis looked like he was back on the right track. He was 17-22-4 with a 2.85 GAA and .900 save percentage. Between Feb. 20 and April 3, he allowed only 25 goals in 12 starts.&ldquo;You can see he&rsquo;s on top of his game and the puck is as big as a basketball,&rdquo; Hartley said.Denis said he can&rsquo;t pinpoint what turned him around; it was a combination of everything. But he says he&rsquo;s a better goalie and person because of his horrible start.&ldquo;There is some adaptations (from junior to pro)-this is what puts bread and butter on my table,&rdquo; Denis said. &ldquo;This is the year I grew up. I grew up as a player. I grew up as a person, too.&rdquo;Denis has been the Avalanche&rsquo;s top prospect the past two seasons in The Hockey News Future Watch, but dropped from the No. 1 prospect outside the NHL in 1997 to No. 8 this season.NO PROBLEM: All Philadelphia Phantoms&rsquo; center Peter White did was amass 105 points, defend his AHL scoring title and become just the fourth player in league history to post three 100-point seasons in a career.But that wasn&rsquo;t good enough to earn a spot on the first or second all-star teams or gamer any support in MVP balloting by players and media.Steve Guolla of the Kentucky Thoroughblades was the second-team center and won the MVP vote. Daniel Briere of the Springfield Falcons was the first-team center and was second in MVP voting.White, however, has no complaints.&ldquo;If a questionable player was picked, I&rsquo;d be upset, but those guys had good seasons,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Some guys on our team are more upset than I am.&rdquo;EXCLUSIVE COMPANY: Rochester Americans&rsquo; rookie goalie Martin Biron led the AHL in shutouts with five- and that put him in elite company.In the 42-year history of the Americans&rsquo; franchise, just three other goalies had five shutouts in a season: Bobby Perreault (six, in 1967-68), Gerry Cheevers (five in 1964-65) and Gerry McNeil (five in 1957-58).What&rsquo;s more remarkable is that Biron accomplished the feat in only 41 games. The Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; first round pick in 1995 was 14-18-6 with a 2.94 goals-against average.AHL TIDBITS: Philadelphia right winger Mike Maneluk had 13 goals and 17 points in his final nine games&hellip;Providence Bruins&rsquo; right winger Aaron Downey was the penalty minute king with 407 minutes, including 37 majors&hellip; Hershey&rsquo;s Mike Gaul set an AHL record for rookie defensemen with 47 assists. John Slaney had 46 in 1992-93 for the Baltimore Skipjacks.<h2>AHL PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011111/7936038-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="808" height="240"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (April 13-16): Rochester beat Philadelphia 5-2 in Game 2 by scoring four goals in a 15-minute span&hellip;Shayne Toporowski scored two goals as Worcester defeated Springfield 5-3. Falcons&rsquo; coach Dave Fairish was ejected in the second period after giving referee Mike Leggo the choke sign. &#9632;

f0028-01

Denis keeps composure, regains his stellar form

<div class="byline">By Kevin lole</div>Petr Nedved&rsquo;s season in North America lasted three games with the Las Vegas Thunder when an independent arbitrator ruled him ineligible April 16 on the eve of the Turner Cup playoffs.Nedved, a Group II free agent from the Pitts-burgh Penguins, signed with Las Vegas April 6. The IHL ruled him ineligible, citing a rule pre-venting teams from adding players who played in Europe after Feb. 2 to their rosters.The Thunder got a temporary restraining order permitting Nedved to play in three regular season games, but the sides agreed to go to binding arbitration to resolve the matter.Arbiter Norman Brand ruled the IHL constitution gave commissioner Bob Ufer the power to settle disputes and that his rulings were final unless a club could prove it was arbitrary and capricious.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed, but I respect the commissioner,&rdquo; said Nedved, who had three goals, three assists and was minus-4 in three games. &ldquo;But he is paid to do the right thing and in this case, the right thing was to let me play because we did everything by the rules.&rdquo;Ufer said the authority of the commissioner to be able to make such rulings was more significant in the Nedved case than simply the dispute over the eligibility of a player. &ldquo;If this ruling had been adverse to us, it could have encouraged more people to go that route and the league couldn&rsquo;t afford that expense,&rdquo; Ufer said.MOOSE CALLING: At the halfway point of the season, the Manitoba Moose were four games under .500 and scaring nobody.By the end of the season, the Moose were 3936-7 and finished with a franchise record 85 points. With no dramatic changes in personnel either on the ice or behind the bench, the Moose went from pretender to contender with a simple formula for success-they worked for it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nothing more than playing as a team,&rdquo; Moose coach-GM Randy Carlyle said of his team&rsquo;s second-half resurgence.What looked like a lost cause at the 41-game mark turned into a seventh place finish in the Western Conference and a date in the opening round against the powerful Chicago Wolves.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have what you&rsquo;d call a big line,&rdquo; Carlyle said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s fine with me. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of guys who don&rsquo;t quit and all three of our lines can give us some offense.&rdquo;JOCKO HITS 500: Cleveland Lumberjacks&rsquo; center Jock Callander became just the fifth player in IHL history to score 500 career goals when he did it in a 3-1 win over the Fort Wayne Komets April 10 before 17,757 fans in Cleveland.Callander, who has played in the IHL for 14 years, ranks fifth in goals, third with 787 assists and fourth with 1,287 points.THAT&rsquo;S OKAY: Long Beach Ice Dogs&rsquo; goalie Mike Buzak led the league in goals-against average (1.97) and shutouts (six) and was second in save percentage (.936). So who did coach John Van Boxmeer name as his playoff goalie? Kay Whitmore, of course.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a veteran guy and I think everyone wants to go with a veteran,&rdquo; Van Boxmeer said.Whitmore, who had been pulled several times by Van Boxmeer down the stretch for ineffective play, was thrilled with the task, but knew he was only a bad goal away from the bench.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not etched in stone that I&rsquo;m going to play every game. Here&rsquo;s the ball, run with it. But if you fumble the ball, there&rsquo;s a guy waiting there who has done a heck of a job.&rdquo;I-OPENERS: The Quebec Rafales dressed only 11 players for its season-ending game with the Fort Wayne Komets, but still managed to pull out a 5-3 win April 12 and earn a standing ovation from the Fort Wayne crowd.<h2>IHL PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02766/7936069-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="806" height="242"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (April 13-16): Kansas City stole home-ice advantage from Utah with a 4-3 overtime win. Utah&rsquo;s Darcy Loewen took a high-sticking penalty in overtime and J.F. Quintin converted at 3:27&hellip;The Imperial Palace sports book in Las Vegas lists Detroit as an 8-5 favorite to retain the Turner Cup. &#9632;

f0028-02

Nedved’s season ends at hands of arbitrator

<div class="byline">By Brendan Savage</div>No United League team was hotter since mid-season than the Muskegon Fury.The Fury, who posted a UHL-best 25-10-2 record during the second half, advanced to the semifinal with a surprisingly easy 4-1 triumph over the Thunder Bay Thunder Cats.Both teams featured four 100-point scorers-a UHL record-but it was Muskegon&rsquo;s defense that made the difference. Throw out the Fury&rsquo;s 9-7 win in Game 3 and they allowed Thunder Bay an average of only three goals per game.&ldquo;We put up some pretty good offensive numbers, but what I like is everybody sacrificed defensively,&rdquo; said Fury coach Paul Kelly.Muskegon has always been a strong defensive team, allowing a UHL-low 244 goals. But the addition of Paul Willett from the InternationalLeague and Bob Berg from the Central League beefed up an offense that already included Sergei Kharin and Robin Bouchard.All four topped the 100-point barrier with Willett&rsquo;s 111 eighth overall. Willett had 70 points in his final 25 games to help Muskegon finish second in the West Division at 43-23-8.Kharin led Muskegon against Thunder Bay with 11 points while Berg and Willett added 10 apiece.NOTEBOOK: B.C. Icemen goalie Bob Bell was suspended 10 games and has to post a $1,000 bond for slashing Kahlil Thomas and Trevor Jobe of the Flint Generals in Game 4 of their series. Thomas had eight goals and Jobe 14 points in the five-game series to lead the UHL in those categories&hellip;Regular season MVP Jason Firth of Thunder Bay missed the final two games against Muskegon with an ankle injury&hellip;Regular season and defending league champion Quad City Mallards scored four goals against the Madison Monsters in the third period of Game 5 to erase a 31 series deficit and rebound to win in seven games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03556/7936100-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="473" height="249"></div>WESTERN PRO LEAGUE: Fort Worth Brahmas&rsquo; coach Bill McDonald added a few gray hairs following the Western Pro League&rsquo;s semifinal playoff series against the Shreveport Mudbugs.The Brahmas, made up of nine players from last season&rsquo;s Central League champion Fort Worth Fire, swept the Mudbugs in four games. It wasn&rsquo;t that easy, though. All four games were decided by one goal and two went into overtime.&ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t have gray hairs, I&rsquo;ve got plenty now,&rdquo; McDonald said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think we could sweep Shreveport. All tour games were so close. It came down to a toss of a coin on all of them.&rdquo;Brahmas&rsquo; right winger Trevor Converse had the winning goal in Games 1 and 3. Fort Worth advanced to the WPHL championship series to face the El Paso Buzzards, who beat the New Mexico Scorpions in seven games.WPHL EXPANDS: Alexandria, La., was added as the 16th WPHL franchise April 8. The yet-to-be-named team will play in the 7,200-seat Rapides Parish Coliseum. Alexandria will join the WPHL&rsquo;s Eastern Division for next season. The WPHL is also having talks with Abilene, Tex., and Pueblo, Colo&hellip;Jamie Thompson of El Paso set a playoff record with four goals in one game in a 7-2 win over New Mexico April 4. Thompson had 12 goals and 18 points in nine games.-With a file from Dave Henry &#9632;

f0028-03

100-point foursome playing Fury-ously

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>The Ottawa 67&rsquo;s Telephone Line was reaching all the right numbers in the Ontario League playoffs.It&rsquo;s Ottawa&rsquo;s top checking line, but the trio had nine goals and 16 points in nine games as the 67&rsquo;s disposed of the London Knights in four games to head to their second straight OHL final.The moniker for the line came from its left winger. Lance Galbraith. First round draft prospect Mark Bell centers the line, with overager David Bell on the right side.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re two Bells and a ding-a-ling. I&rsquo;m the ding-a-ling,&rdquo; said Galbraith, 18, who had 10 goals and 30 points with a team-leading 199 penalty minutes in the regular season.Mark Bell, 17, had 34 goals and 60 points and might go in the top 10 at the NHL draft, set for June 27 in Buffalo.&ldquo;He set himself up for the draft last year in the playoffs when he took his game to a new level,&rdquo; said Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; scout Tim Higgins.Bell, a rookie last season, was promoted to the No. 1 line with Alyn McCauley and Steve Zoryk for the six-game final against the Guelph Storm when Joel Trottier broke his thumb.&ldquo;When I asked Alyn who he wanted on his line, he said Mark because he liked the way he worked,&rdquo; said Ottawa coach-GM Brian Kilrea.Some scouts felt Bell, at 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, took too much from opposing players his OHL rookie season. This season he aimed to set the record straight.&ldquo;The scouts said I needed a shorter fuse, but I didn&rsquo;t just want to start taking a whole bunch of bad penalties that would jeopardize the team,&rdquo; he said of the 87 minutes he spent in the penalty box. &ldquo;I fought 12 times. I didn&rsquo;t go off too many times by myself.&rdquo;OHL KUDOS: Center David Legwand of the Plymouth Whalers was named rookie of the year after receiving all but one first place vote in balloting conducted among coaches and GMs.Legwand, the No. 2-ranked prospect for the 1998 draft, was third in scoring with 54 goals and 105 points in 59 games. He had eight goals and 20 points in 14 playoff games.The Kingston Frontenacs had two winners. Chris Allen was named defenseman of the year after scoring 38 goals and 94 points. Right winger Matt Bradley was named most gentlemanly player on the strength of 33 goals and 83 points with 24 PIM.Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors goalie Bujar Amidovski was the top overage player.GATE CRASHERS: A record year at OHL turnstiles helped the Canadian Hockey League enjoy a 10th consecutive record season in attendance. The OHL drew 1,705,207 spectators, breaking the previous mark of 1,672,975, set in 1994-95. The Kitchener Rangers led, averaging 4,528 per game. The CHL drew 5,712,284, an increase of almost 300,000 over last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01985/7936138-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="582" height="679"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dennis Polonich stepped down as Prince George Cougars&rsquo; GM.</figcaption></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03446/7936131-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="913" height="403"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (April 10-16): London, one of three teams to score 300 or more goals this year, had only six against Ottawa, which had the stingiest defense in OHL history&hellip;Plymouth had a hard time solving Guelph goalie Chris Madden, who had a 1.29 playoff goals-against average. &#9632;

f0029-01

Telephone Line ringing success for surging 67’s

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>The resignation of Dennis Polonich as Prince George Cougars GM coincided with the unveiling of his successor, Daryl Lubiniecki. The Western League&rsquo;s Cougars announced April 14 that Polonich will leave the team in May.&ldquo;This was not an easy decision to make,&rdquo; Polonich said. &ldquo;The two years (in Prince George) were tremendous.&rdquo;Lubiniecki, who was fired Dec. 8 as the Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; GM, had been working with the Cougars as a consultant. Polonich and Lubiniecki will represent Prince George at the WHL&rsquo;s bantam draft April 30 in Calgary.Lubiniecki was the Blades&rsquo; GM when current Cougars&rsquo; owner Rick Brodsky controlled the Saskatoon franchise.LAW RETURNS: Right winger Kirby Law returned to the Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; lineup in impressive fashion.Law, who broke his left leg Jan. 18, resumed his season April 11. One night later, he scored two goals in a 5-4 playoff win over the Calgary Hitmen. Law was named the first star.&ldquo;I had a good idea that if the team won a couple rounds, I&rsquo;d be back,&rdquo; said Law, 21, who had 34 goals and 78 points in 49 games.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect to get off to as good a start as I have. I was happy to be able to score a couple of goals.&rdquo;CALGARY CROWDS: The Hitmen are a hit.Calgary drew 71,414 fans-an average of 7,935- to the first nine home playoff games in the history of the third-year team. The Hitmen averaged 3,450 patrons per regular season game.On April 8, a Saddledome crowd of 12,726 watched the Hitmen blank the Swift Current Broncos 1-0 in Game 7 of an Eastern Conference semifinal. Calgary owned the WHL single-game playoff attendance record for three days. The Portland Winter Hawks drew 12.763 patrons to Game 1 of the Western Conference final-a 6-3 Spokane Chiefs&rsquo; victory-April 11.&ldquo;It was phenomenal,&rdquo; Calgary coach Dean Clark said of the April 8 crowd. &ldquo;It was great to see that, having seen what we did last year. There were times we could barely get anybody in the building. When the final buzzer went and we won the series, it was a zoo.&rdquo;Brad Mehalko scored the only goal of Game 7. It was his third straight winner as the Hitmen rallied from a 3-1 deficit.BRONCOS BOUNCED: Swift Current coach-GM Todd McLellan was gracious in defeat after the Broncos lost the final three games to the Hitmen.&ldquo;Give Calgary credit-they played well,&rdquo; McLellan said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not making any excuses for losing. We had three opportunities to win. We can&rsquo;t complain about the refereeing or the scheduling. We didn&rsquo;t take control of our own destiny.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02655/7936176-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="583" height="677"><figcaption class="caption-body">J-P Dumont has yet to sign with the New York Islanders.</figcaption></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04316/7936169-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="907" height="447"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (April 10-16): Brandon was one win shy of the conference title after beating Calgary 4-1. Stefan Cherneski had two goals&hellip;The Western final was knotted after host Spokane downed Portland 5-3. &#9632;

f0029-02

Lubiniecki moves west to take on Prince George job

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>Jean-Pierre Dumont of the Val d&rsquo;Or Foreurs is trying to prove the New York Islanders didn&rsquo;t make a mistake when they selected him third overall at the 1996 NHL entry draft.The Isles were so disappointed with Dumont&rsquo;s performance after they selected him that GM Mike Milbury said in January the right winger had no future with the organization. Those words seemed to light a fire under Dumont, who has yet to sign and will re-enter the draft if the Isles don&rsquo;t sign him by June 1.After returning from a disappointing World Junior Championship, Dumont caught fire, finishing with 57 goals and 99 points in 55 games to go with a plus-39. And he was even hotter in the playoffs, scoring 22 goals and 33 points in 13 games.&ldquo;Things are going super for me right now,&rdquo; Dumont said. &ldquo;The better it goes, the easier it will be to negotiate a contract.&rdquo;The Islanders had scouts at every one of Dumont&rsquo;s playoff games and Milbury even made an appearance himself. But the Isles didn&rsquo;t seem to be in a rush to sign the player.Dumont said he isn&rsquo;t worrying about the situation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not pre-occupied with what&rsquo;s going on with the contract,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m leaving that to my agent (Yves Archambault).&rdquo;BAD FORMAT: To say the round-robin format used in the second round was controversial would be an understatement.With three teams from each division taking part, the league had each play its two division rivals in a home-and-home series. The two teams with the best record after playing the four games advanced to the division final.The controversy included Val d&rsquo;Or winning the first two games to clinch a spot in the Lebel Division final and then resting a number of key players for the last two games, which they lost. While the last two games were meaningless to Val d&rsquo;Or, they meant something to the Laval Titan and Hull Olympiques. Laval ended up advancing to the final by beating Hull 32 in a sudden-death tiebreaker.Then the Moncton Wildcats were eliminated after the Rimouski Oceanic, who had already clinched a spot in the Dilio Division final, lost their last game 7-6 to the Quebec Remparts, who advanced to the final with the win.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something that will be discussed at our (board of governors) meeting,&rdquo; league president Gilles Courteau said.One option would be to give some teams a bye, but that means those teams would lose out on revenue from additional home games, which doesn&rsquo;t sit well with team owners.LECAVALIER SITS OUT: Rimouski&rsquo;s Vincent Lecavalier, the top-rated player for this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft, sat out the Oceanic&rsquo;s final game of the round-robin to rest a stress fracture in his right foot.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a big deal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that bad of a fracture. I just tape it up and ice it. It&rsquo;s not painful when I&rsquo;m playing.&rdquo;<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05260/7936207-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="914" height="401"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (April 10-16): Rimouski beat Quebec 5-3 thanks to goalie Jean-Marc Pelletier to take a 3-0 series lead. Pelletier stopped 60 of 63 shots and was 10-0 in the playoffs&hellip;Laval beat Val d&rsquo;Or 6-4, but the Foreurs led the best-of-seven series 2-1. &#9632;

f0029-05

Red-hot Dumont helps own cause and Foreurs’, too

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011109/7936238-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

HOCKEY MARKETPLACE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011023/7936290-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011092/7936283-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3108" height="3520"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Alexei Yashin leads the Ottawa Senators in goals with 33, assists with 38 and points with 71.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01992/7936276-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3095" height="3530"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011119/7936269-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3071" height="2338"></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02768/7936321-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0034-02

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<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; Dec-decision. charges to goaltenders of record when winning goal is scored.<h2>FRIDAY, APRIL 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011045/7936534-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="496" height="974"></div><h2>SATURDAY, APRIL 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02737/7936527-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="499" height="2062"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04482/7936520-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="492" height="1665"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05406/7936513-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="500" height="1669"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06369/7936506-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="500" height="1668"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07336/7936499-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="502" height="1666"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08298/7936492-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="497" height="3480"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011015/7936485-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="490" height="1702"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03605/7936478-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="2025" height="1767"><figcaption class="caption-body">Right winger Donald Audette&rsquo;s 23rd goal of the season sparked Buffalo to a 2-1 victory over Montreal Friday, April 10. (Photo by Bruce Bennetti/BBS)</figcaption></div><h2>SUNDAY, APRIL 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02674/7936471-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="491" height="1730"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03559/7936464-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="500" height="1951"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05357/7936457-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="1010" height="1941"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeremy Roenick scored the game winner against Chicago April 12. (Photo by Andre Pichette/BBS)</figcaption></div><h2>MONDAY, APRIL 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04430/7936450-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="497" height="1480"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06311/7936443-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="499" height="1512"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07284/7936436-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="497" height="1511"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08255/7936429-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="497" height="2127"></div><h2>TUESDAY, APRIL 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09233/7936422-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="497" height="1303"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10214/7936415-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="506" height="1840"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11200/7936408-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="504" height="1590"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01904/7936401-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="492" height="3521"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02613/7936394-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="493" height="3519"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03483/7936387-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="495" height="1799"></div><h2>THURSDAY, APRIL 16</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04403/7936380-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="493" height="1647"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05356/7936373-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="497" height="3517"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06316/7936366-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="501" height="3519"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07283/7936359-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="506" height="897"></div><h2>STANLEY CUP SCHEDULE</h2>The NHL playoffs open April 22 and could end as late as June 23 if the Stanley Cup final goes seven games.For the third consecutive year, each series will be designed to follow either Schedule &lsquo;A&rsquo; or &lsquo;B&rsquo;, based on criteria that includes individual matchups, building availability, travel issues and television commitments Any club that plays its first round games on Schedule A could play its second round games on Schedule B.The final playoff schedules will be announced when all matchups are determined.All series will be played under a best-of-seven format in a 2-2-1-1-1 basis with the higher-seeded team getting the first two games at home and the extra home game. The one exception is a series that would involve a Central Division club versus a Pacific Division club. In such a series the higher ranked club has the choice of playing a 2-2-1-1-1 or 2-3-2 format. If the 2-3-2 format is selected, the higher-ranked club will also have the choice of playing Games 1,2,6 and 7 at home or Games 3,4 and 5 at home. This option is in place for each of the first three rounds only.The four regular season division champions will be ranked in the first two positions in their respective conferences; the clubs with the greater number of points being ranked first in their respective conferences. The remaining six playoff clubs in each conference will be ranked based on regular season points Then first in the conference plays eighth, second plays seventh, third plays sixth and fourth plays fifth.For the Conference Semifinals the clubs will be re-seeded based on the same criteria (advancing division winners, followed by remaining clubs based on regular season points). The start dates for the conference semifinals may be moved up.For the Conference Finals the same criteria will be used (advancing division winners, followed by the remaining clubs based on regular season points).The Eastern and Western Conference champions will meet in the Stanley Cup final. Home ice will be determined by higher number of regular season points.For the purposes of tiebreakers, if two teams accumulated the same number of points, home ice goes to the team with more wins. If still tied, the team with more points in head-to-head games in the regular season gets home ice. If still tied, it will come down to the greater difference between goals for and goals against for the regular season.The final is scheduled to begin Tuesday, June 9, but could be moved up if previous series end early. It will be played on a 2-2-1-1-1 basis.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08240/7936352-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="504" height="2620"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

NHL SUMMARIES

NHL ROSTERS AND TRANSACTIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01927/7936589-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01629/7936620-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

May 1, 1998

Cullen, Banham, Marha give reason for optimism

SCOREBOARD

CALENDAR

Player says Crawford losing it’ as team in turmoil forgets winning ways