Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
December 3, 1999
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.
FROM THE FLORIDA PITCHERS’ LOCKER ROOM:
If you scan the injury lists of NHL teams, you’ll find a lot of separated shoulders and sore knees and bad groins, but you won’t find anybody with lace bite. Nobody who will admit it anyway. But, it might be the most common ailment in NHL dressing rooms. Players tie their skates too tight day after day or they come back to camp from a summer of relative inactivity and suddenly, they’ve got a sore at the top of their ankle. Lace bite, they call it. “The pressure from the laces cuts into the tendons on the top of the foot,” said Florida Panthers’ equipment manager Mark Brennan, who’s kept busy handing out protection so players can handle the pain. Without it, it’s agony doing up skates. “You hear about lace bite that…
Battaglia answers question with goal-scoring magic
The question about Bates Battaglia entering the season was whether the left winger could provide enough offense to justify his role among the top nine forwards. Eighteen games into the season, Battaglia had answered emphatically. Battaglia’s goal Nov. 17 in a 2-1 win over Ottawa was his seventh and matched his output for 1998-99, when he played 60 games “I didn’t envision myself doing this,” said Battaglia, 23. “But I learned a lot my first two years.” Battaglia has done a great job reading Ron Francis’ moves and anticipating passes, something most of Francis’ linemates struggled with last season. “I almost don’t want to say this, but he’s the strongest guy I’ve seen with the puck since a young Jaromir Jagr,” said Francis, who won two Stanley Cups with Jagr in 1991 and 1992. “I don’t…
PACIFIC POWER
Welcome to Pacific Heights, the NHL’s most exclusive new neighborhood. Visitors are welcome, but understand at least a .500 record is required to take up residence. And remember, you enter at your own risk. Because as affluent as this gated community is-four of its five residents are top 10 in NHL payrolls and Phoenix would be, too, if restricted free agent goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was under contract-there is no shortage of perils on the streets and back alleys of Pacific Heights. There are, for instance, no speed limits. To see a late-model Selanne or Kariya or Friesen or Modano race by you can be unnerving, to say the least. Head-on collisions are not uncommon, especially when the big Blake truck gets rolling. And we must forewarn you of the potential for gang warfare. As bright…
Sillinger surging since September
His teammates call him ‘Silly.’ It’s short for his name: Mike Sillinger. But it also fits his dressing room demeanor. He’s always ribbing a teammate, or making a joke, or pulling a prank. These days it’s good to be Sillinger. As the Lightning closed November, Sillinger discovered his scoring touch and was leading the team with 14 points in 16 games. But flashback to two months ago, and there was nothing jovial about Sillinger’s life. In September, during an exhibition road trip, Sillinger’s wife, Karla, miscarried after a three-month pregnancy. "It wasn’t easy, but we told ourselves this is what God has meant for us,” Sillinger said. “We wanted a healthy baby, but something wasn’t right. It wasn’t meant to be.” The good news was Karla was healthy and they could try again to…
Made possible with the support of
