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.

March 24, 2000

The Hockey News March 24, 2000

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011519/10070457-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="156" height="155"></div>Touted as the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; top minor league prospect several months ago, center Harold Druken is making the predictions look good in his most recent call-up by the team.The 21-year-old from Shea Heights, Nfld., has worked his way to third line duties and is starting to put points on the board, which was always expected of him.Tm way more comfortable than I was the first time I was called up,&rdquo; Druken said, referring to a two-week stint in early December. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve gotten over the rookie stuff but I&rsquo;m still taking it day-by-day. I&rsquo;m actually surprised that with the amount of ice time I&rsquo;ve been getting and that I&rsquo;m getting some power play time, too. Hopefully I won&rsquo;t be&rsquo; a hazard defensively.&rdquo;Druken, a first-year pro, was recalled a second time Feb. 14 when the Canucks ran into a rash of injuries and were seeking an offensive spark. Druken was putting up good numbers for the Syracuse Crunch of the American League where he had 20 goals and 45 points in 47 games.&ldquo;We think Harold is going to be a really good player and his future looks bright,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; coach Marc Crawford, who deployed Druken between feisty wingers Brad May and Matt Cooke. &ldquo;Right now, we&rsquo;ve been forced to use him and use him a lot and he&rsquo;s responding.&rdquo;Drafted in the second round (36th overall) in 1997, Druken was a prolific scorer in junior. He led the Ontario League in goals last season with 58. However, like most junior hotshots, Druken was not the most solid of defensive players.&ldquo;Harold is still developing in terms of how he plays with the puck and without the puck and he&rsquo;s more gifted with it right now,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll probably get a lot better without it as he gets more experience.&rdquo;Crawford&rsquo;s assessment seemed to fly in the face of raw statistics, however. After 20 games in the NHL, Druken was a plus-14, which happened to be the best rating on the Canucks. He also had three goals and nine points.NOTEBOOK Right winger Alexander Mogilny recorded his 400th career assist against New Jersey March 4. Mogilny, who had 20 goals and 37 points in 45 games this season, also had back-to-back three-point games against the Devils and Toronto March 6&hellip; Center Andrew Cassels reached the 500-point plateau with a two-point night against New Jersey. He had 14 goals and 44 points this season&hellip; Canucks&rsquo; GM Brian Burke indicated the team wasn&rsquo;t likely going to pick up the $6-million (U.S.) option on captain Mark Messier&rsquo;s contract but instead pay him the $2-million buy-out and then try to re-sign him at a lower price&hellip; The Canucks continued to suffer at the hands of St. Louis and coach Joel Quenneville as their winless streak against the Blues was extended to 13 with a 2-2 tie March 9. The streak coincided with the hiring of Quenneville three years ago. The cumulative score was St. Louis 57, Vancouver 18. The last time Vancouver beat St. Louis was Dec. 15, 1996, when Mike Keenan was still coaching the Blues. &#9632;

f0028-01

NHL TEAMS

East Coast product on West Coast responds to Canucks’ challenge

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01796/10071084-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01700/10071077-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="3178" height="1901"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01709/10071070-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="3198" height="3818"></div> &#9632;

f0044-01

DEPARTMENTS

CHL Statistics

<div class="byline">By Rich Chore</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02892/10070095-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="157" height="155"></div>Lyle Odelein said he was thrilled to be packing his bags for Phoenix. Sheldon Souray was excited to be getting a fresh start in Montreal.Why were the two defensemen so anxious to leave a New Jersey Devils team that remained firmly atop the Eastern Conference standings? To escape from coach Robbie Ftorek.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just say the team isn&rsquo;t as happy as everyone lets on,&rdquo; Odelein said. &ldquo;Robbie took the wind out of my sails. He&rsquo;s the first coach I didn&rsquo;t get along with. A lot of other players have trouble with him. The guys are just playing for one another.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like Montreal in 1986. They played for one another, won the Stanley Cup and the coach (Jean Perron) got fired the next year. This Devils team is so talented. They&rsquo;ll pull together as a group. Guys like Randy McKay and Marty Brodeur will take charge.&rdquo;Odelein was traded to the Coyotes March 7 for defenseman Deron Quint and a conditional draft choice. Souray was sent to the Canadiens six days earlier for defenseman Vladimir Malakhov. His words weren&rsquo;t quite as strong, but they had the same message.&ldquo;I had a little bit of a strained relationship with the coach,&rdquo; Souray said. &lsquo;Tor some reason he didn&rsquo;t have confidence in me. When that happened, I didn&rsquo;t have confidence in him.&rdquo;Ftorek down-played any feuds with his players and claimed it was natural for someone to be unhappy when his ice time diminished. GM Lou Lamoriello didn&rsquo;t sense any serious problem.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a concern. If there is a problem, I&rsquo;m not aware of it. I don&rsquo;t work on rumors. I have to know something is factual. I want to wish Odie the best.&rdquo;Most players wouldn&rsquo;t go on the record, but the feeling was that Ftorek&rsquo;s future hinges on the team&rsquo;s success in the playoffs. If the Devils flounder, assistant coach Larry Robinson is seen to be waiting to take over next season.&ldquo;Robbie has a helluva team,&rdquo; Odelein said. &ldquo;Anybody can coach a team like that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Deron Quint said it was time for a change in Phoenix, where he was one of eight defensmen vying for the last three spots. Although the Devils likes his offensive skills, there is a question of where he fits in with the recall of rookie Colin White from Albany of the American League. GM Lou Lamoriello said the trade was made &ldquo;to make room for Colin White to come in as a regular player. With White, the Devils have four rookies in their lineup (forwards Scott Gomez, John Madden and defenseman Brian Rafalski)&hellip; Defenseman Vladimir Malakhov, who claimed his surgically repaired right knee is as good as it&rsquo;s going to get, struggled in his first two games with the Devils. He fell down and look disoriented in his March 4 debut in Vancouver and made two bad passes (one leading to a goal) in Calgary the next night. Coach Robbie Ftorek said Malakhov had to eliminate &ldquo;things we don&rsquo;t have in our game, things we don&rsquo;t like seeing.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0021-02

Odelein, Souray rip coach Ftorek after being traded away by Devils

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden </div><div class="byline">Editor-In-Chief</div>After learning in 1998 he was ranked the No. 35 NHL. player of all-time and sixth-best goalie, Patrick Roy indicated with a nod and a wink that he was aiming to finish much higher among the pantheon of greats.He may yet get his wish.It's time his place in history was re-assessed.Roy's career, like those of several other outstanding veterans, remained a work-in-progress when a snapshot was taken prior to the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs. Since then, three players have done much to enhance their stature in the game.First is Dominik Hasek, on whose behalf The Hockey News has campaigned-some would say relentlessly-to be considered a serious rival to Terry Sawchuk for the honor of No. 1 goalie of all-time. Hasek was ranked No. 95 at the time because he had completed only four full regular seasons as a starter and had yet to win the first of consecutive Hart Trophies.Second is Steve Yzerman, who was ranked No. 78 then, but deserves a higher standing now. When voting was conducted, Yzerman was on the eve of formally changing his image from one-time super-scorer to two-way sensation. He solidified that reputation by captaining the Detroit Red Wings to consecutive Stanley Cups, earning the playoff MVP honor in 1998. That came a cant three years after Yzerman was powerless to stop the New Jersey Devils from sweeping past Detroit in the Cup final. The whole of Y zennan's 17-year career now merits him a place securely among the top 50 of all-time. Jari Kurri was ranked No. 50 in 1997.And third is Roy, whose accomplishments and sparkling 15-season career should place him ahead of No. 34 Bill Duman, a seven-season wonder, and challenge No. 25-ranked Ken Dryden's body of work over eight seasons. Roy may well rank ahead of Dryden as the NHL's best post-expansion goalie. Both made their marks with the Montreal Canadiens-kicking off fabulous careers by winning playoff MVP honors as the Habs won unexpected Cups-but Roy didn't stop in hockey's holy land. After stringing together an unprecedented 10 straight overtime victories in 1993 when Montreal registered a shocking Cup triumph, Roy left the Canadiens for Colorado where he has won a third Cup and positioned himself to be the winningest goalie of all-time.Roy had 436 wins as of early March, two more than Jacques Plante's 434 and within 11 of Sawchuk's all-time leading 44 7. When Roy passes Sawchuk next season, don't make the mistake of thinking this is merely a triumph of longevity. It will also mark a triumph of excellence.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011662/10068952-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="337" height="422"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Jim Leary/BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0002-01

IN THIS ISSUE

Do not overlook Roy’s sparkling body of work

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-031038/10068890-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kim Johnsson of the Rangers and Kelly Buchberger of the Thrashers battle for a loose puck.</figcaption></div>1. Ray of hope Colorado adds future Hall of Farner Ray Bourque in quest for Stanley Cup.2. Shootout specialist Long Beach for-22 in International League shootouts.3. Turning tricks Carolina' Bates Battaglia fires third period hat trick in 4-1 win over Chicago.4. Honoring a soldier Grinder Dale Hunter's No. 32 is retired by the Washington Capitals.5. Holy Cow-ley Goalie Wayne Cowley, 35, unretires to join Flint and goes 4-1-1 in his first six United League starts.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021399/10068883-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="316" height="452"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nikolai Khabibulin</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0002-03

Bourque gets Cup chance

1. Up in Flames? Calgary playoff hopes take hit after allowing 14 goals in back-to-back home games.2. Thrashing about Atlanta drops off face of the earth with just one win in 23 games.3. Dead Ducks Anaheim's pitiful 78.8 per cent on the penalty kill helps explain why post-season berth is in jeopardy.4. No Jagr, no goals With superstar Jarornir Jagr sidelined, the Penguins suffer back-to-back shutouts.5. Avs get their Phil Calgary defenseman Phil Housley is minus-5 in embarrassing 8-3 loss to Colorado.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04791/10068921-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="329" height="485"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phli Housley</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0002-04

Visitors douse Calgary Flames

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie </div><div class="byline">Associate Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012240/10068990-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="328" height="439"></div>Bad enough that Marty McSorley whacked Donald Brashear upside the head.But really, must we endure Tie Domi&rsquo;s public pronouncements on why the courts should not have jurisdiction in the arena of professional hockey?When the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; tough guy makes proclamations about it being &ldquo;our game&rdquo; and how the legal decision-maker in British Columbia must have been someone &ldquo;who had his lunch money stolen as a kid,&rdquo; Domi is actually providing the impetus required for legal authorities to take to the ice. Zealously.It is precisely that macho we&rsquo;re-above-the-law. that secret society we-take-care-of-our-own-business attitude that so rankles those outside the pro hockey establishment. Yeah, let&rsquo;s make it a confrontation between muscleheads and eggheads. That&rsquo;s the way to go.There&rsquo;s just one problem. When the hockey community faces off with legal authorities, the game is always played in the latter&rsquo;s barn and with rules not a lot of puck chasers understand. And that obviously includes Domi.The simple fact is the NHL is not above the law. Nor should it be. Those of us who spend more time in the hockey community than the legal world would like to think a degree of common sense will prevail. That, much more often than not, crown attorneys and prosecutors will recognize the public interest is not best served by charging players for acts of violence in a game that is inherently violent.Still, it&rsquo;s not difficult to see why the authorities were drawn to the McSorley-Brashear incident. Whatever rationalizations McSorley provided, what&rsquo;s indisputable is Brashear never saw the attack coming. He was ambushed. (See pg. 7 for McSorley&rsquo;s comments.)That makes it difficult to mount the &ldquo;consent&rdquo; defense-the No. 1 reason why the courts aren&rsquo;t involved in on-ice acts of violence more often.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021619/10068983-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1468" height="1788"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marty McSorley will be stigmatized forever for his brutal slash of Canuck Donald Brashear.</figcaption></div>But all of this should not be confused as an endorsement of the McSorley assault charges.The view from here is the courts are obliged to protect society, to ensure that aberrant behavior does not go unpunished and that the victim(s) does not feel abused by the system. In the case of McSorley-Brashear, all those elements can be satisfied without criminal charges.McSorley has been punished by the league. Whatever you may think of the NHL&rsquo;s supplementary discipline, the league&rsquo;s minimum 23-game suspension and resulting loss of $72,000 (U.S.) in salary is not insignificant.NHL society is effectively protected from McSorley for the balance of this season. Because of McSorley&rsquo;s age, 36, and rapidly diminishing skills, it&rsquo;s plausible he&rsquo;ll never play in the NHL again. Regardless, McSorley will be stigmatized forever by his actions.A well-behaved fellow off the ice, it seems safe to assume he&rsquo;s no societal threat.As for Brashear, if the injuries sustained should in any way diminish his capacity to earn a living, he is free to pursue civil legal action and has better than average means to do so. Given the existence of video of the incident, not to mention the thousands of witnesses on hand, Brashear&rsquo;s civil options hardly rest on a criminal conviction. Brashear&rsquo;s interests appear amply served.Short of proving a point-pro hockey is not above the law-and satisfying the Vancouver public&rsquo;s appetite to see the villain get nailed, there isn&rsquo;t a compelling reason to spend valuable time, effort and money to prosecute McSorley in a court of law.As outrageous as McSorley&rsquo;s act was-it&rsquo;s utterly indefensible-maybe the charges would go down better if we were convinced the same standards were applied to every rec hockey yahoo who pulls a McSorley. And, make no mistake, there are more of them out there than anyone would care to admit.Because when those incidents happen-with no witnesses, no video replays, no repercussions from an individual&rsquo;s employers and a long, difficult road for any victim seeking civil action-society does need the courts to step in and offer the full weight of its protection and punishment.Does that need to be done with McSorley?Domi suggests it shouldn&rsquo;t even be considered, that to do so is nothing more than revenge of the nerds.The distinction being made here is the authorities should investigate and consider the merit of charges any time they see fit-that&rsquo;s their job, after all-but should only lay charges in the NHL when they are utterly convinced no semblance of justice has already prevailed. &#9632;

f0003-01

COLUMNS

NHL punishment enough

The criminal justice system and hockey have collided several times in the past.One of the first known incidents took place Feb. 24, 1905, when Allan Loney hit Alcide Laurin during an amateur game in Ontario. Laurin died and Loney was charged with murder. Loney was found not guilty, but spent four weeks in jail during the trial.Here are 10 incidents-other than the Marty McSorley affair-in which NHL or World Hockey Association players faced criminal charges.1. 1923 Sprague Cleghorn of the Montreal Canadiens is charged with aggravated assault for hitting Lionel Hitchman of the Ottawa Wanderers over the head with his stick. Cleghorn is found guilty and fined $50.2. Sept. 21, 1969 Ted Green of the Boston Bruins and Wayne Maki of the St. Louis Blues engage in a wild stick-swinging battle. Both are charged with assault and found not guilty.3. Jan. 4, 1975 Dave Forbes of the Bruins butt-ends Henry Boucha of the Minnesota North Stars. Forbes is charged with aggravated assault. The trial ends with a hung jury favoring conviction (9-3) on a simple assault charge.4. Nov. 5, 1975 Detroit Red Wing Dan Maloney attacks Toronto Maple Leaf Brian Glennie from behind. Maloney is charged with assault causing bodily harm. He is found not guilty.5. April 11, 1976 During a WHA game, Rick Jodzio of the Calgary Cowboys high-sticks Quebec Nordique Marc Tardif, then unleashes a flurry of punches. Jodzio is charged with assault causing bodily harm with intent to injure. He pleads guilty to a lesser charge of assault causing bodily harm and pays a $3,000 fine.6. April 15, 1976 Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Mel Bridgman, Joe Watson, Bob Kelly and Don Saleski receive nine charges from Toronto police after a melee breaks out among fans, police and players. Watson is charged with two counts of common assault, two of assaulting a policeman and one of possession of a dangerous weapon (his stick). Bridgman is charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm (for a fight with Toronto&rsquo;s Boije Salming), Kelly with assault causing bodily harm (for throwing a glove and striking an usherette), Saleski with two counts of common assault and one of possession of a dangerous weapon (stick). Watson and Kelly plead guilty to common assault and are fined $750 and $200, respectively. Proceedings against Bridgman and Saleski are dropped.7. Oct. 20, 1976 Toronto&rsquo;s Dave Williams is charged with assault causing bodily harm and possession of a dangerous weapon (his stick) after high-sticking Pittsburgh Penguin Dennis Owchar. He is found not guilty.8. Oct. 25,1978 Colorado Rockie Wilf Paiement hits Detroit&rsquo;s Dennis Polonich in the face with his stick. &#9632;

Legal intervention: History of criminal charges

County prosecutors investigate, but do not press charges. Polonich sues the Rockies and receives $850,000 in damages from a U.S. federal court jury.9. Jan. 13, 1982 Jimmy Mann of the Winnipeg Jets is charged with assault after he punches Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Paul Gardner from behind. Mann pleads guilty and is fined $500.10. Jan. 6, 1988 Dino Ciccarelli of Minnesota is charged with common assault after hitting Toronto&rsquo;s Luke Richardson over the head with his stick. Ciccarelli is convicted of assault and sentenced to a day in jail and fined $1,000.There have been two other high-profile cases in recent years involving non-NHL or -WHA players.Jimmy Boni slashed Marin Schrott across the chest with his stick in an Italian League game in 1993. Schrott, who had a congenital heart defect, died and Boni was charged with manslaughter. As part of a plea bargain, Boni pleaded guilty to assault and was fined $1,800. And in April, 1988, Jesse Boulerice of Plymouth hit Andrew Long of Guelph over the head with his stick in an Ontario League game. Boulerice pled guilty to a charge of aggravated assault and was given 90 days probation. &#9632;

Ciccarelli last NHLer charged for on-ice incident

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-012161/10069093-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">B.C. Crown attorney Geoffrey Gaul says public reaction isn&rsquo;t considered when laying charges. (Canapress)</figcaption></div>Marty McSorley, the Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman who clubbed the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Donald Brashear across the side of the head with his stick, will have to face criminal charges after all.Fifteen days after the incident, which occurred in the waning seconds of a 5-2 Canucks&rsquo; win Feb. 21, prosecutors in British Columbia charged McSorley with assault with a weapon. If found guilty, McSorley could face up to 18 months in prison.The decision to indict McSorley added fuel to the debate over the need-or even the value-of laying criminal charges for actions that occurred during an NHL game.The league argued it could police itself and in handing McSorley a record 23-game suspension (plus playoffs), thought justice was served.In a prepared statement, Bill Daly, NHL executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said, &ldquo;(We) believe the league dealt with the matter quickly, decisively and appropriately-and did not feel that any further action was either warranted or necessary. We, therefore, would have preferred that the Crown not take this action. Having said that, the Vancouver authorities have made their decision and we remain committed to offering our full co-operation in any way we can.&rdquo;The NHL Players&rsquo; Association declined to issue a statement on the advice of McSorley&rsquo;s lawyer, Bill Smart.The league&rsquo;s stance was echoed by McSorley&rsquo;s employer, Bruins&rsquo; GM-president Harry Sinden, who added: &ldquo;We are very disappointed the courts feel they must be involved in this situation. The NHL has handed down a severe discipline in this case. We feel that was sufficient.&rdquo;British Columbia authorities thought differently. After reviewing all the evidence, Crown spokesman Geoffrey Gaul said, &ldquo;this (assault with a weapon) was the most appropriate charge. We have a charge-approval standard. We apply it in an impartial and professional manner, so public reaction or perceived public pressure doesn&rsquo;t come into play when we consider a charge.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;We are very disappointed the courts feel they must be involved. The NHL has handed down a severe discipline. We feel that was sufficient.&rsquo;&rsquo; &ndash;Bruins&rsquo; GM Harry Sinden</blockquote><blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;Does someone have to die before we get the authorities involved? I think we all regret that it has to be that way.&rdquo; &ndash;Mighty Ducks&rsquo; enforcer Stu Grimson</blockquote>Vancouver police concluded its investigation the previous week and turned its findings over to the Crown.Constable Anne Drennan, a police spokesman, said: &ldquo;It would appear that there&rsquo;s a certain level of force that is acceptable in sport and it was felt that this was a level of force that went beyond what was acceptable by observers and other players.&rdquo;The majority of NHL players, coaches and management indicated a preference to keep the matter in-house.&ldquo;As players, we all hoped that what came down by the NHL in how they reacted to the incident was going to be it,&rdquo; said Ray Bourque, McSorley&rsquo;s teammate at the time of the incident. &ldquo;We were all hoping it would stay within the hockey environment. I know it&rsquo;s something that happened and Marty feels bad about it. We all hoped that was the end of it. I just hope it works out for Marty because he&rsquo;s a great guy and a great competitor.&rdquo;Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; enforcer Tie Domi was critical that charges were laid so long after the fact.&ldquo;Somebody out in Vancouver better give their head a shake,&rdquo; said Domi to the Calgary Sun.&ldquo;Three weeks later, to come out and lay charges on a guy is a joke. The league issued justice and should be the one to handle what&rsquo;s on the ice. I think the police agree too, but somebody in Vancouver is trying to be a hero, which is unfortunate. Somebody always wants to be a hero.&rdquo;Another enforcer, Stu Grimson of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, was one of the few players not critical of the Crown&rsquo;s decision to lay charges.&ldquo;The thing we have to say is, &lsquo;Can we afford to let this happen again?&rsquo; &rdquo; said Grimson to the Los Angeles Times.&ldquo;Does someone have to die before we have to get the authorities involved? I think we all regret that it has to be that way.&rdquo;That authorities were involved gave the league something of a black eye, Grimson said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bad situation for the league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bit of a public relations problem, but it was a bad and malicious incident. I know Marty McSorley. I think I have a good grasp on how remorseful he is, (but) if he didn&rsquo;t cross the line, he sure approached it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

FEATURES

NHL fraternity disappointed

With a tear in my eye, I sit here wondering how Ray Bourque ended up in a Colorado Avalanche uniform.I wish him the best of luck and thank him for the memories. Bourque was the heart and soul of Bruins&rsquo; hockey for 21 years; he was a true gentleman who brought honor and respect to Boston during his entire career. If only management and ownership could have followed his lead.I have trouble sleeping knowing Ray will retire in someone else&rsquo;s sweater. I just wonder how Boston GM Harry Sinden and assistant GM Mike O&rsquo;Connell can sleep after sending a Bruins&rsquo; icon to a pretender.Colorado doesn&rsquo;t compare to Dallas or Detroit! Who is Sinden kidding? It haunts me to know that Bourque will retire without a Stanley Cup and without the black and gold sweater that he epitomized for more than two decades.John Robinson,&nbsp;Raymond, Me.<h2>77th sign?</h2>Ray Bourque is not a Bruin! If this isn&rsquo;t a sign of the apocalypse, what is?Heather Bielawski,&nbsp;Youngsville, N.C.<h2>In search of Stanley</h2>When Ray Bourque had his &ldquo;trade request&rdquo; granted, it was a sad day for hockey.I had always thought Bourque was an outstanding leader and role model and I respected him for wanting to win a Stanley Cup as a Bruin. But now he has left Boston to try to win a Cup for the people of Colorado. I wonder how much a championship would mean to Bourque in an Avalanche uniform. It&rsquo;s not like he will have helped them much in the regular season.The NHL should build a team each season consisting of players like Bourque who want a Cup, but don&rsquo;t think their team has a chance to win it.Good luck Ray, but I think Boston GM Harry Sinden traded you to a lemon. Go Bruins!Eric Carrier,&nbsp;Everett, Wash.<h2>Forgive &lsquo;mistake&rsquo;</h2>First, let me be clear: I don&rsquo;t condone Marty McSorley&rsquo;s slash on Donald Brashear. I&rsquo;m glad Brashear will be able to resume what appears to be a promising NHL career.But anybody who has played hockey realizes it is probably the most emotional of sports. McSorley admitted he got caught up in his emotions and crossed the line. We have all &ldquo;crossed the line&rdquo; in one way or another, haven&rsquo;t we? So give McSorley a break. He&rsquo;s human, just like the rest of us. We all make mistakes!Steve Angeletti,&nbsp;Wallingford, Ct.<h2>Not a crime</h2>I certainly don&rsquo;t condone Marty McSorley&rsquo;s slash, but he shouldn&rsquo;t be facing criminal charges.It sets a dangerous precedent. That the various sports leagues must appropriately discipline their rule-breakers is a given, but once that has been done, the authorities shouldn&rsquo;t get involved.Where will the police draw the line? What happens the next time a baseball pitcher throws at a batter? Or when an NBA player is elbowed in the face? Or there's a late hit by an NFLer?Warren Anderson,&nbsp;Anaheim<h2>Tampa vs. Quebec</h2>I don&rsquo;t understand how Quebec and Winnipeg lost their NHL franchises when they seemed to draw good crowds.I went to an Islanders' game the other night and the arena was empty; I had seen more fans in the stands during the recent Quebec International Peewee Tournament. It doesn&rsquo;t make sense. Why does the NHL keep expanding while a team such as Tampa has to give away tickets to create interest?If Colorado, Atlanta and Minnesota can get a second chance, it would be nice to see some teams return to Canada. I know it will probably never happen, but there was nothing better than the Habs-Nordiques rivalry.Robin van Nieuwburg,&nbsp;Montreal<h2>No Paul in Hall</h2>I disagree with the letter that stated Paul Henderson should be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame (THN, March 10).For what? One goal against the Russians? Henderson may have inspired Canadians everywhere, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean he&rsquo;s Hall-caliber.Pat Burke,&nbsp;Canton, Mass.<h2>Loco logo ranking</h2>Get real! The Chicago Wolves and Rochester Americans are your picks for the top two minor league logos?What did you do, draw names out of a helmet? You should have looked further down the list to find teams with some. imagination. How about the Houston Aeros (fifth) or Orlando Solar Bears (14th)? Or even the Kentucky Thoroughblades (43rd) or Pensacola Ice Pilots (46th)?Almost half of the 58 minor pro teams on the fist are in the southern U.S. As a native of Detroit who now lives in the South, let me say that hockey is alive and well and here to stay. How about giving new markets credit for trying to attract fans creatively. A lot of these teams pulled out all the stops when it came to designs.Mike Carlock,&nbsp;Hartselle, Ala.<h2>Great trade history</h2>The letter &ldquo;Slagging Sather&rdquo; was way off (THN, March 3).Edmonton GM Glen Sather had reason to get rid of Miro Satan and Ray Whitney; you can&rsquo;t solely base arguments on how they&rsquo;re playing today.Satan was very good in Edrnonton-at first. However, he was afraid to take a hit and was a passenger on many nights. Whitney had a great training camp in 1997, but his play trailed off when the season started.What about some of Sather&rsquo;s other trades, such as Jason Arnott and Bryan Muir to New Jersey for Bill Guerin and Valeri Zelepukin; Esa Tikkanen to the Rangers for Doug Weight; Bryan Marchment, Jason Bonsignore and Steve Kelly to Tampa Bay for Roman Hamrlik and Paul Comrie; Mats Lindgren to the Islanders for Salo; and a second- and a fourth-rounder to Toronto for Jason Smith. These trades are all fairly recent and some are out-and-out thievery.Wayne Nelson,&nbsp;Drayton Valley, Alta.<h2>A trip is a trip is a trip</h2>Sure, the referee pool is diluted, but it doesn't seem to matter whether there&rsquo;s one or two refs on the ice, the game is still called the same old way.A penalty in the first period is rarely whistled down in the late stages of a game. The explanation-'Players, not refs, should decide the game&rdquo;-is ridiculous. The player who committed the foul is the one responsible, not the referee.Perhaps the NHL should take a lesson from the NBA, where a foul is still a foul even with 10 seconds left.John Tate Sr.,&nbsp;Berwyn, Pa.<h2>NCAA behind times</h2>The NCAA is hiding its head in the sand on the issue of hazing.The InterFratemity Council outlawed hazing in fraternities on American university campuses years ago. So why hasn&rsquo;t the NCAA abolished hazing among student-athletes? I think student-athletes should be held to a higher standard than the typical student, given athletes&rsquo; role model status in the community.Steven A. Strottmann.&nbsp;Hayden, Ind.Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 340-2786&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:mccaigs@transcontinental.ca">mccaigs@transcontinental.ca</a> Include hometown as well as home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Bruin in Avs’ jersey burns Bourque fans

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012534/10069148-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0006-01

ELSTON

Mere hours after being charged with assault with a weapon in Vancouver March 7, Marty McSorley appeared on ESPN.The Hockey News requested an interview with McSorley, who was suspended for the balance of the season for hitting Donald Brashear in the head with his stick in a Feb. 21 game in Vancouver. Attempts to reach McSorley were unsuccessful.Here are excerpts from ESPN broadcaster Steve Levy&rsquo;s interview with McSorley:ESPN: The news from Vancouver today is that you &rsquo;ve been charged with assault with a weapon. It is the equivalent in the United States of a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of 18 months in jail. What was your immediate reaction, were you surprised or did you expect it?McSorley: I&rsquo;ve been in conversation with a very good lawyer in Vancouver. We were trying not to have it go to court. I think that the NHL has stepped in and suspended me substantially. I&rsquo;m not able to play. I&rsquo;m watching my teammates play. I don&rsquo;t really know if anybody knows how much I&rsquo;ve already lost, in a sense of just not having the right to play and having your reputation tarnished.ESPN: We want to take you back in the sequence of the game itself. It&rsquo;s Feb. 21, the Bruins are out in Vancouver. Tell us about the first fight two minutes into the game.McSorley: I had the first fight with Donald Brashear and he&rsquo;s a big lefty. I&rsquo;ve been having some trouble with my left arm, but I really thought I could tie him up with my right hand and use my left because he doesn&rsquo;t like to use his right. So many people see just this incident. I don&rsquo;t know how many people there are who have reported on this who haven&rsquo;t watched the whole game. Or maybe haven't watched me play over my whole career, or haven&rsquo;t had the chance to play with me, or haven&rsquo;t been in the position continuously night in and night out when you&rsquo;re faced with situations that you have to react to.ESPN: So take us through it. Two minutes in and you lose a clear-cut decision to another tough guy in the NHL&hellip;McSorley: I didn&rsquo;t do nearly as well as I wanted to. I think he embarrassed me. In the fight, you tend to tip your hat, but you want a rematch. You definitely want a rematch. You have io, you have to. If you don&rsquo;t, the line of guys trying to fight you later on would be enormous. You have to stand up for yourself. At the same time, though, I don&rsquo;t want to make Donald Brashear seem like the bad guy here because he&rsquo;s certainly not. But our bench was challenged, our team was challenged. I had absolutely no intention of hurting Donald Brashear with my hockey stick. And I don&rsquo;t know if anyone has looked at the tape and given it any consideration. I wanted a confrontation with Donald Brashear. No different than I&rsquo;ve done on so many other nights; it&rsquo;s no different than what any other tough guy has done on so many other nights. It just went bad.ESPN: When did you know you were going to&nbsp;try to get him into a fight in those last few seconds (of the game)? Was it right when they dropped the puck on the faceoff?McSorley: When I went out for the last shift, I intended on having a fight with Donald Brashear. To let not only him know, but to let our team and even other-teams know that we are going to stand up for ourselves.ESPN: What was your reaction immediately afterwards? Do you recall what your reaction was as you were being escorted off the ice?McSorley: I went over to him and I was angry at him. I looked down at him and I still think I believed he wasn&rsquo;t hurt. I have to be careful as to how much I say because there is a court proceeding going on in Vancouver. Then their team started after me and the linesman had a hold of me and I said to the linesman, &lsquo;Please let me defend myself.&rsquo; Fans were throwing things on the ice and there was just so much noise and so much bedlam. And then you realize Donald Brashear is hurt and that it&rsquo;s because he has been struck with my stick.ESPN: So you tap him on the shoulder, tap him on the arm, hope he turns around and then you drop the gloves, go out and you fight in the last two seconds. Is that what you were looking for at that point? Because people want to know what the stick was doing up there.McSorley: Well, I&rsquo;m running out of time. I don&rsquo;t know if anyone realized it, but if you fight after the last buzzer, it&rsquo;s a 10-game suspension. So I&rsquo;m running out of time. I&rsquo;m trying to get him to fight me. Force the confrontation. It&rsquo;s unfortunate that I felt I had to force it.ESPN: Perception. Let&rsquo;s talk about some of the media now. You take a look at the cover of The Hockey News, 'The NHL&rsquo;s Face of Disgrace, &rsquo; and there you are.McSorley: I think there are some people in the media that want to eliminate fighting and this might be a bit of a soapbox. So many of the media have been very good to me, too. I think people who cover hockey day-to-day have a good understanding of (fighting) and they&rsquo;ve been fair. I&rsquo;ve gotten phone calls from Hall of Famers who said they&rsquo;ll testify for me. Guys from all around the league that I&rsquo;ve played with. Anyone who&rsquo;s a tough guy say they understand what happened. But I told them to stay out of it. I don&rsquo;t want this to deflect away from (the game). Frankly, I&rsquo;m embarrassed for it, I&rsquo;m sorry our great game has suffered.ESPN: Would you take (Donald Brashear) on next season?McSorley: I&rsquo;m not going to go looking for him, but if it comes&hellip;There&rsquo;s a code amongst tough guys. I mean, if he comes out and wants to avenge himself or whatever, I&rsquo;m going to stand my ground, stand at center and give him the opportunity if that&rsquo;s what he wants to do. You have to respect people enough to do that.ESPN: Coming back for season No. 18?McSorley: I want to put this behind me and get healthy. I love to play, I really do. &#9632;

Confrontation gone bad: McSorley

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy </div><div class="byline">Senior Writer</div>The most traded active player in the NHL doesn&rsquo;t break out in a cold sweat at the mere mention of the word. Trade, that is.He didn&rsquo;t even give the March 14 trade deadline a second thought.&ldquo;Not a chance,&rdquo; said Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; defenseman Paul Coffey. &ldquo;If I get traded, I&rsquo;ll hang my skates up. I wouldn&rsquo;t put my family through it again.&rdquo;Coffey, who is married with two young children, has been dealt seven times in his career, as has J.J. Daigneault of the Phoenix Coyotes.Oddly enough, there&rsquo;s probably a market for the 38-year-old Coffey these days. He&rsquo;s not the productive defenseman he once was, but he had seven goals and 32 points in 54 games-his highest productivity since 1995-96. Surely there are teams who could use an offensive push from the blueline for a Stanley Cup charge.But Coffey&rsquo;s big concern is not a possible trade, it&rsquo;s getting the Hurricanes into the playoffs. They stood 10th in the Eastern Conference, one point out of a playoff spot. Carolina was one of five teams within three points of each other fighting for the final two berths. If the Hurricanes make it, they will point to their future Hall of Famer as one reason why.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing like he&rsquo;s 25,&rdquo; said Canes&rsquo; right winger Jeff O&rsquo;Neill. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a freak of nature the way he skates. I remember watching him play for Detroit when I was in junior and when Nicklas Lidstrom got the puck, Paul would take a couple of strides back, then cut up the ice looking for the pass. It was awesome to see.&rdquo;Coffey&rsquo;s 20th NHL season did not get off to a stellar start. He was a healthy scratch in nine of the Hurricanes&rsquo; first 17 games, including five in a row. It was embarrassing, but no more so than when he was sat out of the playoffs two years ago with the Philadelphia Flyers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012422/10069203-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="807" height="1429"><figcaption class="caption-body">A rejuvenated Paul Coffey is averaging 22 minutes of ice time per game for Carolina.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;What was I supposed to do?&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;Sure it hurt. But I told (Carolina GM) Jimmy Rutherford, &lsquo;If you guys need me, I&rsquo;ll be ready.&rsquo; And I made sure I was. I made a promise to myself a half-dozen years ago that when the time came for me to quit, I wouldn&rsquo;t be bitter. This game has given me so much and no player is bigger than the game. I wouldn&rsquo;t be one of those guys who just kept hanging on.&rdquo;Coffey said a little bit of good &rsquo;ol fatherly advice helped carry him through the troubled times. &ldquo;My dad (Jack) said when I got back in the lineup, to play the game on my terms,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;To do the things I do best-just go for it. He gave me the kick in the ass I needed. The game I play-rushing the puck-is not an easy game to play. If it was, everybody would be doing it. You have to be able to skate and you have to be in great shape. I feel like I can still do it.&rdquo;By all accounts, Coffey is having a wonderful season. At one point, he scored six goals in nine games. Yet he likely won&rsquo;t score as many points this year as he had goals (48) in 1985-86 with the Edmonton Oilers, when he broke Bobby Orr&rsquo;s single-season record by two. Those were the days when he was rewriting the NHL record book and helping the Oilers win three Stanley Cups. He has produced five 100-plus point seasons en route to becoming the NHL&rsquo;s highest-scoring defenseman. Coffey maintained a slight lead over the Colorado Avalanche&rsquo;s latest acquisition, Ray Bourque, in the all-time points race, 1,519 to 1,507.Coffey forced the trade issue a few times. Most memorable was the first time in 1987, when he insisted he was being underpaid by the Oilers. That led to a stint in Pittsburgh, where he won a fourth Cup. Then it was on to Los Angeles, Detroit, Hartford, Philadelphia and finally, Carolina.&ldquo;Being traded is never easy,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not fun whether you force the trade or not. Trades are a big part of the game, especially in the last 10 years. On the other hand, I&rsquo;ve had a chance to play with the best players in the game. I&rsquo;ve experienced the highs and the lows.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

Coffey time not over

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Mike Brophy</div>Dallas Eakins will never lead a league in scoring, but he could set a new standard for jerseys collected.When the New York Islanders traded Eakins, 32, to the Chicago Blackhawks March 3, it marked his ninth NHL team in eight seasons.Eakins, who has spent most of the year with the Chicago Wolves (International League), had played 100 NHL games through March 9. He has never scored, but did have eight assists and 193 penalty minutes. The native of Dade City, Fla., has also skated with nine minor pro teams.Here is how Eakins&rsquo; magical history tour in the NHL reads;&#10065; 1992-93-Winnipeg (14 games)&#10065; 1993-95-Florida (18 games over two seasons)&#10065; 1995-96-St. Louis (16 games); Winnipeg (two games after being claimed on waivers)&#10065; 1996-97-Phoenix (four games); Rangers (three games after being traded)&#10065; 1997-98-Florida (23 games)&#10065; 1998-99-Toronto (18 games)&#10065; 1999-00-Islanders (two games)When asked about his frequent movement, Eakins said, &ldquo;I'm a guy who can come and and be a sixth or seventh defenseman, play my 15 minutes a game and fill the role perfectly. Unfortunately, when changes have to be made. I&rsquo;m the first guy to go. Nobody ever questions a GM about getting rid of a sixth or seventh defenseman.&rdquo; &#9632;

Travellin’ man: Eakins joins ninth NHL club

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy </div><div class="byline">Senior Writer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021863/10069258-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="322" height="427"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Bruce Bennett Studios)</figcaption></div>NHL teams charge fans exorbitant prices to attend games. But when members of the media-the public&rsquo;s link to the NHL-try to get information from the on-ice talent, they often have a door slammed in their face.Player accessibility is getting worse. The NHL used to boast: &ldquo;The other leagues have a bunch of prima donnas; our players are open and down to earth.&rdquo; Today, it&rsquo;s as if the league is saying: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re No. 4 in North American pro sports and we&rsquo;re proud of it!&rdquo;Of course, the NHL doesn&rsquo;t see it that way.&ldquo;The league absolutely prioritizes player accessibility,&rdquo; said NHL spokesman Frank Brown. &ldquo;The league also feels its player access, in comparison to the other leagues, stands very well. And we are constantly working on creating ways to make it better.&rdquo;Well, the league has to work a little harder. A few years ago, a reporter could walk into a dressing room after a game and all players-with the exception of those receiving medical treatment-would be available to be interviewed.A few things have changed. The dressing rooms in old arenas used to have a change area, a shower and a medical room. New dressing rooms have a number of other rooms attached to them-more places for players to hide.Then there&rsquo;s the post-game workout. Many NHLers ride the stationary bike immediately after games, while reporters, who are trying to meet a deadline, stand and wait. When Ottawa Senators&rsquo; president Roy Mlakar found out reporters were being delayed, he quickly mandated a solution: The players still ride, but reporters can interview them as they huff and puff.Players&rsquo; attitudes have changed. It&rsquo;s so bad even mediocre players have jumped on the bandwagon. Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; defenseman Cory Cross tried to escape the media after scoring the winning goal in Tampa Bay Feb. 1, but was eventually coaxed into answering a few questions.When the Cory Crosses of the NHL start ducking the media, there&rsquo;s a problem.A number of teams, including the Edmonton Oilers, open their rooms completely after games.&ldquo;(Oilers&rsquo; GM-president) Glen (Sather) and I agree that if you&rsquo;re going to be a professional athlete and reap the benefits that come with the job, then you also have to be accountable,&rdquo; said Bill Tuele, the Oilers&rsquo; vice-president of public relations. &ldquo;I have never understood why anybody would make it difficult for the media to do their job.&rdquo;At the same time, Tuele says there has been a noticeable shift in the media, both in terms of the number of reporters covering the NHL and their intentions.&ldquo;More and more there are reporters whose jobs&hellip;are to stir the pot, to dig up trade rumors,&rdquo; Tuele said. &ldquo;That can be tough for the players to handle.&rdquo;Unfortunately, that comes with the territory.The league argues the morning skates on game days are wide open to reporters. True, but what good is that for reporters looking for comments after the game?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s always something that is premeditated,&rdquo; said one veteran beat reporter. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more a case that I&rsquo;m not convinced the players fully understand our job and the fact we are working under tight deadlines. Fans are being ripped off. I wouldn&rsquo;t even buy my own newspaper&rsquo;s first edition because it never has quotes from the players.&rdquo;Making things worse is the fact some teams&rsquo; PR directors actually aid their players in avoiding the media by making it difficult to get interviews.The NHL knows the problem exists, but is reluctant to address it. In fact, when one NHL senior executive was asked about the problem during last season&rsquo;s playoffs, he simply shrugged and offered, &ldquo;The players are making &lsquo;f&mdash; you&rsquo; money now.&rdquo;Larry Murphy, a defenseman in his 20th NHL season, acknowledges times have changed. He said there&rsquo;s more of a demand on players&rsquo; time now than when he broke in with the Los Angeles Kings in 1980-81, but he understands the media has a job to do.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a definitive answer to the problem,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;They run a time clock between periods, perhaps they could run a time clock after games. Make it cut and dry-the media gets access to all players for 10 minutes after each game. It&rsquo;s only going to help the game.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s worth considering. &#9632;

f0008-02

Players rip off fans with media snubs

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie </div><div class="byline">Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012400/10069289-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div>The Colorado Avalanche traded for Raymond Bourque because it desperately needed what it believes the 39-year-old Bourque can still provide nightly.That includes: 20 to 30 minutes of yeomen service; snappy outlet passes; well-timed offensive forays; power play quarterbacking; savvy penalty killing; and sage defensive coverage while facing the other teams&rsquo; best players.But Peter McNab, the Avalanche&rsquo;s broadcaster who was a Bruin when Bourque broke in with Boston in 1979, believes No. 77&rsquo;s biggest contribution will be how Colorado comes to feel about themselves with Bourque in the lineup as much as what he will give them on the ice for 15 regular season games and an unknown number of playoff matches.&ldquo;Until you play with him, you don&rsquo;t understand how much he likes to play hockey,&rdquo; said McNab in the wake of the March 6 trade that ended Bourque&rsquo;s 21-year run in Beantown. &ldquo;He changed the entire atmosphere and attitude of that Bruins&rsquo; team. Back then, we used to have a lot of Mondays off. Ray started going on the ice and the guys would say, &lsquo;What are you doing? This is a day off.&rsquo; Sure enough, he&rsquo;d go out there and then another guy did and another guy. Before you knew it, Mondays were the most fun.&ldquo;His enthusiasm was absolutely contagious&hellip; That&rsquo;s one of the things he&rsquo;ll bring (to Colorado).&rdquo;The underachieving Avalanche (31-27-10-1) needs a boost. It is battling the Edmonton Oilers for the Northwest Division lead, but also looking over its shoulder at the teams competing for the final post-season spot. Bourque&rsquo;s addition should provide the lift the Avs need to make the playoffs and he&rsquo;s expected to be a significant factor in whatever they accomplish in the spring.&ldquo;What he gives us on the ice, that&rsquo;s great, it&rsquo;s something we need,&rdquo; said defenseman Adam Foote, Bourque&rsquo;s partner in an 8-3 debut victory over the Flames in Calgary March 7. &ldquo;But to see Ray Bourque walk into our room, that&rsquo;s awesome. The atmosphere changed the minute that trade was made. It&rsquo;s unbelievable.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

Avs go for it with addition of NHL legend

That feeling is mutual. If Bourque gives the Avs a lift, they&rsquo;re giving him new life. For as much as he loves the game, the 18-time all-star was dying on the vine with the floundering Bruin franchise.That&rsquo;s why on Feb. 28 he phoned Harry Sinden, who was in California at the GMs&rsquo; meetings, to request a trade.&ldquo;He first started thinking about (a trade) in early January,&rdquo; Bourque&rsquo;s agent Stephen Freyer told THN.&ldquo;He wanted to win a Cup. He wasn&rsquo;t happy with his play and he wanted to see if playing on a contender might revitalize him. And he was concerned about the direction the organization was taking. It was an accumulation of things from last summer and right through the season.&rdquo;Bourque was reportedly angry ownership and management had been critical of coach Pat Bums, with whom he&rsquo;s close. He also wasn&rsquo;t happy to see Dmitri Khristich and Tim Taylor leave as free agents or netminder Byron Dafoe get in a contract squabble.So, finally, the five-time Norris Trophy winner phoned Sinden and asked to be traded. One week later, it was a done deal.And what a bizarre week it was. By the time the Bruins played their home matinee against the Philadelphia Flyers March 4, Sinden was trying to close a deal. Bourque knew it was his last game as a Bruin.It was then, in the dressing room, Bourque told his teammates and coaches he&rsquo;d requested a trade and expected a move.&ldquo;It was emotional,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;Ray had tears in his eyes, the young players had tears in their eyes. I had a lump in my throat.&rdquo;For Sinden, though, there was business to conduct. Four teams-the Avs, Flyers, Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues-were eager to get Bourque, who had told Sinden he preferred an Eastern Conference destination. Philadelphia was the No. 1 choice, Detroit was No. 2.Over the course of the weekend, both those teams thought they were close to finalizing a trade. Ditto for St. Louis. But on March 7, with Bourque remaining at his home while the Bruins hosted the Ottawa Senators, Sinden opted for Colorado.Sinden sent Bourque and veteran forward Dave Andreychuk, 36, to Colorado in exchange for sixth-year NHL center Brian Rolston, 27, and two prospects: Rugged defenseman Martin Grenier, 19, and Swedish center Samuel Pahlsson, 22. Boston also got Colorado&rsquo;s first round draft pick in either 2000 or 2001 (at the Bruins&rsquo; option).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011990/10069327-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="371" height="465"><figcaption class="caption-body">Harry Sinden</figcaption></div>Sinden then picked up the phone that evening-at no time did Sinden and Bourque meet face-to-face in his final week with the club-and informed the superstar defenseman of his new address.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to talk for long and I don&rsquo;t think he did,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;I said to Ray, &lsquo;This is a good team; they&rsquo;ve got some of the best players in the league and you&rsquo;re going to have a chance for a Cup.&rsquo; And Ray said, &lsquo;I agree with you.&rsquo;&hellip;Ray didn&rsquo;t say, &lsquo;Goddammit, Harry!&rsquo; You know? He didn&rsquo;t. He may feel that way, but he didn&rsquo;t say it.&rdquo;Bourque admitted Colorado wasn&rsquo;t his first choice, far from it because of geography. He didn&rsquo;t want to be that far away from his wife and three children to finish the season, but was excited at the opportunity to play for a team that lost in Game 7 of the Western Conference final last year to the Cup-champion Dallas Stars.On March 7, Bourque and Andreychuk flew from Boston to Calgary for their first game. Bourque logged 20:26 minutes of ice time and was plus-4, even though he suffered a groin pull in the warmup and didn&rsquo;t play in the third period. Bourque was averaging about 20 minutes for a full game with the Bruins. Clearly, the Avs intend to play Bourque with his nickname-&lsquo;Horse&rsquo;-in mind.Bourque and the Avs have agreed to play out the season before any talks about next year. Bourque had been contemplating retirement, but now figures he&rsquo;ll likely play one more season.&ldquo;If I play the way I think I&rsquo;m going to be playing, it&rsquo;s not the end of Ray Bourque,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I will figure that out in the next three months and I intend to play good hockey.&rdquo;An unrestricted free agent at season&rsquo;s end, it&rsquo;s difficult to imagine Bourque playing long-term so far from his Boston-area home, but that will depend on how things unfold in the short term.&ldquo;They want me to do the same things I did in Boston,&rdquo; said Bourque, who stood 10th among NHL defenseman with 10 goals and 39 points in 66 games. &ldquo;Play the power play, kill penalties, play against top lines. I welcome the challenge.&rdquo;Bourque-second all-time in defenseman scoring behind Paul Coffey (1,519 points to 1,507)&mdash;thinks the more free-wheeling Western Conference will to be his liking. He also figures to be re-energized by the Avs&rsquo; superstar triumvirate-Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy.And though he&rsquo;s not the player he once was, Bums said Bourque is still an ace.&ldquo;He still has his wheels,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;He has those big ham legs. And he&rsquo;s still truck-driver strong. The best part of his game is moving the puck out of his end. He makes a great first pass. If it isn&rsquo;t there, he&rsquo;ll skate it out. Ray can still be a big factor on the power play, especially if he&rsquo;s playing with guys who can move it as quickly as (the Avalanche stars) can. He doesn&rsquo;t stand guys up like he used to, but he&rsquo;s smart enough to have adapted.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s lots of good hockey left in Ray. A move to a team like Colorado will do for him what a move to Detroit did for Chris Chelios. Everyone was saying Chelly was done in Chicago; well, he doesn&rsquo;t look done in Detroit. It will be the same for Ray.&rdquo;Unquestionably, Bourque&rsquo;s addition raises the Avs&rsquo; playoff profile. It&rsquo;s no guarantee of success-not in the stacked West, where St. Louis, Dallas and Detroit, not to mention Edmonton, all rate as much or more contender consideration as Colorado. But then, the best NHL player never to have won a Stanley Cup doesn&rsquo;t have to be lectured on guarantees.Not after 21 years.&ldquo;I think at this point in my career I need a challenge,&rdquo; Bourque said. &ldquo;I really want to find out what&rsquo;s left in Ray Bourque.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021449/10069320-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="1381" height="2345"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque sports his new colors.(Bourque by D. MacMillan/BBS; all others by BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

If I play the way I think I’m going to, it’s not the end of Ray Bourque’

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>There was a moment in Ray Bourque&rsquo;s Colorado Avalanche debut when he looked down, as if to examine the unfamiliar crest on his new blue-and-red jersey.Afterwards, Bourque acknowledged that on what was a relatively smooth beginning to his new team, seeing his new sweater-after 21 years in the black-and-gold colors of the Boston Bruins-was strange.&ldquo;Skating around in warm-up was weird,&rdquo; Bourque said, &ldquo;but then the game starts and you just kind of click in.&rdquo;A day into his new life, the question was put to Bourque: Why now? Why, after all those years with the Bruins, did Bourque push for a trade at age 39?&ldquo;One is obvious,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never won a Stanley Cup and it&rsquo;s the one thing I haven&rsquo;t accomplished yet. I asked to go to a contender. The second reason is, at this point in my career, I need a challenge.&rdquo;Avs&rsquo; winger Dave Reid, who played with Bourque in Boston for 10 years, feels the change of scenery will be good for his teammate.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be difficult for Ray (to adjust), but on the other hand, I hope, I expect, I know he&rsquo;ll feel the adrenaline,&rdquo; Reid said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be a new start on life, a new outlook on everything.&rdquo;Coach Bob Hartley used Bourque constantly in his Avalanche debut March 7 in Calgary against the Flames, playing him 9:30 in the first period and 10:56 in the second. A slight groin twinge convinced Bourque to take the rest of the night off.Bourque danced around the issue of the Bruins&rsquo; underachieving season, which clearly contributed to his decision as well.After finishing dead-last in 1996-97, the Bruins looked as if they were one of the NHL&rsquo;s emerging young teams last spring. They won a playoff round against the Carolina Hurricanes and played the Buffalo Sabres tough in the second round. In the ultra-tight Eastern Conference, some picked the Bruins as a Stanley Cup contender this season. Instead, the bottom fell out.&ldquo;In Boston, we know how (Bruins&rsquo; GM) Harry (Sinden) runs his business,&rdquo; said Bourque, choosing his words carefully. &ldquo;He has always gone about his business the way he does and we all know that, so you live with it. He has done a pretty good job of putting a competitive team out there.&rdquo;But Bourque wants to win, not just be competitive. Colorado may not have been his first choice, but as he got used to the idea, his enthusiasm grew. &ldquo;Coming to Colorado, I&rsquo;m psyched,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re a good, young, talented team.&rdquo;Well, they&rsquo;re not as young as they used to be, but good and talented? No question. &#9632;

Bourque quickly warms to life with Avalanche

Owen Nolan and Mark Recchi are raising Cain-in more ways than one.The San Jose Sharks&rsquo; and Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; wingers are making noise in the Art Ross Trophy race and, should one win, he'll become the most unheralded scoring champion since Herb Cain turned the trick for the Boston Bruins in 1943-44.Cain&rsquo;s Art Ross season was an aberration. He finished with 82 points in 48 games. His previous career-high was 36 and he never posted more than 45 after winning the scoring title. He was named to the second all-star team that year, but never again won a major individual honor. Every Art Ross winner since Cain is a Hall of Fame inductee (or in Jaromir Jagr&rsquo;s case, an inductee-in-waiting).No disrespect intended, but Nolan is a few all-star teams and a few hundred goals away from even being considered for the Hall of Fame, even if he is the central cog in the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; attack. Recchi, meanwhile, has had a stellar career, but is a Hall longshot.Recchi (80 points in 67 games and on pace for 98) and Nolan (78 in 69 and on pace for 93) have been helped by circumstance. Jagr, with 85 points in 54 games, was running away with the scoring title before his late February thigh and hamstring injuries. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim captain Paul Kariya (69 points in 59 games) was gaining ground, too, before a bruised foot knocked him out of the lineup. Florida Panthers&rsquo; dazzler Pavel Bure (72 in 59) might be the leader if not for the eight games he missed due to injury early in the season.If Recchi and Nolan hold their pace, Jagr likely would need to return by the beginning of April to give himself a chance. It&rsquo;s uncertain if he&rsquo;ll be back in time. Of course, Bure may have already caught and surpassed Nolan and Recchi by then. &#9632;

Unlikely combatants for Art Ross

<div class="byline">By Chuck Carlton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021843/10069389-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="319" height="446"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012336/10069382-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="3054" height="2023"><figcaption class="caption-body">(John Giamundo/BBS)</figcaption></div>The GM&rsquo;s door was always open and Owen Nolan was never shy. In the infrequent good times and usually trying times with the San Jose Sharks, Nolan would visit Dean Lombardi.For Nolan, the talks all seem to run together, as ways to vent or confess or address the direction of his career or the team.For Lombardi, a few meetings stand apart, mile markers on Nolan&rsquo;s journey of personal growth from a destiny delayed, not denied or squandered. His 10-year trip from first pick overall to potential NHL scoring champ this season was never a straight line.One notable meeting came early last season, when Nolan and the Sharks were struggling.Again Nolan darkened the Lombardi&rsquo;s doorway. The GM didn&rsquo;t know if a request for more skilled teammates was coming, or maybe even a trade demand out of Silicon Valley.Instead, Nolan slumped into a chair, looked up and volunteered, &ldquo;You know, I suck.&rdquo;Even with Nolan on his way to a pedestrian 14 goals, Lombardi saw the vestiges of a turnaround.&ldquo;He evaluated himself first,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the first sign of maturity-when you can critique yourself.&rdquo;Publicly, Nolan isn't one for self-examination. The fewer words, the better. He&rsquo;s a Clint Eastwood personality living in an Oprah world. The only time he really confronted Lombardi was when he feared-needlessly, as it turned out-that the team was about to trade young center Jeff Friesen for goalie Ed Belfour a couple years ago.But even Nolan acknowledges his self-discovery has taken longer than a Dave Andreychuk a breakaway.&ldquo;Some people get it sooner,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;Unfortunately, it has taken me a little while longer.&rdquo;He wears the &lsquo;C&rsquo; as San Jose&rsquo;s captain, a salute to his talent and a subtle request to use it regularly, instead of only those enticing moments. Remember Nolan brazenly calling his shot on Dominik Hasek in the 1997 All-Star Game and delivering? He would prefer to talk about team success than his 40 goals in the Sharks&rsquo; first 69 games, or his 78 points, or the mix of sniper and power forward in his game.&ldquo;The biggest difference to me is his intensity on each shift,&rdquo; said St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defenseman Chris Pronger. &ldquo;He finishes every hit. He doesn&rsquo;t seem to stop and that has created a lot of turnovers and a lot of chances for himself.&rdquo;Reluctantly, Nolan will talk about how his performance finally mirrors his potential. Part of the change he chalks up to luck. The effort is the same as in last season&rsquo;s disappointment, he says.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked just as hard,&rdquo; Nolan said.&ldquo;This year, they're going in from everywhere and last year I hit posts from everywhere. Then frustration sets in and it affects your confidence.&rdquo;Another, larger part, may be attributed to a newfound fitness regimen. In previous off-seasons, the right winger&rsquo;s workouts were usually limited to 12-ounce curls.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t put the same work in during the summer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I did a lot of partying. I thought that was my time to relax and unwind and that training camp was the time to get in shape. But if you want to be a team leader, you have to accept the leadership role.&rdquo;He hired a personal trainer during the summer and discovered mountain biking as a passion.&ldquo;This is the first year he really showed up in shape,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big part of it; it&rsquo;s noticeable. You don&rsquo;t see the pudginess in his face. You look at his skating and he can go. He&rsquo;s pulling away from defenders now for breakaways. I haven't seen that since junior hockey.&rdquo;Back in junior, Nolan was expected to be on the NHL&rsquo;s fast track to stardom. He was the first pick overall in 1990, ahead of Jaromir Jagr, Keith Primeau and Petr Nedved.&ldquo;Sometimes we forget when kids break in at 18 and miss a whole part of development as a man and now a guy comes around like Owen at 28,&rdquo; Lombardi said.Selected by the former Quebec Nordiques, he was always on the verge-of greatness, or of being traded. He was eventually dealt to San Jose for rushing defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh at the start of the 1995-96 season, the year Quebec moved to Colorado and went on to win the Stanley Cup.Nolan may have experienced worse days in his hockey career than the day he was sent to San Jose, but none immediately come to mind. He wanted to be part of a Cup champion and instead became a leisure-time diversion for would-be <a href="http://dot.com">dot.com</a> millionaires.Five years later, the Sharks can whisper his name as a Hart Trophy candidate-he&rsquo;s at least worthy of a top-five mention with front-runner Jaromir Jagr suffering a late-season injury-and the chuckles are less audible. Only Florida Panthers&rsquo; star Pavel Bure has scored a higher percentage of his team&rsquo;s goals (22.7 per cent to 21.3). And Nolan has double the hits of anybody else in the top five in scoring and is the only one in the top 20 with more than 100 penalty minutes. His 79th point will deprive Kelly Kisio, of all people, of the Sharks&rsquo; single-season points record.&ldquo;The one thing about Owen, more than most of the skill guys, is he&rsquo;s a throwback who can play any way you want,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;Whenever some of the skilled guys in the league go down, it&rsquo;s like they&rsquo;ve been shot. Owen doesn&rsquo;t get that break. He&rsquo;s a man&rsquo;s man in his approach. He can finesse or punch your light outs.&rdquo;And for a change, all those qualities are being displayed on a regular basis. &#9632;

f0012-02

Nolan: Killer Shark

<div class="byline">By Mike Heika</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-012038/10069444-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dallas Stars&rsquo; goalie Ed Belfour is escorted from the Lew Sterrett Justice Center after being released.</figcaption></div>Dallas Stars&rsquo; goaltender Ed Belfour was charged with assault and resisting arrest after a skirmish in a posh Dallas-area hotel led to a bizarre seven-hour encounter with the city&rsquo;s police.Belfour was released on a $500 bond and will face misdemeanor charges in connection with the March 9 incident. He could face a maximum of one year in jail and $4,000 in fines.Belfour was removed from Dallas&rsquo; lineup as of March 9 and was undergoing counseling in a substance abuse program that&rsquo;s co-sponsored by the NHL and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. The Stars were studying avenues to help Belfour and work him back into their lineup when he was &ldquo;physically and mentally ready,&rdquo; said Stars&rsquo; GM Bob Gainey. Belfour, 34, was expected to miss at least three games.Stars' coach Ken Hitchcock said there is no firm timetable for Belfour&rsquo;s return. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really out of our hands,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;Until there is proper evaluation done with the people hired by the NHL, it&rsquo;s their call and they will make the decision based on the information Ed gives them.&rdquo;Police reports allege sometime after midnight, Belfour was loud and obnoxious with a desk clerk and the clerk said Belfour was intoxicated and &ldquo;groping&rdquo; a female companion.The clerk called the police and security guards escorted Belfour and the female to Belfour&rsquo;s room. Along the way, the female told the security guards she was scared of Belfour and one of them took her downstairs to get a cab.Meanwhile, the other security guard stayed in the room with Belfour, according to the report. When Belfour, who has a house in Dallas, tried to leave, the guard stopped him. At that time, the report said, Belfour grabbed the security guard by the lapels of his jacket and slammed him against the wall. When police arrived, Belfour had the guard in a headlock and refused to let go.Police were forced to use mace on Belfour. the report said, and had to handcuff him. He was taken to Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas, where he continued to present a problem.Belfour eventually was put in leg restraints, but still could not be controlled, so he was put in a restraining chair until he calmed down enough at 5:10 a.m. to make his phone call. He was released from jail at 7:21 a m.Hitchcock said Belfour will be held accountable by the league, the organization and his teammates.&ldquo;Accountability issues are very important in this group and Eddie will have to be accountable, Hitchcock said. &ldquo;Our concern is people stand up and explain themselves and do it honestly. Because this isn&rsquo;t a misunderstanding, this is a big mistake. And we need to correct it for the short term and the long term.&rdquo;Among the issues was the fact Belfour was breaking team curfew. The Stars were scheduled to play the Vancouver Canucks March 9 and while Belfour was not scheduled to start, he was still expected to follow team rules concerning game-night preparation.&ldquo;It will come into the category as being an incident that will require some type of direction for the person to correct something that has gone wrong,&rdquo; Gainey said.Belfour, one of the heroes of last year&rsquo;s Stanley Cup championship, has played well for the Stars this season. He was 28-18-5 with a 2.08 goals-against average and .919 save percentage. &#9632;

f0013-01

Stars, NHL helping Belfour after arrest

Another, larger part, may be attributed to a newfound fitness regimen. In previous off-seasons, the right winger&rsquo;s workouts were usually limited to 12-ounce curls.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t put the same work in during the summer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I did a lot of partying. I thought that was my time to relax and unwind and that training camp was the time to get in shape. But if you want to be a team leader, you have to accept the leadership role.&rdquo;He hired a personal trainer during the summer and discovered mountain biking as a passion.&ldquo;This is the first year he really showed up in shape,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big part of it; it&rsquo;s noticeable. You don&rsquo;t see the pudginess in his face. You look at his skating and he can go. He&rsquo;s pulling away from defenders now for breakaways. I haven't seen that since junior hockey.&rdquo;Back in junior, Nolan was expected to be on the NHL&rsquo;s fast track to stardom. He was the first pick overall in 1990, ahead of Jaromir Jagr, Keith Primeau and Petr Nedved.&ldquo;Sometimes we forget when kids break in at 18 and miss a whole part of development as a man and now a guy comes around like Owen at 28,&rdquo; Lombardi said.Selected by the former Quebec Nordiques, he was always on the verge-of greatness, or of being traded. He was eventually dealt to San Jose for rushing defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh at the start of the 1995-96 season, the year Quebec moved to Colorado and went on to win the Stanley Cup.Nolan may have experienced worse days in his hockey career than the day he was sent to San Jose, but none immediately come to mind. He wanted to be part of a Cup champion and instead became a leisure-time diversion for would-be <a href="http://dot.com">dot.com</a> millionaires.Five years later, the Sharks can whisper his name as a Hart Trophy candidate-he&rsquo;s at least worthy of a top-five mention with front-runner Jaromir Jagr suffering a late-season injury-and the chuckles are less audible. Only Florida Panthers&rsquo; star Pavel Bure has scored a higher percentage of his team&rsquo;s goals (22.7 per cent to 21.3). And Nolan has double the hits of anybody else in the top five in scoring and is the only one in the top 20 with more than 100 penalty minutes. His 79th point will deprive Kelly Kisio, of all people, of the Sharks&rsquo; single-season points record.&ldquo;The one thing about Owen, more than most of the skill guys, is he&rsquo;s a throwback who can play any way you want,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;Whenever some of the skilled guys in the league go down, it&rsquo;s like they&rsquo;ve been shot. Owen doesn&rsquo;t get that break. He&rsquo;s a man&rsquo;s man in his approach. He can finesse or punch your light outs.&rdquo;And for a change, all those qualities are being displayed on a regular basis. &#9632;

Nolan mixes finesse, nastiness

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Tom Jones</div>Observers called it the most intense hockey fight ever. The March 3 tilt between Tampa Bay Lightning left winger Kyle Freadrich and right winger Ryan VandenBussche of the Chicago Blackhawks even scared some players.&ldquo;It was the single-most brutal thing I&rsquo;ve ever seen&hellip;ever," said Tampa Bay right winger Stan Drulia. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t think of anything that even comes close. It was so brutal it was scary.&rdquo;For a solid minute, the two threw so many punches it was impossible to count them.Freadrich, a 6-foot-6, 225-pound rookie recently recalled from the Detroit Vipers of the International League, lost two teeth, sustained a broken nose and needed three stitches over his right eye. And he landed more punches.VandenBussche, 6 feet and 200 pounds, got five stitches in his left hand, a black left eye and facial cuts and bruises. He took an antibiotic IV at the hospital to protect against infection.Freadrich threw nothing but rights. VandenBussche threw nothing but lefts. Freadrich landed the best punch-a heavy right to the face.&ldquo;I hit him square and he didn&rsquo;t go down,&rdquo; Freadrich said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what to do, so I just tied up. I was amazed he didn&rsquo;t go down.&rdquo;The fight took place in front of the Lightning bench. Vincent Lecavalier and Matt Elich saw Freadrich&rsquo;s teeth fly by them midway through the altercation. In fact, one tooth actually stuck to Elich&rsquo;s stick. &#9632;

Fight so ‘brutal,’ teeth were flying

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN </div><div class="byline">&#x2013;with file from Alan Adams</div>The issues preventing an NHL commitment to participate in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City weren&rsquo;t resolved during two days of meetings in Barcelona, Spain.An increase in the transfer fees the NHL pays to European clubs remains the main issue and it&rsquo;s proving to be difficult to overcome. European officials want to link a fee increase to Olympic participation, but the NHL says they are separate issues.Attending the meetings were officials from Canada, the United States, Sweden, Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic, the International Ice Hockey Federation, NHL and NHL Players&rsquo; Association.&ldquo;Everybody had a chance to hear what the issues are, but we are no closer to an agreement,&rdquo; said IIHF president Rene Fasel.The next meetings are scheduled for May at the World Championship in St. Petersburg, Rus.FREAK ACCIDENT A hockey fan hit in the head with a puck while watching a game died a week later.Chad Hildebrand, 21, of Altona, Man., was hurt at a South East Manitoba League game Feb. 26 when a puck shot into the crowd glanced off a friend&rsquo;s hand and hit him in the temple. He was taken to hospital, examined and released.Minutes after he returned home, Hildebrand collapsed and was unconscious. He slipped into a coma and was placed on life support. He died March 3.BAN ON CHECKS? The American Academy of Pediatricians wants bodychecking banned from youth hockey and said the move would significantly reduce injuries.It cited a study that blamed aggressive contact for as much as 86 per cent of youth hockey injuries. The academy recommends a ban on checking in all organized leagues with players aged 14 and under.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t feel like there was a different way to do checking or a safer way,&rdquo; said physician Steven Anderson.WOMEN BATTLE The Toronto Beatrice Aeros and Montreal Sainte-Julie Panthers will face off for the first-ever National Women&rsquo;s League title.The Aeros were first in the West Division with a 35-3-2 record, while the Panthers were tops in the East at 20-8-6.The two-game, three-point series is March 18-19 in Brampton. The NWHL&rsquo;s championship trophy will be unveiled March 18.TEAMS DEBUT The NHL welcomes its 29th and 30th teams with the inclusion of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild to the Western Conference next season.The Blue Jackets open their eight-game exhibition schedule Sept. 15 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. A location is yet to be determined. Columbus will play in the Central Division.The Wild has not yet released its pre-season schedule. Minnesota will play in the Northwest Division.FANS HAVE SAY Wisconsin Badger forward Steve Reinprecht is the vote of college hockey fans for the Hobey Baker Award.Reinprecht was the runaway winner in the first phase of balloting for top player in U.S. college hockey. The fan vote accounts for one per cent of the final tally. A panel of 60 Division I coaches is the larger voice in determining 10 finalists. The second phase of balloting runs from March 17-30.Reinprecht had 29,258 voting points, well ahead of Wisconsin linemate Dany Heatley, at 16,964. Third place went to Michigan State forward Shawn Horcoff.NATIONAL PLAYDOWNS Pre-tournament favorites Alberta, Ontario and Quebec each won their opening games at the Esso Canadian women&rsquo;s national championship.Ontario won twice, beating Saskatchewan 9-1 and blanking Newfoundland 10-0. Alberta also shut out Newfoundland, 7-0, and Quebec blanked Manitoba 12-0.Fourteen members of the national team are involved in the tournament, playing on the various provincial squads. The final was March 12. &#9632;

No answer in Olympic dispute

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>The Ontario League has said it is sorry to Vladimir Chernenko.Next up was Barrie Colts&rsquo; coach Bill Stewart, who planned to apologize to the 18-year-old Ukrainian for twice smuggling him into the U.S. by hiding him in the underneath luggage compartment of the team bus.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll meet with Vladimir this week,&rdquo; said Stewart March 7. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t do things over the phone. I want to go have lunch or dinner with him and be a man about it.&rdquo;OHL commissioner David Branch met with Chernenko March 4. Chernenko&rsquo;s new team, the Subdury Wolves, were in Toronto to play the St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors.While Branch has said the situation has been dealt with, Stewart might still have his day in a higher court, according to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service.Winston Barrus, the acting district director at the U.S. immigration office in Buffalo, confirmed his office has launched an investigation.Stewart could face a ban on entering the U.S., Barrus said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking into what appropriate action U.S. immigration should take in view of the information that has come to fight,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;We have asked some people to look at it and give recommendations on how best to proceed.&rdquo;On Jan. 28, Stewart was stripped of his general manager&rsquo;s title and had his annual salary docked $10,000-a total of $25,000 through the remainder of his three-year contract.The Colts played the Wolves in Barrie the next day and the two teams met again in Sudbury Feb. 11.The smuggling incidents took place Oct. 16 at Port Huron, Mich., and Dec. 4 at Buffalo, N.Y., while Chernenko was with the Colts.Chernenko had since been traded to the Owen Sound Platers and then on to Sudbury.Stewart had not obtained a multi-entry visa from a U.S. consulate, which was necessary for Chernenko to enter the U.S.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-012001/10069547-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="325" height="439"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vladimir Chernenko</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It was an error, period, on my part,&rdquo; Stewart said. &ldquo;It was poor judgement.&rdquo;Stewart hasn&rsquo;t answered why he stuck Chernenko under the bus twice.OHL teams were kept in the dark about the incidents and Stewart&rsquo;s punishment until March 1, when Branch held a telephone conference call to inform the governors what was happening.That was after THN and The London Free Press phoned Branch to inquire about the incidents.Until then, only the five-member executive council had been apprised of the situation.Branch said when the two incidents were brought to his attention in early January, he spoke with Wolves&rsquo; coach-GM Bert Templeton about getting together with Chernenko.&ldquo;It was always on my mind to talk with him, but the following week we had our all-star game (Jan. 25) and league meetings in Mississauga and the following week we had CHL. meetings and the Top Prospects game (Feb. 2) and the NHL all-star game in Toronto,&rdquo; Branch said. &ldquo;The schedule did not permit an opportunity that was convenient until this past weekend.&rdquo;Branch met with Chernenko and a representative, Anton Thun.&ldquo;I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss the matter with (Chernenko) to determine any questions or issues he had,&rdquo; Branch said. &ldquo;I wanted to express the sincere apologies of the league for what had occurred. The young man said he wanted to put the incidents behind him.&rdquo;Thun is president of AKT Sports Management, which employs Chernenko&rsquo;s agent, Vlad Shushkovsky.Thun said Shushkovsky was in Russia and would make a special trip to meet with Chernenko&rsquo;s parents.&ldquo;Encouraging is probably the right word,&rdquo; said Thun when asked of the OHL&rsquo;s apology.&ldquo;There are certain people who are taking responsibility. You can&rsquo;t tar and feather the league as a whole for the actions of one person. The concern we have at this time is based on the fact there was a reckless disregard for the safety of the young man.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-01

OHL apologizes to player

The NHL didn&rsquo;t keep track of save percentage when Roger Crozier played, but the former goaltender&rsquo;s name is on a new league award.The MBNA Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award recognizes the goalie with the best save percentage. Crozier won 206 games over 14 seasons with three teams from 1963-64 through 1976-77. He won the Calder Trophy as top rookie, was a first-team all-star in 1964-65 and captured the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP the next season. He is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.Following his career, Crozier joined MBNA America Bank as director of facility management. He died in 1996 at age 53. The winner will receive a trophy and $25,000, to be donated to a youth hockey or educational program of his choice.Trevor Kidd of the Florida Panthers led the NHL with a .924 save percentage going into the final month.Save percentage, calculated by dividing saves into shots, gives a more accurate measure of a goalie&rsquo;s value than goals-against average. The NHL started keeping track of save percentage in 1982-83. &#9632;

New NHL award honors Crozier

<div class="byline">By Bill Plunkett</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-012081/10069602-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="155" height="155"></div>The search for a productive second line might be a thing of the past thanks to future considerations.In a minor move that has paid major dividends, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim acquired right winger Kip Miller from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for future considerations Jan. 29. With Marty McInnis injured, Miller was put on a line with center Matt Cullen and left winger Ted Donato.The trio clicked immediately, combining good skating and passing skills to give the Ducks something they seem to search for every season-production from somewhere other than their top line of Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne and Steve Rucchin.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any real secret to line combinations,&rdquo; Cullen said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just three guys who move the puck well and see the ice well and have good foot speed. We&rsquo;re able to use our foot speed to create things.&rdquo;In a 14-game stretch beginning Feb. 8, the line combined for 37 points-11 each for Cullen and Donato and 15 for Miller.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re three skilled guys that have hockey sense and they&rsquo;ve been making the most of their chances,&rdquo; said Ducks&rsquo; coach Craig Hartsburg. &ldquo;If they use their strengths, they can be successful. If they skate and keep their feet moving, try and use their strengths rather than worry about their deficiencies (mainly, a lack of size), they can be successful.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK The Mighty Ducks held their own while left winger Paul Kariya was out with a bruised right foot. The Ducks went 3-3-1-0 without him. Since Kariya made his NHL debut in 1994-95, the Ducks are almost a .500 team with him in the lineup (153-159-49) but much worse without him (23-46-13)&hellip;Ducks&rsquo; defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky was the top scorer among all NHL defensemen since Jan. 19 with seven goals and 23 points in 20 games. Tverdovsky had set a career-high with 11 goals this season&hellip;After blowing a one-goal lead and losing to the Rangers in overtime March 8, the Ducks had outscored their opponents in the first period (57-47), played them nearly even in the second (69-70), but were outscored by 17 in the third period (69-52). &#9632;

f0016-01

Miller flying with Ducks, stabilizes second line

<div class="byline">By Nancy Marrapese-Burnell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-031146/10069633-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="328" height="440"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Rolston</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021585/10069640-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="155" height="152"></div>Lost amid the furor surrounding the departure of long-time Boston Bruins&rsquo; captain Ray Bourque was the arrival of speedy center Brian Rolston, who came to the Bruins in the multi-player swap from the Colorado Avalanche.Rolston was one of three players picked up by Boston in the trade. But he is the only one giving the Bruins immediate help. He had 11 goals and 22 points in 62 games with the New Jersey Devils and Colorado this season.Rolston, who will help fill the club&rsquo;s serious void at center, felt he didn&rsquo;t fit in with the Avs and was hopeful of becoming an impact player in Boston.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t tied to Colorado in the big perspective of things,&rdquo; Rolston said. &ldquo;I was actually glad to be gone. Obviously, that&rsquo;s a great hockey team and they have a chance of going all the way, but 1 think my future is here. When you have a lot of good players, it&rsquo;s tough to get into a situation where you&rsquo;re a go-to guy. Maybe here I can be one of those guys to make this team a better hockey team. That&rsquo;s something I want to do.&rdquo;Rolston, 27, can play the point on the power play and is also a good penalty killer, which is an area where the Bruins have been severely lacking this season.It&rsquo;s expected that 22-year-old Sami Pahlsson, whom the Avalanche originally didn&rsquo;t want to part with, but was included after Dave Andreychuk was put into the deal, will be a member of the Bruins next season. The hard-nosed center is playing for MoDo of the Swedish Elite League.The other player in the deal, considered to be a serious project, is mammoth defenseman Martin Grenier. He has been compared to Washington Capitals&rsquo; forward Chris Simon. The 19-year-oId Grenier is 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds and racked up 479 penalty minutes last season to lead the Quebec League.NOTEBOOK The next Bruin likely to depart Boston is expected to be coach Pat Burns. Bums has been criticized by owner Jeremy Jacobs and team management and there are few around the club who believe Bums will survive the fallout from an awful season. The players publicly support their coach. Center Jason Allison said it would be a devastating development if Bums were let go. &ldquo;He's one of the tougher coaches in the league, he&rsquo;s very strict and a pretty defensive-minded guy.&rdquo; Allison said. &ldquo;But you ask around the room and every guy wants him back. That should say something. You don&rsquo;t see that (kind of support) very often.&rdquo; Said goaltender Rob Talias: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been real good at taking most of the heat for all of us.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-03

Rolston wants fresh start, hopes to be impact player

<div class="byline">By Jeff Schultz</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04847/10069671-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="157" height="153"></div>The Thrashers can&rsquo;t get up and their best defenseman can&rsquo;t lay down. This expansion thing just isn&rsquo;t getting any better.Gord Murphy, Atlanta&rsquo;s stabilizing force on the blueline, saw his season prematurely end for the second straight year due to injury when he suffered a dislocated shoulder March 4 at Ottawa. Last year with Florida, nerve trauma in his neck caused him to miss the final 25 games.Murphy, 33, was in such pain the day after the injury that he couldn&rsquo;t sleep, in part because he couldn&rsquo;t lie down. He described it as &ldquo;close to having pain that blacks you out.&rdquo;Murphy had just made a clearing pass out of his own zone when Ottawa&rsquo;s Marian Hossa closed in and checked him into the boards.&ldquo;I saw him coming, but I took for granted he was going to let up and not hit me that hard, so I wasn&rsquo;t really set,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;After it happened, I looked down at the palm of my hand and it was backwards. I told (trainer) Scotty (Green), &lsquo;This is bad. Something&rsquo;s seriously wrong.&rsquo;&ldquo;This is like my worst nightmare.&rdquo;Murphy suffered three injuries: A dislocation, which caused his right shoulder to drop more than an inch and leave his arm dangling; nerve damage that has left him without feeling in his deltoid muscle; and a broken piece of bone off the rotator cuff area.Team captain Kelly Buchberger, who had two pins inserted into a broken shoulder in 1990, said Murphy &ldquo;is in for a long summer. Shoulder injuries are a tough thing to rehab from. It took a year before I felt I was back to normal.&rdquo;With injuries to Murphy, Chris Tamer (knee), David Harlock (disc) and Steve Staios (groin) and deals that sent away Darryl Shannon and Kevin Dean, the Thrashers&rsquo; most experienced defenseman was Brett Clark, 23, who was recalled from Orlando in mid-February and had 112 NHL games to his credit through March 9.NOTEBOOK Goaltender Damian Rhodes was set to make his first start since Nov. 17 against New Jersey March 10 in Atlanta. Rhodes had been out with a right high-ankle sprain. It finally got better after three treatments of low-voltage shockwave therapy, which was available only in Vancouver. Rhodes had a 3-7-2-1 record. 3.29 goals-against average and .882 save percentage&hellip;After snapping a 12-game losing streak and 16-game winless streak Feb. 22 at Colorado, the Thrashers went back to their old ways, losing six straight through March 9. They were also 0-15-1-1 in 16 games against Original Six teams&hellip;Atlanta had dressed 38 players this year, including 11 call-ups from affiliate Orlando (International League). &#9632;

f0016-04

More misery as Murphy goes down

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelly</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011779/10069702-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Gilmour will lend experience and leadership to the Sabres as they try to make it to the playoffs.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021347/10069709-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="158" height="156"></div>If the Buffalo Sabres join the ranks of the missing in the Stanley Cup playoffs this season it won&rsquo;t be because of a lack of effort by management.In one 12-hour period, Sabres&rsquo; GM Darcy Regier obtained two players who could lift the Sabres from their status as potential also-rans to being a team with serious Stanley Cup aspirations.&ldquo;We made these deals first and foremost to focus on the playoffs,&rdquo; Regier said after announcing trades that brought Tampa Bay Lightning center Chris Gratton and Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; center Doug Gilmour to Buffalo. &ldquo;The deals help us now and down the stretch and for next year and for the future.&rdquo;Regier traded forwards Brian Holzinger and Wayne Primeau, defenseman Cory Sarich and a third round draft pick in 2000 to the Lightning for center Chris Gratton and Tampa&rsquo;s second round pick in 2001. That deal came down about 12:30 a.m. March 10.Twelve hours later, Regier announced he had traded Michal Grosek to Chicago for Gilmour and right winger J.P. Dumont. Sources said the Hawks picked up a &ldquo;significant&rdquo; amount of Gilmour&rsquo;s $6-million contract, reportedly $3 million, for the 2000-01 season.&ldquo;We set out to do this (improve the team) awhile back,&rdquo; Regier said. &ldquo;If you look at the players we got I think it shows we set a course. It also indicates a significant commitment on the part of the ownership here and addresses some of the things that maybe they&rsquo;ve been criticized for in the past.&rdquo;Regier said both incoming players indicated they were excited about playing for the Sabres and helping the team make a run toward a post-season berth.The trades mark the end of an era for the Sabres. Grosek, who had a falling out with Sabres&rsquo; coach Lindy Ruff, was expecting a trade for weeks. He was a holdover from the John Muckier era and was originally drafted by Chicago manager of hockey operations Mike Smith when Smith was GM of the Winnipeg Jets.Primeau, a first round pick (17th overall) by the Sabres in 1994, had also been hoping for a trade. Holzinger was a veteran on what is still a young team, having come to the Sabres as a sixth-round pick (124th overall) in 1991. He, too, had seen his name in trade rumors in recent weeks.If there was a must-have player in the deal for the Lightning, it was the 21-year-old Sarich. The 6-foot-3, 195-pound defenseman had nearly been a fixture in the Sabres&rsquo; lineup this season and clearly has a top four role in his future.The first pick in the second round of the 1996 entry draft, Sarich appeared to break through to the NHL this season, but was sent to the Sabres&rsquo; American League affiliate in Rochester for more seasoning after struggling with his confidence. Regier noted Sarich was an integral part of the deal and was likely to have a strong NHL future, but the Sabres did have several young defensemen still in the minors. The moves seemed to energize the Sabres.&ldquo;My eyes almost popped out of my head,&rdquo; said Vaclav Varada. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be fun playing with those guys.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Some urgency came into the deal-making process when the Sabres lost captain Michael Peca, a center, to a shoulder injury March 5 in Washington. The injury was the result of an ugly incident in which both sides traded charges after Washington left winger Steve Konowalchuk and Peca exchanged blows with just nine seconds left in the game. Peca said Konowalchuk injured his shoulder in the course of the altercation, but continued hitting him after Peca said he couldn&rsquo;t fight anymore. The Capitals charged Peca intentionally tried to injure defenseman Sergei Gonchar when Peca leveled him with a huge open ice body check in the first period&hellip; Buffalo's 2-1 win over Boston March 8 was Lindy Ruff&rsquo;s 100th as an NHL coach, all with the Sabres. &#9632;

f0017-01

Sabres get serious about playoffs, loading up for late-season surge

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschak</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03957/10069740-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="157" height="155"></div>He started the year slowly, so much so Calgary Flames&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter sat out Marc Savard for a game in October because of indifferent play.Message sent. Message received.Savard has been in the lineup every game since and has quietly put together a decent offensive season. He had a career-high 10-game point-scoring streak, one that left him with 47 points in 64 games, end in an 8-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche March 7. The streak represented a career high for the 22-year-old center.&ldquo;My confidence is good and it has helped me feel more secure,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve been more consistent the last couple of months. It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve been working on and, hopefully, I can get better at.&rdquo;Savard has centered a line with Jarome Iginla and Andrei Nazarov which, in February, was the Flames&rsquo; most consistent scoring unit.According to Sutter, the biggest difference between Savard early in the season compared to now is his maturity.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s getting older and understanding things better,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;In the past, his line would score a goal, but allow a number of odd-manned situations against them and he couldn&rsquo;t understand why you were upset with him. Now he understands you&rsquo;re paid to get points, but you&rsquo;re not being paid to give them up. That&rsquo;s maturity. That&rsquo;s experience.&rdquo;The secret to the line&rsquo;s success, according to Savard, is familiarity.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been together pretty much all season and had a chance to gel,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We get along great too.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Flames added a defensive center, with faceoff abilities in the week leading up to the trade deadline, acquiring Marc Bureau from Philadelphia for minor league left winger Travis Brigley and a sixth round draft choice. Bureau turned pro with Calgary, signing as a free agent in May, 1987, but played only 10 games for the Flames over two years before moving on to Minnesota for a third round pick that turned out to be right winger Sandy McCarthy. Bureau was ranked No. 11 in the NHL in faceoff winning percentage upon his arrival. The plan was for him to play left wing on the checking line with center Jason Wiemer, but to take some faceoffs&hellip;Right winger Jarome Iginla&rsquo;s consecutive-games point streak was snapped at 16 in an 8-3 loss to Colorado March 7. &#9632;

f0017-03

Savard playing with savvy now that confidence soars

<div class="byline">By Cecil Harris</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011958/10069771-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="156" height="155"></div>On any list of Carolina Hurricanes likely to score a hat trick, Bates Battaglia&rsquo;s name wouldn&rsquo;t be near the top.The left winger with the Samsonesque mane had two goals and seven points during a 37-game span this season. He had a 21-game goal drought and a 15-game pointless streak during which he dropped from the Canes&rsquo; No. 1 line to virtual oblivion as a healthy scratch in two February games.That changed March 8 in Raleigh when Battaglia had his first career hat trick in the third period of a 4-1 win over his hometown Chicago Blackhawks.&ldquo;I had friends and family watching back home; I know my parents were watching, so I know they&rsquo;re happy about it,&rdquo; Battaglia said.The Canes worked hard to set up Battaglia during a power play in the final minute with the Blackhawks&rsquo; net empty. Battaglia shanked two shots off the left side of the unoccupied net before taking a Rod Blind&rsquo;Amour pass and drilling the puck past Hawks&rsquo; defenseman Bryan McCabe with 7.7 seconds left.The hat trick that surprised Battaglia&rsquo;s teammates surprised him just as much. Not even he would have bet on it. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m a betting man,&rdquo; he laughed.Battaglia, 24, has worked his way back from the press box to a key role on an effective third line with right winger Andrei Kovalenko and center Robert Kron. His coach said he never moped.&ldquo;This is Bates&rsquo; first 82-game season and he&rsquo;s learned two things-respect for his body and how to work real hard,&rdquo; said Hurricanes&rsquo; coach Paul Maurice.NOTEBOOK Of Carolina&rsquo;s two future Hall of Famers, center Ron Francis is adamant about not wanting to coach. But defenseman Paul Coffey might find himself behind a bench some day. &ldquo;I know I have things to offer to the game when I&rsquo;m through playing.&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;Working with young players would be appealing to me.&rdquo;&hellip;. The Canes sold out only one of their first 32 home games in Raleigh-the Oct. 29 inaugural game. The club had an average of 6,000 empty seats per night at its 18,730-seat arena. &#9632;

f0018-01

Longest odds come through in Battaglia’s unexpected three-goal game

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021442/10069802-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="156" height="154"></div>Embattled Chicago Blackhawk left winger Bob Probert was on the verge of reaching a pair of milestones-one off the ice for which he could be proud of and one on the ice which is of a more dubious nature.Probert will celebrate an important moment July 15 when he marks his sixth year of being clean and sober. He has been clean ever since he was suspended by the NHL for the 1994-95 season for substance abuse and sent to rehab by the Hawks.&ldquo;What Bob Probert has done with his life is outstanding,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; coach/GM Bob Pulford. &ldquo;I have more respect for him off the ice than I do on it and I respect him a lot there. I think people who turn their life around deserve our pride.&rdquo;On the ice, Probert, 34, was within two minutes reaching of 3,000 for his career-the equivalent of more than two days in the penalty box. He will become only the sixth player in league history to sit that many minutes. He had one goal, eight points and 101 penalty minutes in 54 games this season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a number,&rdquo; Probert said. &ldquo;It means I&rsquo;ve been around a long time.&rdquo;Another guy who has been around a long time was Boston Bruin Marty McSorley, recently suspended for the balance of the season for clubbing Vancouver Canuck Donald Brashear in the head with his stick. Probert, once the league&rsquo;s most feared enforcer, felt the suspension given McSorley was too severe.&ldquo;It did surprise me because 23 games is steep,&rdquo; Probert said. &ldquo;I know a lot of people don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s enough, but I think 15 or 20 games would have been right. I don&rsquo;t think Donald was hurt that bad, although I know he&rsquo;s still not playing.&rdquo;Probert was surprised to see McSorley snap like he did. But Probert does understand how it happened since he has been where McSorley was at that moment many times.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve definitely considered crossing that line in the heat of the moment and either you stop yourself or you don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Probert said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t stop himself in time. It was a situation where Marty just snapped. He lost it. It happens. It's unfortunate because Marty has battled hard over the years. To do something like that is not like him.&rdquo;Probert hadn&rsquo;t heard claims that Brashear was taunting the bench prior to the incident.&ldquo;If Donald did that, then he crossed the line, too,&rdquo; Probert said.NOTEBOOK Defenseman Bryan McCabe picked a fight with Phoenix&rsquo;s Jeremy Roenick in a March 5 game at the United Center and paid back Roenick for his slash on right winger Tony Amonte in October. &ldquo;He had to be held accountable for what happened,&rdquo; McCabe said. &ldquo;No one forgot about that. He knows what he did.&rdquo;&hellip;Center Alex Zhamnov was finally picking up his play. In his first 12 games following the all-star break, Zhamnov had 15 points. He had 17 goals and 40 points in 56 games&hellip;Defenseman Dallas Eakins was acquired from the Islanders for future considerations March 3 as insurance in case the Hawks traded a defenseman before the March 14 trade deadline (See pg. 9 for more on Eakins.) &#9632;

f0018-02

Probert inches towards milestones; believes McSorley suspension ‘steep’

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-031022/10069833-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="155" height="155"></div>Ray Bourque got an ocean of ink in the papers following his trade from the Boston Bruins to the Colorado Avalanche.Dave Andreychuk got a thimble.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s OK with me.&rdquo; Andreychuk said. &ldquo;Ray deserves it. I&rsquo;ve been moved a few times now. That was his first and he&rsquo;s a legend.&rdquo;Andreychuk isn&rsquo;t exactly a bag of pucks. This is a man who had scored 551 goals at the time of the trade; only 15 players in NHL history had more. So, as throw-ins go, the addition of Andreychuk to the seismic Bourque trade was very attractive to the Avalanche. (See pg. 10 for more on Bourque.)Why? Because the Avs haven&rsquo;t had a player of Andreychuk&rsquo;s ilk in the past few years. Someone to stand like a tree in front of the net, someone to screen goalies, someone with the ability to get his stick on rebounds and stuff them back into net.Andreychuk has done all those things for 16 high-caliber seasons and the Avs were confident the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder had enough left in the tank to be effective for the playoff push and a run at the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;Hey, Dave Andreychuk knows what to do in front of the net, he&rsquo;s got great, great hands and knows how to get his shot on net,&rdquo; said Avs&rsquo; coach Bob Hartley. &ldquo;For us, he was a very important part of the trade, not just an afterthought.&rdquo;In his first game with Colorado, March 7 at Calgary, Andreychuk played left wing on a line with Peter Forsberg and Adam Deadmarsh. The trio clicked, combining on the team&rsquo;s second goal in the 8-3 win. Andreychuk had four shots and was robbed twice by Flames&rsquo; goalie Fred Brathwaite.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big man,&rdquo; said Deadmarsh. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s tough to move in front of the net and he knows what to do with the puck.&rdquo;Added Forsberg: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great player; I think it&rsquo;s going to be fun playing with him.&rdquo;Andreychuk, 36, said he wants to play next season, but where that will be is open to question. He is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent and said he&rsquo;ll keep his options open.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see what happens, but I know I&rsquo;m going to like Denver,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;Everybody likes that city. I&rsquo;m going to bring my family out and look around. It&rsquo;s going to be a good challenge for me. I only play to go for the Stanley Cup and I&rsquo;ve got a chance to get one with this team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Defenseman Ray Bourque suffered a slight groin pull during the warmups before his first game with Colorado March 7 and didn&rsquo;t play the third period. He still had an assist and was plus-4. He wasn&rsquo;t expected to miss any&rsquo; games&hellip;Bourque was paired with defenseman Adam Foote in his Avalanche debut&hellip;With the addition of left winger Dave Andreychuk, the Avs moved Chris Drury to center on the third line and shifted Stephane Yelle to left wing. The move paid off as Yelle scored twice and Drury had four assists in the 8-3 romp over Calgary&hellip;Captain Joe Sakic scored eight goals in four games to raise his season total to 19. &ldquo;Nice to finally find the openings,&rdquo; Sakic said. &#9632;

f0018-03

‘Throw-in’ Andreychuk gives Avalanche big presence in front of opposing goals

<div class="byline">By Mike Helka</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011705/10069864-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="157" height="155"></div>Dallas Stars&rsquo; utility forward Aaron Gavey isn&rsquo;t an elite player, but he does a lot of things well. One of them is smile.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just an optimistic person,&rdquo; Gavey said. &ldquo;I mean there&rsquo;s no reason to get down about anything. I just keep believing everything will work out.&rdquo;And after spending much of the past 2-1/2 seasons in the minors, things are working out for Gavey. Since being recalled from Michigan of the International League Jan. 4, he played in 22 of 27 Stars' games, including 13 straight. When Guy Carbonneau suffered a broken bone in his right wrist, Gavey was the man Stars&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock saw as the likely replacement.&ldquo;He has earned the chance,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;He has proven he can be a strong defensive forward or a strong complementary winger.&rdquo;It has been a tough climb for the 26-year-old Gavey. In 1996, as a member of the Tampa Bay Lighting, he was cut across the face by a skate blade and the gash required 130 stitches to close. Later that year, he was traded to Calgary and fit in well with the Flames until an abdominal strain set him back. The Stars acquired him in 1998 for Bob Bassen, but Gave failed to make enough of an impression to be a regular. He&rsquo;s determined to change that this time around.&ldquo;I know I can play at this level,&rdquo; said Gavey, who had six goals and nine points in 27 games. &ldquo;I have no doubt in my mind I can stay up here.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Coach Ken Hitchcock said when the Stars are completely healthy, he will still likely keep center Mike Modano and right winger Brett Hull on separate lines. The two played most of last season together&hellip;Center Joe Nieuwendyk returned March 10 after a 21-game absence with a separated right shoulder. &ldquo;I hope the time off will help me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was a short summer and I was feeling it. But right now, I&rsquo;m energized and ready to get back in.&rdquo;&hellip;Rookie right winger Jon Sim had played in just 14 games, but had four goals in that span&hellip;Modano tied Brian Bellows for the franchise goal-scoring record at 342 on March 5&hellip;After a slow start to the season, the Stars have been hot. From Nov. 28 through March 5, the Stars were 27-13-4-2. &#9632;

f0019-01

Gavey remains confident he belongs in big leagues

<div class="byline">By Chuck Carlton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04661/10069895-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="328" height="437"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nicklas Lidstrom</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03866/10069902-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="157" height="151"></div>They would do better.They had to do better.Finally, after so much talk and so many promises, the Detroit Red Wings backed up the rhetoric with performance.The problem, in a word: defense. One-sided defeats eventually lost their shock value. Game films started looking like horror sequels.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked about it, the coaching staff has talked,&rdquo; said defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t played well defensively and have to get better defensively.&rdquo;The numbers weren&rsquo;t the worst in the league, but they were un-Red Wing like. Prior to an unbeaten streak in which they allowed 10 goals in six games, Detroit was surrendering an average of 2.7 goals per game.Suddenly, in late February, they found a solution and put together a 4-0-2-0 run. Three times during the streak, which was still alive as of March 9, they held their opponents to one goal.&ldquo;The guys are focusing on what&rsquo;s important when the games are the most important,&rdquo; said associate coach Dave Lewis.Specifically, the Red Wings focused on the slot area. In their worst losses, that had been the weak spot. No longer under siege and now fully healed from his broken right hand, goaltender Chris Osgood stopped 107 of 116 shots (.922 save percentage) through the team&rsquo;s hot streak.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re being conscious about not giving up the glorious chances from the slot,&rdquo; Lewis said.Not that the Wings are celebrating. They&rsquo;ve had stretches like this before and backslid.&ldquo;We have spurts and have played well defensively,&rdquo; said defenseman Larry Murphy. &ldquo;We strive to be consistent. It&rsquo;s still too early to tell.&rdquo;But at least the Red Wings have gone beyond the talking stage.NOTEBOOK GM Ken Holland confirmed the Wings were finalists to acquire Ray Bourque from Boston. &ldquo;We made a pitch for him.&rdquo; Holland said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t enough. The list of names Boston was interested in, we felt the price was too steep." While Holland wouldn&rsquo;t talk specific names. NHL sources said the Wings refused to deal prized defensive prospect Jiri Fischer, which became a deal-killer&hellip; Center Sergei Fedorov had three goals in his first three games back after being sidelined for four by a sprained right thumb. The coaches raved about his focus and intensity, elements sometimes lacking from Fedorov&rsquo;s game. &ldquo;I feel like I owe it to the guys,&rdquo; Fedorov said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve missed more (time) than I have in past seasons.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-04

Wings finally find answer to defensive shortcomings

<div class="byline">By Mario Annlcchiarico</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021271/10069933-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="155" height="152"></div>Glen Sather has hung a sign on his door-and it&rsquo;s not &lsquo;Gone Fishing!&rsquo;It's more like: Wanted, one head scout, experience a must. Apply within.The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; GM and president will have to replace long-time chief scout and friend Barry Fraser, who is retiring this summer after 22 years in the organization and 28 in pro hockey.The soon-to-be 60-year-old is opting out of the 170-plus games he attends each season for the warmer climes of his current residence. Mexico.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been at it for a long time, they get burned out and tired. How many years can you go to 170 hockey games?&rdquo; said Sather of Fraser, who had such tremendous success drafting the likes of current Oilers&rsquo; coach Kevin Lowe, Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson in 1979, his first NHL season.&ldquo;Nobody works harder than Barry, he&rsquo;s very dedicated, a hard-working guy,&rdquo; insisted Sather, who also watched Fraser bark out the names of draft picks Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri and Andy Moog in Year 2. The selection of Kurri was instrumental in bringing Europeans overseas to make the jump to the NHL.&ldquo;He opened up a lot of doors for a lot of people,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;Esa Tikkanen. Kurri, (Reijo) Ruotsalainen. A lot of them were influenced by Barry in getting over here.&rdquo;But now Sather begins what could be an exhaustive search for a replacement.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m wide open at this point and time. 1 think that I&rsquo;m looking for the best man available, whether he&rsquo;s from the NHL, junior hockey, U.S. hockey or Europe, it doesn&rsquo;t make a difference at this stage. I&rsquo;ll entertain every applicant we can find,&rdquo; said Sather, whose scouting core has been getting younger.&ldquo;Hopefully a young Barry Fraser will come out of the woodwork and apply for the job.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK The Oilers gained some experience on the blueline March 9 when they acquired defenseman Igor Ulanov, 30, from Montreal. Edmonton also picked up minor league defenseman Alain Nasreddine, 24, in exchange for defensemen Christian Laflamme and Mathieu Descouteaux. Known as one of the NHL's heavy hitters, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Ulanov had fallen out of favor with the Canadiens and had been a healthy scratch for four consecutive games before the deal. Ulanov, who had one goal, six points and 76 penalty minutes in 43 games, had requested a trade because of a lack of playing time. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not angry at anyone,&rdquo; he said before the Oilers acquired him. &ldquo;I (just) think I should be playing.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-02

Oiler legend of scouting packs it in

<div class="byline">By David J. Neal</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011710/10069964-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="155" height="154"></div>It might not be the biggest divisional lead an NHL team has ever blown.But you can bet nobody lost such a big lead so fast.Exactly three months after the Florida Panthers took the Southeast Division lead Oct. 16, they had a 16-point bulge on the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes. When they left the ice after a 4-2 loss at the MCI Center to Washington Mar. 7, the Panthers were out of first place.It took the Panthers 91 days to build that lead. It took them just 51 to lose it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing, no question about it,&rdquo; said coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;It unfolds the way it does and we&rsquo;ve got to get back on top again.&rdquo;The only question was, would the Panthers&rsquo; hope for playoff success and a division title be on the line?&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to make the decision now to finish the 15 games hard,&rdquo; said Panthers&rsquo; center Ryan Johnson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to worry about what we&rsquo;re doing and not what they&rsquo;re (Washington) doing. Everybody talks about Washington and what they do, but look at our record at the same time. We haven&rsquo;t helped the situation.&rdquo;Florida had its usual lackluster February, winning just five of 13 outings.The Panthers closed February with two losses and a win and had one win and one tie in three games in March before the Washington game.NOTEBOOK The Panthers wound up being the ones to break St. Louis&rsquo; NHLrecord tying 10-game road winning streak, with a 1-1 tie March 4. It figured if Florida halted the Blues, it would be with a tie. The Panthers haven&rsquo;t beaten St. Louis since Feb. 27, 1997&hellip;The contract of Panthers&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray hadn&rsquo;t been renewed despite Murray being responsible for bringing in all but three current Panthers. Murray is in his sixth season as vice-president and GM of the Panthers&hellip;The Panthers added defenseman Lance Pitlick and right winger Oleg Kvasha to the injured list March 9. Pitlick had already missed two games with a foot injury and Kvasha one with a knee injury. They joined center Viktor Kozlov, out with a shoulder injury. &#9632;

f0020-01

Panthers waste no time sliding out of first place

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04589/10069995-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="326" height="439"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jamie Storr</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03857/10070002-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="155" height="153"></div>This season has taken a remarkable number of twists and turns for Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; goaltender Jamie Storr.Two groin strains and a concussion cut into his playing time, but he was able to establish himself as the No. 1 goalie in November and early December when Stephane Fiset was sidelined by a hand injury. When Storr recovered from the concussion suffered Dec. 18, he struggled to regain his sharpness. At that point neither goalie stood out or proved to be capable of stealing games for the Kings as elite goalies do.Storr managed to squeeze in some highlights this season though. He recorded the first four-game winning streak of the season and second of his career Feb. 9 through Feb. 16 and he recorded his seventh career shutout Dec. 8 against the Atlanta Thrashers.But when it came to crunch time in late February and early March, and the Kings found themselves batting to hold onto a playoff spot, coach Andy Murray decided to abandon the goaltender schedule he had drawn up and instead go with the hot goalie-and that goalie was Fiset.At least, it was until March 4 against the Nashville Predators, when Fiset strained his left groin muscle while making his sixth start in seven games. Storr replaced him and earned an overtime victory the Kings desperately needed. And with Fiset placed on injured reserve, the Kings&rsquo; playoff hopes were resting on Storr&rsquo;s shoulders as they headed into the last 20 games of the season.&ldquo;We talked about it being a playoff-type atmosphere the rest of the way,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;To be successful in the playoffs, you have to have good goaltending. This is a great opportunity for him and these are important games.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK The Kings&rsquo; sellout March 9 against the New York Rangers was their 14th this season, the most they&rsquo;ve had since the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season. The club&rsquo;s single-season record is 40, accomplished in 1991-92&hellip;Following complaints about bad ice at the new Staples Center, the Kings doubled their ice maintenance efforts and suggested any future basketball/hockey doubleheaders feature hockey first to allow time to groom the ice. The arena is also home to the National Basketball Association&rsquo;s Lakers and Clippers&hellip;Left winger Luc Robitaille's career-best 15-game point scoring streak ended March 4 against Nashville. He was held without a point in two games before picking up two assists March 9, including his 500th as a King. &#9632;

f0020-04

What’s in Storr for Kings? They’ll find out in stretch

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021226/10070033-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="156" height="153"></div>Brian Savage isn&rsquo;t certain why he was given a second chance, but the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; left winger plans on making the most of it.Savage returned to the Canadiens&rsquo; lineup March 6 against the Atlanta Thrashers after missing 44 games with three fractured vertebrae in his neck. He suffered the injury Nov. 20, at Los Angeles, following a horrific collision with the Kings&rsquo; lan Laperriere. Savage had his head down on the play.Initially there was fear of Savage being paralyzed. Then there was uncertainty whether he&rsquo;d ever play again, let alone fewer than four months after sustaining the injury. His prognosis improved when doctors discovered no ligament damage in his neck. Savage was told the vertebrae would heal and there was no reason to fear playing again.&ldquo;There was someone watching out for me that night in Los Angeles,&rdquo; Savage said. &ldquo;I was millimeters away from being paralyzed. This is like a second go-round for me now and I want to make the best of it.&rdquo;Savage saw limited action in his return. Playing oh a line with Sergei Zholtok and Oleg Petrov, Savage was on the ice for 13 shifts, totalling slightly more than 10 minutes. He had two shots, both in the first period, and was credited with a hit, but failed to get a point in Montreal&rsquo;s 3-2 victory.&ldquo;I had some contact out there and it felt OK,&rdquo; Savage said. &ldquo;I was nervous when the game started, very anxious, but it was a good kind of nervous. There&rsquo;s a lot of emotion. I&rsquo;m thrilled to be back.&rdquo;Two nights later, in a 3-0 win at Pittsburgh, Savage scored a goal-his 13th this season. Savage was leading the Canadiens in goals with 12 in 21 games before the injury.It would have been understandable had Savage not returned until next season, but he said he was eager to play to get concerns about being hit out of his mind.NOTEBOOK Defenseman Igor Ulanov, a healthy scratch for four consecutive games, and minor league defenseman Alain Nasreddine were traded to Edmonton for two rearguards, Christian Laflamme and Matthieu Deseoteaux, Montreal becomes the 23-year-old Laflamme&rsquo;s third team in four seasons&hellip; Montreal increased its offer to left winger Shayne Corson by $100,000 per season and are now willing to give him a two-year deal at $1.6 million annually. Corson, who&rsquo;s earning $2.25 million, wants $2 million. He also wants a three-year deal with a no-trade clause included. Corson is scheduled to earn $4 million next year, at the team&rsquo;s option. Otherwise, he could be an unrestricted free agent. &#9632;

f0020-02

Savage back after just four months

<div class="byline">By Jeff Legwald</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011371/10070064-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="157" height="155"></div>It has taken most of the 1999-2000 season, but center Sebastien Bordeleau has fought his way back from injury and is re-emerging as the kind of productive player the Nashville Predators envisioned.&ldquo;You saw toward the end of last year what type of player Sebastien could become,&rdquo; said Nashville coach Barry Trotz. &ldquo;In the last few weeks, he&rsquo;s showed signs of getting back to the old form.&rdquo;Bordeleau posted career highs in goals (16), assists (24), points (40) and games (72) last season, spending much of the year on the team&rsquo;s checking line. But he suffered a broken neck last April 12 when hit from behind by Sean O&rsquo;Donnell of the Los Angeles Kings. The 25-year-old believed his career was in jeopardy.He had surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his neck and could not exercise for five months in the off-season. Bordeleau began skating with the team last September and returned to action in late October, but he played just four games before separating his left shoulder in practice. That kept him out of the lineup until Nov. 30.After that he struggled to find consistency in his game. There was even a stretch from late January through mid-February when Bordeleau had no goals and just one assist in a 10-game span.However, Bordeleau has kick-started his season centering a line that includes two others-Ville Peltonen and Scott Walker-who have struggled at times in Year II of the franchise. The trio has provided an offensive spark as the Predators try to finish better than last season&rsquo;s 28 wins and 63 points.&ldquo;We have confidence in one another and we&rsquo;re moving the puck,&rdquo; said Bordeleau, who had seven goals and 18 points through 45 games. &ldquo;The thing about playing with those guys is I just want to try and give them the puck because they can do things with it.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re working well with each other and I think you get into a rhythm,&rdquo; Walker added. &ldquo;You want to play good all the time, but this is the time of the year when you really want to be good.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The search for size has provided left winger Ryan Tobler a chance few expected earlier this season. The Predators hoped to reach agreement with Tobler who is under contract with Milwaukee of the International League. Predators&rsquo; GM David Poile believes the 6-foot-2, 215-pounder may be a late bloomer at 23. Tobler had 205 penalty minutes-with more than 20 majors-in his first 60 games with Milwaukee, but also had 13 goals and 35 points&hellip;The move to sign Tobler may mean left winger Patrick Cote&rsquo;s future with the team is in doubt. Cote is recovering from surgery on his right hand and will miss the remainder of the season. The Predators have an option on Cote for next season, but have not indicated yet whether they plan to pick it up&hellip;Veteran center Darren Turcotte, who played nine games before undergoing season-ending knee surgery, is off crutches. He began his rehabilitation, but is unlikely to return this season. &#9632;

f0021-01

Center Bordeleau returning to form after neck injury threatens career

<div class="byline">By Peter Botte</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011593/10070126-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="157" height="154"></div>Claude Lapointe proved he is one alternate captain not looking to bail on a sinking ship.The gritty checking center/winger passed up an opportunity to get out of Dodge in order to remain part of the New York Islanders&rsquo; latest rebuilding phase.Proving his desire to stay was not just Up service- and bypassing unrestricted free agency this summer-Lapointe agreed to a three-year contract extension March 7 worth $3.6 million.Veterans truly wanting to stay? The Islanders coming up with the cash? What&rsquo;s next?&ldquo;Finally, it&rsquo;s over and I can play my game with my head clear,&rdquo; Lapointe said.&ldquo;The future is pretty good here and I think within a year or two we&rsquo;ll be competing with the best. I want to be a part of it and be proud of it. I didn&rsquo;t want to leave.&rdquo;GM Mike Milbury estimated 12-to-15 NHL clubs expressed interest in Lapointe ($600,000 this season) as a rental player.&ldquo;We never wanted to lose him,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;We recognize his contributions are more than points and goals. He&rsquo;s important to the fans and to his teammates. We&rsquo;re trying to be known as a competitive, hard-nosed, hard-working team and no one more exemplifies that more than Claude.&rdquo;The 31-year-old penalty-killing forward was recycled off the minor league scrap heap by Milbury in 1996 and &lsquo;felt like he owed everything he has to the organization,&rdquo; said Lapointe&rsquo;s agent Gilles Lupien.Milbury made a point to praise current owners Ed Milstein and Steven Gluckstem for approving the expenditure, admitting &ldquo;this isn&rsquo;t exactly in line with past business practices.&rdquo;Milstein and Gluckstem forced Milbury to gut the payroll to $16 million this season.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t made the playoffs since I&rsquo;ve been here and I&rsquo;m not happy about that.&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;If anybody thinks, &lsquo;Yahoo, happy days are here again,&rsquo; they&rsquo;re sadly mistaken. This is an isolated case.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK GM Mike Milbury fielded deadline inquiries about captain Kenny Jonsson and surging forward Olli Jokinen, but team officials said neither would likely be dealt. Jokinen managed goals in five of six games between Feb. 25 and March 5, including scoring on a penalty shot against Buffalo's Dominik Hasek, after netting only three goals in his first 60 appearances this season. The 21-year-old Finn, obtained from Los Angeles for Ziggy Palffy last summer, generated interest from such contenders as Anaheim, St. Louis and Ottawa. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like hearing that,&rdquo; Jokinen said. &ldquo;It made me a little bit mad. You want to try to show you can play here. I think (the rumors) are a bit of the reason I play better.&rdquo;&hellip;Center Jorgen Jonsson was pointless in his next 11 games after being named NHL player of week (Feb. 7-13)&hellip;The Isles acquired defenseman Ian Herbers from Tampa Bay March 9 in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2000 entry draft. &#9632;

f0022-01

Lapointe re-signs with Islanders, will stick out latest rebuilding

<div class="byline">By Rick Carplniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021162/10070157-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="156" height="155"></div>Whether they make the playoffs or not, the New York Rangers feel they took a major step toward the future this season, and a huge piece of that is right winger Radek Dvorak.Acquired in a trade just before New Year&rsquo;s Eve, Dvorak has become an offensive force and ignited the Rangers&rsquo; No. 1 line with Czechmates Petr Nedved and Jan Hlavac.That trio scored 38 goals and 88 points in 30 games since they were united in Dvorak&rsquo;s second game as a Ranger. They had combined for five hat tricks, one each by Dvorak and Hlavac and three by Nedved in that stretch. Before the trade, the Rangers were 12-18-6-1; since the deal, they were 16-13-4-0.Dvorak had nine goals and 26 points in his first 30 games as a Ranger and his speed had given the Rangers a whole new look.Dvorak, who turned 23 March 9, came to the Rangers in a three-way deal which became necessary when Florida Panthers&rsquo; goalie Trevor Kidd hurt his shoulder. The Panthers needed a goalie, and dealt Dvorak to the San Jose Sharks for Mike Vernon. The Rangers then dealt Todd Harvey to the Sharks for Dvorak.When the Rangers were in San Jose March 6 to see Harvey for the first time in his new jersey, there was a natural question for coach John Muckier. He was asked how the deal had worked out so far.&ldquo;For us?&rdquo; he asked, incredulously, his face fighting up like a Christmas Tree. Then he began laughing. &ldquo;Wonderful. &ldquo;Dvorak is a player who, we all know, can skate as good if not better than the majority of the NHL. I think he&rsquo;s going to be better than a decent goal-scorer. When I say that, I&rsquo;m talking 30-40 goals a year area. He may get beyond that.&rdquo;That opened Dvorak&rsquo;s eyes.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; Dvorak said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to say right now. Some players have done it. Next year, if we have the same lines, maybe. If we play the same style, with the same lines, I think it&rsquo;s possible to score 25. Lots of guys try to score 30. That&rsquo;s something special now. But anything is possible.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Right winger John MacLean was hit in the right eye by a puck off the stick of San Jose goalie Steve Shields March 6 and had to be taken to a hospital. MacLean suffered from blood behind the eye and blurred vision, but was expected to resume playing in mid-March&hellip;Defenseman Rich Pilon, recovered from a shoulder strain, was a healthy scratch for a game against Florida March 3 and then went on injured reserve when a case of the flu cost him his conditioning. Pilon said he hadn&rsquo;t been a healthy scratch since his rookie year in 1988-89&hellip;Left winger Adam Graves scored the 100th power play goal of his career in Anaheim March 8&hellip;With MacLean out temporarily, the Rangers recalled feisty center P.J. Stock from Hartford (American League). &ldquo;We need more physical strength,&rdquo; said Rangers&rsquo; coach John Muckier. &ldquo;(Stock is) a frustrating type of player. A pain in the neck.&rdquo;&hellip;Muckier also went back to the defensive pair of Brian Leetch and Kevin Hatcher, which had been tried twice before. &#9632;

f0022-02

Addition of Dvorak lifts Rangers, Czech line clicking on all cylinders

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrioch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011367/10070188-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="156" height="153"></div>Shawn McEachern could have shopped himself on the free agent market this summer, but decided to play &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s Make a Deal&rsquo; with the Ottawa Senators instead.And the Senators gave the left winger nine million good reasons to stay.An unrestricted free agent July 1, McEachern, 31, signed a three-year deal with the Senators March 4. Included in the pact is a $600,000 bonus if the club deals him before the contract is over.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy with the contract,&rdquo; McEachern said. &ldquo;I had talked it over with my family and I figured there was nowhere else that I would rather be.&rdquo;There was a school of thought that McEachern, making $1.3 million this season, would at least test the market before re-signing. He was second on the team this season with 26 goals and 47 points in 62 games.But when he looked at the numbers, McEachern decided to stay put because he plays a big role on the team.GM Marshall Johnston said the signing shows a commitment &ldquo;to having a good team,&rdquo; but it doesn&rsquo;t mean the club will open up its wallets. Chris Phillips, Igor Kravchuk and Ron Tugnutt are among those who still have to be signed.&ldquo;There are times when you have to lead with your head and not your heart,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;Sometimes they both work out and that was the case with (McEachern).&rdquo;Said coach Jacques Martin: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of our best players. He&rsquo;s done a great job and is one of our leaders.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Senators&rsquo; goalie Ron Tugnutt declared he was prepared to be the No. 1 goalie for the Senators and wasn&rsquo;t worried about the club getting another goaltender at the trade deadline. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to the challenge,&rdquo; Tugnutt said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done the job in the past and I know that I can get it done for us this year.&rdquo;&hellip;The Senators expected to have left winger Magnus Arvedson back in time for the playoffs. He has been out since Jan. 20&hellip;Forward could be a permanent home for defenseman Chris Phillips. Coach Jacques Martin has been impressed with the work he&rsquo;s done on the wing with center Radek Bonk and right winger Marian Hossa. The Senators have eight defensemen on the roster. &#9632;

f0023-01

McEachern to stay a Sen, signs three-year contract

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03734/10070219-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="323" height="437"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Tocchet</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02984/10070226-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="156" height="151"></div>The scene was vintage Rick Tocchet.With the Flyers down a goal and up a man, the newest/(almost) oldest Philadelphia Flyer was stationed in front of the Washington net. Ken Klee knocked him down. Tocchet knocked Klee down.That gave Tocchet just enough room to ram Valeri Zelepukin&rsquo;s pass under Olaf Kolzig. The First Union Center erupted. The native son had officially returned and the crowd showered him with praise.&ldquo;It gave me goosebumps,&rdquo; said Tocchet after the Flyers&rsquo; 3-1 win March 9.The storybook ending was the culmination of a long but rewarding day for Tocchet, who was acquired in a March 8 trade with the Phoenix Coyotes for Mikael Renberg.Tocchet caught an early flight from Phoenix March 9, landed in Philly, then drove around looking for a good plate of pasta. It was like old times.One of the most popular players in Flyers' history was home after eight years, four teams and one Stanley Cup (with Pittsburgh in 1992).The Flyers got the soon-to-be 36-year-old for several reasons. They needed a right-handed shot, Renberg wasn&rsquo;t working out in coach Roger Neilson&rsquo;s defense-first, dump-and-chase system and the Flyers could use a few guys with some personality in a sometimes too-quiet locker room.Tocchet was happy to be coming home to the place where he was drafted and spent nearly eight seasons. In that time, he helped the Flyers reach the Stanley Cup finals twice (1985, 1987) and racked up the most penalty minutes (1,683) in team history.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ecstatic,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve probably wanted for a long time. I had a lot of success and fun in Philly. It would be a great place to end my career.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Coach Roger Neilson underwent a stem cell transplant operation March 10, the final procedure to treat his bone marrow cancer. Doctors were confident all signs of the disease had been removed from his body. If all goes well, Neilson could be back by late April&hellip;The Hyers were disappointed they couldn&rsquo;t make a deal for Boston&rsquo;s Ray Bourque, who was traded to Colorado. They were considered a frontrunner. but declared goalie prospect Maxime Ouellet off-limits, which might have been the deal-breaker. A package which included center Daymond Langkow. right winger Sandy McCarthy, a choice of defensemen-either Mark Eaton or Andy Delmore-and a first-round draft pick was said to have been offered for Bourque. &#9632;

f0023-03

Tocchet in familiar digs, native son returns to Philly

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011543/10070257-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="157" height="156"></div>Bobby Smith was either joking or the Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; GM was playing his cards awfully close to the vest when he said he didn't think there was a whole lot he could do to improve his slumping team as the trading deadline approached.But just a few days later, and with a week to spare before D-Day, Smith pulled off two big deals on consecutive days, reeling in veteran defenseman Lyle Odelein from the New Jersey Devils and right winger Mikael Renberg from the Philadelphia Flyers.Odelein, 31, was exactly the type of player the Coyotes had been seeking for months, a physical presence with experience to bang on the blueline and clear traffic in front of goalie Sean Burke. To get him, Phoenix parted with struggling young defenseman Deron Quint, who had been a healthy scratch 15 times, along with a conditional pick in the 2001 draft.Renberg, 27, gives the Coyotes a little more youth, speed and size among the top six forwards and Smith hopes he Swede can regain the form that made him a 38-goal scorer as a rookie in 1993-94. The Coyotes dealt veteran leader Rick Tocchet to Philadelphia in the 1-for-l swap.&ldquo;I definitely think we&rsquo;ve improved our club,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Odelein is going to play a lot of minutes for us with our top three defensemen and Renberg is a big guy with excellent skating ability whom I really think will play a big role for us.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Newly acquired defenseman Lyle Odelein and right winger Mikael Renberg each earn $1.8 million and are in the final years of their contracts. GM Bobby Smith said he probably won&rsquo;t consider resigning either of them until after the season, presumably following the June expansion drafts&hellip;Left winger Keith Tkachuk reinjured his sprained left ankle during a workout in Chicago, which was expected to postpone his return by as long as two weeks. &ldquo;We need to get the big fella back,&rdquo; said center Dallas Drake&hellip; Defenseman Teppo Numminen's ironman streak ended at 360 consecutive games when he missed Phoenix&rsquo;s March 3 game against Dallas. He suffered a hip flexor strain and missed two games-his first since December. 1995. &#9632;

f0026-01

Smith hopes newcomers will help team end slump

<div class="byline">By Joe Starkey</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04643/10070288-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="326" height="437"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Barrasso</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03865/10070295-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="155" height="153"></div>Veteran Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; goaltender Tom Barrasso returned to practice March 7 with a heavy heart. Barrasso had taken a three-week leave of absence to be with his father, Tom Sr., who died of brain cancer Feb. 28.&ldquo;Obviously, I&rsquo;ve had a lot on my mind since my father was diagnosed with cancer last April,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;To say your mind is clear would be a stretch. Obviously, there are a lot of concerns and things that are going on, but we need to move on. I need to be a father to my children and a husband to my wife and come back here and try to do my best to get ready to play.&rdquo;Barrasso figured it would take him two weeks to get into game shape. Once he is ready to play, the Penguins could have a dilemma on their hands because rookie Jean-Sebastien Aubin has established himself as a bona fide No. 1 goaltender.Coach Herb Brooks said he&rsquo;ll play it by ear.&ldquo;Aubin has stepped forward through some difficult situations and given us some good goalkeeping,&rdquo; Brooks said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a day-to-day thing. Tommy needs some time to get his legs under him and we&rsquo;ll go from there.&rdquo;The injury-riddled Barrasso has started and completed just 13 games this season. He has no doubts about his ability, however.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve missed whole seasons and come back and played at an all-star caliber, so I&rsquo;m not really worried about the layoff.&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s much more a question of commitment and desire. The primary focus right now is to do the work off the ice and practice.&rdquo;Aubin said he isn&rsquo;t threatened by Barrasso&rsquo;s return. Asked if he felt he had secured the starting spot, Aubin said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not my job to say if I deserve it or not. I&rsquo;m going to wait and see who&rsquo;ll play.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Captain and right winger Jaromir Jagr, began light, off-ice workouts March 6. Jagr had a surgical procedure Feb. 25 to remove a blood clot from his left thigh. The injury was traced to a charley horse he suffered Feb. 16 in overtime of a game against Buffalo when Sabres&rsquo; center Michael Peca drove his knee into Jagr&rsquo;s leg. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way he plays,&rdquo; said Jagr, who probably won&rsquo;t be ready to skate until late March and might not be able to play at all the rest of the season&hellip; A 3-0 loss March 8 to Montreal and a 7-0 loss a day later at Ottawa marked the Penguins' first shutout losses in back-to-back games since Feb. 2 and 7, 1980. They hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal in 146 minutes, six seconds. &#9632;

f0026-04

Barrasso set to come back, return creates crowded net

<div class="byline">Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-021113/10070326-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="156" height="152"></div>Barring an upset, St. Louis Blues&rsquo; captain Chris Pronger should succeed teammate Al Maclnnis in winning the Norris Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top defenseman this season.If so, they would be the first teammates to win the Norris in back-to-back years since Tom Johnson and Doug Harvey of the Montreal Canadiens did it in 1959 and 1960, respectively.But the Norris might not be the only hardware Pronger brings home this year.The 6-foot-6, 220-pound defenseman should receive strong consideration for the Hart Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a pretty good case,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; coach Joel Quenneville.With less than a quarter of the season remaining, Pronger appears to have an open and shut case. No other player has done as much and done it as well in the 1999-2000 as Pronger, the Blues&rsquo; pillar of strength on the blueline.Through March 8. Pronger. 25, led the NHL in minutes played and plus-minus and was among the defenseman scoring leaders.Pronger logs at least 30 minutes each game and barely draws a sweat. His primary assignment at even strength is to shut down the opposition&rsquo;s best offensive players.He also kills penalties and plays the power play. In other words, he plays in every important offensive and defensive situation, including the crucial minutes at the end of every period.Pronger was tied for third among defensemen with 48 points on 10 goals and 38 assists; the latter figure ranked among the top 15 overall. Tops among defensemen was Detroit&rsquo;s Nicklas Lidstrom with 53 points.Pronger&rsquo;s league-best plus-42, was an astounding figure considering his defensive assignment and the number of minutes he plays.NOTEBOOK A 1-1 tie against Florida March 4 ended the Blues&rsquo; road winning streak at 10 games, leaving them bed with Buffalo (1983-84) for the longest road winning streak in NHL history. However, the tie extended their road unbeaten streak to 11 games&hellip; Goalie Roman Turek needed to make only 16 saves in a 4-0 victory over Phoenix March 7, posting his fifth shutout of the season&hellip; Defenseman Jeff Finley scored the winner against Phoenix, giving him the decisive goal on each of his last three goals dating back to last year&rsquo;s playoffs&hellip; After missing six games and 19 of 21 with a sprained ankle, rookie left winger Jochen Hecht returned to the lineup March 7 with an assist against Phoenix. &#9632;

f0026-02

Coach says Pronger is NHL’s MVP

<div class="byline">By Ross McKeon</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011417/10070357-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="157" height="154"></div>It has been a remarkable recovery season for Gary Suter considering that a year ago, he wasn&rsquo;t far from never playing hockey again.&ldquo;Looking back, I didn&rsquo;t know how close I was to having my career ended,&rdquo; the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; veteran defenseman said of a serious right arm injury that required three surgeries and wiped out his entire 1998-99 campaign.&ldquo;If that last surgery didn&rsquo;t work, not only would I not have been able to play, but my quality of life would been set back, too. You can only operate on an arm so much before it turns into hamburger.&rdquo;The third and final arm surgery included splitting his injured triceps in half lengthwise, having a tendon from a cadaver sewn into the existing tissue, and then held in place with holes drilled in bone to fasten the repaired tendon.Suter, 35, reported to training camp for his 15th NHL season in tiptop shape, winning San Jose&rsquo;s annual fit ness award. He played in each of the team's first 63 games before missing a few games with a minor knee injury. With five goals and 29 points, he has put himself into contention for the Masterton Trophy for dedication to hockey.In addition to his arm surgeries, doctors discovered a small hole in Suter&rsquo;s heart last year. To correct his accelerated heart rate during exercise, doctors inserted catheters to isolate and shut down a faulty heart node.NOTEBOOK Right winger Owen Nolan became the first Shark to score 40 goals in one season and tied Kelly Kisio&rsquo;s 1992-93 club record with his 78th point March 8 against Detroit&hellip; Center Mike Ricci extended his consecutive-game streak to 216, the second longest current streak in the league. The longest streak has been fashioned by Chicago right winger Tony Amonte (231 and counting)&hellip; Against Detroit, the Sharks failed for the 11th straight time since Dec. 8-10 to win two games in a row-the league&rsquo;s longest such drought&hellip; San Jose produced a season-low 13 shots on goal in a 5-2 loss to visiting Carolina March 4&hellip;. Center Vincent Damphousse&rsquo;s eight-game scoring streak (four goals, 12 points) ended March 6. &#9632;

f0027-01

Suter uses sewn-up arm to stitch life into career

<div class="byline">By Tom Jones</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04531/10070388-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg" title="f0027-04" width="326" height="439"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Holzinger</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03717/10070395-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="156" height="152"></div>Tampa Bay Lightning GM Rick Dudley said he wasn&rsquo;t looking to trade captain Chris Gratton, but the Buffalo Sabres made an offer he couldn&rsquo;t refuse.The Lightning dealt Gratton and a second round draft pick in 2001 to Buffalo March 9 for centers Wayne Primeau and Brian Holzinger, defenseman Cory Sarich and a third round pick this year.&ldquo;We got three players we believe will be key pieces of the puzzle for us,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;Yes, we gave up a key piece, but we feel we got three important pieces. Primeau is a big, strong guy who suits our need as a third line center. Holzinger is one of the fastest guys in the league. And Sarich is going to be a top four defenseman in this league.&rdquo;Sarich was the key to the deal.&ldquo;I played in world juniors with him, and he&rsquo;s a heck of a player,&rdquo; said center Vincent Lecavalier, who was named captain upon Gratton&rsquo;s departure.Sarich was rated the 11th best prospect outside the NHL in THN&rsquo;s 1998 Future Watch, then was 19th last year. A defensive stalwart, he had four assists in 42 games for Buffalo this season.Primeau provides size (6-foot-3, 220 pounds) and strength, but not scoring (five goals and 12 points in 41 games) as a long-term third Une center candidate for Tampa Bay.Holzinger increases the speed on what has evolved from a slow Lightning team at the beginning of the season to one of the quicker teams due to recent trades.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gotten faster and younger,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;ve improved our depth immensely.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t make this trade because we wanted to trade Chris Gratton. We made this trade because we felt we could improve our club.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Vincent Lecavalier is believed to be the second youngest captain in NHL history after replacing traded center Chris Gratton. At 19 years, 11 months, Lecavalier is second youngest to Minnesota&rsquo;s Brian Bellows (19 years, four months)&hellip; Making an impression is defenseman Marek Posmyk. picked up from Toronto in the Feb. 6 Darcy Tucker-Mike Johnson trade. &ldquo;He's pushing guys for jobs,&rdquo; said coach Steve Ludzik. The 21-year-old Posmyk said, &ldquo;I spent three years (in Toronto&rsquo;s system) and didn&rsquo;t get a chance.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Reid Simpson returned to action in early March after missing two months with a broken jaw, sustained in a fight with Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Eric Cairns. &#9632;

f0027-04

Lightning add speed, depth at expense of losing captain

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02996/10070426-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="156" height="153"></div>It would be tempting to say Jonas Hoglund was a steal for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but there was no larceny involved. He was right there on the scrap heap for anyone to cart off last summer.But one team&rsquo;s junk-in Hoglund&rsquo;s case, two teams&rsquo; junk-is another&rsquo;s treasure. Toronto signed him to the very reasonable sum of $400,000 (U.S.) last summer and Hoglund had repaid coach-GM Pat Quinn&rsquo;s confidence with 27 goals.Hoglund will undoubtedly have a better off-season this summer than last. The Montreal Canadiens, perhaps tired of seeing how well Valeri Bure was doing with the Calgary Flames after they traded him to get Hoglund, told Hoglund they no longer needed his services and didn&rsquo;t even make him a qualifying offer last July.Then along came the Leafs. They&rsquo;re interested in re-signing him this summer and considering they gave Mike Johnson a two-year deal for $1.9 million (U.S.) after a 20-goal, 44-point season, it&rsquo;s probable Hoglund will be a million-dollar man before long.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite different this year,&rdquo; Hoglund said. &ldquo;I mean, last year I didn&rsquo;t even know if I was going to get a new contract and this year since I&rsquo;ve been playing as well as I have, I&rsquo;m looking forward to hopefully signing a new contract with Toronto.&rdquo;Hoglund has more goals this season than in the previous two combined. He spent two miserable years in Calgary and Montreal after scoring 19 goals as a 24-year-old rookie in 1996-97.&ldquo;I thought I had a pretty good rookie year, but the opening night the next season I was a healthy scratch,&rdquo; Hoglund said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t play my best hockey, I can&rsquo;t just blame it on other people, but it didn&rsquo;t seem like the coach (Brian Sutter) believed in what I could do as a player.&rdquo;Quinn stuck with Hoglund through a sub-par training camp and never wavered in his intention of giving Hoglund a chance to succeed with Mats Sundin and Steve Thomas.NOTEBOOK Defenseman Gerald Diduck left the team March 8 after his sister, Carla, suffered severely broken legs and a broken pelvis when she fell down an elevator shaft in an Edmonton apartment building. The extent of damage to her legs wasn&rsquo;t known&hellip; Defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev also missed time to be with his wife, Janna, when she gave birth to Stacy, their second daughter&hellip; Center Alyn McCauley missed two games because of the death of his grandmother&hellip; Toronto swept a three-game western Canada series in early March, giving them a 10-2-0 record in western Canada in the past two seasons&hellip; GM Pat Quinn said the Islanders offered up defenseman Kenny Jonsson, but he turned them down. &#9632;

f0027-02

Hoglund’s career back on track

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-021066/10070488-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="155" height="155"></div>The Washington Capitals continued their torrid streak which began after Christmas. That may have been the only thing keeping right winger Peter Bondra from squeezing his stick into sawdust.Bondra, who has two 50-goal seasons to his credit, has had a rocky campaign. There was no problem with his start-10 goals in his first 14 games-but the remainder of the season has been a bummer. He scored only nine goals in his next 39 games and twice was out with knee injuries, costing him 15 games.&ldquo;If we had been losing, I would be pressing,&rdquo; Bondra said. &ldquo;I would be squeezing my sticks harder. But we&rsquo;re winning and I&rsquo;m having fun.&ldquo;I know everybody looks to me to score, especially on breakaways, but I have never felt I had to win a game by myself.&rdquo;The circumstances this season are vastly different for Bondra and the Caps. This Washington team has been winning on defense, teamwork and the play of Olie Kolzig in goal. It hasn&rsquo;t been that often the opposition has scored three goals, meaning the Caps&rsquo; normal meager offensive output has been enough-with or without Bondra. If the team&rsquo;s scoring comes from a wide spectrum, there is less pressure on Bondra to score and he can do other things to help the team.&ldquo;You can become over-reliant on one person,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;That has happened to a lot of teams in the past, including this one. Peter has the ability to make something out of nothing. It&rsquo;s just a matter of him regaining the confidence that he lost when he was hurt. He has had a number of breakaways, not by cheating, but by us playing the system and (then) he&rsquo;s gone.&rdquo;The Capitals&rsquo; soared to new heights March 7. With a 4-2 win over the visiting Florida Panthers, Washington vaulted ahead of them into first place in the Southeast Division.Washington&rsquo;s 82 points was good for third overall in the Eastern Conference and put them only seven behind the New Jersey Devils for top spot in the East.NOTEBOOK The Caps retired Dale Hunter&rsquo;s jersey No. 32 March 11, joining Yvon Labre&rsquo;s No. 7 and Rod Langway&rsquo;s No. 5 in the rafters. Hunter, who retired after last season, now serves as the Caps&rsquo; director of player development&hellip; The Caps, last in the league in merchandise sales, are changing their uniforms, logo and colors for next season, according to majority owner Ted Leonsis. This will be the third uniform change in 26 years&hellip; Defenseman Calle Johansson played in his 800th game as a Cap March 9 in Philadelphia&hellip; Washington&rsquo;s move into first place in the Southeast Division on March 7 was the deepest in a season the Caps had been in first place since March 17, 1989, when they beat Pittsburgh to move into the top spot in the Patrick Division. Washington held on to that spot for the remainder of the season for its only division championship in history&hellip; Goalie Olie Kolzig picked up the win over the Panthers, his 32nd of the season, which was one shy of his single-season high and three short of the team record. &#9632;

f0028-02

Bondra happy with winning ways, no extra pressure on sharpshooter

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011334/10070519-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="413" height="405"></div>Mike Maneluk figured he had done everything necessary in the American League two years ago to prove he was worthy of full-time NHL employment.In 1997-98, he scored 27 goals and 62 points in 66 regular season games and led the Philadelphia Phantoms to the Calder Cup with an unforgettable post-season run. The speedy left winger led all playoff scorers with 13 goals and 34 points in 20 games. But after playing all of last season in the NHL, Maneluk is right back with the Phantoms, tearing up the AHL once again.With one month remaining in the regular season, he was second in the league in goals (40), third in points (72) and just two shy of the AHL record for short-handed goals in a season with seven. He&rsquo;s also second in the AHL-behind teammate Steve Washburn-in plus-minus at plus-31.But games played in the NHL this season? All of&hellip; one.&ldquo;Obviously I&rsquo;d rather be across the parking lot (with the Flyers), but I&rsquo;m having a lot of fun playing in Philadelphia,&rdquo; said the fifth-year pro who was never drafted. &ldquo;Last year I was there (in the NHL with the Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers) and I know in my heart I can play there. It&rsquo;s frustrating that way, but things happen for a reason.&rdquo;Maneluk, 26, toured the NHL last season. He made his debut out of the Flyers&rsquo; training camp, playing alongside Eric Lindros and John LeClair when the season began.After 13 games in Philadelphia (two goals, eight points), he was traded to the Blackhawks in November for center Roman Vopat. Maneluk played 28 games in Chicago (four goals, seven points), then was placed on waivers and claimed by the Rangers (no points in four games during one month in New York). The Rangers wanted him for depth in case they had injuries and he was used only sparingly.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t change those 20 games I was with the Rangers for anything in my life,&rdquo; Maneluk said. &ldquo;Being able to play with Wayne Gretzky was great. Being a big hockey fan and growing up in Winnipeg and seeing Edmonton games all the time, you think you know him. But you meet him and find out he&rsquo;s actually nicer than you ever imagined. I was probably the guy he knew the least and he didn&rsquo;t treat me any differently than anyone else.&rdquo;When the season ended, he became an unrestricted free agent and re-signed with the Flyers for one year. He&rsquo;s an insurance policy, but they&rsquo;ve yet to use him.&ldquo;I had a feeling I&rsquo;d have a chance to make the Flyers and if I didn&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;d be in a familiar situation with Billy (Barber, the Phantoms&rsquo; coach) and be in a city I knew and that I like,&rdquo; he said.EARLY WAKE-UP CALL After watching his Kentucky Thorough blades slumber through a 5-0 loss to the Providence Bruins March 3, coach Roy Sonuner resorted to some old-time tactics. He brought his team back to the rink at 7:30 a.m. the next morning for practice.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the worst game I&rsquo;ve seen us play,&rdquo; said Sommer to the Lexington Herald Leader. &ldquo;If I was a fan driving home after the game, I&rsquo;d be saying, &lsquo;What the heck was that?&rsquo; &rdquo;The T-Blades got the message, shutting out Syracuse 6-0 the next day. Center Ryan Kraft, promoted from Richmond of the East Coast League in the morning, scored a goal and assisted on three others, while goalie Johan Hedberg stopped 28 shots for his third shutout.ZERBE THE ZEBRA RETIRES After 25 seasons and nearly 500 games, Rich Zerbe&rsquo;s career as an AHL linesman came to a close March 4. Zerbe, based in the Hershey, Pa., area, was honored in a pre-game ceremony before the Bears played the Rochester Americans at Her-sheypark Arena. He was given a crystal trophy and an officials&rsquo; sweater from 1975 by AHL president Dave Andrews and Hershey GM Doug Yingst.AHL TIDBITS Hamilton Bulldogs&rsquo; right winger Dan Cleary didn&rsquo;t let a demotion from Edmonton get him down. In his first two games back in the AHL, Cleary had two goals and seven points as the Bulldogs defeated St. John&rsquo;s and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton by identical 5-2 scores&hellip; Portland remained within striking distance of the AHL record for road wins of 25. The Pirates had 19 wins with nine road games left. &#9632;

f0029-01

LEAGUES

Phantom power Maneluk dominant in Philly (again)

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02916/10070550-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="677" height="272"></div>You&rsquo;ll never catch Neil Brady taking hockey for granted.Brady nearly had his career taken away on Nov. 7, 1998, when, as a member of the Manitoba Moose, he was the victim of an unprovoked two-handed slash to the back of the right knee by Fort Wayne Komets&rsquo; defenseman Lee Sorochan. The slash caused nerve damage and a symptom known as &lsquo;drop-foot,&rsquo; a condition in which the toes drag and the foot hangs, caused by weakness or paralysis of the muscles.Brady&rsquo;s injury did not heal quickly and his attempt to play about a month later was futile. His International League season ended after just 13 games and he returned home to Calgary to contemplate his future.&ldquo;There was too much time on my own and too much thinking about it,&rdquo; Brady said. &ldquo;It was a long few months.&rdquo;With continuous training and treatment, the nerves were regenerated after about seven months and the 31-year-old center returned to the ML, where he&rsquo;s playing a valuable role with the first-place Utah Grizzlies.&ldquo;It was a big relief because you know the old saying, &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t know what you&rsquo;ve got until it&rsquo;s gone,&rsquo; and I really felt that during the winter months last year,&rdquo; Brady said. &ldquo;Not only in hockey, but in day-to-day living as well.&rdquo;Brady&rsquo;s perspective helped him score 10 goals and 36 points in 62 games for the Grizz.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of like (the injury) never happened, it has been so good,&rdquo; said Brady, while on a recent 12-points-in-10-games run. &ldquo;The nerve regenerated. When any kind of injury happens and you start to talk to other people who had the same kind of injury, well, I consider myself pretty lucky that it did come back.&rdquo;There were no medical guarantees with his kind of injury and when he was sidelined, he had hoped to recover and play again, but he also made alternative plans. &ldquo;I did get that far,&rdquo; Brady said. &ldquo;I had made some phone calls to some guys and I was prepared to get my resume out because I knew I wanted to stay in hockey. I just didn&rsquo;t know in what capacity.&rdquo;Brady said the incident is forgotten. He holds no grudge against Sorochan, who also taunted and verbally abused Brady, calling him a &ldquo;fakeri&rsquo; while he was laying on the ice after being slashed. Sorochan was later fined by the league, but not suspended.MOOSE ADD VETS The Manitoba Moose made three roster additions March 1 and 2, acquiring right winger Dan Kesa and left winger Shawn Burr on loan from the Tampa Bay Lightning and dealing center Patrice Tardif to the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; organization for defenseman Barry Richter.Both Kesa and Burr were playing with Tampa Bay&rsquo;s affiliate in Detroit, while Richter was skating with Quebec of the American League. All three joined Manitoba for its March 3 game against Kansas City. That first outing didn&rsquo;t end happily for the Moose. Not only did they lose 1-0, but Kesa suffered damage to his medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments and was lost for the season.WOLVES ON PROWL The Chicago Wolves picked up their play in the final quarter of the season, whipping off a six-game winning streak through March 7 to challenge for first place in the Western Conference.Left winger Steve Maltais, the Wolves&rsquo; go-to guy, has started to assert himself in the second half of the season. He led the team with 28 goals and 62 points to move up to second overall in league scoring as of March 7.DOTTING THE "I" Beep, beep: The Roadrunners are racing ahead on plans to move to Toronto. Previously based in Phoenix, they hope to rejoin the league in 2001-02 and plan to play out of the CNE Coliseum. A $30-million renovation to the arena was approved by city council last September&hellip; Kansas City left winger Dave Chyzowski led all ML shooters with 32 goals, but was O-for-11 in shootout attempts&hellip; Utah coach Bob Bourne escaped any punishment for his temper tantrum March 4. Bourne was ejected during the second period of a 6-5 loss to the Cincinnati Cyclones after throwing two water bottles on the ice-one at the referee-but was only fined, not suspended, by the league&hellip; Long Beach goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was a perfect 22-for-22 in shootout saves. &#9632;

f0029-02

Brady thrilled to be playing after nerve damage in knee

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03655/10070581-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="358" height="370"></div>The Roanoke Express is hurtling down the track toward another division title, but coach Scott Gordon wants more-a Kelly Cup championship.Roanoke reached the semi-final last season before running into the Richmond Renegades and a scoring drought. So Gordon went after some offensive punch in the off-season to complement a stingy defense led by veteran goaltenders Daniel Berthiaume and Dave Gagnon.&ldquo;We wanted to try to find a way to get some&rsquo; more offensive players in here, raise our skill level,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;We were fortunate that we were able to do that. I think part of the attractiveness was the success of the team last year and our willingness to let guys get called up.&rdquo;The two most prominent newcomers were playmakers Dion Del Monte and Paul Di Francesco. Del Monte had 40 goals and 93 points for the Madison Monsters of the United League last season, while Di Francesco had spent the previous season playing in Italy after starring for Saint Lawrence of the Eastern College Athletic Conference.Del Monte (17 goals, 48 points) was tied for second in scoring and a Di Francesco (20 goals, 40 points) &lt; was fourth after 57 games. Their play has helped boost the productivity of defenseman Duane Harmer (10 goals, 47 points) and center Ben Schust (25 goals, 47 points), holdovers from last year&rsquo;s Northeast Division champs."It&rsquo;s funny,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not scoring more per game, but we have smarter players.The Express were first in the North-em Conference with a 38-15-5 % record. Last year, we required our goalies to win games for us. This year, they just don&rsquo;t have to lose them for us. Even though we haven&rsquo;t scored more goals per game, we&rsquo;re better defensively.&rdquo;NEW HOME FOR BANDITS One way or another, Jackson is going to have a new arena.Bandits&rsquo; co-owner J.L. Holloway announced in late February that he will build a $25-million facility in either Clinton or Rankin County, outside Jackson, Miss., if the Mississippi State Legislature doesn&rsquo;t authorize the State Fair Commission to lease land adjacent to the team&rsquo;s current home, the Mississippi Coliseum.If the lease is approved, Holloway will build the new arena with private funds a slapshot away from the aging coliseum. The team&rsquo;s scheduling conflicts there led to a 21-game road trip this season, longest in pro hockey history.The new arena would seat 7,500 for hockey. It would have a restaurant, VIP lounge, luxury boxes and a practice rink and would open in 2001.COAST LINES Louisiana center and ECHL leading scorer John Spoltore was player of the month for February after netting six goals and 23 points in 13 games. With a month to go in the season, Spoltore had 20 goals and 92 points in 55 games&hellip; Warren Payne stepped down as president and CEO of the Pee Dee Pride, but will remain involved with team business operations. Payne had been in charge of the franchise since he became an investor when it was located &#9632;

f0029-03

Skill level boost brings better balance to Roanoke

<div class="byline">By Brendan Savage</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011530/10070612-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="528" height="230"></div>The first-place Flint Generals looked very vulnerable when both of their goalies went down with injuries in the same game. But a stranger from the shadows helped the Generals keep pace as the playoffs approached.With the United League&rsquo;s stretch run around the comer, Flint was thrown a curve when goaltenders Mark Richards and Allan Hitchen both went down with knee injuries Feb. 23 against the Muskegon Fury.The setback left coach Doug Shedden wondering what he could do, especially with Flint facing three games in three nights.Enter Wayne Cowley.The former Edmonton Oiler, who retired in 1998 after two seasons in Europe, went back between the pipes to rescue the Generals. He arrived from Toronto two hours before a Feb. 25 game against the Missouri River Otters and turned aside 22 shots in a 9-5 triumph.It was the first game action Cowley had seen since August. He had also practiced with the East Coast League&rsquo;s Day-ton Bombers for a few weeks this season.&ldquo;It was tough,&rdquo; said Cowley, who was working as an airline material manager in Toronto. &ldquo;When Sheddsie called, I had to find out of if they would let me come. They let me off work about 2 o&rsquo;clock and I didn&rsquo;t get in until 5:30 p.m.&rdquo;Cowley, 35, posted a 4-1-0 record, 2.81 goals-against average and .867 save percentage in his first five games with Flint. The lone loss was a 3-2 setback March 3 against Eastern Division-leading Binghamton.&ldquo;You can tell by looking at him that he&rsquo;s played at a higher level,&rdquo; Shedden said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a hell of a goalie. If you make a mistake, you know he&rsquo;s going to be there to make the save.&rdquo;With Richards sidelined until the playoffs, Cowley was hopeful he could take a leave of absence from his job and stay with the Generals for the remainder of the season.That would be just fine with Flint, which almost signed Cowley earlier this season when he was looking for a job. But Shedden eventually decided against it because he had promised Richards he would be the Generals&rsquo; No. 1 goalie. Richards was leading the UHL with 28 victories when he was injured.Cowley, who led Cape Breton to an American League championship in 1993, spent the majority of his 10-year procareer in the AHL and International League. The Detroit Vipers sent Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Martin Bradette to Hint to back up Cowley.NOTEBOOK Adirondack IceHawks&rsquo; coach Robbie Nichols became the first UHL coach to win 200 games when the Icehawks beat Missouri March 4. Nichols was 201-112-24 in five seasons&hellip; Trevor Jobe set an Adirondack franchise record for points in a game when he bagged two goals and four assists March 4&hellip; Francois Leroux of the Asheville Smoke scored a career-high five goals March 4 against Quad City&hellip; Ohio lost 12 straight games through March 5, marking the third time this season the Gears had a double-digit losing streak. Ohio had lost 16 straight on the road to pull within one of the league record set by Day-ton in 1996-97&hellip; Fort Wayne Komet Keli Corpse recorded his 300th career point March 5 against Madison. &#9632;

f0030-01

Cowley flies in, saves day as Generals keep winning

<div class="byline">By Dave Henry</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03763/10070643-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="534" height="365"></div>Any further south and the Western Pro League will need to start bringing its own drinking water.League officials announced Feb. 28 an agreement with the city of Hidalgo, Tex., on a plan to construct a multi-purpose facility in the Rio Grande Valley for an expansion team in the 2001-2002 season.Hidalgo borders with Reynosa, Mexico, a city with a population of more than 1,000,000. League officials hope they will be drawn to hockey rather than the traditional bullfights.The size of the venue, possible ownership and financing are still up in the air, but league and city officials were optimistic the plan will be complete for next season.&ldquo;People in the (Rio Grande) Valley have to go to San Antonio, Austin or Houston to see big name entertainment,&rdquo; said Hidalgo mayor John David Franz.&ldquo;This venue will give the Valley a place to host the best.&rdquo;PLAYOFF STING Courtesy of 10 straight wins, the New Mexico Scorpions clinched a post-season berth March 6 with three weeks left in the regular season.The league record for consecutive wins is 12, set by the Shreveport Mudbugs last season.Due to the loss of the Waco Wizards and the Abilene Aviators after financial difficulties earlier this season, the top two teams in the Central Division and the top three in the Western and Eastern Divisions will go to the playoffs.ONE-TIMERS&nbsp;New Mexico winger Todd Marcellus&nbsp;had seven points (two goals, five assists) in a 14-5 win over the Arkansas GlacierCats March 4&hellip; The Amarillo Rattlers topped 100,000 in attendance, becoming the seventh of 16 WPHL teams to do so this season&hellip; Amarillo had a season-high 97 penalty minutes in a 4-3 win over Odessa March 3, prompting Odessa coach Don McKee to observe: &ldquo;We tried to play their style of game, (but) hockey wasn&rsquo;t meant to be played like we all have 300-pound guys.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-03

Expansion plans border ol’ Mexico

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-021055/10070674-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="680" height="233"></div>When you&rsquo;re an NHL first round pick, it isn&rsquo;t always easy to live up to the incredibly high expectations.Just ask Samia Sting right winger Jeff Heerema, who has been living under a microscope this Ontario League season. All it detected during the first three months were his flaws, but the past 2-1/2 months have been kinder.Heerema had 33 goals in 61 games, the first time in Samia&rsquo;s six-year history a player has had three straight 30-goal seasons. He scored 32 as a rookie and 31 last season. Many figured Heerema was good for 50 this year, but that was before he started poorly and then continued to slide.The Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; first pick in 1998 (11th overall), Heerema wasn&rsquo;t invited to the Canadian junior team&rsquo;s final selection camp in December. That was a big blow after taking part in the summer evaluation camp. But a kick in the pants from the national juniors, combined with a post-Christmas coaching change in Sarnia, sparked Heerema to the point that he&rsquo;s again considered an offensive force.&ldquo;You finally say to yourself, &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got to get things done and be a leader,&rsquo; &rdquo; Heerema said. &ldquo;The world junior thing was a motivating factor, but I don&rsquo;t think I deserved to be there, the way I was playing before Christmas.&rdquo;Sting coach-GM Mark Hunter resigned Dec. 27 and associate coach Rich Brown was promoted to head coach.Hunter could be hard on his players; Brown is more relaxed. And where Hunter stressed defense, Brown has opened things up a bit.The Sting were 15-15-5 under Hunter; 16-83 under Brown.&ldquo;Rich is letting us play and we&rsquo;re playing four lines game in and game out,&rdquo; Heerema said.&ldquo;Mark was really good for us, but there&rsquo;s a more relaxed atmosphere on the bench. Hunts loves to win and it showed.&rdquo;Brown said Heerema is doing what it takes to score.&ldquo;Jeff seems to be staying around the net a little longer and going to the net a little harder and he&rsquo;s being rewarded,&rdquo; he said.Brown has seen others go through what Heerema has experienced after being a high pick in the NHL entry draft.&ldquo;There are high expectations and when they&rsquo;re not lived up to, the disappointments are greater,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s what you have to live with when you&rsquo;re highly thought of as a player.&rdquo;Heerema knows 50 goals was not unrealistic, had the effort been there from the start.&ldquo;I had a lot of chances that first half, but I&rsquo;m looking ahead, not behind me," he said.GARDENS PARTY Cancel the moving van. The Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors aren&rsquo;t going anywhere for at least another season.The Majors were expecting to have to move to the Beatrice Ice Gardens on the campus of York University because their current home, Maple Leaf Gardens, was on the block.Now the Gardens&rsquo; sale-which would likely lead to the former NHL arena being turned into apartments or condos-is on hold.The Majors have started negotiations to return to the Gardens next season, where they&rsquo;re averaging 2,345 a game.&ldquo;The short of it is, in reality we probably are going to be there for another year,&rdquo; said Bob Hunter, senior vice-president and GM of the Air Canada Centre and the Gardens.The Majors will play some games at the Air Canada Centre next season.NOT SO FAST The Owen Sound Platers will remain in town if the city spends upwards of $3 million to renovate the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.The Platers were reported to have been sold to a Cornwall group, but Platers&rsquo; GM Ray McKelvie said &ldquo;somebody is jumping to conclusions.&rdquo;The Holody family of Guelph is expected to sell the team, which it has owned since 1982, but a group of local investors has an opportunity to match any outside offer. That group will buy, if the city approves the renovations that would include private suites. The team moved to Owen Sound from Guelph in 1989. &#9632;

f0030-02

Heerema finally realizing potential after struggling for much of season

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04571/10070705-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="245" height="252"></div>Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; goaltender Bryce Wandler is envious of himself.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not used to having first-place stats,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I read the paper, see my name and think, &lsquo;Boy, I&rsquo;d like to meet that guy, I really would.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s hard to believe it&rsquo;s me.&rdquo;One week into March, Wandler boasted the league&rsquo;s best goals-against average (2.06) and was on pace to shatter the Western League&rsquo;s single-season mark.Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; goaltender Kenric Exner had a league-record 2.31 GAA last season. Calgary Hitmen goalie Brent Krahn, at 2.28, also had a shot at eclipsing Exner&rsquo;s standard.Wandler also led WHL goaltenders in victories (32) and save percentage (.919).Not so long ago, he was among the league leaders in team jackets. Wandler's major junior rights belonged to the Blazers, Kootenay (formerly Edmonton) Ice and Tri-City Americans before he found a home in Swift Current.&ldquo;At some point, maybe he was a player that nobody wanted,&rdquo; said Broncos&rsquo; coach-GM Todd McLellan.&ldquo;He had every reason to roll over and play dead. He has made the most of the opportunity that was given to him. He deserves everything he gets.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-04

Bronco Wandler reaps rewards

<div class="byline">By Gordie Sutherland</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011385/10070736-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="516" height="474"></div>Growing up in Quebec, Martin Grenier idolized Ray Bourque, but never imagined he would one day be included in a trade for the longtime Boston Bruin.Grenier, a massive Quebec Remparts&rsquo; defenseman, said it was a career highlight to be part of the March 6 deal that sent Bourque to the Colorado Avalanche.&ldquo;This is an honor for me because in 10 years I don&rsquo;t know where I&rsquo;m going to be, but I&rsquo;m going to be able to say I was traded for Raymond Bourque,&rdquo; said Grenier, who went to the Bruins-along with left winger Brian Rolston, Swedish center Sami Pahlsson and a first round draft pick-for Bourque and right winger Dave Andreychuk.&nbsp;(See pg. 10for more on Bourque.)&ldquo;For sure, there were others (traded) with me. I'm really proud because everyone knows Ray Bourque because he&rsquo;s such a great player and he has done a lot for hockey.&rdquo;When it comes to style of play, the 6-foot-5. 240-pound Grenier has little in common with the five-time Norris Trophy winner.The 19-year-old from Laval, Que., had more than 300 penalty minutes this season-to go along with 479 in 60 games last year-and is one of the Quebec League&rsquo;s top heavyweights, but he doesn&rsquo;t want to be perceived as a one-dimensional player.Grenier also kills penalties with the Remparts and had 10 goals and 42 points through 62 games.&ldquo;When a guy like (Boston winger Sergei) Samsonov is in trouble, big Martin Grenier is going to be there,&rdquo; said Grenier, a second round pick of the Avalanche last year. &ldquo;That will be a part of my game and I know that.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m big and I have to use my size. I can play that game, but I can play hockey. I hope people and the Bruins will see me like that. I think I&rsquo;m a good defensive player.&rdquo;Grenier said the trade will likely be good for his career, but concedes the biggest obstacle between him and a job with the Bruins is his skating.&ldquo;For me, it&rsquo;s all about skating,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid to work hard during the summer.&ldquo;I had the chance to play one game in Dallas in the pre-season, so I played against Mike Modano. It was unbelievable. He was so fast and the game was so fast.&rdquo;BELL WON&rsquo;T RING &rsquo;TIL APRIL If Rimouski Oceanic center Thatcher Bell is to play again this season, he&rsquo;ll need the help of his teammates.Rimouski&rsquo;s sophomore sensation suffered a fractured collarbone Feb. 21 and is expected to be out until mid April, which translates into the third round of the playoffs.&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re still playing, he&rsquo;s going to be there,&rdquo; said Rimouski coach Doris Labonte.Bell, 18, had been on Rimouski&rsquo;s first power play unit and had 26 goals and 69 points in 53 games.&ldquo;He was playing his best hockey of the season,&rdquo; Labonte said.DRAKKAR FORFEIT The QMJHL stripped the Baie-Comeau Drakkar of two points and fined them $500 for using an ineligible playerThe Drakkar dressed defenseman Guy Turmel, who was assessed a major penalty the night before and received an automatic one-game suspension for accumulated majors.In the QMJHL, it&rsquo;s the responsibility of each coach to keep track of automatic suspensions.Baie-Comeau coach Richard Martel said Turmel, who had more than 500 penalty minutes this season, received the major penalty when the Drakkar scored in overtime to beat the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.Martel didn&rsquo;t notice the call. &ldquo;After the game, I was very happy because we won,&rdquo; Martel said. &ldquo;I just put my (scoresheet) in my briefcase. It was my mistake.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Halifax Mooseheads' left winger Ramzi Abid set a franchise record for points in a game, scoring four goals and adding four assists in an 11-5 win over Rouyn-Noranda March 3&hellip;Quebec center Eric Chouinard hoped to return in time for the playoffs, which began March 23. The 19-year-old, who had 57 goals and 104 points in 50 games, suffered a bruised hip Feb. 22. &#9632;

f0031-01

Hulking Grenier ‘honored’ to be part of Bourque deal

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02941/10070767-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="255" height="249"></div>Swift Current obtained Wandler from Kootenay for a fourth round bantam draft pick before the 1998-99 season. The Ice initially dealt Wandler to Tri-City for defenseman Chris Flynn, but that deal was voided when Flynn did not report. Wandler&rsquo;s rights reverted back to Kootenay, which shipped him to Swift Current.&ldquo;Two days after I got back to Cranbrook, I was traded to Swift Current,&rdquo; Wandler said. &ldquo;I was still unsure of what to do. I talked to my parents, who have always been supportive, and my mom said, &lsquo;Go there, have fun and see what happens.&rsquo;&ldquo;To this day, it hasn&rsquo;t sunk in. My last year in Edmonton, I had the third-worst goals-against average in the league. It has gone from one extreme to the other.&rdquo;BUMMER CROP The Brandon Wheat Kings are enduring their worst season since 1991-92.Brandon, which had won at least 39 games in each of the past seven seasons, had a 20-39-4-4 slate with nine regular season games remaining. The Wheat Kings were on pace to lose more than 400 man-games to injuries.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know how good we could have been,&rdquo; said Brandon coach Bob Lowes. &ldquo;I'm not saying we would have been Calgary-good or Kootenay-good, but we&rsquo;ll never know. We haven&rsquo;t played as well as we can, either, but since Jan. 15, we haven&rsquo;t had a full lineup. We were always confident that if we had a full lineup, we could at least take a run at getting into the playoffs.&rdquo;But Lowes isn&rsquo;t using injuries as a crutch.&ldquo;What are you going to do?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no pity or anything like that. We can&rsquo;t feel sorry for ourselves. It&rsquo;s just the circumstances we face. In past years, we&rsquo;d ride it out as best we could, win enough games to keep ourselves afloat and get through it. This year, we haven&rsquo;t been able to stay afloat.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK The Kelowna Rockets went winless in February (11 losses, one tie), but were undefeated in their first three games of March (two victories, one tie)&hellip;Prince George Cougars&rsquo; GM Daryl Lubiniecki returned to his desk March 1. Lubiniecki, 58, underwent triple bypass surgery Nov. 19&hellip; Calgary had a franchise-record 12-game home winning streak through March 6&hellip; The Hitmen were chasing the WHL record for victories in a season of 60, set by the 1980-81 Victoria Cougars. Calgary had 53 wins with eight games left&hellip; Calgary (Central) and Swift Current (East) had clinched division titles&hellip; Kamloops had secured a playoff berth for the 19th straight season&hellip; Tri-City will retire No. 14, the jersey number of former star Stu Barnes, prior to a March 17 game versus Kamloops. &#9632;

f0031-02

Wheat Kings’ walking wounded too much for team to overcome

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>When it came to choosing players for post-season honors in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, one area was particularly difficult.Five goaltenders in the league had three or more shutouts during the regular season, including Karl Goehring of North Dakota and Scott Meyer of St. Cloud State, who established a WCHA record with six apiece.Jeff Sanger of Colorado College, Eric Pateman of Minnesota State-Mankato and Graham Melanson of Wisconsin had three shutouts each. Melanson, who plays in a program that produced NHL all-stars Curtis Joseph and Mike Richter, became the first in school history to record shutouts in back-to-back outings.Goehring (1.95) and Meyer (1.99) finished with goals-against averages under 2.00. Only two goalies in league history had finished with a GAA under 2.00 before this season: Bob Peters of North Dakota (1.27 in 1957-58) and George Kirkwood of Denver (1.80 in 1960-61).Melanson, who had 28 wins through March 9, went into the post-season with a shot at the WCHA standard of 32, set by Billy Pye of Northern Michigan in 1990-91.Goehring, Melanson and Meyer are the frontrunners for the all-WCHA first team.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t really say one is better than the others,&rdquo; said North Dakota coach Dean Blais.Other stoppers meriting mention are Brant Nicklin of Minnesota-Duluth, a four-year starter who has a school-record eight career shutouts; Stephen Wagner of Denver, the second-winningest goalie in school history who has six career shutouts; and Adam Hauser of Minnesota, who had a 2.84 GAA and .913 save percentage until being felled by mononucleosis in February.&ldquo;This is the year of the goaltender,&rdquo; Blais said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s some scary goaltending in the league.&rdquo;HOMECOMING Colorado College coach Scott Owens got a keepsake memory March 3 when his club clinched home ice for the playoffs with a 5-4 upset of top-ranked Wisconsin in his hometown. Owens attended Madison Memorial High School, was a goalie at Colorado College for current Badgers&rsquo; coach Jeff Sauer and once served as Sauer&rsquo;s assistant at Wisconsin.&ldquo;Personally, it&rsquo;s special,&rdquo; Owens said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t dwell on a lot of the personal stuff, but it&rsquo;s nice to come to Madison and beat them.&rdquo;ONE MILLION FANS For the seventh straight year, the WCHA has topped one million in attendance for the regular season. A total of 1,116,868 fans went through the turnstiles over 192 games in 10 sites.Eight of the 10 teams had at least one sellout. Minnesota State-Mankato and Wisconsin established single-game and series records. The Mavericks drew 5,144 and 10,075 to the Midwest Wireless Civic Center for North Dakota Feb. 2526. The Badgers attracted 15,237 and 29,926 for Colorado College at the Kohl Center March 3-4. &#9632;

League’s creases filled with ‘scary’ goaltenders

<div class="byline">By Paul Harris</div>Lake Superior State coach Scott Borek just wanted his team to get one measly point against Northern Michigan in the final weekend of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association&rsquo;s regular season.That would have kept alive the Lakers&rsquo; streak of earning at least a point in each weekend of the season.Well, they didn&rsquo;t get that one measly point-they got four with 4-3 and 3-1 wins over the Wildcats. Those four points moved the Lakers past NMU and into third place in the final standings. Lake Superior State finished with 36 points (17-9-2 in the conference, 18-14-2 overall), the same as Northern Michigan (16-8-4 and 21-11-4). But the Lakers got the third seed for the playoffs-which began the weekend of March 10-12-because they had more wins.And due to the CCHA&rsquo;s new playoff format this season, that could make a big difference. In previous years, the top eight teams in the conference made the playoffs with the first round featuring No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5. The four winners advanced to Detroit&rsquo;s Joe Louis Arena the following weekend and were reseeded. No. 1 played No. 4 and No. 2 played No. 3 with the two winners facing off for the CCHA championship.But this season, the top 10 teams made the playoffs. The five winners in the first round matchups will be reseeded with No. 4 and No. 5 playing off March 14. The winner advances to the championship weekend in Detroit, where the format remains the same as in previous years.So if the top five seeds win their best-of-three first round series, Lake Superior State will have avoided an extra game by finishing in third place.&ldquo;Getting into the third spot was a good accomplishment,&rdquo; Borek said. &ldquo;It might not mean a lot this week, but come next week, it&rsquo;ll make a difference if we don&rsquo;t have to play on (March 14).&rdquo;Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley said it was disappointing to lose the last two games of the season and that the fourth-place finish would make things tougher for his Wildcats.PLAYOFF PAIRINGS The Lakers were scheduled to play eighth-seeded Bowling Green in a best-of-three first round series, while Northern Michigan was set to face University of Nebraska-Omaha. Other playoff matchups included No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 10 Western Michigan, No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 9 Miami and No. 4 Notre Dame vs. No. 6 Ferris State.RARE WIN Bowling Green snapped a 15-game losing streak at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich., as the Falcons doubled the Michigan Wolverines 6-3 March 4.The last time Bowling Green had won at Yost was March 3, 1992, when they nipped the Wolverines 4-3. The Michigan loss halted a seven-game unbeaten streak. &#9632;

Lakers’ splashy finish may pay off in playoffs

<div class="byline">By Tom Beggie</div>Colgate senior center Andy McDonald won the Eastern College Athletic Conference scoring title by concentrating more on his defense.McDonald, a native of Strathroy, Ont., finished the regular season with 36 points (16 goals) in 19 league games, becoming only the second Red Raider to win the scoring championship. Dale Band was the first in 1992.&ldquo;Andy became more of a complete player this year,&rdquo; said Colgate coach Don Vaughan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s much better defensively and uses the guys around him better. I don&rsquo;t know if the scouts were telling him or if it trickled back to him that those were things he needed to work on, but he&rsquo;s constantly working on the little parts of his game.&rdquo;McDonald, a solid 5-foot-ll, 195-pounder, was also on one of the best power plays in the ECAC. Colgate&rsquo;s top unit of McDonald, senior left winger Darryl Campbell, junior right winger Sean Nolan and defensemen Mike Marostega and Cory Murphy has been together for two years-and it showed as they converted nearly 28 per cent of their power play opportunities.Overall, McDonald finished the regular season with 20 goals and 47 points in 29 games, almost identical to his numbers (20 goals, 46 points) from last season. That consistency has made him a top candidate for ECAC player of the year honors and a likely Hobey Baker Award finalist.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m already regretting the day when he&rsquo;s not out there,&rdquo; Vaughan said. &ldquo;The game is so structured now, it&rsquo;s fun with someone like Andy who just loves the game and loves to be in the rink.&rdquo;SAINTS GO MARCHING IN It took until the final weekend of the regular season, but St. Lawrence finally earned an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament by winning the regular season title.The Saints (16-3-1 in league play, 22-7-2 overall) earned their first-ever regular season championship when Colgate (14-4-2 and 21-7-2) only managed a point in a 2-2 tie with Princeton March 5. St. Lawrence celebrated by beating Dartmouth 7-5 in the last game of the season.The Saints are winless in their last three NCAA tournament appearances.PERFECT WEEKEND RPI senior goalie Joel Laing recorded back-to-back shutouts over Brown (3-0) and Harvard (2-0) to win the ECAC goaltending title.Laing, who set school records for single-season (six) and career (13) shutouts, ended the league season with a 1.85 goals-against average, the lowest since the ECAC split with Hockey East in 1985. The previous low was 1.92, established by Dickie McEvoy of Harvard in 1987.Laing is just the second RPI goalie to lead the league in goals-against average. The other was Daren Puppa in 1985.St. Lawrence freshman Derek Gustafson finished second behind Laing with a 2.18 GAA and .935 save percentage. &#9632;

Scoring champ McDonald brings complete package

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>A month ago, the University of Maine&rsquo;s defending national champions faced an uncertain future.An 0-4-1 skid left the Black Bears in fifth place in Hockey East and presented the possibility that Maine wouldn&rsquo;t get the chance to defend its title. But the Bears extended their claws and finished the regular season on a 7-0-1 streak to get back into the NCAA tournament picture.The Black Bears held their opponents to 20 goals over the eight-game span and surrendered more than three goals just once. &ldquo;We smartened up defensively (and) started following the game plan better,&rdquo; said junior defenseman A. J. Begg.Maine used the same four lines over the final four games and scored 19 goals. However, freshman center Robert Liscak suffered a sprained right knee in the regular season finale-a 3-2 win over Providence March 4-and was expected to miss the Hockey East playoffs.Senior left winger Cory Larose paced the Bears with three goals and 12 points in the final eight games. He took the league scoring title with nine goals and 33 points in 24 Hockey East games, three points more than Boston College&rsquo;s Brian Gionta. &ldquo;I was hoping to have a good senior year,&rdquo; Larose said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite an honor. But I couldn&rsquo;t have done it without my teammates.&rdquo;Larose became just the third Bear to win the scoring title, joining former Vancouver Canuck David Capuano (1987-88) and Anaheim Mighty Ducks&rsquo; superstar Paul Kariya (1992-93).TWO TOP STOPPERS The Boston College Eagles had the league&rsquo;s top two goalies in junior Scott Clemmensen (1.98 goals-against average) and freshman Tim Kelleher (2.13 GAA).The Eagles surrendered just 2.08 goals per game in 24 league games and their 50 goals against was just one more than New Hampshire&rsquo;s record-setting performance of a year ago.&ldquo;They scored the most goals in the league (3.79 per game) and allowed the fewest,&rdquo; said Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder. "That&rsquo;s a pretty good combination.&rdquo;BC also set the league mark for penalty-killing efficiency at 91.9 per cent.NOTEBOOK University of Maine junior winger Dan Kerluke, who had a hat trick in the 3-2 win over Providence; Boston College freshman winger Krys Kolanos, who had four goals in wins over Northeastern and Boston University; and UMass junior goalie Markus Helanen, who made 28 saves in a playoff-clinching 3-3 tie with New Hampshire March 3, were named player, rookie and defensive player of the week&hellip;New Hampshire won the Charles E. Holt sportsmanship award for the second straight year after averaging just 13.58 penalty minutes per game. UNH also became the first team in the league&rsquo;s 16-year history to break the 100,000 mark for regular season attendance with 106,165 in 17 home dates. The Wildcats had 13 sellouts. &#9632;

Black Bears wake up in time for stretch run

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011530/10070894-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NHL Statistics

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011410/10070925-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div>The Hockey News gives you the inside scoop on hockey like no other publication in the world!&bull; Get Inside The Game With:&bull; Interviews&bull; Photos&bull; Stats & Predictions&bull; Get Current Reports From The Best Hockey Writers In All 28 NHL Cities&bull; Get Complete Coverage Of Minor Pro, College And Junior Leagues Across North America&bull; Delivered Directly To Your Door!You SAVE 65% off the newsstand pricecall now to order&nbsp;1-888-361-9768ORDER CODE: 5300The Bible of Hockey<a href="http://www.hockeynews.com">www.hockeynews.com</a> &#9632;

f0035-01

Subscribe & get more than the highlights

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011430/10070970-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011273/10070963-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3268" height="3757"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011388/10070956-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3248" height="3768"></div><h2>KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS</h2>Statistics provided by National Hockey League: PLAYER-listed by uniform number, position (F-forward; D-defenseman; G-goalie), name; GP-games played; G-goals; A-assists; P-points; +/- -plus/minus; PIM-penalties; PP-power-play goals; SH-short-handed goals; GW-game-winning goals; GT-game-tying goals: S-shots: SP-shooting percentage; F%-race-off winning percentage. A face-on is considered a win for the player whose team gains possession of the puck immediately following the face-off, or by the center that clearly dictates the direction the puck travels; H-hits. A hit is any legal contact by a player on an opposing player that exerts enough force as to prevent the player from controlling the puck, knocks him off the puck, or significantly impedes his progress; GV-giveaways. A giveaway is when a player&rsquo;s own actions result in the loss of possession to the other team; TK-takeaways. A takeaway occurs when pressure by a defending player results in gaining possession of the puck; MIN-average minutes played per game is expressed in minutes and seconds. Players indicated by an asterisk (&bull;) are eligible for the Calder Trophy. &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

March 24, 2000

East Coast product on West Coast responds to Canucks’ challenge

CHL Statistics

Odelein, Souray rip coach Ftorek after being traded away by Devils

Do not overlook Roy’s sparkling body of work