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November 10, 2000
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.
Burke’s hot play pleasant surprise
Nikolai Khabi-WHO-lin? Sean Burke might still lose his role as the No.l goalie in Phoenix, but the veteran was making it harder and harder to justify a relegation to No. 2 status or a trade after his 5-1-1-0 start for the red-hot Coyotes. Burke, who didn’t expect to return with Phoenix this season, was a big reason why the Coyotes leaped out to a 6-1-2 start. His 1.70 goals-against average and .941 save percentage were among the league best. “Up to this point, he has to be the best goalie in the league,” said coach Bob Francis. Burke, 33, was re-signed in the off-season as an unrestricted free agent. It has been thought he will just be a stopgap until Wayne Gretzky’s ownership team took over and re-signs Khabibulin, a restricted free agent.…
New world order
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ GM is Craig Patrick, an American. Last summer he hired as his coach Ivan Hlinka, a Czech. On Hlinka’s recommendation, the Penguins used a 10th round pick to select 29-year-old Roman Simicek, a 6-foot-3,210-pound Czech center. Simicek’s job is to go to the front of the net, dig in and take abuse, just like a good Canadian. His good Canadian numbers — two goals, five points and 12 penalty minutes in eight games — are proof of his effectiveness. “He fills a niche on our team our coach felt he could do,” Patrick said. And why, exactly, did that particular niche need filling? Because to a certain extent the old stereotypes hold true. With seven European puck-wizard forwards on the roster last season, the Penguins lacked grease under the…
Minutemen’s new boss Cahoon has winning plan, but needs time
Since joining Hockey East in 1994-95, Massachusetts-Amherst has never finished higher than sixth place. Enter Don Cahoon, the Minutemen’s first-year coach who had a 122-129-32 record in nine years at Princeton. Cahoon, 51, said he has a “rough skeleton” of how he intends to build the program into a winner, but added it’s a day-to-day process. Part of the equation is recruiting, said Cahoon, “but the lifeline of any program is to do a good job developing players. You’ve got to make sure your kids are getting stronger, faster and developing skills.” He intends to recruit the state heavily, offering Boston-area players a rural option that is just a 90-minute drive from the city, but he’ll also recruit “the rest of the hockey world like other schools.” Cahoon’s Minutemen got off to an 0-2-1…
PLUS MINUS
Best of the Hockey World HOSSA HOT Marian Hossa gets on the scoresheet in each of Ottawa’s first eight games to reside among the NHL’s top point-producers. YOUNG GUN St. Louis Blues’ veteran Scott Young is off to the best start of his career with a league-leading 10 goals in nine games. MINOR LEAGUE MOXY East Coast League defense man Jon Sorg is granted his trade demand to a coastal city so he can sail his boat on off-days. Worst of the Hockey World PANTHER MELTDOWN Florida is the NHL’s final team without a victory, failing to win in their first seven games (0-3-2-2). COLDER THAN ALASKA Anchorage-born Scott Gomez, last year’s rookie of the year, registers just two assists in New Jersey’s first seven games. OVER AND OUT Alexandre Volchkov, the fourth overall pick by Washington…
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