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 23, 2001

The Hockey News March 23, 2001

<div class="byline">By Paul Harris</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011077/7728920-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="390" height="234"></div>Michigan State had already clinched its third Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular season title in four years, but its final scheduled game on March 1 was still significant.Not only was it at East Lansing&rsquo;s Munn Ice Arena against arch-rival Michigan, it was the final home and regular season game for the Spartans&rsquo; six seniors. Prior to MSU&rsquo;s 3-1 win, Andrew Bogle, Sean Patchell, John Nail, Joe Blackburn, Damon Whitten and captain Rustyn Dolyny all were honored.&ldquo;It was awesome,&rdquo; said Whitten. &ldquo;I was a little worried about how I&rsquo;d play, with the emotion of the night. But it was fun to celebrate, to make the lap (around the ice). I&rsquo;ll never forget this night the rest of my life.&rdquo;ANALYSIS Miami made a case for quiet efficiency and consistency by climbing into second place in the conference with a win in its final game of the season.The RedHawks&rsquo; 3-0 victory over Ohio State March 2 gave them 35 points and a tie with Michigan in the standings. But because Miami had one more victory (1716), it was awarded sole possession of second place and will host Bowling Green in the first round of the playoffs.SPOTLIGHT Though their league record was only 7-14-7 for 21 points, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks grabbed the last CCHA playoff spot. It&rsquo;s the first time the Nanooks, who were 9-17-8 overall, have qualified for the post-season since 1997.Their dubious reward, however, was a best-of-three series against Michigan State, with all games at Munn Arena.NOTEBOOK Besides Miami-Bowling Green and Alaska-Michigan State, the other playoff matchups had Michigan hosting Ferris State, Nebraska-Omaha hosting Ohio State and Western Michigan hosting Northern Michigan. The series were scheduled for March 9-11&hellip;Of the five teams that survived the first round, the two lowest seeds were then scheduled to take part in a one-game playoff March 13, with the winner advancing to the CCHA Championships at Detroit&rsquo;s Joe Louis Arena. The semifinal was set for March 16. with the final the next day. &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

There’s no place like Munn for six Spartan seniors

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03924/7727721-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="214" height="239"></div>In the case of Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; GM Mike Smith, perhaps his best move of the season was the trade he didn&rsquo;t make.Smith resisted dealing Eric Daze even after the veteran left winger asked to be traded in late October. Now Daze is in the midst of his best season ever and was on pace to top his career-high 31 goals (1997-98).When Daze scored in a 4-1 win at Dallas March 7, it gave him 29 goals and was his 14th goal in 14 games.First-year Hawks&rsquo; coach Alpo Suhonen didn&rsquo;t know a lot about Daze before the season, but had heard about his tendency to be a streaky scorer.&ldquo;If he would play one season through like the last month he would be one of the scoring leaders in the league,&rdquo; Suhonen said.Daze said the reason he wanted to be traded was because of ice time.&ldquo;It seems I have gained the confidence of Alpo and that helps a lot when a coach believes in your all-around play,&rdquo; Daze said.ANALYSIS Ever since Boris Mironov and Jaroslav Spacek returned from their extended stays on the injured list, Suhonen has dressed seven defensemen. At first it was to ease Mironov and Spacek back into the lineup. But Suhonen found having fewer forwards allowed him to get more playing time for Tony Amonte and Steve Sullivan, working them into double shifts on the fourth line.DEFENSE Goalie Jocelyn Thibault was the happiest guy in Chicago when he flipped on the TV March 6 and saw that Nikolai Khabibulin had been traded to Tampa Bay.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been hearing it for a year, ever since Mike Smith got here, that Khabibulin was coming,&rdquo; Thibault said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see this thing finally end. It wasn&rsquo;t fun seeing in the paper three or four times a week that he was looking for another goaltender. But you&rsquo;ve got to play through the rumors and things like that.&rdquo;Thibault earned his careerbest 26th victory March 7 at Dallas.NOTEBOOK Center Alex Zhamnov returned from missing six weeks with a fractured larynx and had three assists in his first two games&hellip;A knee contusion had defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev on the shelf again. Of the Hawks&rsquo; first 67 games, Karpovtsev missed 19 with various injuries. &#9632;

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NHL TEAM REPORTS

Daze comes to life after slow start

Finally, Anaheim GM Pierre Gauthier traded Teemu Selanne and his huge salary.No wonder the Mighty Ducks have been awful this season-they spent nearly $20 million on two players, Paul Kariya and Selanne. Meanwhile, the &ldquo;dynamic duo&rdquo; has been anything but.Selanne had not been a very mighty Duck this season and Kariya has been inconsistent (and injured). The Sharks think they&rsquo;re getting a dangerous sniper in Selanne, but by trading young gun Jeff Friesen, they may have shot themselves in the foot.Luc Villeneuve,&nbsp; Aylmer, Que.<h2>Good luck to Theoren</h2>My heart sank when I heard Theoren Fleury had entered a substance abuse program.I was very heartened, however, that he made the decision himself, rather than being forced into rehabilitation. My prayers go out not only to Fleury and his family, but to the Rangers and all his friends in the NHL. If anybody can overcome this, Fleury can.Jay Kenski,&nbsp; Madison Heights, Mich.<h2>Little Sullivan big talent</h2>Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Sullivan proves that good things can come (to the NHL) in small packages.During tenures in New Jersey and Toronto, it was apparent Sullivan had talent. He just needed the ice time to showcase his abilities. I give Blackhawks&rsquo; GM Mike Smith full marks for plucking Sullivan off waivers from Toronto.He reminds me of Denis Savard when he was in Chicago. Both of them made up for their lack of size with quickness. Here&rsquo;s hoping Sullivan has a terrific career in the Windy City.Juan-Carlo Alvarosa,&nbsp; North York, Ont.<h2>Jagr just kidding</h2>Jaromir Jagr has not given up on the Penguins. Every time he makes a joke or puts himself down, the media takes him so seriously, when in fact he&rsquo;s just a funny guy with a sense of humor.Maybe Jagr is having an off-year, but he is leading the league in scoring. What more do you want from the guy?Shawn Watson,&nbsp; Shanksville, Pa.<h2>Got something to say?</h2>MAIL: U.S.A.: Letters, THN, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947.Canada: Letters, THN, 25 Sheppard Ave. W, Suite 100, Toronto, Ont., M2N 6S7E-MAIL:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mccaigs@transcontinental.ca">mccaigs@transcontinental.ca</a> or visit <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a>. Include name, hometown, province/state and phone number. Submissions will be edited. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Sharks screw up with deal

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NHL DEPTH CHARTS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011591/7726928-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"></div>Dead Duck?Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stretches for a loose puck that appears bound for the back of the net.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021341/7726921-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="293" height="348"><figcaption class="caption-body">Editor&rsquo;s Notebook Steve Dryden Editor-In-Chief</figcaption></div>Is the NHL on the right path by allowing just 16 of 30 teams in the playoffs or should the league be more expansive in its thinking?The purist in me says the NHL should provide for more than 16 berths. After all, that represents only 53 per cent of all clubs. It used to be 66 per cent of teams made the playoffs. That was during the Golden Age of Hockey when six teams roamed the earth and four earned berths in the Stanley Cup tournament. The NHL has a rich tradition of getting rich off the playoffs with the percentage of teams reaching the playoffs hitting an all-time high (low?) when the NHL absorbed the World Hockey Association: 16 of 21 teams (76 per cent) &ldquo;earned&rdquo; playoff berths in the wake of the 1979 merger.It is significantly more challenging to reach the playoffs now, but is it good for the game? That 14 cities are eliminated from the TV schedule by April 8 may satisfy our Darwinian impulses, but does it contribute to the long-term health of a league still struggling to make a national impact in the U.S.? Major League Baseball (39 per cent make the playoffs) and the National Football League (27 per cent) can afford to be choosy The NHL may not have that luxury, both in terms of stirring and maintaining interest. There&rsquo;s nothing like a good playoff run to win over fans.There is a minimalist aspect to this season&rsquo;s playoff race: Only two teams, ninthplace Boston and Los Angeles, were on the outside with a realistic chance of making the playoffs with a month left in the regular season. That means interest is dwindling fast in 12 cities. Surprisingly, only twice in the past six seasons-including 2000-01-has the playoff race included as many as 20 teams right down to the wire. Otherwise, it has been only 17 or 18 teams in the hunt. So, is it time the NHL considered adding more teams to the playoffs? Not according to Gary Bettman. The commissioner was asked by The Hockey News if an expanded playoff pool is in the offing. His answer: &ldquo;I was one of those who was never a big fan of 16 out of 21. I like 16 out of 30&hellip;It makes the regular season very meaningful and I am not looking at this time to increasing the playoffs.&rdquo; There are a good many rea-sons not to increase the number of playoff teams. The best is that it would smell of being a cynical cash-grab, a reward for teams so inept they can&rsquo;t even finish in the top half of a bloated league. That playoff revenue would be an equalizer-in the absence of meaningful revenue-sharing-is one reason to consider opening up the playoffs to two more teams. Sparking and maintaining a high level of interest is another. &#9632;

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Is 16-team playoff format too restrictive for NHL?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011861/7726959-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div><h2>Khabibulin not yet there</h2>Goalie hasn&rsquo;t reached truly elite statusSo just how good is Nikolai Khabibulin anyway?Worth the millions of dollars the Tampa Bay Lightning will pay him? Good enough to be the foundation for one of the NHL&rsquo;s worst franchises? When last we saw Khabibulin in an NHL uniform, playing for Phoenix in 1998-99, he was considered one of the best goalies in the NHL. He had played in the last two All-Star Games and established himself as one of the league&rsquo;s most dependable and durable stoppers.Over a three-year period, Khabibulin was third in games (205), fifth in wins (92) and third in shutouts (19). In his final season, he finished sixth in wins (32), fourth in save percentage (.923), sixth in goals-against average (2.13) and third in shutouts (six.)&ldquo;He got to the point where he was considered one of the best in the league,&rdquo; says one NHL coach, &ldquo;but he didn&rsquo;t spend enough time at that level for people to feel comfortable calling him a premier goalie.&rdquo;Entering this season, Khabibulin was 10th among active goalies in career SP at.908. Buffalo&rsquo;s Dominik Hasek was No. 1 at.925 with Martin Brodeur of New Jersey second at.912. Clearly, Khabibulin was approaching elite status, but when he left, nobody mentioned him in the same breath as Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour or Hasek.Why? Khabibulin, now 28, has never won an NHL playoff series. He has been on the losing end of four first round match-ups.&ldquo;To be in the top tier you have to perform at a high level year after year after year or you have to win (in the playoffs),&rdquo; says an NHL GM. &ldquo;He hadn&rsquo;t done either of those things. I&rsquo;d say he has the potential to, though.&rdquo;<h2>Jagr has edge over Sakic</h2>Penguin would win scoring tie-breakerOnly three times in NHL history has the scoring race ended in a tie. In each of those cases, the player with the most goals was declared the winner.With Jaromir Jagr and Joe Sakic locked in a heavyweight battle for the 2000-01 championship, what would happen if they both recorded the same number of goals and assists?After all, it could happen. Through 67 games each, Jagr had 38 goals and 95 points while Sakic had 39 goals and 94 points.So, what would happen if they posted identical totals in goals, assists and points? To answer this pressing question, The Hockey News turned to NHL chief statistician Benny Ercolani. He directed us to the Official Guide and Record Book, which lists three tie-breakers: most goals, fewest games and first goal of the season.Both Jagr and Sakic are on pace to play all 82 games. Should they post identical scoring records, the winner would be&hellip;Jagr. He scored in Pittsburgh&rsquo;s third game of the season while Sakic didn&rsquo;t tickle the twine until Colorado&rsquo;s sixth.<h2>THN ONE-TIMERS</h2>Lemieux takes lead in goals, Gretzky way ahead in assistsMario Lemieux has put an exclamation mark on his astonishing comeback.Lemieux surpassed Wayne Gretzky in goals scored over the same number of games played during their remarkable careers. The Pitts burgh superstar&rsquo;s 25 goals this season gave him 638 goals in 775 career games, one more than Gretzky&rsquo;s NHL standard of 637 over the first 775 games of his career.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s great for Mario,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s quite an accomplishment. He&rsquo;s an amazing player.&rdquo;It is one more objective measure of the spectacular return Lemieux has fashioned as a 35-year-old. With 49 points in 29 games, Lemieux has stunned the hockey world after a 3-1/2-year absence from the NHL. His 1.69 points-per-game average was tops in the league.Though Gretzky trailed by one in goals, he remained well ahead in assists and points in a career game-by-game comparison. He had 294 more assists than Lemieux over the same period of time to claim a 293-point scoring edge. Gretzky is the all-time leading goal-scorer with 894, which puts him 93 ahead of runner-up Gordie Howe and 256 ahead of Lemieux. Gretzky&rsquo;s 2,857 career points are more a thousand ahead of Howe&rsquo;s 1,850.ROBIN WILLIAMS WEIGHS IN While leaving the press box following Ottawa&rsquo;s 3-2 overtime win over Toronto March 3, manic actor Robin Williams broke into a Scottish accent, shouting, &ldquo;Sudden death! Why is it always sudden death? Why can&rsquo;t it be sudden life? Four-and-a-half more minutes of life.&rdquo;&hellip;Ex-Pittsburgh coach Kevin Constantine will be GM of a Pittsburghbased junior team in the United States League next season, but said he won&rsquo;t climb behind the bench. &ldquo;I want to see what it feels like to do the firing, not the other way around,&rdquo; Constantine joked. &#9632;

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POWER PLAY

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011787/7726990-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Expect the rules protecting goalies to be enforced more vigilantly the rest of the year.</figcaption></div>Given how little in the way of news emerged from the annual meeting of NHL general managers, you have to figure there&rsquo;s a better way to assemble them for a round of golf.The GMs met for three days at a swank resort in La Quinta, Calif., March 2-4 and listened to reports on how to cut down on stoppages in play and the increasing frequency of crease-crashing.When it came to offering up some insight on how to deal with these issues, the consensus was these matters were already covered off in the rule book. Colin Campbell, the league&rsquo;s director of hockey operations, said the policies already in place will suffice.&ldquo;Why would we even consider blending new rules into the game, trying to figure out how to call them consistently, when we already have rules-whether they were put in there one year, five, 10,15 years ago-that have been eroded?&rdquo; Campbell said.So it will be status quo for TV timeouts and length of intermission, while the league won&rsquo;t adopt the international rule of automatically dropping the puck 15 seconds after the previous whistle.As for crease-crashing, the GMs asked Campbell to instruct referees to pay closer attention to traffic on the blue ice.&ldquo;There was full agreement that it should be tightened up and watched,&rdquo; said Toronto&rsquo;s Pat Quinn.And in what has become an annual pilgrimage, NHL Players&rsquo; Association boss Bob Goodenow addressed the GMs and asked them to drop or modify the instigator rule. The idea is to let the players police themselves with the hopes the number of cheap shots would be reduced, particularly against stars.Goodenow&rsquo;s suggestion was tabled with a promise from the league to send it to a committee and re-examine it at the June meetings. But don&rsquo;t bet on changes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a Greenpeace guy, but I&rsquo;m not in favor of removing the instigator penalty, either,&rdquo; said Vancouver GM Brian Burke.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we want to go back to three-hour hockey games. Just because Bob Goodenow thinks this is a burning issue doesn&rsquo;t mean we do.&rdquo;While little was settled during the GMs&rsquo; get-together, league and union representatives were in Salt Lake City discussing doping protocol for the 2002 Olympics with officials from the International Ice Hockey Federation, the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).The main issue is how to proceed with drug testing of NHL players who are headed to the Winter Games. The powerful United States Olympic Committee has decided to start random testing of NHLers; other countries are expected to follow suit.Officials are trying to broker a drugtesting agreement that would allow one agency, WADA, to conduct all the tests. WADA has been invited by the IOC to observe all drug-testing activities at the 2002 Games and has announced plans for 8,000 out-of-competition drug tests over the next two years.A number of issues were raised by NHL and NHLPA officials, including the use of cold remedies by NHL players that could cause them to test positive for banned substances. Another issue is the use of legitimate food supplements which can result in positive tests for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.But like the GMs&rsquo; meetings, no decisions were made and more talks will be held.&rdquo;Still, it was expected an agreement would be reached well before the March 25 deadline for countries to name between eight and 12 players to their Olympic rosters.&ldquo;I do not think anyone wants to leave the impression that the NHL or NHL players are looking for special treatment or are delaying to avoid being tested,&rdquo; said Murray Costello, chair of the IIHF&rsquo;s medical committee.&ldquo;They are just saying, &lsquo;Tell us who is going to do it and what are the protocols and procedures we have to follow. Then we want to be able to tell our guys what is going to happen and we will go about doing our jobs.&rsquo;&rdquo;Costello added the out-of-competition drug testing focuses on anabolic steroids and masking agents, not things such as Sudafed. &ldquo;It is just the heavy duty stuff,&rdquo; he said.The GMs also heard from Dave Dryden, who chairs the joint NHL-NHLPA injury analysis committee, on his findings. But Dryden didn&rsquo;t tell the GMs anything they didn&rsquo;t already know.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s one single biggest problem,&rdquo; said Dryden about what&rsquo;s causing injuries. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s probably the most interesting thing we&rsquo;ve found.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">There was full agreement that (crease-crashing) should be tightened up and watched.</blockquote>Toronto GM Pat Quinn &#9632;

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FEATURES

GMs’ meetings putter out

<h2>Best of the Hockey World</h2>HOT IN THE NIK OF TIME Tampa goalie Kevin Weekes registers three shutouts in four games, including two after his team deals for Nikolai Khabibulin.IGNORING THE RUMORS Phoenix left winger Keith Tkachuk delivers seven goals and 23 points in 15 games amid rampant speculation he&rsquo;ll be traded.IT&rsquo;S ABOUT TIME The NHL decides to crack down on crease crashers in an attempt to offer goaltenders the protection they deserve.<h2>Worst of the Hockey World</h2>FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Islander GM Mike Mil-bury fires Butch Goring, the fifth coach he has canned in five-and-a-half years (including himself&hellip;twice).LOW BLOW Acadie-Bathurst&rsquo;s Yann Joseph is sus-. pended and fined for taunts directed at Moncton&rsquo;s Jonathan Roy, who had testicular cancer.LACKING IN VITAMIN &lsquo;D&rsquo; The St. Louis Blues, minus defensemen Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis, go winless in five and 2-5-1-2 in a 10-game stretch.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021519/7727028-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="373" height="632"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Weekes</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031230/7727021-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="370" height="628"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Milbury</figcaption></div>For Mike Brophy&rsquo;s daily Cheers & Jeers visit <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Denis Gibbons</div>If durability and versatility were the primary hallmarks of a Hall of Famer, Doug Mohns would have been near the head of the class.An exceptional skater, Mohns retired in 1974-75 sixth in all-time games played with 1,390. He was a solid, if not exceptional, contributor both as a forward, earlier in his career, and a defenseman later on. He is not in the Hall of Fame.&ldquo;If I had been able to concentrate on one position, my stats would have been much better,&rdquo; he said.Mohns played with Boston, Chicago, Minnesota, Atlanta and Washington and had 248 goals and 710 points. A two-time Memorial Cup champion with the Barrie Flyers (1951,1953), he played in seven NHL All-Star Games.Mohns later worked for the New England Rehabilitation Hospital for 19 years, mostly in human resources.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011788/7727059-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="242" height="285"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Mohns</figcaption></div>Now 67, the Capreol, Ont., native lives with his second wife Tabor in Mashpee, Mass., on Cape Cod, where he is writing a book on his career.Mohns has his own website <a href="http://dougmohns.com">dougmohns.com</a>test, which he uses to promote a center for the prevention of child abuse that he helped launch. &#9632;

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Versatile Mohns also had plenty of staying power

The best goaltender in the NHL is not Dallas&rsquo; immature Ed Belfour, Colorado&rsquo;s aging Patrick Roy or Toronto&rsquo;s unac-complished Curtis Joseph, but Martin Brodeur, the dominating netminder of the Stanley Cup-champion New Jersey Devils.I&rsquo;m tired of hearing how the Devils&rsquo; defensive tendencies somehow take away from Brodeur&rsquo;s play. The Devils have been one of the best offensive teams in the league for three years and haven&rsquo;t had any dropoff in goaltending.Canadians should be thankful to have this gentleman as their starting goalie for the 2002 Olympics. And with him in net, the Devils will have no problem going through Denver en route to another Cup.Charles P. McVey,&nbsp; Long Branch, N.J.<h2>4-on-4 foils team concept</h2>Sorry, Steve Dryden, but we disagree that 4-on-4 full-time &ldquo;must be tested.&rdquo; (THN, March 9)Just because Mario Lemieux says it&rsquo;s so, doesn&rsquo;t make it good for the rest of the NHL. What more does Lemieux want? He&rsquo;s already making the rest of the league look bad. Fans don&rsquo;t want to see a one-man show, they want to see good hockey. To open up the game, call obstruction penalties all year long and in the playoffs.Hockey has always been a team sport. Reducing the number of players on the ice is a step in the wrong direction.John and Julie Mazza,&nbsp; Raleigh, N.C.<h2>Nolan passionate, not &lsquo;thug&rsquo;</h2>Response to letter &ldquo;Nolan has history of thuggery&rdquo; (THN, March 2):Look at Owen Nolan&rsquo;s stats and you&rsquo;ll see he&rsquo;s an offensive force and far from a &ldquo;thug.&rdquo; Watch him on the ice and you&rsquo;ll see he&rsquo;s a captain who leads and plays with passion. He deserves a lot more respect than what was given him in that letter.There are many players in the NHL known for cheap shots, but Nolan doesn&rsquo;t belong in that cat-egory. He&rsquo;s much more an MVP than a menace.Bob Kelley,&nbsp; Springfield, Mass. &#9632;

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Edmonton is primed for a playoff run. They&rsquo;ve proved they can beat the best in the West and they have speed, youth and a good coach. They also have the NHL&rsquo;s most underrated goalie in Tommy Salo. So don&rsquo;t be surprised to see the Oilers still playing when May rolls around.Shawn Shelast, Mundare, Alta.I&rsquo;m glad to see goaltender Felix Potvin is back on top of his game. So far, he has been super as a Los Angeles King. Good luck between the pipes, Potvin.Justin Carter,&nbsp; Perth, Ont.Isles&rsquo; owner Charles Wang said he&rsquo;s keeping GM Mike Milbury because Milbury is the smartest hockey person he knows. Mr. Wang, you need to get out more.James Fitzharris,&nbsp; East Greenbush, N. Y.Kevin Stevens&rsquo; return to Pittsburgh has been awesome. While he&rsquo;s not the player he once was, his career has been resurrected. He has seen the ups and downs of hockey-and life. Despite his troubles, he&rsquo;s definitely one of the best U.S.-born players and one of the best Penguins of all-time.Aaron Phillips,&nbsp; Herminie, Pa.Since facial protection is the best way to prevent eye injuries, all new NHLers should be required to wear visors, starting next year. Veterans can have the option.Andrew Chrzanowski,&nbsp; Wyoming, Del.<h2>READERS&rsquo; ONE-TIMERS</h2>This is your place for quick comments on current hockey events. Reader&rsquo;s One-Timers accepts opinions of 60 words or less, so please be concise. &#9632;

Oilers overdue for playoff strike

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011992/7727169-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011807/7727238-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">International man of mystery: Dominik Hasek confounds shooters and prognosticators.</figcaption></div>He flashes the five-hole and then shuts the door. He&rsquo;ll go down for the shot, then somehow kick his leg up in the air, impossibly deflecting the puck. Or he&rsquo;ll improbably challenge a shooter 40 feet from the net and win the duel.Finding a revealing angle on Dominik Hasek has never been easy. He&rsquo;s a goaltending kaleidoscope where everybody sees something different.He has been reminding NHL shooters ever since February how frustrating the experience can be. For those trying to divine his future, Hasek has been equally elusive. It&rsquo;s hard to corral someone who has a slinky for a spine.&ldquo;He really hasn&rsquo;t decided. It&rsquo;s like the way he plays goal,&rdquo; said his agent, Rich Winter. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re waiting to see what will happen.&rdquo;Hasek could retire, as he once promised in a statement even he seems to regret. He could return to Buffalo and make $9.5 million next season, if the Sabres exercise a club option by July 1. If Buffalo decides not to pick up the option, he could be a perfect unrestricted free agent fix for a team looking for a goaltender who can erase 14 defensive mistakes on a good day Or he could go home to Europe, enjoy the good life and get ready for the sequel to the 1998 Winter Olympics, the only Miracle on Ice recognized in Prague.Of all the possible alternatives, the only one that seems like a fair bet is that Hasek won&rsquo;t hang up his pads before visiting Salt Lake City.He recently left an Andre Racicot-sized opening when asked recently about his retirement plans.&ldquo;The Olympics in Salt Lake City, it is going to be something really special,&rdquo; Hasek said. &ldquo;If that is still possible, I want to play there.&rdquo;In case the message wasn&rsquo;t quite clear enough, Winter added his own subtitle.&ldquo;I really believe Dominik wants to win a gold medal for his country,&rdquo; Winter said. &ldquo;Since he&rsquo;s so passionate about that, everything else revolves around that goal.&rdquo;Part of Hasek&rsquo;s future is beyond his control. Sabres&rsquo; owner John Rigas and shrewd GM Darcy Regier have to decide about exercising the option in Hasek&rsquo;s contract. The team all but ruled out a trade before the deadline. Then again, the Sabres have a young, cheap goalie-in-waiting in Martin Biron and face an estimated $19 million in losses next season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021193/7727231-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="419" height="392"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chuck Carlton Columnist</figcaption></div>Should they go on another run to the final, Hasek could be back at 36. If they lose in the first round, then Winter could be gleefully offering Hasek&rsquo;s services to the Rangers or Los Angeles or any other would-be contender. Or Hasek could walk away an option that seems less likely now after a brush with inactivity. He missed 40 games with a groin injury last season.&ldquo;I think he really wanted to retire at one time,&rdquo; Winter said. &ldquo;After he got injured, he realized what it was going to be like.&rdquo;Hasek&rsquo;s recent resurrection may have further stoked a competitive fire. He ranks among NHL leaders in goals-against average (2.22), save percentage (.919) and shutouts (eight). While Hasek might not be as consistently dominant and may be prone to more bad goals, he&rsquo;s still attracting attention. All of a sudden, he looks a lot like the guy who was the acclaimed Best Player in the World in the latter half of the 1990s. He had the Mastercard commercial, the Olympic heroics, the five Vezina Trophies and the back-to-back Harts. No goaltender since Terry Sawchuk has enjoyed such a run.The guy in the pads put shooters in a padded cell. Just ask the five Canadian stars who had a crack at Hasek in Nagano.&ldquo;No one understands how dominant he was because of the market he played in,&rdquo; Winter said. &ldquo;If he played in Toronto or New York, he would be considered the best ever at the position.&rdquo;Winter might have a slightly biased viewpoint, but even more objective observers still marvel at Hasek&rsquo;s achievements. Earlier this season, lingering effects of the injury and ineffectiveness made him an afterthought. Some even wondered if he was the best Czech goalie on the planet. Roman Turek had his supporters first, then Roman Cechmanek.Now Hasek is in his typical New Year&rsquo;s ascent.No matter what happens, Hasek has turned back the clock to when the save might have been as exciting as a goal. &#9633;<h2>Spring thaw</h2>Despite a trip to the Stanley Cup final in 1999, true playoff glory has eluded Dominik Hasek. Below are the goalies who have recorded the most playoff wins over the past five seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03725/7727224-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="395" height="304"></div> &#9632;

f0007-01

COLUMN

What’s next for hot Hasek?

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy, Senior Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011884/7727269-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Lalime</figcaption></div>Patrick Lalime could get himself worked up into a tizzy, like half of Ottawa is, in anticipation of the playoffs. But it&rsquo;s just not his style.No, stopping pucks in the butterfly position and keeping cool under pressure is more his thing. Lalime knows he&rsquo;ll be on the hot seat in the post-season, to see if he can deliver after a breakthrough campaign. The 26-year-old, who has battled hard to make it this far, wouldn&rsquo;t have it any other way&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the challenge I&rsquo;ve been working toward my entire life,&rdquo; Lalime said. &ldquo;Being No. 1 this year was the challenge I faced coming into the season and next on the list is having success in the playoffs.&rdquo;For Ottawa, success means winning at least one round. The Sens have been one of the NHL&rsquo;s best teams in the regular season for a few years, but have been first round victims the past two post-seasons. This year, there is a sense of urgency. Expectations for the team are sky-high and Lalime, who has no NHL playoff experience, is the wild card.Lalime, you might recall, broke into the NHL with Pittsburgh in 1996-97 like the second coming of Jacques Plante, setting a rookie record by going undefeated (14-02) in his first 16 games. But he struggled down the stretch and the next season, following a contract dispute, he was back in the minors, headed toward Blaine Lacher-ville.It was a bitter pill to swallow for a player who finished fifth in Calder Trophy voting. And his play didn&rsquo;t earn him a quick ticket back-Lalime went 10-10-9 with Grand Rapids of the International League.Affectionately dubbed &lsquo;Patrick Roy-lime&rsquo; by some of his Penguin teammates during his stellar freshman year, the St. Bonaventure, Que., native was suddenly being called &lsquo;Lemon Lalime&rsquo; by detractors.But he kept the faith and took the first step toward reclaiming his NHL career after being traded by Pittsburgh to Anaheim&rsquo;s organization for Sean Pronger in March, 1998. In 1998-99, Lalime led the IHL in appearances (66), minutes (3,789) and wins (39) with Kansas City The Senators, in a goalie transition, decided to roll the dice and shipped Ted Donato to the Ducks for Lalime&rsquo;s rights.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to tell you that I knew he was going to come through, but the fact is I didn&rsquo;t see him play in the minors,&rdquo; said Ottawa GM Marshall Johnston. &ldquo;But that has been a trademark of our organization, we look at guys who have had success and we take a chance on them.&rdquo;Lalime played well in his return to the NHL last season, posting a 19-14-3 record, 2.33 goals-against average, .905 save percentage and three shutouts. But he was still in a supporting role, sharing duties with Ron Tugnutt and then Tom Barrasso. That changed this year when Lalime started the campaign as the No. 1 man, ahead of rookie Jani Hurme. Lalime&rsquo;s play as the go-to guy has been somewhere between steady and spectacular.&ldquo;I think it all started last year,&rdquo; said Ottawa defenseman Jason York. &ldquo;Every game he played for us, he played well. The team had confidence when he played. I don&rsquo;t think anybody on our team questioned the fact he would be our No. 1 goalie this season. It just seemed right. He&rsquo;s such a great guy that he makes you want to work hard for him.&rdquo;Lalime&rsquo;s numbers this season are very good, although not breathtaking. He was 29-16-4 with a 2.25 goals-against average, .915 save percentage and six shutouts. But with the Senators, who are an excellent defensive outfit, he doesn&rsquo;t have to win games singlehandedly. He simply has to play well enough not to lose games for his team, much the way Chris Osgood did with Detroit when the Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1998.&ldquo;In the end, the playoffs are the measuring stick,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;With goaltending in the playoffs, there&rsquo;s a lot more priority and focus on it.&rdquo;Lalime, an exceedingly cool customer, has a &ldquo;bring-it-on&rdquo; approach.&ldquo;This is a lot of fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And I know the playoffs will be even more fun.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

Cool Lalime eager for fun spring run

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011763/7727300-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Teemu Selanne</figcaption></div>While the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and San Jose Sharks are separated by more than 350 miles of California coastline, that distance is nothing compared to the gulf between the teams on the ice these days.The blockbuster March 5 trade, in which San Jose pried four-time NHL all-star right winger Teemu Selanne from Anaheim in exchange for left winger Jeff Friesen, goaltender Steve Shields and future considerations, perfectly illustrates the divergent states of the two franchises. (See pgs. 13,19 for more on trade.)The Sharks, who have made steady progress in both the standings and public perception over the past five years, are clearly building toward their goal of bringing the Stanley Cup to San Jose. Landing Selanne, one of the game&rsquo;s purest snipers, only adds to an emerging talent base that has kept the Sharks at or near the top of the Pacific Division all season.&ldquo;If you keep getting better, sooner or later, you&rsquo;ll be the best,&rdquo; reasoned San Jose GM Dean Lombardi.Lombardi credits Sharks&rsquo; majority owner George Gund with taking &ldquo;a huge step&rdquo; in adding Selanne&rsquo;s contract, which is worth $9.5 million next season before he stands to become an unrestricted free agent. The Ducks, meanwhile, made the curious choice to also send $2.5 million San Jose&rsquo;s way, to help the Sharks pay Selanne next season. Granted, Selanne, 30, has struggled to score at his accustomed pace-the three-time 50-goal scorer had 26 in 61 games, tied for 36th in the league-but there are few who doubt he is still capable of filling nets.It&rsquo;s increasingly difficult to get a handle on exactly what is going on in Anaheim, especially given GM Pierre Gauthier&rsquo;s pattern of saying one thing, then doing exactly the opposite. In mid-November, Gauthier declared he would neither fire coach Craig Hartsburg nor trade either Selanne or his fellow superstar, left winger Paul Kariya.Hartsburg went to the unemployment line barely a month later and, less than three months after that, Selanne was gone.&ldquo;Obviously, as the season evolved, a lot of things changed,&rdquo; said Gauthier, whose club fell into the Western Conference basement Jan. 27, where they&rsquo;ll likely remain. &ldquo;There had been a lot of (trade) rumors about Teemu. It got to the point where I was getting a lot of calls (from other GMs). At one point, it became my duty to listen.&ldquo;The objective of this trade is for the Mighty Ducks to improve, immediately and in the future. I think the team needed a change. We have to look forward, not at what performers have done in the past.&rdquo;Selanne, who had three 100-point seasons in Anaheim after a 1996 trade from Winnipeg, remained loyal to the Ducks until the bitter end. Despite a heartfelt desire to remain in Anaheim, Selanne shifted gears quickly upon being sent to San Jose.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always a little nervous when you get traded,&rdquo; Selanne said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re scared to ask where. When I heard, it was like, &lsquo;Thank God.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m very excited to go there. They have a good team. Especially at this point in my career, I really want to play with a team that wants to win and is going to have success. I know this is going to be good for me.&rdquo;It also figures to be good for the Sharks, even though they faced an initial wait of approximately two weeks to get Selanne in the lineup because of arthroscopic surgery to repair loose cartilage in his left knee.The Ducks, too, faced a medical issue: Ligament damage in Shields&rsquo; left shoulder that also required arthroscopic surgery and is likely to delay his Anaheim debut until next season.The Ducks are counting on the combination of Shields, 28, and 23-year-old Jean-Sebastien Giguere to solidify their goaltending and Friesen to help make up for the loss of Selanne. After all, since acquiring Selanne, Anaheim has reached the playoffs only twice in five years and won just one series.Still, the Selanne-Kariya tandem was perhaps the NHL&rsquo;s most electrifying.&ldquo;Teemu is a great friend and has been a great teammate for a lot of years,&rdquo; Kariya said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m obviously very disappointed to see him go. It was a surprise, because I didn&rsquo;t think anything was going to happen, to be honest. It&rsquo;s tough to lose a player of Teemu&rsquo;s caliber and a person of Teemu&rsquo;s caliber&hellip;You&rsquo;re not going to get that caliber of player in return, but hopefully it works out in the end.&ldquo;In situations like this, I just have to play the game on the ice and let Pierre do his job off the ice. I&rsquo;m trusting that he has the best interests of our team in mind. That&rsquo;s all I can do.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Sharks attack, Mighty Ducks quack

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011852/7727373-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div>Okay, so we have a few concerns with Pittsburgh&rsquo;s top line. Who plays left wing with the Hall of Famer and the three-time defending scoring champ just isn&rsquo;t one of them.That&rsquo;s not meant to disparage the contribution of anyone lucky enough and good enough to be along for the ride on the best line in hockey But really, provided they can remember to go to the proper faceoff dot, drive to the net, play a little defense and generally stay out of the way the rest of the time, they&rsquo;re doing fine. Go ahead, put Craig Patrick out there with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr for all we care. At least then the owner and the GM could talk about potential trades between whistles.Which brings us to the concerns. The first is Lemieux&rsquo;s back. These days it isn&rsquo;t cooperating with back-to-back games or often to even taking faceoffs, which is why Jan Hrdina sometimes replaces Kevin Stevens on the line.The second concern is Jagr&rsquo;s state of mind. Early this season it was a mess. He requested a trade. Then Mario came back and life was good again. If things stay this way, no problem. But the best player in the game speculating about possibly being dealt, as Jagr did in early March, can&rsquo;t be a good thing.Still, none of this changes the central point. At any given time there are 120 lines in the NHL. Most of them get built and torn apart like so much Lego. But of the ones that generally stay intact, Lemieux, Jagr and someone else are plenty good enough to be the best in the NHL.But granting the Lemieux line No. 1 status was no slam dunk. Colorado&rsquo;s top unit of Joe Sakic between Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk has been sensational all year. &ldquo;Those guys,&rdquo; said Edmonton coach Craig Mac-Tavish, &ldquo;are unreal.&rdquo; In third place are New Jersey&rsquo;s Young Guns&rsquo; line of Patrick Elias, Jason Arnott and Petr Sykora. The other potent Pittsburgh unit of Martin Straka-Robert Lang-Alexei Kovalev and the top Ottawa line of Shawn McEachern-Alexei Yashin-Daniel Alfredsson round out the top five.Among the NHL&rsquo;s &ldquo;shutdown&rdquo; trios, Washington&rsquo;s Steve Konowalchuk-Jeff Halpern-Ulf Dahlen come out on top. Konowalchuk and Halpern are diligent checkers who excel at angling off puckcarriers while Dahlen is brilliant along the boards. At their best they can also turn the tables on the supposed offensive line they&rsquo;re covering. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t really try to check the other team as much as control the puck in their end,&rdquo; Konowalchuk said. &ldquo;Ulf and I try to pressure them and do the dirty work in the corners. Jeff is the third guy high. That way if they get the puck in our zone he&rsquo;s fresh and there&rsquo;s no 3-on-2s and he gets down low in the other end.&rdquo;They can also score. Konowalchuk had 19 goals, Halpern 17 and Dahlen 12.The next two best shutdown lines are New Jersey&rsquo;s Jay Pandolfo-John Madden-Turner Stevenson and San Jose&rsquo;s Scott Thornton-Mike Ricci-Niklas Sundstrom. We define a shutdown line as a defensively oriented unit whose primary job is to prevent the opposition from scoring. They may or may not be on the ice during crunch time. For example, Steve Yzerman will always be on the ice for Detroit protecting a lead in the last minute, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean the Wings&rsquo; ballyhooed Grind Line of Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper and Darren McCarty are failing at their task.Lines had to be fairly consistent in order to qualify so Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s line juggling prevents Yzerman or Sergei Fedorov from making either list. The same goes for San Jose, where Vincent Dam-phousse&rsquo;s injury, Owen Nolan&rsquo;s suspension and the Jeff Friesen-Teemu Selanne trade make it impossible to name a top unit.The one other conspicuous absence is the Doug Weight line in Edmonton. But Weight has been playing for the past month with Dan Cleary and Sergei Zholtok, while top Oiler sniper Ryan Smyth performs on the second unit with Mike Comrie and Anson Carter.&ldquo;The formula for a championship team hasn&rsquo;t really changed in a lot of years,&rdquo; said Edmonton coach Craig Mac-Tavish, citing the need for two offensive lines. &ldquo;What we lose (in separating Weight and Smyth), we feel we make up that and more by getting the depth.&rdquo;The Penguins, Senators and Avalanche, on the other hand, all have enough talent to load up two top units.In Pittsburgh, until Lemieux&rsquo;s Dec. 27 return, Martin Straka-Robert Lang-Alexei Kovalev had been far superior to any line Jagr had played on. And it&rsquo;s only in the past couple months the Yashin line has taken over from Magnus Arvedson-Radek Bonk-Marian Hossa as Ottawa&rsquo;s go-to unit.Most nights in Colorado, there&rsquo;s little to choose between the Sakic threesome and Chris Drury-Peter Forsberg-Ville Nieminen.But Lemieux&rsquo;s impact with the Penguins can&rsquo;t be overstated. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s record before Dec. 27:15-14-6-1. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s record since then: 19-10-1-1. Jagr&rsquo;s totals pre-Mario: 19 goals and 37 points in 36 games. Since then: 19 goals and 58 points in 31 games. In his first 30 games, Lemieux had 25 goals and 51 points.That said, the Sakic line is more well-rounded than the Lemieux unit and might have captured the top spot if not for one telling stat: At the Pepsi Center, after 34 games, Tanguay Sakic and Hejduk had 127 points and were a combined plus-87. On the road they had 91 points in 32 games, but were just a combined plus-8. Lemieux and Jagr had no significant differences in their stats at home or on the road.One conclusion is teams are more effective in neutralizing the Sakic trio when they can match lines and defense pairings.For the Lemieux unit, matchups don&rsquo;t seem to matter as much, regardless of who&rsquo;s playing left wing. Of course, not everyone believes being the third wheel on the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 line is a simple task. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Recchi, who played in Pittsburgh on a line with Lemieux and Stevens in 1990-91, said occupying the role can be challenging. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not as easy as you think,&rdquo; Recchi said. &ldquo;Sure you&rsquo;re going to get your points, but these guys want the puck and you have to get (it to them).&rdquo;Of course, getting them the puck is a tad easier than trying to take it away from them.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011656/7727366-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="588" height="1064"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrik Elias</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021176/7727359-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="587" height="1162"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jason Arnott</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03780/7727352-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="578" height="1056"><figcaption class="caption-body">Petr Sykora</figcaption></div><h2>NHL&rsquo;S BEST LINES: 1-10</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-04603/7727345-1-eng-US/f0011-042.jpg" title="f0011-04" width="1004" height="932"></div><h2>NHL&rsquo;S BEST LINES: 11-20</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-05479/7727338-1-eng-US/f0011-052.jpg" title="f0011-05" width="1000" height="928"></div><h2>NHL&rsquo;S BEST SHUTDOWN LINES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-06413/7727331-1-eng-US/f0011-062.jpg" title="f0011-06" width="1004" height="924"></div> &#9632;

f0010-01

COVER STORY

FEARSOME THREE SOMES

<h2>Masterton men</h2>The list of players nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy is growing. Florida rookie center Serge Payer, who was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome in 1998, is his team&rsquo;s representative for the award given for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Other nominees to date include Joel Bouchard (Phoenix), Bob Essensa (Vancouver), Dave Lowry (Calgary), Bob Probert (Chicago) and Scott Young (St. Louis).<h2>Much-hyped Lindros trade talks approach frantic finish</h2>The dam that had been the Eric Lindros trade talks was set to break after his father reportedly told the St. Louis Blues he would play for them.Previously, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; restricted free agent said he would play only for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Talks between Toronto and Philadelphia were declared all but dead by Leafs&rsquo; GM Pat Quinn March 8.The following day, ESPN reported that Carl Lindros, the sidelined superstar&rsquo;s agent and father, contacted the Blues and advised them he would join the Western Conference team.ESPN said the Flyers rejected a first offer made by St. Louis March 9. Asked about the offer, Blues&rsquo; GM Larry Pleau said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather not discuss that, but I&rsquo;ve definitely talked to both parties.&rdquo;Meanwhile, CTVsportsnet reported that Detroit was also &ldquo;high on (Lindros&rsquo;) list.&rdquo;One of the stumbling blocks to a deal between Philadelphia and Toronto as the March 13 trade deadline approached was that the two teams are Eastern Conference rivals. Toronto was also reluctant to part with prized young defenseman Tomas Kaberle.Lindros, 28, has 290 goals and 659 points in 486 career NHL games for a points-per-game average of 1.36, one of the best in league history. He has said that it would take him a week to get in game shape after a trade.<h2>Panzer favored</h2>North Dakota forward Jeff Panzer is the winner in the fan balloting portion of the Hobey Baker Award as the top U.S. college player. Panzer had 9,673 votes cast over the Internet to outdistance Niko Dimitrakos (Maine), Ryan Miller (Michigan State) and Brian Gionta (Boston College). The top 10 finalists will be named March 15 and fans can again vote from that group. Their preference is blended with a panel of hockey experts. &#9632;

INSIDE REPORT

<div class="byline">By Adam B. Ellick</div>Hockey made the national news again in the Czech Republic. This time, however, it wasn&rsquo;t about winning another world title.Instead, viewers saw Trebic forward Tomas Zelenka fall victim to a check from behind by Jihlava defenseman Marian Morava in a playoff game Feb. 22, leaving Zelenka paralyzed below the neck.Zelenka, 25, remained in stable condition March 8 in a Czech hospital. He had movement only in his hands.Morava hit Zelenka hard into the boards, whiplashing his head against the glass. Zelenka underwent six hours of surgery after his fifth vertebrae was broken.The Czech Association&rsquo;s disciplinary committee gave Morava, 24, a 10-month suspension, the second-longest in Czech hockey history. (The longest was Radek Knotek&rsquo;s 18-month ban in 1998 for verbally and physically attacking three referees.)The Czech League&rsquo;s players&rsquo; association-the Czech Association of Professional Players (AHLH)-requested a lifetime ban for Morava, who has racked up more than 400 penalty minutes since 1997. But the committee said such extreme measures are reserved for fraud and match-fixing.Views of the hit differ greatly. Some say it was a tough, but legal incident with tragic consequences. Others called it overly aggressive and preventable.&ldquo;It was a brutal attack from behind,&rdquo; said Jiri Dopita, a Czech star and president of the AHLH. &ldquo;It was meanness.&rdquo;The AHLH called the incident &ldquo;shocking and inexcusable.&rdquo; In a statement, it called on all players to &ldquo;realize that human life is more important than points&hellip;Are we going to further injure and possibly kill each other or are we going to play a sport called hockey?&rdquo;Jihlava forfeited its next game in honor of Zelenka. Jihlava&rsquo;s manager said the players were in tears and unable to play.The AHLH, formed last year by Dopita, former NHLer Robert Reichel and others, reacted by launching a bank account called Solidarity, to support seriously injured players in the future.Zelenka has received more than $13,000 from fellow countrymen Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora of New Jersey and Dominik Hasek of Buffalo. &#9632;

Czech player paralyzed after check from behind

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Junior hockey executive David Branch said it will take more than suspensions to eradicate racial slurs from the game.&ldquo;If one could have the magic wand to rid ourselves of that in society, it would make it a better place&hellip;(but) we are a microcosm of society,&rdquo; said Branch after the second suspension of the Ontario League season for a player guilty of making a racial taunt.Branch is commissioner of the OHL and president of the Canadian Hockey League, which oversees the 56 teams in the OHL, Western and Quebec Leagues.Barrie Colts&rsquo; rookie forward Frantisek Bakrlik, 17, from the Czech Republic, was suspended four games March 7 after calling Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&rsquo; goalie Ray Emery &ldquo;a monkey&rdquo; March 4.Emery, 18, is black. Bakrlik&rsquo;s remark was overheard by a linesman.Branch said because this was the second racial incident involving the Colts this season, he doubled the penalty from an automatic two games to four. Jan Platil, Barrie&rsquo;s other rookie Czech import, was given a two-game suspension for a racial slur toward Kingston Frontenacs&rsquo; overage forward Derek Campbell Nov. 24.Branch said every player must be sensitive to this issue and the OHL will look at adopting an educational policy.&ldquo;There are steps we can take to be proactive,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;More minorities are playing in our league. We need to provide a more positive environment.&ldquo;We have created a new section (on the league&rsquo;s policy poster that hangs in all dressing rooms) on our position toward making comments deemed to be racial.&rdquo;Branch said in the first incident it was suggested a European &ldquo;doesn&rsquo;t understand the magnitude of his statement.&ldquo;If that&rsquo;s the case, it reinforces the fact we must educate them. There are blacks in Europe. This is a not a new phenomena.&rdquo;Emery said he has heard racial slurs in the league before. &ldquo;I think you become desensitized to it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I mean, it&rsquo;s not a big deal.&rdquo;Campbell has heard the slurs all four years he has been in the OHL. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not right at all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just hushed, no one wants to talk about it.&rdquo; &#9632;

Second racial slur in OHL prompts talk of policy

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011805/7727490-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="330" height="385"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Surprenant Head Athletic Trainer Dallas Stars</figcaption></div>The wear and tear on a hockey players, body is pretty evident. Just look at the scars. But inside, they&rsquo;re worn down, too. They lose weight in hot rinks. They get dehydrated. They need a boost during and after games through nutritional drinks. Also when the weather changes.&ldquo;With the diversity in climates it&rsquo;s tough on guys. One day it was almost 80 degrees in Dallas and when we landed in Edmonton for a game a few days later it was about 20 below,&rdquo; said Stars, trainer Dave Surprenant. &ldquo;You play in a building with a lot of humidity like Reunion Arena or Phoenix or the sunbelt teams and your body becomes acclimatized. Teams that come south to play like Edmonton, Minnesota or Montreal who&rsquo;ve been playing in cooler climates are really playing in a playoff type (weather) atmosphere. Dehyrdration is always a problem and playing back to back games, guys lose body weight and essential fluids. You have to get them rehydrated for the game they&rsquo;re playing the next day.&rdquo;Surprenant uses many different products for the Stars. Some are actually designed for a pediatric situation where children have dehydration or vomiting because they nave the flu and they lose a certain percentage of their body weight. The rule is six percent. In a child six percent is reached easily but a professional athlete who weighs 200 pounds and loses say six pounds in a game he&rsquo;s subject to cramping. &lsquo;We use a rehydrolyte or infalyte. They contain essential electrolytes for the body. Potassium, chloride, sodium and water. It tastes like ocean, salt water. It&rsquo;s the equivalent of putting an IV in a bottle.&rdquo; &ldquo;We also use performance enhancing drinks between periods. They&rsquo;re designed with a slow-release and quickrelease sugar, along with essentials vitamins and minerals. They&rsquo;re comparable to a sports-drink that&rsquo;s sugar-based. It gives off a little extra energy during a game. What we&rsquo;re trying to do is replenish the body with carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, amino acids. You can usually purchase these type of products through vitamin supplement stores.&rdquo;&ldquo;After games we use protein drinks so the body can recover. We try to get most of our products in powder form rather than bottles because it&rsquo;s lighter for travelling,&rdquo; said Surprenant.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021424/7727483-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="491" height="193"></div>POWERBAR&hellip;THE ENERGY TO PERFORM<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03919/7727476-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="239" height="190"></div> &#9632;

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FROM THE DALLAS STARS’ LOCKER ROOM:

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Dan Wood</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021150/7727521-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary&rsquo;s Fred Brathwaite stands his ground against an aggressive Anaheim player in a tilt between two teams likely to be golfing soon.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011655/7727528-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="220" height="251"></div>Teemu Selanne, who along with Paul Kariya, formed the heart and soul of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for more than five years, is gone.In exchange for Selanne, who went to the San Jose Sharks in a March 5 trade, the Ducks have left winger Jeff Friesen and goaltender Steve Shields. (See pg. 9 for more on the Selanne trade.)Friesen, 24, is six years younger than Selanne and figures to make up for some of the offense lost with the departure of the Finnish Flash. He assisted on two Kariya goals in his debut, a 4-2 victory over Montreal March 7.Shields, 28, will team with youngster Jean-Sebastien Giguere to give the Ducks what figures to be significantly upgraded goaltending, although arthroscopic surgery to repair ligament damage in his left shoulder will sideline Shields until next season.&ldquo;When Jeff Friesen&rsquo;s name came up, that made this (trade) very attractive,&rdquo; Gauthier said. &ldquo;You never get those guys. Between getting a good young player and getting a solid goaltender, other (potential deals for Selanne) didn&rsquo;t come close.&rdquo;Shields and particularly Friesen, who had spent his entire NHL career in San Jose since being selected in the first round of the 1994 entry draft, face the emotional challenge of leaving a playoff-bound team on the upswing for an also-ran.&ldquo;It was a shocker,&rdquo; Friesen said. &ldquo;Obviously, I was close to a lot of guys on the (Sharks) and I was with the organization through some tough times. It&rsquo;s going to be a definite change from the kind of year we&rsquo;ve had.&rdquo;The new Ducks also realize most of the team&rsquo;s supporters don&rsquo;t like the trade because Selanne was one of the team&rsquo;s most popular players. &ldquo;I would expect the fans to be disappointed and sad that Teemu is gone, but we just ask that they give us a chance,&rdquo; Shields said.NOTEBOOK The Ducks placed goalie Guy Hebert, the last member of the 1993 expansion roster, on waivers March 5 after acquiring Steve Shields. The New York Rangers claimed Hebert two days later&hellip;With Shields out for the season with a shoulder injury, Anaheim recalled goalie Gregg Naumenko from Cincinnati (AHL). &#9632;

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Friesen convinces GM to trade ‘Flash’

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Jeff Schultz</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03842/7727559-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="215" height="256"></div>The only thing more surprising than the fact the Atlanta Thrashers recalled Norm Maracle from the minors was what last season&rsquo;s maligned rookie goalie did when he arrived in Atlanta: Tiewintie. Save percentage:.946. Goals-against average: 1.89.&ldquo;My confidence is high right now and I&rsquo;m just going out there and having fun,&rdquo; said Maracle, who was 29-11-3-3 with seven shutouts and a.922 SP with Orlando (IHL). &ldquo;I want to stay at this level and I feel I&rsquo;m good enough to stay at this level. When I got sent down it was pretty tough at first, but I wanted to prove to them I could still play here.&rdquo;Maracle was demoted before the season after the free agent signing of Milan Hnilicka. But Hnilicka&rsquo;s late-season struggles and another groin strain suffered by goalie Damian Rhodes led to his being recalled.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not flopping all over the place like he did last year,&rdquo; said Thrashers&rsquo; coach Curt Fraser. &ldquo;He looks a lot steadier, a lot more under control.&rdquo;ANALYSIS Despite Maracle&rsquo;s career rejuvenation, Thrashers&rsquo; GM Don Waddell plans to address the goaltending situation this off-season, barring a last-minute deal before the trading deadline. Rhodes has been inconsistent and often injured, Hnilicka faded after a strong two and a half months and Maracle remains a question mark.OFFENSE The Thrashers&rsquo; top line of Ray Ferraro, Andrew Brunette and Donald Audette was struggling. After recording a hat trick Feb. 13 against Buffalo, Ferraro scored just two goals and two assists in the next eight games. Audette went pointless in five of nine games and goal-less in eight of 10. Brunette struggled since returning from a four-game absence with a concussion with just one goal and nine points in 16 games.NOTEBOOK Any chance of the Thrashers&rsquo; landing Phoenix holdout goalie Nikolai Khabibulin in a trade ended when the Coyotes asked for prospect Dany Heatley, a left winger, in the trade&hellip;Heatley, finishing up his sophomore season at Wisconsin, is expected to sign with Atlanta when the Badgers get knocked out of the WCHA or NCAA playoffs, assuming there are enough games left in the NHL season to make it worth while&hellip;Center Ray Ferraro was nominated for the Masterton Award by the Atlanta chapter of the Pro Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association. &#9632;

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Maracle recovery after stint in minors

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04705/7727590-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="217" height="249"></div>This isn&rsquo;t the kind of playoff drive the Boston Bruins had in mind.Battling with Carolina for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Bruins hurt them-selves with a dismal 3-6-0-2 stretch from Feb. 15-24.The skid left Boston in ninth place with 14 games to play, but still in the hunt. Entering the March 1011 weekend, the Bruins were one point behind the Hurricanes, who had one game in hand.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re fortunate that we&rsquo;re still in a spot where, if we play really good hockey, we can still get in,&rdquo; said captain Jason Allison.Coach Mike Keenan called it &ldquo;gut-check time.&rdquo;&ldquo;Maybe this is where you find out really what people are made of,&rdquo; he said.ANALYSIS Brian Rolston was moved up from. No. 3 center to left wing to give Boston&rsquo;s top two lines more pop. Previously, Keenan&rsquo;s only other option had been switching first line left winger Sergei Samsonov to play with No. 2 center Joe Thornton. But that hurt Allison-Bill Guerin unit.The moves were prompted by No. 2 right winger Andrei Kovalenko&rsquo;s 18-game goalless streak through March 8.GOALTENDING John Grahame had some excellent outings in a six-start stretch from Feb. 27 through March 8 (he went 3-30), but the Bruins anxiously awaited the return of No. 1 goalie Byron Dafoe.The Bruins went 3-6-0-2 in the games Dafoe missed with a hamstring strain through March 8. Dafoe was confident of a March 15 return against Vancouver.NOTEBOOK Center Joe Thornton&rsquo;s career-high 11-game point streak ended March 6 against Buffalo, but he netted his 29th goal of the season two nights later against Ottawa&hellip;The Bruins&rsquo; chartered plane didn&rsquo;t make it to Philadelphia to take them home after a March 5 loss, so they had to take a five-and-a-half-hour train trip through a snowstorm the next morning, arriving in Boston only seven hours before hosting Buffalo. &#9632;

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‘Gut-check time’ for feeble Bruins

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Bucky Gleason</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-06469/7727621-1-eng-US/f0013-062.jpg" title="f0013-06" width="543" height="1008"><figcaption class="caption-body">SABRE SHARP A mostly unproductive Curtis Brown began scoring again tor Buffalo.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-05561/7727628-1-eng-US/f0013-052.jpg" title="f0013-05" width="215" height="250"></div>Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coach Lindy Ruff walked into a storm of controversy when he replaced popular coach Ted Nolan behind the Buffalo bench in 1997.Less than four years later, Ruff moved into second place on the Sabres&rsquo; all-time victory list when he earned his 144th career victory, a 3-1 win over Boston March 6.&ldquo;It speaks for longevity,&rdquo; said Ruff half-jokingly &ldquo;Really, when you look at other teams that have five coaches in five or six years, there&rsquo;s something to be said for staying in the same spot for a few years.&rdquo;Ruff, in his fourth full season as coach, is second behind Scotty Bowman (210) on the Sabres&rsquo; all-time list. He already leads the Sabres with 25 playoff victories, seven more than Bowman, on the strength of guiding Buffalo to the Eastern Conference final twice and Stanley Cup final once.ANALYSIS Rookie defenseman Dmitri Kalinin was showing signs of mental fatigue playing his first full NHL season. Nearly flawless at the start of the season, Kalinin frequently has been getting caught out of position and making ill-advised clearing passes. A minus-5 rating over three games landed him in the press box against Boston March 6.OFFENSE The Sabres are hoping Curtis Brown has pulled out of a season-long scoring funk. Brown, the Sabres&rsquo; second-leading scorer last season with 22 goals and 51 points, had three goals and six points over an eight-game span. He had scored just one goal in 22 games going back to Dec. 8.NOTEBOOKBuffalo went 3-2-0 on a road trip that included five games over eight days against teams with winning records&hellip;Backup goalie Martin Biron had not made a home start through the first 67 games. &#9632;

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Coach Ruff second in Sabre victories

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011796/7727659-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="213" height="240"></div>On the morning Bill Lindsay was traded to the San Jose Sharks, he was musing about the imminent end of his Calgary Flames&rsquo; career.As an unrestricted free agent in July, Lindsay figured a trade was coming.&ldquo;Even if they get a bag of pucks for me, it makes more sense than getting nothing,&rdquo; he said.The Flames did a little better than a bag of pucks. The Sharks surrendered an eighth round pick in the 2001 entry draft for a depth player to provide energy.In the end, Lindsay lost his place in the lineup to a trio of younger forwards-Jeff Cowan, Ronald Petrovicky, Chris Clark-that were playing ahead of him.&ldquo;The good thing is, I&rsquo;ll get a chance to step out on the ice again and prove myself,&rdquo; Lindsay said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a fresh start. Hopefully, I can use it to the best of my ability.&rdquo;ANALYSIS A 2-3-1 homestand just before the trading deadline kept Calgary 13 points behind the Edmonton Oilers in the race for eighth place in the Western Conference, effectively putting them out of playoff contention. Right winger Jarome Iginla said while the task of catching the Oilers was daunting, the team wasn&rsquo;t ready to throw in the towel.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re professionals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our hopes are there. To be honest, you just keep hoping. Until we&rsquo;re completely eliminated, we&rsquo;re all working to get in.&rdquo;DEFENSE For the first time this season, goaltender Freddie Brathwaite started five consecutive games for Calgary, even though the nominal No. 1, Mike Vernon, was healthy and available for duty. Statistically, Brathwaite had posted demonstrably better numbers than Vernon for much of the season. Before a 5-2 loss to Philadelphia, Brathwaite had a superior winning record (11-10-7 compared to 12-20-5 for Vernon) and his goals-against average was almost three-quarters of a goal better (2.29 vs. 3.08).NOTEBOOK Center Cory Stillman is the ultimate road warrior. For three years in a row, Stillman has scored the vast majority of his goals away from the Pengrowth Saddle-dome. This year, 15 of his 21 goals had come on the road; last year, it was nine of 12; the year before, 18 of 27. &#9632;

f0014-01

Veteran Lindsay traded to San Jose

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Bob Sutton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021349/7727690-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="214" height="225"></div>Scott Pellerin says he&rsquo;ll do whatever it takes to fit in with the Carolina Hurricanes.Pellerin, a left winger who was traded to Carolina March 1, was used in a variety of roles during his first few games with Carolina. He was part of several line combinations.&ldquo;I can be plugged into certain roles,&rdquo; Pellerin said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something I take pride in. It&rsquo;s been something I&rsquo;ve worked at.&rdquo;The Hurricanes acquired Pellerin to try to bolster a sluggish offense that had become stale beyond the top two lines. Coach Paul Maurice was hoping Pellerin, playing on a line with right winger Rob DiMaio and center Josef Vasicek, would generate some additional production.Pellerin said he understands the urgency to make line changes.&ldquo;You have to find the right chemistry,&rdquo; he said.ANALYSIS The Hurricanes made left winger Darren Langdon a healthy scratch for a few games after he returned to active status following a groin injury Langdon, an enforcer with two assists in 53 games, will most likely be used against some of the lower-ranked teams. Maurice is bound to try about anything to create offense on the third and fourth lines. That includes sitting out Langdon.DEFENSE Rookie defenseman Niclas Wallin was sent to the minors after failing to crack the lineup when his shoulder injury healed. A few days later, he was back with the Hurricanes after defenseman Glen Wesley went out with a broken jaw. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been training for a month,&rdquo; Wallin said. &ldquo;I had been waiting for two weeks (since becoming available again).&rdquo;The defense became further depleted when David Tanabe suffered a hip pointer.NOTEBOOK Defenseman Glen Wesley had played in all 65 games this season until the broken jaw March 4 at Chicago. It was a freak incident when the penalty box door opened and Wesley was checked into it by Chicago center Steve Dubinsky. He also received a large facial laceration from the incident&hellip;Right winger Shane Willis, defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh and center Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour had hat tricks this season. The Hurricanes had just one hat trick the past two seasons. &#9632;

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Pellerin happy to go where needed

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Jim Benton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-06338/7727752-1-eng-US/f0014-062.jpg" title="f0014-06" width="657" height="1169"><figcaption class="caption-body">GOOD PLAN Rookie Ville Neiminen says he plants himself in front of the net and waits for his linemates. Peter Forsberg and Chris Drury, to pass him the puck &ldquo;once in a while.&rdquo;</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04634/7727759-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="212" height="239"></div>Ville Nieminen has found his place with the Colorado Avalanche.Nieminen, the rookie right winger who started the season with Hershey of the American League has been a pest to opposing goalies. He stations himself front of the goal and often crashes the net at times as the perfect complement for his linemates, center Peter Forsberg and Chris Drury.&ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t do that job I&rsquo;m not going to play with those guys,&rdquo; Nieminen said. &ldquo;They are going to criss-cross down and back and one guy has be in front of the net so they can run around and once in a while pass it to me. I&rsquo;m not a goalscorer. Most of my goals come from in front of the net.&rdquo;Nieminen had 11 goals in 35 games.ANALYSIS A schedule stretch of seven games in 13 days with games against Phoenix, Atlanta, St. Louis, Dallas (two), New Jersey and Detroit could determine if Colorado can win the President&rsquo;s Trophy The Avs started well with wins over Phoenix, Atlanta and St. Louis.DEFENSE Colorado is a team recognized for its offensive prowess, but after 66 games the Avalanche had allowed 151 goals which was the lowest total in the league. &ldquo;We understand the importance of playing well in our own zone which we did when we won the Cup (1996) and which we haven&rsquo;t done since,&rdquo; said goalie Patrick Roy NOTEBOOK The Arapahoe County district attorney&rsquo;s office will not appeal a judge&rsquo;s decision to throw out a criminal mischief charge against goalie Patrick Roy. The goalie was cited Oct. 22 with misdemeanor criminal mischief after damaging doors in his home following an argument with his wife Michele. On Jan.31, Judge Richard Jauch said criminal mischief law does not apply to people who damage their own property Further investigations revealed Michele Roy was in another part of the house when Patrick damaged two French doors. &#9632;

f0014-06

Nieminen likes role crowding other net

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Aaron Portzline</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-05427/7727790-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg" title="f0014-05" width="213" height="248"></div>The two worst injuries among Columbus players this season have both been suffered by center Espen Knutsen.First there was a nearly-severed little finger which forced Knutsen out of the lineup for the first nine games of the season.Then, on March 1 in Nashville, Knutsen took a fastflying puck directly in the mouth, fracturing the bone that holds in place the upper row of teeth. A bloody mess by the time he left the ice, Knut-sen had on-site surgery at Gaylord Entertainment Center.&ldquo;I knew it was bad when I hit the ice,&rdquo; Knutsen said.Wearing a full shield and a mouth splint, Knutsen was back in the lineup for the next game, five nights later.ANALYSIS The Blue Jackets have come to terms with not making the playoffs, but there is much to keep them hungry in the final month of the season. Columbus would like to finish ahead of the Minnesota Wild-its expansion cousins-as well as a handful of other NHL teams.As of March 8, the Blue Jackets were three points behind the Wild, but ahead of five other teams.&ldquo;This is our playoff season, as I see it,&rdquo; said captain Lyle Odelein.OFFENSE The Blue Jackets went 21 games, from Jan. 6 to Feb. 21, without scoring more than three goals in a game. But they broke out of the slump in a big way, scoring 5-2 victories in each of the next three games. The reason? &ldquo;Everybody got involved,&rdquo; said left winger Geoff Sanderson. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;ve got three lines working, you can really wear a team down.&rdquo;In the three games, nine different players had goals and 13 different players had assists.NOTEBOOK Left winger Geoff Sanderson scored two goals in his first game back after missing a game because of a broken ring finger on his left hand&hellip;Of the Blue Jackets final 16 games, 11 are against teams with losing records. With that in mind, Columbus was hoping to reach 70 points in its inaugural NHL season. &#9632;

f0014-05

Takes a licking, keeps on ticking

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Chuck Carlton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011642/7727821-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="242" height="241"></div>A paradoxical season continued for the Dallas Stars as March arrived.The Stars finished a road trip 1-2-0-1, but somehow managed to take over first place in the Pacific Division from the San Jose Sharks for the first time since Jan. 24.The inconsistency has been a hallmark all season and coach Ken Hitchcock called it &ldquo;alarming and concerning.&rdquo;His mandate is to find a way to keep the team playing at a high level and he pointed to the dressing room as a start.&ldquo;The challenge has to be within, no matter what,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what makes a championship team. If you have a strong challenge from within, you have a championship attitude. But if you&rsquo;re always complaining about scheduling, travel, this and that, then you don&rsquo;t carry a championship attitude.&rdquo;More than anything else, Hitchcock&rsquo;s theory would explain the lapses the Stars have struggled with this season.&ldquo;We show signs of turning the corner, we show signs of falling back,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not resigned to it, but I have accepted that that&rsquo;s what it is.&rdquo;ANALYSIS The hopes of another trip to the Stanley Cup final may depend on how strongly Joe Nieuwendyk can return from a strained groin.Nieuwendyk sustained the injury Feb. 28 in Vancouver and was expected to be sidelined up to six weeks, which would coincide with the start of the first round.Nieuwendyk, 34, had 24 goals and the team was 13-4-2 when he scored.DEFENSE The search for a strong checking line has led Hitchcock to his veterans. Hitchcock put 35-year-old Kirk Muller at center between Mike Keane, 33, and John MacLean, 36. Between them, they&rsquo;ve played 3,303 games.NOTEBOOK He is back on the first line, playing alongside center Mike Modano. But right winger Brett Hull remains frustrated at being moved from line to line. &ldquo;I want to be used like I&rsquo;m supposed to be used, not shuffled around like a first-year guy,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so (angry) I can&rsquo;t even score right now, because I am the ultimate emotional guy.&rdquo;&hellip;Goalie Ed Belfour beat Buffalo 4-1 March 4 to pass Gump Worsley for 12th place on the all-time win list at 335. &#9632;

f0015-01

Stars still lack ‘attitude’ but move into first place

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Nicholas J. Cotsonika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021158/7727852-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="225" height="254"></div>After playing some spectacular hockey during an 8-0-2 streak, Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; goaltender Chris Osgood allowed nine goals on 31 shots and was pulled twice in two starts.&ldquo;It just seems like the puck&rsquo;s not bouncing for him,&rdquo; said associate coach Barry Smith. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s how it goes. We&rsquo;ve had a pretty good string of it. Some nights you just run out of whatever you had going.&rdquo;Osgood endured the worst slump of his career early this season. He said he had lost confidence in himself. Asked if his latest stumbles resembled his earlier ones, he said: &ldquo;No. Not at all. Don&rsquo;t exaggerate things.&ldquo;Every time something happens, it gets exaggerated. We&rsquo;ve been playing so well lately and things have been going good for me, too. I mean, something was bound to happen sooner or later.&rdquo;ANALYSIS Coach Scotty Bowman reunited left winger Kirk Maltby, center Kris Draper with right winger Darren McCarty and the line was perhaps the team&rsquo;s best on a 13-game unbeaten streak, the NHL&rsquo;s longest this season. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a tough line to play against,&rdquo; McCarty said. &ldquo;We relish the opportunity to play against the other teams&rsquo; top lines.&rdquo; The line does more than defend-it scored seven goals during the streak.OFFENSE Captain Steve Yzerman scored three goals in two games, giving him 44 points in 43 games. Not bad for a guy who sat out 25 games after knee surgery in the first half. Yzerman has been lessening the curve on his stick blade. &ldquo;When they&rsquo;re going in, I&rsquo;m happy with my stick,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;When they&rsquo;re not, I&rsquo;m changing things.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK Defenseman Chris Chelios fought twice with the left winger Luc Robitaille of Los Angeles, who hadn&rsquo;t drawn a fighting major since April 16, 1998. &ldquo;Oh, he&rsquo;s a warrior; he&rsquo;s a killer,&rdquo; said a smiling Chelios, who&rsquo;s usually friendly with Robitaille. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let Luc flatter himself. I wouldn&rsquo;t call that fighting, what he did. Just because you get five minutes doesn&rsquo;t mean you fought.&rdquo;&hellip;The Wings planned to make a form-fitting mask, similar to those worn by basketball players, to protect Sergei Fedorov&rsquo;s broken nose. &#9632;

f0015-02

Osgood hits rough slide, but not panic button

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Rob Tychkowski</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03808/7727883-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="219" height="243"></div>Following a brush with blindness, Oilers&rsquo; defenseman Igor Ulanov wore a visor in his first game back from an eye injury. But he&rsquo;s getting rid of the shield as soon as doctors give him the green light.Ulanov missed 10 days with blurred vision and bleeding behind his left eye, after being clipped by Calgary defenseman Jason Wiemer&rsquo;s high stick Feb. 24. Ulanov also has been hit in the throat, upper lip and forehead by pucks this season, and says he has been cut for 47 stitches.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t that concerned about all the rest of the injuries I had this year,&rdquo; Ulanov said. &ldquo;Not like the eye.&rdquo;Nevertheless, the big Russian simply doesn&rsquo;t think it would be right to play his rugged style while wearing a visor. He wore one when he broke into the NHL with Winnipeg, but removed it later.The Oilers are the only team in the NHL that doesn&rsquo;t have a single player wearing a visor on a regular basis.ANALYSIS Edmonton&rsquo;s home record is one of the NHL&rsquo;s best (14 games over.500 at 21-7-6-1), but its road mark leaves a lot to be desired (11-17-3-1 when the Oilers began a four-game trip in Buffalo March 9). They urgently need to improve their play in opposition rinks. Nine of the Oilers&rsquo; final 15 games are on the road.OFFENSE Sergei Zholtok&rsquo;s season has turned on a dime. Just a few weeks ago he was mired in the longest goal-scoring slump of his career-an 81-day drought that had the Oilers wondering if they&rsquo;d been robbed in his trade for Chad Kilger. But Zholtok chalked up eight points in nine games and, instead of being a press box regular, he&rsquo;s now on the first line with Doug Weight and Dan Cleary.NOTEBOOK Calgary Hitmen right winger Sean McAslan signed a three-year deal with the Oilers as a free agent. He has 19 goals and 46 points with the Western Hockey League junior club this season&hellip;Edmonton&rsquo;s 4-0 win over Toronto March 7 marked the first time, after eight straight losses, the Oilers had beaten their former goalie Curtis Joseph. Earlier in the same homestand, they exorcised another demon, beating Dallas for the first time in 11 regular season games. &#9632;

f0015-03

Ulanov will discard visor in spite of serious injury

<div class="byline">&#x2013;David J. Neal</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04592/7727914-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="216" height="250"></div>About the only thing right winger Paul Laus has gotten out of this season is quality time with his wife and kids and a three-year contract extension. Otherwise, it has been a lost season since his November hernia that required December surgery.As March began, Laus began skating with an eye to returning to the Florida Panthers&rsquo; lineup for the last three or four games of the season.&ldquo;When I first started rehab, I started feeling better every day,&rdquo; said Laus. &ldquo;The first time out, wind-wise, I thought I would feel a little worse than I did.&rdquo; There&rsquo;s little doubt the Panthers have missed Laus&rsquo; leadership off the ice, physical presence on the ice and savage, ripping humor in the dressing room. His last game was Nov. 13.Laus and center Rob Niedermayer are the last remaining original Panthers.ANALYSIS Florida was winless in seven games after losing center Rob Niedermayer to his third career concussion.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s obvious he&rsquo;s a very important part of the club,&rdquo; said coach Duane Sutter. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying he&rsquo;s making the difference between whining and losing every night, but, my God, we certainly miss him. He has been our most physical forward two years in a row.&rdquo;OFFENSE The Panthers went on a run of six consecutive games with a power play goal. That bumped Florida&rsquo;s overall efficiency to 14.6 per cent (22nd in the NHL) this season.The Panthers were eight-for-38 (21 per cent) in those eight games. They needed that run to attain some kind of special teams equity because they were simultaneously allowing a power play goal in seven of eight games.A shorthanded unit working at 84.1 per-cent efficiency (16th in the NHL) allowed nine goals in 45 chances (20 per cent) over the eight games.NOTEBOOK Right winger Pavel Bure&rsquo;s ice time against San Jose March 7 was clocked at an NHL season-high 40:12. It was the sixth game in a row Bure was over 30 minutes&hellip;After getting only one goal and nine points in his first 41 games, most of them played with a bruised kidney, right winger Len Barrie racked up three goals and six points in five games. &#9632;

f0015-04

Laus eager to return in season’s final week

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Matt McHale</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011585/7727945-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="216" height="244"></div>Felix Potvin knows a little bit about revivals.His career was in shambles when the Los Angeles Kings acquired him from Vancouver Feb. 15. Potvin, who once led Toronto to back-to-back appearances in the Western Conference final, was headed to the minor leagues in hopes of getting back his game. The only thing that looked worse was his new team, which traded captain Rob Blake a week later.But the Kings were winners in seven of nine games after the trade-all with Potvin in net. And he was approaching career victory 200. After a season of goaltender turmoil, Potvin, 29, and the Kings appear to be a match.&ldquo;This is the most fun I&rsquo;ve had this year,&rdquo; said Potvin, a restricted free agent this summer earning $2.7 million. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really think I played that badly up there. Just two or three weeks. But it is great to be a part of this. We are playing hard.&rdquo;In his first nine games, Potvin was 6-2-1, with a 2.20 goals-against average and.901 save percentage.ANALYSIS The Kings seemed out of the race for the final playoff spot when white-hot Edmonton shut them out 5-0 in late February But the team has refocused and was playing its best hockey of the season. Tough scheduling, however, could cramp the comeback. Beginning in mid-March, the Kings face division power San Jose three times in nine days.DEFENSE This is the area where the team has played best since the Blake trade. The Kings had the league&rsquo;s worst penalty killing record prior to the dealing their Norris Trophy defenseman. It killed off its first 13 and went 26-for-28 in five games after Blake left. Since the deal, it also has reduced shots allowed.NOTEBOOK After scoring just 12 goals as of March 1, right winger Glen Murray scored four in his next five games. During the same stretch, leading scorer Ziggy Palffy was benched for the final seven minutes of one game then was held without a shot in each of the next two&hellip;Rookie defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky scored in back-to-back games after going 29 games without a goal&hellip;Goalie Stephane Fiset, who has missed all but seven games, was getting ready to return after a second rehab assignment for a torn MCL in his left knee. &#9632;

f0016-01

Potvin helps Kings after loss of Blake

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Tom Jones</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021226/7727976-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="231" height="232"></div>When it became apparent the Minnesota Wild was going to trade Sean O&rsquo;Donnell, GM Doug Risebrough said he would do what he could to grant O&rsquo;Donnell&rsquo;s request of going to a Cup contender.Risebrough did that by sending the defenseman to the defending champion New Jersey Devils. But he didn&rsquo;t do it entirely for O&rsquo;Donnell&rsquo;s sake. He did it to acquire a player he feels can be a top four defenseman in 23-year-old Willie Mitchell.&ldquo;I wanted to get a player in this deal and (Mitchell) is a guy who has good size and good speed and has a lot of upside,&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;I had a lot of offers for Sean with people offering draft picks. I wanted Willie Mitchell.&rdquo;Mitchell spent most of the season with the Devils&rsquo; American League affiliate in Albany, where the 6-foot-3,205-pounder had three goals, 16 points and 92 penalty minutes.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m known for any one thing in particular, but I think I can do everything,&rdquo; Mitchell said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s exciting to go to a new team where I might play a little more.&rdquo;ANALYSIS After the trades of O&rsquo;Donnell and Scott Pellerin, both slated to be unrestricted free agents July 1, there was scuttlebutt the Wild could resign the two in the summer. Pellerin and O&rsquo;Donnell both have said they will listen to any offers and both had good things to say about the Wild. However, either re-signing with the Wild seems like the longest of long shots.OFFENSE When the Wild traded Pellerin to Carolina, it lost its leading scorer. But over the past month, rookie Marian Gaborik has started to establish himself as the Wild&rsquo;s go-to guy. He had goals in two of the three games following the trade.NOTEBOOK For the third time this season, left winger Matt Johnson missed time due to concussion-like symptoms. What&rsquo;s worrisome is all injuries came in separate incidents&hellip;As of March 5, the Wild ranked first in the NHL in percentage of points coming from rookies. Gaborik and defensemen Filip Kuba and Ladislav Benysek had combined to produce 18.6 of the Wild&rsquo;s points&hellip;The Wild hopes defenseman Sean O&rsquo;Donnell resigns with the Devils. If he does, the Wild will receive a second round draft pick from New Jersey. &#9632;

f0016-02

Mitchell Wild about new opportunity

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03919/7728007-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="219" height="232"></div>It&rsquo;s too late to have an impact on this season, but the Montreal Canadiens were looking forward to the return of injured wingers Benoit Brunet and Brian Savage.Both Brunet, who missed 36 games with a torn ligament in his left knee, and Savage, who missed 20 with a broken right thumb, were expected to return March 10 at Phoenix.Brunet was awaiting his first start with mixed emotions. He was delighted to be playing again, but knows the Canadiens will miss the playoffs for the third straight season.&ldquo;You go through all that rehab, all that time without playing, and being so far behind when you come back makes it very tough for me,&rdquo; Brunet said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like last year, when we had that great second half and went to the final weekend of the season before falling out of the race.&rdquo;Despite the time he missed, Savage still led the Canadiens in goals with 19.ANALYSIS During what will surely be a long, hot summer for the Canadiens, they need look no further than their sluggish starts in most games as one of the reasons why they missed the playoffs. Opponents scored first in 45 of Montreal&rsquo;s 68 games. The Canadiens&rsquo; record in those games was 6-372. Two of those losses came in overtime. On the other hand, in the 23 games in which the Canadiens scored first, they were 17-3-3, with two of those losses in overtime.OFFENSE They are the Canadiens&rsquo; two premier centers, but Saku Koivu and Trevor Linden were a contrast in emotions as the team reached the halfway point of a five-game road trip. Koivu had recorded points in six straight games, scoring four goals and five assists, giving him 12 goals and 32 points in 40 games. Linden, on the other hand, was mired in his worst slump this season, having gone nine straight games without a point.NOTEBOOK Right winger Oleg Petrov has started discussions on a new contract with assistant GM Martin Madden. There have been suggestions Petrov, the Canadiens&rsquo; points leader with 35 in 68 games, would return to the Swiss League next season. The Canadiens want to retain his services and Petrov wants to stay if the numbers add up. Petrov is earning $575,000 (U.S.). &#9632;

f0016-03

Brunet, Savage back from sick bay

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Jeff Leg wold</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-06420/7728038-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="468" height="1030"><figcaption class="caption-body">NEW LIFE Randy Robitaille has rebounded offensively since being recalled by Nashville.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04691/7728045-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="239" height="231"></div>When Nashville sent center Randy Robitaille to the minors earlier this season, it was because the team had decided on another direction, for Robitaille and for the organization.The Predators decided that Robitaille hadn&rsquo;t shown the scoring touch they were looking for, so some of the organization&rsquo;s younger players would get a chance.Then Robitaille made them change their minds. The 25-year-old racked up 33 points in all of 19 games with Milwaukee of the International League. The offensively starved Predators recalled him Feb. 28 and he responded immediately, scoring or setting up six of Nashville&rsquo;s seven goals in his first two games back. Overall, he had eight goals and 21 points in 49 NHL games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing some things with the opportunity,&rdquo; said coach Barry Trotz, &ldquo;but we want to see it continue.&rdquo;With the team fading in the Western Conference playoff race, Robitaille and others are playing for a spot on next year&rsquo;s roster.ANALYSIS Trotz put Robitaille between Vitali Yachmenev and Scott Walker, displacing David Legwand, who had skated with those wingers for much of the season. He was moved to a line with Cliff Ronning and Patrick Kjellberg, meaning the search is still on to find some consistency in Legwand&rsquo;s game.At times he flashes tremendous speed and focus; at other times his play is spottyDEFENSE GM David Poile continues to search for blueline help. His latest move was to send minor-leaguer Ryan Tobler to the Rangers for Bert Robertsson. Robertsson, a native of Sweden, is a 6-foot-3, 210-pound defenseman who had been in the minors. Robertsson was sent to Milwaukee, but could find himself in Nashville if he plays well.NOTEBOOK The line of rookie forwards Denis Arkhipov, Marian Cisar and Scott Hartnell hit the offensive wall, so Hartnell was moved to the team&rsquo;s checking line, while Arkhipov&rsquo;s and Cisar&rsquo;s ice time was decreased. &#9632;

f0016-06

Minor pro explosion rates NHL recall

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05499/7728076-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="217" height="245"></div>It was almost as if defenseman Sean O&rsquo;Donnell had been groomed to join the New Jersey Devils for their defense of the Stanley Cup.O&rsquo;Donnell, who was acquired from the Minnesota Wild nine days before the trade deadline, played four seasons for coach Larry Robinson in Los Angeles before spending 63 games this season with Jacques Lemaire learning a system that was almost identical to that played by the Devils.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same system,&rdquo; said GM Lou LamorieUo. &ldquo;He knows what we play here and he&rsquo;ll fit right in. He played for Larry in L.A., so there&rsquo;s a relationship there.&rdquo;To get O&rsquo;Donnell, 29, the Devils gave up defense prospect Willie Mitchell. Since O&rsquo;Donnell can become an unrestricted free agent after this season because this is his 10th year as a pro under the average salary, he is essentially a rental for the stretch drive and playoffs.ANALYSIS One reason the Devils picked up veteran center Bob Corkum from the Kings is his ability to Win faceoffs. Robinson hadn&rsquo;t been happy with his centers&rsquo; success rate in recent weeks. Corkum made an immediate impact, winning some key faceoffs and pushing his teammates to match his success rate.OFFENSE They&rsquo;ve played just 40 games together all season because of Jason Arnott&rsquo;s early-season holdout and various injuries to both Arnott and right winger Petr Sykora. But, when Arnott and Sykora came off the injured reserve list to reunite with left winger Patrik Elias, the trio combined for 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in four gamesNOTEBOOK GM Lou Lamoriello was considering signing right winger Brian Gionta after he completes his final year at Boston College, but the Devils would not want their fourth pick (82d overall) from 1998 to play more than nine games at Albany (AHL). A 10th game would constitute a full pro season&hellip;Left winger Randy McKay became the fifth Devils player to scored a goal in his first game after coming off injured reserve. &#9632;

f0016-05

O’Donnell trained to become Devil

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Peter Botte</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011418/7728107-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="225" height="246"></div>Even New York Islanders&rsquo; GM Mike Milbury admitted the obvious when he fired coach Butch Goring in early March.&ldquo;It would have been easier to fire the manager,&rdquo; Milbury said.Still, shortly after Milbury was granted his latest stay of execution by owner Charles Wang, it was Goring who paid for the Islanders&rsquo; seventh straight season without a playoff appearance.The final straw for Milbury, who has survived in the GM chair since December, 1995, came when the Isles fell back into the NHL cellar March 3 with a humiliating 6-0 home loss to Tampa Bay&ldquo;People talk about the players quitting on the coach, but that&rsquo;s not fair to Butch,&rdquo; Milbury said.&ldquo;The level of frustration and the inability to come together as a group made it imperative to make a change.&rdquo;Associate coach Lome Henning was named interim coach, but Milbury already has assembled a short list of potential replacements for next season.The list is headed by former Buffalo coach Ted Nolan and former New Jersey coach Robbie Ftorek.ANALYSIS Goring, who was offered a job in the organization, criticized his former players after his dismissal, saying, &ldquo;I mean this sincerely, for them to say they quit on me means they started (playing first). And I don&rsquo;t think they ever started.&rdquo;He also believed his &ldquo;credibility with the players&rdquo; was undermined when Milbury threatened his job security during a team meeting in December and when Wang refused to give him a vote of confidence in February.OFFENSE Right winger Mariusz Czerkawski, a pending restricted free agent eligible for salary arbitration this summer, had a decent chance for his second straight 30-goal season. A recent hot streak in which Czerkawski scored six goals in eight games gave him 25 with 15 contests remaining; he potted 35 a year ago.NOTEBOOK Former Buffalo coach Ted Nolan, out of the NHL since winning the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 1997, confirmed his interest in the Islanders&rsquo; job&hellip;Left winger Brad Isbister likely will miss the remainder of the season with a sprained knee. &#9632;

f0017-01

Goring pays price for Isles’ poor play

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Rick Carpiniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021094/7728138-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="219" height="243"></div>The New York Rangers had their sights set on Phoenix goalie Nikolai Khabibulin as the immediate and long-term answer for Mike Richter&rsquo;s season-ending knee surgery. But when Khabibulin went to Tampa Bay, the Rangers grabbed veteran Guy Hebert on waivers from Anaheim.&ldquo;It was a situation where we get a relatively inexpensive look at a player who has been a pretty good goaltender in this league in the past,&rdquo; said assistant GM Don Maloney.Clearly, the Rangers&rsquo; coaching staff has little faith in backup Kirk McLean, and their top goaltending prospects-Vitali Yeremeyev, Johan Holm-qvist and Jason LaBarbera-are not yet NHL-ready. Yeremeyev allowed a total of 15 goals in losses to Boston, Pittsburgh and the Islanders and was reassigned to Hartford of the American League.The Rangers and Anaheim may have agreed to split a two-thirds&rsquo; salary buyout on Hebert&rsquo;s contract, if he doesn&rsquo;t work out this season. Or maybe the Rangers feel they either will be able to deal him or have him claimed on waivers. He is scheduled to earn $3.8 million next year.ANALYSIS The Rangers swapped winger Eric Lacroix to Ottawa for younger, bigger Colin Forbes, then managed to steal top defense prospect Peter Smrek from St. Louis for 36-year-old Alexei Gusarov.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re in the mode of trying to acquire the best assets possible,&rdquo; Maloney said.DEFENSE The Rangers were last in the NHL in both defense and penalty-killing. However, coach Ron Low is thrilled with the progress of 20-year-old defenseman Tomas Kloucek, and happy with sophomore blueliner Kim Johnsson and rugged, rookie rearguard Dale Purinton.In addition, three of the team&rsquo;s top five prospects-Filip Novak, Mike Mottau and the newly acquired Smrek-are defensemen.NOTEBOOK Captain Mark Messier, just three points shy of center Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s total (1,771) for third place on the all-time NHL scoring list, said he plans to play next season, when he turns 41, and perhaps the following year as well. Likewise, life-long Ranger defenseman Brian Leetch said he will not ask to be dealt, or to have his no-trade clause waived, even if the veteran nucleus of the team is gutted. &#9632;

f0017-02

Hebert gets shot at Richter’s job

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Bruce Garrioch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03781/7728169-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="231" height="248"></div>Alexei Yashin had his heart questioned-so he answered by emerging as a Hart candidate.Following a one-year hiatus due to a contract dispute, the Ottawa center has been the club&rsquo;s best player down the stretch. As the Senators battled New Jersey and Philadelphia for first place in the Eastern Conference, Yashin was on fire with 39 points in his last 27 games.&ldquo;He has been one of the most dominant players in the league the last two months,&rdquo; said captain Daniel Alfredsson, who skates with Yashin and left winger Shawn McEachern on one of the NHL&rsquo;s most potent lines. (See pg. 10 for more.)&ldquo;When you have a player like that playing that way, it makes the rest of the team better. He has worked hard all year because there were tough circumstances for him to come back to, but that&rsquo;s all behind him. He has been outstanding.&rdquo;Yashin promised at the start of the season he would put aside his desire for a hefty raise (from the $3.6 million he&rsquo;s making this year) and focus on the club&rsquo;s success. And that&rsquo;s exactly what he has done.Individual success, though, Yashin takes in stride. &ldquo;What is playing well?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know&hellip;There are games where you play well and don&rsquo;t get any points or games where you play well and get points.&rdquo;ANALYSIS Approaching the playoffs, coach Jacques Martin isn&rsquo;t going to do much tinkering with his lineup. He wants production from all four lines, including the fourth. Enter center Todd White. Since his arrival from Grand Rapids of the International League, he has been a sparkplug. White adds an offensive dimension the club didn&rsquo;t have with John Emmons as the fourth line center.DEFENSE Upon the scheduled March 10 return of defenseman Sami Salo, who missed three months due to shoulder surgery, the Sens will have eight healthy blueliners for the first time this year. It&rsquo;s expected Shane Hnidy and Jamie Rivers will be the Nos. 7 and 8 defensemen, respectively, while Ricard Persson could be shuffled in and out.NOTEBOOK Rookie Martin Havlat spent an afternoon with Bobby Orr when the Sens were in Boston March 8. Orr gave the 19-year-old left winger a signed photo of his Stanley Cup-winning goal in 1970. &ldquo;It was great,&rdquo; said Havlat, a Czech Republic native. &ldquo;I never saw him play, but I knew who he was.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-03

‘Dominant’ Yashin gives MVP effort

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011463/7728200-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="224" height="240"></div>Keith Primeau says coach Bill Barber reminds him of his dad. That might help explain why the big center has posted 25 goals in 37 games under Barber after scoring just seven in his first 26 games this year.Primeau registered his first career hat trick in a 5-2 win over Calgary March 8. In the process, Primeau set a single-season career high for goals (32). He had 31 with Detroit in 1993-94.Since Barber took over as coach Dec. 10, Primeau has been much more aggressive. Barber has pointed Primeau toward the net and many of his goals have come off drives or low slot work.&ldquo;Bill has been great for my game,&rdquo; Primeau said. &ldquo;As silly as it may sound, he reminds me a lot of my father (Mike), the way my dad coached growing up&hellip;the old style of hockey, getting in the corners, making contact. That&rsquo;s really the way he has transformed our club.&rdquo;Barber said: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of our better players to get to the net. You look at his size and the way he can skate. He&rsquo;s really a force when he goes to the net hard.&rdquo;ANALYSIS With the Flyers besieged by injuries, the contributions of their call-ups from the AHL Philadelphia Phantoms proved important. Michel Picard, Kirby Law, Derek Plante, Steve Washburn and Mark Greig took turns filling in as Rick Tocchet (groin), Justin Williams (hand), Simon Gagne (shoulder) and Daymond Langkow (foot) were sidelined. Picard chipped in with two assists in the Flyers&rsquo; win over Calgary. Barber said, &ldquo;We need players who can contribute, not just bodies.&rdquo;DEFENSE Barber has been platooning Andy Dehnore and Michal Sykora in and out of the lineup since early February Dehnore (three goals, 13 points in 59 games) has been unable to find the scoring touch that netted him five goals in one playoff series against Pittsburgh last year. Chris McAllister, meanwhile, has moved up the ladder from No. 7 to a pairing with Eric Desjardins.NOTEBOOK Left winger John LeClair, sidelined since Jan. 20 with a staph infection in his back, was cleared to practise March 6. But his return to the ice was delayed until March 9 after he developed a rash, a reaction to medication he had been taking intravenously Doctors have not set a timetable for his return&hellip;Center Daymond Langkow&rsquo;s ironman streak of consecutive games ended at 227 (tied for fifth-longest active in the NHL), when he sat out the March 8 Calgary game with a fractured bone in his left foot. Langkow suffered the injury in a Feb. 25 game against the Rangers. &#9632;

f0018-01

Old-style look from Barber has Primeau looking fantastic

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021106/7728231-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="216" height="265"></div>The Phoenix Coyotes were missing that special something to get them over the hump come playoff time.The addition of Claude Lemieux, one of the NHL&rsquo;s best clutch performers in the post-season, was expected to solye that dilemma. But Lemieux might not get the chance this season after suffering a serious injury to his right ankle upon falling awkwardly in a collision with Colorado&rsquo;s Ray Bourque March 4 at Phoenix.&ldquo;I tore some ligaments on both sides of my ankle and the normal recovery period for a high ankle sprain is six to weight weeks for one side,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;I injured both sides.&rdquo;Lemieux, who had 10 goals and 22 points in 39 games for the Coyotes, isn&rsquo;t giving up hope of somehow returning in time for the playoffs, where he ranks eighth all-time with 80 goals and 16th with 157 points.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to work hard to rehab and give myself the best chance to come back and be there when the team&rsquo;s going to need me,&rdquo; said the 35-year-old right winger.Phoenix altered its trade with Tampa Bay a day later and added right winger Mike Johnson in addition to defenseman Paul Mara and a second round pick for goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and defenseman Stan Neckar.ANALYSIS The trade of Khabibulin presents an interesting quandary for Phoenix: Who will the club groom to be the new No. 1 goalie in anticipation of Sean Burke departing in two to three years? The top three candidates are current backup Robert Esche, 1998 first round pick Patrick DesRochers, and Josh Blackburn, a junior at the University of Michigan. The 6-foot-4 DesRochers might be the favorite, but his development was severely hampered this season and Phoenix might swing a deal for another young goalie or spend another high pick for a prospect in the draft.DEFENSE GM Cliff Fletcher loves the addition of the 6-foot-4 Mara to the Coyotes&rsquo; blueline, though the 21-year-old is a work in progress. Nevertheless, coach Bob Francis wasted no time in getting Mara some quality minutes and using him on the power play. If he keeps getting good shots from the point, Francis may stop his experiment of using four forwards in certain manadvantage situations.NOTEBOOK Part-owner Wayne Gretzky practised with the Coyotes March 7, marking his first return to the ice since he retired two years ago. &ldquo;It was a blast,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;It was nice to get back out there and have a little fun. I&rsquo;ll do it again and whenever I get the chance.&rdquo; Gretzky has a permanent stall in the locker room. &#9632;

f0018-02

Ankle injury to scrappy Lemieux causes concern with playoffs near

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Joe Starkey</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03786/7728262-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="214" height="249"></div>If the Pittsburgh Penguins, faced with signing as many as 21 free agents, choose to trade Jaromir Jagr this summer, he&rsquo;d understand.&ldquo;There are going to be a lot of (Penguin) free agents and it&rsquo;s going to be tough,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;I respect all the decisions the team is going to make. Whatever is best for them to do, that&rsquo;s what they should do. If they decide to trade me to be able to sign other guys, that&rsquo;s fine with me. I&rsquo;m never going to be mad at the Penguins. I like it here. But on the other side, nobody should be upset if the Penguins decided to do something with me.&rdquo;Jagr&rsquo;s contract expires in the summer of 2003. He is slated to make $10 million next season, $10.7 million the season after that. Among the Penguins whose contracts are up this summer is the entire second line of Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka and Robert Lang. Team owner Mario Lemieux said he wants to keep Jagr-if Jagr wants to stay. Through 67 games, Jagr was leading the NHL in scoring with 95 points.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s smiling a little bit and that&rsquo;s a good sign,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;Every time he&rsquo;s on the ice and he scores a goal and you see that smile, you know he&rsquo;s feeling good and he&rsquo;s feeling good about his game.&rdquo;ANALYSIS The Penguins are concerned about their defensive play. Through 67 games, they had surrendered 210 goals (3.1 per game), fifth-worst in the NHL and significantly more than any team considered a legitimate Stanley Cup threat. Injuries to the defense corps didn&rsquo;t help, but the forwards weren&rsquo;t doing their share, either. &ldquo;It starts with the top two lines,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;If we do it, the others will follow.&rdquo;DEFENSE Special teams were experiencing difficult moments. The penalty-killing unit went through a seven-game stretch during which it allowed 11 goals-including four games in a row when it allowed two goals. Also, after giving up one shorthanded goal in the first 51 games, the Penguins gave up seven in the next 15 games.NOTEBOOK Center Mario Lemieux was planning to sit out the second of back-to-back games down the stretch, but his back began to feel better and he planned to play the final 15 games&hellip;Left winger Kevin Stevens could relate to Theo Fleury&rsquo;s substance abuse problem. Stevens has had similar problems. &ldquo;I feel for him,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;When I read it, I was trying not to believe it. It was one of those situations where you don&rsquo;t want to believe. You feel for him and his family. I&rsquo;m friends with him and I&rsquo;ll be there for him.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-03

Penguins face tricky game of 21; Jagr understands he may be dealt

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011351/7728293-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="220" height="248"></div>Suffering through a spell as arid as the Sahara, the St. Louis Blues will gladly take the oasis that has been Scott Young&rsquo;s career year.The normally consistent Blues were winless in five (0-2-1-2) and had won just two of 11, but it was through no fault of Young&rsquo;s. The 33-year-old right winger had set a new personal best with 36 goals to go with 26 assists for 62 points in 66 games. Young&rsquo;s previous career high was 30 goals, established with Quebec in 199293. He was also two points off his career high of 64 points, recorded with Hartford in 1989-90.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s on fire,&rdquo; said Young&rsquo;s center, Pierre Turgeon. &ldquo;He has been shooting the puck with a lot of confidence.&rdquo;Young&rsquo;s play hasn&rsquo;t gone unnoticed by the organization or local media. He has been serving as an alternate captain during the injury absences of Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger, while the St. Louis chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association selected him as the Blues&rsquo; nomination for the Masterton Trophy for dedication, perseverance and sportsmanship.&ldquo;He has all of those things,&rdquo; Turgeon said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big leader on our team.&rdquo;ANALYSIS The Blues were losing the war of attrition. Able to sustain a high level of play despite mounting injuries through mid-February, the club hit the wall in early March.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a little flat, beaten and demoralized,&rdquo; said coach Joel Quenneville after the Blues&rsquo; 5-2 loss to Colorado March 8. &ldquo;Our confidence is as (low) as it has been since I&rsquo;ve been around here (1996-97).&rdquo;Five key players were on the sidelines. Pronger (broken arm), MacInnis (eye injury), Michal Handzus (abdominal surgery), Pavol Demitra (leg laceration) and Tyson Nash (torn knee ligament) have all been dealing with long-term injuries.DEFENSE The Blues made a minor deal in the days leading up to the trading deadline when they landed 26-year-old journeyman defenseman Alexei Gusarov from the Rangers for 20-year-old blueliner Peter Smrek. Gusarov chipped in with two assists against the Avalanche March 8.NOTEBOOK After seeing a specialist on March 7 for a second opinion, defenseman Al MacInnis practised with the team March 8 for the first time since suffering his eye injury. The lens in MacInnis&rsquo; left eye was dislodged because ligaments that hold it in place were broken when he was hit with a high stick Jan. 27. Because of this, MacInnis&rsquo; vision remains blurry. If specially designed contact lenses don&rsquo;t correct the problem, MacInnis might need surgery. &#9632;

f0019-01

Sniper Young continues to light it up during dark period for hurtin’ Blues

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Ross McKeon</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021004/7728324-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="218" height="256"></div>While trading left winger Jeff Friesen wasn&rsquo;t easy for management, the key to acquiring superstar sniper Teemu Selanne from Anaheim was the Sharks&rsquo; depth in goal.San Jose had no problem parting with Steve Shields and turning the netminding chores over to the inexperienced duo of Evgeni Nabokov and Miikka Kiprusoff, both rookies. (See pg. 9 for more on the Selanne trade.)The move shows just how far the franchise has come in terms of developing players at the game&rsquo;s most important position. When Dean Lombardi took over as GM solely in March of 1996, the cup-board of goalie prospects in the organization was bare.Nabokov was selected in the ninth round of the 1994 draft, but the Sharks didn&rsquo;t know if the native of Kazakhstan would leave Europe. So with former NHL goalie Wayne Thomas in the front office bird-dogging the situation, San Jose made stocking the system a top priority.Finns Vesa Toskala and Kiprusoff were selected in the fourth and fifth rounds, respectively, during Lombardi&rsquo;s first draft in 1995. Terry Friesen (no relations to Jeff) and Michel Larocque were chosen in the third and sixth rounds a year later.In the summer of 1998, Shields came aboard via trade with Buffalo and San Jose further stocked up by dealing a draft pick to Philadelphia to get Swedish goalie Johan Hedberg.As it turns out, the Sharks did well with each selection. Four of them represented their teams in all-star games this season: Nabokov with the Sharks, Kiprusoff with Kentucky of the AHL, Friesen with Fresno of the West Coast League and Hedberg with Manitoba of the IHL. Larocque was traded to Chicago in August, 1999, and made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks before the all-star break.&ldquo;We figure Kiprusoff is ready for the NHL,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;From all indication it&rsquo;s not only us. I&rsquo;ve had numerous calls on that player.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK No sooner had right winger Teemu Selanne been acquired than it was revealed he required arthroscopic knee surgery. Defenseman Gary Suter underwent an arthroscopic procedure March 3 to clean out loose knee cartilage; Selanne had the same procedure on his left knee two nights later. Both will be out of the lineup until late March&hellip;Left winger Scott Thornton recorded the first hat trick of his career March 7, scoring all three San Jose goals in his 552nd NHL game&hellip;Left winger Bill Lindsay, acquired from Calgary, made his Sharks&rsquo; debut March 7 in Florida. &#9632;

f0019-02

Stockpile of goaltenders allows Sharks to move Shields in trade for Selanne

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Damian Cristodero</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011124/7728355-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="218" height="247"></div>The Lightning acquired the negotiating rights to Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin thanks to an extended negotiating period that occurred in a car.Lightning GM Rick Dudley and Cliff Fletcher, GM of the Coyotes, hammered out the deal while driving from Phoenix to Palm Springs, Calif, for the general managers&rsquo; meetings.Tampa Bay acquired Khabibulin and defenseman Stan Neckar for defenseman Paul Mara, right winger Mike Johnson, the rights to right winger Ruslan Zainullin, a prospect from Russia, and a second-round pick in the June draft.&ldquo;This is a big step for us,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;The Tampa Bay Lightning rode Daren Puppa to its most successful season (199596). That was because he was a brilliant goaltender. You just can&rsquo;t get there without it.&rdquo;Dudley said he has no plans to trade Kevin Weekes, who has held the No. 1 job since early December.But the plan clearly is for Khabibulin, 28, who has not played in the NHL in almost two seasons because of a contract dispute, to take over the top spot.&ldquo;Nik&rsquo;s a goaltender who has done it, and that&rsquo;s the difference,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;Nik has been an elite goaltender. He was considered one of the top five or 10 in the league and that was important.&rdquo; (See pg. 3 for more on Khabibulin.)That means Weekes, who posted his third shutout in four games March 8 when the Lightning blanked Carolina 1-0, will have to accept a diminished role.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s hope he looks at it like we look at it, that it&rsquo;s the best thing for this hockey team,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;We think we have as good a tandem as there is in the NHL. If we do, then our fortunes will change dramatically.&rdquo;Khabibulin, who had been demanding a three-year, $12-million deal from the Coyotes, is 126-113-30 with a 2.75 goals-against average, 21 shutouts and.908 save percentage for his NHL career.In 1998-99, his last season with the Coyotes, he was 32-23-7 with a 2.13 GAA, eight shutouts and a.923 save percentage.NOTEBOOK Lightning assistant GM Jay Feaster, Tampa Bay&rsquo;s chief negotiator, said he sees goaltender Nikolai Khab-ibulin&rsquo;s first contract with the Lightning as &ldquo;a deal that creates incentives. And if Nik returns to form and performs as a top five or top 10 goaltender in this league, there are going to be rewards for that.&rdquo;&hellip;Khabibulin&rsquo;s agent, Jay Gross-man, was adamant that the Coyotes pay his client in full for this season. It is believed he will not press that point with the Lightning. &#9632;

f0022-01

Dudley says T-Bay needs top goaltender to replicate Lightning’s best season ever

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Paul Hunter</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02805/7728386-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="217" height="253"></div>If the Maple Leafs handed out an award for the most improved player during the season, defenseman Bryan McCabe would be a leading candidate.The 25-year-old blueliner, acquired from Chicago in a trade for defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev on the eve of this season, has shown increased poise offensively in recent weeks while becoming more reliable in his own end.McCabe believes part of the reason for his upgraded play is that the stakes are higher at this time of year. It&rsquo;s the first time in his six NHL seasons, that he has played crucial games down the stretch. McCabe has never played on a team that made the playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to play when you&rsquo;re not playing for anything,&rdquo; said McCabe of his previous stints with the Islanders, Vancouver and Chicago. &ldquo;Over the years I&rsquo;ve been on some pretty below-average clubs and we haven&rsquo;t been battling fora playoff spot down the stretch.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty hard to improve your game when you&rsquo;ve got no goal to strive for.&rdquo;ANALYSIS Tomas Kaberle hit the career 100-point mark with an assist against Calgary March 6 in what was his 207th NHL game. While that may not sound very impressive for a skilled offensive defenseman, Kaberle is easily the most productive NHL defender in his third full NHL season.When Kaberle hit 100, Chicago&rsquo;s Jaroslav Spacek was No. 2 on the list with 72 points in 191 games.OFFENSE Veteran right winger Steve Thomas believes in big finishes.Last season he scored 20 goals and had 12 assists over his last 35 games as he surged into the playoffs. Again this year he is showing signs his game is heating up following a disappointing start.The 37-year-old veteran of play with four NHL teams-Chicago, the Islanders, New Jersey and Toronto-had four goals, and several near-misses, along with an assist in a recent seven-game stretch. It&rsquo;s an impressive turnaround when you consider he scored only three goals in the Maple Leafs&rsquo; first 61 games. He did miss 25 games because of injuries.NOTEBOOK Defenseman Danny Markov skated with his teammates for the first time since March 7 as he recuperates from a back injury suffered Jan. 31. It is suspected Markov has a herniated disk in his back, but the Leafs have remained secretive. Markov said he will be back before the playoffs. There was speculation Toronto would include him in a trade to acquire center Eric Lindros from Philadelphia, but the Flyers were demanding the more productive rear-guard Tomas Kaberle instead. &#9632;

f0022-02

Six-year veteran McCabe showing poise with first NHL post-season on horizon

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011013/7728417-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="214" height="252"></div>In their surge to re-emerge as a playoff team, the Vancouver Canucks have been able to knock off the Colorado Avalanche twice, St. Louis Blues twice, Dallas Stars twice and San Jose Sharks twice. But don&rsquo;t ask about the Detroit Red Wings.The Canucks lost their first three games against Detroit this season (with one to come) and were winless against the Wings in 16 games and four calendar years.Vancouver&rsquo;s record dropped to 0-13-3-0 since last winning Feb. 6,1997, at Joe Louis Arena. The record in Vancouver is equally abysmal with the Canucks winless in nine (0-7-2-0) at GM Place.It&rsquo;s not like the Canucks haven&rsquo;t had their chances. In the first meeting this season, won 3-2 by Detroit on a last-minute Sergei Fedorov goal, the Wings did not have Steve Yzerman or Chris Chelios in their lineup. In the second meeting (4-2), the Wings had aircraft problems and didn&rsquo;t arrive in Vancouver until the afternoon of the game. Chelios was still out. In the most recent meeting (4-3), Fedorov was missing with a broken nose.ANALYSIS The Canucks&rsquo; youthful exuberance is creating problems in the offensive zone where the team is getting called for an inordinate number of penalties. Vancouver&rsquo;s penalty-killing is extremely poor (27th overall at 80.1 per cent) and the type of penalties being earned (goalie interference, hooking and tripping on the forecheck) was adding salt to the wounds.DEFENSE Bryan Allen, the Canucks&rsquo; first pick (fourth overall) in the 1998 entry draft, is showing promise in limited appearances. He averaged 9:20 minutes per game in his first six starts. Coach Marc Crawford admits they are &ldquo;protecting&rdquo; the 20-year-old by deploying him mostly against the opposition&rsquo;s third and fourth lines. Allen has not embarrassed himself and will likely return to Kansas City (IHL) when Jason Strudwick comes back from a sprained knee. However, the team has been able to give Allen a taste of the stretch drive and accompanying intensity.NOTEBOOK Left winger Markus Naslund established a new career high in points when he collected a goal and an assist against Detroit to reach the 68-point plateau. Naslund&rsquo;s previous high was 66, set two years ago. Naslund had already surpassed his high-water mark in goals (36, also set two years ago). The Canuck captain had 38 goals in 68 games&hellip;Rookie defenseman Brent Sopel surprised his teammates by marrying his girlfriend after practice one day. Only one player, center Harold Druken, attended the secret affair. Druken served as best man and witness. &#9632;

f0023-01

It’s Motor City badness for Canucks as winless skid against Wings hits 16

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02687/7728448-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="215" height="257"></div>Adam Oates is so good at what he does-make a tough game look very simple-that he sometimes pays a penalty Slumping players are sent to his line to see if he can ignite a spark. Regular partners do not appear regularly.Yet Oates is on a noteworthy course. The 38-year-old Washington center could become the oldest player in NHL history to lead the league in assists if he continues his current hot run. Wayne Gretzky was 37 when he shared the league lead with 67 in 1997-98.Through 67 games, Oates had 56 helpers, one behind league leader Jaromir Jagr of Pittsburgh.The Weston, Ont., native says there&rsquo;s no secret to his success, but feels the Caps&rsquo; winning ways has a ripple effect.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing with a lot of confidence right now and that helps open things up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Other than that, I&rsquo;m not doing anything different.&rdquo;The last time Oates led the NHL in assists was as a 30-year-old in 1992-93, when he had a career-best 97 with Boston. At this season&rsquo;s pace, he would finish with 69 in 82 games.ANALYSIS Post-season has taken on new meaning for the Caps, even though it&rsquo;s weeks away. Before March 3, Washington had lost eight of nine to Pittsburgh, including a 4-1 hammering in the first round last April. But when the teams played twice within a week in early March, the Caps won both by a single goal and the list of naysayers was trimmed by a sizable amount. If the teams meet in April, which could easily happen, Washington won&rsquo;t be saddled with a can&rsquo;t-beat-Pittsburgh stigma.DEFENSE The Capitals&rsquo; defense had enjoyed a remarkably healthy season until mid-February. Since that time, the blueline corps has suffered a new calamity almost nightly. Most are nagging, game-to-game type injuries, but they upset the balance and chemistry that took two-thirds of a season to build. It appears minor league depth will be put to the test during the stretch run.NOTEBOOK When the Caps won in Pittsburgh March 7, they went over.500 (16-15-4-0) on the road for the first time this season&hellip;In the space of a game and a half, right winger Jan Bulis went from the first to the fourth line to being benched&hellip;Out with a bruised hand in midMarch, backup goalie Craig Billington joined the coaching staff behind the bench for three games, all wins. Naturally, Billington took the credit&hellip;Right winger Brantt Myhres was recalled from Portland (AHL) March 3. In his first game with the Caps March 3 against Pittsburgh, he saw seven seconds of ice time. &#9632;

f0023-02

Oates still living life in the pass lane; has chance to set new assist standard

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>He wants no pre-game ceremony honoring his accomplishment. He definitely wants no banner unfurled with his name and the number 172 on it. He&rsquo;s not even sure whether the American League needs to update its record book.With J.F. Labbe about to set the modern-day record for most wins by an AHL goaltender, the eight-year veteran said there really was no reason to celebrate.That&rsquo;s because the record of 171 held by Peter Sidorkiewicz encompasses only the past 29 sea-sons. The league&rsquo;s statistical bookkeeping is incomplete for the AHL&rsquo;s first 36 seasons.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like if Patrick Roy had the record for the last 25 years. I&rsquo;d like to see the league find out what the real record is. I&rsquo;d like to see if in the &lsquo;50s and &lsquo;60s and before, that there were probably goalies that had more wins than that,&rdquo; said Labbe, who was traded to Syracuse by Hartford in November and has helped the Crunch move closer to solidifying a playoff spot in the Western Conference.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01978/7728510-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="268" height="344"><figcaption class="caption-body">J.F. Labbe</figcaption></div>Labbe, 28, headed into midMarch with a career record of 171-131-43 for Syracuse, Hartford, Hamilton, Hershey, Cornwall and the P.E.I. Senators. He was the AHL&rsquo;s MVP in 1996-97 with Hershey and backstopped the Bears (1996-97) and Wolf Pack (last season) to Calder Cup championships.His trade to the Columbus Blue Jackets&rsquo; organization was instrumental in helping the Crunch become a team that could compete every night. While just 12-14-5 for Syracuse, Labbe led the AHL in saves (1,337) and was third in games played through March 8. Also, backup Marc Lamothe&rsquo;s play improved greatly following Labbe&rsquo;s arrival. &#9632;

f0025-01

For the record, Labbe wants no party

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>Trent Cull has never played alongside Mario Lemieux, but the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins&rsquo; defenseman will tell you the Pittsburgh superstar is still helping him score.When Wilkes-Barre played a game in Mellon Arena Feb. 3, the American League club used the parent team&rsquo;s dressing room. Cull hung his clothes in Alexei Kovalev&rsquo;s stall, but afterward he found someone had moved his belongings one slot over into Lemieux&rsquo;s stall.Apparently there was some magical convergence. After scoring just one goal and seven points through Feb. 3, Cull had five goals and eight points over the next month. &ldquo;I went through 36 games without a point,&rdquo; Cull said. &ldquo;I mean, geez, I needed something to happen.&rdquo;CAT GIVEAWAY With the worst record in the AHL, the Louisville Panthers (16-39-4-3) have helped several opponents bolster their win total. And the Panthers are doing it again, this time by holding a fire sale.A week before the NHL trade deadline, the parent Florida Panthers shipped Louisville defenseman Brent Thompson to the Hershey Bears for future considerations, while right winger David Emma was traded to the Portland Pirates for defenseman Remi Royer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02648/7728562-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="337" height="345"></div>Thompson and Emma are 10-year veterans and should strengthen the playoff hopes of Hershey and Portland.REBIRTH FOR LAZAREV The incredible goal-scoring slump of Yevgeny Lazarev finally ended at 30 games when the Hershey Bears&rsquo; third-year left winger netted the winning goal in 4-2 victory over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Lazarev had 14 goals and 33 points in 65 games after scoring just eight goals and 34 points in his first two seasons.AHL TIDBITS St. John&rsquo;s center Jeff Farkas was named rookie of the month for February after scoring six goals and 19 points in 10 games&hellip;Philadelphia goalie Neil Little posted back-to-back shutouts in Quebec City as the Phantoms extended the Cita-delles&rsquo; losing streak to seven games. Little made 37 saves in a 2-0 victory Feb. 27 and 36 stops in a 3-0 win three nights later.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03426/7728555-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="1331" height="1753"><figcaption class="caption-body">With 10 goals and 39 points in 64 games, Lowell defenseman Rich Brennan is making his case for an audition in Los Angeles.</figcaption></div><h2>AHL SCOUTING REPORT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04269/7728548-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="335" height="445"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vaclav Pletka</figcaption></div>VITAL STATISTICSHometown: Mlada Boleslav, Czech RepublicAge: 21Size: 5-11,180LAST AMATEUR CLUBTrinec Jr. (Cze.)POSITION Right winger2000-01 SEASONPhiladelphia (AHL)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05190/7728541-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="354" height="73"></div>NHL AFFILIATIONPhiladelphia FlyersNOTEWORTHYPletka scored 28 goals in 51 Czech League games last season. His 72 penalty minutes are a testament to his feistiness.BOTTOM LINEThere&rsquo;s no question about his skills, but he&rsquo;s still learning the North American game. To make the NHL, he must get physically stronger because he carries his stick high. &#9632;

f0025-02

Lemieux’s magic rubs off on Cull

<div class="byline">By Rob Mueller</div>At the East Coast League&rsquo;s mid-winter meetings, via conference call March 2, 24 of 25 teams and two new clubs-the Columbia (S.C.) Inferno and Reading (Pa.) Royals-declared their intention to play next season.Despite their well-documented troubles, the Birmingham Bulls, Wheeling Nailers, Mobile Mysticks and Roanoke Express all are committed to return, but chances are at least one will be relocated.The Tallahassee Tiger Sharks did not have a representative on the conference call, but nevertheless are committed to icing a team next season. Acting owner Michael Cadrin has until April 1 to exercise his option of getting out of the lease agreement with the team. The T-Sharks were rumored to be considering a relocation to Fayetteville, N.C.The governors and ECHL president-CEO Rick Adams also addressed the Atlantic City situation.Adams said the league will produce a schedule for the 2001-02 season on the assumption that Atlantic City will not play, but said he isn&rsquo;t ruling out the possibility of including Atlantic City in the event a new ownership group takes quick possession of the franchise.In other Tallahassee news, former GM Larry Kish filed a lawsuit against Cadrin and the team for breach of contract. The suit claims Kish had an oral agreement for a two-year contract worth $100,000 a year, plus benefits. The Sharks fired Kish Feb. 15.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-06155/7728593-1-eng-US/f0025-062.jpg" title="f0025-06" width="296" height="315"></div>RIVER RISING The defending Kelly Cup-champion Peoria Rivermen acquired 1996-97 ECHL goalscoring champion John Varga from Tallahassee for cash Feb. 28.At the time of the deal, the 27-year-old Chicago native had 143 goals and 285 points in 243 ECHL regular season gamesThe trade brings Varga closer to his father, Lou, who is recovering from a mild stroke. The elder Varga became the seventh inductee into the trainers/equipment managers wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame Dec. 8.OLD-TIME HOCKEY The Toledo Storm will host an old-timers&rsquo; game March 11 in honor of the team&rsquo;s 10th anniversary in the ECHL. Participants will include Storm GM Pat Pylypuik, who was the first player ever signed by the team in 1991 and was a key part of back-to-back Riley Cup championships in 1993 and &lsquo;94. &#9632;

f0025-06

Plenty of teams, though some on thin ice

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>You&rsquo;ll have to pardon Richard Shulmistra if he&rsquo;s reluctant to unpack-the goalie has been living out of his suitcase all year.Seemingly unwanted by the Florida Panthers, he had stops in Kentucky of the American League and Kansas City of the International League, before the desperate Chicago Wolves called in early January.That call came after Rick DiPietro, the first pick in the 2000 NHL draft, became unavailable due to the World Junior Championship and a recall by the New York Islanders.Shulmistra&rsquo;s arrival in Chicago signaled the beginning of the Wolves&rsquo; run from deep in the basement of the Western Conference. Posting a 13-5-0 record in 19 games, he brought the defending Turner Cup champions within striking distance of a playoff spot.&ldquo;My college coach, George Gwozdecky from Thunder Bay, told me to be accountable for my actions and to worry about the things I can control,&rdquo; Shulmistra said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t control where I&rsquo;m going to be. I can only worry about myself and how hard I work and the things I do in practice.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011091/7728624-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="273" height="344"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richard Shulmistra</figcaption></div>By March 5, the Wolves had 61 points. Under normal circumstances, that would&rsquo;ve been only one point out of the fourth and final playoff berth in the West, but with the league&rsquo;s crossover rule, fifth-place Milwaukee in the East was five points better.Shulmistra, whose goals-against average was 1.80 and save percentage a sparkling.941, didn&rsquo;t want to make any predictions, despite a resume that includes 44 games of all-star caliber netminding for the. Manitoba Moose in 1998-99.&ldquo;No comment,&rdquo; he said in a point-blank manner. &ldquo;I just want to get better every day and we&rsquo;ve got a big hill to climb.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0026-01

Shulmistra Wolves’ ace in the goal

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>NOTEBOOKHow good a season was Orlando defenseman Curtis Murphy having before he went down with a season-ending triceps muscle tear?Murphy accumulated 45 points in 45 games by Jan. 27 and it wasn&rsquo;t until March 4 that last season&rsquo;s International League defenseman of the year, Brett Hauer, matched Murphy&rsquo;s total. Hauer needed 61 games to hit the 45-point mark.Although the Solar Bears won 11 straight games in February, they could have used Murphy in a series against the Cincinnati Cyclones March 3-4 at the TD Waterhouse Center in Orlando. Cincinnati won both games to move to within four points of the Solar Bears in the Eastern Conference, with 16 games remaining in the regular season.MOTOR CITY SPOILERS The Detroit Vipers were well out of a playoff spot at the three-quarter pole, but will be worthy spoilers if the defending Turner Cup-champion Chicago Wolves don&rsquo;t repeat.The Vipers defeated Chicago 3-2 March 4, giving them a 4-2-0 mark against the Wolves this season. Following the loss, Chicago still was on the outside looking in at a playoff spot.FITTING REWARD Center Randy Robitaille&rsquo;s sparkling third quarter with the Milwaukee Admirals earned him a recall by the NHL&rsquo;s Nashville Predators.Robitaille had 10 goals and 33 points, including three five-point efforts, in 19 IHL games with the Admirals since his assignment Jan. 20. (See pg. 16 for more on Robitaille.)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02753/7728676-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="440" height="185"></div>DOTTING THE &lsquo;I&rsquo; The Utah Grizzlies have placed goaltender Rick Tabaracci on the long term injury list because of a nagging groin ailment. Tabaracci was hurt during a late January game against Manitoba and hasn&rsquo;t been able to practise regularly since&hellip;Kansas City forward Dody Wood returned to the Blades&rsquo; lineup March 2 after missing nearly two months because of shoulder surgery&hellip;Cincinnati Cyclones&rsquo; goalie Randy Petruk (2-3-0) finally got his first two wins of the season, March 3 and 4, against Orlando. Petruk, who starred against the Solar Bears in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs, had been out with a knee injury&hellip;Cincinnati&rsquo;s Brian Felsner scored four goals against Manitoba March 2, but still couldn&rsquo;t lead his team to victory. The Moose beat the Cyclones 7-6 in a shootout.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03602/7728669-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="1315" height="1889"><figcaption class="caption-body">Since coming over from Utah earlier this season, Jeff Tory has been a leader from the Houston blueline with 22 points in 53 games.</figcaption></div><h2>IHL SCOUTING REPORT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04425/7728662-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="346" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Erik Cole</figcaption></div>VITAL STATISTICSHometown: Oswego, N.Y.Age: 22Size: 6-1, 200LAST AMATEUR CLUBClarkson (ECAC)POSITION Left winger2000-01 SEASONCincinnati (IHL)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05312/7728655-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="370" height="76"></div>NHL AFFILIATIONCarolina HurricanesNOTEWORTHYCole averaged better than a point a game in four college seasons at Clarkson. He leads all IHL rookies in scoring and likely would&rsquo;ve seen NHL action by now, except for a knee injury.BOTTOM LINEWith incredible speed and great anticipation, Cole has had more than 50 breakaways in the &lsquo;I&rsquo; this season. But goals have not come as easily and he needs to improve his scoring skills. &#9632;

f0026-02

Murphy’s absence starting to show

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Brendan Savage</div>Because their new building wasn&rsquo;t ready, the Port Huron Border Cats had to play four home games in four nights in four separate buildings March 1-4. The first two games were against Muskegon in different arenas in Sarnia, the third against Muskegon at Port Huron&rsquo;s McMorran Arena and the fourth against Flint in Flint. The Border Cats lost 7-4 to the Generals, but had all the home team benefits, including the last line change and the gate receipts. The game drew just 998 fans, the smallest crowd in Flint&rsquo;s nine-year UHL history. &#9632;

UNITED LEAGUE

<div class="byline">&#x2013;David Henry</div>The New Mexico Scorpions are sympathetic to fans of the International Basketball League&rsquo;s New Mexico Slam. The Slam folded Feb. 28, but the Scorpions will accept Slam tickets at all Scorpions&rsquo; games in March&hellip;Odessa Jackalopes&rsquo; goalie Grant Sjerven set a league record when he recorded his seventh shutout of the season March 4&hellip;Right winger Kyle Reeves of the Lubbock Cotton Kings scored his 400th professional goal March 3. He&rsquo;s the 62nd player in minor league history to reach that mark. &#9632;

WESTERN PRO LEAGUE

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Don Ruiz</div>The Tacoma Sabercats were practising Feb. 28 when an earthquake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, struck the Puget Sound region. The shaking chased the players into the parking lot, still wearing their skates. &ldquo;I thought it was just a train going by,&rdquo; said coach Robert Dirk. &ldquo;Then I realized it was more and we all bolted out.&rdquo; Luckily, no Sabercats&rsquo; personnel were injured and no significant damage was done to their practice facility or home arena&hellip;Classic Homes, formerly a 50 per-cent partner, now owns 100 per cent of the Colorado Gold Kings. &#9632;

WEST COAST LEAGUE

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Bob Stratton</div>The Central League and Western Professional League are close to finalizing a merger for the 2001-02 season and several new geographic rivalries will be created. For example, San Antonio of the CHL will be able to play WPHL teams in Austin, Corpus Christi and Fort Worth, Tex. Currently, San Antonio&rsquo;s nearest rival is Oklahoma City. The CHL expects to return 10 teams next season, with Topeka moving to the United States League. It&rsquo;s anticipated 10 WPHL teams will join up with the CHL. &#9632;

CENTRAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Medicine Hat Tigers&rsquo; defenseman Ryan Chieduch is out of action for the rest of the season after an ugly off-ice incident.Chieduch lost eight liters of blood in the early hours of Feb. 19 after being struck in the head with what Medicine Hat police believe was a beer bottle. He had just returned to his billet&rsquo;s home following the Tigers&rsquo; 6-5 Western League victory over the host Swift Current Broncos.Staff Sgt. Tim Petro said there was a party going on when Chieduch arrived. When he tried to leave the residence, Chieduch reportedly was hit on the side of the head and suffered a deep cut.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be all right,&rdquo; said Tigers&rsquo; coach Bob Loucks. &ldquo;It just takes some time to get his strength back again. He lost a lot of blood. When I went to the hospital, I couldn&rsquo;t believe how much blood I saw. He obviously lost a lot more because he passed out on the ground and they had to get an ambulance to take him to the hospital.&rdquo;Chieduch was released the next day.Chad Bigelow, 19, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and George Yuen, 20, with assault causing bodily harm.&ldquo;The thing that really pisses you off is all (Chieduch) was doing was going home after the game,&rdquo; Loucks said.Chieduch, who turned 19 Jan. 25, is in his third WHL season. The Kamloops-born rearguard had one goal, 11 points and 75 penalty minutes in 54 games with the Tigers this season. He spent the last two years in Prince George.&ldquo;He lost so much blood that his hemoglobin count is very low,&rdquo; said Loucks, whose team will miss the playoffs. &ldquo;They said it would be at least two weeks before he could resume physical activity. And then he&rsquo;s got to get in a little bit of shape from there and by then our season&rsquo;s over.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011041/7728803-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="381" height="265"></div>KRAHN GONE Calgary Hitmen goaltender Brent Krahn will miss the remainder of the season with a dislocated left kneecap.Krahn, whom the Calgary Flames selected ninth overall in the 2000 NHL draft, was initially injured Dec. 19. On March 6, the Hitmen were informed that arthroscopic surgery would be required.Krahn was about to return to the Hitmen&rsquo;s lineup before aggravating the injury during the warmup of a Feb. 3 game against the Red Deer Rebels.The 18-year-old Krahn had a 22-10-3 record and 2.99 goals-against average this season. In his absence, the Hitmen will use veteran Brady Block, 19, as their No. 1 goalie.ALL SHOOK UP The Seattle Thunderbirds were in Medicine Hat Feb. 28 when an earthquake rocked their home city.&ldquo;When I heard that it was 6.8 (on the Richter scale), I thought, &lsquo;Seattle is going to be buried,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Thunderbirds&rsquo; director of media and public relations Joe Dominey. &ldquo;I was surprised there wasn&rsquo;t more damage.&ldquo;We were all watching TV to try to find out what was going on. We couldn&rsquo;t get through on the phone for a long time because the lines were jammed. It was a little scary.&rdquo;Seattle proceeded to defeat Medicine Hat 7-6. Key Arena, the Thunderbirds&rsquo; home rink, emerged unscathed, as did the team&rsquo;s practice facility in Kirkland, Wash. &#9632;

f0027-01

Tiger’s season cut short by party attack

<div class="byline">By Willy Palov</div>When the St. Louis Blues called Brett Lutes&rsquo; name at the 2000 NHL draft, they announced he was from the Montreal Rocket.Technically that was true, but Lutes had played only four games for the Rocket. The 6-foot, 190-pound left winger spent most of the 1999-2000 season playing with the midget AAA Moncton Hawks.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d heard from my agent (Bob Perno) there was a chance I might get drafted, but it was kind of surprising considering where I played last year,&rdquo; Lutes said. &ldquo;I guess I must have caught someone&rsquo;s eye in those four games.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02683/7728834-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="380" height="286"></div>Now in his official rookie season of major junior hockey Lutes is making the Blues look good for spending a seventh round pick (229th overall) on him. He is averaging close to a point per game, with 62 in 65 games for the woeful Rocket, and is third in the Quebec League in rookie scoring.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say the extra year of midget hurt me,&rdquo; Lutes said. &ldquo;If anything, it helped me come into this season with more confidence. I&rsquo;ve found the transition to junior hasn&rsquo;t been all that difficult, but maybe it would&rsquo;ve been if I had tried to do it last year.&rdquo;LIGHT SENTENCE Two weeks after Acadie-Bathurst center Yann Joseph ridiculed Moncton Wildcats&rsquo; center Jonathan Roy for having testicular cancer, the QMJHL suspended Joseph for one game and fined him $500. Half the money will go to the Canadian Cancer Society.In their tradition of soft stances on verbal abuse, league officials downplayed the severity of the incident that attracted national media attention.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to comment on anything (other) than what you&rsquo;ll see in the press release,&rdquo; said QMJHL president Gilles Courteau.The league document referred only to &ldquo;incidents that occurred during the game of Friday, February 16&rdquo; as the reason for Joseph&rsquo;s suspension.&ldquo;I guess people (in the league office) think that it&rsquo;s carried on long enough and it&rsquo;s time to move on,&rdquo; said Moncton GM Darrell Young.The game Joseph had to sit out happened to be the last meeting of the season between the Titan and Wildcats.Roy, 20, had surgery to remove a testicle and underwent four months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma last April 19.FIRST THINGS FIRST Rumors are rife that the Sherbrooke Castors and Montreal Rocket will move at the end of the season, but players from the two teams weren&rsquo;t commiserating with each other.&ldquo;All we want to worry about is making sure we get in and they (the Rocket) don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Sherbrooke left winger Sandro Sbrooca. &ldquo;Right now we are three points ahead of them so that&rsquo;s what we care about.&rdquo;Montreal owners are studying the viability of moving to Fredericton, N.B., while the Castors are being courted by representatives from five other markets.TOP OF THE HEAP The Shawinigan Cataractes clinched first place overall in the standings March 3 with a 6-3 win over the Quebec Remparts.The two points gave the Cataractes 108 with six games left in the season, securing the franchise&rsquo;s first Jean Rougeau Trophy since 1982-83. &#9632;

f0027-02

Rocket ‘rookie’ Lutes praises midget days

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>The Ontario League is attempting to get the message out that it will not tolerate hits to the head.London Knights&rsquo; defenseman Dennis Wideman became the fifth player this season to be suspended such an offense. He got four games for delivering an elbow to the head of Brampton&rsquo;s Jeff Bateman March 1. The Battalion center was knocked unconscious, suffered a concussion and also was cut on the chin for six stitches. It wasn&rsquo;t known when the Dallas Stars&rsquo; 1999 fourth round pick (126th overall) would return.Cory Pecker of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Miguel Delisle of the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s, Kevin Mitchell of the Guelph Storm and former Knight Lou Dickenson, now with the Kingston Frontenacs, also were suspended after receiving elbowing majors and automatic game misconducts.&ldquo;There are a number of elements that all levels of hockey are trying to eliminate, or at least sending a message that we won&rsquo;t tolerate checking from behind, illegal use of the stick and checking to the head,&rdquo; said OHL director of hockey operations Ted Baker in announcing Wideman&rsquo;s suspension March 6. &ldquo;All of us are working in the hope we can get the message across about the dangers of these hits.&rdquo;Baker said the league was satisfied Wideman did not intentionally try to injure Bateman, &ldquo;but players must be held accountable for their actions.&rdquo;OLD COLLEGE TRY Give Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&rsquo; coach Paul Theriault credit. He&rsquo;s not going down without a fight.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03465/7728865-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="381" height="206"></div>The Greyhounds, battling for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, were tied 1-1 with the Barrie Colts with just more than a minute remaining in overtime March 4 in the Soo. Theriault thought he had one point and decided to go all out for the extra one, pulling goalie Ray Emery. But as Emery was skating toward the bench, the Colts&rsquo; Fraser Clair picked up the puck and fired it into the empty net with 55 seconds left.Later, Theriault admitted it wasn&rsquo;t as smart a move as people thought.&ldquo;What I thought was a guaranteed point in the bank and, with the play going into the offensive zone, I thought it was a good time to throw a fifth guy out there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t know there is an addendum to the rule-and I don&rsquo;t think too many coaches know.&rdquo;The addendum says teams that pull their goalie and are scored on in overtime lose the point.&ldquo;I owe an apology to my team for putting us in jeopardy like that. It&rsquo;s my responsibility as a coach to know that.&rdquo;FRANCHISE IN LIMBO The deadline passed March 1 for Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors&rsquo; shareholders to match a $2.1-million offer to purchase the team, made by Ken Cook of Guelph.But St. Mike&rsquo;s alumnus Eugene Melnyk could still be allowed to gain control by buying out several shareholders. He had previously said he would keep the team in Toronto and build a 5,000-seat arena on St. Michael&rsquo;s school campus.The shareholders will make a final decision after the playoffs. If Cook is successful, the team would move to Cornwall.The Majors, who returned to the league in 1997, are drawing fewer than 1,000 fans a game. &#9632;

f0027-03

League cracks down on cranium contact

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Willy Palov</div>Give Moncton Wildcats&rsquo; center Bobby Naylor and Quebec Remparts&rsquo; defenseman Richard Paul credit-at least they settled their differences like boys.Following the warmup for a recent Quebec League tilt, the two tough guys played the waiting game by the exits at center ice, with both refusing to be the first to budge.Even after the Zamboni did its first couple of laps, Naylor and Paul continued to stand by the doors, waiting for the other to flinch.Finally, Paul invited Naylor to center ice where the buzzing fans expected them to square off.Yes, they dropped their gloves, but not to fight. Instead, the ice pugilists engaged in a best-of-three paper-scissors-rock showdown, a game they played as children.For the record, Naylor won the privilege of leaving last. &#9632;

Boys will be boys

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02736/7728951-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="387" height="233"></div>Boston College has been to three straight Frozen Four tournaments. They were runners-up in the national championship last season and in 1998. But incredibly, this year&rsquo;s Hockey East regular season title is the Eagles&rsquo; first since 1991.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a hard sucker to get,&rdquo; said coach Jerry York, who feels the conference&rsquo;s overall strength is the major obstacle. So what enabled this year&rsquo;s team to claim the school&rsquo;s seventh title since the league&rsquo;s inception in 1984-85? (BC won six of the first seven.)&ldquo;We have more balance on defense and we&rsquo;ve been able to play our fourth line the whole year,&rdquo; York said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve also played better without the puck than in the past.&rdquo;BC led the league in scoring, power play efficiency (22.4 per cent) and was second in goals-against average (2.38) and penalty-killing efficiency (90.5 per cent).York said his returning players &ldquo;have really stepped it up&rdquo; and his freshmen have been exceptional, particularly Ben Eaves, Chuck Kobasew, Tony Voce and J.D. Forrest. Kobasew finished the regular season with 20 goals and 40 points; Eaves had 10 goals and 33 points.ANALYSIS After being picked to finish sixth in the coaches&rsquo; pre-season poll, Providence College ended up in third place. But the Friars&rsquo; season-ending 4-2 and 5-2 losses at Maine cost them second place. The two schools were tied for second, but the Black Bears won the season series 2-1.SPOTLIGHT Massachusetts-Lowell linemates Laurent Meunier, a freshman, and Yorick Treille, a junior, played key roles in the River Hawks&rsquo; fifth-place finish.Meunier, a center from France, had 10 goals and 32 points in 31 games, while right winger Treille, who&rsquo;s from Grenoble, had 10 goals and 24 points in 27 outings. Treille missed several games with an injury and Meunier missed time while helping France qualify for the 2002 Olympics.NOTEBOOK Northeastern&rsquo;s Graig Mischler, New Hampshire&rsquo;s Ty Conklin and BC&rsquo;s Ben Eaves were player, goalie and rookie of the month, respectively, for February&hellip;BC&rsquo;s Brian Gionta, with 25 goals and 60 points in 24 games, captured the Hockey East scoring title. &#9632;

f0028-02

First league title in decade due to BC’s depth, defense

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03529/7728982-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="392" height="234"></div>RPI freshman goalie Nathan Marsters is quickly making Engineers&rsquo; fans forget about Joel Laing.After earning the No. 1 job late in the season, Marsters put up excellent numbers and finished with the best save percentage (.930) in the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Granted, that number doesn&rsquo;t beat the NCAA-record.947 that Laing-a Hobey Baker Award finalist last season-posted during his final year at the Troy, N.Y, school. But Marsters, a top rookie-of-the-year candidate, is still getting used to college hockey.RPI coach Dan Fridgen broke up his two-goalie rotation of Marsters and Kevin Kurk to go with Marsters down the stretch. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound native of Grimsby, Ont., played in 26 games, finishing with a 2.22 goals-against average.&ldquo;The rotation was good early in the year because Nathan didn&rsquo;t have to feel like he was the guy,&rdquo; Fridgen said. &ldquo;But down the stretch, he got hot and you don&rsquo;t want to put the hot pony in the barn.&rdquo; Marsters&rsquo; efforts boosted RPI (11-9-2 ECAC, 17-13-2 overall) to a tie for fifth place in the standings.ANALYSIS Clarkson won the regular season championship by posting a 14-3-0 record in the league since January 1.The Golden Knights were outstanding at both ends of the ice, finishing second in both team offense (3.68 goals per game) and team defense (2.05 GAA).PROSPECT WATCH Dartmouth sophomore defenseman Trevor Byrne reminds many of David Williams, one of the highest-scoring blueliners in school history.Byrne, a fifth round draft pick (143rd overall) of St. Louis in 1999, had five goals and 24 points this season.NOTEBOOK Former Harvard player and coach Bill Cleary became the first athlete in the school&rsquo;s history to have his uniform number retired at the Crimson&rsquo;s final home game against Yale. After Cleary&rsquo;s No. 4 jersey was hoisted to the rafters, Harvard defeated their arch-rivals 6-4, extending Yale&rsquo;s history of futility at the Bright Hockey Center. The Bulldogs are a pathetic 1-18-3 at the Bright Center since the facility opened in 1979-80. &#9632;

f0028-03

Engineer rookie Marsters masters No. 1 goalie job

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04359/7729013-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="389" height="236"></div>For the eighth straight year, Michigan Tech failed to play.500 hockey and finished in the bottom tier of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings.But Huskies&rsquo; players and league observers can see upbeat changes in the program that generate thoughts of a turnaround. Much of the credit for that is directed at coach Mike Sertich, who took over after Tim Watters was asked to resign early into this season.The Huskies were 1-7-1 when Sertich was hired on an interim basis Nov. 8. The team finished 6-19-3 in league play, good for eighth place, and 8-22-4 overall. A year ago, Tech won only two league games and set a WCHA record with 34 losses.&ldquo;It was a good change,&rdquo; said sophomore goalie Brian Rogers. &ldquo;We all liked Watters, but Serty&rsquo;s the right guy for us.&rdquo;In 18 seasons at Minnesota-Duluth, Sertich produced three Hobey Baker Award winners and was named WCHA coach of the year an unprecedented four times. He was forced to resign following the 1999-2000 season after back-to-back losing campaigns. Sertich was named Tech&rsquo;s full-time coach in January and is signed through the 2004-05 season.Under Sertich, Tech went 2-1-1 vs. Minnesota-Duluth, beat national powerhouse Michigan and tied defending NCAA champion North Dakota.SPOTLIGHT Wisconsin senior goaltender Graham Melanson tied the school record for career shutouts with nine. A1-0 win over Michigan Tech March 3 allowed Melanson to equal the mark set by Terry Kleisinger (1980-84).FOLLOWUP For the fourth time in five years and a league-record 11th time overall, North Dakota claimed the MacNaughton Cup as WCHA regular season champ. The Fighting Sioux did it in clutch style, finishing with a 14-game unbeaten streak (9-0-5) to hold off St. Cloud State and Minnesota.NOTEBOOK Five WCHA teams drew more than 100,000 fans during the regular season. Wisconsin, which posted the best figures in the entire NCAA, led the way with 234,349&hellip;Colorado College center Mark Cullen extended his school-record point streak to 21 consecutive games. &#9632;

f0028-04

Huskies league lapdogs, but Sertich brings hope

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01955/7729065-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011071/7729058-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="3109" height="3584"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01989/7729051-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="3091" height="3533"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011055/7729044-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3091" height="3585"></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

HOCKEY’S BEST STATS

2000-01 NHL STATISTICS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01959/7729096-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus): SA-shots against; GA-goals against: ENG-empty net goals: Decdecision, charges to goaltenders of record when winning goal is scored.<h2>FRIDAY, MAR. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02652/7729295-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="504" height="1923"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03495/7729288-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="506" height="2291"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04386/7729281-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="506" height="2285"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05322/7729274-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="508" height="2283"></div><h2>SATURDAY, MAR. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06278/7729267-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="502" height="2187"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07251/7729260-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="518" height="2289"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011080/7729253-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="505" height="3490"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02740/7729246-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="509" height="1817"></div><h2>SUNDAY, MAR. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03583/7729239-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="501" height="1590"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04454/7729232-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="507" height="3497"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05366/7729225-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="518" height="2779"></div><h2>MONDAY, MAR. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06324/7729218-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="499" height="639"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07296/7729211-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="503" height="1762"></div><h2>TUESDAY, MAR. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08269/7729204-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="503" height="1667"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09236/7729197-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="516" height="3502"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011016/7729190-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="505" height="1714"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02716/7729183-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="510" height="1713"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03586/7729176-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="514" height="1709"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04465/7729169-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="500" height="1705"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MAR. 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05391/7729162-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="500" height="1630"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06355/7729155-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="504" height="1706"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01980/7729148-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="509" height="3515"></div><h2>THURSDAY, MAR. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02649/7729141-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="505" height="3447"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03538/7729134-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="504" height="3523"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04412/7729127-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="503" height="1785"></div> &#9632;

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March 23, 2001

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