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May 3, 2002
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.
Making foes feel the pain
Rick Dudley is a former GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning and a long-tim&NHL scout, coach and executive. This is his fifth in a series of exclusive stretch-drive and playoff reports for The Hockey News. Watching Todd Bertuzzi and Darren McCarty early in the Vancouver-Detroit series provides the perfect example of how the playoffs are so different from the regular season. Both of these big, hulking wingers were relentless on the forecheck and played with a sense of purpose you don’t always see in an 82-game schedule. Bertuzzi was an intimidating battering ram on Detroit defensemen, particularly Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Chelios. Wings coach Scotty Bowman put his top two rearguards together in Game 1 to try to shut down the Canucks’ big line of Bertuzzi, Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund. Similarly, McCarty was…
James victim seeking justice
A victim of former junior coach Graham James will decide at the end of April whether to proceed with a million-dollar lawsuit filed more than three years ago, sources say. Lawyers for the victim, whose identity can’t be disclosed due to a court-ordered publication ban, met with lawyers for the Swift Current Broncos, the Western League and the Canadian Hockey Association to see whether they could settle the suit and avoid what could be a very telling civil trial. The talks adjourned with a decision that the various lawyers would hold a conference call April 30 and a trial date would be set if the suit remain unresolved. “The lawyers are playing poker,” said one person familiar with the negotiations. The suit, which was filed in January, 1999, calls for upward of $l-million (Cdn.)…
Illegal stick infraction defining moment in Cape Breton series win
Pascal Vincent is either a coaching genius or a dirty trickster. It all depends on who you ask. The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles coach stirred up a heated debate in Game 3 of his team’s series with the Halifax Mooseheads when he used a stick measurement to engineer a 3-2 win. With the Eagles down 2-0 early in the third period and two Halifax players already in the box, Vincent used the ol’ stick trick to bust Halifax center Derrick Kent. The Eagles erupted for three power play goals in the next 73 seconds and Cape Breton went up 2-1 in a bestof-7 series it went on to win in six games. But the move did not sit well with Halifax management, who accused Vincent of resorting to underhanded tactics. “I never thought…
Butkos of hockey thriving at 40
The reporter, his microphone poised just below Chris Chelios’s jaw, sought to get the Detroit Red Wings’ defenseman to reveal the club’s playoff strategy. He wondered exactly what plans the Wings had in mind to neutralize the Vancouver Canucks’ potent first line of Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison. “I’m not telling you that,” Chelios said, employing that mischievous smile he uses when he’s messing with someone. The reporter should have known better. You’re not going to get anything from Chelios when he goes on the defensive. Living proof that life begins at 40, Chelios is The Hockey News’s choice as this year’s Norris Trophy favorite. He’ll face competition from reigning Norris holder Nicklas Lidstrom, his teammate and sometimes partner, Washington sharpshooter Sergei Gonchar and 1997-98 Norris winner Rob Blake of Colorado, but…
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