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March 28, 2003
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.
Jackman for Calder?
Barret Jackman could not have picked a better season to be an NHL rookie. For starters, the St. Louis Blues were without superstar defender Chris Pronger and needed somebody to eat up a portion of his many minutes. Jackman, who turned 22 March 5, hasn’t made St. Louis fans forget about Pronger, but he has helped ease the pain of his extended absence. Also, with no freshman forward lighting it up offensively, the door is wide open for a player such as Jackman, whose best contributions are in his team’s zone, to make a strong bid to be named rookie of the year. If that happens, and it is looking more and more like Jackman is the man to beat, he would be the first defensive defenseman to ever win the Calder. Ten…
New playoff format for 2003-04 season
The Quebec League finalized its playoff format for next season to accommodate new franchises in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and Lewiston, Me. The Montreal Rocket is relocating to Charlottetown and the Sherbrooke Castors to Lewiston. Because the 16-team league already had adopted a three-division alignment for 2003-04 to account for the changing landscape, the playoffs will switch to a slightly more complicated four-part system next year. In the first round, the division winners receive a bye and the three last-place teams are eliminated. That will leave 10 teams to play in five best-of-7 series. The matchups, to be determined by the overall standings, will go as follows: No. 4 vs. No. 13, No. 5 vs. No. 12 and so on. The second round will have four best-of-7 series with the matchups again being determined by regular…
Leaner Findlay more dangerous
Findlay, a perennial lesser light in College Hockey America, seems to have found a sure way to improve: addition by subtraction. The Oilers were 2-2-2 since suspending six players indefinitely from the team in mid-February, including captain and leading scorer Nick Udovicic, for breaking team and university rules. “We have big holes to cover,” said sophomore center Mark Bastl. “I think everybody’s working together as a team. I think it’s maybe why we’re doing so decent right now.” Bastl scored all of Findlay’s goals in a 4-3 win Feb. 28 over Alabama-Hunstville for his first four goals of the season. The next night he added another marker against the Chargers, in a 6-3 loss, matching his goal production from last season through 20 games. Bastl had fired blanks through 18 games this season before…
Hard work gets UND back on winning track
The best time to measure a coach is not when things are going well, but when adversity decides to pay an extended visit. On Jan. 10, North Dakota was 18-1-3 overall and very much in the running for its fifth Western Collegiate Hockey Association title in the last seven seasons. On March 7, the Fighting Sioux were embedded in a sevengame winless streak (0-52) and in danger of finishing out of the top five, which would have sent them on the road to open the WCHA playoffs. UND coach Dean Blais refused to let the frustrations related to the winless streak-the longest in Grand Forks since the 1974-75 outfit went 11 games without a win-trickle down to his players. “We just kept working hard and being patient with them,” he said. That approach paid off…
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