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January 25, 2005
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.
NOTEBOOK
Things got so ugly in a Macon-Columbus game on New Year’s Eve, the teams played the final 13 seconds without goalies. “I’ve played a long time and I’ve never heard of anything like that,” said Columbus coach Jerome Bechard, whose Cottonmouths lost to the Trax 8-5. Macon starter Mark Cairns and Columbus’s Terry Friesen were ejected for leaving the crease and fighting in the third period. Their replacements-Macon’s Nick Niedert and Columbus’s Chad Rycroft-were tossed for similar infractions with 13 seconds left. The teams combined for 274 penalty minutes and neither scored into an empty net. “(Macon coach) Tommy Stewart and I played against and with each other here,” Bechard said, “so we know the rivalry, but none of our players did. Well, now they know.”…
EYE ON EUROPE
Future and former NHLers are playing in Europe this season. Here are four such players with NHL rights in parentheses: • Tomas Kaberle, 26, 0 (Toronto). Despite rumors of joining Jaromir Jagr in Russia, Tomas remains with their hometown club, Kladno. He tops all Czech league blueliners with 29 points in 35 games. • Fredrik Norrena, 31, G (Tampa Bay). Drafted 213th overall by the Lightning in 2002, but this season with Linkoping, Norrena leads all Swedish league goalies with a .933 save percentage. • Dwayne Norris, 35, RW (free agent). Norris played 20 NHL games with Quebec and Anaheim and is in his 11th German league season. He has 18 goals and 37 points in 34 games with the Frankfurt Lions. • Denis Kulyash, 21, D (Nashville). Drafted 243rd overall in June, Kulyash…
Lehtonen ready when NHL is
Had things gone according to plan, this story would have been about Kari Lehtonen being the NHL’s leading candidate to win the 2004-05 Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. The Atlanta Thrashers, who made Lehtonen the second overall pick in the 2002 entry draft, were to be this season’s breakout team with Lehtonen leading the way. The Thrashers have been licking their chops waiting for just the right time to make him a full-time NHLer and that time was supposed to be now. Instead, Lehtonen will have to settle for trying to win the Calder Cup as the American League champion. Atlanta GM Don Waddell has been delighted with the development of his 21-year-old stopper and feels when the NHL resumes play, Lehtonen will be ready for prime-time duty. “From Kari’s standpoint,…
Veteran Chapman enjoying ninth inning
When Brian Chapman suited up for a trio of NHL games with the 1990-91 Hartford Whalers three years removed from junior, little did the defenseman realize it would be his first and last taste of life in the bigs. Now 14 years later, Chapman, 36, is the very picture of a hockey journeyman. Since he turned pro in 1988, two years after the Whalers drafted him 74th overall in 1986, Chapman has appeared in almost 1,200 regular season games in the minors, mostly the old International League. For the last four years, he has toiled in the American League, coming full circle this season by signing with Springfield (he skated with the Springfield Indians in 1990-91 after two years in Binghamton when Hartford’s farm | team was in upstate New York). Chapman’s other stops…
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