The New Centurions

Rating Jaromir Jagr as the No. 1 player in the game was supposed to be a slam dunk. The Pittsburgh Penguins' superstar right winger was clearly the most dynamic and dangerous offensive player last season, accomplishing all that on a team devoid of any stars close to being in his own galaxy. Jagr dominated the NHL like it hasn’t been dominated by a skater since Wayne Gretzky in 1990-91, who won the Art Ross Trophy by 32 points over Brett Hull. With a 20-point margin of victory in the 1998-99 scoring race, Jagr became only the sixth player in NHL history to win a title by 20 or more points. And in today's offense-starved game, that's an enormous gap. The Czech virtuoso joined elite company that includes only Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Phil…

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New owner gives hope to sunshine state fans

Change is in the Tampa Bay air. It's a good thing, too, because no NHL organization needs a reversal of fortune quite like the Lightning. After two straight seasons as the league's cellar-dweller, Tampa Bay management, players and fans will not tolerate a third. Neither will new ownership, the franchise's third in as many seasons. Bill Davidson-controlled Palace Sports & Entertainment has purchased the team from Art Williams, who owned the beleaguered Lightning for one year after taking it off the hands of Japanese businessman Takashi Okubo's Kokusai Green holding company. With Palace Sports comes a restructuring of Tampa Bay's high command and a promise things will be done right. "It takes patience on the part of the fans, which is difficult, because they've been awfully patient for so long already," Palace president and…

Time ripe for Flyers to band together

Two straight first-round playoff exits for one of the highest payrolls in hockey might send some teams rushing for the telephone. Then there are the Philadelphia Flyers, who say they made so many calls last year, they're fresh out of quarters. President-GM Bob Clarke thought a dozen transactions had given him the team he needed to make a serious playoff run. Then came the crudest April 1 joke ever played on a franchise-a season-ending lung injury to captain Eric Lindros. So, time stood still. From a team perspective, all bets involving personnel evaluation were off. No more major changes, Clarke promises, until the current lineup gets a chance to prove last year was just one of those things. Instead, barring a disastrous start to the 1999-2000 season, the Flyers will count on a veteran…