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 25, 2008

The Hockey News - Mar-25-08

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021361/9076495-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="197" height="197"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>UFFALO SCORES A GOAL</b> with too many men on the ice and it counts. San Jose scores when the puck bounces back onto the ice after hitting the mesh above the glass and it counts. Maybe it&rsquo;s time the NHL puts a third referee on the ice. Just kidding.</p><p><b>SOME</b>&nbsp;<b>PLAYERS HAVE TROUBLE</b> following up a career season &ndash; and some never get the chance. Toronto backup <b>Andrew Raycroft</b> has gone from recording 37 wins last season to just two this year and being a non-entity on his team. Speaking of the Leafs, they&rsquo;d be nuts to give out another no-trade clause this summer &ndash; even to UFA <b>Mats Sundin</b>.</p><p><b>SEE, WE DIDN&rsquo;T WANT CAREY PRICE</b> to get too big for his britches. As such, after naming him hockey&rsquo;s top prospect in our 2008 edition of The Hockey News <i>Future Watch</i>, we decided to slight him just slightly by strategically placing pictures of his former AHL teammate <b>Yann Danis</b> in the stories about Price. I guess our rogue plan simply went over the heads of everybody who sent in letters alerting us to our &ldquo;mistake.&rdquo; Yeah&hellip;that&rsquo;s it.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0009-02

THE STANDARDS

SNAPSHOTS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0049-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02191/9077794-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01279/9077801-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="152" height="149"></div><h2><b>CROSSWORD</b></h2><p>By Larry Humber</p><p>Answers available in next issue</p><h3><b>ACROSS</b></h3><p>1 Dave Tippett&rsquo;s team</p><p>8 &lsquo;Big Jean&rsquo; was Montreal&rsquo;s captain for years</p><p>9 Hit hard</p><p>10 He was Leafs GM until recently</p><p>11 Gare or Gallivan</p><p>14 Brad ___ was a popular Leaf and Senator</p><p>15 He&rsquo;s the Isles coach</p><p>20 Anson Carter went to Michigan ___</p><p>21 He&rsquo;s Washington&rsquo;s top sniper, pictured</p><p>22 Hall of Famer ___ Shore</p><p>23 Paul ___ is a long-time ref</p><p>24 ___-checking is a no-no</p><h3><b>DOWN</b></h3><p>2 Where the Cup went in 2004</p><p>3 He was drafted first overall in 2002</p><p>4 Esposito&rsquo;s old number</p><p>5 The Red ___ play at &lsquo;The Joe&rsquo;</p><p>6 Hall of Famer ___ Lalonde</p><p>7 ___ Ahearne was IIHF president</p><p>12 Ex-Flame Steve ___ is now with Florida</p><p>13 So is center Shawn ___</p><p>16 Uses one&rsquo;s hands illegally</p><p>17 Retire</p><p>18 Joe Thornton is one</p><p>19 Tom ___ is owner of 1 Across</p><p>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION</p><p>ACROSS 1. GARTH SNOW, 8. ARENA, 9. ALL-STAR, 10. STITCH, 11. ANDERS, 12. RICCI, 14. OWNER, 17. PIERRE, 19. AVENGE, 20.ANTONIO, 21. TRADE, 22. ROCHESTER. DOWN 2. ALLAN, 3. TOSSED, 4. STARS, 5. WALTER, 6. CELTICS, 7. NASHVILLE, 11. ARGONAUTS, 13. KNEECAP, 15. REGIER, 16. DECOYS, 17. PUNCH, 18. RAISE.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03138/9077787-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="1750" height="825"></div><p>by Ryan Kennedy</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04120/9077780-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="155" height="155"></div><h2><b>HOMETOWN HOCKEY</b></h2><p>FAIRBANKS, ALASKA</p><p>For a state with so much snow, you would think pro hockey would go further back in Alaska, but the Gold Kings of the defunct West Coast League actually broke the ice in 1995. That experiment only lasted two years, but the Gold Kings still hold the crown for northernmost pro team ever in North America.</p><p>Elsewhere in the city, the hockey faithful can follow the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks, who prowl in the CCHA and the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the North American League, both of whom have less than desirable travel schedules.</p><h2><b>TIPS FROM THE POINT</b></h2><p>WITH ROSTISLAV OLESZ</p><p>SHOOTING ACCURACY</p><p>It doesn&rsquo;t matter how quick or how hard you shoot the puck if it isn&rsquo;t on target.</p><p>You can never practise shooting enough, so in the summer, I start every warm-up with this drill: Take 25 pucks and fire them into one corner of the net. Repeat three more times, hitting each corner.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0584/9077773-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="250" height="448"></div><p>FLORIDA PANTHERS</p><p><b>AGE:</b> 22</p><p>&nbsp;<b>POS:</b> LW</p><p>&nbsp;<b>NUMBER:</b> 85<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-02

IN THIS ISSUE

LAST MINUTE OF PLAY

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03834/9076526-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="969" height="688"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Harley-Davidson Fat Boy /$19,000</p><p><a href="http://harley-davidson.com">harley-davidson.com</a></p><p>Martin Brodeur doesn&rsquo;t often lose focus on the ice, but maybe that&rsquo;s because his opponents don&rsquo;t ride motorcycles. The Devils netminder now has three rides, including a Chopper and his first, a Fat Boy.</p><p>&ldquo;I bought it during the lockout to kill time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s how I got hooked. Obviously I don&rsquo;t get to ride much during the season.&rdquo; The Fat Boy features a V-Twin engine and shotgun exhaust.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0009-03

BLING BLING with Martin Brodeur

<p>10 <b>RADIM VRBATA</b> has found a home in Phoenix this season.</p><p>9 Since the Pens ditched him, <b>MARK RECCHI</b> has put up big points for Atlanta.</p><p>8 Carolina picked up <b>SERGEI SAMSONOV</b> off waivers and he picked up his game.</p><p>7 Maybe now Detroit&rsquo;s <b>CHRIS OSGOOD</b> will finally get his due respect in goal.</p><p>6 <b>ED JOVANOVSKI</b> has gone from millstone to mayor in Phoenix.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-05449/9076433-1-eng-US/f0008-052.jpg" title="f0008-05" width="586" height="465"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NORM HALL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>5 <b>PATRICK LALIME</b> has played some great hockey in net for the Blackhawks.</p><p>4 Bet the Penguins are happy they picked up goalie <b>TY CONKLIN</b> last summer.</p><p>3 Iggy, Ovie, <b>JEREMY ROE-NICK?</b> In terms of game-winners, J.R.&rsquo;s right there.</p><p>2 Just imagine where the Avs would be without <b>JOSE THEODORE</b> right now.</p><p>1 Who knew <b>ALEX KOVALEV</b> would come back and tear it up this season?<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-05

starting from 10

<div class="byline">with Jason Kay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012062/9076112-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="765" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARK WILSON)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>IT&rsquo;S THE &lsquo;NICE GIRL&rsquo;</b> of NHL awards, the trophy few players covet and sometimes even seem embarrassed to win.</p><p>The Lady Byng is a manbag, penny loafers, a Fuzzy Navel.</p><p>The stigma surrounding the &ldquo;honor&rdquo; was so strong for Alex Mogilny, he refused to show up to accept it a few years back. &ldquo;The Lady Byng is a consolation prize,&rdquo; Mogilny said at the time. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t need it.&rdquo;</p><p>We understand the players&rsquo; aversion. Hockey, after all, is a rugged sport for the brave-hearted. Nobody wants to be perceived as a tree-hugger.</p><p>From a couple perspectives, that&rsquo;s a shame. The gentlemanly aspect of the Byng should be important. How many times have we heard that respect among players has badly eroded? If that&rsquo;s true, why wouldn&rsquo;t you want to be known as a leader among your union brethren, a man who plays hard, but not recklessly? Really, such players should be held up as role models.</p><p>At the same time, it takes discipline, good positioning and skill to avoid recurring trips to the penalty box in today&rsquo;s NHL, a point reinforced by hockey historian Pastor Glen Goodhand in an email to THN. &ldquo;Bill Quackenbush, who won the Byng in 1949, said it would be virtually impossible for a rearguard to have zero penalty minutes (as he did) because of this.&rdquo;</p><p>How valuable does that make a player such as Brian Campbell, a defenseman who logs huge minutes and has an impact at both ends, yet only had 14 PIMs through early March?</p><p>Perhaps, to catalyze a perception shift of the award, the NHL should begin by changing the trophy&rsquo;s moniker to something less metrosexual-sounding; name it for a player who is universally revered for his class.</p><p>If you have any suggestions for a new handle, or are vehemently opposed to a name change, send your thoughts via our website at <a href="http://THN.COM/LETTERS">thn.com/letters</a>. We&rsquo;ll publish a selection of them in an upcoming Editor&rsquo;s Notebook.</p><p>SHARING AND CARING Deputy commissioner Bill Daly believes NHL revenue sharing is working as intended, but told THN if that opinion changed, the league would seek to modify the process in conjunction with the NHLPA. Daly said the system was built to aid lower-revenue clubs, not prop them up. &ldquo;They weren&rsquo;t ever intended to subsidize a team&rsquo;s ability to spend to the cap or to guarantee lower-revenue teams will be profitable,&rdquo; he said. A couple weeks earlier, Sabres owner Tom Golisano told a radio station revenue sharing doesn&rsquo;t keep pace with growth in overall league revenues, warned small market teams would find it increasingly tougher to chase the cap and that fans would be surprised by how many teams are losing money.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031425/9076105-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="448" height="241"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0004-01

NHL’S FIRST ‘LADY’ NEEDS MAKEOVER

<div class="byline">TREVOR JONES, LONDON, ONT.</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-012060/9076191-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MITCHELL LAYTON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>F</span>or all the Leaf fans who are mad at Mats Sundin for refusing to waive his no-trade clause, I&rsquo;d like to remind you the franchise was founded by a man who prized loyalty above all else: Conn Smythe.</p><p>Sundin is doing that legacy proud and the treatment he has received has been unfair. He has held the position of captain with dignity and never complained about the way the team has been run. He carries himself with aplomb and is one of only a few players who are maintaining the team&rsquo;s modicum of respectability. Fans need to be careful, or they could drive away one of Leaf Nation&rsquo;s most loyal soldiers.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0005-01

MATS IS IN THE RIGHT

<blockquote class="pullQuote">"Owners could invest quite a bit of money into youth hockey with the funds</blockquote><h2><b>AD MONEY CAN HELP</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>E</span>very week, I look forward to purchasing The Hockey News to get up to date on all the current happenings in the NHL. The one article that really stood out in this week&rsquo;s issue (March 11) was Adam Proteau&rsquo;s column.</p><p>Not once before reading this had I heard of placing ads on goaltenders&rsquo; jerseys. I must say, at the start I was fuming at what I thought was a ridiculous idea and a desperate cry for help from the owners who only think about money.</p><p>But as I read deeper into the article, I completely changed my perspective on the whole idea. Corporate sponsors would pay the NHL to advertise their products and, in return, the NHL would get more exposure and the possibility for a bigger fan base.</p><p>But that&rsquo;s not even the best part. Owners could invest quite a bit of money into youth hockey with the funds. The NHL would get more exposure and more children would get the chance to play hockey. Everybody wins.</p><p>DAVID CAMPBELL, INGERSOLL, ONT.</p><h2><b>GET THE NET OUT</b></h2><p>I heard some talk the other day about a possible rule change that if the puck hits the netting above the glass that the play would stay alive.</p><p>Better idea yet: Get rid of the glass and just have the net 20 feet high. First, it would save a lot of head injuries. Second, it wouldn&rsquo;t give defensemen the hard-off-the-glass-and-out option. Third, it would keep goalies in their net as they wouldn&rsquo;t know how the puck would come off the netting.</p><p>Our old barn had chicken wire in the corners and no glass along the sides.</p><p>DALE WADDELL, MILVERTON, ONT.</p><h2><b>&lsquo;ARMY&rsquo; DESERTED</b></h2><p>I never thought GM Ray Shero would trade Sidney Crosby&rsquo;s best friend. Colby Armstrong had been called the glue of the Pittsburgh Penguins and, as a fan, I am devastated about losing &lsquo;Army.&rsquo;</p><p>Acquiring Marian Hossa is great, but why did we have to lose Armstrong? FSN broadcaster Paul Steigerwald said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure many tears were shed.&rdquo; This is a big loss. They can replace Sidney&rsquo;s winger, but never his friend.</p><p>LINDSAY WARD, WINTERSVILLE, OHIO</p><h2><b>STOKE THE FIRES</b></h2><p>Here&rsquo;s how the NHL can generate more fan interest: Adjust the schedule to include back-to-back home games, on consecutive nights, against division rivals.</p><p>For instance, Calgary would travel to Colorado to play the Avs on Friday night and Saturday night. Later in the season, Colorado would return the favor in Calgary. I guarantee something will happen in the first night&rsquo;s game that gets the fans excited about watching the second game.</p><p>TED GOODLIN, DENVER</p><h2><b>KICK IT</b></h2><p>The most recent talk about &ldquo;a distinct kicking motion&rdquo; to me is far too easy to fix. If it isn&rsquo;t going to be dangerous, allow it!</p><p>Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, I don&rsquo;t want to see soccer-style bicycle kicks or goalies and players in danger of having a skate blade cutting them because of this, but if a player slides his skate along the ice with the intent of directing the puck into the net and is successful, allow the goal.</p><p>STEVE LANDYMORE, CALGARY</p><h2><b>STIFF UPPER ELBOWS</b></h2><p>I play pro hockey in England, which often makes it difficult to closely follow the NHL. I remain a huge NHL fan, which is why I&rsquo;ve had THN sent to me from home for the past two seasons.</p><p>My teammates and I all look forward to those days when we show up at the rink for practice and there&rsquo;s a care package containing two or three issues waiting in my stall for us.</p><p>I wanted to thank THN for helping my teammates and me stay in tune with the NHL and helping us through our long road trips and airport waits. The Sheffield Steelers love THN!</p><p>RANDY DAGENAIS, KAPUSKASING, ONT.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

CROWD SHOTS

<div class="byline">WITH CHRIS HIGGINS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012281/9076229-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="562" height="566"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b><i>TERENCE MIELKE FROM OS-HAWA, ONT., ASKS</i> Which player would be the worst to go into the corner against 1-on-1?</b></p><p>Going into Zdeno Chara&rsquo;s corner isn&rsquo;t what I would call a good time, but it feels great when we are able to beat him and the Bruins.</p><p><b><i>SYLVAIN</i>&nbsp;<i>GAUTHIER FROM QUE-BEC CITY, ASKS</i> Growing up as a Habs fan, who was your favorite player and what was your favorite moment?</b></p><p>Patrick Roy. I would always play goalie in street hockey and obviously the 1993 Stanley Cup win was my favorite moment. I cried like a little girl.</p><p><b><i>HUMBERTO YANEZ FROM AVONDALE, ARIZ., ASKS</i> Tell us about your stick. How do you prepare it, what kind of flex do you use and why did you go with that company?</b></p><p>I use Bauer equipment. I&rsquo;ve always used the skates and sticks (100 flex). I still use a wooden blade so I usually have the blowtorch out before the game to curve it just right.</p><p><b><i>FELIX SICARD FROM MONTREAL, ASKS</i> Would you ever try the Michigan move (the lacrosse-style Mike Legg goal) in a game?</b></p><p>I&rsquo;ve tried it in practice a few times, but you shouldn&rsquo;t hold your breath waiting to see me pull that one off.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021518/9076222-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="76" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>Visit <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> to ask your questions of NHL stars!<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0006-01

FAN SHOOTOUT

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-07178/9076274-1-eng-US/f0006-072.jpg" title="f0006-07" width="251" height="251"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hat&rsquo;s keeping you up at night, hockey fans? If you&rsquo;ve got a question about the game, drop us an email we&rsquo;ll give you the inside scoop.</p><p>THN, I love the rule about no line changes for the team that ices the puck, but why is that disadvantage nullified for a TV timeout?</p><p>William Lange, Dania Beach, Fla.</p><p>William, TV timeouts are scheduled at specific points in a game: The first whistle after six, 10 and 14 minutes of play in each period. There are exceptions where play will continue until the next stoppage, but icing is not one of them.</p><p>THN, After Curtis <b>Glencross</b> of the Edmonton Oilers skated one lap in 13.37 seconds at the Oilers&rsquo; skills competition, they said he had unofficially beaten the record. So how does it become official?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03885/9076267-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="611" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Matthew Bronson, Edmonton.</p><p>Matthew, According to the NHL, the league does not receive results from the team skill shows, so unfortunately, Glencross&rsquo;s lap will remain unofficial league-wide.</p><p>THN, Can a player who breaks his stick pick up an opponent&rsquo;s stick and use it? If not, what is the penalty? Kevin Hunt, Greece, N.Y.</p><p>Kevin, Definitely a penalty. A ref can call it holding the stick, interference or unsportsmanlike conduct.</p><p>SEND YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS TO <a href="mailto:experts@thehockeynews.com">experts@thehockeynews.com</a></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04544/9076260-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="76" height="77"></div><p>Need more of your questions answered? Read Proteau&rsquo;s &lsquo;Ask Adam&rsquo; column every Tuesday and Friday at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0006-07

ASK THE EXPERTS

<p><i>After the trade deadline, who is the best team in the East?</i></p><p>Pittsburgh 47%</p><p>Montreal 26%</p><p>New Jersey 17%</p><p>Ottawa 9%</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-05421/9076312-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="496" height="695"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRIAN BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>SPIT IT OUT!</b></h2><p>GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST</p><p><i>SEND US AN E-MAIL</i></p><p><a href="mailto:letters@thehockeynews.com">LETTERS@THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a></p><p><i>OR LOG ON</i></p><p><a href="http://www.thehockeynews.com">WWW.THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a></p><p><i>SEND US SNAIL MAIL</i></p><p>Letters, The Hockey News 25 Sheppard Ave. W., Suite 100 Toronto, ON., M2N 6S7, Canada</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-06294/9076305-1-eng-US/f0006-062.jpg" title="f0006-06" width="76" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>BONUS!</b></h2><p>All subscribers get exclusive content on <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> with an ALL-ACCESS PASS!<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0006-05

POLL RESULTS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; DAVID POLLAK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012053/9076350-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMIE SABAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021388/9076357-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="181" height="206"></div><p>ON THE DAY defenseman Brian Campbell first appeared in San Jose&rsquo;s dressing room, he down-played his arrival.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to come in here and try to fit in as quietly as possible,&rsquo;&rsquo; he said.</p><p>Yeah, right.</p><p>Anyone who saw Campbell&rsquo;s first home game as a Shark knows there was nothing quiet about the goal he scored against Montreal. First came the deft spin-o-rama move to elude defenseman Mike Komisarek, then came the perfect backhand shot that slid underneath Carey Price&rsquo;s pads.</p><p>Quiet? The crowd roared.</p><p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t see guys pull that move every day,&rsquo;&rsquo; said center Joe Thornton, who played summer hockey with Campbell from age 7 to 14.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so beautiful to watch. He just adds a new element to our offense.&rdquo;</p><p>Sharks GM Doug Wilson had to send right winger Steve Bernier and a first round draft pick to Buffalo to obtain Campbell, who&rsquo;s eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.</p><p>But whatever the long-term risk, the shortterm gain was instant. Campbell, 28, had a goal and five points in his first five games with San Jose &ndash; and the Sharks went 5-0-0.</p><p>Not that there weren&rsquo;t some adjustments that had to be made.</p><p>Consider the defense pairings. Sharks coach Ron Wilson initially had Campbell alongside Doug Murray, but also gave his new defenseman some shifts with Christian Ehrhoff, Craig Rivet and Matt Carle. And when Murray was out with the flu, Campbell and Alexei Semenov skated together.</p><p>On the power play, there was yet another look. At times, Campbell had the blueline to himself in a 1-3-1 setup. Other times, the Sharks put center Joe Pavelski on the point with Campbell.</p><p>All that variety, Campbell acknowledged, &ldquo;took awhile to get used to. We didn&rsquo;t do that very much in Buffalo.&rsquo;&rsquo;</p><p>Still, Campbell managed to dazzle his teammates, coaches and the home crowd, which chanted &ldquo;sign him, sign him, sign him&rdquo; in the final seconds of San Jose&rsquo;s 6-4 victory over Montreal.</p><p>In his first five games wearing teal, the Sharks went 7-for-21 with the man advantage &ndash; which translates to almost twice their success rate on the season. Campbell was third among all NHL defensemen in assists, and fifth in points.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got tremendous speed,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Ron Wilson. &ldquo;He can skate the puck up the ice on the power play breakout by himself, he can back the other team off. He&rsquo;s got poise at the point. He kind of reminds me of Phil Housley.&rsquo;&rsquo;</p><p>The coach said he also sees the impact Campbell&rsquo;s presence is having on the Sharks&rsquo; other defenders.</p><p>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s contagious,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Wilson of Campbell&rsquo;s ability to get pucks out of danger. &ldquo;Now you see a lot of our &lsquo;D&rsquo; start to handle pucks like they&rsquo;ve never done before.&rsquo;&rsquo;</p><p>Not to oversimplify, but if the Sharks are going to avoid another disappointing post-season, much of the responsibility falls to two players &ndash; Thornton and Campbell &ndash; with more than a little history together, even if it came as boys in Ontario. Their relationship has evidently remained strong, with Campbell moving into Thornton&rsquo;s house upon arriving in San Jose rather than a hotel.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031154/9076343-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="969" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body">Campbell&rsquo;s offense is his forte, but he knows his way around the defensive end, too. <span class="photo-credit">(MARK BUCKNER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Thornton likes what the Campbell acquisition says about his GM and the team.</p><p>&ldquo;This is obviously what Dougie thought we needed to be a huge force in the West and it shows he has a lot of faith in this team this year,&rsquo;&rsquo; Thornton said. &ldquo;The team&rsquo;s going to be a lot better with Brian Campbell and that&rsquo;s the bottom line.&rsquo;&rsquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0007-01

CAMPBELL SOUPS UP SAN JOSE’S ATTACK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012180/9076402-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="306" height="272"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021642/9076395-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="503" height="503"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MIKE STOBE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>VISORS ON, STICKS DOWN High-sticking infractions have gone down since the AHL implemented mandatory visors.</p><p>ANDERSON SUPER 134 shots against, one goal allowed for Florida&rsquo;s Craig Anderson over a three-start stretch.</p><p>BACK ON TRACK The Jonathan Cheechoo train is back on track as the Shark has rediscovered his goal-scoring touch.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-04634/9076388-1-eng-US/f0008-042.jpg" title="f0008-04" width="503" height="503"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HENRY DI ROCCO/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>THRASH AND BURN Looks like Atlanta is back to its old missing-the-playoffs ways after last year&rsquo;s division title.</p><p>ROUGH RE-ENTRY After a long AHL stint, Dan Cloutier posted an .873 SP and 3.86 GAA through early March in the NHL.</p><p>COACH KICKED Bryan Murray verbally abuses refs, gets the boot and watches Ducks once again top his Sens.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-01

PLUS/MINUS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; HERB ZURKOWSKY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011963/9076464-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Streit has played both forward and defense for the Habs. <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span> LIFELONG DEFENSEMAN, MARK STREIT THOUGHT IT</b>&nbsp;odd when his coach came to him last season and wanted to convert him into a forward. But Streit wanted to play regularly for the Montreal Canadiens, so he acquiesced.</p><p>&ldquo;Last year was my breakthrough year in the NHL,&rdquo; Streit said. &ldquo;But at the beginning of the year, there wasn&rsquo;t a spot available on defense. I just wanted to play, so it didn&rsquo;t matter. For sure it was odd, because I had never played forward in my life. But I learned (I was being moved up front) just before a game, so I didn&rsquo;t have time to think about it.&rdquo;</p><p>The 30-year-old Swiss veteran is one of a growing number of swing guys &ndash; players converted from defensemen to forwards or vice-versa &ndash; throughout the league. Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau has helped to popularize the trend, mainly because he has a plethora of defensemen at his disposal and wants the majority of them to play. Plus, in the event of an injury along the blueline, he has an easily deployable backup plan.</p><p>The move transformed the 6-foot, 197-pound Streit from an undersized defenseman to a versatile athlete who can adapt to any role. Not only has he been used on both wings, but Streit plays the point on the power play, too.</p><p>&ldquo;It was tough to find a regular spot for him on defense, because we already had some small guys,&rdquo; Carbonneau said. &ldquo;But we wanted him in the lineup because he&rsquo;s valuable on the power play. He&rsquo;s really good at both positions.&rdquo;</p><p>Following the success of Streit, who scored 10 goals and 36 points in 76 games last season, Carbonneau tried it again at training camp this year, moving Mathieu Dandenault to right wing. Dandenault played forward in junior, but was moved to defense early in his career by then-Detroit coach Scotty Bowman. With the Wings loaded at forward, and knowing it would be difficult to crack the lineup, Dandenault had no choice but to learn the job on the fly.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so much easier if you&rsquo;re a defenseman going to forward,&rdquo; said the 32-year-old. &ldquo;You have two defensemen backing you up if you make mistakes. It was tough playing defense at first and I had to watch the other players.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Now, moving back to forward, I have to play the gap 1-on-1, staying close to forwards through the neutral zone and trying to block the blueline. But it&rsquo;ll be good for my career as a player. It&rsquo;ll probably keep me in the league longer.&rdquo;</p><p>Both players agree not everyone can handle the transition. There are different patterns of skating between the two positions, for example, and positioning becomes important. &ldquo;You need to be able to adapt quickly to new situations, face the challenge and be positive,&rdquo; Streit said.</p><p>Streit and Dandenault aren&rsquo;t the only NHLers who have had to adapt. Sergei Fedorov used to play some &lsquo;D&rsquo; in Detroit under coach Scotty Bowman, while Chicago&rsquo;s Dustin Byfuglien, Ottawa&rsquo;s Christoph Schubert, Buffalo&rsquo;s Nathan Paetsch, Florida&rsquo;s Steve Montador, Los Angeles&rsquo; Jon Klemm, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Brooks Orpik &ndash; and several others &ndash; have turned the two-way trick this season.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0009-01

THE SWINGERS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012149/9076578-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Johnny Bower and the &rsquo;59 Leafs closed a seven-point gap with five games left to make the playoffs. <span class="photo-credit">(DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN ALL HOPE APPEARED LOST,</b> Johnny Bower remembers the words of coach Punch Imlach. &ldquo;I know we&rsquo;re going to get into the playoffs,&rdquo; Bower recalls Imlach telling his Toronto Maple Leafs as they entered the stretch drive of the 1958-59 NHL regular season.</p><p>Although the Leafs were about to embark on one of the most remarkable playoff surges in league history, Imlach clearly was alone in this notion. With five games left in the season, Toronto trailed the New York Rangers by seven points for the fourth and final playoff position in the six-team league.</p><p>Starting with a home-and-home sweep of the Rangers, Toronto made it a race. A 6-3 win over the first-place Canadiens at Montreal and a 5-4 triumph over Chicago set the stage for the last day of the season. The Leafs rallied for a 6-4 decision at Detroit and, when Montreal beat the Rangers, Toronto was in the playoff hunt. &ldquo;That was really something,&rdquo; Bower said. &ldquo;I think everybody went to church there.&rdquo;</p><p>But the journey was only beginning. Facing the Bruins in the semifinal, the Leafs quickly fell behind with a pair of losses at Boston. Toronto rallied and returned to Boston for the decisive seventh game &ndash; and pulled off a third period comeback in a 3-2 win. &ldquo;When you win like that, you figure you&rsquo;re on your way (to the Stanley Cup),&rdquo; Bower said. &ldquo;Then we got to Montreal and, boy, did the Canadiens have other ideas.&rdquo;</p><p>Montreal bounced the Leafs in five games to win their fourth of what would be five straight Cups, but it did nothing to diminish one of the greatest comebacks to make the playoffs in NHL history.</p><p>Twenty years ago, the Rangers were the unfortunate victims of another famous charge, this one by the 1987-88 New Jersey Devils. Two changes turned around the Devils &ndash; in January, Jim Schoenfeld replaced Doug Carpenter as coach and goalie Sean Burke joined the club in March after playing for Canada at the Olympics. Burke won 10 of 11 starts and New Jersey went 7-0-1 in its final eight games, with John MacLean&rsquo;s overtime goal giving them a 4-3 win at Chicago on the final day of the season. Both the Devils and Rangers finished with 82 points, but New Jersey got the playoff spot on the basis of more wins (38-36).</p><p>&ldquo;There was just a sense in the dressing room that we were going to do it,&rdquo; said former Devil Pat Verbeek.</p><p>Like the Leafs, the Devils were merely tuning up. They beat the Islanders in a six-game Round 1 series and got past Washington in seven games in Round 2. New Jersey battled Boston to Game 7 of the Wales Conference final before succumbing 6-2, coming up one win shy of a trip to the final.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04676/9076571-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="251" height="251"></div><h2><b>WHAT&rsquo;S IN YOUR SUITCASE WADE BELAK?</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021556/9076564-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="362" height="358"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03977/9076557-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="384" height="361"></div><p>&ldquo;I always carry a pair of SHORTS and a tank top to wear around the hotel. I love my heavy metal and I used to bring my IPOD on road trips, but it&rsquo;s busted now and the battery won&rsquo;t charge so I spend more time reading BOOKS. Right now I&rsquo;m reading a biography of Billy The Kid and I just finished two stories by adventure writer Jon Krakauer.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-01

GREAT PLAYOFF PUSHES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-05491/9076609-1-eng-US/f0010-052.jpg" title="f0010-05" width="719" height="939"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SCOTT A. SCHNEIDER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>PATRICK KANE</b></p><p>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS, RW</p><p>DEBUT Oct. 4</p><p> VS. Minnesota (1-0 loss)</p><p> ICE TIME 16:44, 21 shifts</p><p> KEY STAT 1 faceoff won, 2 PIM</p><p><b>&ldquo;MY FIRST GAME</b> came in the season opener against Minnesota and it was all kind of a blur, actually. I remember I was playing with Yanic Perreault and Jason Williams.</p><p>My first shift, I was so hyped up that a puck came toward me and I didn&rsquo;t even see it. Had I seen it, I probably would have got it right on my stick. I had an open net, but I didn&rsquo;t see the puck, otherwise I think I would have been able to put it in.</p><p>Kevyn Adams has been really good. I kind of knew him before, playing in golf tournaments in Buffalo and then I heard he was traded to Chicago, so that was good.</p><p>We roomed together in training camp and he took me under his wing, showed me what rookies should do, showed me the ropes. He&rsquo;s a really nice guy who loves the game.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-05

FRESH LEGS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021346/9076654-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="245" height="206"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011860/9076668-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="230" height="281"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-07404/9076661-1-eng-US/f0011-072.jpg" title="f0011-07" width="196" height="195"></div><p> with Valtteri Filppula</p><p>Detroit&rsquo;s young Finn says his homeland is embracing hip hop.</p><p>1 NAME Unforgiven</p><p>ARTIST Metallica</p><p>VF: The original&rsquo;s the best.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03901/9076647-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="245" height="208"></div><p>2 NAME Where The Streets Have No Name</p><p>ARTIST U2</p><p>VF: U2 has lots of great songs.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-04682/9076640-1-eng-US/f0011-042.jpg" title="f0011-04" width="245" height="208"></div><p>3 NAME Bridging the Gap</p><p>ARTIST Nas</p><p>VF: This is for relaxing. In summer, you go out to the clubs in</p><p>Finland and hear hip hop. It&rsquo;s getting bigger. I like that.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-02

ROCKIN’ OUT

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-05530/9076706-1-eng-US/f0011-052.jpg" title="f0011-05" width="532" height="915"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FOCUS ON SPORT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-06451/9076699-1-eng-US/f0011-062.jpg" title="f0011-06" width="1019" height="679"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MITCHELL LAYTON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen Alex Ovechkin recorded a hat trick against Boston in a 10-2 Capital drubbing March 3, he became the fastest NHLer to reach 50 goals &ndash; it was Washington&rsquo;s 67th game &ndash; since Pavel Bure scored his 50th in Florida&rsquo;s 63rd game in 1999-2000. Ovechkin will have to pick up the pace in the future, though. His impressive effort this year was just the 47th-fastest to 50 goals in NHL history. The top 10, led by Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s 50 in 39 in &rsquo;81-82, is at right.</p><h2><b>ONE WAYNE GRETZKY</b></h2><p>39 GAMES</p><h2><b>TWO WAYNE GRETZKY</b></h2><p>42 GAMES</p><h2><b>THREE MARIO LEMIEUX</b></h2><p>46 GAMES</p><h2><b>FOUR WAYNE GRETZKY</b></h2><p>49 GAMES</p><h2><b>FIVE BRETT HULL</b></h2><p>49 GAMES</p><h2><b>SIX MAURICE RICHARD</b></h2><p>50 GAMES</p><h2><b>SEVEN MIKE BOSSY</b></h2><p>50 GAMES</p><h2><b>EIGHT BRETT</b>&nbsp;<b>HULL</b></h2><p>50 GAMES</p><h2><b>NINE BERNIE NICHOLLS</b></h2><p> 51 GAMES</p><h2><b>TEN CHARLIE SIMMER</b></h2><p>51 GAMES<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-05

BRINGING BACK THE 50s

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-031051/9076744-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andrei Kostitsyn <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012092/9076751-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="206" height="246"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>ITHOUT A PLAYER TRANSFER AGREEMENT between the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation, relations between the NHL and the Russians have taken on something of a Wild West quality of late.</p><p>On one side, you have the NHL poaching the most talented Russian players in ways every bit as cloak-and-dagger as they were in the days of communism (see Ovechkin, Alex and Malkin, Evgeni).</p><p>On the other side, you have the Russians fighting back with vast oil money. Some people in the Russian hockey establishment have visions of creating a European super league that would steal some of that top Russian talent back from under the noses of the NHL with millions of dollars in tax-free cash. The new Russian attitude has certainly made for a sexy story in North America, where some people are being duped into thinking a continent with undersized buildings and a negligible hockey presence will one day compete with the NHL.</p><p>It&rsquo;s time for a reality check. No European league will ever seriously compete with the NHL for the most elite talent. Aleksey Morozov is a decent player and all, but the only players the Russian League has been able to poach from the NHL in the past couple of years have been third-liners such as Oleg Saprykin and Alexander Perezhogin or over-the-hill veterans such as Alexei Yashin and Darius Kasparaitis.</p><p>There is talk a number of teams in Russia will take a serious run at potential restricted free agent Andrei Kostitsyn, who has emerged as a 20-goal scorer and potential star with the Montreal Canadiens this season. The Canadiens know they&rsquo;ll likely have to overpay Kostitsyn this summer to keep him from going to Russia, but there are also veiled threats he might bolt to the Russian League regardless of whether he&rsquo;s under contract to the Canadiens or not.</p><p>So you have one league stealing players and another threatening to steal them back. But even though there&rsquo;s no agreement between the two, there are signs of sanity setting in here.</p><p>First of all, the Russian Duma has moved to prevent the Malkin and Ovechkin situations from ever happening again. The two players were able to leave binding contracts in Russia because of a loophole in Russian labor law that allowed athletes and entertainers to break their contracts simply by providing two weeks&rsquo; notice. The Duma has now passed a law that will extend that notice to one month and, more importantly, force athletes and entertainers to negotiate a buyout with their employer before the contract is signed.</p><p>Secondly, the IIHF has made it clear to the Russians that if they sign any player under contract to an NHL team, that player will be &ldquo;red flagged,&rdquo; meaning he&rsquo;ll be barred from playing in any IIHF-sanctioned event such as the world championship and the Olympics, and the team will not be allowed to participate in any competitions such as the lucrative Continental Cup.</p><p>But there are a host of other reasons to believe the Russians will ultimately be unsuccessful in luring big stars to its league.</p><p>The formation of a new Russian league, also known as the Continental Hockey League, was made to great fanfare a couple of months ago. Alex Medvedev, the chief executive of natural gas producer Gazprom and one of the world&rsquo;s richest men, was unveiled as the man behind the new league and former NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Bob Goodenow was on board to help make it happen.</p><p>But what has happened since then? Well, the grand plans haven&rsquo;t exactly worked out. The only team outside of Russia that has applied to be in the league so far is a former second-tier team in Kazakhstan that plays in a 5,500-seat building, the same size as the Sudbury Arena. Teams in Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland want nothing to do with it and even if they did, the economics simply don&rsquo;t add up.</p><p>Medvedev and his allies will undoubtedly learn what many others have over the years &ndash; that it&rsquo;s all but impossible to topple the monolith that is the NHL.</p><p>First of all, you can count the number of NHL-type buildings in Europe on one hand. The topdrawing team in all of Europe is Bern in Switzerland, which averages 15,939 fans per game, making it the only team that gets the kind of numbers that successful NHL teams get. The top-drawing Russian team is Lokomotiv Yaroslavl at just under 9,000 fans per game.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">"You can count the number of NHL-type buildings in Europe on one hand</blockquote><p>In fact, Russian teams draw an average of about 5,000 fans per game and the average ticket price is about 150 rubles, which is the equivalent of about seven bucks. Does that sound like an economic system that can sustain the kinds of salaries it will take to lure top players away from the NHL? Not only that, some of the bigger teams in Russia currently spend up to $50 million on salaries, but the new Continental League will have a salary cap of about $25 million, which is well below the salary floor in the NHL.</p><p>So, in other words, it will take either a massive hike in ticket prices or a whole bunch of Alex Medvedevs willing to lose millions and millions of dollars for a long period of time for this league to even have a ghost of a chance to compete with the NHL.</p><p>That is why, whether there&rsquo;s an agreement between the NHL and the Russians or not, the best players will always find their way to the NHL. It has always been and will be that way forever more. It&rsquo;s certainly not as sexy as the notion of the big, bad NHL losing its monopoly, but it&rsquo;s a fact.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021633/9076737-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="76" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>For Ken&rsquo;s web-exclusive Campbell&rsquo;s Cuts column, visit <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-03

WAR FOR RUSSIANS WILL STAY COLD

<div class="byline">JOE STARKEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021560/9076782-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="827" height="1296"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steppin&rsquo; Up Malkin&rsquo;s points per game actually rose with Crosby out of the lineup. <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012069/9076789-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="207" height="246"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GREGORY SHAMUS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>BEFORE WE TALK SALARY CAP</b> (bet you can&rsquo;t wait), let&rsquo;s state the obvious: The Pittsburgh Penguins would be insane to trade Evgeni Malkin.</p><p>The Hockey News has heard of rumblings &ndash; something about the Kings dangling Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown as future bait for Malkin, who was only the best hockey player on the planet while Sidney Crosby was hurt.</p><p>Nothing against Kopitar and Brown, but neither one of them has shown signs of becoming a modern-day Mario Lemieux.</p><p>Do other teams dare to even ask about Malkin&rsquo;s availability?</p><p>&ldquo;No, not really,&rdquo; said Penguins GM Ray Shero. &ldquo;No, I can&rsquo;t say at this point that&rsquo;s happened. No calls about Crosby, either, so that&rsquo;s good.&rdquo;</p><p>Shero does have a problematic situation, but it&rsquo;s one every GM would take. Namely, how to keep all his fabulous young talent together longterm?</p><p>Short answer: He can&rsquo;t.</p><p>He isn&rsquo;t going to advertise as much, but consider his answer to this question: It doesn&rsquo;t seem realistic you&rsquo;ll be able to keep every single star, does it?</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have the crystal ball for that,&rdquo; Shero said. &ldquo;I do know that in this system, with any team, you have to make decisions with players. You see it in football all the time. There&rsquo;ll be plenty of tough decisions and maybe not popular decisions around the league. That&rsquo;s part of the way it&rsquo;s going to shake out as we go beyond the first few years of this CBA.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s the way it already has shaken out in places such as Tampa Bay &ndash; where the Lightning is held up as a cautionary tale of why it&rsquo;s so perilous to put all your pucks in one basket.</p><p>Or three baskets.</p><p>Tampa Bay was idiotic, the line of reasoning goes, to dedicate so much cap space to Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St-Louis and Brad Richards in the wake of winning it all four years ago.</p><p>Based on the Tampa Bay example &ndash; nary a playoff series win since their 2004 Stanley Cup and trading Richards to Dallas at the deadline &ndash; no other team should follow suit.</p><p>Really?</p><p>Let&rsquo;s take a closer look.</p><p>The Lightning made the playoffs twice after signing their Big 3, but quickly flamed out. Why? Bad goaltending, mostly. Not bad contracts.</p><p>That said, they did misfire on Richards. Lecavalier is a top-five player and deserved his money. The St-Louis deal looks pretty good &ndash; a cap hit of $5.25 million annually over the next three years. But Richards, now with Dallas, has a hit of $7.8 million annually through 2010-11.</p><p>Ouch. That&rsquo;s disastrous for a player who has cracked the 80-point barrier just once in his seven-year career.</p><p>The Penguins have an entirely different situation. They have two guaranteed elite players &ndash; perhaps on their way to all-time greatness &ndash; in Crosby and Malkin.</p><p>I don&rsquo;t know if Shero can keep Marian Hossa beyond this season. I certainly don&rsquo;t know if he can keep Jordan Staal, Marc-Andre Fleury, Kris Letang, Ryan Malone and Ryan Whitney (signed for the next five years) forever. I don&rsquo;t have the crystal ball on that.</p><p>But he&rsquo;d better keep Crosby and Malkin. Give me those two and the field &ndash; and some decent goaltending &ndash; and I have a chance.</p><p>Crosby signed a five-year, $43.5-million extension last summer, worth $8.7 million annually. By not demanding the max (a little more than $10 million), he saved the Pens nearly $7 million.</p><p>Malkin is in the second year of his three-year, entry level deal. The Penguins will attempt to negotiate an extension this summer. If he signs, it means the big money will arrive in 2009-10.</p><p>Will Malkin also take a discount? It could help that his agent, J.P. Barry, works with Crosby&rsquo;s agent, Pat Brisson, in the same company (CAA Sports). Let&rsquo;s assume Malkin signs for a similar average salary as Crosby and doesn&rsquo;t go all Ovechkin on the Penguins.</p><p>That still leaves a slew of issues. Fleury is a restricted free agent this summer and the cost of a No. 1 stopper has skyrocketed. What if he wins a Stanley Cup this spring?</p><p>With Crosby 1.13 PPG (52 pts in 46 games)</p><p>Without Crosby 1.71 PPG (36 pts in 21 games)</p><p>Staal was having a rough sophomore year and as such might not want to negotiate this summer.</p><p>Malone, having a career year, is scheduled for unrestricted free agency.</p><p>Hossa, who makes $7 million this season, certainly won&rsquo;t be taking less as a UFA.</p><p>Shero knows it all will come to a head in 2009-10, which is why so many veterans (Gary Roberts, Petr Sykora, Darryl Sydor, Hal Gill) are off the books before then. Shero would be wise to trade Sergei Gonchar ($5 million annual hit through 2009-10) to clear more room.</p><p>Hard decisions will have to be made, even if the salary cap continues to rise and even as the Penguins move into a new arena in 2010. No matter what, though, this team must retain its version of Gretzky and Messier, its version of Lemieux and Jagr.</p><p>At any cost.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-02

TRADE MALKIN? NOT IN A MILLION

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011846/9076862-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span>FTER THEIR FIRST 10 GAMES of the season, the New Jersey Devils had a record of 3-6-1 and were giving up an average of more than three goals per game. It was looking an awful lot like the Devils and their smarmy GM were finally going to receive their comeuppance.</p><p>And don&rsquo;t think there wasn&rsquo;t a good number of people outside the greater Newark area who wouldn&rsquo;t take an enormous amount of glee in watching the Devils finally go down the sinkhole. They, of course, would be the same people who have viewed the Devils as a blight on the NHL landscape for the past 15 years or so.</p><p>But these guys are worse than that Jason guy with the frickin&rsquo; goalie mask and the machete. Not only have the Devils picked themselves up from the mat since the first 10 games of the season, they&rsquo;ve once again rounded into the best defensive, most opportunistic, well-coached team in the league that just happens to have the best goalie in the world.</p><p>And as it turns out, that first 10 games (nine of which were played on the road while the finishing touches were put on their new home, the Prudential Center) was just a mulligan as far as coach Brent Sutter was concerned.</p><p>&ldquo;All along I&rsquo;ve told our guys we&rsquo;re playing a 72-game schedule,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;The first 10 games was a feeling-out process for the guys and for myself. Once that was over, we really started playing hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>No kidding. Through mid-March, the only team in the NHL that was better than the Devils (35-17-5, .658 winning percentage) after its first 10 games was the Detroit Red Wings (37-16-5, .681).</p><p>Oh yeah, and that part about Lamoriello being smarmy? It&rsquo;s not true. The truth is, Lamoriello is engaging, courteous and witty &ndash; and he actually almost always <i>is</i> the smartest guy in the room. When it was pointed out to him that it was somewhat remarkable his team was among the best in the Eastern Conference,  he simply smiled and said, &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t that where we&rsquo;re always supposed to be?&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011846/9076855-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="1619" height="1621"><figcaption class="caption-body">It doesn&rsquo;t matter who&rsquo;s wearing the jersey, every Devil pulls his weight.<span class="photo-credit">(MIKE STOBE/GETTY IMAGES; BRODEUR: JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>And while the Devils have added some wrinkles to their game under Sutter, they&rsquo;re doing it with the tried-and-true method of playing defense first and relying on the unwavering brilliance of Martin Brodeur. Sutter came in with grand plans to change the way New Jersey played and talked about starting backup Kevin Weekes as many as 20 times this year. He broke up the checking tandem of John Madden and Jay Pandolfo and didn&rsquo;t match lines in the early part of the season.</p><p>But Sutter, to his credit, realized early he might be trying to jam a square peg into a round hole, so he adapted to the skill set of the players on his roster. Or as Brodeur put it, &ldquo;You always go back to what you know best.&rdquo;</p><p>With 15 games to go, the Devils were on pace to allow pre-lockout levels in goals against and Weekes had started a grand total of five times. Brodeur wonders what all the fuss is about. He no longer has to drag himself to the rink for the morning skate on game days and, apparently, he doesn&rsquo;t see making 75 appearances a season as something that shouldn&rsquo;t be expected.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s still just a hockey game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that big of a deal.&rdquo;</p><p>It would probably be unfair to label the Devils as the defensive zealots they&rsquo;ve been in the past. The difference this season is they&rsquo;re far more energetic on the forecheck, playing an aggressive 1-2-2 system instead of a passive one. They certainly carry the puck more and have the freedom to move it up the ice creatively. Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Brian Rafalski have been replaced by Johnny Oduya (<i>Oduya wanna daaance?</i>), Andy Greene and Mike Mottau, but the Devils still have a mobile defense corps that is smart enough to be coached into being better.</p><p>So what&rsquo;s the story on those first 10 games? Madden claims the Devils were taking this offensive thing way too far until they came to their senses.</p><p>&ldquo;I think we were over-forechecking,&rdquo; Madden said. &ldquo;We really didn&rsquo;t understand what (Sutter) was saying. The message was &ndash; and he quickly sorted it out &ndash; that when he said to forecheck, it didn&rsquo;t mean all three of us (forwards) below the goal line. I think now we&rsquo;re finding a happy medium.&rdquo;</p><p>And that has taken some time and some undoing of old habits by some of the Devils veterans. Sutter is not a big fan of players skating backward through the neutral zone, but when something has been drilled into your brains so many times&hellip;</p><p>&ldquo;As much as Brent tells us to forecheck a little more, I think we tend to sit back too much and I think he&rsquo;s still trying to get that through our heads,&rdquo; Madden said. &ldquo;Lots of times I find myself setting up the trap and always, always, always on the defensive side of the puck. There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with that either, but the game has changed. You have to play with the puck.&rdquo;</p><p>Sutter points out that among the coaches, players and training staff, the Devils started with 16 new people in their dressing room. They effectively didn&rsquo;t replace the 60 assists Scott Gomez took with him to the New York Rangers or the puck-moving ability Rafalski relocated to Detroit.</p><p>&ldquo;You look at the Rangers going out and getting all these free agents and the Flyers signing all those guys and making all those trades and the Penguins with those two phenomenal kids and now (Marian) Hossa,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not doing anything like that, but we&rsquo;re still competing against them every night.&rdquo;</p><p>The Devils have certainly begun to spread out the ice more than they did and they&rsquo;re far more opportunistic capitalizing on the odd-man rushes their superior defensive positioning creates. There are a total of 19 Stanley Cups on the coaching staff and they can ice a lineup that has 18 silver chalices of their own.</p><p>Clearly, this is a group that has a pretty fair idea of what it takes to win championships. And in an Eastern Conference that is as muddled as it is mediocre, it wouldn&rsquo;t be a major surprise to see the Devils emerge as conference champions again this season. And any time you go into a Stanley Cup final with Brodeur as your goalie, you have to think your chances of winning are pretty high.</p><p>&ldquo;The accountability and paying attention to detail, it&rsquo;s always there,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;Sometimes it gets a little over the top, but you know what, if you want to be part of something great, the organization gives you a chance.</p><p>&ldquo;The only thing I ask from Lou when I sign is that I have a chance to win. The last time I did my deal (in 2006), I said, &lsquo;We aren&rsquo;t rebuilding, right? I want to stay here forever, but&hellip;&rsquo; And he was like, &lsquo;You know me. We&rsquo;re not rebuilding. We&rsquo;re doing this to win.&rsquo; You want to be a part of something like that.&rdquo;</p><p>One thing is certain, Lamoriello won&rsquo;t be stepping behind the bench this season. The Devils and Sutter have found a comfort zone with each other that comes with trust that is earned by both sides. Sutter might be coach of the year this season and is a good bet to be behind the bench for Canada at the 2010 Olympics. And, the Devils players always know where they stand with him.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011724/9076848-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="750" height="926"><figcaption class="caption-body">It took some time, but Brent Sutter and his charges have gelled. <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021315/9076841-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="903" height="734"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SCOTTCUNNINGHAM/NHLIVIAGETTYIMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;With (Sutter), it&rsquo;s all about being accountable,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;He makes your life miserable when you don&rsquo;t do things right.&rdquo;</p><p>The Devils will never be able to match the Red Wings when it comes to offense, but they find a way to score enough goals to win the majority of their games. They have changed their identity somewhat in that they now have the confidence to fight back and win games when they&rsquo;re behind. But when they&rsquo;re ahead, don&rsquo;t expect to see them give up too many scoring chances or for Brodeur to falter.</p><p>That much has, and always will be, a constant as long as Lamoriello is around. Sometimes it makes for dull hockey and sometimes it stifles players; it&rsquo;s no coincidence Niedermayer posted the best offensive numbers of his career the season after he left the Devils.</p><p>&ldquo;Our organization is not for every player,&rdquo; Lamoriello acknowledged, &ldquo;and not every player is for our organization. There are certain types of people who can accept what is asked of them. Those are the kinds of players we&rsquo;re looking for.&rdquo;</p><p>And New Jersey keep finding them, in places where a lot of other people aren&rsquo;t looking. The Devils found an undrafted Madden at the University of Michigan when they were watching their own first round pick, Brendan Morrison. Oduya apparently wasn&rsquo;t good enough for the Washington Capitals and had to go back to Sweden for five seasons after playing major junior hockey. Every team had an opportunity to sign Greene, but only the Devils were bold enough to take a chance on a 5-foot-11 defenseman.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03955/9076834-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="640" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDYMARLIN/NHLIVIAGETTYIMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Then they&rsquo;re picking 17th overall in 2003 and end up with Zach Parise. What&rsquo;s up with that?</p><p>&ldquo;People always ask me about the Devil way and I&rsquo;m not sure what they&rsquo;re getting at,&rdquo; Madden said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anything said here that&rsquo;s not said anywhere else, but at the same time, there&rsquo;s accountability from top to bottom. That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ve always done here.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>SINCE CUP NO. 1</b></h2><p>Devils&rsquo; rank in GAA, &lsquo;94-95 thru &lsquo;07-08</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011629/9076827-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="2804" height="3440"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04647/9076820-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="270" height="270"></div><h2><b>MOST WINS</b></h2><p>Since 1994-95 (New Jersey&rsquo;s first Cup):</p><p>Detroit 616</p><p>New Jersey 554</p><p> Colorado 551</p><p> Dallas 549</p><p> Philadelphia 512<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0015-01

DEVILS’ SOUL REMAINS THE SAME

<div class="byline">with Adam Proteau</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021183/9076900-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MITCHELL LAYTON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011560/9076907-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="207" height="246"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>F I WERE TO HAVE TOLD YOU in 1998 that a Russian Revolution would soon occur in the capital city of the United States, you probably would&rsquo;ve told me to slowly step away from the moonshine and stop attending so many Phish concerts.</p><p>Well, it&rsquo;s a decade later, and the Washington Capitals definitely are doing their part to bring a slice of Mother Russia into the heart of Uncle Sam country.</p><p>Already blessed with the superior talents of Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin &ndash; and bolstered by veteran center Viktor Kozlov &ndash; the Caps added a fourth Russian component when GM George McPhee acquired Sergei Fedorov from Columbus at the trade deadline.</p><p>For a number of reasons, it was an ideal destination for Fedorov, the elder statesman of Russian hockey.</p><p>Besides the fact he slips into the No. 2 center role vacated by the injured Michael Nylander, the former Blue Jacket, Duck and Red Wing once looked much like Ovechkin looks like right now &ndash; a Red Nightmare of an opponent, blooming fully into superstardom, with visions of Stanley Cups a tantalizing-but-unrealized dream.</p><p>And though he doesn&rsquo;t think one particular label accurately describes his role with the Caps, Fedorov acknowledges the fact his history and pedigree serve as a great example for The Two Alexes.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s 2008 and &lsquo;mentor&rsquo; seems like such a heavy kind of word,&rdquo; said Fedorov, now in his 17th NHL season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like I&rsquo;m with them on a daily basis, almost every minute of the day. It&rsquo;s more like me just being there, and hopefully, if they see something I do and they learn from it, that&rsquo;s great. Or if they have a question, I hope they feel comfortable asking, because I&rsquo;ll be happy to help. That&rsquo;s all it is.&rdquo;</p><p>For Ovechkin &ndash; whose spectacular play this season could very well result in him joining Fedorov as the only Russian players to win a Hart Trophy &ndash; having a childhood idol as a teammate is very much akin to a Canadian kid suiting up alongside Wayne Gretzky.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably the same,&rdquo; said Ovechkin of the comparison. &ldquo;For young guys, it&rsquo;s really important to have experienced guys like him.&rdquo;</p><p>Kozlov, who had a good year with the New York Islanders last season before signing with Washington,  echoed Ovechkin&rsquo;s praise of Fedorov&rsquo;s arrival.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great experience for me to kind of be in the middle, between the young (Russians) and Sergei, one of the greatest hockey players ever,&rdquo; Kozlov said. &ldquo;Sergei is a great teammate, high-class guy, helps players off and on the ice&hellip;and the young guys can learn a lot of stuff from him. But not just the two Alexes, even myself and everybody on the team can learn from him.&rdquo;</p><p>Bruce Boudreau had only been able to utilize Fedorov for a few games when he spoke to THN in early March, but, like Ovechkin and Kozlov, the Caps coach was more than impressed with what he saw.</p><p>&ldquo;To me, Sergei just exudes class,&rdquo; Boudreau said. &ldquo;He reminds me of a Russian Jean Beliveau and if I&rsquo;m a young hockey player, whether I&rsquo;m Russian, Canadian or what, I see him and say, &lsquo;If that&rsquo;s how a superstar handles himself, then that&rsquo;s the kind of guy I want to be.&rsquo; &rdquo;</p><p>If only Fedorov had been afforded that much respect early in his career, when, as the Unknown Quantity Talented Outsider, he was gawked at, poked and prodded like a sideshow oddity.</p><p>That explains why he&rsquo;s a little envious of the progressive approach the current NHL takes with its foreign-born youngsters.</p><p>&ldquo;Their situation is a little bit better than mine,&rdquo; said Fedorov of Ovechkin and Semin. &ldquo;When I was growing up in Detroit, every time we&rsquo;d lose a playoff round, it was my fault. At least, that&rsquo;s how I felt as a young player.</p><p>&ldquo;When I came into the NHL, I was like something from another world, because nobody here knew about Soviet players. But now, it&rsquo;s expected that good players will come out of Russia. And now people see players like Alexander Semin and Alex Ovechkin and they have a little bit more patience.&rdquo;</p><p>And how does Fedorov feel about the &lsquo;Russian Revolution&rsquo; tag?</p><p>&ldquo;Hopefully, people will take your phrase not as a Cold War sign,&rdquo; he said with a chuckle. &ldquo;Hopefully we do not offend the rest of the team or the organization by (calling it) a &lsquo;Russian Revolution.&rsquo; It sounds pretty strong still, don&rsquo;t you think?&rdquo;</p><p>Yes it does, Sergei. And depending on how well the Caps perform the rest of the season, it could sound a hell of a lot stronger.</p><h2><b>Goals by Russians</b></h2><p>With 150 goals, Alex Ovechkin may one day usurp Sergei Fedorov.</p><p>Alexander MOGILNY 473</p><p><b>SERGEI FEDOROV</b>&nbsp;470</p><p> Pavel BURE 437</p><p> Alex KOVALEV 362</p><p> Alexei YASHIN 337</p><p> Slava KOZLOV 320</p><p> Alex ZHAMNOV 249</p><p> Ilya KOVALCHUK 245</p><p> Valeri KAMENSKY 200</p><p> Sergei SAMSONOV 189</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03822/9076893-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="76" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>For Adam&rsquo;s web-exclusive Screen Shots column, visit <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0019-02

FEDOROV JOINS CAPITALS’ RED ARMY

<div class="byline">WORDS BY MIKE BROPHY </div><div class="byline">IMAGE BY GLENN JAMES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011213/9076959-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div><p><b>IF THERE IS ONE THING BRETT HULL IS, IT&rsquo;S SELF-ASSURED.</b></p><p><b>So it was rather odd for Hull to feel a little out of his element while attending his very first NHL general managers&rsquo; meetings in Naples, Fla., as co-GM of the Dallas Stars.</b></p><p><b>&ldquo;On the first night when we gathered for dinner, I told the other managers that not in my wildest dreams did I ever think this would be a part of my life,&rdquo; Hull says. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Please let me start out by apologizing to everybody that I offended or rubbed the wrong way.&rsquo; &rdquo;</b></p><p><b>The free-spirited Golden Brett always imagined riding off into the sunset when his playing days ended and spending the majority of his time at the country club, playing a round of 18 holes most days. Hunkering down with the</b>&nbsp;<b>rest of the NHL&rsquo;s GMs trying to set the course the game will take in the future while making decisions about how he and fellow co-GM, Les Jackson, can get the Stars back to the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 2000 wasn&rsquo;t on his radar.</b></p><p><b>Meanwhile, over in Phoenix, another former superstar is trying with all his might to get the Coyotes into the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. On a day when his old buddy Hull took in a morning meeting with the other GMs and then shot a round of golf in the afternoon, Wayne Gretzky spent a pleasantly calm night behind the bench as his Coyotes skunked the Los Angeles Kings 4-0.</b></p><p><b>So let&rsquo;s get this straight: Brett Hull&rsquo;s a GM? Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s a coach?</b></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011372/9076952-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="2395" height="1727"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky is much more animated as a coach than he was as a player. <span class="photo-credit">(NORM HALL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b><i>Truth be told, they didn&rsquo;t see it coming either.</i></b></p><p>&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve surprised a lot of people,&rdquo; Gretzky says. &ldquo;Listen, as a player I was the first guy to stand up and say, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll never coach.&rsquo; I said it my whole career. But when you retire, you wonder, what can you do that will give you that same excitement you felt as a player? You find out really quickly you&rsquo;ll never replace that so you try to find something that is the next best thing. To me, being a coach and being in the (dressing) room and taking the blame when you aren&rsquo;t successful and being showered with accolades when things are going well, that is the closest thing to being a player.&rdquo;</p><p>After retiring in 1999, Gretzky became the alternate governor and managing partner of the Coyotes. The stakes got a whole lot higher when, on Aug. 8, 2005, he was named coach.</p><p>&ldquo;I was flabbergasted when he first took the job,&rdquo; Hull says, &ldquo;but does anybody love the game more than Wayne Gretzky? He loves being in the action, so after my initial shock, I&rsquo;m really not surprised. He is a great coach and I&rsquo;ve said that from Day 1. He understands the game and he played on those great teams in Edmonton that had unbelievable talent, toughness and grit. He understands what it takes to make up a team. I don&rsquo;t think I could coach because my best players would play all the time and the other guys would sit. But Wayne knows you need other people on the ice doing the other jobs.&rdquo;</p><p>Coaching big-league hockey is not for the faint of heart&hellip;and, apparently, not for the game&rsquo;s greatest players. Superstar Maurice Richard lasted just two weeks behind the bench of the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Quebec Nordiques. The Rocket said he couldn&rsquo;t handle the pressure and the job forced him to spend too much time away from his family. Ted Lindsay tried his hand at coaching on an interim basis, but managed just five wins and three ties to go with 21 losses in his 29 games behind the bench. Even Bobby Orr served as an assistant coach of the Chicago Blackhawks when he was injured and again after he retired, but that didn&rsquo;t last, either.</p><p>In fact, only three members of the NHL&rsquo;s 500-goal club have even coached in the NHL &ndash; Gretzky, Phil Esposito and Bryan Trottier. Only Espo, at 24-21-0, has a winning record. (Trottier&rsquo;s record is 21-27-6.) That&rsquo;s not to say no star player has what it takes to coach. Anaheim&rsquo;s Randy Carlyle, while not a Hall of Famer, did win the Norris Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s best defenseman in 1981 and now has a Stanley Cup ring after leading the Ducks to the championship last season.</p><p>In his first two campaigns, Gretzky was 69-85-10 and the Coyotes missed the playoffs both years. Things are looking up this year, but even at 34-28-5 the Coyotes stood 10th in the Western Conference and were a long shot to make the postseason. As much as he&rsquo;d give anything to make it, Gretzky has come to understand it is a process.</p><p>&ldquo;To me the biggest adjustment a player has to make is from working a three-hour day to working a 10-hour day,&rdquo; says Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock, who has worked with Gretzky with the Canadian men&rsquo;s Olympic team. &ldquo;Any ex-player can have success as a coach if he understands the amount of time that is necessary to put into the job to be successful. The one thing about Wayne is his love for every aspect of the game is holding him in good stead now because he&rsquo;s able to help with his knowledge, but he has also learned to put in the time that is necessary to be a good coach.&rdquo;</p><p>Like all coaches, Gretzky arrives at the rink early and his routine depends on whether it&rsquo;s a game day or a practice day. Regardless, it usually starts with watching video. Gretzky gives a lot of credit to his coaching staff, which includes associate coach Ulf Samuelsson and assistants Rick Tocchet and Grant Fuhr.</p><p>&ldquo;By the time I see the video I&rsquo;m seeing about one-fifth of the video they have broken down,&rdquo; Gretzky says.</p><p>Skate with the players, meet with the media, meet with the players, go over scouting reports about the opposition&hellip;it&rsquo;s all in a day&rsquo;s work when you coach in the NHL.</p><p>&ldquo;As the coach you have to have the capacity to want to do all of that,&rdquo; Gretzky says. &ldquo;The people I&rsquo;ve met in hockey, the Ken Hitchcocks, the John Mucklers, and people like that, it is their life. They&rsquo;re not working; they&rsquo;re enjoying their life.&rdquo;</p><p>Enjoying life. That has kind of been Brett Hull&rsquo;s motto. He never made any bones about it. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean he didn&rsquo;t take his profession seriously. In fact, when The Hockey News showed up in Detroit a few years ago to do a story about how Hull would change the game, he came prepared with a pad full of notes and a head full of ideas. Hull always tried to disappear on the ice, but when it comes to improving the game, he has always stood front and center.</p><p>When the Stars stumbled early this season, GM Doug Armstrong was fired and replaced by Hull and Jackson. It may be an unusual setup, but thus far it has worked. The Stars were second overall in the standings March 7 and were narrowing the gap on Detroit.</p><p>Hull may have knocked heads with a few coaches, specifically Hitchcock, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean he isn&rsquo;t management material. So if you think Hitchcock is shocked at Hull&rsquo;s current job description, you&rsquo;re wrong. A two-time Stanley Cup winner with Dallas and Detroit and the third-leading goal-scorer of all-time, Hull didn&rsquo;t exactly fall off the turnip truck.</p><p>&ldquo;Hully is a smart guy,&rdquo; Hitchcock says. &ldquo;He has a feel for the players, so it doesn&rsquo;t surprise me. I didn&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d be in a general manager position this early, I don&rsquo;t think anybody did. But as far as analyzing players and figuring out what kind of players make up a good team, he has always had a good feel for that. You just thought he might take a little bit of a break before he had to roll up his sleeves. The eye opener for him will be the patience required to do the job at this level. It doesn&rsquo;t happen as most players want it to happen. It takes time.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011225/9076945-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="1261" height="881"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull and ex-Stars GM Doug Armstrong, with top pick Nico Sacchetti. <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Gretzky agrees. When he heard his old pal had a shot at becoming an executive, he was delighted.</p><p>&ldquo;I was ecstatic for him,&rdquo; Gretzky says. &ldquo;I actually talked to him that morning and he said he wasn&rsquo;t sure what was going to transpire, but the word was he and Les Jackson were going to be brought in to work together. I told Brett, &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got nothing to lose. It&rsquo;s a pretty good hockey club, you&rsquo;ve got a really good coaching staff, it&rsquo;s a good organization and you&rsquo;ve got a perfect right-hand man. You guys will be tremendous together.&rsquo; By the end of the conversation Hully was like, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re right. I want to do it.&rsquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I think he was a little bit nervous because he had a lot of respect for Doug Armstrong. And for as funny and jovial as he is, Brett is a real compassionate guy. I think deep down he was feeling a lot of sadness for other people in the organization, but I explained this is the business side of the game. I told him everything he said he wanted to see done in the past 15 years he&rsquo;ll now have a chance to try to get it done. And I told him he&rsquo;s going to find out real quick it&rsquo;s a lot harder than you think. When you&rsquo;re a player you always wonder why can&rsquo;t the organization do this or do that? Well, it&rsquo;s easier said than done. Just because you want somebody from another team doesn&rsquo;t mean you&rsquo;re going to get him.&rdquo;</p><p>Hull has taken things in stride thus far, prepared to learn the nuances of being a successful GM.</p><p>&ldquo;I imagine people thought Wayne would become a coach long before I would become a manager,&rdquo; Hull says with a laugh. &ldquo;I love it&hellip;Working with Les Jackson is great. I imagine a lot of GMs are scratching their heads that I have this job. A lot of them had experience as an assistant GM first, but for me to be put in this position and working with Les, who is very experienced, has been great.&rdquo;</p><p>The fact is, these days it is fashionable for ex-stars to be placed in management positions. Steve Yzerman is a vice-president with the Red Wings and many feel he is being groomed to one day be the team&rsquo;s GM. Al MacInnis is VP of hockey operations for St. Louis; Luc Robitaille is the president of business operations with the Kings; Ron Francis is the director of player development with Carolina; Doug Gilmour is a player development advisor with the Maple Leafs; and, Joe Nieuwendyk is special advisor to the GM in Florida.</p><p>Both Gretzky and Hull are best known for their offensive exploits, but winning in the NHL is spelled D-E-F-E-N-S-E. And both men know they have to acknowledge that fact.</p><p>&ldquo;Changes in the philosophy had to come, but they aren&rsquo;t drastic changes,&rdquo; Hull says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a guy who loves games to be played with puck control and give-and-go and passing. I like the game played with speed, intelligence and skill, but also knowing there is a part of the game you need to play in order to win that isn&rsquo;t that glamorous. I like offense, but coaches have to play the hand they are dealt. They have to coach whatever style suits the players they have.&rdquo;</p><p>Adds Gretzky: &ldquo;The system we play is geared to the forecheck with defensemen pinching to create turnovers in the offensive zone. From that point of view, we are an offensive team. The defense comes from us stressing the third guy always has to be high, don&rsquo;t leave your zone early. We don&rsquo;t trap. We built this team to be a fast, forechecking team similar to Calgary and San Jose and Colorado. Where I am a stickler is, team defense wins championships. I stress to my guys, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not going to stand here and teach you guys how to trap because I don&rsquo;t know how to trap.&rsquo; Going forward as an organization we are going to look for guys who are big, fast, strong and have skill. Our defense is going on offense&hellip;I tell our guys the less time we spend in our zone the fewer goals we&rsquo;re going to give up.&rdquo;</p><p>It has been a pretty easy ride for Hull thus far.</p><p>&ldquo;I think I stepped into a very good situation with a team that was already built,&rdquo; Hull says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m learning on the job, learning new things every day. Well, maybe not every day. I still play golf. Never thinking I would ever do this job and to now have the opportunity to see how this side of the business works is fascinating. Being at the GMs&rsquo; meetings (was) invaluable.&rdquo;</p><p>Is there any valuable lesson that stands out over all the others?</p><p>&ldquo;You have to have the patience of Job to sit back and watch your kids develop,&rdquo; Hull says. &ldquo;You have to be patient when your team is going through a down time. You can&rsquo;t hit the panic switch. You have to understand it isn&rsquo;t just about now, it&rsquo;s about next year and the year after that, too.&rdquo;</p><p>Gretzky has had a few speed bumps coaching the Coyotes. Losing takes a toll on a superstar who is used to being able to do more individually to control the destiny of his team. Gretzky, who often looked so cerebral as a player while others around him succumbed to pressure, is decidedly more emotional as a coach. He has been known to blow the odd gasket.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of funny,&rdquo; says Coyotes defenseman Derek Morris, &ldquo;I only had the experience of playing against him for one year and he was so calm out there. If he made a play that wasn&rsquo;t up to par he just brushed it off and made that play the next time. Now maybe he thinks he can&rsquo;t control that part of it so he gets emotional to let us know he&rsquo;s involved in the game. He&rsquo;s not just standing back there killing time, he cares about what we&rsquo;re doing out there. Maybe that&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s so animated&hellip;because he cares so much.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011322/9076938-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="1283" height="1416"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hull and Gretzky were teammates in St. Louis for 31 games in 1996. <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">3 Number of Hall of Fame players holding down coaching or GM jobs in the NHL: Denis Savard in Chicago, Jacques Lemaire in Minnesota and Gretzky in Phoenix. Not one Hall of Fame player is a GM &ndash; though that may change when Brett Hull is inducted in 2009.</blockquote><blockquote class="pullQuote">232 Number of games it took Gretzky, the player, to win 100 games</blockquote><blockquote class="pullQuote">224 Number of games it took Gretzky, the coach, to win 100 games</blockquote><p>Gretzky admits losing has cost him some sleepless nights.</p><p>&ldquo;As a player, when you win everything is great,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When you lose, you&rsquo;re down about the loss, but you know tomorrow you&rsquo;ll be back at practice and things will be OK. As a coach, when we win I get so high. It&rsquo;s so exciting. When you lose, it&rsquo;s so strenuous you can&rsquo;t sleep at night. I meet in the morning with Grant and Rick and it&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;Did you guys sleep last night?&rsquo; You take the losses harder than you did as a player because as coach, that&rsquo;s one less game your team has a chance to win.&rdquo;</p><p>And what about his players? What&rsquo;s it like to be skating back to the bench after a shift seeing Wayne Gretzky standing there as your coach?</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing,&rdquo; Morris says. &ldquo;Except for when he&rsquo;s yelling at me, then it&rsquo;s not much fun.&rdquo;</p><p>Nobody knows what the future holds, but it&rsquo;s clear Gretzky and Hull are in it for the long haul.</p><p>&ldquo;People congratulated me on my 100th victory as a coach and to me it was like, &lsquo;Wow, 100 wins is nothing,&rsquo; &rdquo; Gretzky says. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s talk when I get to 400, 500 or 600 wins.&rsquo; People say, &lsquo;Are you going to coach that long?&rsquo; I say, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been here three years now and I still can&rsquo;t convince people that I am going to be here for the long run.&rsquo; Well, I am.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0021-01

BETCHA DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING

f0030-01

NHL TEAM REPORTS

<h2><b>WESTERN CONFERENCE</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011211/9077301-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="250" height="183"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02799/9077294-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="2745" height="3519"></div><h2><b>EASTERN CONFERENCE</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011081/9077287-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="246" height="183"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02741/9077280-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="2802" height="3542"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0036-01

DEPTH CHARTS

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN OKLOBZIJA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011166/9077381-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="963" height="1186"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>F SKATING HARD, BANGING BODIES and angering opponents were all Cal Clutterbuck needed to do, his days in the American League would be numbered.</p><p>Few youngsters are as good at playing the agitation game as Clutterbuck.</p><p>However, the rookie right winger needs to not only drive players into the boards, but also drive a few pucks into the net. Which is why Clutterbuck isn&rsquo;t ready to make the jump from the Houston Aeros to the Minnesota Wild just yet.</p><p>&ldquo;His physical play, his energy, his defensive game, they&rsquo;re all very good and to me he&rsquo;s right on the edge for any team that needs that kind of guy,&rdquo; said Houston coach Kevin Constantine. &ldquo;If they need a complete player, then maybe he&rsquo;s a year away or two years away.&rdquo;</p><p>The numbers bear it out. Through 51 AHL games, the 5-foot-11, 205-pound Clutterbuck scored nine goals and 18 points. He also had 68 penalty minutes.</p><p>While the 20-year-old native of Welland, Ont., did have back-to-back 35-goal OHL seasons with Oshawa, he is well aware of his assets and liabilities. And he&rsquo;s not going to stray from what he does best in hopes of producing more offense.</p><p>&ldquo;The reality of it is, I&rsquo;d probably be in the NHL already if they thought I could play like (Marian) Gaborik,&rdquo; Clutterbuck joked. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m working on my overall game. I want to keep doing what I&rsquo;m doing &ndash; bringing that physical play and agitation &ndash; and score some goals as well, but I don&rsquo;t want to let it take over everything I do. I&rsquo;m not looking to become a first-liner who gets 90 points in the NHL. I know what my game is.&rdquo;</p><p>Namely, it&rsquo;s playing the body often and getting opponents to keep looking over their shoulders. A third round draft pick (72nd overall) of the Wild in 2006, Clutterbuck takes pride in hitting hard.</p><p>&ldquo;I try to play physical all the time and I tend to get under the skin of opposing players,&rdquo; he said proudly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a hacker and whacker, but I can lay a pretty big hit.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s as much an art as going end to end with the puck.</p><p>&ldquo;As a 20-year-old, he has gone a long way in saying he might have a job in the NHL as a real highenergy guy,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;He has been our most consistently physical player. He&rsquo;s always going, he&rsquo;s always competing hard.&rdquo;</p><p>Which is what the Wild love to see. NHL teams want players who will be consistent over the grind of an 82-game season, especially when reliance on commercial flights dictates some crazy travel days.</p><p>&ldquo;He brings the same game night after night, it doesn&rsquo;t matter who we&rsquo;re playing against,&rdquo; Constantine said.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03636/9077374-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="222" height="221"></div><p>CAL CLUTTERBUCK</p><p>Houston Aeros</p><p>Ht. 5-11</p><p>Wt. 205</p><p>Pos. RW</p><p>Age 20</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04509/9077367-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="221" height="212"></div><p>AND COUNTING</p><p>4</p><p>Rank in THN&rsquo;s Future Watch &rsquo;08 among Wild prospects</p><h3><b>NOTES FROM THE WEST</b></h3><h2><b>Rochester pickin&rsquo; cherries</b></h2><p>Considering the Rochester Americans haven&rsquo;t been in playoff contention since January, coach Randy Cunneyworth and assistant Jason Cipolla decided to innovate by adding an unconventional breakout to a conventional game plan.</p><p>When the puck comes back into the defensive zone, either the right or left winger does not. He stays in the neutral zone. Cipolla learned it while playing in Europe.</p><p>Risky? Not really. To counteract the floater, the opponent feels compelled to drop a defenseman out to center. That means it&rsquo;s four-on-four in the Amerks zone and one long stretch pass shreds any trap.</p><p>The biggest advantage: Opponents have no idea what to do. &ldquo;It kind of throws them a curve ball,&rdquo; said Amerks center Dylan Hunter.</p><p>UNPACK For the past three seasons, Krys Kolanos was never in the same place long. This year, he has actually settled in with the Quad City Flames.</p><p>The Flames are glad, too. The center is having the most productive season of his sevenyear career (24 goals, 52 points through 46 games). Being in one place certainly doesn&rsquo;t hurt.</p><p>The 26-year-old Kolanos would love to play for his hometown Calgary Flames after suiting up in five different countries over the past few seasons.</p><p><b>&ndash; KEVIN OKLOBZIJA</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05406/9077360-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="175" height="175"></div><h3><b>HEY KONSTANTIN PUSHKAREV, EXPECT THE CALL</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07302/9077353-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="196" height="200"></div><p>Obtained from the Kings last season, the third-year winger from Kazakhstan has good skills and also is the Iowa Stars&rsquo; highest plus player.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06346/9077346-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="185" height="273"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JASON VILLANUEVA)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08252/9077339-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="314" height="89"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02786/9077332-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="78" height="79"></div><p>For more on hockey&rsquo;s best prospects, check out Ryan Kennedy&rsquo;s Hot List in the feature section on <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0038-01

PROSPECTS UNLIMITED

BUCKING HIS WAY UP

<div class="byline">BY PHIL JANACK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011074/9077440-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="966" height="1192"></div><p>AN ABUNDANCE OF GOD-GIVEN TALENT</p><p>is there, as it has been since the first time Rob Schremp ever laced up a pair of skates.</p><p>The rest of his game is steadily catching up.</p><p>In his second full professional season, Schremp continues to move toward becoming the player the Edmonton Oilers envisioned when they drafted him 25th overall in 2004.</p><p>Though the progress hasn&rsquo;t been as quick as his hands, the organization feels Schremp is closer than ever to cracking the NHL roster.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to make it just on his skill, but at the same time, he&rsquo;s got to be responsible and everything else,&rdquo; said ex-Oiler Kelly Buchberger, in his first season as coach of the Springfield Falcons, Edmonton&rsquo;s top farm team.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a lot of skill. He&rsquo;s got great vision and he&rsquo;s a great passer. He&rsquo;s got a lot of good qualities, no question&hellip;This is two years for Robbie. There&rsquo;s no question he&rsquo;s improved since last year on all parts of his game. To make the next step, he&rsquo;s got to be responsible in his own end.&rdquo;</p><p>Schremp had 17 goals and 53 points and an even rating in 69 games last season as a rookie for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where the Oilers sent their handful of top prospects in 2006-07 before landing a full team in Springfield. This year, Schremp leads the Falcons with 14 goals and 52 points through 57 games, with a minus-7 rating.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been pretty good,&rdquo; Schremp said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had my ups and downs, like the team. I think I could probably do a better job and be a little more consistent in my game. I&rsquo;ll go on a hot streak and then go three or four games without a point and it&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;What am I doing differently?&rsquo; Focus is the big thing.</p><p>&ldquo;Edmonton wants to see the consistency shift in and shift out, night in and night out, being the same player. I think I&rsquo;m pretty well adjusting to it.&rdquo;</p><p>Schremp, 21, got a brief, twogame look in Edmonton in the season&rsquo;s first month and has been in Springfield ever since. When he returned, he did so moving from center to left wing.</p><p>&ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s a better opportunity for me there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll fit in better at wing. I always played center my whole life, so it was a bit of a shock. There&rsquo;s been some growing pains, but at the end of the day, I&rsquo;ve got to look at it as it&rsquo;s my best shot at playing in the NHL.&rdquo;</p><p>Buchberger feels the switch will ultimately benefit Schremp.</p><p>&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s doing fine,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;His responsibility defensively is pretty much just watching his point coverage and battling on the boards. We thought it would be a good position for him so he could utilize most of his energy in the offensive zone.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02693/9077433-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="214" height="213"></div><p>ROB SCHREMP</p><p>Springfield Falcons</p><p>Ht. 5-11</p><p>Wt. 200</p><p>Pos. LW</p><p>Age 21</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03539/9077426-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="217" height="208"></div><p>AND COUNTING</p><p>3</p><p>Future Watch &rsquo;08 ranking among Oilers&rsquo; prospects</p><h3><b>NOTES FROM THE EAST</b></h3><h2><b>Philly legend to be honored</b></h2><p>It was appropriate that on Leap Day, the Philadelphia Phantoms handed out Bobby Clarke figurines based on the Flyers team MVP trophy which depicts his jump for joy after scoring the overtime winner in Game 2 of the 1974 Stanley Cup final.</p><p>On March 30, Clarke will be honored in another way, as the newest inductee to the Phantoms Hall of Fame.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud of my connection to the Phantoms and the success the team has achieved,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;To be recognized as a Hall of Fame member speaks to the great tradition of the AHL and NHL hockey in Philadelphia.&rdquo;</p><p>Now a senior vice-president with the Flyers, Clarke shared GM duties for both the NHL and AHL teams for 10 seasons (winning two Calder Cups) from the Phantoms&rsquo; inception in 1996.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very fitting for Bob to receive this honor,&rdquo; said Comcast-Spectacor president-COO Peter Luukko. &ldquo;His hard work over the years has helped the Phantoms become one of the AHL&rsquo;s premier franchises.&rdquo;</p><p>RAT INVASION</p><p>In their penultimate meeting of the season, the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils dressed a total of 18 players who skated, at one time, for the Albany River Rats. Albany was the Devils&rsquo; partner from 1993-2006 and is now Carolina&rsquo;s affiliate.</p><p><b>&ndash; PHIL JANACK</b></p><h2><b>ON</b>&nbsp;<b>TOP</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04446/9077419-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="186" height="274"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARTIN ST-PIERRE <span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTOPHER PASATIERI/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05372/9077412-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="210" height="215"></div><h2><b>MOST ASSISTS</b></h2><p>Rockford IceHogs</p><p>55 ASSISTS</p><p>Jason Krog, Chi 53</p><p>Cal O&rsquo;Reilly, Mil 51</p><p>Andrew Ebbett, Por 45</p><p>Teddy Purcell, Man 44<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0039-01

DEFENSE WINS NEXT-LEVEL JOB

<p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>VAN VISHNEVSKIY could&rsquo;ve made $200,000 in the Russian Super League at age 17. Instead, he decided to turn that down and leave his homeland for a $65 allowance every two weeks in the QMJHL.</p><p>&ldquo;I was looking at the big picture,&rdquo; said the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies defenseman. &ldquo;I left that money behind because I knew if I came here and kept improving I could make more in the long term.&rdquo;</p><p>Vishnevskiy was rewarded for his foresight when he signed a threeyear contract with Dallas last summer. It was for $850,000 per season and an $85,000 signing bonus.</p><p>&ldquo;I made a good decision to come here because major junior is more like NHL-style hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more games, more ice time and better for my development. I also didn&rsquo;t know any English when I came here, but I&rsquo;ve learned it so that&rsquo;s important.&rdquo;</p><p>Vishnevskiy, 19, is a third-year veteran who&rsquo;s a tremendous skater, slick puckhandler and has the type of vision that makes him dangerous offensively. He has 42 points, including 17 goals, in 42 games this season.</p><p>The 6-foot, 180-pounder was once a defensive liability and, although he has made big improvements in that department, it&rsquo;s something he needs to continue working on. He also must get stronger physically.</p><p>&ldquo;I try to play like Sergei Zubov, Scott Niedermayer and Andrei Markov,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The player I look up to the most is Sergei Zubov. He&rsquo;s a great guy. When I went to my first camp in Dallas, he helped me a lot.&rdquo;</p><p>Vishnevskiy played in the 2007 Canada-Russia Super Series, but couldn&rsquo;t suit up in this year&rsquo;s World Junior Championship because of injury.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the most skilled player I&rsquo;ve ever coached,&rdquo; said Rouyn-Noranda coach Andre Tourigny. &ldquo;I compare him to Andrei Markov because he can have good offensive production, but also be very good defensively.</p><p>&ldquo;He had to learn how to play a more simple North American game with less risks. Sometimes in the past he would take the tougher option or the highlight play. Now, he&rsquo;s a lot smarter in his play selection. He&rsquo;s shown very good progression, especially in his defensive play.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03348/9077513-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="765" height="1005"></div><p>Vishnevskiy played in the 2006 CHL Top Prospects Game.</p><p>&ldquo;I think he will be a very good NHL defenseman, but he needs to improve his consistency,&rdquo; Tourigny said. &ldquo;He has so much skill and sometimes he thinks things will be too easy defensively. When he plays hard, he&rsquo;s very tough to beat.&rdquo;</p><p><b>&ndash; NEIL HODGE</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04282/9077506-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="286" height="158"></div><p>IVAN VISHNEVSKIY</p><p>Rouyn-Noranda</p><p>Ht. 6-0</p><p>Wt. 180</p><p>Pos. D</p><p>Age 19</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-11105/9077499-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="376" height="104"></div><h3><b>Draft Status</b></h3><p>Selected 27th overall by Dallas in the 2006 draft</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05242/9077492-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="219" height="220"></div><p>AND COUNTING</p><p>2</p><p>Rank in THN&rsquo;s Future Watch 2008 among Dallas prospects</p><h2><b>Making saves in the genes</b></h2><p>Lethbridge goalie Michael Maniago cannot mask his admiration for a special relative. His headgear will soon include what he calls a &ldquo;shrine&rdquo; to his second cousin &ndash; former NHL goaltender Cesare Maniago. &ldquo;I was on the Internet, saw a picture of him and thought it would go well with the mask,&rdquo; Mike Maniago said. The 19-year-old&rsquo;s newly painted mask, featuring images of his cousin as a Minnesota North Star, is to be ready in time for the playoffs. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a coincidence we&rsquo;re both goalies,&rdquo; the younger Maniago said. &ldquo;Ever since I was in novice and put the pads on, goalie was the position I wanted to play. After I started playing goalie, I never wanted to play forward or defense. Goalie is such a fun position. I just love it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01764/9077485-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="212" height="221"></div><p><b>&ndash; ROB VANSTONE</b></p><h2><b>Top prospects love the Leafs</b></h2><p>Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty and Alex Pietrangelo would all jump at the chance to bleed Toronto Maple Leafs blue &ndash; and there&rsquo;s been a lot of bleeding the last 40 years. Each player, ranked in the top five by International Scouting Services, says he&rsquo;ll play for the Stanley Cup-starved Leafs, if they&rsquo;re in a position to draft that high June 20 at Ottawa&rsquo;s Scotiabank Place. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a Leaf fan and to play for them would be a dream come true,&rdquo; said Stamkos, who grew up just north of Toronto. Stamkos, with the Sarnia Sting, is ranked No. 1. Doughty, with the Guelph Storm, is No. 3 and said all his buddies at home in London, Ont., are Leaf fans. Pietrangelo, No. 5, is with the Niagara IceDogs and is also from the Toronto area.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02456/9077478-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="219" height="219"></div><p><b>&ndash; JIM CRESSMAN</b></p><h2><b>Another title March?</b></h2><p>Brad Marchand has led a blessed QMJHL career. The 19-year-old center won the league championship with the Moncton Wildcats in 2005-06, went to the league final with the Val d&rsquo;Or Foreurs last season and now he&rsquo;s playing for another top contender in the Halifax Mooseheads. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been very fortunate throughout my career to be on great teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think playing in a winning environment has definitely helped in my development.&rdquo; Marchand was a third round pick in 2006 and he&rsquo;s already signed with Boston. &ldquo;It would be great to finish my junior career with another championship,&rdquo; he said. Marchand has also helped Canada win two World Junior Championships and one gold each at the World Under-18 and Under-16 Championships.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06215/9077471-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="210" height="220"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>&ndash; NEIL HODGE</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-03

BIG PICTURE OVER BIG MONEY

<p class="dropcap"><span>A</span>LASKA JUNIOR TYLER ECK-FORD knew right away things were going to be a little different this year when he sat down with first-year Nanooks coach Doc DelCastillo before the season.</p><p>Eckford had made his mark as an offensively-talented defenseman his first two seasons in Fairbanks, but DelCastillo had even higher expectations for him this year.</p><p>&ldquo;Offensively, I had an idea of how good he was, but when I came in, I really challenged him to step up the defensive part of the game,&rdquo; DelCastillo said. &ldquo;And he grabbed a leadership role on our team and defensively he&rsquo;s taken his game to another level.&rdquo;</p><p>Selected in the seventh round by New Jersey in the 2004 NHL draft, Eckford moves the puck well and has terrific vision and on-ice awareness to go along with a big-time shot. He led all CCHA defensemen in scoring and finished the season third nationally with seven goals and 28 points in 32 games, but with his size and strength (6-foot-2, 220 pounds), Eckford has become a force in his own end blocking shots and clearing the front of the net.</p><p>&ldquo;Concentrating on my defensive play was the next step in my game to become a complete player,&rdquo; Eckford said. &ldquo;Coach came in with a game plan for the whole team and I listened. If you&rsquo;re good in your own end the rest will take care of itself.&rdquo;</p><p>In addition to quarterbacking the Nanooks&rsquo; power play, Eckford&rsquo;s increased focus on defense means he now kills penalties and regularly logs 35-plus minutes a game.</p><p>&ldquo;He has the total package and there isn&rsquo;t a situation in the game where he&rsquo;s not out there,&rdquo; DelCastillo said. &ldquo;We have a hard time getting him off the ice because it&rsquo;s kind of nice when you have one of your big, strong physical defenseman who can make outlet passes and break you out.&rdquo;</p><p>While teams regularly send a player to shadow him, Eckford has continued to produce. That&rsquo;s one reason DelCastillo believes Eckford will be successful at the next level.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a testament to how good he is that he keeps putting up points when teams are trying to shut him down,&rdquo; DelCastillo said. &ldquo;You can go around the league and (look at) the (Kevin) Porters, the (Chad) Kolariks  and the (Ryan) Jones. Those players, as coaches, you know you have to key on them, but they keep finding ways to get it done.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03319/9077593-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="765" height="1008"></div><p>&ldquo;And Eckford is at that level. He has the opportunity that in the next few years you are going to see him in the National Hockey League.&rdquo;</p><p><b>&ndash; PHIL COLVIN</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05249/9077586-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="149" height="150"></div><p>TYLER ECKFORD</p><p>Alaska Nanooks</p><p>Ht. 6-2</p><p>Wt. 220</p><p>Pos. D</p><p>Age 22</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1091/9077579-1-eng-US/f0041-102.jpg" title="f0041-10" width="376" height="100"></div><h3><b>Draft Status</b></h3><p>Selected 217th overall by New Jersey in 2004</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06224/9077572-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="218" height="222"></div><p>AND COUNTING</p><p>10</p><p>Rank in THN&rsquo;s Future Watch 2008 among Devils prospects</p><h2><b>Tough defender solid as a Brock</b></h2><p>Notre Dame senior Brock Sheahan&rsquo;s contribution to the Fighting Irish usually doesn&rsquo;t show up on the scoresheet. The defenseman is a great skater and accurate passer, but doesn&rsquo;t score much (four goals and 31 points in four seasons). But Sheahan led Notre Dame at plus-20 and plays a tough, in-yourface style. &ldquo;He competes hard and is a tenacious, warrior-type who plays against the opposition&rsquo;s top line every night,&rdquo; said Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the team&rsquo;s best skaters and to be plus-20, especially when he&rsquo;s only got 11 points, is something.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01652/9077565-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="214" height="227"></div><p><b>&ndash; PHILIP COLVIN</b></p><h2><b>Joe&rsquo;s no-no&rsquo;s in good company</b></h2><p>Vermont senior goalie Joe Fallon, a sixth round draft choice of Chicago, moved into second place in the NCAA record books with his 19th career shutout. Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller had 26 at Michigan State. &ldquo;It was pretty exciting, especially with my family and friends here to see it,&rdquo; said Fallon after blanking Maine at home. &ldquo;We have a young defense corps and in the first half of the season Joe thought he had to be perfect,&rdquo; said Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s the worst mindset for a goalie. He has been more focused and trusting of his teammates in the second half.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02398/9077558-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="218" height="227"></div><p><b>&ndash; LARRY MAHONEY</b></p><h2><b>Father and son scoring legacy</b></h2><p>Even though Dartmouth finished near the bottom of the standings, no one could fault the effort of senior  right winger Nick Johnson. The 6-foot-2, 206-pounder, a third round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2004, led the Big Green in scoring with 34 points, which included a career-high 24 assists. By finishing on top of the scoring chart, Johnson joined his father, Kevin, who was Dartmouth&rsquo;s leading scorer in 1977. The younger Johnson played 130 straight games for Dartmouth. &ldquo;Nick&rsquo;s best hockey is ahead of him,&rdquo; said Big Green coach Bob Gaudet.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04274/9077551-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="217" height="219"></div><p><b>&ndash; TOM BOGGIE</b></p><h2><b>Tough sledding in the west</b></h2><p>All 10 WCHA teams have been ranked in the top 20 at some point this season, which helps explain why many observers believe it&rsquo;s the toughest league, top-to-bottom, in the NCAA. Four teams &ndash; Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota and North Dakota &ndash; have been ranked in the top five. North Dakota has had multiple stops in the No. 1 spot. The high level of hockey is churning out some entertaining games as measured by the fact the league has topped 1 million in overall attendance for the 15th consecutive year. That works out to a per-game average of 7,200.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-07196/9077544-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="218" height="221"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PAUL MCCARTHY)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>&ndash; ANDY BAGGOT</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0041-03

ECKFORD EVOLVES THANKS TO DOC

<h3><b>ECHL</b></h3><h2><b>Another Aubin in Cincinnati</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>M</span>athieu Aubin is a second-generation Cincinnati pro hockey player and like his father, Normand, the younger Aubin has produced. Mathieu, 21, had 20 goals and more than a point-a-game in 30 contests with the Cyclones this season, his second in the ECHL. He also split time with Hamilton in the AHL. Aubin had a key role at the latter end of Cincinnati&rsquo;s ECHL-record 17-game winning streak, as he scored eight goals and 11 points in the final six games of the run that ended March 2. Normand Aubin played for the Central League&rsquo;s Cincinnati Tigers in 1981-82. He split that year with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the first of his two NHL seasons.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01683/9077673-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="205" height="215"></div><p><b>&ndash; MIKE MASTOVICH</b></p><h3><b>NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>NCAA shot finally coming</b></h2><p>Ben Warda can stop waiting. The 20-year-old St. Louis Bandit forward will finally have a shot at D-I hockey next fall when he joins the prestigious Michigan State program. Undrafted and to a large degree unheralded,  the 5-foot-7, 157-pound Warda has nonetheless become one of junior-A&rsquo;s most complete players. Through 49 games he had 24 goals, 65 points and was plus-27 for a St. Louis team that is once again a power after winning the league title last year. &ldquo;He gives you everything on both sides of the puck,&rdquo; said Bandits coach-GM Jon Cooper. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m as happy for him as anybody. No one&rsquo;s worked harder for this opportunity.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03325/9077666-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="200" height="217"></div><p><b>&ndash; PAUL SHAHEEN</b></p><h3><b>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>Money comes Justin time</b></h2><p>Winger Justin DePretis is finally collecting a regular paycheck with the Flint Generals. DePretis began the season with the Indiana Ice Miners of the Mid-Atlantic League, where he was leading the circuit in goals (58) and points (93) in only 29 games before it folded because of financial problems. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t get paid for seven weeks,&rdquo; said DePretis, 25. &ldquo;A lot of guys were really struggling, eating Ramen Noodles and stuff. It was bad.&rdquo; DePretis said the MAHL continued to provide housing for players and that he and others survived with financial help from their parents. In 10 games with Flint, DePretis had six goals and eight points.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-05222/9077659-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="212" height="217"></div><p><b>&ndash; BRENDAN SAVAGE</b></p><h3><b>CENTRAL LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>Stanley Cup ties renewed in Tulsa</b></h2><p>The Stanley Cup felt right at home in &ndash; of all places &ndash; Tulsa, Okla. The grandest trophy in pro sports visited the home of the Tulsa Oilers for a two-day visit in March, renewing some old acquaintances. The father of Oilers coach Dan Hodge and center Brendon Hodge, Ken Hodge, was a two-time Cup champion with the Boston Bruins in 1970 and &rsquo;72. Fred Gibbon, scout emeritus for the Oilers, was a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers during Stanley Cup championships in 1974 and &rsquo;75. Gibbon, 85, still sports his Cup ring. On a wall in the Oilers administrative offices sits a picture of Gibbon with the sliver mug on the Flyers team plane in 1975.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-07172/9077652-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="205" height="209"></div><p><b>&ndash; DAVID HENRY</b></p><h3><b>SOUTHERN PRO LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>Less is Moore for one sniper</b></h2><p>Twin City&rsquo;s Daryl Moore is among the league&rsquo;s top five scorers this season because nobody is better at scoring shorthanded goals. Six of the former Western Michigan forward&rsquo;s 22 goals have come while killing penalties. &ldquo;I always liked to penalty kill in junior and seemed to get chances,&rdquo; said Moore, 24. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t really play that aggressive a penalty kill. It&rsquo;s getting to know the guys in the league and reading.&rdquo; The secondyear pro, who hopes to take his game to Europe, has a team-high 53 points, despite a disconcerting dryspell. &ldquo;I was in a little bit of a slump for about 10 games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was on pace to be right up there and I couldn&rsquo;t get a bounce.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02417/9077645-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="214" height="211"></div><p><b>&ndash; NICK GATES</b></p><h3><b>EYE ON EUROPE</b></h3><h2><b>Fasel&rsquo;s job in crosshairs</b></h2><p>Kalervo Kummola, president of the Finnish Hockey Federation, announced recently he may challenge  Rene Fasel and run for president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. According to Kummola, several other nations have asked him to run if changes to the way international hockey is governed don&rsquo;t occur. In an interview with Finland&rsquo;s national broadcasting station, Kummola said if the demands of the nations supporting him aren&rsquo;t met by May&rsquo;s IIHF general meeting, he&rsquo;ll become a candidate for Fasel&rsquo;s job. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re ready to support Kummola if nothing changes before the May meeting,&rdquo; said Christer Englund, head of the Swedish Federation.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04257/9077638-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="216" height="212"></div><p><b>&ndash; RISTO PAKARINEN</b></p><h3><b>CANADIAN UNIVERSITY</b></h3><h2><b>Bear Golden on power play</b></h2><p>With all due respect to Henri Richard, Harlan Anderson is Alberta&rsquo;s &lsquo;Pocket Rocket&rsquo;. That&rsquo;s because when the Golden Bears fifth-year defenseman is sitting in the pocket and unleashes one of his trademark rocket slapshots, nobody&rsquo;s better. Anderson led Alberta in power play goals during the regular season, with seven, despite missing the final six games due to a dislocated knee. Activated for the playoffs, Anderson said the key to his big shot is timing, not muscle. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all repetition,&rdquo; said the former Moose Jaw Warrior, who&rsquo;s been approached by several European and AHL teams about next season. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s been my M.O. since I got here.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-06202/9077631-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="221" height="214"></div><p><b>&ndash; JEFF RENAUD</b></p><h3><b>THE WOMEN&rsquo;S GAME</b></h3><h2><b>Swedes launch new league</b></h2><p>Sweden has only 3,647 female hockey players, so finding elite players and good competition is a constant challenge. National team coach Peter Elander is forced to use players of all ages to get the squad he wants. To improve national competition, Sweden launched a new eightteam Super League with 19 players from Austria, Holland, Norway, Denmark and the USA. Any Canadian or U.S. national team player, Elander says, would make $2,000 (Cdn) a month. The league started play in January and for the first time the national championship will be broadcast on Swedish television along with the next four World Championships.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-08145/9077624-1-eng-US/f0042-082.jpg" title="f0042-08" width="218" height="200"></div><p><b>&ndash; ELIZABETH ETUE</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0042-01

BEST OF THE REST

<div class="byline">by Nicolas Chabot</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01674/9077711-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01493/9077704-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="5428" height="3542"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0043-01

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY RONNIE SHUKER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0048-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01317/9077742-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Trainer Don Brankley has a strong bond with Knights players past and present. <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>DON BRANKLEY IS a jack-of-all-trades, master of one.</p><p>He&rsquo;s a tutor and a masseur; part-time rental car dealer and banker; on-call psychologist and family doctor; and, of course, a full-time maid. He works 12-to 18-hour days, seven days a week and he hasn&rsquo;t missed a single day of work since he started in 1970.</p><p>But after nearly 40 years of juggling all these jobs, Brankley is hanging up all his hats, all at the same time.</p><p>The 60-year-old &lsquo;Branks&rsquo; is retiring at the end of this season as head trainer of the London Knights, ending the longest tenure in the history of the Ontario Hockey League.</p><p>Much of his time has been spent cleaning up after teenagers, but Brankley&rsquo;s relationship with his players goes far beyond that. He buys them clothes, helps with their homework, consoles many through bouts of homesickness, lends them money when they&rsquo;re in need and even offers the use of his car, on occasion, for some of the boys to go out on dates.</p><p>&ldquo;I never got married, but every year I have 25 kids,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very close with my players, I get to know them very well. The kids come when they&rsquo;re 15 or 16 and I watch them grow until they&rsquo;re 20.&rdquo;</p><p>Because of the relationships Brankley builds with his players, he shares their highs and lows &ndash; from the 2005 Memorial Cup-winning team, which he boldly calls &ldquo;the best junior hockey team in our country&rsquo;s history&rdquo; to the &ldquo;Knightmare&rdquo; season of 1995-96 when the team went a woeful 3-60-3, setting an OHL record for futility.</p><p>But while he&rsquo;s loved by his players, in some other OHL cities Brankley is vilified by fans. And to be fair, he has enjoyed stoking the fire.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always yelled at fans,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather have the fans yell at me than at my players.&rdquo;</p><p>In rival Windsor, he has been taunted with shouts of &ldquo;Waterboy!&rdquo; by rabid Spitfires fans since 1975. The animosity was so strong in the late &rsquo;70s that the heckling sometimes went helter skelter, necessitating a police escort for Brankley to and from the bench.</p><p>&ldquo;They love to hate me there,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>But there are also some who hate to love him.</p><p>Brankley became friends with Windsor native John Humphrey, the originator of the &ldquo;Waterboy!&rdquo; chant, after Humphrey suffered a stroke in 1979 at just 15 years old. Doctors sent him to a London hospital where Brankley visited his favorite heckler during his recovery.</p><p>&ldquo;One of the reasons why I wanted to recover so well was that I wanted to show Branks I wasn&rsquo;t a wimp,&rdquo; Humphrey quipped, &ldquo;you know, like a trainer.&rdquo;</p><p>Their love-hate friendship continues to this day, but Humphrey sometimes longs for the good ol&rsquo; days when it was easy to heckle Brankley.</p><p>&ldquo;I always wanted to go up to him and hit him in the face with a pie,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not as fun when you find out your enemy is actually a cool person. The thing about Branks is although he&rsquo;s obnoxious, he&rsquo;s also very caring and knowledgeable.&rdquo;</p><p>Tensions have eased in Windsor and other OHL cities, in part because Brankley has toned things down in recent years.</p><p>&ldquo;I used to be the Sean Avery of trainers, but now I&rsquo;m the Brendan Shanahan of trainers,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Shanahan is just one of many players Brankley still keeps in touch with, a list which also includes Columbus Blue Jackets sniper Rick Nash. Shanahan was known to hold the title of being Brankley&rsquo;s de facto &ldquo;all-time favorite.&rdquo; Then Nash, who signs all his emails to his former trainer &ldquo;ATF,&rdquo; came along and tried to usurp Shanahan&rsquo;s crown.</p><p>It&rsquo;s all just harmless fun between the two NHL stars and Brankley claimed he doesn&rsquo;t have favorites. But it goes to show the bond he shares with his players.</p><p>&ldquo;Branks is more than just a trainer,&rdquo; Nash said.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just like one of the guys. It would take me two weeks to describe what he&rsquo;s like and what he has meant to his players. He&rsquo;s just an incredible human being.&rdquo;</p><p>Brankley had two cracks at joining some of his players in the NHL as a trainer, but he turned down both offers. One of them was from Edmonton just before the team went on its Stanley Cup runs in the early &rsquo;80s. But Brankley said the Oilers weren&rsquo;t a very good &ldquo;fit&rdquo; for him.</p><p>&ldquo;People always ask me, &lsquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you go (to Edmonton)?&rsquo; And I say, &lsquo;Because I&rsquo;ve got small fingers and those big rings would&rsquo;ve been hokey.&rsquo; &rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0048-01

THE DON OF ALL JUNIOR TRAINERS

<div class="byline">with Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="c0004-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-03118/9077839-1-eng-US/c0004-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jason Arnott <span class="photo-credit">(JOHN RUSSELL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-02197/9077846-1-eng-US/c0004-022.jpg" title="c0004-02" width="206" height="246"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">When you looked at our roster, it was like, &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s going to be the goal-scorers?&rsquo;</blockquote><p>WHILE THE OTHER 29 TEAMS</p><p>were doing everything possible last summer to ensure success this season, the Nashville Predators were being set up for failure.</p><p>The NHL made sure of that.</p><p>In what ultimately wound up being one of the most preposterous ownership changes in league history &ndash; a Canadian billionaire&rsquo;s mega-bucks offer being spurned by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for fear the franchise would be shifted to Canada where people actually like hockey &ndash; the Preds were sold for a lesser amount and only after they rid themselves of many of their best players. That&rsquo;s one interesting way of trying to sell big-league hockey in a non-traditional hockey market.</p><p>The team that finished third overall with 110 points last season looked a lot different by the time GM David Poile, under direct orders from above, completed his roster purge. The team that took the bold step a year ago of acquiring superstar Peter Forsberg from Philadelphia for what was supposed to be a legitimate run for the Stanley Cup, was moving in the opposite direction. Forsberg, captain and top defenseman Kimmo Timonen, power forward Scott Hartnell, leading scorer Paul Kariya and world-class goalie Tomas Vokoun were replaced by (drum roll, please) Martin Gelinas, Radek Bonk, Jed Ortmeyer, Greg de Vries and Dan Ellis.</p><p>Miraculously, the Preds didn&rsquo;t go the way of Billy Ray Cyrus&rsquo; music career after <i>Achy Breaky Heart</i>. In fact, they&rsquo;re one of the NHL&rsquo;s most surprising teams this season and, if they make the playoffs, Barry Trotz should be the leading contender for coach of the year. Nashville remains one of the NHL&rsquo;s most difficult teams to play against because of their discipline and attention to detail, two hallmarks of Trotz&rsquo;s otherwise underrated big-league coaching career.</p><p>Poile also deserves a lot of credit for keeping the cupboards full, but if you want another reason why the Predators have remained competitive, look no further than Jason Arnott. You might wonder if Arnott was thinking, &ldquo;Hey! Don&rsquo;t forget about me!&rdquo; when the other top stars were being deported, but he insists he wanted to stick around.</p><p>&ldquo;I never wanted to leave this team,&rdquo; Arnott says. &ldquo;It was a little difficult watching all the other guys get moved, but David Poile had no choice. It was a little upsetting seeing the best players go, but at the same time I believed we had some very good players returning and I wanted to be a part of the rebuilding.&rdquo;</p><p>Arnott, 33, expressed an interest in taking over as team captain last summer, but Trotz told him to really think about it because taking on the role would require a lot of responsibility.</p><p>&ldquo;I called him a week later and he said he definitely wanted the job,&rdquo; Trotz says. &ldquo;So right away we began including him in team decisions. I think the first couple of weeks of the season were tough on Jason because he was being asked for more than he&rsquo;d ever been asked for in his career. But after that he settled into the job and he has been one of our most consistent players.&rdquo;</p><p>A Cup champion with New Jersey in 2000, Arnott has had the luxury of playing with great leaders such as Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Modano throughout a productive NHL career now in its 14th season, but he has never been leaned on as heavily for leadership himself.</p><p>When the dust settled after last summer&rsquo;s monster garage sale, the Predators still had some valuable assets  remaining. Goalie Chris Mason had established himself; J-P Dumont is a bona fide top-six winger; Alexander Radulov was coming off a nifty 18-goal rookie season; and, the young trio of Ryan Suter, Dan Hamhuis and Shea Weber gave Nashville three young, promising blueliners.</p><p>&ldquo;When you looked at our roster it was like, &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s going to be the goalscorers?&rsquo; &rdquo; Arnott says. &ldquo;We have a lot of similar players, the grindertype players. Everybody has chipped in where they can and we figure it doesn&rsquo;t matter if we win 1-0 or 4-1, a win is a win. We&rsquo;re not going out trying to score six or seven goals a night. We go out and try to defend as best as we can. Our philosophy has always been defense-first and hope that it can generate offense.&rdquo;</p><p>Trotz says losing key players was a built-in opportunity for failure, but the team never went down that road. &ldquo;We never took that approach,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We knew we had to continue to work hard and that is exactly what our players have done.</p><p>&ldquo;We know if we work hard together we have a chance at winning and if we don&rsquo;t we&rsquo;re not going to win. We&rsquo;re all trying to buy into the notion that if we play together, good things will happen.&rdquo;</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01311/9077832-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="c0004-01" width="78" height="79"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>For Mike&rsquo;s web-exclusive Double OT column, visit <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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March 25, 2008

SNAPSHOTS

LAST MINUTE OF PLAY

BLING BLING with Martin Brodeur

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