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 2, 2009

The Hockey News - Mar-02-09

<p><b>Martin Brodeur 22%</b></p><p>Tim Thomas 17%</p><p>Evgeni Nabokov 16%</p><p>Henrik Lundqvist 16%</p><p>Roberto Luongo 15%</p><p>Niklas Backstrom 7%</p><p>Miikka Kiprusoff 7%</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-07213/9355289-1-eng-US/f0006-072.jpg" title="f0006-07" width="496" height="762"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRODEUR: LEN REDKOLES/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://TheHockeyNews.com">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/f0006-05465/9355282-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="65" height="65"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>BONUS!</b></h2><p>All subscribers get exclusive access on <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> to digital magazine archives!<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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IN THIS ISSUE

POLL RESULTS

<h2><b>FIVE</b></h2><p>As if the tip-ins weren&rsquo;t bad enough, <b>Ryan Smyth&rsquo;s</b> hair is a distraction unto itself.</p><h2><b>FOUR</b></h2><p>Like Smyth, <b>Tomas Holmstrom</b> spends so much time in front of the crease he should pay rent.</p><h2><b>THREE</b></h2><p>Any goalies in a shootout against <b>Pavel Datsyuk</b> will be the target of serious embarrassment.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-07264/9355410-1-eng-US/f0008-072.jpg" title="f0008-07" width="562" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(OVECHKIN: JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>TWO</b></h2><p>Not only does <b>Alex Ovechkin</b> take about a dozen shots a game, but at least one often goes in.</p><h2><b>ONE</b></h2><p>Goalie equipment can only protect so much when <b>Sheldon Souray&rsquo;s</b> cannon shot is loaded.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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In Every Issue

Starting from 5

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04713/9355562-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="369" height="218"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-06391/9355569-1-eng-US/f0010-062.jpg" title="f0010-06" width="193" height="256"></div><p><b>2009 Tahoe</b>/<b>$41,025</b>&nbsp;<b>base</b>/<a href="http://chevrolet.com">chevrolet.com</a></p><p>Quick on the ice, Edmonton sophomore Andrew Cogliano chooses to go with bulk on the road.</p><p>&ldquo;Edmonton&rsquo;s pretty cold, so you need a truck,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a Tahoe in Edmonton and then an Avalanche back home (in Ontario).&rdquo; Fortunately for Cogliano&rsquo;s pocketbook, he has a partnership with a local dealership.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Bling Bling with Andrew Cogliano

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021696/9355666-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="399" height="264"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-031092/9355659-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="207" height="245"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012163/9355652-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="1205" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ILLUSTRATION BY CHARLIE TELJEUR)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Y</b><b>ou want to see scoring drop in the NHL?</b></p><p>Forget about the neutral-zone trap. Just wait until we get out of the lab and show up at the rink with this guy.</p><p>We&rsquo;ve created a goaltending monster here and this is one gnarly netminder who won&rsquo;t even need oversized equipment to get the job done. He may look a little unorthodox, but he can stop pucks with the best of them. In fact, he is the best of them.</p><p>In an effort to Build The Perfect Goalie, we consulted a number of goaltending coaches, pro scouts and color analysts with NHL goaltending experience to supply us with the goalie who has the best individual physical and mental attributes that lend themselves to stopping pucks.</p><p>We took each of them and put them together to create one super goal-tender and we dare you to even try to score on him. We don&rsquo;t know which team he&rsquo;ll play for, but we&rsquo;re pretty sure that team will be a shoo-in for the Jennings Trophy.</p><p>And just wait until we perfect our cloning process&hellip;</p><h2><b>GLOVE</b></h2><h3><b>MARTIN BRODEUR</b></h3><p><b>Ever</b>&nbsp;<b>notice when</b> you&rsquo;re watching a hockey game on television, you always see Brodeur bouncing the puck in and out of his glove after the play? That&rsquo;s because Brodeur&rsquo;s glove is the place where goals go to die.</p><p>Which is kind of funny, because while many goalies in the NHL push the limits with the size of their trappers, Brodeur doesn&rsquo;t even know how big his glove actually is. All he knows is he sends his gloves to the league every year for approval and they come back good to go.</p><p>&ldquo;I have a glove to catch the puck,&rdquo; Brodeur said, &ldquo;not to block the puck. I don&rsquo;t know how big it is. But I know it&rsquo;s exactly the way I like it.&rdquo;</p><p>Brodeur has to feel comfortable with his glove because it is such an important part of his ability to play the puck. Rather than actually catch the puck, he tries to cradle it, much the way a lacrosse stick cradles the ball, so he can quickly drop it down to his stick. It&rsquo;s also important that he&rsquo;s able to grip his stick with his trapper hand so he has control over where it is going.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never changed my glove,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It makes it tough for the guys at Reebok. I always just tell them, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m good with what I have.&rsquo; &rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Brodeur&hellip;get Evgeni Nabokov.</p><h2><b>BRAIN</b></h2><h3><b>HENRIK LUNDQVIST</b></h3><p><b>Lundqvist is much</b> more than a pretty face, although he&rsquo;s that, too, as evidenced by his presence among the world&rsquo;s 100 most beautiful people by <i>People</i> magazine in 2006. <i>Page Six Magazine</i> in New York breathlessly referred to him as &ldquo;The World&rsquo;s Sexiest Ice Man&rdquo; and named him among the top-25 best-dressed celebrities in 2008.</p><p>But enough of the objectification here. Lundqvist is more famous for his hockey sense than his fashion sense. It is his ability to see the game and think it on a higher level that has put him into the top tier of goaltenders in the NHL.</p><p>Take the shootout, for example. For a goalie to be successful in the 1-on-1 competition, he often has to out-think the shooters, who are generally speaking the more crafty players in the NHL. Only two other goalies &ndash; Mathieu Garon and Jose Theodore &ndash; have a better career save percentage than Lundqvist among those who have faced 50 or more shots. Through mid-February, Lundqvist had 26 shootout victories, one behind Martin Brodeur for the all-time lead. (Although it should be noted that Lundqvist has appeared in 42 shootouts, more than any other NHL goalie.)</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Lundqvist&hellip;get Ryan Miller.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011923/9355645-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="785" height="2083"><figcaption class="caption-body">Martin Brodeur <span class="photo-credit">(ANDY MARLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>LEGS</b></h2><h3><b>ROBERTO LUONGO</b></h3><p><b>Luongo hasn&rsquo;t been</b> at his best since coming back from injury earlier this season, but when he is at the top of his game, there are none who can cover the bottom of the net with his legs the way he can.</p><p>&ldquo;There are a lot of guys who are good down low in this league,&rdquo; said Phoenix Coyotes color analyst Darren Pang. &ldquo;But when Luongo is pushing side to side with his feet down, it&rsquo;s so hard to score on him. Part of it is because he&rsquo;s so big. He&rsquo;s like (Coyotes goalie Ilya) Bryzgalov, when he gets his pads down there, he&rsquo;s really tough to beat.&rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Luongo&hellip;take Carey Price.</p><h2><b>STICK</b></h2><h3><b>MARTIN BRODEUR</b></h3><p><b>When we asked</b> our experts about this one, Brodeur won by one vote over Marty Turco of the Dallas Stars. There is little doubt the two are the best puckhandling goalies in the league, but Brodeur is safer and more predictable.</p><p>&ldquo;For me, it&rsquo;s not a gamble,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;Everything I do when I play hockey is calculated. Maybe that&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;ve grown up with the Devils, but to me the purpose of playing the puck is to relieve the pressure on the defense. I&rsquo;m not looking for the breakaway.&rdquo;</p><p>Turco sometimes can hit a guy coming out of the penalty box on the tape for a breakaway, but sometimes he hits the tape of the opposing team, resulting in a prime chance against the Stars.</p><p>&ldquo;Turco&rsquo;s always looking to start the breakout,&rdquo; said one NHL goalie coach. &ldquo;Even guys who have played with him for years end up getting crossed-up sometimes.&rdquo;</p><p>Ironically, though, Brodeur is one of only two goalies in NHL history to be credited with two goals &ndash; Ron Hextall is the other. Brodeur was credited with a Philadelphia Flyers own goal in 1999-2000, the first time in NHL history a goalie has been credited with a game-winning goal.</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Brodeur&hellip;get Marty Turco.</p><h2><b>SHOULDERS</b></h2><h3><b>ROBERTO LUONGO</b></h3><p><b>Roberto Luongo&rsquo;s name</b> is nowhere to be found in the official NHL record book, but that&rsquo;s because the NHL doesn&rsquo;t recognize the kind of goalie records that make people black and blue.</p><p>If you have any doubts about whether or not Luongo can carry a team &ndash; Anyone? Anyone? &ndash; consider that he currently holds the NHL marks for most shots faced in a season (2,475) and most saves in a season (2,303), both of which he earned in 2003-04 with the Florida Panthers. In his first-ever playoff game, all Luongo did was stop 72 of an NHL-record 76 shots in a 5-4 win over Dallas in quadruple overtime in 2007.</p><p>Luongo is also the only goalie in NHL history to play all 41 of his team&rsquo;s games at home and last year set a Canucks mark with a consecutive shutout streak of 242:36. He also set a Canucks team record for wins with 47 in 2006-07; that&rsquo;s one less victory than the NHL mark.</p><p>With the exception of his first year with the Cats, when Pavel Bure scored 59 goals to lead the NHL, Luongo has been largely on his own.</p><p>&ldquo;He has probably had less to work with than any other goalie in the league,&rdquo; said an NHL scout.</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Luongo&hellip;get Henrik Lundqvist.</p><h2><b>FLEXIBILITY</b></h2><h3><b>MIIKKA KIPRUSOFF</b></h3><p><b>Goalies with good</b> flexibility are able to get more out of their skills because of their ability to move around the net and get to pucks. And none is better than Calgary&rsquo;s Miikka Kiprusoff.</p><p>The kind of flexibility Kiprusoff possesses allows him to make the second and third save more often, even if he&rsquo;s out of position.</p><p>&ldquo;I was just watching highlights the other night and he&rsquo;s down on his back doing a snow angel and, somehow, he gets his glove up,&rdquo; said an NHL goaltending coach. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen a guy who can bend his back like this guy.&rdquo;</p><p>Kiprusoff is generously listed at 6-foot-1, but he certainly doesn&rsquo;t have the same kind of size many other younger goalies have. He makes up for it by going post-to-post more quickly than his contemporaries.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a guy who&rsquo;s 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4 so he has no choice but to work harder than a lot of other guys,&rdquo; said Sportsnet analyst John Garrett, a former NHL goalie. &ldquo;His legs aren&rsquo;t that long, but I don&rsquo;t think anyone works harder going post-to-post. I&rsquo;ve seen him in the dressing room and he really works at it with the stretching and yoga.&rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Kiprusoff&hellip;get Marc-Andre Fleury.</p><h2><b>SIZE</b></h2><h3><b>STEVE MASON</b></h3><p><b>There are goalies</b> in the NHL who are actually bigger than 6-foot-4, 202-pound Steve Mason. Alex Auld is listed as 6-foot-5, 221 pounds; Pekka Rinne is 6-foot-5, 207 pounds and Steve Valiquette is 6-foot-6, 210 pounds.</p><p>But what sets the Columbus rookie apart is his ability to &ldquo;make himself big&rdquo; in the net with good positioning and fundamentals.</p><p>&ldquo;There are big guys who make themselves small by playing too deep in their net,&rdquo; said Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;With Mase, though, you don&rsquo;t see much of the net because he makes himself so big. He has really good hockey sense, so he almost never goes down before the shot.&rdquo;</p><p>Prior to being sidelined with mononucleosis in February, Mason was the leading candidate for the Calder Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top rookie and was even being mentioned for the Vezina.</p><p>Hitchcock notices a lot of similarities between Mason and Ed Belfour.</p><p>&ldquo;Mase can play the angles really well and he&rsquo;s able to take away a lot of the space between his gloves and his body,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t give you much to shoot at a lot of times.&rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Mason&hellip;get Roberto Luongo.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012139/9355638-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="785" height="1565"><figcaption class="caption-body">Miikka Kiprusoff <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>ATHLETICISM</b></h2><h3><b>MARTY TURCO</b></h3><p><b>Full disclosure:</b>&nbsp;<b>Daryl Reaugh</b> is the color analyst for the Dallas Stars, so he is probably a little biased when it comes to his opinion of Marty Turco. But he has also lost a fair bit of money to Turco on the golf course, so he knows what an all-round athlete Turco is.</p><p>&ldquo;With his reflexes, he&rsquo;s able to do things that other guys can&rsquo;t get away with,&rdquo; said Reaugh, a former NHL goalie. &ldquo;Sometimes he can be rather sloppy with his technique, but he gets away with things because of his athleticism.&rdquo;</p><p>Turco has long been regarded as one of the more athletic goaltenders in the league and it gives him a mobility and an ability to get to pucks that elude many other goaltenders. Because he&rsquo;s only 5-foot-11, small by today&rsquo;s standards, he needs that edge to keep up with his brethren.</p><p>Reaugh said Turco has uncanny dexterity, which is part of the reason why he is so deft with the puck. A number of young goalies have copied his style.</p><p>&ldquo;He can pokecheck, he can two-pad stack and he can jump over guys,&rdquo; said Phoenix Coyotes broadcaster and former NHL goalie Darren Pang. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s athleticism.&rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Turco&hellip;get Miikka Kiprusoff.</p><h2><b>EYES</b></h2><h3><b>MIIKKA KIPRUSOFF</b></h3><p><b>The</b>&nbsp;<b>eyes have</b> it, at least when it comes to looking through traffic and finding pucks. And it&rsquo;s Kiprusoff&rsquo;s ability to clearly see what&rsquo;s happening that makes him one of the NHL&rsquo;s elite goaltenders.</p><p>There&rsquo;s an old adage among netminders that the more you can keep a certain body part and your bellybutton in line with the puck, the better chance you&rsquo;re going to have success in stopping it.</p><p>But it&rsquo;s not just about seeing the puck; it&rsquo;s also about being able to see the play develop in front of you and anticipating how it will unfold.</p><p>&ldquo;Kiprusoff sees the ice better than any goalie in the league,&rdquo; said Sportsnet color analyst John Garrett.</p><p>Added Dallas Stars color analyst Daryl Reaugh: &ldquo;(Philadelphia&rsquo;s) Martin Biron has the best-looking eyes, but I doubt that&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re looking for. I&rsquo;d say it&rsquo;s Kiprusoff. &ldquo;He sees pucks through traffic better than all the others.&rdquo;</p><p>Don&rsquo;t just take our word for it. If you want further proof of Kiprusoff&rsquo;s glaring intensity, check out the cover of this edition.</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Kiprusoff&hellip;get Martin Brodeur.</p><h2><b>BLOCKER</b></h2><h3><b>TOMAS VOKOUN</b></h3><p><b>There</b>&nbsp;<b>has always</b> been so much focus on the glove hand that little attention is paid to the blocker, but a goalie who can use it well gives himself a big advantage.</p><p>Perhaps it&rsquo;s because Tomas Vokoun is one of the few goalies who catches with his right hand and blocks with his left, but there is little doubt the Florida Panthers veteran is adroit at blocking out pucks.</p><p>With the advent of the butterfly school of goaltending, a new hole was exposed; the one between the blocker and the body, which some goalie coaches have referred to as &ldquo;the five-and-a-half hole.&rdquo;</p><p>This new weak spot leaves a lot of goaltenders vulnerable to shots aimed at the middle of the net, but Vokoun is one goalie who knows how to cover it up.</p><p>&ldquo;He does a really good job of getting that filled,&rdquo; an NHL goaltending coach said. &ldquo;A lot of guys expose that hole, especially guys who go down early before the shot.</p><p>&ldquo;Vokoun goes down and gives it to you, but he seems to take it away because he&rsquo;s sneaky fast and skilled with that hand.&rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Vokoun&hellip;get Evgeni Nabokov.</p><h2><b>FEET</b></h2><h3><b>EVGENI NABOKOV</b></h3><p><b>One</b>&nbsp;<b>NHL scout</b> said that when he looks out on the ice in training camp, he sees cookie-cutter goaltenders who are all 6-foot-3 and can fill up the net, &ldquo;but they can&rsquo;t seem to move their boots.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s not a problem for San Jose star Evgeni Nabokov, one of the few elite goalies who has resisted the temptation to genuflect at the altar of the butterfly. Because he stays on his feet a lot more than other goalies, &lsquo;Nabby&rsquo; uses his feet a lot more.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of those guys who still plays with his feet shoulder-width apart who plays a stand-up game,&rdquo; Reaugh said. &ldquo;You watch some guys like Ilya Bryzgalov and I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re capable of making a save standing up.&rdquo;</p><p>An NHL goaltending coach said Nabokov&rsquo;s skating ability and agility are the result of goaliespecific power skating.</p><p>&ldquo;It gives him the ability to recover when he&rsquo;s off-balance or pushing off on the butterfly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And with all the 5-on-3s you see in the game today, the ability to move your feet really helps because you&rsquo;re moving around all over the net.</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Nabokov&hellip;get Marty Turco.</p><h2><b>SPINE</b></h2><h3><b>ROBERTO LUONGO</b></h3><p><b>The</b>&nbsp;<b>NHL rulebook</b> prevents Roberto Luongo from wearing the &lsquo;C&rsquo; and fulfilling the on-ice duties of a captain, but that didn&rsquo;t stop the Vancouver Canucks from making him their official leader this season.</p><p>By their very nature, elite goaltenders are among the leaders on any team, but Luongo has embraced his role as captain of the Canucks and takes his duties quite seriously.</p><p>Much of Luongo&rsquo;s leadership comes from his play on the ice and his ability to carry his team, but it also has something to do with a superstitious nature that doesn&rsquo;t allow him to miss a single workout, even an optional one.</p><p>Some might think a No. 1 goalie who plays the vast majority of his team&rsquo;s games when he&rsquo;s healthy might have enough to worry about already, but it hasn&rsquo;t appeared to affect Luongo. &ldquo;He practices longer and harder than just about anybody I&rsquo;ve seen,&rdquo; said Rogers Sportsnet analyst John Garrett. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s at every optional practice. There are days when the five guys who never play are out there and they&rsquo;re shooting on Luongo. There are times at home when he&rsquo;s out 45 minutes ahead of everybody else.&rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Luongo&hellip;take Marty Turco.</p><h2><b>HEART</b></h2><h3><b>TIM THOMAS</b></h3><p><b>Through</b>&nbsp;<b>years of</b> playing in Finland and the minors, Tim Thomas never, ever gave up on his goal of playing in the NHL. So it&rsquo;s not surprising to see that he never concedes a goal until the puck has crossed the line and the red light is on.</p><p>It makes for some rather interesting &ndash; and spectacular &ndash; moments when Thomas plays net, but the 34-year-old isn&rsquo;t looking for style points.</p><p>&ldquo;He just never gives up on a puck,&rdquo; said teammate Marc Savard. &ldquo;Even in practice, you think you&rsquo;ve scored on him and he flips over and hits it with the pinky of his blocker hand while he&rsquo;s upside-down.&rdquo;</p><p>All NHL goalies are fierce competitors, but what sets Thomas apart is his relentlessness in the face of overwhelming odds.</p><p>&ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a guy who willed himself into the NHL,&rdquo; said a pro scout. &ldquo;Not only that, he willed himself into one of the top-five goalies.&rdquo;</p><p>For Thomas, taking that approach to the game is not something he sees as abnormal.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel any more competitive than the next guy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if you ask my dad or some of my friends, they say I&rsquo;m a pretty competitive guy.&rdquo;</p><p>If you can&rsquo;t get Thomas&hellip;get Martin Brodeur.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-02

THE PERFECT GOALIE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012129/9355075-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="765" height="643"></div><p>WHAT&rsquo;S IN A WIN?</p><p>From a goaltender&rsquo;s perspective, it&rsquo;s the stat that matters most&hellip;at least, that&rsquo;s what the majority of them will tell you to your face.</p><p>It&rsquo;s among the key reasons why Patrick Roy is atop many experts&rsquo; lists as the greatest goalie ever and why Martin Brodeur, who still stands to surpass Roy&rsquo;s 551 all-time mark this season, is re-energizing that debate.</p><p>It&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re shining the spotlight on Miikka Kiprusoff in Eric Duhatschek&rsquo;s Overtime (pg. 50), as the Flames netminder flirts with a new single-season standard and possibly even the 50 &lsquo;W&rsquo; plateau.</p><p>It&rsquo;s also a point of contention, and has been, since 2005-06. When the NHL decided to eradicate ties, wins (and goalie losses) instantly became more bountiful. Three of the top four single-season victory totals have come since the inception of the shootout, including Brodeur&rsquo;s best-ever 48.</p><p>We understand the gripe from the &ldquo;purists,&rdquo; but maintain the game and its landscape is ever-changing; it&rsquo;s impossible to compare across eras without noting differences, either obvious or subtle.</p><p>For instance, more games are played today than in the Original Six era, theoretically giving netminders more opportunities to pad their stats. And there are more teams, theoretically watering down the talent pool and making the position easier. On the other hand, in the 1920s, teams weren&rsquo;t allowed to pass forward in the attacking zone and games were notoriously low-scoring. And what about the invention of the curved blade, the goalie mask, lighter equipment, the neutral zone trap, the butterfly, etc? There are far too many variables to ever fairly level the playing field.</p><p>So do we conclude goalie wins are the ultimate measuring stick of greatness? Not so fast. Scan the list of the top five career winners and you&rsquo;ll see Curtis Joseph&rsquo;s name nestled in just behind Roy, Brodeur and Ed Belfour and just ahead of Terry Sawchuk. A highly skilled performer for much of his career, Joseph has never won any major individual awards or Stanley Cups and is not a Hall of Fame shoo-in. He has been remarkably consistent &ndash; perhaps the Mike Gartner of masked men.</p><p>A further examination of Joseph&rsquo;s stats reveals he&rsquo;s also on the precipice of recording the most losses ever by a netminder, needing just four more to pass Gump Worsley&rsquo;s 352.</p><p>So, what&rsquo;s in a loss?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021806/9355068-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="524" height="280"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARK WILSON)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0004-01

Not all wins created equal

<div class="byline">BRANT KERSEY, ESTEVAN, SASK..</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021535/9355161-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="921" height="1034"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RICK STEWART/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03991/9355168-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="175" height="175"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he NHL needs to add another trophy to its awards night. Just like they added the Selke Trophy to award the league&rsquo;s best defensive forward, they should add a trophy to award the league&rsquo;s best offensive defenseman.</p><p>This season particularly stands out as a year to implement the new award as Mike Green, who is having a phenomenal season, will not and should not win the Norris.</p><p>Players who contribute that much to their team should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts.</p><p>Without the Selke, Bob Gainey would not have won a regular season individual trophy.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-012116/9355154-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="249" height="212"></div><h2><b>Free Swag!</b></h2><p>Each issue, we&rsquo;ll give a cool THN hat to the top letter.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0005-02

‘D’ deserves ‘O’ award

<blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>&ldquo;My Canada includes Donald S. Cherry, the Canadian who proudly wears the Maple Leaf.</b></blockquote><h2><b>Buying the farm</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hat if there was a rule in place where teams could designate one player per season, who was drafted and developed by the organization, to be exempt from the salary cap?</p><p>Put a permanent ceiling on the amount this player could make, say $4-5 million a year, so it&rsquo;s consistent no matter how much the salary cap changes.</p><p>Since so much emphasis is put on the draft and devoting resources to developing young players, why not reward the teams that do a good job of this by helping them keep their core of drafted talent?</p><p>Josh Rapplean, St. Louis</p><h2><b>A great Canadian</b></h2><p>Happy 75th birthday, Don Cherry. You are hockey and what it means to be a Canadian.</p><p>Some don&rsquo;t like what you wear, or what you say and some just don&rsquo;t like you for whatever reason, but before they go and say something negative about you, let&rsquo;s not forget what a true ambassador for the NHL and the entire game of hockey you really are.</p><p>Don Cherry loves the game of hockey more than anyone. He always watches out for the young kids and teaches them to be true sportsmen and not cheap-shot artists. Most of all, my Canada includes Donald S. Cherry, the Canadian who proudly wears the Maple Leaf close to his heart and always salutes and remembers the true heroes who risk their lives for this country.</p><p>Love him or hate him, Don is a true Canadian.</p><p>Art Przasnyski, Port Credit, Ont.</p><h2><b>Buffalo price check</b></h2><p>I was glad to see Ken Campbell address Buffalo&rsquo;s variable ticket-pricing scheme in an article on <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a>.</p><p>As a Sabres fan and mini-pack holder I am appalled by the gouging that occurs. I have no problem with the idea of the variable pricing; it makes sense. However, the disparity between the price of a &ldquo;platinum level&rdquo; game and the other price levels is ridiculous.</p><p>In his article, Campbell wrote: &ldquo;&hellip;even though (the Sabres) raised their ticket prices by almost 12 percent this season, their prices remain among the bottom three in the NHL.&rdquo;</p><p>Sabres management frequently touts that fact, but fails to mention the huge disparity between season-ticket prices and platinum prices. To use an example, it cost me about half the price for a pair of season tickets as it did to purchase pairs for eight games.</p><p>I hope the Sabres will accommodate their dedicated fan base and set reasonable ticket prices for their games.</p><p>Nice article, Ken. Thanks for bringing light to this issue.</p><p>Dave Ederer, Buffalo</p><h2><b>New frontiers</b></h2><p>This is in response to Robert Strunck&rsquo;s letter in the Jan. 26 issue entitled &ldquo;Back to the basics.&rdquo;</p><p>There&rsquo;s no way to spread the love of hockey throughout the U.S. without putting teams in non-traditional markets and Mr. Strunck gives no credit to the places where this strategy has worked.</p><p>I&rsquo;ve been a Hurricanes fan for years and although the attendance dwindled when they were bad, the fans brought passion to every game.</p><p>Now that I&rsquo;ve lived in Chicago for three years, I&rsquo;ve seen the Blackhawks make a remarkable turnaround; when I first got here, the 10,000 fans at the United Center wouldn&rsquo;t even stand up for goals.</p><p>That&rsquo;s something you&rsquo;d never see in Carolina now.</p><p>Lani Seelinger, Durham, N.C.</p><h2><b>Losing the point</b></h2><p>I do not understand why we award a team for losing a game after regulation.</p><p>An example of why the system is flawed: On Feb. 5, Colorado had the sixth-most wins in the Western Conference, but sat in 14th place.</p><p>The NHL must institute something better than the loser point as soon as possible.</p><p>Steve Edgerton, Calgary<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Crowd Shots

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012355/9355206-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="561" height="667"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(VERSTEEG: BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>BRAYDON STUFKO FROM PRESCOTT, ONT., ASKS <b>What stickhandling drill do you do to improve your quick hands?</b></p><p>You have to do different things, you have to play different sports. And not only that, you have to play hockey in different ways and stickhandle with more than just pucks. Stickhandle with a tennis ball that can bounce on you and try to do the same moves. I tried to do things like that and I think it can help you a lot.</p><p>TREVOR HORTSON FROM MINTO, N.B., ASKS <b>What&rsquo;s the funniest thing that has happened to you on any given team during your career?</b></p><p>I guess in bantam AAA, when I was 15, my pants fell down. The buckle came out.</p><p>EMILY KNAB FROM BUFFALO ASKS <b>How do you deal with the fans who make up Chuck Norris-esque facts about you?</b></p><p>My buddies have been telling me about that lately. It&rsquo;s pretty funny. I mean, it comes with the territory. I guess they&rsquo;re pretty funny quotes. I guess there&rsquo;s hundreds of them.</p><p><i>(Editor&rsquo;s note: Many can be found on Chicago Blackhawks message boards. A THN favorite &ndash; &ldquo;Some say (Versteeg) uses his skates to shave, and that his heart beats to the rhythm of the intro to Van Halen&rsquo;s</i> Hot for Teacher<i>.&rdquo;)</i></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03936/9355199-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="65" height="65"></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 WITH KRIS VERSTEEG

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-06333/9355244-1-eng-US/f0006-062.jpg" title="f0006-06" width="767" height="603"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CROSBY: DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021588/9355251-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="148" height="148"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>Adam,</p><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>&rsquo;m a huge <b>Sidney Crosby</b> fan and have followed his career since he was a rookie. However, I have never heard why he chose to wear No. 87. Can you help?</p><p><i>Michael D. Lefner, Bethel, Alaska</i></p><p>Michael,</p><p>Absolutely, I can help. Ready? Crosby was born on Aug. 7, 1987, or 8/7/87. Thus ends my explanation.</p><p>Hey Adam,</p><p>Why is it the player who wins the Art Ross (scoring title) Trophy always wins the Hart (MVP) Trophy? I can&rsquo;t remember the last time a player (non-goalie/defenseman) won the MVP who didn&rsquo;t win the Art Ross. Why do award voters think a player must have the Art Ross to win MVP?</p><p><i>James Knight, Buffalo</i></p><p>Hey James,</p><p>Actually, you don&rsquo;t have to think too far back to find an example of a Hart Trophy recipient who didn&rsquo;t win the Art Ross; in 2001, Joe Sakic won the Hart while Jaromir Jagr won the scoring race, and in 1995, Eric Lindros won his only MVP title the same year Jagr won the Art Ross. That probably says more about Jagr&rsquo;s leadership in those years than anything else. But I guess for some voters, the connection between the two awards is easy to make and leaned on for justification.</p><p>SUBMIT YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS AT <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04592/9355237-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="65" height="65"></div><p>Need more of your questions answered? Read Proteau&rsquo;s &lsquo;Ask Adam&rsquo; column every Friday at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0006-06

ASK Adam

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012106/9355341-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div><p>Q Who has been the best goalie in the NHL so far this season?</p><p>Tim Thomas 48.3%</p><p>Niklas Backstrom 15.0%</p><p>Steve Mason 15.0%</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021431/9355334-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="205" height="204"></div><p>TIM THOMAS, UNDERRATED?</p><p>Not this season, bub.</p><p>When NHL goaltenders were asked to name the league&rsquo;s best goalie this year, the Boston Bruins netminder received three times as many votes as the runners-up. Thomas was named on 29 of 60 ballots (48.3 percent) in a survey conducted by The Hockey News in mid-February, while another unsung stopper, Minnesota&rsquo;s Niklas Backstrom, and Columbus rookie Steve Mason finished tied for second place with nine votes apiece (15.0 percent).</p><p>Thomas has clearly stood above the rest, blocking just about everything fired his way despite a flopping style that makes goaltending coaches sneer. Long-term injuries to robo-goalies such as Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo in the early segment of the schedule opened the door for Thomas to rise up and he was aided by the fact the Bruins are also exceeding expectations this season. Then again, he&rsquo;s been integral to the B&rsquo;s charge to the top of the Eastern Conference.</p><p>&ldquo;The Bruins are a surprise team and he&rsquo;s been a big part of that,&rdquo; said Toronto Maple Leafs veteran Curtis Joseph. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big reason why they&rsquo;re one of the top teams in the league.&rdquo;</p><p>Added Nashville netminder Dan Ellis: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the wins, he&rsquo;s got the stats. He&rsquo;s a warrior in the net. He&rsquo;s a little unorthodox, but he never gives up on any play. I think he&rsquo;s definitely leading the charge for the goalies.&rdquo;</p><p>Meanwhile, Backstrom is finally getting his due in his third NHL season. And Mason? Well, he didn&rsquo;t wait too long before getting noticed.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a 20-year-old kid, that story alone is amazing,&rdquo; said Minnesota backup Josh Harding, who grudgingly voted for Mason after being informed he couldn&rsquo;t vote for Backstrom, his teammate.</p><p>&ldquo;Just because of what Mason has done on that team,&rdquo; added New Jersey goalie Scott Clemmensen, who also received a vote due to his stellar play in place of Brodeur this season.</p><p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t ignore it. He&rsquo;s been unbelievable.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; THN STAFF</p><p>Q Who has the most feared shot in the NHL?</p><p>Alex Ovechkin 44.5%</p><p>Zdeno Chara 24.1%</p><p>Sheldon Souray 22.4%</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021706/9355327-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="202" height="203"></div><p>SHELDON SOURAY AND Zdeno Chara are a couple of big, hard-shooting defensemen who scare the stuffing out of goalies when they wind up for a slapshot from the point.</p><p>But despite the dangers inherent to standing in front of a 100-miles-per-hour blast, there&rsquo;s another NHL shooter who scares goalies even more.</p><p>Alex Ovechkin. Surprise, surprise.</p><p>&ldquo;His shot is so hard to read,&rdquo; said Minnesota&rsquo;s Niklas Backstrom, who selected the Capitals sniper as the league&rsquo;s most dangerous shooter. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big reason he scores every night.&rdquo;</p><p>Added Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun: &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t score all those goals by accident. He shoots so much you always have to know where he is on the ice.&rsquo;&rsquo;</p><p>Goalies keep a constant eye on Souray, too.</p><p>&ldquo;Every time he shoots&hellip;if he hits you, it hurts,&rdquo; said Carolina backup Michael Leighton.</p><p>And Chara doesn&rsquo;t exactly feather them in either.</p><p>&ldquo;He shot the puck 105.4 miles per hour?&rdquo; said Backstrom&rsquo;s backup in Minnesota, Josh Harding. &ldquo;Holy (expletive). No, thank you.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; THN STAFF</p><p>Q Do you think the size of goalie equipment can be reduced further?</p><p>No 63.8%</p><p>Yes 36.2%</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031200/9355320-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="202" height="203"></div><p>AS YOU&rsquo;D EXPECT, NHL goalies don&rsquo;t want the size of their equipment to get any smaller.</p><p>But the league&rsquo;s netminders aren&rsquo;t as against the idea as you might think. In fact, 36.8 percent of NHL goalies indicated they&rsquo;d be open to various &ldquo;tweaks&rdquo; and &ldquo;fixes,&rdquo; here and there, as long as the league doesn&rsquo;t take away too much of their padded protection. Of course, this means most stoppers are still solidly against gear-shrinking in any shape or form (63.8 percent) &ndash; but it&rsquo;s not a 90-plus percent majority, or even close.</p><p>&ldquo;As long as it doesn&rsquo;t jeopardize the safety of the goalies, I think it can definitely be reduced,&rdquo; said Atlanta netminder Johan Hedberg.</p><p>In Chicago, Cristobal Huet was a more reluctant yes man. &ldquo;Maybe the pads and the chest&hellip;it&rsquo;s hard, you don&rsquo;t want goalies to get hurt,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>The anti-change goalies were more direct.</p><p>&ldquo;Uh, let me think here. Nooooooo!&rdquo; responded Anaheim&rsquo;s J-S Giguere.</p><p>&ldquo;No effing way,&rdquo; added New Jersey&rsquo;s Kevin Weekes. &ldquo;Can you write that?&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; THN STAFF<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0007-01

Inside the NHL

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-04669/9355379-1-eng-US/f0008-042.jpg" title="f0008-04" width="562" height="643"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ZEDNICK: SPORTS ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>EAUTIFUL SYMMETRY</b> One year to the day after having his throat dangerously cut by a teammate&rsquo;s skate, <b>Richard Zednik</b> pops two goals for the Panthers.</p><p><b>GREEN MACHINE</b> The Caps&rsquo; Mike Green has established himself as the league&rsquo;s premier offense-minded blueliner.</p><p><b>IN THE STARS</b> Dallas turns its season around after an horrendous start.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-05475/9355372-1-eng-US/f0008-052.jpg" title="f0008-05" width="562" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEHTONEN: GLENN JAMES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>EAST IS LEAST</b> As of mid-February, Eastern Conference teams had just a .484 winning percentage versus Western clubs.</p><p><b>100 TEARS</b> Centennial season was supposed to be special in Montreal, but Habs sure don&rsquo;t look like contenders.</p><p><b>KARI LET-THEM-IN</b> Seven years after being taken No. 2 overall, <b>Kari Lehtonen</b> has yet to make good on his promise.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-04

+ Plus Minus –

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ERIC ZWEIG</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-012022/9355441-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">A common sight today, the empty net first appeared in the NHL in 1931. <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span>CCORDING TO MOST SOURCES, Art Ross was the first coach in NHL history to pull his goalie for an extra attacker. Ross did so on March 26, 1931, during a playoff game against the Montreal Canadiens. His Boston Bruins lost the contest 1-0.</p><p>Frank Boucher of the New York Rangers is said to have been the first coach to pull his goalie &ldquo;on the fly&rdquo; on Jan. 14, 1940. Boucher had discussed the move with netminder Dave Kerr during the second intermission. He gave Kerr a signal with about 90 seconds remaining in the third period, but the Rangers still lost 2-1 to Chicago to end a 19-game win streak.</p><p>However, a story in the <i>Globe and Mail</i> makes it clear that Maple Leafs coach Dick Irvin had pulled George Hainsworth on the fly in a loss at Detroit on Jan. 21, 1934.</p><p>The story in the Jan. 23, 1934, edition reports that, trailing 3-2 with a minute remaining in overtime (a full 10-minute overtime was played in the NHL for regular season games at this time, regardless of how many goals were scored), the Maple Leafs had all five players pressing for the tying goal. Here&rsquo;s how the newspaper reporter described the historical moment:</p><p>&ldquo;Coach Irvin looked down at the other end and saw George Hainsworth looking lonesome and forlorn guarding a net that hadn&rsquo;t been attacked for some minutes. Irvin quickly beckoned Hainsworth to the bench and when the goalkeeper came off, Charlie Conacher jumped on the ice and rushed into the play&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>The referee, seeing six Leafs players and assuming Toronto had too many men on the ice, blew his whistle. But, according to the newspaper: &ldquo;On checking up, it was seen that no breach of the rules had been committed.&rdquo;</p><p>However, the Red Wings became aware that Toronto&rsquo;s net was empty. When play resumed, &ldquo;the Wings were jockeying to get the rubber and lift it down to the other end at the open net.&rdquo; (Remember, the NHL had no rule against icing until 1937.) With about 30 seconds to go, Herbie Lewis scored to clinch a 4-2 victory.</p><p>And Irvin apparently gave the referee quite an earful after the game for blowing the play dead and alerting the Wings.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0009-01

The first man out

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-04659/9355486-1-eng-US/f0009-042.jpg" title="f0009-04" width="256" height="209"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-07344/9355500-1-eng-US/f0009-072.jpg" title="f0009-07" width="130" height="130"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03867/9355493-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="186" height="252"></div><p>The Coyotes rookie likes a good beat when he&rsquo;s heading to the rink.</p><p><b>NAME</b></p><p>Live Your Life</p><p><b>ARTIST</b></p><p>T.I. w/Rihanna</p><p><b>MB:</b> Good rhythm, good beat.</p><p><b>NAME</b></p><p>Just Dance</p><p><b>ARTIST</b></p><p>Lady Gaga</p><p><b>MB:</b> It&rsquo;s on the radio&hellip; whatever&rsquo;s on I&rsquo;ll listen to.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-05494/9355479-1-eng-US/f0009-052.jpg" title="f0009-05" width="256" height="209"></div><p><b>NAME</b></p><p>Rehab</p><p><b>ARTIST</b></p><p>Rihanna</p><p><b>MB:</b> Just another good song.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-06401/9355472-1-eng-US/f0009-062.jpg" title="f0009-06" width="256" height="210"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0009-04

Rockin’ Out with Mikkel Boedker

<div class="byline">&#x2013; KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021612/9355531-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Martin Brodeur has felt no pressure to hasten his return.</figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>N THE THREE-PLUS MONTHS since Martin Brodeur went down with the first serious injury of his career, there has been some speculation he might have to win his job back upon returning to the New Jersey Devils.</p><p>Yeah, sure. And Tom Brady will have to earn his spot with the New England Patriots next season. The way Brodeur sees it, he plans on being back to his old, workhorse self when he returns to the nets sometime around March 1.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m planning on playing all the games,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s my attitude. I haven&rsquo;t shared the net with anybody since my first season in the NHL. This injury wasn&rsquo;t a knee or a shoulder or a hip. It was an elbow and the doctors say it will be stronger than it was before.&rdquo;</p><p>Scott Clemmensen has been brilliant in Brodeur&rsquo;s absence; a really nice story and all, but ask any coach whether he would want to go into a game with a healthy Martin Brodeur or a healthy Scott Clemmensen and you&rsquo;re likely to get the biggest eye-roll of all time.</p><p>If Brodeur does return to the lineup by March 1, the Devils will have 20 games remaining in the regular season, which will be plenty of time for Brodeur to get the eight victories he needs to break Patrick Roy&rsquo;s all-time wins record of 451. (Don&rsquo;t forget he also has a shot, albeit a long one, to get the five shutouts he needs to tie Terry Sawchuk&rsquo;s career shutout mark of 103.)</p><p>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s great for Clemmer to do what he has done for us this year,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s in the last year of his contract and he&rsquo;s been able to show the league he can be a No. 1 guy.</p><p>&ldquo;He has been my backup for a long time and to see him do that is great. Whether his future is with us or somebody else, he really surprised a lot of people.&rdquo;</p><p>What Clemmensen&rsquo;s fine play has done, though, is prevent Brodeur from succumbing to the temptation to come back too early. In fact, Brodeur said in early February that if the Devils were fighting for their playoff lives and were not getting solid goaltending, he&rsquo;d probably already be back in the net. As of that time, he had yet to participate in full practices, but was scheduled to begin doing so Feb. 14.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to put a schedule on it,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;I think it will get to the point where I wake up one day and I say, &lsquo;All right, I&rsquo;m good to go.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s difficult to determine exactly how the midseason layoff will affect Brodeur, because this has been the first in-season inactive period of his 15-year career. Some have floated the notion the layoff will make Brodeur fresher for the playoffs, one he basically dismisses as bunk.</p><p>&ldquo;I think that was always an excuse when we didn&rsquo;t win the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; Brodeur said. &ldquo;Nobody said I looked tired when I won my three Stanley Cups.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-02

No. 1 with a bullet

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-031025/9355600-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="404" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRODEUR: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-10131/9355607-1-eng-US/f0010-102.jpg" title="f0010-10" width="131" height="145"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span>EET MICHAEL SOROCHKA,</b> The Hockey News&rsquo; biggest fan. OK, truth be told, Michael is actually one of the Leafs&rsquo; biggest fans, but by virtue of that he&rsquo;s also a big THN supporter. Michael has been a subscriber since Day 1, getting his first issue all the way back in 1947 and the more than 2,000 in the 62 years since. He still gets the magazine each week, scanning it for news on his Leafs. Clearly this Saskatoon, Sask., resident is one dedicated soul.</p><p><b>AT LEAST ONE</b> prominent Senators fan has thrown in the towel on this year. On an early-February visit to London, home of the OHL&rsquo;s Knights, Ontario premier Daulton McGuinty said the city had one thing his hometown of Ottawa desperately needs: John Tavares. Some cheeky Sens supporters might suggest Mr. McGuinty has a firmer vision for their team than GM Bryan Murray.</p><p><b>IF SIDNEY CROSBY</b> and Evgeni Malkin are to avoid a dubious distinction, their teammates have to pick up the slack. Malkin and Sid could become the first to finish 1-2 in scoring on a team that misses the playoffs since Roy Conacher and Doug Bentley tore up the league on a bad Chicago team in 1948-49.</p><p><b>DON&rsquo;T</b>&nbsp;<b>FORGET</b> to visit <a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a> to vote for your favorite goalie mask beginning Feb. 24. We&rsquo;ve narrowed the field to our top eight, but we&rsquo;re letting the fans decide the champion. The best mask will be crowned March 16.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-03

Snapshots

<h2><b>WINS</b></h2><p><b>MIIKKA KIPRUSOFF, Cgy 31</b></p><p>Evgeni Nabokov, SJ 28</p><p> Niklas Backstrom, Min 27</p><h2><b>SAVE PCT.</b></h2><p><b>TIM THOMAS, Bos .930</b></p><p>Craig Anderson, Fla .929</p><p> Niklas Backstrom, Min .927</p><h2><b>GOALS-AGAINST AVERAGE</b></h2><p><b>STEVE MASON, Clb 2.09</b></p><p>Tim Thomas, Bos 2.15</p><p> Manny Fernandez, Bos 2.16</p><h2><b>SHUTOUTS</b></h2><p><b>STEVE MASON, Clb 7</b></p><p>Niklas Backstrom, Min 6</p><p> Ty Conklin, Det 6</p><h2><b>SHOOTOUT WINS</b></h2><p><b>HENRIK LUNDQVIST, NYR 8</b></p><p>Peter Budaj, Col 6</p><p> Ryan Miller, Buf 6</p><h2><b>SHOOTOUT SAVE PCT. (min. 10 shots)</b></h2><p><b>NIKLAS BACKSTROM, Min</b>&nbsp;<b>1.000</b> (12/12)</p><p> Jonas Hiller, Ana .842 (16/19)</p><p> Chris Osgood, Det .833 (10/12)</p><h2><b>PENALTY-KILLING SAVE PCT.</b></h2><p><b>NIKLAS BACKSTROM, Min .924</b></p><p>Tim Thomas, Bos .919</p><p> Henrik Lundqvist, NYR .917</p><h2><b>EVEN-STRENGTH SAVE PCT.</b></h2><p><b>MANNY FERNANDEZ, Bos .948</b></p><p>Jonas Hiller, Ana .947</p><p> Steve Mason, Clb .942<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

BEST OF THE BEST

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011912/9355728-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE KLUCKHOHN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span> quick</b>&nbsp;<b>perusal</b> of this year&rsquo;s All-Star Game roster will net you a story per goaltender. Carey Price was the home team&rsquo;s golden boy; Jean-Sebastien Giguere the hometown hero; Tim Thomas the journeyman/hated rival; Minnesota&rsquo;s <b>Niklas Backstrom</b>&hellip;what&rsquo;s his story again?</p><p>Simply put, Backstrom has been the league&rsquo;s most consistent elite goaltender since entering the NHL in 2006-07 and he has done it in almost complete anonymity. In fact, in some circles, he&rsquo;s not even the best Backstrom in the NHL; Washington&rsquo;s Nicklas Backstrom (note the &lsquo;c&rsquo;) would give him a run for that title.</p><p>But to understand Backstrom the goalie is to delve into the mind of a man who has done everything quietly, and with excellence.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always been a long shot,&rdquo; said Marko Leppanen, a Finnish hockey reporter with <i>Ilta-Sanomat</i>, who covers the NHL from Toronto. &ldquo;He was never a junior star.&rdquo;</p><p>Throughout his career, Backstrom had to prove himself at every level. He backed up Mika Noronen when Finland won the world junior on home ice in 1998, then backed up Tim Thomas when the two future NHLers were plying their trade for HIFK Helsinki.</p><p>Even when his career took off with Karpat Oulu, a stint that ended with back-to-back Finnish League championships, he was still brought in to Minnesota as the backup to the backup.</p><p>&ldquo;We identified him as a goalie who had a chance to accomplish something over here,&rdquo; said Wild GM Doug Risebrough, who first saw Backstrom in 2004-05, but didn&rsquo;t sign him right away. &ldquo;Nothing came of it then because we had great goaltending.&rdquo;</p><p>But that logjam of Dwayne Roloson, Manny Fernandez and top prospect Josh Harding was broken up when Roloson was dealt to the Oilers at the 2006 trade deadline.</p><p>At the beginning of training camp the next season, Backstrom was destined for the minors, but Harding pulled his groin. Fate being what it is, Fernandez struggled when the regular season began and Backstrom began his NHL ascent.</p><p>&ldquo;I think he won three games in relief at the beginning of the season,&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m a quick learner &ndash; we had to get him some real starts.&rdquo;</p><p>Backstrom quickly went from a depth guy to a safety net to the lion&rsquo;s share of starts in Minnesota, even making Fernandez expendable in the process.</p><p>Ironically, Backstrom will be one of the top free agent goaltenders this summer, so if the Wild doesn&rsquo;t want to see another quality netminder leave town, there&rsquo;s some paperwork on an extension that will need to get done sooner than later.</p><p>For Backstrom, stopping pucks is in his blood. Both his father and grandfather guarded the twine back in Finland and the Wild stopper noted that even as a tyke in the schoolyard, he always wanted to play net.</p><p>His unlikely stewardship under Thomas in Helsinki taught the younger Backstrom some valuable lessons about the craft, ones he still holds true to this day.</p><p>&ldquo;It was more mental than anything,&rdquo; Backstrom said.</p><p>&ldquo;The way he worked in practice, he didn&rsquo;t want to let in a goal &ndash; just like in a game.&rdquo;</p><p>Backstrom took that killer instinct to heart and when he faced Thomas during the NHL lockout (with Backstrom playing for Karpat and Thomas back in Helsinki), the future Bruin could see the evolution from their days together in Helsinki.</p><p>&ldquo;He was a kid to me,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;He was nice, very quiet &ndash; as he is, I believe, to this day &ndash; and he had the shortest goalie pads I&rsquo;ve ever seen. In practice together I wouldn&rsquo;t get to see his game much, but three years after that, I could see he was starting to build something.&rdquo;</p><p>The turning point for Backstrom came between his time in Helsinki and Karpat. For the 2001-02 season, he left Finland to play in Sweden, where he suited up for AIK Solna. It took the netminder out of his comfort zone and molded his will into steel.</p><p>&ldquo;There were a lot of things I learned that year mentally,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;Our team wasn&rsquo;t very good, so you learn how to play under pressure and have high expectations of yourself.&rdquo;</p><p>Being alone in a foreign, albeit neighboring country, also came into play.</p><p>&ldquo;All these things can help&hellip;you better do your best, because you&rsquo;ve come so far and left your family and friends,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re always looking for different challenges and experiences.&rdquo;</p><p>And while Backstrom was a consistent winner with Karpat soon after, visions of playing in North America were still flickering in his mind, despite the fact he was already in his mid-20s.</p><p>&ldquo;I was happy back there, I had great teammates,&rdquo; Backstrom said.</p><p>&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t something you thought of every day, but you have dreams.&rdquo;</p><p>With the dream realized, Backstrom can now focus on bringing the Stanley Cup to Minnesota and if there&rsquo;s one thing the netminder excels in, it&rsquo;s focus. Backstrom is famous for jogging around the arena before games, head covered by a hoodie like Rocky. He takes that time to visualize what will happen on the ice and which players will be challenging him with their offensive prowess that night.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to think when I go out there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re watching the game, following the puck&hellip;you don&rsquo;t want to have your thoughts wander.&rdquo;</p><p>A recent shootout win over division rival Edmonton was the perfect example. The Oilers were crashing and banging around the crease all afternoon, but no matter what position Backstrom was in &ndash; standing up, on his rear end, sliding behind an Oiler set up in front of his crease &ndash; his eyes were always on the puck.</p><p>&ldquo;In the goalie world you have to be strong and I think that&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s so successful,&rdquo; said teammate and fellow Finn Mikko Koivu. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very calm and I think that&rsquo;s his biggest strength. He can focus on the game every game.&rdquo;</p><p>Playing in a comfortable environment has also been a boon for the goalie. Backstrom still spends his summers in Finland, fishing and hanging out with friends and family, but Minnesota provides a similar feel during work hours. Along with the four seasons and great outdoors, Minnesota boasts a population with deep Scandinavian roots.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I think Niklas has done so well in Minnesota,&rdquo; Leppanen said. &ldquo;People there, they know where Finland is.&rdquo;</p><p>On the ice, the defensively proud Wild also gave the netminder a chance to feel comfortable.</p><p>&ldquo;He knew what his upside was,&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;He even told us he wanted to get a good start, he wanted to go to a place where he won&rsquo;t get hung out to dry, and we&rsquo;re a goaltender-friendly team. I thought that was a mature decision.&rdquo;</p><p>And while game-time means business &ndash; his teammates know he likes to be alone the night before a game, even on the road &ndash; it&rsquo;s not all focus and calm for Backstrom. Naturally, the goaltender has a fun side, too.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the right mix,&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s serious when he needs to be, he&rsquo;s diligent, very dependable &ndash; but he pokes fun at the players in practice when they don&rsquo;t score on him.&rdquo;</p><p>The mischievous Koivu claims he has a way around the taunting: &ldquo;Yeah, well I always beat him, so&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>When informed of this boast, Backstrom is quick to put the joke back on his fellow Finn.</p><p>&ldquo;Us goalies on the team made a deal,&rdquo; the netminder quipped. &ldquo;You have to let Mikko score or he gets grumpy. And you can&rsquo;t have a grumpy captain.&rdquo;</p><p>At least the Wild players know they have a well-balanced goalkeeper behind them.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011682/9355721-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="1818" height="1442"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE KLUCKHOHN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>Save</b>&nbsp;<b>PERCENTAGE SUPERSTARS</b></h2><p>Niklas Backstrom has the best overall save percentage since he arrived in the NHL in 2006. Here are the top five save percentages, dating back to the start of the &rsquo;06-07 season:</p><p>NIKLAS BACKSTROM, Min .925</p><p>MARTIN BRODEUR, NJ .920</p><p>TOMAS VOKOUN, Nsh/Fla .919</p><p>ROBERTO LUONGO, Van .918</p><p>CRISTOBAL HUET, Mtl/Wsh/Chi .918<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-01

Who is this guy?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011791/9355804-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="200" height="278"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021352/9355797-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="201" height="277"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03979/9355790-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="201" height="277"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>1. Tim Thomas, Bos <i>(13)</i></p><p>2. Niklas Backstrom, Min <i>(18)</i></p><p>3. Steve Mason, Clb <i>(NR)</i></p><p>4. Henrik Lundqvist, NYR <i>(9)</i></p><p>5. Ryan Miller, Buf <i>(8)</i></p><p>6. Evgeni Nabokov, SJ <i>(2)</i></p><p>7. Nikolai Khabibulin, Chi <i>(NR)</i></p><p>8. Tomas Vokoun, Fla <i>(7)</i></p><p>9. Jonas Hiller, Ana <i>(NR)</i></p><p>10. Roberto Luongo, Van <i>(1)</i></p><p>11. Miikka Kiprusoff, Cgy <i>(11)</i></p><p>12. Scott Clemmensen, NJ <i>(NR)</i></p><p>13. Manny Fernandez, Bos <i>(NR)</i></p><p>14. Antero Niittymaki, Phi <i>(28)</i></p><p>15. Marty Turco, Dal <i>(10)</i></p><p>16. Chris Mason, StL <i>(29)</i></p><p>17. Ilya Bryzgalov, Phx <i>(14)</i></p><p>18. Ty Conklin, Det <i>(15)</i></p><p>19. Pekka Rinne, Nsh <i>(NR)</i></p><p>20. Craig Anderson, Fla <i>(NR)</i></p><p>21. Cam Ward, Car <i>(26)</i></p><p>22. Mike Smith, TB <i>(NR)</i></p><p>23. Cristobal Huet, Chi <i>(22)</i></p><p>24. Carey Price, Mtl <i>(NR)</i></p><p>25. Dwayne Roloson, Edm <i>(NR)</i></p><p>26. Marc-Andre Fleury, Pit <i>(NR)</i></p><p>27. Jose Theodore, Wsh <i>(20)</i></p><p>28. Jonathan Quick, LA <i>(NR)</i></p><p>29. Martin Biron, Phi <i>(23)</i></p><p>30. J-S Giguere, Ana <i>(6)</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0018-01

THE TOP 30

<div class="byline">BY RYAN DIXON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04660/9355759-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">No.9 Jonas Hiller</figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>H</span>ockey&rsquo;s</b>&nbsp;<b>goalies</b> and baseball&rsquo;s catchers definitely share some similari-Heck, many catchers have even adopted goalie-style facemasks in recent years. ties. Both stare down hard objects moving toward them at bone-breaking speeds, which is why each wears more equipment than anybody else on their team. Heck, many catchers have even adopted goalie-style facemasks in recent years.</p><p>But despite initial impressions, the plight of a puckstopper is actually much more similar to that of pitchers. First of all, each has the opportunity to dominate a game more so than anybody else on the ice or diamond based solely on where they stand. Then there is the unfortunate fact the opposition spends far more time dissecting your game in search of weakness than any other player at any other position.</p><p>And any exploitable crack in the armor can be devastating. That helps explain the volatile nature of NHL goaltending.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a good analogy,&rdquo; said an NHL scout of the goalie-pitcher parallel. &ldquo;I know the pitcher is more of an offensive thing (going after hitters) than a defensive thing like a goalie. But they come in, you know, you haven&rsquo;t seen these guys, but at some point, you start to settle in on their tendencies. Goalies have tendencies, it just takes people a while to figure them out. Tendencies, vulnerabilities and even strengths.&rdquo;</p><p>A quick glance at the number of goalies who dropped entirely off our top-30 ranking from last year makes you suspect NHL snipers were doing some off-season studying.</p><p>Just check out the trajectory of Dan Ellis. He burst on the scene last year with Nashville and led the league with a .924 save percentage. He&rsquo;d also only played 45 career NHL games by the end of the season. This year, it&rsquo;s all Ellis can do to keep his save percentage above .900, despite playing on a defensively sound team. He now shares crease duties with rookie Pekka Rinne.</p><p>And how about Vesa Toskala in Toronto? Last season was his first as the undisputed No. 1 guy and he shone. He also apparently showed too many tendencies shooters are onto this year, because, as of mid-February, his goals-against average had ballooned to 3.34 and his save percentage was an odorous .884, second-last overall.</p><p>Mathieu Garon seized the starting position in Edmonton last year and was supposed to be the backbone of an emerging young team this campaign. Instead, he&rsquo;s the backup on another squad because the Oilers traded him to Pittsburgh after he failed to carry over his strong play.</p><p>All three goalies are examples of guys who played mostly in the shadows until last year, suddenly excelled with a heavy workload, but apparently suffered from overexposure and are struggling to produce encore performances.</p><p>So how does that bode for the likes of Scott Clemmensen and Jonas Hiller, who&rsquo;ve emerged from perpetual backup roles to become starring acts? And what of Columbus super-rookie Steve Mason? Will he look a lot less like Patrick Roy once snipers unravel his, well, <i>je ne sais quoi</i>?</p><p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;d be surprised at how many guys who are goal-scorers and guys who are completing scoring  chances watch the tendencies of goalies,&rdquo; the scout said. &ldquo;And a guy like Mason, he doesn&rsquo;t have a library yet of stuff against him. He&rsquo;s pretty new.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give you the example of Jim Carey. He was just a great short-term guy (with Washington in the mid-1990s) because people didn&rsquo;t have a chance to figure him out. By the time they figured him out, then he didn&rsquo;t have as much success as he did when he was early in his career.&rdquo;</p><p>Nobody is saying Mason is due for a nosedive akin to the epic fall the infamous &lsquo;Net Detective&rsquo; endured, but there&rsquo;s more evidence than yearto-year ranking discrepancies to underscore just how manic goalies can be. While player movement is obviously more prevalent today than in past eras due to a number of factors, it&rsquo;s still staggering to think of how many top-notch stoppers were either given up on or moved because teams didn&rsquo;t want to pay them what they were worth at some point.</p><p>&ldquo;Look at goalies who are with their original team who are now successful,&rdquo; the scout said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t think of a lot of them. Like (Martin) Brodeur and after Brodeur, I think (Niklas) Backstrom now. But even (Henrik) Lundqvist and Backstrom are relatively new guys. You look at (Jean-Sebastien) Giguere, (Roberto) Luongo, these guys are on their third team.&rdquo;</p><p>Given the tenuous nature of the position, it&rsquo;s easy to see why teams have only started drafting goalies in the top-five slots in the past 10 years. As a bird-dog trying not to go batty projecting a goaltender&rsquo;s path, there are a few tell-tale signs to cling to.</p><p>&ldquo;As a scout, you want to try and see how their athleticism is, obviously,&rdquo; the scout said. &ldquo;And myself, I want to see how much they want the puck. How much they &ndash; and it&rsquo;s not just a challenging issue &ndash; it&rsquo;s like they&rsquo;re welcoming the scoring chance. I think that&rsquo;s important. For me it&rsquo;s important to see how they react within the game, too, you know what I mean? When they&rsquo;re down 3-1, are they still playing as hard as when it was a 0-0 game?&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0018-04

Best today, backup tomorrow

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011601/9355835-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DEBORA ROBINSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Goalie &rsquo;07-08 Rk. What Happenend?</b></p><p>Martin Brodeur, NJ 3rd Out with elbow injury since Nov. 1</p><p>Pascal Leclaire, Clb 4th Injuries opened the door for Mason</p><p><b>Chris Osgood, Det</b> 5th Dead-last in save percentage (.880)</p><p>Dominik Hasek, Det 12th Now he&rsquo;s dominating retirement</p><p>Rick DiPietro, NYI 16th Out for the year since mid-October hip injury</p><p>Vesa Toskala, Tor 18th Worst GAA among NHL starters (3.34)</p><p>Manny Legace, StL 19th Blues waived him to AHL in February</p><p>Martin Gerber, Ott 21st Sens waived him to AHL in January</p><p>Dan Ellis, Nsh 24th Lost hold on No. 1 job to Rinne</p><p>Mathieu Garon, Edm-Pit 25th Lost Oilers starting job and was traded to Pens</p><p>Josh Harding, Min 27th Only 1-5-1 despite 2.03 GAA, .933 SP</p><p>Kari Lehtonen, Atl 30th Thrashers are thrashees too often<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0019-01

OFF THE LIST

<div class="byline">PROTEAUTYPE WITH ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021118/9355873-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03805/9355880-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="207" height="245"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>n the world</b> of professional team sports, one player&rsquo;s long-awaited golden opportunity usually is another&rsquo;s much-feared misfortune. Nowhere is that dichotomy more apparent than in the small-but-never-staid community of pro hockey goaltenders, which has been known to expel members as quickly as admitting them.</p><p>The joy, frustration and ever-shifting sands inherent in the netminder&rsquo;s role are underscored in unpredictable manifestations each and every NHL season.</p><p>Sometimes it shows in the shooting-star career trajectory of a Jim Carey or a Blaine Lacher, two former NHL backstoppers who inspired their team for a very short period of time before flaming out worse than Richard Simmons and Little Richard in a theoretical tragic barbecue accident.</p><p>Sometimes you can see it in an out-of-nowhere, late-career uprising such as the one Boston&rsquo;s Tim Thomas has enjoyed over the past couple seasons. And in other instances, you can see the beauty and horror of the position epitomized by the same goaltender in a single season; for proof, look no further than Carey Price&rsquo;s maddeningly uneven performance in Montreal&rsquo;s net this year.</p><p>Because of that perennial uncertainty, virtually every elite goalie can tell a story of being passed over or counted out somewhere along the way to steady employment in the NHL. And few franchises provide a better example of that than the Nashville Predators &ndash; a team that, for a number of different reasons, has served as a carousel for crease-protectors over the past decade.</p><p>In their early expansion days, the Preds leaned primarily on Mike Dunham as their No. 1 guy for four years. However, a series of injuries to Dunham provided an opening for Tomas Vokoun, who eventually claimed the top job for himself in 2002-03 and held it uncontested until a blood disorder sidelined him late in the 2005-06 campaign.</p><p>That turn of events gave backup Chris Mason an opportunity of his own &ndash; and like his predecessor before him, he seized the moment with superb showings that soon led to Vokoun being traded to Florida in 2007.</p><p>But Mason didn&rsquo;t hold onto the job very long. After signing a two-year contract extension, he stumbled out of the gate last season and &ndash; apologies if this sounds familiar &ndash; because of the confidence No. 2 Dan Ellis inspired in his absence, Mason was shipped to St. Louis last summer.</p><p>Now, Ellis finds himself in a similar situation &ndash; pushed by a backup (in this instance, 26-year-old rookie <b>Pekka Rinne</b>) whose play could quickly result in a ticket out of Tennessee.</p><p>If you think that&rsquo;s tough on those players, imagine the ulcer in the stomach of Predators coach Barry Trotz, who has been behind Nashville&rsquo;s bench to watch all of the aforementioned netminders come and go.</p><p>&ldquo;We joke around here in the organization that we draft or find good goaltenders in other organizations, develop them, make them very rich, then they have to move on,&rdquo; Trotz said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re sort of a goaltender&rsquo;s paradise that way.&rdquo;</p><p>Kidding aside, Trotz can eloquently explain the evolution of Preds goalies.</p><p>&ldquo;Obviously, you&rsquo;d like to have the designated No. 1 for a bunch of years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to keep them, but sometimes we&rsquo;ve had to redistribute our payroll money. It hasn&rsquo;t been because we haven&rsquo;t liked our goalies &ndash; it&rsquo;s really been more economic than anything.</p><p>&ldquo;The year of Tomas&rsquo; contract year, we were about to sell the team and (then-owner) Craig Leipold said he needed the payroll to be as low as possible. So with Tomas coming up that June for a $5-million contract, and Mase probably being able to sign a new deal for $3 million, that was a situation where we had to move Tomas and sign Mase by design.</p><p>&ldquo;And it was actually going to be Mase and Pekka that year, because Pekka played really well in Milwaukee (Nashville&rsquo;s AHL affiliate) and we had high expectations he&rsquo;d come in and get 20-30 games played as Mase&rsquo;s backup.</p><p>&ldquo;But Danny Ellis came into camp and played lights-out, and we&rsquo;ve always been big believers in play dictating at least an opportunity.&rdquo;</p><p>There&rsquo;s that word again &ndash; opportunity. It&rsquo;s what drives all players, and Rinne was no different, even all the way back in his native Finland.</p><p>&ldquo;When I got drafted, it was a big and positive surprise for me,&rdquo; said Rinne, selected in the eighth round (258th overall) by Nashville in 2004. &ldquo;I was playing at home behind (current Minnesota Wild goalie) Niklas Backstrom, and I didn&rsquo;t get to play that much. It was a nice recognition to be drafted but at that time, I&rsquo;d already decided that if I ever got offered an opportunity to come over to North America and play, I would give it my best shot.</p><p>&ldquo;I played three years in Milwaukee and you kind of realize right away you need to put in the time, and you need to be prepared when you do get a chance, because you might only get a few chances at the NHL. If you don&rsquo;t play well, you might not get many more shots at it.&rdquo;</p><p>Although he took a longer road to the NHL than Rinne, Thomas felt that same urge to be prepared no matter the league he was playing in.</p><p>&ldquo;Even though I was not in the NHL, wherever I was at, in the minors or Finland, I was getting plenty of playing time,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;In the long run, that helped with my experience as far as being in just about every game situation imaginable.</p><p>&ldquo;It also made it easier to deal with the fact that maybe you were not getting your chance, because you were just busy doing your job wherever you are at. So I did not spend a lot of time dwelling on it while I was playing.</p><p>&ldquo;I think you have to keep belief in yourself no matter what, even if you are getting your chance or you are sent down to the minors. But it&rsquo;s easier to do if you are playing, and playing well, no matter what level you are at.&rdquo;</p><p>Should Rinne ever fall on hard times, Trotz and Preds goaltending coach Mitch Korn have great experience in setting him straight, and preparing him for the next opportunity &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s in Nashville or anywhere else.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had to deal with (goalies who have) a lack of confidence &ndash; with Tomas, with everybody,&rdquo; Trotz said.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a goaltender alive that won&rsquo;t go through that. It&rsquo;s how he deals with it coming out of it that&rsquo;s the real test.</p><p>&ldquo;It can break you down, or it can make you stronger, and Mitch has a good way of bringing the clarity back. We always say when there&rsquo;s an issue with the goaltender that &lsquo;the computer is jammed,&rsquo; they&rsquo;re not processing properly, there&rsquo;s a virus in there somewhere that&rsquo;s making them think too much or causing them to cheat to mask the holes in their game. And it&rsquo;s our job to defrag them.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02818/9355866-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="439" height="439"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chet Pickard <span class="photo-credit">(PICKARD)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>No. 1 in Nashville</b></h2><p>The Predators have seen upstart backups take over the starting job in each of the past four seasons:</p><h3><b>2005-06</b></h3><p><b>No. 1 TOMAS VOKOUN</b></p><p>Win pct. .648 (36-18-7)</p><p>2006-07: 27-12-4 record; unseated by Mason</p><h3><b>2006-07</b></h3><p><b>No. 1 CHRIS MASON</b></p><p>Win pct. .667 (24-11-4)</p><p>2007-08: 18-22-6 record; unseated by Ellis</p><h3><b>2007-08</b></h3><p><b>No. 1 DAN ELLIS</b></p><p>Win pct. .681 (23-10-3)</p><p>2008-09: 11-17-3 record; unseated by Rinne</p><h3><b>2008-09</b></h3><p><b>No. 1 PEKKA RINNE</b></p><p>Win pct. .609 (14-9-0)</p><p>2009-10: Look out for Chet Pickard, the 10th pick in the &lsquo;08 draft&hellip;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-02

THE GOALIE ISSUE

Who’s next in line?

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021059/9355911-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Simeon Varlamov <span class="photo-credit">(MITCHELL LAYTON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>The</b>&nbsp;<b>evidence is</b> there to suggest NHL teams avoid using first round draft picks to select goaltenders.</p><p>For every Roberto Luongo (fourth overall, 1997) or Carey Price (fifth overall, 2005), the development highway is littered with Ari Ahonens and Brent Krahns and Craig Hillers.</p><p>It&rsquo;s too early to assess goalies drafted in 2006 and onward, but in the 10 drafts between 1996 and 2005, 25 goaltenders were selected in the first round. With teams willing to use that prime selection on a goalie, you&rsquo;d expect at least half of them, maybe even 15, would have developed into NHL starters.</p><p>Shockingly, just six of the 25 have answered the bell &ndash; Luongo, Price, Rick DiPietro, Pascal Leclaire, Cam Ward and Marc-Andre Fleury. Two others, Tuukka Rask and Cory Schneider, are still developing, while Kari Lehtonen has been a disappointment as the No. 2 pick in 2002. Dan Blackburn had his promising career end due to injury, but the other 15 are destined to be first round flops.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really difficult for us to predict, with any degree of certainty, how quickly or how well a young goalie will develop,&rdquo; one scout said. &ldquo;We base our recommendations on what we see in them when they&rsquo;re 16 or 17. After that, it&rsquo;s a real crapshoot.&rdquo;</p><p>Added another scout: &ldquo;Some teams don&rsquo;t like to draft goalies in the first round because of the uncertainty. Most goalies don&rsquo;t really begin to show their stuff until they&rsquo;re in their 20s. At that point, it doesn&rsquo;t matter if they were taken in the first round or the seventh round. So why burn a first round pick on them?&rdquo;</p><p>Sometimes, the temptation is too much to resist. GMs realize the goalie is the most important position on the ice, so when reports come in that prospect Johnny Puckstopper is a future Patrick Roy or Martin Brodeur, it&rsquo;s worth a gamble.</p><p>The NHL has held an entry draft every summer since 1969 and for almost 30 years no team took a goalie higher than the No. 5 draft position. It was revolutionary when the New York Islanders selected Luongo fourth overall in 1997. Since then, two goalies have been taken first overall and another stopper second overall.</p><p>&ldquo;When you see two of the best ever go relatively low (Roy went 51st and Brodeur 20th), you don&rsquo;t want to be the GM who let them slide,&rdquo; one ex-GM said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why you&rsquo;ll always see goalies get drafted in the first round.&rdquo;</p><p>The executive also pointed out that in today&rsquo;s 30-team NHL, a blue-chip goalie prospect isn&rsquo;t going to last into the second round. So a team needing goaltending depth is forced to burn its first pick or settle for a project in the later rounds.</p><p>The Hockey News commissioned a panel of 22 scouts and directors of player personnel to rank the top NHL-affiliated prospects using a five-to-10-year outlook. Eleven goalies finished in the top 75 prospects and, surprisingly, a second-rounder rated the best among future NHL goalies.</p><p>&ldquo;(Jacob) Markstrom is as good as they get at that age,&rdquo; a scout said. &ldquo;If the 2008 draft was held again, he easily would have gone in the top 10 (rather than 31st to Florida).&rdquo;</p><p>Markstrom, 19, stands 6-foot-3, 180 pounds and led Sweden to a silver medal at the 2009 WJC. He has played in the Swedish Elite League for two seasons and is signed with Brynas through 2009-10. He&rsquo;s expected to challenge for Florida&rsquo;s starting job in 2010-11.</p><p>Six of the 11 goalies in the Future Watch top 75 are first-rounders. Three others were taken in the second round. Justin Pogge, a third-rounder in 2004, and Brian Elliott, 291st overall in 2003, are the others.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0022-02

First and goal

<p class="dropcap"><span>B</span>ased on this year&rsquo;s Future Watch rankings, here are the 11 goaltenders who qualified for top 75 status. Led by Florida&rsquo;s Jacob Markstrom, the crew will ensure that all those offensive phenoms coming up through the ranks won&rsquo;t have an easy go of it.</p><h2><b>Jacob Markstrom, Florida (3)</b></h2><p>Drafted 31st overall, 2008</p><p>2008-09 Brynas (Swe.)</p><p><b>Update</b> Very competitive, does everything well, except keep his mask on. It kept falling off at the 2009 WJC.</p><h2><b>Tuukka Rask, Boston (11)</b></h2><p>Drafted 21st overall, 2005 (by Toronto)</p><p>2008-09 Providence (AHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> Bruins will be forced to make room for him as soon as sending him to the AHL exposes him to waivers.</p><h2><b>Simeon Varlamov, Washington (12)</b></h2><p>Drafted 23rd overall, 2006</p><p>2008-09 Hershey (AHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> Comeback season, rising from No. 67 last year. Expect 20-30 NHL games from him next season.</p><h2><b>Ondrej Pavelec, Atlanta (18)</b></h2><p>Drafted 41st overall, 2005</p><p>2008-09 Chicago (AHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> Patience is running thin on Kari Lehtonen, so the reins could be handed to Pavelec as soon as this spring.</p><h2><b>Chet Pickard, Nashville (22)</b></h2><p>Drafted 18th overall, 2008</p><p>2008-09 Tri-City (WHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> First goalie taken in 2008 draft didn&rsquo;t get the playing time expected at the world juniors.</p><h2><b>Jonathan Bernier, Los Angeles (23)</b></h2><p>Drafted 11th overall, 2006</p><p>2008-09 Manchester (AHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> Slipped from No. 10 last year and now has some &ldquo;Quick&rdquo; competition as team&rsquo;s goalie of the future.</p><h2><b>Cory Schneider, Vancouver (26)</b></h2><p>Drafted 26th overall, 2004</p><p>2008-09 Manitoba (AHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> Faces a challenging outlook in Vancouver with Roberto Luongo entering his prime.</p><h2><b>Brian Elliott, Ottawa (35)</b></h2><p>Drafted 291st overall, 2003</p><p>2008-09 Ottawa (NHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> He&rsquo;s in Ottawa for good, but do Senators have the confidence to make him No. 1 right now?</p><h2><b>Jake Allen, St. Louis (45)</b></h2><p>Drafted 34th overall, 2008</p><p>2008-09 Montreal (QMJHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> Fourth goalie drafted in &lsquo;08 has had a fabulous growth season. Blues would love to fast-track him.</p><h2><b>Justin Pogge, Toronto (54)</b></h2><p>Drafted 90th overall, 2004</p><p>2008-09 Toronto (AHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> New Leafs management eager to determine if he&rsquo;s the real deal or merely a middling prospect.</p><h2><b>Thomas McCollum, Detroit (57)</b></h2><p>Drafted 30th overall, 2008</p><p>2008-09 Brampton (OHL)</p><p><b>Update</b> Leap-frogged over James Howard on Wings&rsquo; depth chart, but still years away from NHL.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

FUTURE WALLS

<div class="byline">BY ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02997/9355966-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marty Turco <span class="photo-credit">(RONALD MARTINEZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>hen the NHL</b> first announced a series of tweaks &ndash; some more significant than others &ndash; to the goaltending position after the 2004-05 lockout ended, quick to follow were predictions that the league&rsquo;s netminders would revolt at the shrinking of their equipment and limits to their on-ice movement.</p><p>Four years later, with the process of change and adaptation still ongoing, the only sound emanating from that community is the sound of silence. And that makes those involved and committed to regulating the position quite content.</p><p>&ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t heard many complaints at all from the goalies so far,&rdquo; said former NHL netminder Kay Whitmore, now a goaltending supervisor for the league&rsquo;s hockey operations department. &ldquo;And there haven&rsquo;t been any puckrelated injuries to note, so we&rsquo;re happy with that.&rdquo;</p><p>The changes initially imposed on the goalies &ndash; which included a reduction in pad width to an 11-inch maximum and the &ldquo;trapezoid&rdquo; section behind each net goalies are restricted to when leaving their crease to play the puck &ndash; were followed this season by regulations on clavicle protectors, goalie pad knee flaps, lower-leg side pads and the plastic extender that protects knees.</p><p>There are more alterations to come next year, most notably, the streamlining of equipment, including goalie pads, to better fit each goalie&rsquo;s physical proportions.</p><p>Even then, Whitmore and the players and GMs who serve on the NHL&rsquo;s goaltending equipment committee believe backstoppers will accept the changes for the same reason they&rsquo;ve accepted others: in the name of making the game more exciting.</p><p>That is, as long as the prime directive of protecting some of the league&rsquo;s most valuable employees remains in place.</p><p>&ldquo;We work closely with the Players&rsquo; Association to ensure goalie safety and at the same time try and maximize the excitement that makes our game so great,&rdquo; Whitmore said. &ldquo;We want to get to a place where everyone clearly understands the guidelines and what&rsquo;s good for the game. If there&rsquo;s a level playing field for every goalie and a good balance between guys who shoot the puck and guys who stop it, that&rsquo;s the idea.&rdquo;</p><p>Added Carolina Hurricanes GM and goalie equipment committee member Jim Rutherford: &ldquo;What I like about the whole process is the players on the committee have done a good job with it. I really appreciated and respected the job that (fellow committee members Ryan Miller, Martin Brodeur and Rick DiPietro) did.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s difficult as a goalie to give up something you&rsquo;re used to or you might feel you need. But they recognized there were going to be some changes and they were receptive and helpful to the process.&rdquo;</p><p>Although scoring is up 4.4 percent this season &ndash; 5.68 goals per game not including shootout goals compared to 5.44 all of last season &ndash; Dallas goaltending coach and former star netminder Andy Moog doesn&rsquo;t believe shrinking goalie equipment can be identified as the sole cause.</p><p>&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen a whole lot of change (in goalie performance), to be honest,&rdquo; Moog said. &ldquo;The method of dealing with offense is still the same &ndash; there&rsquo;s still a lot of traffic and confusion in front of the net and the goaltenders are going to play the percentages and get down and play a blocking style that takes away the bottom and the middle of the net the best they can. The minimal shrinking of the equipment hasn&rsquo;t changed much in that respect.&rdquo;</p><p>One change that has drawn concern is the trapezoid rule, which some see as a contributor to the rise in serious injuries to players pushed into the end boards while retrieving pucks.</p><p>Rutherford, a former goalie himself, wasn&rsquo;t enamored with that rule in the first place.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still not in favor of it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I believe it was put in really to protect against a handful of goalies at the most. You have three or four goalies who are really good at handling the puck.</p><p>&ldquo;But when you consider there are 60 goalies in the league who actually handle the puck and give it away and give up scoring chances (the rule should be revisited). I&rsquo;m one of those who would like to see it done away with.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0024-02

Days of the tweak

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GRIGG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011229/9356004-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="406" height="265"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>fyou&rsquo;re a fan</b> of NHL goaltenders named Rick, Kari and, this year, Roberto, you&rsquo;re well acquainted with lower-body injuries. But those in the know say blame the game, not the player.</p><p>Butterfly goaltenders have been around in one form or another since the 1950s. Their philosophy is simple: Create as much blocking surface as possible; use your body more than your limbs; and, let the puck come to you.</p><p>It was during the 1980s and &rsquo;90s that the phenomenon known as Patrick Roy turned an entire generation of netminders into butterfliers, relegating stand-up goaltending into a relic.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02870/9355997-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="1420" height="1047"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roberto Luongo <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;In my mind, the butterfly is the only way to (play),&rdquo; said Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Marc-Andre Fleury.</p><p>The only way because it&rsquo;s all he&rsquo;s ever known, because it&rsquo;s effective and because it&rsquo;s safer.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s more compact,&rdquo; said Jon Elkin, the goalie coach for the OHL&rsquo;s St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors.</p><p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re less exposed, you don&rsquo;t reach as much or stretch as much or sprawl as much. You&rsquo;re in a better position to take the brunt of any force as well.&rdquo;</p><p>But the up-and-down, up-and-down repetitiveness must complicate things, right? To a certain extent, that&rsquo;s true, but there are differing opinions on how, and even when.</p><p>&ldquo;The butterfly is not a natural position, so over time it could (contribute to injuries),&rdquo; said one NHL team&rsquo;s head trainer.</p><p>&ldquo;All of your weight driving through both your hip and your knee joint and then flaring out as well, you&rsquo;re putting a lot of stress on the lateral structures of your knee.&rdquo;</p><p>Francois Allaire, legendary goaltending coach and a butterfly originator, offers a different repetition theory, one that spans sports in general.</p><p>&ldquo;(Today) kids become very specialized in one movement at an early age and by the time they&rsquo;re 25 or 30, they&rsquo;ve been at it for 20 years,&rdquo; said the Anaheim goaltending consultant.</p><p>So maybe it would be safer to revert to past practices and get back to the awe-inspiring toe saves and wince-inducing splits maneuvers?</p><p>Not so, say butterfly proponents, who retort that the athletic &ldquo;superhuman&rdquo; style of the past led to hamstring and groin problems, and worse.</p><p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re opened up and a guy hits you on your knee and you can really rip apart your ligaments,&rdquo; Elkin said. &ldquo;Those big pokechecks, diving out with your head and the whole bit&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>So the butterfly is safer overall, but it obviously leads to butterfly-specific injuries.</p><p>&ldquo;Maintaining flexibility is imperative,&rdquo; said the trainer, &ldquo;but at the same time you have to have a strength base there to get through the repetitions time after time. Anything to help recover faster.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0025-01

Don’t blame butterfly

f0026-01

NHL Team Reports

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011354/9356304-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><h2><b>WESTERN CONFERENCE</b></h2><h2><b>EASTERN CONFERENCE</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011208/9356297-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="2804" height="3493"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0032-01

NHL Depth Charts

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05496/9356377-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="737" height="512"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>n Friday January 23rd,</b> The Hockey News hosted an incredible party in Montreal to celebrate NHL All-Star Weekend. One lucky guest, Marc-Andr&eacute; Dub&eacute; of Cossette M&eacute;dia, was the lucky winner of a fabulous trip for two to the tropical island of Maui!</p><p>Repeatedly named &ldquo;Best Island in the World&rdquo;, Maui&rsquo;s diversity is legendary. From the picturesque whaling town of Lahaina to the marine preserve called Molokini to famous Haleakala crater, Maui offers myriad experiences found nowhere else.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03750/9356370-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="598" height="395"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04604/9356363-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="392" height="274"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02942/9356356-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="372" height="249"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011371/9356349-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="547" height="367"></div><p>Activities abound from incomparable golf on championship courses to world-class shopping. Savor award-winning cuisine and discover small towns like &ldquo;Heavenly Hana&rdquo;. All surrounded by 42 miles of glistening beaches and the vast Pacific, where humpback whales return each winter to breed and birth.</p><p>Our winner and his guest will stay at the Royal Lahaina Resort located on 27 lush acres the heart of Ka&lsquo;anapali Beach. This intimate property features traditional Hawaiian ambiance, award-winning hospitality and unrivaled service.</p><p>For more information on the Island of Maui or to book your next vacation, log on to <a href="http://www.visitmaui.com">www.visitmaui.com</a> or call 800-525-MAUI.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06445/9356342-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="184" height="100"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07391/9356335-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="164" height="74"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;AN OCEANEFRONT LANDMARK IN THE HEART <i>of</i> KAANAPALI BEACH!<sup>&reg;</sup>&rdquo;<br>MAuI</blockquote><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0034-05

Maui The Magic Isles

<div class="byline">Sam McCaig </div><div class="byline">THN Senior Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-11" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11217/9356506-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04555/9356513-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="171" height="219"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011281/9356499-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="636" height="481"><figcaption class="caption-body">NHL commissioner Gary Bettman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02903/9356492-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="692" height="547"><figcaption class="caption-body">NHLers Shea Weber and Pekka Rinne with THN designer Erika Vanderveer</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03745/9356485-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="634" height="669"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal Canadiens GM Bob Gainey</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04607/9356478-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="469" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body">midnight trapeze performance by Cirque Eloize dancers</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05515/9356471-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="578" height="483"><figcaption class="caption-body">Maui trip winner Marc-Andr&eacute; Dub&eacute;</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06465/9356464-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="591" height="860"><figcaption class="caption-body">party display</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07403/9356457-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="651" height="491"><figcaption class="caption-body">Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08349/9356450-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="1255" height="672"><figcaption class="caption-body">THN editors Ryan Kennedy, Brian Costello, Mark Brender (THN alum, now with Right To Play) and Sam McCaig</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09301/9356443-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="780" height="682"><figcaption class="caption-body">model Willa Ford and husband Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10258/9356436-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="768" height="901"><figcaption class="caption-body">THN art director Jamie Hodgson and Mark Messier. <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO CREDITS: JAMES PETO AND GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><i><span>A</span>hh, Montreal&hellip; The hometown of the Habs proved once again that it knows how to do hockey right. The 2009 NHL All-Star Game, held in Montreal to mark the Canadiens&rsquo; centennial season, was a wonderful weekend for the league, players and fans. The city was the perfect host and the Habs always put on a memorable show when the hockey world is watching. Aside from the actual All-Star Game itself, the weekend was packed &ndash; special events, fan jamborees, rookie-sophomore game, skills contest, parties. Oh, the parties. The Hockey News and the NHL kicked off the weekend with an all-star party for the ages; here are some photos and a <a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a> blog report. Ahh, Montreal&hellip;</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011271/9356429-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="494" height="572"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; Thomas Vanek and wife Ashley</figcaption></div><p><b>MONTREAL</b> &ndash; As part of the NHL All-Star Game weekend festivities, The Hockey News and the NHL threw a party in Montreal &ndash; and all the stars came out.</p><p>Well, most of them, anyway.</p><p>About 600 people turned up, from NHL players and alumni to GMs and team executives to media members and fans&hellip;even a certain NHL commissioner and NHL Players&rsquo; Association union boss made an appearance (uh, not together).</p><p>The venue, a building where Cirque de Soleilesque performers have trained for nearly 20 years, was all hockeyed up, with a scale model of a rink serving as the dance floor and life-size ice carvings of the Stanley Cup sitting on top of each of the two bars (which, appropriately, also were carved out of ice). There was a wall of iconic Canadiens photographs, massive blow-ups of old covers of The Hockey News and a &ldquo;dressing room&rdquo; decked out with hockey equipment and NHL sweaters, both current and classic.</p><p>Oh yeah&hellip;the real Stanley Cup showed up, too, and it seemed like each and every one of the 600 attendees got their picture taken with it.</p><p>All except for Bob Gainey, but the Canadiens GM has already hoisted the silver mug five times as a player, so he probably has his share of Bob-and-Stan pics. Rather, Gainey addressed the crowd with a few words about the place and significance of The Hockey News in the bigger world of hockey, before departing to (presumably) see if he could convince any of the all-stars in town to stick around and throw on a <i>bleu, blanc et rouge</i> jersey for the rest of the season.</p><p>OK, let the name-dropping begin. Here&rsquo;s what went down at THN&rsquo;s all-star party:</p><p>&bull; THN staff arrives early to welcome guests, but not early enough for Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis &ndash; the AOL exec was one of the first to arrive, accompanied by his wife and two children. The first player spotted was Keith Tkachuk; the St. Louis Blues winger was holding court with a small throng, and hung in for a good part of the night. Was he trying to squeeze out every last drop from what might be his last All-Star Game experience? Maybe, but if the Blues don&rsquo;t trade him at the deadline, he could very well be back next year.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02849/9356422-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="826" height="571"><figcaption class="caption-body">THN ice bar</figcaption></div><p>&bull; Holy Broadway Blueshirt! Is it? Could it be? Yes. It is. Mark Messier arrives, looking like he could still play &ndash; or at least mop the floor with anyone at the party who looked at him cross-eyed. After initially being followed around by a cameraman (with boom mic and spotlight in tow), Messier settled in and took in the scene.</p><p>&bull; Two of the NHL&rsquo;s top snipers showed up in Philadelphia&rsquo;s Jeff Carter and Buffalo&rsquo;s Thomas Vanek. As for Capitals star and NHL leading goal-scorer Alex Ovechkin&hellip;&rsquo;fraid not.</p><p>&bull; Hey look, there&rsquo;s NHLPA boss Paul Kelly, cornered by fast-talking THN senior writer Ken Campbell. Oh well&hellip;Kelly&rsquo;s a lawyer; he&rsquo;s heard fast talk before.</p><p>&bull; Speaking of Kelly, isn&rsquo;t that his nemesis over there, NHL commish Gary Bettman? Why, yes it is; thanks for coming out, Gary. But&hellip;where&rsquo;s the suit? For the first time, well, maybe ever, Bettman was suitless &ndash; he opted for a casual sweater-and-pants combo instead. (It figures. The one night of the year the rag-tag THN staff gets cleaned off and dressed up, and Mr. Suit decides to let his hair down and rock the party.)</p><p>&bull; Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere was around for most of the night, with several people including a man who looked a lot like J-S. His brother, no doubt. Or is there two of them in that bulky gear of his?</p><p>&bull; Chicago defenseman Brian Campbell, in the first year of his seven-year, $50-million-plus deal, was in the building, and I was told by fellow THN editor Ryan Dixon to mention that Campbell was there &ldquo;with his father and the Strathroy Mafia.&rdquo; (See, the mafia hasn&rsquo;t died. It just retired to rural Strathroy, Ont.)</p><p>&bull; Remember Stewart Gavin? Stewie Gavin? No? Well, think a little harder. Gavin was a checking forward in the 1980s; he suited up for Hartford, Minnesota and Toronto. Anyhow, one of my high school teachers was a friend of Gavin&rsquo;s way back when, so I used this nebulous connection as an excuse to strike up a conversation. First impression? Nice guy, that Stewart Gavin.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03698/9356415-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="789" height="568"><figcaption class="caption-body">NHL photographer Dave Sandford, THN&rsquo;s Carlie McGhee, Jamie Hodgson, Caroline Andrews.</figcaption></div><p>&bull; Anaheim&rsquo;s Ryan Getzlaf was hard to miss; he gets the vote as the player who most resembles a prototypical NHL No. 1 center. Getzlaf looks big and mean, even when laughing with friends.</p><p>&bull; The past and present of U.S. hockey, Dallas&rsquo; Mike Modano and New Jersey&rsquo;s Zach Parise, also turned up. (Side note for the ladies: Remember in the late 1990s when Modano was voted &ldquo;sexiest player in the NHL?&rdquo; Well, Parise appears ready to pick up Modano&rsquo;s mantle as top American player &ndash; as well as being drop-dead sexy. A certain <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a> editor &ndash; let&rsquo;s call him E. Fraser &ndash; described Parise as &ldquo;a beautiful man.&rdquo; Edward, oops, I mean Mr. Fraser, is happily married and usually not given to intimately describing another man&rsquo;s looks, so one has to assume that Parise is, in fact, darn attractive.)</p><p>&bull; To the delight of THN-graphic-designer-and-wanna-be-Team-Canada-goaltender Erika Vanderveer, Nashville defenseman Shea Weber dropped by, and Predators netminder Pekka Rinne was there, too. Unmasked, even.</p><p>&bull; Finally, of course, the media types were out in full force. An open bar will do that. Got to say hello to TSN&rsquo;s Pierre McGuire, who talked to THN in January when we did a cover story on fighting in hockey. (He&rsquo;s one of the few high-profile hockey people who has come out &ndash; swinging &ndash; against fighting.) Steve Dryden, who has been at TSN since leaving THN in 2001, was there, and James Duthie and Darren Dreger, as well as Sportsnet&rsquo;s Nick Kypreos, longtime THNer Mike Brophy, Christine Simpson&hellip;it was like my TV had come to life and decided to throw a party.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05471/9356408-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="65" height="65"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>Best from the Net</b></h2><p>What we&rsquo;re saying at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0035-11

THN/NHL party; Sights and Sounds

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN OKOLBZIJA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011228/9356558-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="964" height="1193"></div><p><b>THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING</b> the seldom-used backup goalie isn&rsquo;t the effect sitting on the bench has on your game.</p><p>Oh, sure, it&rsquo;s obvious that facing shots only in practice isn&rsquo;t best for development. Game action is where a goalie&rsquo;s abilities are truly judged. But there&rsquo;s still nothing worse for a goalie than having an idle mind. Especially for a goalie who has never been stuck in the backup role.</p><p>Al Montoya has learned the hard way this season with the San Antonio Rampage.</p><p>Once a can&rsquo;t-miss prospect for the New York Rangers, Montoya, the sixth overall pick in 2004, is enduring the most trying season of his career.</p><p>Between Nov. 28 and Feb. 8, he made just six starts and through the first four months of the season, he was 3-13-0 with a 3.67 goals-against average and .871 save percentage.</p><p>Truth be told, no one played well for the Rampage early on, but after reinforcements at forward arrived, goalie Josh Tordjman got hot and began to carry the team.</p><p>&ldquo;Josh grabbed the ball and ran with it,&rdquo; said Rampage coach Greg Ireland.</p><p>While being the designated practice goalie is distressing, Montoya hasn&rsquo;t complained. Instead, he&rsquo;s remained positive.</p><p>&ldquo;I know what I can do in this league, I&rsquo;ve been winning in this league for three years,&rdquo; he said, pointing to his 74-40-0-4 record, 2.62 GAA and .906 save percentage the previous three years.</p><p>&ldquo;Playing in the NHL is still my goal. And I know I&rsquo;m not going to be the starter right when I get there. So why not use this experience to learn? When I&rsquo;m not playing, I want to be the best practice goalie I can.&rdquo;</p><p>But he admits the adjustment has been difficult.</p><p>&ldquo;You expect a lot from yourself and you don&rsquo;t really know where to start,&rdquo; Montoya said. &ldquo;You practice hard and you try not to get dissuaded by not playing.&rdquo;</p><p>Montoya, 24, came to the Phoenix Coyotes from the Rangers organization last season in a trade with Marcel Hossa. Fredrik Sjostrom, Josh Gratton and David LeNeveu went to New York.</p><p>&ldquo;This is where I want to be,&rdquo; Montoya said of the Coyotes.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a promising future here, they&rsquo;re going in the right direction and I want to be a part of it.&rdquo;</p><p>Despite the statistics and his status on the depth chart, Ireland says he&rsquo;s in the Coyotes&rsquo; plans.</p><p>&ldquo;The way I look at it, we have two good, young goalies,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Al&rsquo;s a young guy and we expect big things from him.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02837/9356551-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="214" height="214"></div><h2><b>Al Montoya</b></h2><p>San Antonio Rampage</p><p>Ht. 6-1</p><p>Wt. 193</p><p>Pos. G</p><p>Age 24</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03673/9356544-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="235" height="140"></div><p><b>AND COUNTING</b> 3.67</p><p>Montoya&rsquo;s GAA in what&rsquo;s been a tough campaign<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0038-01

Prospects Unlimited

Montoya still in mix

<div class="byline">&#x2013; KEVIN OKLOBZIJA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06374/9356589-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="314" height="89"></div><p>Left winger Kyle Greentree was billed as the prototypical power forward when he went to the Calgary Flames in an off-season trade.</p><p>The billing was correct. Greentree had 25 goals, third-most in the AHL, in 51 games for Quad City. He also was on pace to do something just one Calgary prospect has done in the past nine AHL seasons: Score more than 30 goals. The last was Chuck Kobasew in 2004-05.</p><p>FOCUSED Curtis Sanford is with the Manitoba Moose after losing his job as Roberto Luongo&rsquo;s backup in Vancouver, but top prospect Cory Schneider certainly isn&rsquo;t looking over his shoulder.</p><p>After Sanford got to Manitoba to stay, Schneider was 2-0-1 with a 0.65 goals-against average and .945 save percentage. He also was named the top goalie in the all-star skills competition.</p><p>Schneider, in his second pro season, continued to be the AHL&rsquo;s top goalie in all major categories with an 18-3-1 record, 1.67 GAA and .936 save percentage.</p><p>TURNAROUND As a rookie last season, center Evan Brophey finished minus-9. This season Brophey led the Rockford IceHogs and was fourth in the AHL at plus-18.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07322/9356610-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="175" height="175"></div><h2><b>Hey Keaton Ellerby,</b>&nbsp;<b>EXPECT THE CALL</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04545/9356603-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="198" height="103"></div><p>The 6-foot-4, 195-pound rookie blueliner is a smooth skater, great at avoiding forecheckers and leads breakouts well. The 10th overall pick in 2007 has great bloodlines, too: Carey Price and Shane Doan are his first cousins.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05439/9356596-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="185" height="273"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COURTESY OF SAN ANTONIO RAMPAG)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0038-06

Greeentree a money pickup

<div class="byline">BY PHIL JANACK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011129/9356655-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="969" height="1193"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COURTESY OF HERSHEY BEARS)</span></figcaption></div><p>STREAKS COME AND GO, but not the dream. And at the age of 27, Hershey right winger Alexandre Giroux is just hitting his prime.</p><p>This season, Giroux has authored a pair of amazing scoring runs, besting some exclusive company.</p><p>He scored a goal in 15 consecutive games to break Brett Hull&rsquo;s 22-year-old AHL record, then stretched his point streak to 23 games &ndash; the longest in Hershey&rsquo;s storied 71-year history &ndash; before it was stopped.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing,&rdquo; said Bears alternate captain and Giroux&rsquo;s linemate Keith Aucoin. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve never played the game I don&rsquo;t think you realize how hard it is to do that and to do it every night with the grind, playing three-in-three and four-in-five. Alex is a great player. It couldn&rsquo;t have happened to a nicer guy.&rdquo;</p><p>A 6-foot-3, 190-pound native of Quebec City, Giroux has been a study in perseverance since turning pro in 2001-02.</p><p>Giroux had a total of 55 goals in his first three seasons for the Grand Rapids Griffins and Binghamton Senators, before breaking out with 32 goals for Hartford in 2004-05.</p><p>He hasn&rsquo;t scored fewer since, putting together seasons of 36, 42 and 33 goals between stops in Hershey and Chicago. Giroux led the AHL with 36 goals through 40 games this season.</p><p>Drafted by Ottawa 213th overall in 1999, Giroux drew inspiration from Bears defenseman Bryan Helmer, who made it back to the NHL for the first time in five years this season at the age of 36.</p><p>&ldquo;For a guy like that to go back and play some NHL games, it gives a lot of hope for everyone down here,&rdquo; Giroux said. &ldquo;If I can play when I&rsquo;m 50 in Japan, any league I can find anywhere they want to sign me, I&rsquo;ll play as long as I can, that&rsquo;s for sure.&rdquo;</p><p>Giroux made his NHL debut with one game for the Rangers in 2005-06, but has played 20 other big-league games, all with Washington. Eleven of those came this season for Bruce Boudreau, his former coach in Hershey.</p><p>&ldquo;I think everyone&rsquo;s goal is to go to the NHL,&rdquo; Giroux said. &ldquo;And when you taste it a couple times, you want to go back for good. I&rsquo;m getting a little older now and you have to keep believing. If you don&rsquo;t hope, you play for nothing.</p><p>&ldquo;If you believe that you can still make it, that&rsquo;s what you play for. Hopefully, with all the good seasons I&rsquo;ve had in the past, somebody is going to notice and give me a chance.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02737/9356648-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="214" height="214"></div><h2><b>Alexandre Giroux</b></h2><p>Hershey Bears</p><p>Ht. 6-3</p><p>Wt. 190</p><p>Pos. C</p><p>Age 27</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03574/9356641-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="235" height="142"></div><p><b>AND COUNTING</b> 430</p><p>Giroux&rsquo;s points total (230-196) through 539 AHL games.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0039-01

Still chasing the dream

<div class="byline">&#x2013; PHIL JANACK</div><p>Differing circumstances brought new coaches to a pair of Eastern Conference teams.</p><p>The Ottawa Senators fired Craig Hartsburg and promoted second-year professional coach Cory Clouston from Binghamton.</p><p>Ottawa assistant Curtis Hunt, also fired, accepted the Binghamton job. Longtime AHL assistant Mike Busniuk and Ottawa director of player development Randy Lee filled in until Hunt&rsquo;s arrival.</p><p>In Springfield, the Edmonton Oilers fired first-year coach Jeff Truitt and replaced him with Rob Daum, Houston&rsquo;s former coach who had been working as a pro scout for Edmonton.</p><p>PHANTOM FINALE The Philadelphia Phantoms will play their final regular season game at the Wachovia Spectrum April 11 against the arch-rival Hershey Bears.</p><p>It is a change from the original schedule, which had Philadelphia hosting the Norfolk Admirals on Easter Sunday, April 12.</p><p>Comcast-Spectacor sold a controlling share of the Phantoms franchise in early February to the Pittsburgh-based Brooks Group, whose ownership interests include the NHL&rsquo;s Penguins.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04479/9356693-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="185" height="267"></div><h3><b>ON TOP</b></h3><h2><b>ON THE PLUS SIDE</b></h2><p><b>Ben Lovejoy</b></p><p>W-B/Scranton Penguins</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05401/9356686-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="195" height="103"></div><p>+33 <b>PLUS-MINUS LEADERS</b></p><p>Joey Mormina, W/B-Scr  +29</p><p>Patrick McNeill, Her +19</p><p>Oskar Osala, Her +18</p><p>Evan Brophey, Rock +18</p><p>Andrew Gordon, Her +18</p><p>Kyle Chipchura, Ham +17</p><p>Grant Lewis, Chi +17</p><p>Ryan Russell, Ham +17<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0039-04

Bench bosses getting swaped

<div class="byline">&#x2013; DENIS GIBBONS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01824/9356731-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Emery is having a stellar season with Atlant Mytischi, despite a contract problem. <span class="photo-credit">(EMERY: NORMUNDS BRICS/JANSONS MEDIA)</span></figcaption></div><p>AS THE 2008-09 SEASON dwindles, Ray Emery is again making news.</p><p>The mercurial goaltender has performed well after wearing out his welcome with the Ottawa Senators. With one month to go in the KHL&rsquo;s regular season, Emery has sparkled with Atlant Mytischi. In 32 games, he owns a 20-6-0 mark, a 2.03 goals-against average, .929 save percentage and was selected to play in the All-Star Game.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02507/9356724-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="251" height="274"></div><p>However, all has not been rosy in Russia for the controversial netminder.</p><p>Emery flew home for a short vacation between Feb 3-11 while the league took a break for international events. But a contract dispute kept him from returning when the second place overall team resumed workouts.</p><p>Emery&rsquo;s agent, J.P. Barry, said the dispute revolved around the KHL&rsquo;s exchange rate, fixed at 24 rubles per American dollar. The Russian currency&rsquo;s value has slid dramatically in recent months and now is trading at about a 36-to-1 ratio.</p><p>&ldquo;As a result, many players are receiving about one-third less than they bargained for,&rdquo; Barry told The Hockey News. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been trying to get (Atlant) to honor the contract.&rdquo;</p><p>Barry was unsuccessful, but Emery returned to Russia to finish the season with the hope things can be worked out. The agent said a number of NHL teams are in the goalie market, but his client would have to clear waivers before signing.</p><p>&ldquo;Our view is that he would not clear waivers,&rdquo; Barry said.</p><p>That being the case, Emery would risk not ending up with the team of his choice, just like what happened to Wade Dubielewicz earlier this season when he signed with the Islanders, but was nabbed by Columbus on waivers.</p><p>Of course, Emery would also have to be cleared to play by the NHL. And with a valid KHL contract, clearance would be unlikely.</p><p>&ldquo;We require evidence that players are free from binding contractual obligations elsewhere, before registering a contract in the NHL,&rdquo; said Bill Daly, the league&rsquo;s deputy commissioner, in an email to THN.</p><p>Adding to Emery&rsquo;s woes, he was recently caught on video shoving an Atlant staff member after being pulled from a game. The video made the rounds on the Internet; Barry said the incident was overblown.</p><p>Emery has a two-year contract, reportedly worth more than $2 million including bonuses with an NHL opt-out clause after this season.</p><p>In other news, Czech Jan Marek and Swedes Mattias Weinhandl and Tony Martensson announced they will not return next season. Marek, who led the league in goals with 33 through 46 games and sat second in scoring with 65 points, will play in the Czech Republic next season, closer to family.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no secret I was (only) playing in Russia for the big money,&rdquo; he said.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-01

Emery of memory

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RISTO PAKARINEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03390/9356762-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="656" height="772"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HOLMQVIST: ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span> late start to last year&rsquo;s World Championship changed the dynamic a bit by allowing more NHLers to attend. But it will be back to business as usual this year&rsquo;s event, which starts April 24 in Switzerland.</p><p>European leaguers will once again form the cores of most teams. For Sweden, a key player will be goaltender Johan Holmqvist, who returned to Sweden with the Frolunda Indians this season after NHL stints in Dallas and Tampa Bay.</p><p>In 2006, Holmqvist led Sweden to World Championship gold in Latvia and was voted the competition&rsquo;s best goalie.</p><p>Coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson named Holmqvist, 30, Sweden&rsquo;s starter after the recent Euro Hockey Tour tournament in Stockholm. Holmqvist posted a shutout against Finland, a .949 save percentage in two games and was named the tournament&rsquo;s best goaltender.</p><p>With an option year left on his contract, the former NHLer is also looking to be a future NHLer as well.</p><p>&ldquo;Sure, I&rsquo;d like to play in the NHL again, but I&rsquo;m not willing to do it at any cost,&rdquo; he said after the tournament, where Sweden went undefeated against Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic. &ldquo;If something comes, great, but it has to be the right match.</p><p>&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve done my time in the farm leagues. Should I go back to the NHL, it has to be with a team where I have a chance to play, too.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-03

Holm again

<p>EVANDER KANE HAS a Giant appetite for goals.</p><p>&ldquo;He loves to score,&rdquo; said Vancouver Giants GM Scott Bonner of his team&rsquo;s 17-year-old center. &ldquo;In the NHL, they talk about how Alex Ovechkin likes to score. Evander&rsquo;s the same way.</p><p>&ldquo;At practice, Evander celebrates every goal he scores like it&rsquo;s a feat. At times, he probably drives the other guys nuts, but they do respect it. I&rsquo;ve never seen a guy in junior who loves to score as much as this guy does. He wants to be the best and he loves to compete.&rdquo;</p><p>A little too much, on occasion.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a bit like the old Bryan Trottier-type guy who can do whatever you need,&rdquo; Bonner continued. &ldquo;If you need to play in the alley or play on the rink&hellip;he&rsquo;s a competitive guy and he doesn&rsquo;t want people defending him.&rdquo;</p><p>Defending the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder&rsquo;s skills is a challenge, too. After 43 games this season, Kane had 35 goals and 71 points &ndash; following a 24-goal, 41-point rookie campaign.</p><p>Along with being one of the WHL&rsquo;s foremost marksmen, Kane helped Canada win a gold medal at the 2009 World Junior Championship. He had been one of the final cuts, but was recalled when Prince George Cougars center Dana Tyrell sustained a season-ending knee injury in a pre-tournament game.</p><p>&ldquo;I knew I had to play well,&rdquo; Kane said. &ldquo;I think that helped me in the minds of the scouts.&rdquo;</p><p>Central Scouting subsequently listed Kane third overall on its mid-term rankings of North American-based prospects for the 2009 draft.</p><p>&ldquo;One of the reporters called and asked how I was feeling,&rdquo; Kane recalled. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;What are you talking about?&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re third overall in Central Scouting for North Americans.&rsquo; I didn&rsquo;t even know.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t pay too much attention to that. They&rsquo;re just rankings.&rsquo;</p><p>Bonner also will be following the proceedings with great interest.</p><p>&ldquo;If he has a year this summer like he had last summer, we&rsquo;re in trouble,&rdquo; said the Vancouver GM about the prospect of losing Kane to the NHL next season. &ldquo;He got a lot stronger this past summer and he&rsquo;s already a natural skater. So if he gets stronger and puts a few pounds of muscle on &ndash; and genetically, it looks like it should be easy for him to do &ndash; it&rsquo;s going to be real tense as to which team drafts him and what their plans are.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; ROB VANSTONE</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01748/9356835-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="765" height="1009"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COURTESY OF VANCOUVER GIANTS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02473/9356828-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="354" height="191"></div><h2><b>Evander Kane</b></h2><p>Vancouver Giants</p><p> Ht. 6-1</p><p>Wt.185</p><p>Pos. C</p><p> Age 17</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03369/9356821-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="377" height="90"></div><h3><b>Draft Status</b></h3><p>Ranked sixth overall by ISS for the 2009 draft.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04298/9356814-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="196" height="102"></div><p><b>AND COUNTING</b> +39</p><p>Kane&rsquo;s plus/minus mark through 43 games this season</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-05257/9356807-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="276" height="155"></div><h2><b>Surgery ends Cowen&rsquo;s season</b></h2><p>Jared Cowen&rsquo;s next hockey event of any significance will be the 2009 NHL draft. The Spokane Chiefs defenseman &ndash; seventh in Central Scouting&rsquo;s midterm rankings of North Americans &ndash; is out for the rest of the season with an injured right knee. &ldquo;It just about makes you sick,&rdquo; said Chiefs GM Tim Speltz, who does not expect the 6-foot-5, 218-pound Cowen&rsquo;s draft placing to drop. &ldquo;As the stage gets bigger, he plays better,&rdquo; added Speltz, whose team won the 2008 Memorial Cup. &ldquo;He was an outstanding player in the playoffs and into the Memorial Cup and we expected he would have done the same this year. I think his stock would have risen to reflect that.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; ROB VANSTONE</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-06229/9356800-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="332" height="103"></div><h2><b>Growing roots in a new city</b></h2><p>After moving to St. Catharines in 2007, the Niagara IceDogs&rsquo; success at the gate has ownership talking about a new arena with city and regional officials. Not since Marcel Dionne played with the junior Black Hawks has the 3,000-seat Jack Gatecliff Arena seen sellouts. Bill Burke and his wife Denise, the team president and 2008 OHL executive of the year, are intent on keeping the team in town after moving to the St. Catharines area. To pay respect to the region&rsquo;s major junior history, the IceDogs play the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s on March 1 at the Niagara Falls Memorial Arena, which is slated for demolition and was home to the two-time Memorial Cupchampion Flyers and Thunder.</p><p>&ndash; JIM CRESSMAN</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-07195/9356793-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="262" height="155"></div><h2><b>Alongside a legend</b></h2><p>Pierre-Andre Bureau&rsquo;s 346 games played with one franchise is a league record. And now he shares an honor with one of hockey&rsquo;s greatest players. The PEI Rocket honored its former captain by retiring his No. 22. Only the No. 9 of the Rocket&rsquo;s namesake, Maurice Richard, is also untouchable. &ldquo;This record is very special and it may never be broken,&rdquo; said team president Serge Savard Jr. &ldquo;The QMJHL now plays fewer games per season and it is very seldom a player plays five seasons with the same organization.&rdquo; Bureau played for the Rocket from 2000 until 2005 and is now with the University of Moncton. &ldquo;Pierre-Andre was an incredible player for us,&rdquo; Savard said.</p><p>&ndash; NEIL HODGE<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0042-01

On the ice, in the alley

<p>WHEN GOALTENDER Alex Stalock arrived at Minnesota-Duluth three seasons ago, coach Scott Sandelin had a pretty good idea what he was getting.</p><p>Stalock was good enough to be named goaltender of the year in the United States League with Cedar Rapids in 2005-06. He&rsquo;s an extremely athletic sort whose skills helped the RoughRiders to league and USA Hockey Tier I Jr. A titles in 2004-05.</p><p>That resume helps explain why Stalock, a 6-foot, 190-pounder from South St. Paul, Minn., was chosen by the San Jose Sharks in the fourth round of the NHL draft in 2005.</p><p>But Stalock, 21, also had a risky edginess to his game. You never knew if he was going to take an illadvised penalty or come out of his crease to play a puck he should have left alone.</p><p>Slowly but surely, Stalock has learned to rein in his emotions and make better choices with the Bull-dogs. Even though he&rsquo;s taken more minor penalties this season than the rest of his WCHA goaltending peers combined &ndash; four this year, 14 in his career &ndash; home-run passes from his own zone are less frequent, in part because Stalock has embraced a more mature approach.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s small chips, little plays that help our (defensemen) get out of the zone,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s been the best thing for our team.&rdquo;</p><p>That attitude helps explain why Duluth, picked to finish eighth in the 10-team circuit by league coaches and media, is battling for a spot among the top three with a month left in the season.</p><p>It also helps to explain why Stalock is vying to become the first WCHA goaltending champion &ndash; determined by goals-against average in league play &ndash; to hail from the Bulldogs since Rick Kosti in 1983-84.</p><p>Heading into the final six games of the regular season, Stalock led the WCHA with a 2.29 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in conference play.</p><p>Sandelin has come to make peace with Stalock&rsquo;s risk-reward equation, so much so that when Stalock made an ill-advised pass during a 1-0 win over the Wisconsin Badgers, Sandelin chided everyone on the ice except his puckstopper.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01737/9356915-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="764" height="1004"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COURTESY OF UMD BULLDOGS)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I was (mad) that no one got open for him,&rdquo; Sandelin said. &ldquo;Christ, he was holding the puck long enough. Someone&rsquo;s got to be open for him.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; ANDY BAGGOT</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02503/9356908-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="282" height="282"></div><h2><b>Alex Stalock</b></h2><p>Minnesota-Duluth</p><p>Ht. 6-0</p><p>Wt. 190</p><p>Pos. G</p><p>Age 21</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1560/9356901-1-eng-US/f0043-152.jpg" title="f0043-15" width="377" height="90"></div><h3><b>Draft Status</b></h3><p>Selected 112th overall by San Jose in 2005</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03418/9356894-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="158" height="103"></div><p><b>AND COUNTING</b> 1</p><p>Stalock&rsquo;s WCHA rank in both goals-against and save percentage</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04319/9356887-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="288" height="107"></div><h2><b>Max more of a factor</b></h2><p>Sophomore center Max Campbell was an immediate hit with Western Michigan, finishing second in team scoring as a freshman. This year Campbell, a fifth round pick of the New York Rangers in 2007, has improved his play in all three zones, leads the league in power play goals (10) and has helped the Broncos climb out of the standings basement. &ldquo;Max has always had the offensive skills,&rdquo; said Western Michigan coach Jim Culhane. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve really worked with him on defensive positioning and being on the right side of the puck and he&rsquo;s embraced it.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; PHILIP COLVIN</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05275/9356880-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="318" height="143"></div><h2><b>Ginand&rsquo;s game grows</b></h2><p>Ryan Ginand clearly likes being in the middle of things. &ldquo;I had to move him (from left wing) to center last year due to injuries and he has been a different player ever since,&rdquo; said Northeastern coach Greg Cronin of his undrafted senior pivot. &ldquo;He had to go from net to net and it forced him to pay more attention to detail. He&rsquo;s more of a complete player now.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s also more of an offensive threat. Ginand, who totalled 26 goals in his first three NCAA seasons, had 18 through 27 games, a function of the new position and shooting the puck more.</p><p>&ndash; LARRY MAHONEY</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-06226/9356873-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="324" height="101"></div><h2><b>Victory Lane</b></h2><p>Lane Caffaro was undisciplined when he landed at Union; he&rsquo;ll leave as the highest-scoring defenseman in school history. &ldquo;Lane has a real edge to his game, but after his freshman year, I spoke to him about needing him on the ice, not in the box,&rdquo; said Dutchmen coach Nate Leaman. And Caffaro &ndash; an undrafted free agent &ndash; responded, dramatically cutting his penalty minutes while continuing to be a physical force and developing into one of the league&rsquo;s top two-way defenders. &ldquo;He has the best stick on our team at breaking up plays,&rdquo; Leaman said.</p><p>&ndash; TOM BOGGIE</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-07195/9356866-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="389" height="85"></div><h2><b>Grand Fork in Sioux road</b></h2><p>One of the reasons North Dakota had an inconsistent first half was the absence of senior defenseman Joe Finley, who suffered a concussion Oct. 10 and missed 17 games. Finley, a Washington first-rounder in 2005, has a nasty disposition and cuts an imposing figure at 6-foot-7, 245 pounds. North Dakota went on a 7-2-2 run upon his return. Finley couldn&rsquo;t exercise and was plagued by migraines in the weeks following his injury. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t even watch TV,&rdquo; Finley told the Grand Forks (N.D.) <i>Herald</i>. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d just go home and turn the lights off.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; ANDY BAGGOT<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0043-01

Rewards trump risks

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02399/9356988-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="293" height="90"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01639/9356995-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="218" height="155"></div><h3><b>ECHL</b></h3><h2><b>Helping today, gone tomorrow</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>R</span>ookie right winger Jimmy Kilpatrick helped the defending Kelly Cup-champion Cincinnati Cyclones to first place in the North Division. Then he was gone. After opening the season slowly, the Cyclones moved to the top of a tight division by the first week of February. Kilpatrick, 24, a four-year standout at Colorado College, tallied 22 goals and 45 points in 41 games with Cincinnati. He topped it off by winning rookie-of-the-month honors in January, tallying 10 goals and 23 points, as Cincinnati went 10-3-0. But just as Cincinnati reached first place, Kilpatrick signed a tryout contract with AHL Houston.</p><p>&ndash; MIKE MASTOVICH</p><h3><b>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>Another Ulf on the way?</b></h2><p>The Chicago Steel has a 6-foot-2, 198-pound rookie defenseman named Samuelsson. Sound familiar? Philip Samuelsson is the 17-year-old son of one-time NHL terror Ulf Samuelsson (now an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes). A left-handed shot who plays a stay-at-home game, Samuelsson is ranked 59th among domestic skaters for the 2009 draft by NHL Central Scouting. He is strong on his feet, but a work in progress. &ldquo;He has good size,&rdquo; said one scout, &ldquo;but he needs to use it more consistently and more often.&rdquo; Samuelsson verbally committed to Boston College for the fall of 2009.</p><p>&ndash; PAUL SHAHEEN</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03299/9356981-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="296" height="148"></div><h3><b>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>Chaseing down Komets&rsquo; history</b></h2><p>Bob Chase, in his 56th season as the play-by-play voice of the Fort Wayne Komets, has published his autobiography <i>Live From Radio Rinkside: The Bob Chase Story</i>. Ghost-written by Blake Sebring, beat writer for the Fort Wayne <i>News-Sentinel</i>, the book chronicles Chase&rsquo;s career, including interviews with athletes and celebrities, such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. Sebring recently released another book, <i>Legends of the Komets,</i> about the 13 men (including Chase) who have their names or numbers honored by the team. There are bios on each and updates on 800-plus former Komets.</p><p>&ndash; BRENDAN SAVAGE</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-04242/9356974-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="265" height="155"></div><h3><b>CENTRAL LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>Sonny Boy last to go</b></h2><p>Millard &lsquo;Sonny Boy&rsquo; Wakeford went to Tulsa, Okla., in the 1920s to play hockey and stayed for most of his life. The last surviving member of the original Tulsa Oilers hockey team died in January at age 101 in Tulsa. The Saskatoon, Sask., native played in the Oilers&rsquo; first game Jan. 1, 1929, getting his nickname for being the youngest player on the team. Wakeford played 14 seasons for Tulsa, scoring 217 goals and 410 points and coached the team in 1935-36. His No. 12 was retired in 1996. &ldquo;Hockey is a great game; I hated to give it up,&rdquo; Wakeford told <i>TulsaPeople Magazine</i> in 2007.</p><p>&ndash; DAVID HENRY</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-05205/9356967-1-eng-US/f0044-052.jpg" title="f0044-05" width="255" height="155"></div><h3><b>SOUTHERN PRO LEAGUE</b></h3><h2><b>Trade Bears out</b></h2><p>Knoxville&rsquo;s trade for Justin Keller is paying off. The 25-year-old from Sturgis, Sask., scored five goals and nine points in his first eight games with the Ice Bears since being obtained from the Fayetteville FireAntz. &ldquo;We tell him to just keep shooting, be a little selfish,&rdquo; said Knoxville coach Scott Hillman. Keller was scoring well with Fayetteville, but fell out of favor with coach Tommy Stewart. &ldquo;He (Hillman) is giving me an opportunity to play and that&rsquo;s something I haven&rsquo;t had a real chance to do this season,&rdquo; Keller said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing with players who can move the puck and everyone can score. It&rsquo;s a fun team to be part of.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; NICK GATES</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-06180/9356960-1-eng-US/f0044-062.jpg" title="f0044-06" width="240" height="155"></div><h3><b>CANADIAN JR. A</b></h3><h2><b>These Dukes are no hazard</b></h2><p>The Green Bay Packers of hockey have extended their unprecedented run of success. Despite existing in Canada&rsquo;s smallest Jr. A market, the Ontario-based Wellington Dukes have avoided the up-and-down cycle of junior hockey by winning 30 games for a league-record 10th-straight season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice milestone for the organization to be able to do that in a small market of 1,700 people,&rdquo; said coach-GM Marty Abrams, who credits a dedicated volunteer executive for the team&rsquo;s success. Dukes have been chosen in the past three NHL drafts and a team-record 12 will move on to NCAA hockey after this season.</p><p>&ndash; NATHAN WHITE</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-07159/9356953-1-eng-US/f0044-072.jpg" title="f0044-07" width="252" height="155"></div><h3><b>CANADIAN UNIVERSITY</b></h3><h2><b>Huskies making a run</b></h2><p>The St. Mary&rsquo;s Huskies look like the team to beat in the CIS this year. After a 4-4 start, the team posted the best record in the Atlantic conference. Coach Trevor Stienburg, an ex-NHLer, missed the first half of the season with pancreatitis, a stomach infection and perforated bowel. Captain Marc Rancourt, the active-leader amongst AUS career point-scorers, is on track to win a national scoring title and said Stienburg&rsquo;s return made all the difference. &ldquo;We got Stieny back right after Christmas and that gave us a nice little shot in the arm,&rdquo; Rancourt said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing some of our best hockey down the stretch.&rdquo;</p><p>&ndash; JEFF RENAUD</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-08119/9356946-1-eng-US/f0044-082.jpg" title="f0044-08" width="297" height="155"></div><h3><b>THE WOMEN&rsquo;S GAME</b></h3><h2><b><i>ICE</i> all over women&rsquo;s hockey</b></h2><p><i>ICE</i> is the world&rsquo;s first hockey magazine for women. The goal of the publication is not to separate women&rsquo;s hockey from men&rsquo;s, but to help bring attention to the female game. It focuses on Team USA and Team Canada stories, but also includes stories from the youth hockey level. <i>ICE</i> is also a resource for finding the best equipment specifically designed for women. The recent edition features Team USA star Jenny Potter on the cover. The magazine wants to hear from its audience and encourages female players of all ages to submit their stories. Go to <a href="http://myicemagazine.com">myicemagazine.com</a> for more information.</p><p>&ndash; CASSIE CAMPBELL-PASCALL<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0044-02

Hardcore Hockey BEST OF THE REST

<div class="byline">by Nicolas Chabot</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01546/9357040-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-03250/9357033-1-eng-US/f0046-032.jpg" title="f0046-03" width="2500" height="1508"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03263/9357026-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="2414" height="934"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0045-01

Inside the Numbers

<div class="byline">BY MIKE WYMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0048-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01379/9357071-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>FOR WILLIE O&rsquo;REE, actions always incited more than words.</p><p>&ldquo;I never fought once because of racial remarks,&rdquo; declared O&rsquo;Ree, now 73 years old. &ldquo;I fought because other guys speared, butt-ended and cross-checked me and took shots at my head. I just wanted to protect myself.&rdquo;</p><p>O&rsquo;Ree spent more than 20 years as a pro, highlighted by the 45 games he played in Boston Bruins colors, two in 1957-58 and the rest three seasons later, the first black man to skate in NHL competition.</p><p>Now the public face of the NHL&rsquo;s diversity program, the Fredericton, N.B., native has gone from being a footnote in hockey history to one of the game&rsquo;s respected elder statesmen, holding a much higher profile now than he did when he made his historic NHL debut at the Montreal Forum on Jan. 18th, 1958.</p><p>&ldquo;I could see fans pointing in my direction, but they were probably saying, &lsquo;There&rsquo;s that black kid. He&rsquo;s up with the Bruins,&rsquo; and that was about the extent of it,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Ree recalled. &ldquo;We were fortunate and beat the Canadiens 3-0 that night and the next day the headline in the paper was &lsquo;Last Place Bruins Shut Out Habs.&rsquo; &rdquo;</p><p>Perhaps the biggest obstacle O&rsquo;Ree overcame was the loss of 95 percent of the vision in his right eye, the retina destroyed by a shot that was deflected in front of the net while O&rsquo;Ree was still in the junior ranks.</p><p>His surgeon broke the news of O&rsquo;Ree&rsquo;s blindness to him, stating he would never play hockey again. But he hadn&rsquo;t counted on the determination that drove his young patient.</p><p>&ldquo;I got out of the hospital a couple days later and I started skating again a couple days after that,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Ree said. &ldquo;I only told two people that I was blind, my younger sister, who lived in Montreal, and teammate, Stan Maxwell. We turned pro together and I swore both of them to secrecy.&rdquo;</p><p>O&rsquo;Ree returned to the Kitchener Canucks lineup, completed the season and everyone assumed he had recovered. An invitation from the Quebec Senior League&rsquo;s Quebec Aces came that summer.</p><p>&ldquo;I go and I make the team, but I don&rsquo;t tell them I can&rsquo;t see out of my right eye,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Ree said. &ldquo;I played for 11 teams in 21 years as a pro and I never took an eye exam.&rdquo;</p><p>While civil rights legislation changed during O&rsquo;Ree&rsquo;s career, many citizens did not. Maxwell, a teammate of O&rsquo;Ree&rsquo;s in several cities, sometimes had an easier time of it as a black man with lighter skin.</p><p>&ldquo;Stan was not as dark as Willie,&rdquo; remembered Gordie Haworth, a teammate of both men with the old Western League&rsquo;s Los Angeles Blades. &ldquo;One day he went off and rented an apartment. He came back the next day and told Willie about it so Willie went to apply too, but got turned down.&rdquo;</p><p>More than once, as it turns out.</p><p>&ldquo;That happened in Baltimore too,&rdquo; chuckled O&rsquo;Ree, before relaying another story that happened in that city. &ldquo;We were with L.A. and we were playing an interlocking schedule with the AHL that season. After the game Stan and I go into a restaurant. He went in a few seconds ahead of me and when I walk in a large husky white gentleman stops me and says &lsquo;There are no coloreds allowed in.&rsquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Stan walks back to ask what the problem is and the bouncer tells him I can&rsquo;t come in and why. Stan tells him that he was black and he got in. He tells the guy, &lsquo;Well I&rsquo;m colored.&rsquo;</p><p>&ldquo;The guy says, &lsquo;No you&rsquo;re not&rsquo; and Stan says, yes, he is.</p><p>&ldquo;Finally after a bit more back and forth, Stan says, &lsquo;If my friend isn&rsquo;t good enough to come in here then I&rsquo;m not either&rsquo; and we left.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>If my friend isn&rsquo;t good enough to come in, then I&rsquo;m not either</b></blockquote><p>Named the Lester Patrick Trophy recipient in 2000 for service to hockey in the U.S., O&rsquo;Ree was also given the Order of New Brunswick by his home province in 2005. And at some point in the near future he will be at Rideau Hall in Ottawa where governor-general Michaelle Jean will make O&rsquo;Ree a member of the Order of Canada, the country&rsquo;s top civilian honor.</p><p>Away from his California home roughly 15 days a month, the dignity and quiet determination that saw O&rsquo;Ree through two decades on the ice is evident when he appears at functions around North America.</p><p>He makes appearances at major events like Montreal&rsquo;s all-star weekend and CBC&rsquo;s <i>Hockey Day in Canada</i>, but gets the biggest kick out of the youngsters, many of whom are minority-youth living in impoverished circumstances.</p><p>&ldquo;They keep you thinking young and feeling young,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where 2008 went. I travel around and do on- and off-ice clinics with these kids. I also do about 40 or 50 schools a year. We not only teach hockey skills, but life skills as well, such as setting goals and working towards them. I guess the main message is if you think you can, you can. And if you think you can&rsquo;t, you&rsquo;re right.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0048-01

Impact endures

<div class="byline">By Larry Humber</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0049-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02250/9357123-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04172/9357130-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="107" height="108"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>ACROSS</b></h2><p>1 He&rsquo;s NHL commissioner</p><p>4 Sean Avery began the season with this team</p><p>7 Tied</p><p>8 Pittsburgh&rsquo;s ___ Satan, pictured</p><p>10 Completes a pass between defenders, ___ ___ needle</p><p>12 ___ of Ohio has college hockey (or, where the WHA&rsquo;s &lsquo;Screaming Eagles&rsquo; were briefly based)</p><p>13 Prepared</p><p>14 A stick infraction</p><p>18 The first of four Isles to win the Smythe Trophy</p><p>19 Canadian Amateur Hockey Association: abbr.</p><p>20 Harry ___ was coach in Vancouver 30 years ago</p><p>21 Harold ___ was a rugged Canuck, with more than 2,000 penalty minutes</p><h2><b>DOWN</b></h2><p>1 Detroit&rsquo;s ___ Lebda</p><p>2 Wayne Gretzky was &lsquo;___ ___ One&rsquo;</p><p>3 Hits hard</p><p>4 Falling on the puck, stopping play</p><p>5 Alex ___ tends net in Ottawa</p><p>6 NHL teams played this many games prior to expansion</p><p>9 He&rsquo;s backup to Henrik Lundqvist in New York</p><p>11 &lsquo;Ovie&rsquo;s&rsquo; team</p><p>12 Home of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Wildcats</p><p>15 Levels</p><p>16 The Oilers got a record 446 in 1983-84</p><p>17 Darcy ___ scored 42 times for Vancouver in 1982-83</p><p>ANSWERS AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT ISSUE AND AT <a href="http://THN.com/XWORD">THN.com/xword</a></p><p>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION ACROSS 1. WRIGLEY, 4. FAKES, 7. ROOK, 8. ANNOUNCE, 10. DEMOLISHED, 12. SAKIC, 13. FLOPS, 14. CHICOUTIMI, 18. THROW OUT, 19. USHL, 20. HICKS, 21. TORONTO DOWN 1. WORLD, 2. IRON MIKE, 3. YANKS, 4. FROZEN FOUR, 5. KENT, 6. STEVENS, 9. BLACKHAWKS, 11. ROBINSON, 12. SCRATCH, 15. COUNT, 16. IGLOO, 17. ERIC</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03190/9357116-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="1726" height="826"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-05132/9357109-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="107" height="108"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>JERSEY Hound</b></h2><p>We&rsquo;ve shown love for the Milwaukee Admirals before, but this light blue alternate jersey needs to be recognized.</p><p>Much like baseball in the 1980s, light blue is getting around in hockey and hey, why not? Along with having a great skeleton-pirate mascot (though the team&rsquo;s original admiral has a lot of supporters), the bone anchors on the shoulders seal the deal. Milwaukee has had a great run of special jerseys lately, but this third sweater takes the cake.</p><p>&ndash; Ryan Kennedy</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01343/9357102-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="460" height="400"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MILWAUKEE ADMIRALS</b></p><p>2008-09</p></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0049-02

CROSSWORD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0050-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02228/9357161-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><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/f0050-01324/9357168-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="207" height="246"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE</b>&nbsp;<b>WAS A TIME WHEN</b> 50 goals was a virtually unassailable scoring mark in the NHL, a measure of performance that only the nicknamed few &ndash; the Rockets, Boom Booms and Golden Jets &ndash; were able to achieve.</p><p>Fifty goals eventually became a significant, but not impossible scoring standard, as the NHL schedule lengthened from the 50 games it took Maurice Richard to break the 50-goal barrier for the first time to a high of 84 games played during the two-year experiment with neutral-site contests.</p><p>Is Richard&rsquo;s achievement &ndash; the same number of goals scored in far fewer games &ndash; more significant than the 14 players who made it to 50 in the 1992-93 season, including two (Jeremy Roenick and Brendan Shanahan) who both reached the milestone in the 84th game of the season? Of course. It&rsquo;s an apples-to-oranges comparison, akin to attaching an asterisk to Roger Maris&rsquo; old home run record.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>That&rsquo;s the trouble with 50 &ndash; so many things need to go right.</b></blockquote><p>Still, it doesn&rsquo;t change the fact that 50 remains a magic number in hockey &ndash; and the new elusive standard as it relates to No. 50 is goalie wins. Even in an era of overtime wins and shootout victories, of goalies playing 70-plus games per season the way the stalwarts of the 1950s &ndash; the Plantes and Halls and Sawchuks &ndash; did, no one has yet to achieve that win total.</p><p>For the longest time, the benchmark was set at 47 &ndash; established by the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Bernie Parent in the 78-game 1973-74 season. For more than three decades, Parent&rsquo;s mark held up until finally, two years ago, the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; Martin Brodeur eclipsed the record by winning 48, the same year Roberto Luongo also tied Parent&rsquo;s mark with 47 victories. Goalies are getting closer, but they&rsquo;re just not quite getting over the top.</p><p>The latest goalie to take a run is the Calgary Flames&rsquo; <b>Miikka Kiprusoff,</b>&nbsp;who was on pace for 50 at the all-star break, but got bogged down in a week-long slump and now would need an extraordinary finish to get there. That&rsquo;s the trouble with 50 &ndash; so many things need to go right. You need to stay healthy (something Brodeur and Luongo couldn&rsquo;t do this year). You need to stay sharp. Your team needs to be competitive. Your coach needs to believe that a heavy workload doesn&rsquo;t undermine success in the latter stages of the season, when burnout can become a factor.</p><p>Kiprusoff&rsquo;s coach, Mike Keenan, once played Grant Fuhr a record 79 times in a season when both were with the St. Louis Blues, and he figures fatigue is mostly a mental, as opposed to a physical, issue. Accordingly, if Kiprusoff &ndash; or Fuhr before him or Ron Hextall before that &ndash; can get enough rest between games, Keenan is not afraid to ride him until the bitter end.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing that style of game, where the most important outcome for him is winning, as opposed to being distracted by maybe a questionable goal,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;When it&rsquo;s really an important turnaround time in the game, he&rsquo;s been able to concentrate and through his athleticism and his ability to play the position, he&rsquo;s given the team a timely save. It&rsquo;s a mental skill that you develop.&rdquo;</p><p>Keenan&rsquo;s analysis indirectly addresses the issue of how good a year Kiprusoff is really having &ndash; because his goals-against average and save percentage fall decidedly in the middle of the pack. No matter. Night after night, he has made those aforementioned timely saves &ndash; and in that respect, his season has been decidedly Fuhr-like. In Fuhr&rsquo;s best years with the Oilers, his annual GAA fell into the 3.50 range &ndash; nothing special statistically, but he was usually there with the game on the line to ensure his team held onto the &lsquo;W.&rsquo;</p><p>In those days, the Oilers used to platoon Fuhr with Andy Moog in the regular season to ensure that the former was fresh for the playoffs &ndash; something that&rsquo;s become common again in the post-lockout era, where the teams advancing to the championship in each of the past three seasons gave their starters frequent rest breaks during the year.</p><p>In fact, in the past three years, the only goalie to play in a Stanley Cup final with 60 or more games on his regular season resume was the Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; Martin Gerber in the spring of &rsquo;06 &ndash; and Gerber ultimately lost the starting  job to eventual Conn Smythe Trophy winner Cam Ward early in the playoffs.</p><p>Kiprusoff&rsquo;s best playoff came in &rsquo;04, a year when he joined the Flames in a trade and made only 38 regular season appearances for them. Last year, in a 76-game campaign, Kiprusoff was pulled twice by Keenan in a seven-game, opening-round loss to the San Jose Sharks and was simply not as sharp as he was in his first three playoffs on behalf of the Flames.</p><p>So Keenan is running something of a risk by riding Kiprusoff hard. Presumably, that&rsquo;s also why Kiprusoff&rsquo;s exclusion from the All-Star Game was no hardship for the quiet Finn &ndash; he was just as happy to spend a week off, at home, resting and getting ready for the stretch drive. For someone who spends hours every day stretching to improve his flexibility &ndash; something that accounts for his Gumby-like ability to go post-to-post &ndash; the break was a brief, but valuable chance to exhale for a week, before continuing his pursuit of 50.</p><p>And how would that be &ndash; to win 50 and get to where no goaltender has gone before?</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not thinking about that,&rdquo; Kiprusoff said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just thinking about tomorrow &ndash; one game at a time.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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March 2, 2009

POLL RESULTS

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Bling Bling with Andrew Cogliano

THE PERFECT GOALIE