| | The barometer is going up and down entering the second full week of the season. Last week, pressure was high on all fronts. But this week, the only negative is the defensive posture of NHL goalies regarding the new crease rule, which should heat up the battles near the net. But Mike Modano, the Dallas Stars and Mario Lemieux are making waves for all the right reasons.
Low pressure: Lemieux as owner, former star
In terms of salaries and the Players Association working with the owners, it helps having Mario Lemieux on the ownership side as a recently retired superstar, one who was making a top-end salary when he retired.
|  | | Even as a team owner, Lemieux will have the ear of the Players Association. |
Lemieux, talking about trading Kevin Hatcher to the Rangers, said he had to trade him because the Penguins had to trim our payroll. He didn't bat an eye about the deal, and people accepted it.
Players are going to listen to Lemieux when he says there are financial problems and that things need to change. The words aren't coming from the old ownership guard, saying the same thing and causing the Players Association to turn a deaf ear. When Lemieux speaks, it will have a quicker effect and carry a lot of weight. There won't be as much distrust between the unions and the owners. The players will say, "OK, that's Mario talking about it now. We hear you."
Having Lemieux as an owner is a big positive for both sides -- and the league. He is only two years removed from playing and knows exactly what the landscape is still like for the players.
Medium pressure: Goalies and crease rule
Everybody was happy with the return to the old crease rule, where a player can have a foot in the crease and score a goal as long as he doesn't interfere with the goalie.
Players are in favor of it, including -- for the most part -- the goalies, who just don't want to get hurt or hit. That's why the crease rule was first implemented, to protect the goalies.
But now, some dissenting voices can be heard, questioning why the rule was changed back. It never stops. On one hand, they say the rule is great because no one likes to see all the play stoppages and goals disallowed when a player's foot has nothing to do with the goal. But in the same breath, they also say goalies are getting hurt and run into, and that the rule change will be really dangerous for them.
Make up your mind.
Unfortunately, there are some players who think, "Good, we can get in there and rough them up a little bit." But why does it mean the goalies are fair game just because we're allowing a player to have his foot in the crease? That's not the way the game is played. Goalies are not open season and never have been, no matter what the state of the rules.
One big reason the players come full speed into the crease now is that the nets now sit on flexible pegs as opposed to the metal pegs formerly used. It was almost like a game of chicken. When there was a going to be a collision between a forward, a defenseman, a goalie and the net, you didn't want to hit the net because it was a solid object that didn't move. It all comes down to safety. Am I going to get hurt?
The NHL should not return to the metal pegs because they were too dangerous. But forwards now have no fear of anything except running into the goalie, and that doesn't hurt much. It puts the goalies in a more precarious situation.
The result will be more penalty minutes for goalies this year, and I don't blame them one bit. Goalies protect themselves and re-establish their territory. Players never used to mess around with goalies like Billy Smith and Ron Hextall because they would hack you to bits.
Low pressure: New-look Dallas Stars
Quite a few experts have said the Stars are doomed because they let go of some veterans in the offseason, players like Craig Ludwig, Pat Verbeek and Dave Reid. They were some major players who had a big influence on the team, and people were saying they wouldn't be the same.
Dallas has done exactly the right thing.
Their playing style, which was so frustrating even for them to play, is almost impossible to duplicate to the degree of excellence they displayed last year. Mentally and physically, it is so draining. Even coach Ken Hitchcock said they had maxed out at the end of last year. So they changed their style. They have a lot of young legs and are showing more speed, attacking in a different way.
Sure, the Stars will continue to play good defense. But they are approaching things from a different angle. Trying to win a Stanley Cup is an adventure, a quest and a hunger all rolled into one. But defending it can be dangerous. If you have the mentality where you are trying to keep someone from stealing the Cup off your mantlepiece, that defensive posture never works. But if you mentally put it back on the collective NHL shelf and go after it again, it's much healthier.
Low pressure: Mike Modano
His statements have been terrific.
Unfortunately, it takes an injury to a star player like Modano to raise everybody's consciousness a little more. I applaud him for saying his team shouldn't go after Anaheim for the hit he sustained from Ruslan Salei. He said he didn't want revenge or one of the Ducks' star players to be hurt in the same way.
It's not Colin Campbell's responsibility to teach the players to have more respect for each other. It's the individual player's duty to understand what's right and what's wrong. Modano's statements will help make players think about how to conduct themselves on the ice.
Brian Engblom is a hockey analyst for ESPN, and he played 11 seasons in the NHL. | |
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