Friday, November 3 Coyotes, Canucks headed in opposite directions By George Johnson Special to ESPN.com

One of them, it had seemed, was on the right path to erasing all past wrongs; poised to finally live up to unfulfilled promise.

One of them, it had seemed, was deader than loony old Norman Bates' mother down in the "Psycho" house cellar.

Just shows how quickly that old NHL elevator can change directions.

Now it's the all-but-forgotten Vancouver Canucks surging and the all-but-anointed Phoenix Coyotes sagging -- what, before the first round of the playoffs? -- as the hodge-podge of Western Conference playoff hopefuls grinds relentlessly to the tape.

It is a tale of two teams. And a tale of two captains.

	Messier was true to his word about wanting to stay in Vancouver.

In one instance, the air was cleared. In the other, the seeds of bitterness were allowed to fester, and no doubt spread.

Messier, finally healthy, leading a charge. Tkachuk, beset by ankle problems, forced off the ice and on to the sidelines, helplessly watching as the things began to unravel.

Whether he was being flippant or not, Markus Naslund has proven prophetic when, at the All-Star break, he told reporters that the Canucks: " ... probably need to win 20 of the last 30 to make the playoffs."

As of now, they're close to that pace, having gathered 28 of a possible 42 points.

They've come from 13 points down to four.

And much of it has been due to Messier.

Oh, there have been other factors, surely. Felix Potvin is finally providing the sort of goaltending they'd counted on when they landed him. The penalty killing has improved from 28th to 22nd, and the power play has inched up to 17th. A second line of Andrew Cassels, Todd Bertuzzi and newcomer Brendan Morrison has clicked. A third line of rookie Harold Druken, Matt Cooke and Peter Schaefer has paid unexpected offensive dividends.

But most of it has been Messier. A healthy Messier, outfitted with tunnel-vision. A Messier who, since overcoming knee problems, has put up 29 points in 28 games.

"He has earned every cent he's been paid in Vancouver," said Canucks' GM Brian Burke emphatically. "Every single cent."

The Canucks came out publicly -- even though many doubted their truthfulness on the matter -- and said they wouldn't shop Messier unless his desire was to leave. Messier, in turn, said he wanted to stick it out and help the Orca Bay Free Willys make a run at the playoffs, to much giggling from an amused audience. But the tittering has subsided.

Burke points out that Messier had two glorious chances to bail out, and nobody would've held it against him: When the Canucks fired his coach of choice, Mike Keenan; and when Burke told Messier before the trade deadline that he couldn't afford to pick up the $6 million option on the captain's contract.

Messier decided instead to finish the season, and at least discuss a new contract, for less money, with Vancouver in the summer.

"Mark is certainly a powerful voice inside that room," said coach Marc Crawford. "He stood up, told his teammates that he didn't want to go anywhere, wasn't planning on going anywhere, and this is how the situation should be handled.

"The team followed suit. Mark's every word, his every move, showed his desire for this team to succeed. This had a huge impact on our team."

A team literally everyone had dead and buried two months ago.

"I don't think I ever felt disillusioned," protests Crawford. "Especially in January, I felt we were progressing, even if the results weren't there."

Can the coach pinpoint a turnaround moment in time?

"In retrospect, a game in Ottawa a few weeks back," he replied. "We had to have that game to finish over .500 on a road trip. The Senators were playing very well at the time. And we went in there and responded.

"Yes, we've made up a lot of ground on the field. We're coming in from off the pace. But we also realize the race is a long one."

Tell the Coyotes about it. That race can't end too soon for them, as they continue to slide perilously close to the abyss, losers of four in a row and seven of nine. Tkachuk has missed 16 games with a recurring ankle sprain as Phoenix began to plummet in the standings. As Messier was rallying his troops, Tkachuk was physically unable to help his team's cause.

Like Vancouver, the Coyotes' turnaround began at the All-Star break, at which point they had scaled the peak of the Pacific Division. Now, they're seventh in the conference and following a Thursday night home date against Colorado, the 'Yotes go to San Jose and Anaheim, their nearest pursuers. And it's not out of the realm of possibility that they could tumble all the way out of the playoffs. If that happens, and a new ownership group comes in, better scatter. Snowbirds won't be the only ones flying out of Phoenix this summer.

The power play, a drag all season long, is on a 3-for-56 skid. The Arizona Republic reported a behind-closed-doors tiff between coach Bobby Francis and players as the heat began to intensify (Francis denies the allegations; the paper stands by its story). The goaltending stats are all right, but Sean Burke is giving up too many soft goals and backup Bob Essensa has hit the wall. Jeremy Roenick is slumping.

And panic has gripped all concerned by the windpipe.

Amazing, when you think about it, just how quickly that old NHL elevator can change.

One car on its way up.

The other on its way down.

It's not inconceivable they could pass each other before all is said done.

	Yzerman

"The game doesn't need sweeping changes," he argued the other day, after New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer had been punished 10 games for conking Florida's Peter Worrell on the head. "The league handed out suspensions for the incidents that I felt were right in line."

When asked if he thought there was a lack of respect between players, Yzerman replied: "I don't know if there ever was 'enough' respect. But I do think that today there's more of a desire to go after a player if he's near the boards than there used to be.

"Still, the McSorley thing ... I've only seen that happen two, maybe three times in my 17 years in the league. So it's not as if it was an epidemic or anything.

"Certainly there's a lot more publicity these days. I think a lot of it has to do with the immediacy of the media now. Sports broadcasts on TV used to be 10 minutes. Now they're a half hour. It's a big show, so they show you a guy getting whacked with a stick as a teaser before the commercial to draw the viewer back in.

"Now you've got radio sports talk shows, the papers. And everything just mushrooms.

"Niedermayer ... well, he's just not that type of player. Know what I think? I think so much is being said and written about keeping the sticks down, down, down, that when something happens, a lot of times the stick automatically goes up, unintentionally. It gets stuck in the mind.

"Now this isn't condoning the action or excusing it. ... But it's almost like a pitcher facing Mark McGwire. The manager tells him 'Don't throw this guy fastballs! Don't throw this guy fastballs!' So the pitcher is out on the mound with 'fastball' stuck in his mind, and what does he do? Throws McGwire a fastball, and the ball's out of the park.

"Same thing in hockey. How many times do you hear a coach tell a player he'd better not throw the puck through the middle of the ice? Hundreds? Thousands? Yet the defenseman goes out on the ice, with the coach's instructions ringing in his head, and what does he do? Bingo! Right up the middle."

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