| Wednesday, October 6
By Al Morganti
Special to ESPN.com |
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It did not take long for the defending Stanley Cup champions to find out
that wearing the crown also puts a target on your jerseys.
The Dallas Stars got the message the second night of the season when the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim took some mighty good runs at them, the end result being that Mike Modano left the ice on a stretcher, Darryl Sydor suffered an eye injury and Joe Nieuwendyk almost got his head run through the boards.
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I don't give a bleep how many games a guy gets for
suspension, because in two weeks, you'll be talking about
somebody else getting suspended for another hit.” |
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— Stars coach
Ken Hitchcock |
The NHL handed out a 10-game suspension to Ruslan Salei, a five-game suspension to Pascal Trepanier and a four-game suspension to Jim McKenzie as a result of the carnage. But that won't change the fact that the rematch set for Anaheim on Friday night is already circled in red on some calendars.
Modano and Sydor are going to miss the game because of their injuries, but in Dallas the issue goes well beyond Friday's game with the Ducks. The defending Cup champions are wondering if they need to change their philosophy and bring in a type of enforcer.
"The question is what do you do?" said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "We've
got (Grant) Marshall and (Chris) Murray coming back. And (Richard) Matvichuk is ready to go, so what do we do, just load it up and just go for guerrilla warfare every night? Or do we just try to continue with the toughness we have in the past? I don't know.
"I don't look at it (in terms of) playing Anaheim. I look at it as an overall attitude. Look at Ottawa. They don't have any of that kind of toughness," said Hitchcock, referring to thugs.
|  | | Hitchcock has ben trying to calm his team down going into Friday's game with the Ducks. |
"Our philosophy has always been that we don't want to have players who
can only play three, four or five minutes a game. But this new target on the front of our sweater, maybe we have to march through this and see if it has to change."
Even before the NHL announced any sort of discipline for the hits, Hitchcock did not believe it would be a deterrent. "Suspensions are irrelevant for us," he said. "To me, it's the attitude. If a player is in a vulnerable position, what are you going to do, knock the guy out? It's everywhere, it's rampant. Are we (ever) going to bring the respect factor back?
"I don't give a (bleep) how many games a guy gets for suspension, because
in two weeks you'll be talking about somebody else getting suspended for another hit, the same thing."
Hitchcock was trying to keep his team focused on Tuesday night's game at Detroit. He is also trying to decide whether the team needs the sort of "toughness" some other teams employ.
"Our philosophy here for three years is that we don't use those guys," Hitchcock said. "Yes, we've got Chris Murray here, and the (background) on that decision is that I can get him to be a hockey player like he used to be.
"Can I get him back to being a player again? We already know he can fight
like the devil, but can I get him to be a player? That's the challenge. I just think the guys who (just fight) are a dime a dozen; you can get them anywhere and everywhere."
As for the eye-for-an-eye philosophy, Hitchcock isn't a believer that
getting even by chasing down Paul Kariya or Teemu Selanne on Friday night will do much good in the long run.
"It doesn't do you any good," Hitchcock said. "In fact, it works exactly the
opposite. We'll play 'em hard and tough. If we did go after them, we would
not be moving ahead of the curve.
"But I've got to tell you that dealing with it internally was tough.
There was a lot of emotion and a lot of frustration. There are a lot of guys whose attitude was not (in line) with what we want to do as an organization, as a team. And we had to talk it through."
Regardless of what Hitchcock says, Friday's game could still end up being a war.
Yashin situation deteriorating
The situation continues to get worse in Ottawa, where it has come to the
point that a fan is suing Alexei Yashin and his agent, Mark Gandler, for their decision to break a contract and hold out this season.
The lawsuit has little chance at success, but it does point out the degree of venom over the situation. It also points out a rare case in which the fan base has staunchly lined up in support of the club against its star player.
More than a small part of the reason for the fans' support of the
Senators is derived from a recent story in an Ottawa newspaper in which Gandler was quoted as saying that part of the reason Yashin was having problems signing with Ottawa had to do with the fact that he is Russian.
"One thing you don't do in Canada is play the race card," said an Ottawa
executive.
Gandler was irate at the story, and on Monday he reiterated his stance
that his remarks were directed at individual players in Calgary -- Steve Smith, Todd Simpson and Cory Stillman, who had criticized Yashin -- and not at Senators management or anybody else.
"What I did after the story in Ottawa was to call the Senators and tell them that the statements in the paper (Ottawa Citizen) were juxtaposed, and the writer who wrote them was a moron," Gandler said.
"I didn't (play the race card)," Gandler said. "They know that (at The
Citizen), and the Senators know that. ... I told the Citizen reporters that I will not speak with them, and Alexei will not speak with them, and this ban is going to be lifetime.
"In their presence, Alexei will not speak a word to anyone. ... It's going
to go on forever. If Alexei says forever, it's forever."
There have also been rumors that Gandler had been fired by Darius Kasparaitis before he cut his deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and by Valeri Zelepukin
before he came to terms with the Philadelphia Flyers.
"These are all just rumors getting started in Ottawa," Gandler said. "They want me to be fired by Yashin. Neither Kasper (Kasparaitis) nor Zelepukin fired me." The story about Kasparaitis began when the player called Penguins GM Craig Patrick on his own to help break an impasse.
"It is wishful thinking on the part of some people that Kapser did the
deal on his own," Gandler said. "Yes, he called Craig (Patrick) on terms that Craig proposed, and I did all the X's and O's on he contract. I'm his agent. ... But these people in Ottawa are sore losers, that's what they are."
The Ottawa spin is that Yashin is going to sit all year. Gandler's response: "Yes, that is correct."
There is also the issue as to whether Yashin will still owe the Senators a year of service, the final year of this contract, even if he sits out this season. The NHL is likely to take that stance, and it will be up to the NHLPA to pick up the fight on behalf of Yashin in any sort of arbitration.
"If they (NHLPA) want to pick up the fight, that's fine," Gandler said. "We frankly don't care about the status of his contract. It makes no difference. When his contract is over, he is still owned by the Senators."
The theory is that the Senators will eventually trade Yashin, and at
least at this point Gandler is more than willing to wait them out. "If that's in five years, so be it," Gandler said. "This is a long-term stand."
Movers and signers
Big names Ulf Samuelsson, Pat Verbeek and Joe Juneau are floating around as total free agents, but the first to get signed could be recent Phoenix center Bob Corkum, who can be had for a little more than $1 million per season. Los Angeles, St. Louis and Florida are among the teams showing the most interest, but Carolina is also nosing around.
At least one team acknowledges that the Detroit Red Wings shopped forward Brendan Shanahan at the trading deadline last spring -- a pretty good indication he'll be "in play" for trade talk this season.
Three people under the most early-season pressure
Rangers GM Neil Smith. He has to answer daily questions about a $58 million payroll. If the Rangers start slowly, Smith is going to get a lot of heat.
Flyers coach Roger Neilson. He has a veteran team that is coming off a second consecutive playoff flop. Neilson could quickly be replaced by Flyers legend Bill Barber, who is literally across the parking lot, coaching the AHL Phantoms.
Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig, who has to prove the real Olie the Goalie is the guy who went to the finals in 1998, and not the guy who missed the postseason last spring.
News and notes
New York Rangers scout E.J. Maguire made the following observation about the San Jose Sharks on Saturday:
"The thing that could really make the Sharks a frightening team is that
Owen Nolan might be a big factor. Somebody I really trust told me that Nolan finally gets it.
"He finally has reached that point where he is truly serious about being a
better player and really serious about winning.
"If that's the case, and the light has truly come on for Owen Nolan, he
could be a scary player."
For the record, three nights later Nolan scored a hat trick and set a
team record with six points during a 7-1 win over Chicago.
And by the way, Maguire has swapped jobs with former Rangers scout John
Paddock, who is now coaching the farm team in Hartford and is a likely
candidate as the Rangers' next head coach.
Holy Hab, what has happened to the Montreal Canadiens? Take a look at their top four defensemen, and you get the roster of Eric Weinrich, Igor Ulanov, Craig
Rivet and Francis Bouillon.
The Habs will want you to realize that they are already hammered by injuries, pointing to top defensemen Vladimir Malakhov and Patrice Brisebois.
Excuse me? Wasn't it just last season when Brisebois got the nickname
Breeze By? And since when is Malakhov a stud defenseman? True, he can look like an All-Star some nights, but to quote one pro scout on the first weekend of the season: "Malakhov plays like a No. 1 defenseman about 20 percent of the time, and then there is another 30 percent he plays like a No. 5. Put it all together, I don't even know if he's a solid No. 3 on a regular basis."
In other words, injuries or not, the Canadiens' front office has to come up with some answers.
With the new set of rules that allows forwards to trespass through the crease, watch for some good, old-fashioned ankle-chopping by the goalies. During the first weekend of the season, Martin Brodeur got a double minor for protecting his
turf, and Ottawa's Patrick Lalime took some swipes at John LeClair in Philadelphia.
If agents are the big problem, why is Miroslav Satan still unsigned in Buffalo? Satan acts as his own agent.
Finally, back to Alexei Yashin.
You could argue that Yashin will have his life fulfilled by practicing every day with his former Russian coach in Switzerland. But you might also consider that Yashin's latest date is model and TV actress Carol Alt.
Not a bad way to spend an unexpected winter vacation. |  |
