The National Hockey League opened its doors to the world years ago, allowing players in from the Soviet Union and Europe. In February, the world is allowing those same exceptional athletes from the NHL into its gamethe Olympics.
The NHL thought it was the perfect opportunity to showcase its players on the world’s stage, so from Feb. 8-24, the league is taking a winter break so its stars can represent their countries in the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
To further promote the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks and Might Ducks of Anaheim will play two games in Tokyo to open their season. Tickets, priced as high as $215, sold out in three hours for the two games.
“To be honest, I’m not worried about any of that right now,” said Chris Chelios of the Blackhawks. “I’m just worried about us getting off to a fast start in the regulat season.”
The regular season begins for the Hawks and 19 other teams on Wednesday.
The final games will be played April 19. In between, a number of story lines are sure to unfold.
Will Brett Hull be a St. Louis Blue much longer? Could Canada possibily leave Wayne Gretzky off its Olympic team? Who will surface as the league’s surprise team as Buffalo and Dallas did a year ago?
On with the show:
NHL PUTS ITS BEST SKATE FORWARD, OLYMPIC-STYLE
– 5 coaches on the hot seat
When 12 of the 26 NHL teams have different coaches at the start of the season that lastincluding Buffalo, which let Coach of the Year Ted Nolan gono job is safe. But some positions seem more precarious than others.
1. MIKE MURPHY, Toronto. team President Ken Dryden couldn’t decide on a new GM, so he assumed that title too. Will he add “coach” to his resume?
Unlikely, but he’s sure to keep his eyes open for candidates.
2. TIM RENNEY, Vancouver. Survived a turbulent first season. Maybe the arrival of Mark Messier will get the Canucks back on track. If not . . .
3. TERRY CRISP, Tampa Bay. Losing free agent Chris Gratton can’y help Crisp; bounceback years from Brian Bradkey and Daren Pupa can, but Bradley already reinjured
his wrist during the exhibition season. Surviving in a cash-strapped franchise won’t be easy.
4. ALAIN VIGNEAULT, Montreal. Anywhere else and the first-year coach wouldn’t come under intense scruntiny. But Montreal and its media are a whole different animal.
Good luck, Alain.
5. COLIN CAMPBELL, New York Rangers. Campbell got the Rangers turned around late last season, steering them to the Eastern Conference finals. But a slow start this year could be a bad omen.
– 5 Most overpaid players last season
For every Patrick Lalime, who earned just $230,000 last vseason and went unbeaten (14-0-2) in his first 16 NHL games, there is a Tom Barrasso, who made $2.7 million while playing just five games in an injury-filled season, or Pat LaFontaine (13 games, $4.6 million).
1. PAVEL BURE, Vancouver. For $5 million, the Canucks probably expected three times as many goals (23) and points (55) than they got from the Russina Rocket. Of course, suffering whiplashlike sympotoms from Game 1 on didn’t help.
2. JOE MURPHY, St. Louis. People laughes when Mike Keenan presenmted Murphy with a three-year, $10 million contract, and his numbers (20 goals, 45 points) were pretty laughable for that kind of money. Murph has two years left to have the last laugh.
3. KEVIN STEVENS, Los Angeles. Fourteen goals. Twenty assists. Minus-27 plus.minus rating. $2,997,614. Enough said.
4. ED BELFOUR, Chicago/San Jose. Belfour earned his $2.75 million salary on past performance, but his record last season, a combined 14-24-6, certainly didn’t back up his thinking that he should make Patrick Roy money.
5. SERGEI FEDEROV, Detroit. Federov was vital to the Red Wings’ run to the Stanley Cup, but shouldn’t you expect more than 63 points from a guy making $4.2 million, And now he wnats $5 million to $6 million.
– 5 players to watch
1. VACLAV PROSPAL, Philadelphia. Prospal, 22, was playing well in the playoffs before breaking his arm.
2. CHRIS PHILLIPS, Ottawa. First pick overall in 1996 draft should bolster Senators’ defense.
3. ALYN MCCAULEY, Toronto. Maple leafs got the center in teh Doug Gilmour trade with New Jersey last season. Might be a year away, but the 20-year-old had 56 goals in 50 games in the OHL last season.
4. YOGI SVEJKOVSKI, Washington. the 21-year-old right wing scored four goals in the Capitals’ season finale against Buffalo last season.
5. MATTIAS OHLUND, Vancouver. Canucks paid a lot of dough to not let the sold two-way defenseman get away to Toronto. Now they expect the 21-year-old Swede to deliver.
– 5 biggest losses to their teams
1. VLADIMIR KONSTANTINOV, Detroit. Stellar defenseman will be missed sorely by the Stanley Cup champions while he recovers from serious limo accident last June. There’s no replacing his toughness and steadiness at the blue line.
2. MARIO LEMIEUX, Pittsburgh. The Penguins survived one season while Lemieux recovered from Hodgkin’s disease, now they’ll have to do it again as he begins retirement.
3. CHRIS GRATTON, Tampa Bay. the Lightning couldn’t afford to lose this budding star, buth they couldn’t afford to match Philadelphia’s offer sheet either.
The rich get richer and the poor suffer.
4. MARK MESSIER, New York Rangers. It will be interesting to see if the Rangers struggle without their captain. Messier has been a winner everywhere he has played. His next stopVancouverwill be a huge test.
5. MIKE KEANE, Colorado. The Rangers doubled the salary of this “character” free agent. Will the Avalenche miss him? Probably, but they never have plenty of other character players too.
– Final 4 plus 1
Stanley Cup champions don’t repeat anymore, at least not since Pittsburgh in 1991 and 1992. Since then, there have been six different champions, andsorry, Red Wing fansthis year doesn’t look like a repeat year. But Colorado, winners in 1996, could break the string of different champs.
1. COLORADO. With Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy in the fold, a solid defense, an outstanding coach and a collective chip on its shoulder for not repeating last year, the Avalanche looks like the team to beat tis seasonbarring injury, of course.
2. PHILADELPHIA. Flyers got to the finals in June, then added Chris Gratton and Luke Richardson. A standout goalie is the only thing missing from a certain Cup run.
3. DALLAS. With this defense in fronof him, Ed Belfour may return to his Vizena Trophy days. The Stars took to coach Ken Hitchcock’s relentless forechecking system and likely will again this season. Taste of first-round elimination in the playoffs can only help their motivation.
4. NEW JERSEY. Goaltender Martin Brodeur and a stingy defense keep Devils in every game. If offense produces in the playoffs, ’94 champs will be in the hunt.
5. NEW YORK RANGERS. Mark Messier may be gone, but Wayne Gretzky is still around and so is Norris Trophy winner Brian Leetch. And don’t forget goalie Mike Richter and winger Adam Graves. Throw in free agents Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland and it wouldn’t be out of the question for the Rangers to make a run.
– Say it ain’t so, Joe
Colorado’s Joe Sakic will make $17 million this season, $15 million of it a signing bonus. that breaks down to $207,000 a game, which is more than Buffalo’s Mike Peca made for all of last season when he won the Selke Trophy as the league’s to defensive forward.
– Gotta have him
The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim made their first playoff appearance last season thanks in large part to Paul Kariya, who missed the first 11 games with a strained abdominal muscle. In the 69 regular-season games Kariya played, the Ducks went 35-23-11. In the 13 that he missed, theyw ere 1-10-2.
– Let’s go for 100
A record 95 journalists and technicians wil cover the Montreal Canadiens on a regular basis this season. they represent six newspapers, eight TV stations/networks and a number of radio outlets. Mario Trembley, who resigned as coach following last season, pointed to the intense media pressure as one of the reasons he got out. Shayne Corson knows what it’s like being hounded by the media. When he missed a team orientation meeting on the eve of training camp, it was front-page news. “If I were playing in St. Louis, no one would have known about it,” he said. “Here, you have 25 guys following you whenever you go. It’s not just the reporters, either. The fans keep an eye on you. If they see something, they report it to the reporters who put it in the papers.”
– Overtime overload
The Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators were the only two teams in the NHL last season not ot register a victory in overtime. Ottawa was 0-2-15 in OT, and L.A. was 0-3-11. On the flip side, the New York Rangers were unbeaten in OT (3-0-10) as was Anaheim (3-0-13). The Detroit Red Wings played in the most overtimes, 27, going 7-2-18.
– Nine, nine, nine
Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr had the longest goal-scoring streak in the league, nine games. The Washington Capitals were shut out a franchise-record nine times last season, three of them coming at the hands of the New York Islanders’ Tommy Salo. Nine must-have players on your fantasy-league team, but you’ll be lucky to get one: Paul Kariya, Eric Lindros, Jagr, Teemu Selanne, Joe Sakic, Pter Forsberg, John LeClair, Wayne Gretzky and Martin Brodeur.
– Thanks for the memories
The Pittsburgh Penguins are paying Mario Lemieux $7,071,400 this season even though he retired at the end of last season. His contract was guaranteed through this year. One goaltender happy to see Lemieux call it quits is John Vanbiesbrouck, who was beaten 30 times by Super Mario. the next closest was Ron Hextall at 19.
– Comeback kids
There are a few interesting storylines to follow this season, one of which is the comeback of Pat LaFontaine. After missing most of last season with a serious concussion, the Buffalo Sabres chose not to invite LaFontaine to training camp. He says he has been cleared to play by a couple of doctors, butthe Sabres’ medical staff says no. The New York Rangers expressed an interest in the member of the 400-goal club, and traded for him Monday. But he comes with this warning: fragile. LaFontaine has played in just 127 games over the last four regular seasons, 76 coming in the 1995-96 season. Another comeback to watch is Carolina’s Gary Roberts, who sat out last season because of a neck-and-spinal injury suffered Feb. 4, 1995. He has played in only 43 games since the 1994-95 season. the three seasons before that, he had goal totals of 41, 38 and 53. Also keep an eye on Tampa Bay’s Joh Cullen, who is battling cancer. He had hoped to be cleared for training camp following six chemotherapy sessions, but specialized testing revealed that cancer cells remain. Chances are he won’t stop trying to make it all the way back after being diagnosed with non-Hodgskin’s lymphoma on March 29.
