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(Sunshine) you, Detroit!
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by Michael Dell
The Colorado Avalanche brought the Detroit Red Wings' two-year
Stanley Cup reign to an end on Tuesday night, smackin' the Wings
5-2 in Game Six at Joe Louis Arena to move on to face the Dallas
Stars in the Western Conference Finals. And I've got one thing
to say about it...
(Sunshine) you, Detroit! You lousy (sunshinin') (sunshiners)!
Kirk Maltby? (Sunshine) you! Chris Osgood? (Sunshine) you!
Martin Lapointe? (Sunshine) you! Slava Kozlov? (Sunshine) you!
(Sunshine) the whole (sunshinin') lot of ya! Except for, you
know, Steve Yzerman, Darren McCarty, and Nicklas Lidstrom,
because they're pretty cool. But all you other guys? (Sunshine)
you!
Game Six was quite the entertaining show. It was everything
hockey fans could want. It was also proof for any doubters out
there that Peter Forsberg is the best hockey player on the
planet. There's just no question he's the greatest. It's a
fact. Talk about Jaromir Jagr all you want, Forsberg is the best
player in the world. End of discussion.
Things started quickly, with Detroit opening up the first period
with a might powerful enthusiasm. The Wings pressed the attack
early, firing shots from all angles at Patrick Roy. But the
Avalanche didn't panic and slowly started to turn the tide,
taking advantage of Detroit's unbridled offensive zeal to
counterpunch with odd-man breaks.
Joe Sakic had the first chance, electing to shoot the puck off
the right wing on a two-on-one with Milan Hejduk only to have his
shot denied by Chris Osgood's right pad. A few minutes later,
Forsberg sprung Valeri Kamensky behind the defense with a
brilliant lead pass. Now, Kamensky will freak Osgood one-on-one
any day of the week as sure as ten dimes will buy a dollar, but
the Russian magician actually missed a yawning net after
dispatching the Detroit netminder with a smooth backhand move.
Yeah, not finishing a breakaway sucks. Especially against
Osgood. It's just embarrassing. But the Avalanche would cash in
on Detroit's third major defensive lapse of the period.
The play was along the left wing boards of the Colorado zone.
Jamie Macoun pinched to try and keep the puck alive at the blue
line and got tangled with Claude Lemieux. Forsberg skated in and
poked the puck free, creating a two-on-one with Kamensky against
Chris Chelios. Kamensky carried the puck on the right side and
Forsberg peeled off to fill the left side. Chelios went down to
one knee and attempted to take away the passing lane with his
stick, but Kamensky floated a perfect saucer pass across for
Petey to tap behind a helpless Osgood. The goal came at 16:15 of
the first and was Forsberg's fifth of the postseason.
Colorado's dynamic rookie duo then came through early in the
second period to build the lead to 3-0. Hejduk struck for his
fifth goal of the playoffs at 4:12, planting himself in the slot
and deflecting an Aaron Miller slap shot from the left point
behind Osgood.
About a minute and a half later, Chris Drury potted his third of
the playoffs, drilling a shot from the right side of the high
slot past Osgood's blocker. The play started when Sylvain
Lefebvre cut an errant Detroit pass at center ice and quickly
relayed it to a breaking Kamensky on right wing. Kamensky backed
off Todd Gill with speed and then set the table for Drury coming
late with a beautiful drop pass that was ripe for the picking.
Drury got a touch and then dropped the hammer. Osgood was beaten
worse than MTV's integrity.
With the Wings reeling, Roy seemed to open the door for a
comeback by taking a needless slashing penalty against Tomas
Holmstrom at 6:46 of the middle frame. But you know what will
kill a comeback? A short-handed goal. And who better to deliver
it than Joe Sakic?
Igor Larionov, playing with a plastic cast on his broken little
finger, was the lone man back at center and lost control of the
puck. Adam Deadmarsh swiped the loose biscuit and blew right
around the aging Russian playmaker, cutting in on his forehand
and stuffing a shot low that Osgood dropped to his left side to
stop. The rebound slipped free and Sakic followed the play like
a champ, sliding the puck beyond the reach of Osgood's glove
before getting buried by backcheckers. The goal was Sakic's
first of the series and was clearly the turning point of the
game. If the Wings convert the power play, the score's 3-1 and
they have new life. But not only don't they score, they also
fall further behind. Short-handed goals are brutal.
Even though it was 4-0 and Colorado was in complete control, the
Wings didn't give up. Hey, they won two Cups for a reason.
Detroit rallied late in the second period to cut the lead to 4-2
thanks to a pair of goals 29 seconds apart.
The first came on the power play. Colorado simply couldn't clear
the zone and Detroit started to wear down the penalty killers
with some excellent puck movement. The man-advantaged culminated
with Yzerman faking two shots in the high slot and then dishing a
soft backhand pass to Lidstrom at the top of the right wing
circle. The Swedish blueliner blistered a one-timer that struck
the right wing post, bounced off Roy's left arm, and then caromed
into the net to get Detroit on the board at 17:24. Darren
McCarty then made it 4-2 by knocking down a Todd Gill shot from
the center point under Roy's rising blocker. That's what we like
to call two in a hurry or, in drinking terms, a double.
The goals brought the Detroit faithful to life and the ol' Joe
was rockin'. The Winged-Wheel dominated the next couple minutes
of play until Slava Kozlov got whistled for cross-checking at
19:27, bringing an end to the momentum and allowing the Avalanche
to escape to the second intermission with the two-goal lead.
Colorado regrouped in the dressing room and came out for the
third period a much more composed club. The men with feet on
their shoulders quit running around and once again settled into
their disciplined defensive style. And whenever the Wings did
create a chance, Roy was there to shut the door. Of course,
McCarty did his part to help, too. About five minutes into the
third, the burly winger had a golden opportunity to make it 4-3
when he found a puck all alone in front of Roy. McCarty pulled
the trigger all quick like but sent his shot over the crossbar.
Roy will do that to people.
St. Patrick was called upon to make a huge save on Dougie Brown.
The scrappy veteran cruised down the slot and somehow managed to
knock a Slava Kozlov pass from the left wing boards out of the
air, deflecting the puck towards the bottom left corner of the
net. Roy followed the play like, well, Roy and kicked the rock
away with his right skate. Brown's chance was Detroit's last
hurrah. The stage was now set for Forsberg to flash some talent.
The Wings were pressuring in the Colorado zone when Chelios
pinched along the right wing boards to keep the play alive.
Larionov supported his blueliner like a pro and circled behind to
man the right point and collect the puck. Forsberg applied some
token pressure and Larionov panicked; trying to force a diagonal,
cross-ice pass down low. Forsberg blocked the pass with his
skates and it was off to the races.
With Chelios now caught along the wall and Mathieu Dandenault
having carried the puck deep to start the whole play, it was up
to Larionov to try and stop Forsberg. That's grief. Petey
fought through Larionov, raced in on Osgood, and abused the
Detroit goaltender with a backhand deke before slamming home a
forehand shot and crashing into the cage. It could be one of the
greatest playoff goals of all time. In short, it was a Mario
Lemieux goal. It came at 13:31 and rendered the remaining clock
a moot point at best.
Colorado was tremendous. Detroit couldn't get anything
at all going through the neutral zone. The Avalanche played a
tight, disciplined game that frustrated the Wings at every turn.
The Avalanche was simply the better team the past four games.
Detroit, for all its vaunted depth, couldn't hang with Colorado's
top three lines. But the biggest difference was in net. Patrick
Roy was too much.
Impressive Performances
COLORADO
Peter Forsberg (2-0-2): He's the best player in the
world, and he proved it. Forsberg dominated whenever he was on
the ice. He was in complete control at all times.
Adam Foote (+3): Foote is right there with Derian Hatcher
and Chris Pronger when it comes to elite defensive defensemen.
He played half the game and made the lives of the Red Wing
forwards miserable.
Patrick Roy (35 saves): The only shots to beat him were a
deflection and a Nicky Lidstrom one-timer off the post. No shame
in either one. If Roy saw it, he stopped it. He had the Detroit
shooters shaking their heads.
DETROIT
Not Chris Chelios: I think only the faceoff circles were
on the ice for more goals than Chelios. He was used more than
recyclable paper, finishing the night at a -4.
Not Sergei Fedorov: Did Sergei even play? Maybe he was
too busy thinking about taking his girlfriend to the senior prom?
Is she even old enough to go to the senior prom? Either way,
it's a memory that could last a lifetime, so I could understand
the preoccupation.
Wacky Game Facts
* Colorado was the last team to beat the Red Wings in the
playoffs, dropping them in six games back in 1996.
* The Detroit dressing room has more weasels per square inch
than the entire state of Iowa.
Lines
Colorado: Coach Bob Hartley rolled his top three lines
and gave his fourth unit the occasional shift when needed.
OFFENSE (lw-c-rw)
Hejduk - Sakic - Fleury
Kamensky - Forsberg - Lemieux
Podein - Deadmarsh - Drury
Rychel - Hunter - Odgers
DEFENSE
Foote - Lefebvre
Ozolinsh - Miller
de Vries - Klemm
POWER PLAY
Sakic - Deadmarsh - Fleury - Ozolinsh - Lemieux
Kamensky - Forsberg - Hejduk - Ozolinsh - Foote
SHORT-HANDED
Sakic - Podein - Foote - Lefebvre
Forsberg - Lemieux - Foote - Miller
Sakic - Deadmarsh
Detroit: Scotty Bowman started Sergei Fedorov between
Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan, but the line only lasted one
shift. The Wings were without Ulf Samuelsson, who was on the
shelf with a groin injury.
OFFENSE (lw-c-rw)
Shanahan - Yzerman - Holmstrom
Clark - Fedorov - Brown
Kozlov - Larionov - McCarty
Maltby - Draper - Lapointe
DEFENSE
Lidstrom - Chelios
GIll - Murphy
Macoun - Dandenault
POWER PLAY
Clark - Yzerman - Holmstrom - Murphy - Chelios
Shanahan - Fedorov - Kozlov - Lidstrom - Chelios
SHORT-HANDED
Yzerman - Shanahan - Lidstrom - Chelios
Fedorov - Brown - Gill - Murphy
Oh yeah, one more thing... (sunshine) you, Detroit!
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CREDITS
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Michael Dell..................................Editor-in-Chief
Zippy............................................Computer Boy
Jim Iovino.......................................Ace Reporter
Matthew Secosky..............New Voice of the Lost Generation
Nicole Agostino....Don't Know Nothin' Bout Birthin' No Babies
Alex Carswell...........................Anaheim Correspondent
Matt Brown...............................Boston Correspondent
Matt Barr...............................Buffalo Correspondent
John Alsedek............................Calgary Correspondent
Chris Schilling........................Carolina Correspondent
Thomas Crawford.........................Chicago Correspondent
Greg D'Avis............................Colorado Correspondent
Jim Panenka..............................Dallas Correspondent
Dino Cacciola...........................Detroit Correspondent
Aubrey Chau............................Edmonton Correspondent
Vacant..................................Florida Correspondent
Matt Moore..........................Los Angeles Correspondent
Jacques Robert.........................Montreal Correspondent
Jeff Middleton........................Nashville Correspondent
Carmen Crincoli......................New Jersey Correspondent
David Strauss.........................Islanders Correspondent
Gregg Jensen............................Rangers Correspondent
The Nosebleeders........................Ottawa Correspondents
Chuck Michio.......................Philadelphia Correspondent
Bob Chebat..............................Phoenix Correspondent
Jerry Fairish........................Pittsburgh Correspondent
Tom Cooper............................St. Louis Correspondent
AJ DaSilva.............................San Jose Correspondent
Seth Lerman...........................Tampa Bay Correspondent
Jonah Sigel.............................Toronto Correspondent
Jeff Dubois...........................Vancouver Correspondent
Jason Sheehan........................Washington Correspondent
Tricia McMillan.............................AHL Correspondent
Peter Farkasovsky...............................Correspondent
Howard Fienberg.................................Correspondent
Joe Pelletier...................................Correspondent
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LCS Hockey - Issue 121 - May 19, 1999. All rights reserved
because we, like, called ahead and stuff. Email address:
info@lcshockey.com Street Address: 406 Sheffield Drive,
Greensburg, PA 15601. Web Address: www.lcshockey.com
Direct Address: Something from the meat case, Linda?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Brief Second Round Recap and Conference Finals Preview
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by Michael Dell
Let's make this quick like a bunny. Here are some thoughts on
the second round.
BUFFALO-BOSTON
In a series that's clearly going to be a goaltending duel, always
go with the better goaltender. Byron Dafoe is good, but he's not
Dominik Hasek. Then again, having Michael Peca doesn't hurt
either.
This was a hard-hitting series from the start. The Sabres wanted
to punish Ray Bourque and did just that, battering the Hall of
Famer at every opportunity. The accumulation of blows took its
toll. Bourque began to show his age as the series progressed.
The most impressive thing about the Buffalo victory is that the
Sabres did it without their leading goal scorer, Miroslav Satan.
Good ol' Mephistopheles missed the entire series with a foot
injury.
TORONTO-PITTSBURGH
This series swung on Game Four. The Penguins were forced to play
without Alexei Kovalev, German Titov, and Aleksey Morozov, yet
still carried the game to overtime before Sergei Berezin bagged
the winner for Toronto. If the Penguins could have found a way
to pull out the win, they would have grabbed a swank 3-1 series
lead and would have gained a huge emotional lift in knowing that
they could beat the Leafs without three of their top forwards.
But they couldn't quite pull it off. Instead, the Leafs got the
win, tied the series, and claimed momentum. The Penguins were
never really the same after that. The cause was hindered even
more by Kovalev having to sit out Game Five, as well, with his
foot injury. The Penguins were 0-3 in the playoffs without
Kovalev.
DALLAS-ST. LOUIS
The Blues gave it a good go, and I thought they might be able to
pull off the upset, but they lacked the scoring depth to really
challenge the Stars. Pierre Turgeon and Pavol Demitra can only
do so much. The Stars received the usual great efforts from Mike
Modano, Joey Nieuwendyk, and Derian Hatcher. It was only a
matter of time before they prevailed.
It's kind of tough to pick a turning point since things weren't
decided until Modano's OT goal in Game Six, but the Blues should
have won Game Two. They had a 4-3 lead entering the third and
let it slip away, losing 5-4 in overtime on a lethal shot by
Nieuwendyk. The loss put the Blue Note down two games to none.
That's a mighty rough hill to climb for a team that relies mainly
on two defensemen.
COLORADO-DETROIT
This was a great series. You know the best part? The Red Wings
lost. (Sunshine) you, Detroit!
See, the Avalanche aren't scared to drop the first two games of a
series at home and then rattle off four straight wins against the
two-time defending Cup champions. They were just making it fun.
Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy simply took the series over
beginning with Game Three. Roy led the way by ripping his
teammates for taking needless penalties and playing undisciplined
hockey in the first two contests. He backed the talk up by
putting on a ghetto clinic between the pipes the rest of the way.
As for Forsberg, he heeded Roy's advise and didn't lose his
temper when the Wings got chippy. He stayed cool and focused on
playing his game. And that was that. The Wings couldn't contain
him. Forsberg closed with four goals and four assists in the
final four games of the series. In the words of Fred Sanford,
that's some super king sized production.
Oh yeah, (sunshine) you, Detroit!
Now let's take a quick look at the Conference Finals. Why?
Because we can.
BUFFALO-TORONTO
This goes back to that goaltending-duel thing. Curtis Joseph is
amazing, but he's not quite Hasek. The Dominator's groin is a bit
sore, but it shouldn't be enough to make a difference. And
then there's Peca. Mats Sundin has a had a hard enough time
trying to score in the postseason without having to face Mr.
Selke himself. Peca will shut him down. And if the Leafs have
to rely on the likes of Lonny Bohonos and Garry Valk to provide
offense again this round, they're in trouble. Go with the Sabres
in six. But really all this series is for is to decide which
team gets the title of "Stanley Cup runner-up." Neither club is
going to beat Colorado or Dallas.
COLORADO-DALLAS
This will be a swell series. Maybe not Colorado-Detroit, but
swell nonetheless. Dallas could be the best team that's never
going to win a Stanley Cup. I just don't know if they can beat
Colorado with the way Patrick Roy is playing. The Avalanche also
has three lines that can score and plenty of speed to stretch the
big Dallas defense. They're tough to match up against. On any
given night either Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, or Theo Fleury is
capable of dominating a game. And Sakic is due to bust out after
only scoring one goal against Detroit. Avalanche in six.
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Kamensky, Kovalev Shine in Playoffs
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by Jim Iovino
Valeri Kamensky and Alexei Kovalev are not prototypical superstars
in the National Hockey League like a Paul Kariya or Eric Lindros,
but both have shown in the playoffs that they can be just as
important.
Kamensky missed the last month or so of the Colorado Avalanche
regular season and the entire first round of the playoffs due to a
broken forearm he received from some stickwork by Detroit's Kirk
Maltby. Without Kamensky the Avalanche was still a good team. The
addition of Theo Fleury helped ease the absence of the Russian
winger, but by the second round of the playoffs it was evident just
how important Kamensky was to the team.
The Avs lost the first two games of the series to Detroit, and all
the while it seemed like something was missing. That something
turned out to be Kamensky. He returned to the lineup for Game 3,
and Colorado took the next four from Detroit.
Even though the Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs
in the second round of the playoffs, Kovalev's importance showed.
Kovalev was a major factor in the team's wins in Games 1 and 3,
including a blocked shot in the waning seconds of Game 3 that
sealed the victory.
Unfortunately, that blocked shot cost Kovalev the next two games of
the series with a bruised foot. In his absence, the Penguins'
struggled both offensively and defensively. It was no surprise
that, without the Russian cosmonaut, the Pens lost both games.
Kovalev wasn't 100 percent, but he still managed to play in Game 6.
His mere presence lifted the spirits of his teammates. His
incredible snapshot goal in the first period lifted the team to a
2-0 lead.
The Pens lost that game, and therefore the series, but the Penguins
had a much better chance with Kovalev in the lineup than without.
Both he and Kamensky might not be stars. They might not even be
first-line players. But their contributions to their teams are
severely underrated.
The main advantage both players give is depth. The addition of
Kamensky to the Avalanche lineup means Adam Deadmarsh can move down
in the lineup to play third-line center. This may sound like a
demotion, but Deadmarsh plays much better at center than he does on
wing, where he played in Kamensky's absence.
With Kamensky in the press box, the Avalanche third- and fourth-line
players struggled to produce points. And in the playoffs, points from
third- and fourth-lines are crucial. But once Kamensky came back,
coach Bob Hartley was able to move the talented Deadmarsh down to
help out the third-liners. In turn, the move allowed the fourth line
of Odgers, Rychel and Hunter to be reunited and to create havoc for
opponents.
Kovalev's injury forced Penguins coach Kevin Constantine to move
Matthew Barnaby up to the second line with Martin Straka and German
Titov. Barnaby's a swell guy and all, but there's no way in hell
he should be playing on a line with skilled players like Straka and
Titov. Kovalev fits perfectly with those two. He is able to set
them up with great passes, and he's able to put the puck in the net
when they dish him the biscuit.
Kovalev's return reunited the second line that killed the New Jersey
Devils in the first round of the playoffs. It also meant Barnaby
could return to the third line, where there was less of a chance for
him to take a stupid penalty or get the Leafs fired up.
This all just goes to show that every member of a lineup is
important in the grand scheme of things. If one player goes out of
the lineup, it disturbs the chemistry of the entire club. When
Jaromir Jagr left the Pens during the Devils series, Pittsburgh
fans wondered where the offense was going to come from. The team
looked to the second line of Straka-Titov-Kovalev that had clicked
so well during the latter half of the season. And sure enough, the
line carried the Pens until their hobbled leader could return.
Kovalev wasn't just along for the ride on that line. He was the
major force behind it.
Just because one player on a team steals all the headlines, it
doesn't mean he's the only important player on the ice. During the
Devils series, New Jersey constantly was worried as to how it was
going to stop Jagr. Every time he was on the ice, defenseman Scott
Stevens was right there with him. However, while everyone was
concentrating on Jags, no one realized it was players like Straka
and Kovalev that were getting the better of the Devils.
The same could be said for Kamensky. His mere presence caused the
attention of the Red Wings to shift from just one line to trying to
worry about handling three strong ones.
Presence. It is an attribute you can't teach a young hockey player.
It is something that evolves inside of him. It is somewhat stealth,
somewhat deceiving. But when players look back and try to figure out
how another team knocked them out of the playoffs, they'll see it was
the mere presence of players like Kovalev and Kamensky that was the
deciding factor.
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Capitals Sold to AOL Billionaire
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by Jason Sheehan
Seventy-five-year-old Abe Pollin knew the day would come when he
would sell the Washington Capitals.
That day came Wednesday, May 12.
Pollin didn't want the hockey team he and the NHL established in
1974 to be split into pieces when he dies. His goal was to avoid
the trouble the Washington Redskins have gone through recently
resulting from the death of longtime owner Jack Kent Cooke.
Pollin, though, didn't want to sell part of his sports empire to
just any man with deep pockets. His No. 1 priority in selling the
team was not for his own financial security. Money isn't
everything, Pollin theorized. He wanted to find someone who
shared his passion and love in owning a professional sports
franchise.
"I wanted to make sure that the Capitals would stay in Washington
and would be an integral part of the community," Pollin said at
the press conference that announced the sale last Wednesday. "I
also wanted the Capitals to win. This man will make that happen."
This man is Ted Leonsis, the 42-year-old President of AOL Studios
whose net worth is estimated at about $1 billion.
Leonsis, who grew up as a sports nut in Brooklyn, N.Y., owns
season tickets behind the visiting team's bench at MCI Center. To
Pollin's delight, these tickets are not for sale: Leonsis plans
on using them again next season. The owner's private box will be
used by young members of his family.
"I am very excited and pleased to take the reigns for this great
franchise, and we are honored that Mr. Pollin has chosen us to be
his partners," Leonsis said. "It is certainly a dream come true
to own a professional sports franchise in the Nation's Capital.
Mr. Pollin and I share the belief that sports are a local
community trust and that the fans are at the heart of everything
we do. I hope to carry on that tradition. Not many people have
owned franchises as long as Abe and I'm looking forward to being
mentored by him."
The sale likely will be finalized by the NHL next month,
according to Commissioner Gary Bettman, who doesn't foresee any
problems with the transaction. According to sources, the team was
sold from between a range of $150 to $200 million. Figures will
not be made official until the end of June.
The Leonsis group is comprised of Leonsis, Washington
entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky, 41, and Capitals President Dick
Patrick. Leonsis will own 60 percent of the team, Ledecky will
possess 30 percent and Patrick will own 10 percent. Leonsis will
not be quitting his day-job at AOL Studios. To help balance his
workload, he has appointed Patrick to oversee the daily
operations of the club.
Besides owning the Capitals, the Leonsis group has purchased
minority shares in MCI Center and the Washington Wizards of the
National Basketball Association. Pollin, who insists he's not
retiring yet, will give Leonsis the first crack to buy out all of
his assets in Washington Sports, which consists of the Wizards,
MCI Center, USAirways Arena, Ticketmaster and the management of
the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va.
For now, the Capitals are a separate entity and have split from
Washington Sports.
Leonsis wasn't Pollin's first choice to buy the Capitals. Pollin
initially wanted to keep the Capitals in his family. He offered
the team and a minority interest of Washington Sports to his two
sons, Robert and Jimmy. However, neither wanted to join the
family business. Both are satisfied with their current
occupations. Robert is an economics professor at the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst; Jimmy runs a travel agency that
charters cruise ships for conventions
"I watched what happened to the Redskins, and I did not want that
to happen to my teams, and I did not want my family, our fans or
this city to go through that kind of process," Pollin said. "The
decision to sell the Capitals came after extremely difficult and
painstaking consideration. I deliberated for months, consulted my
family and finally came to the determination that the time was
right and the future owner - a man I have come to know very well
- was the kind of person I felt would take good care of this
franchise."
Leonsis Reveals Early Plans
Leonsis' first priority as owner is to increase the Capitals fan
base. To accomplish this task, Leonsis will change the structure
in which tickets are sold. Leonsis realizes selling tickets to
first-time fans is tough, because the sport doesn't translate
well on television. But it is his belief that people will love
the sport once they get a chance to see it in person.
Expect Leonsis to use his experience at AOL to help sell tickets.
Just about everyone in America received diskettes and CDs from
AOL that included a trial membership. This marketing strategy
helped AOL's consumer-base skyrocket from 800,000 to
eight-million members during Leonsis' three-year tenure leading
the AOL Services Company. A similar plan geared to increase
ticket sales is expected to be used for the Capitals.
Leonsis' name and reputation, however, has done translated to
immediate success at the box office. He called the ticket office
on Thursday and asked how many tickets had been sold since the
sale of the team was announced. The answer? None.
Leonsis said he intends to speak to every season ticket holder.
He wants to hear negative and positive feedback in order to learn
how he can best accommodate each client. Leonsis also wants all
season ticket holders to feel like they own something more than
41 game tickets. Instead, he wants season ticket holders to feel
like they own a piece of the franchise.
Of course, the only way to fill an arena is by icing a winning
team. Winning was something the Capitals lacked this season,
following a year in which it appeared in the Stanley Cup finals
with a mark of 31-45-6.
Obviously, the Capitals missed the playoffs, which will make the
task of selling more tickets for next season harder. A winning
team is likely the only formula that will bring people in droves
to MCI Center to watch the Capitals next season. However, before
that happens, the roster will need to be bolstered with proven
talent.
Leonsis hasn't discussed any plans to sign unrestricted free
agents such as Colorado's Theo Fleury and former Capital Joe
Juneau. However, general manager George McPhee said in a recent
interview that aired on CBC that he will be meeting with Leonsis
this week to discuss the direction the club will take with
signing players this summer.
Leonsis has indicated that McPhee and coach Ron Wilson will
return next season.
Out With The Old, In With The New
Leonsis will build the Capitals a new practice rink close to MCI
Center.
The Capitals currently practice at Piney Orchard in Odenton, Md.,
which is located between Washington and Baltimore. The
10-year-old facility was once considered a state-of-the-art
complex but is now outdated by NHL standards.
Booking ice-time for practices is one problem the Capitals have
had at Piney Orchard. McPhee also attributes part of the 511
man-games lost to injury this past season - an unofficial NHL
record - to the poor conditions at Piney Orchard.
A new practice arena would help the Capitals get closer to their
fan base in Washington. Leonsis also hopes a move in practice
venues will result in players buying homes closer to the
District. Most players currently reside near Odenton.
Leonsis also must address the ice problems at MCI Center. The
arena, which opened in December 1997, has one of the worst ice
surfaces in the NHL. Fans often blame puddles, bouncing pucks and
injured players to the hot temperatures in the building. Unlike
USAirways Arena - the Capitals' last home - MCI Center has
air-conditioning.
Leonsis must learn the simple rule that Washington Sports failed
to follow: Ice and 72-degrees do not mix. Although MCI Center
houses a basketball team and hosts concerts, fans agree that
freezing the building the moment the last patron leaves the arena
during hockey season would be beneficial in improving the quality
of the ice.
A professional should be hired by Leonsis to survey and fix the
ice problems at MCI Center.
Quality ice at MCI Center would definitely save coach Ron Wilson
from many sleepless nights as he tries to patch together a lineup
in his unconscious mind that is missing an average of six players
per game because of injury.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Leonsis Brings Past Triumphs to Caps
-----------------------------------------------------------------
by Jason Sheehan
Millions and millions of dollars are coming to the Washington
Capitals through the expertise of Ted Leonsis.
Capitals' owner Abe Pollin announced the sale of his hockey team
to Leonsis at a press conference last Wednesday, May 12, for a
price that is believed to range from $150 to $200 million.
Leonsis will take over as owner if the NHL Board of Governors
votes him in next month. League commissioner Gary Bettman doesn't
foresee any problems with the sale.
Leonsis has purchased 60-percent of the team. The remaining
shares will be owned by Leonsis' partners; Washington
entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky, 30-percent, and Capitals President
Dick Patrick, 10-percent.
The 42-year-old Leonsis is the President of AOL Studios in
Northern Virginia and is considered by many in the computer
business to be the founding father of the new media industry.
Although he will soon own the Capitals, he won't be leaving his
day job at AOL Studios.
Leonsis' job description reads like a who's who in the computer
industry. He is responsible for AOL's activities in building
local interactive networks, which consist of web and
communications portals. He also helps build new networks for the
small business market.
Leonsis leads the company in the development of classifieds,
directories and IP Telephony; the latter of which is a software
product that allows Internet users to place free phone calls to
anyone with an Internet connection. Leonsis also pioneers ICQ, a
popular alternative to e-mail that allows its 18 million
registered users to interact in real-time with friends or
associates.
The President of AOL Studios needs a new project, a new toy and
new challenges in life. Owning the Capitals will satisfy these
urges.
Leonsis hopes to do for the Capitals what he has already done for
AOL. Before joining AOL Studios, a subsidiary of America Online,
he worked for AOL Services Company. During his three-year tenure
there, he helped the company grow from a base of 800,000 to
eight-million members. The profits also grew from less than $100
million to $1.5 billion in revenues.
Most people with computers have received free AOL disks and CDs
in the mail that include a free trial membership. This is the
marketing ploy that helped AOL become one of the most popular
companies among Internet users. A similar plan will be used by
the Capitals. Because of these brilliant ideas, Leonsis has a net
worth of about $1 billion.
Prior to joining AOL, Leonsis was the founder and CEO of Redgate
Communications Corporation. The company, which was founded in
1987, is considered the first new media marketing company.
Leonsis oversaw positions in database marketing, CD-ROM based
shopping, private satellite networks, online services, custom
publishing and consulting. The company was purchased by AOL in
1994 for $45 million.
Not to be outdone by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Leonsis
introduced several key products in the computer field before
becoming an entrepreneur. He worked with Apple on the
introduction of the Macintosh, IBM on the PC launch and Wang on
office automation. He also has written four books on the computer
industry and founded four computer magazines.
As expected, Leonsis has won many awards for his work in the
computer industry. These awards include being named one of the
"200 Global Leaders of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, one
of the "Top 100 Marketing Executives" by Ad Age and being dubbed
one of the "Top 12 Entrepreneurs" by the Inc. Magazine/Chivas
Regal Entrepreneurs Program.
Leonsis' first priority is to use his marketing prowess to help
fill empty seats at MCI Center. He realizes that hockey is a
tough sale, because the sport doesn't look as good to fans on
television as it does at the arena. Leonsis will try to fill the
arena by holding focus groups with season ticket holders and by
restructuring the methods in which tickets are sold.
He also is expected to give the Capitals the skilled players they
sorely need to compete with the top teams in the Eastern
Conference.
Leonsis' Top 10 List
The Top 10 Ways Leonsis Will Help The Capitals Get Back into
Playoff Contention
10. Awarding good play with trial memberships on AOL.
9. Installing computers in player's stalls.
8. Punishing bad play by infecting players' computers with
viruses.
7. Building a firewall defense.
6. Labeling referees who call poor games, "Web-TV-Ites."
5. Blanketing the boards and center ice with AOL advertisements.
4. Employing hackers to poison other teams.
3. Renaming "Velocity Grill," "The Members Area Kitchen."
2. New mascot: ALF.
[drum roll............drum roll.........drum roll..........drum
roll......]
1. The new message users will hear when logging onto AOL:
"You've got injuries!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Watching Hockey, Toronto Style
-----------------------------------------------------------------
by Jim Iovino
It's always fun to watch a hockey game in an Original Six city.
But when the Stanley Cup playoffs roll around, the excitement level
jumps up a few notches.
The city of Toronto has gone two years without a playoff series, so
the big T.O. is brimming with pride now that the Leafs are in the
Conference Finals. That exuberance showed on Saturday night when
the Leafs took on the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of their
playoff series.
Zippy and Matthew and myself wanted to see the playoff atmosphere in
a real hockey town up close, so we took a trip north of the border
for the fifth game.
Ok, so the real reason we went to Canada was to visit our good
friend Dom Giagnocavo, who is a living legend in the town of
Stratford, but it was cool how the Pens-Leafs series coincided with
our visit.
Being from Pittsburgh, we really never experienced playoff hockey as
it should be seen. Canadians, and Toronto natives in particular,
really know how to watch a hockey game. Pittsburgh fans, while
loyal, really don't get into games as much as they could. With the
high cost of tickets at the Civic Arena, the fan base has shifted
from "Bubba," who enjoys an Iron City beer and some flaming nacho
cheese sauce at the game, to "Buffy," who wears pretty mink coats and
just doesn't quite understand the concept of icing just yet. The
result is a quiet, almost catatonic crowd that goes to games more to
be seen than to be heard.
In Toronto, it has always been a different story. All types of
people go to the games, and all are knowledgeable hockey fans. You
hear more talk of how a certain breakout isn't working than an
interpretation of an icing call.
Unfortunately, there's another difference between Pittsburgh and
Toronto fans when it comes to hockey. In Pittsburgh, a college
student can walk up to a ticket window before a game and get the
best seat still available for 16 bucks. A great deal, no matter
what city you're in.
But in Toronto it's a different story. The fans know good hockey
when they see it, so most seats are snatched as soon as they go on
sale. This means the only way you're going to get a ticket is
through the friendly neighborhood scalper. As the games get more
important, the scalpers get less friendly. We found this out
outside the Air Canada Centre, as tickets were going for more than
$125 for the cheapest seats in the house.
With our limited budgets, we decided against giving Mike the Ticket
Guy our money and did the next best thing: We watched the game in a
local sports bar with the rest of the ticket-less folk in Toronto.
Upon arriving at the Sports Front Bar & Grill, we knew it was the
place to be. Four big screen TVs were waiting for us to enjoy the
game. And when the theme song from Hockey Night in Canada began,
so did the magic.
Believe it or not, people were singing along with the theme song.
Where else could you find that? And when Don Cherry came on, the
place was just about as quiet as church.
Of course the loud roars from the crowd came when the Leafs scored,
but bigger ovations came whenever a hit, or punch, was landed on
Matthew Barnaby, when the cameras caught a shot of Jaromir Jagr's
temper tantrum after taking a penalty, and when I won a T-shirt after
answering a trivia question right during the second intermission.
But the biggest ovation was, believe it or not, not hockey related.
It seems someone brought their own remote control and turned off the
NBA playoff game that was on one station before the hockey game and
tuned into a porno channel. It was a pleasant surprise for most male
hockey fans in attendance, but I'm sure some parents had a lot of
explaining to do with their kids, who were enjoying dinner at the
time of the incident. I guess they have to learn about the birds and
the bees sometime...
After the Leafs won, the sights and sounds didn't stop. We left the
bar after the Leafs won and headed back toward the arena. People
filled the streets and waived their Leaf banners and started chants
of "Go Leafs Go!" And once people got back into their cars, they
drove around the city blowing their horns and breaking various
traffic violations by standing up in their sunroofs and yelling at
people walking up and down the streets of Toronto.
Porno aside, the experience of watching a Stanley Cup playoff game
in an Original Six city was simply amazing. The people of Toronto
knew how to watch a hockey game. They knew when to cheer a great
play and when to get worried for their beloved Leafs.
These are lessons that all new hockey fans should learn. Perhaps it
should be required that all fans in expansion cities like Nashville,
Columbus and Atlanta travel for one weekend to Toronto to see how
hockey should be watched and cheered. It wouldn't hurt. It might
even bring an appreciation to the sport that so many newer fans to
the game have been missing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rantings and Ravings
-----------------------------------------------------------------
by Howard Fienberg
If the Detroit Red Wings get whacked Tuesday night in Game Six
against the Avalanche, I will weep hot tears of joy and spin
cartwheels across busy intersections. I heartily believe you
cannot buy the Stanley Cup. I also believe that Bob Marley is
alive and well, orchestrating a worldwide conspiracy to keep the
price of oil too high from deep within a secret compound in the
Chihuahua province of Mexico.
The Rangers bought the Cup in 1994, and Steely Dan has tried it
this year. With pepperoni and sausage a-blazing, Detroit
acquired Ulfie, Chelly, Billy, Clark Bar, and Sleepy. Sleepy has
not helped much, but the others have done wonders for a team that
has played dispassionate and dull hockey all season. They turned
Detroit all gritty and tough.
But the passion still is not there. If Detroit cannot get fired
up for a series with the dreaded falling rocks than there is no
reason for them to hang around any longer. If they can just
kick-start their interest level, they might be able to hang on
until at least the next round.
And let us remember that the Blueshirts did not march to the Cup
without working their tails to the limit, and grinding through
two seven-game series with El Diablo and El Stinko Canucko.
Speaking of those Canucks, we must serve notice to Pat Quinn and
Roger Neilson: If you have a complaint, take it to the owners.
They're the scum that control the league and have it within their
power to change the rules and officiating. Ranting to the press
only makes the league, the sport, you, and your team look stupid.
So sit down and shut up. Save it for your next management
internal meeting and maybe you will actually facilitate some
positive change. The press is a tool to be used to keep your team
from tanking, to taunt the opposition ... to cheer yourself up
with a good Doonesbury comic strip.
And it should be noted that a few weird ref calls did not stop
the Leafs from wiping away the last of Pittsburgh hockey.
Post-Mortem
Well, the best I can say is "The Pens are Dead, Long Live the
Leafs." My two favorite teams went in, only one came out. The
hockey world mourns. And the final game was smashing. It was just
unfortunate that minor-leaguer Garry Valk had to end the party in
overtime. I did not bat an eyelash when Craig Patrick cast him
overboard last year because he is a goof. And goofs belong in the
circus or Disney on Ice, not the NHL, and certainly not the
talented, excruciatingly painful Pittsburgh Penguins. Let it be
said, if not for Curtis Joseph, there would have been a Game
Seven for the ages - because the Penguins were opening up the
gates of hell and letting loose on the Leafs with every Satanic
tool in their arsenal in the first period. But then the
second period came along...
I am finally starting to worry. Without playoff games in
Pittsburgh to distract me, I am now forced to face the crushing
realities of sporting life. The franchise is about as clean and
tidy as the home of a dung beetle who has given up his profession
and really let himself go. Despair and bad credit are stalking
the land like ... two big stalky things. God help me, and thank
you for letting me see my Penguins play their most exciting and
frustrating season as a parting gift.
Team Quebec's Hopes Spring Eternal
I was almost ready to eat some crow for my denigration of Pierre
Turgeon this past fall. I implied that he made for a lousy
first-line center for Team Quebec. He then went and cast some
inspired magic in this year's playoffs for St. Louis. If Dallas
had been taken to the mat, or at least held to a seventh game, I
would have been chowing down. But, too bad, the Notes are
history, and so is any hint of my retraction.
Hey Pierre, when you can win something, anything, just let me
know. I swear, even a stuffed bear at the carnival this summer
will do.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
AHL Playoffs: Second Round Recap
-----------------------------------------------------------------
by Tricia McMillan
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Empire Division
#1 Rochester Americans v. #3 Hamilton Bulldogs
Game 1: May 5 Rochester 3, Hamilton 1
Game 2: May 7 Rochester 5, Hamilton 2
Game 3: May 8 Hamilton 2, Rochester 1 (OT)
Game 4: May 11 Hamilton 3, Rochester 2
Game 5: May 14 Rochester 3, Hamilton 1
Game 6: May 16 Rochester 4, Hamilton 2
(I predicted: Rochester in six.) Right on the money.
Game One
Yes, the Amerks were rusty after their long layoff. No, it didn't take them
long to revert to form. Maybe one minute. The somewhat stiff Americans
granted Craig Millar a goal just 50 seconds into the game and then it was all
Rochester from there on out. The Amerks tied the game later that period and
picked up the game-winner from Cory Sarich as Martin Biron was almost perfect
and Steve Passmore, well, he wasn't.
The main feature of the game was the two - count 'em, two - penalty shots
called, one for each team. Hamilton's Jim Dowd took a turn at Biron late in
the second period, but rang his shot off the crossbar. Dean Melanson didn't
get that close in the third, missing the net entirely. To the best anyone can
figure out, it is the first time two penalty shots occurred in the same game in
the AHL.
Game Two
Hamilton picked up a pair of goals from super-pest Chris Ferraro, but the
Amerks took a first-period lead that they never gave up. Mike Hurlbut scored
a power-play goal in the first period and the Amerks didn't look back as they
swept their two home games. Dean Sylvester was the only other multiple-point
man for either team.
Game Three
Both teams turned to the rough stuff in Game Three and eventually it cost
Rochester - although ironically they were the ones on the power play at the
time. Jim Dowd picked up an unassisted, short-handed goal in the first
overtime to give the Bulldogs their first win of the series. Rochester's
Mike Harder scored for the Amerks, but was later ejected for slashing a
Bulldog. Martin Biron faced 50 shots in the slugfest.
Game Four
Chris Ferraro was involved in all of Hamilton's goals, scoring the first and
setting up the other two as the Bulldogs blew a lead and won the game anyway
on a third-period goal from Fredrik Lindquist. Hamilton scored twice in the
first ten minutes but the Amerks came back to tie it up on a shortie from
Dean Sylvester before Lindquist did his thing to even the series at two games
apiece.
Game Five
Dean Sylvester had it both ways, scoring goals on the power play and
short-handed, with the short-handed goal standing up as the game-winner.
Martin Biron stopped 33 shots, half of them in the third period when it
finally dawned on the Bulldogs they were down 2-0. Jim Dowd managed
a goal in the third but the Amerks held on with Domenic Pittis' first goal of
the series with 19 seconds left. Sylvester has now scored seven goals in eight playoff
games, best in the AHL.
Game Six
How do you stop Dean Sylvester? Don't ask Hamilton, because they never did
figure that one out. Sylvester scored the first goal of the game, short-handed
no less, and later recorded the go-ahead goal as the Amerks finished off the
Bulldogs. Martin Biron also repeated his performance from Game Five, stopping
34 shots to stupefy Hamilton. The Bulldogs picked up a shortie from David
Matsos but that was their lone moment of hope for the evening as Craig Fisher
picked up his first goal of the playoffs - the game-winner.
Mid-Atlantic Division
#1 Philadelphia Phantoms v. #2 Kentucky Thoroughblades
Game 1: May 5 Kentucky 6, Philadelphia 3
Game 2: May 7 Philadelphia 5, Kentucky 2
Game 3: May 9 Kentucky 2, Philadelphia 1 (OT)
Game 4: May 11 Philadelphia 4, Kentucky 3 (OT)
Game 5: May 13 Kentucky 3, Philadelphia 2
Game 6: May 15 Philadelphia 5, Kentucky 2
Game 7: May 16 Philadelphia 9, Kentucky 3
(I predicted: Philadelphia in seven.) Perfect again. When you're hot,
you're hot.
Game One
Conversely, the Phantoms needed at least sixty minutes to shake off the rust
from their layoff, because they still played stiff at the end of their game.
The Phantoms granted Mike Craig a pair of goals and also handed Jarrod Skalde
three points as they never really showed up for this game. Craig scored a
goal just 85 seconds in and while Richard Park tied the game shortly
thereafter, the T-Blades would have the lead the rest of the game. Kentucky
scored twice on a two-man advantage, while Philadelphia did succeed in doing
what they do best - they got a short-handed goal from Sean O'Brien.
The game did cost Kentucky, however - Eric Veilleux's season came to an end
when he tore an MCL in the game, and Shawn Heins exited after aggravating a
leg injury. The T-Blades also did without Andy Sutton, who had yet to show
up after the Sharks were eliminated.
Game Two
Kentucky bounded out to an early lead courtesy of Matt Bradley, then they
sat back and watched the Phantoms rack up four goals in short order. Mark
Eaton set up two and Mark Greig had two points, but it was the hot blue-line
veteran Chris Joseph with the game-winner. John Nabokov failed to finish the
game, pulled in favor of Sean Gauthier.
Game Three
Ya gotta watch those deflections off your defenders. Both of Kentucky's
goals were inadvertently knocked in by Phantoms players, including one just
20 seconds into the game that was credited to the T-Blades' Peter Allen but
was actually put in by Dave MacIsaac. MacIsaac made up for it by scoring the
tying goal for Philadelphia. The second deflection for Kentucky was granted to
Mike Craig after he shot the puck off Phantoms Mark Eaton not long into the
extra frame.
Game Four
As John Spoltore is to Providence, so is veteran Chris Joseph to Philadelphia -
a game-winning scoring machine. Joseph scored his second game-winning goal of
the series 7:54 into overtime as the Phantoms evened up the series. The
Phantoms had taken a 3-1 lead in the second period, but the T-Blades got one
back that period and then got the tying goal from Shawn Burr with 27 seconds
left in regulation to force extra play.
Game Five
The T-Blades needed everything they could get out of home ice and got it,
with Mike Craig scoring the winning goal in the third period as Kentucky eked
out the series' latest one goal win. Craig's goal was the third in five
minutes, as Shawn Burr scored 18 seconds into the third and the Phantoms'
Mark Eaton needed less than a minute to tie the game back up. It was Craig's
second game-winning goal of the series.
Game Six
The wandering Chris Albert played for teams in the IHL and the AHL before
landing in Philadelphia, possessing but one goal. He scored the opening goal
for the Phantoms and added another later in the game to triple his goal
output. Brian Wesenberg also scored two, including one scored when Sean
Gauthier fell down while trying the clear the puck. John Nabokov was yanked
in the third period as the Phantoms ensured this series would go the maximum.
Kentucky also lost a key player for the second time in the series when
defenseman Andy Sutton broke his wrist.
Game Seven
When Kentucky goes down, they go down hard. For the second year in a row the
T-Blades were massacred in their final game, this time by the Phantoms who
decided, better late than never, to defend their title. Jim Montgomery and
Richard Park had two goals each, and Park added three assists for a
five-point night. Montgomery had four points himself, and Chris Joseph also
chipped in three assists. John Nabokov's night wasn't nearly as good, as he
lasted just 13 shots into the game when he let four of them past him.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
New England Division
#1 Providence Bruins v. #2 Hartford WolfPack
Game 1: May 5 Providence 5, Hartford 4 (2OT)
Game 2: May 7 Providence 5, Hartford 3
Game 3: May 8 Providence 5, Hartford 4
Game 4: May 10 Providence 2, Hartford 1
(I predicted: Providence in five.) Right team and close. Disappointed Hartford
didn't even have one game in them.
Game One
If nothing else, Providence knows where to find some good ECHL players.
Louisiana's John Spoltore joined the Bruins for the playoffs and scored a
pair of goals in this game, including the double overtime game-winner. That
gives him five points in three AHL playoff games. Yikes. The teams wound up
in double OT the usual way: with John Grahame pulled for an extra attacker,
Providence tied the game on an Antti Laaksonen goal with ten seconds remaining
in regulation.
Mind you, Providence had already blown a 3-0 lead they held just ten minutes
into the game. As has held true for all matchups between these teams this
season, one team takes a large lead and blows it. Ken Gernander and Derek
Armstrong had goals 11 seconds apart in the third to tie and take the lead in
the game. Brandon Smith had a three-point game for the P-Bruins.
Game Two
It was fun the first time, so he did it again. Callup John Spoltore scored
the game-winning goal for the Bruins and added a couple of assists just for
more fun as Providence did unto the WolfPack again. Then again, Spoltore was
good for over 1.5 points a game in the ECHL. Hartford, as per their wont,
took an early lead when Brad Smyth scored two goals 23 seconds apart, but
then Providence tied things up with goals 17 seconds apart. And then away
went the P-Bruins, who fired 55 shots at JF Labbe.
Game Three
Another day, another game-winning goal. Ho hum. John Spoltore (what, someone else?)
scored for the second time in the game in overtime to position
Providence for the sweep. His first goal had also given the Bruins the lead
but Kevin Brown tied the game to create the extra session. Chris O'Sullivan
had three assists for the WolfPack, who lost Jason Doig to a penalty box hissy
fit early in the game.
Game Four
Newsflash: John Spoltore didn't score. Yes, the Providence Bruins succeeded in
finished a sweep of Hartford without the scoring assistance of Mr. Spoltore.
Instead, Jeremy Brown did the honors with a third-period goal set up by
Randy Robitaille, who scored the other goal for the Bruins. Michael York
scored the lone goal for Hartford. Now, the Bruins will get to experience
rust.
Atlantic Division
#2 Fredericton Canadiens v. #4 Saint John Flames
Game 1: May 5 Fredericton 5, Saint John 2
Game 2: May 7 Fredericton 6, Saint John 4
Game 3: May 9 Fredericton 7, Saint John 3
Game 4: May 12 Fredericton 5, Saint John 2
(I predicted: Saint John in seven.) Ouch. Way off and highly disappointed,
not so much in the Flames' failure to put up a fight as the unpleasant
prospect of another round of Michel Therrien.
Game One
Round one of the goaltending battle went to Jose Theodore, as he stopped 36
shots and Fredericton took the first blood in the Battle of New Brunswick.
Sylvain Blouin got the game-winner just 26 seconds into the third period as
Theodore stopped 33 shots in the first two periods and then got to sit back
and watch the third. Hnat Domenichelli, Scott King and Jonathan Delisle were
all good for multiple points.
Game Two
The AHL never made a writeup or a box score available for this game. And both
the Fredericton and Saint John newspapers don't publish during the weekend.
And neither paper provided a late writeup. So we know the final score, and
based upon inferences in the Fredericton paper, JF Jomphe was kicked out of
the game in the opening minutes and junior addition Eric Chouinard had a
three-point night. And that's it.
Game Three
Obviously neither of these teams has ever heard of defense, or at least they
have no idea how to play it. Fredericton used a four-goal second period to
take command of the game, getting two goals each from Eric Houde and J.F.
Jomphe. Both goaltenders were pulled from the game, although JS Giguere saw
the bench a lot earlier than Jose Theodore did.
Of course, the junk was prevalent. The police were called in to protect
Fredericton's scratches from excessively obnoxious Saint John fans (who
probably learned their technique in Philadelphia last year). And a set-to
erupted between the benches when the Canadiens' spitmaster started in on
the Flames' Eric Charron with what were apparently some truly over the line
personal comments, even worse than the Deyell comments. Charron came back
after the game with some very choice (and within bounds) criticisms of his
tormentor.
Game Four
Dammit, the creep won. The Fredericton Canadiens finished off a sweep of
the Saint John Flames and didn't even need Theodore to do it, as he sat out
with a sore groin. Mathieu Garon stopped 42 shots as the teams had dueling
zeros through the first period, then Fredericton got a goal from Miroslav
Guren and never gave up the lead afterwards. The last two goals were
empty-netters. When the net was occupied for Saint John, it was occupied by
Dany Sabourin - a fifth-round pick from last season who had just finished his
juniors season and was supposed to be watching and learning, not playing in
an elimination game. He played decently nonetheless.
Never thought I'd be saying this, but...GO PROVIDENCE. And prevent the travesty
of Michel Therrien in the Calder Cup finals. Hey, who wouldn't rather see
Peter Laviolette in the last round? Let's go, Bruins!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
AHL Playoffs: Third Round Preview and League Notes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
by Tricia McMillan
Well, fresh from nailing three of the four division final series, I'm gonna go for broke now. And remember, everyone, we're rooting from Providence so we all know who
doesn't get to show his face in the finals.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Game 1: May 20 at Philadelphia (Spectrum)
Game 2: May 22 at Philadelphia (Spectrum)
Game 3: TBD at Rochester
Game 4: TBD at Rochester
*Game 5: TBD at Rochester
*Game 6: TBD at Philadelphia
*Game 7: TBD at Rochester
Rochester in seven.
No, you're not losing your mind if you think the format of this series is pretty loopy. Seems that Rochester has been invaded by the circus and the War Memorial won't be available for some time. As a result, the series flip-flops, Philadelphia gets the home ice they didn't really earn, and the series runs, ready now, 2-3-1-1. And for that reason, this series will go long. Had it started in Rochester, I would have gone with the Amerks in five, but starting on the road will make things a little trickier for the Amerks. All the same, Rochester has last season's playoff defeat to avenge and a much better defensive and goaltending corps than the Phantoms, so don't look for the Menace anywhere but a movie theater after this series. However, the Menace will appear before the rest of this schedule does.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Game 1: May 19 at Providence
Game 2: May 21 at Providence
Game 3: May 23 at Fredericton
Game 4: May 25 at Fredericton
*Game 5: May 27 at Fredericton
*Game 6: May 29 at Providence
*Game 7: May 31 at Providence
Providence in five.
OK, we all know by now just exactly what I think of Michel Therrien. That would be less than zero. And it would be a travesty for this jerk to appear in the finals, whereas Providence has certainly spent the regular season earning their spot in the final. But on the ice, Providence has been an absolute juggernaut from day one and there isn't any reason to think they would falter now. They are the best offensive team in the league going up against a young and rather beat up Canadiens defense. So, may the Bruins finish this one off quickly.
Other Stuff:
The Rangers, realizing Brad Smyth is invaluable to Hartford, made the loan to the
WolfPack permanent by acquiring his rights from Nashville...
The condition of Mark Deyell's eye has deteriorated. While the eye has not yet required removal, Deyell's physicians feel he has only about a 20% of ever having vision in the eye...
They don't exist yet and they're already in doo-doo. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins have become further embroiled in the Pittsburgh Penguins' bankruptcy fiasco, as one of Howard Baldwin's creditors has asked the court to award the AHL franchise as part payment for a debt. Their building isn't near finished yet either...
The Quebec Citadelles don't exist yet either but they have their first player under
contract. Former Hab and Flame Francois Groleau will return from Europe to anchor
the Quebec blue line...
The Springfield Falcons and the Phoenix Coyotes extended their affiliation agreement
for the next six years. The Coyotes will be the primary affiliate big dogs until 2005...
The lesser dogs in Springfield are TBA, however, because the Los Angeles Kings have
jumped the ship to Lowell. The Kings took over the Lock Monsters' affiliation
agreement for two years plus an option year, an agreement giving LA full control of the coaching staff and roster and allowing them up to 12 players on the team. While the Islanders will remain as a secondary affiliate, they will have to kowtow to the Kings, who will have first say on the players. The Kings have the option to boot the Islanders out entirely in 2000-2001...
The AHL will also be short a franchise next year as the Detroit Red Wings did an about
face and asked the league to suspend the Adirondack franchise until it is ready to play in Rossford. As you may recall, until this week the Wings had said they would continue to play in Glens Falls until the new arena was ready. Further reason not to trust words of management. No word on where Detroit's youngsters will land in the meantime...
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TEAM REPORTS
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EASTERN CONFERENCE
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TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
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Head Coach: Pat Quinn
Roster: C - Mats Sundin, Steve Sullivan, Alyn McCauley. LW -
Fredrik Modin, Steve Thomas, Todd Warriner, Derek King, Kris
King, Igor Korolev, Garry Valk, Ladislav Kohn, Lonny Bohonos. RW
- Sergei Berezin, Tie Domi, Mike Johnson, David Nemirovsky. D -
Bryan Berard, Sylvain Cote, Dimitri Yushkevich, Alexander
Karpovtsev, Jason Smith, Daniil Markov, Glen Featherstone, Tomas
Kaberle, Yanick Tremblay, Chris McAllister, Dallas Eakins. G -
Curtis Joseph, Glenn Healy.
Injuries: Igor Korolev, lw (broken leg, indefinite); Steve Sullivan, c
(back, day-to-day).
Transactions: None.
Game Results
First Round vs Philadelphia: Leafs won 4-2
4/22 Philadelphia L 3-0
4/24 Philadelphia W 2-1
4/26 at Philadelphia W 2-1
4/28 at Philadelphia L 5-2
4/30 Philadelphia W 2-1 OT
5/02 at Philadelphia W 1-0
Second Round vs Pittsburgh: Leafs won 4-2
5/07 Pittsburgh L 2-0
5/09 Pittsburgh W 4-2
5/11 at Pittsburgh L 4-3
5/13 at Pittsburgh W 3-2 OT
5/15 Pittsburgh W 4-1
5/17 at Pittsburgh W 4-1 OT
TEAM NEWS by Jonah Sigel
Third Time A Charm?
Three teams have made it to the final four three times in this
decade - name them. One is the Detroit Red Wings. One is the
Colorado Avalanche. The other? The Toronto Maple Leafs!
Yes, it is true, the team everyone likes to pick on and beat up
will embark on its third voyage to hockey's version of the final
four this coming Sunday. Hard to believe that the franchise that
has seen its way through so many "scandals" and incidents has
been as successful as it has with as little recognition for its
success.
One year ago the Mike Murphy watch was on, and the rest of the
club was around the globe making friends at various golf clubs.
This year it is different, having defeated the mighty Philly
Flyers and now the Pittsburgh Pens, the leafs find themselves
four wins shy of the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since
1967. Who would have figured?
Certain things have lead to the success of the team, and from
this standpoint none is more significant than the others. To be
certain, this team is just that, when one part fails the other is
there to take over and step in. Although the current management
team would not like to do so, kudos to the past regime for the
current success. A look at the current roster does show some
Cliff Fletcher remains and some of those players have been huge
contributors this season.
The obvious place to start would be with Mats Sundin who Fletcher
traded for way back when. Add to it the likes of Sergei Berezin,
Alyn McCauley, Steve Sullivan, both of which came as a result of
the Doug Gilmour deal and Berezin was a Fletcher draft pick.
Tough guy Domi and sophomore Mike Johnson were also pickups by
the past GM/Pres. While he was not around to do the actual
signing, both Kings, Derek and Chris, were a result of his work -
he had them on his signing list before he was fired and Bill
Watters carried through in his absence. While I am not overly
impressed with his play, Fredrik Modin in also a Fletcher Alum
the same can be said for Todd Warriner.
On the blue line is where the new regime has done its most
impressive work however, Markov and Tremblay are also draft picks
from the Fletcher regime. The one player who the Fletcher era
does not get enough credit for is Dimitri Yushkevich. When
Fletcher made that deal he was raked through the coals.
Especially after the Flyers used the pick on a highly touted
forward, Dainius Zubrus. Well since the deal was done, Zubrus is
nowhere of substance and Yushkevich is perhaps the best D-man on
the team. He certainly handled Jagr well enough and has earned
praise around the league for it. Of course there was no mention
of how he was acquired.
The rest of the team, and they are by no means just spare parts,
are to the credit to both Mike Smith and Ken Dryden. The current
management team has done a great job recruiting bodies. CuJo and
Steve Thomas are certainly at the top of the list, but Perreault
(who I wrongfully called a brutal move), Valk, Berard, Cote,
Eakins, Kaberle, Karpovtsev and McAllister have all at times
performed better than anyone could have expected. It has long
been said that to succeed in the NHL, the superstars must be your
best players and your spare parts must be better than anyone
else. When the Red Wings won the Cup it was as much for the
strength of the 3rd and 4th lines as it was for the first. To
win in the playoffs you need the unsung heroes as much as the
superstar, and that is what this team has. The last time the
Leafs moved buildings they won the Cup, and Mike Myers, Austin
Powers himself, told Entertainment weekend, when asked what he
was doing this summer, "I'm gonna watch the Maple Leafs win the
Cup."
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BOSTON BRUINS
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Head Coach: Pat Burns
Roster: C - Jason Allison, Anson Carter, Joe Thornton, Tim
Taylor, Shawn Bates. LW - Sergei Samsonov, Ken Baumgartner, Rob
Dimaio, Peter Ferraro, Ken Belanger, Landon Wilson. RW - Dimitri
Khristich, Steve Heinze, Per Johan Axelsson, Cameron Mann, Randy
Robitaille. D - Ray Bourque, Don Sweeney, Dave Ellett, Kyle
McLaren, Hal Gill, Darren Van Impe, Grant Ledyard, Mattias
Timander, Brandon Smith. G - Byron Dafoe, Rob Tallas.
Injuries: None.
Transactions: None.
Game Results
First Round vs Carolina: Bruins won 4-2
4/22 at Carolina W 2-0
4/24 at Carolina L 3-2 OT
4/26 Carolina L 3-2
4/28 Carolina W 4-1
4/30 at Carolina W 4-3 2OT
5/02 Carolina W 2-0
Second Round vs Buffalo: Sabres won 4-2
5/06 Buffalo W 4-2
5/09 Buffalo L 3-1
5/12 at Buffalo L 3-2
5/14 at Buffalo L 3-0
5/16 Buffalo W 5-3
5/18 at Buffalo L 3-2
TEAM NEWS by Matt Brown
The Boston Bruins won game five of their series with the Buffalo Sabres,
thus doing their best to ensure that there will be at least one more LCS
Boston Bruins column for the 1998-1999 season. Despite the predictions
of Boston Globe columnist Bob “Chicken Little” Ryan that the Bruins
would not win another game in the series after their game three loss,
the Bruins stormed back from a fluky 1-0 deficit to drive Dominik Hasek
from the game and beat the Sabres 5-3. Ryan, appearing on various
sports talk shows during the week, felt that the Bruins were toast based
on a performance in game four that everyone associated with the Bruins
felt was uninspired. Some even used harsher words, like “stunk.”
However, by waiting to file this report until after game six, this
reporter foiled the Boston team's plans to wrangle another column out of
their beleaguered correspondent. The Bruins were unable to break the
mini-curse of Marine Midlands, and fell to the Buffalo Sabres in six by
a score of 3-2, in a game that was hardly that close.
The Bruins headed back to Buffalo hoping to sustain their game five
level of effort. They also hoped that the Sabres, who felt their own
game five performance was not up to par, did not come back with an
inspired “can't touch this” game of their own to clinch the series in
front of their home crowd. Neither of the Bruins wishes came true,
because the Sabres turned in another night of outskating, outhitting,
and outscoring their younger and less inspired adversaries.
The series opened as Bruins fans hoped and dreamed, with the Bruins
taking advantage of home ice to down the Sabres, almost making Dominik
Hasek seem like just another goalie to drub.
The Bruins scored four on Hasek, with Dimitri Khristich adding the coup
de grace with an empty-net goal as Boston won the opener 4-2.
Boston had started with a 2-0 lead on goals by Jason Allison in the
first and Khristich, in the second period.
They then traded goals, with Alexei Zhitnik tallying on a power play at
18, and Joe Thornton scoring his second playoff goal at 19:46, tipping
in a Ray Bourque blast. Buffalo's Jason Woolley made it 3-2 when fired
a loose puck from the left point past Dafoe at 9:37 of the third
period. But that was it for the Sabres, and the Bruins were off to a
fine start.
Things started to turn sour in game two, however, when the Sabre’s
forechecking hemmed the Bruins in and resulted in turnovers and bad
plays in the Bruins end.
The Sabres beat the Bruins 3-1 Sunday to gain a split and take away home
ice advantage from Boston. Michael Peca, Curtis Brown and Dixon Ward
scored for Buffalo. Hasek would have rung up a shutout if it had not
been for Don Sweeney's goal late in the third. The Bruins were so busy
griping about an Alexei Zhitnik hit on Ray Bourque in the second period
that they didn't bother to score the goals they needed to win. Zhitnik
clearly drilled Bourque from behind, right in the numbers, but only got
a two-minute sit-down, much to the chagrin of the Bruins bench. Zhitnik
was philosophical about the hit. "If I wanted to injure him," Zhitnik
said, "he wouldn't be playing anymore." It is nice to see a hockey
player who is so civilized and in control. Alexei should consider
auditioning for one of those Charles Barkley and Bret Favre deodorant
commercials, perhaps depicting a penalty-box wine tasting.
"If they take a run at our best player, they should expect the same
thing back," Boston's Rob DiMaio said. Unfortunately, it was mostly
bluster, as nobody from Buffalo took a major lick and lost any game time
for the rest of the series. Part of this had to do with the fact that
every time Ken Belanger stepped on the ice, he might as well have just
skated to the sin bin -- he was called for some of the most trivial
penalties ever. A swinging follow-through that never touched a Sabre
became a high stick minor, while there was no penalty called when
Dominik Hasek took a large divot out of Jason Allison's cheek with his
goalie club. You've got to wonder what they were watching.
But this wasn't the difference. The difference was the skating of the
Buffalo forwards all series. The Sabres were aggressive in this game and
most of the others, with Michael Peca, the obvious series MVP no matter
what anyone else says, scoring 1:51 into the game as Buffalo outshot
Boston 17-5 in the first period. This was all too common during the
series. Even playing without their leading scorer, Miroslav Satan, who
led them with 40 regular-season goals, the Sabres cranked the Bruins all
series.
As a measure of the Bruins frustration, they had a two-man advantage for
1:42, but they managed just three shots. Time and time again throughout
the series, the forechecking pressure of the Sabres disrupted the Boston
breakout, power play, and penalty kill. The Bruins had no counter.
The Sabres beat the Bruins 3-1 Sunday to gain a split and take away home
ice advantage from Boston. Michael Peca, Curtis Brown and Dixon Ward
scored for Buffalo. Hasek would have rung up a shutout if it had not
been for Don Sweeney's goal late in the third. The Bruins were so busy
griping about an Alexei Zhitnik hit on Ray Bourque in the second period
that they didn't bother to score the goals they needed to win. Zhitnik
clearly drilled Bourque from behind, right in the numbers, but only got
a two-minute sit-down, much to the chagrin of the Bruins bench. Zhitnik
was philosophical about the hit. "If I wanted to injure him," Zhitnik
said, "he wouldn't be playing anymore." It is nice to see a hockey
player who is so civilized and in control. Alexei should consider
auditioning for one of those Charles Barkley and Bret Favre deodorant
commercials, perhaps depicting a penalty-box wine tasting.
"If they take a run at our best player, they should expect the same
thing back," Boston's Rob DiMaio said. Unfortunately, it was mostly
bluster, as nobody from Buffalo took a major lick and lost any game time
for the rest of the series. Part of this had to do with the fact that
every time Ken Belanger stepped on the ice, he might as well have just
skated to the sin bin -- he was called for some of the most trivial
penalties ever. A swinging follow-through that never touched a Sabre
became a high stick minor, while there was no penalty called when
Dominik Hasek took a large divot out of Jason Allison's cheek with his
goalie club. You've got to wonder what they were watching.
But this wasn't the difference. The difference was the skating of the
Buffalo forwards all series. The Sabres were aggressive in this game and
most of the others, with Michael Peca, the obvious series MVP no matter
what anyone else says, scoring 1:51 into the game as Buffalo outshot
Boston 17-5 in the first period. This was all too common during the
series. Even playing with their leading scorer, Miroslav Satan, who led
them with 40 regular-season goals, the Sabres cranked the Bruins all
series.
As a measure of the Bruins frustration, they had a two-man advantage for
1:42, but they managed just three shots. Time and time again throughout
the series, the forechecking pressure of the Sabres disrupted the Boston
breakout, power play, and penalty kill. The Bruins had no counter.
In their first home game of the series, the Sabres treated their fans to
a 3-2 win on Wednesday night, with Dixon Ward scoring the winner halfway
through the third period and Hasek frustrating Boston for the final 51
minutes of the game.
Buffalo slacked in the first two periods, but came out in the third
period and stunned the Bruins, who at first seemed like they wanted to
sit on a two-goal cushion. Soon they were fighting for their playoff
lives, and frankly, it is here that the series was lost. After holding
Buffalo to just seven shots over 40 minutes, the Bruins let the Sabres
run wild and take 17 shots at Byron Dafoe, and two of them found a way
into the goal. Hold that lead and take a 2-1 edge into game 4, or cough
up the lead and game 4 suddenly seems like a bottomless pit.
The Buffalo fans targeted Bourque with banners that read "Stick a fork
in Ray Bork" and ten seconds into the game, it looked like an accurate
prediction. Bourque went off for tripping Dixon Ward, and Jason Woolley
scored his second goal of the playoffs on a backhander with 34 seconds
left on the penalty.
Goals by Steve Heinze and Anson Carter put the Bruins up 2-1, and the
Bruins looked like they were ready for cruise control. But somebody
forgot to tell the Sabres.
On Friday, the Sabres handed the Bruins their most embarrassing loss of
the playoffs, shutting out the B's 3-0. The win gave Buffalo a 3-1 lead
in games and things started to look very dark for Boston.
Now that the series is over, a question remains: why did the Bruins have
so much trouble with Buffalo, even though they finished ahead of them in
the regular season? Buffalo beat the Bruins in four out of five games,
but lost regular season games many times to lesser teams, and had
trouble with the NHL elite.
One of the reasons for this discrepancy is the difference in the Bruins
and Sabres playing style and system.
The Bruins play a tight checking positional game that tries to control
the puck low in the enemy zone, tends to send in a single forechecker,
traps at mid-ice, and tries to prevent high percentage shots in their
own zone. Offensively, it is a defense-lugs-the-puck (Robert Gordon
who?), dump and chase, non-breakout style of play. If the forwards lose
control of the puck, they dig for the puck and try to steal it back. I
common Boston parlance, this is called muckin' in the conners" -- notice
the carefully dropped "R."
Buffalo, on the other hand, employs an offensive style that focuses on
headmanning the puck (an old-time-hockey word that basically means “pass
the puck to the forward closest to the opposition's goal”), defensemen
pinching in to keep the puck in the opposition's zone, and “In Dominik
we trust.” This is a team that does not obsess about odd-man rushes.
Their forwards are very aggressive in forechecking, and skate
extensively in the zone rather than stay at a fixed spot. If they lose
the puck, they pound the opposing player who gets it, rather than dig to
try to get the puck back.
Put the two together, and what do you get? A mismatch of serious
proportions. The Sabres fare worst against teams that have speedy
forwards who tend to look for breakout passes. The Sabres lose games to
the Islanders because of Ziggy Palffy and to the Penguins because of
Jaromir Jagr, both breakaway type guys. Ironically, the Bruins fare
well against Jagr, because they stifle odd man breaks and smother
Jaromir in a Hal Gill straitjacket
But the Sabres do not have to fear that kind of breakout game against
Boston. So their forwards can be even more aggressive, and their
defensemen, rarely needing to look behind to see if a Bruin has snuck
out of the zone, are free to pinch in and keep the puck in the zone.
Heck, against Boston, the defensemen were making drop passes and
rushing the net.
This amount of movement is just the thing to overpower a Pat Burns
positional defense, and time and time again, some dinky pass into an
open area would be picked up by a cycling Sabre and tossed at Dafoe,
every once in a while with disastrous results. Anytime a Boston player,
including Dafoe, so much as fumbled the puck from an instant, a Buffalo
player pounced, and likely as not fired a shot on goal. The Bruins
offense, on the other hand, often ended up with three forwards behind
the net, and two defensemen hanging back at the blue line. This allowed
the Buffalo defense and forwards, once they snagged the puck, to throw
the puck into a No-Bruin zone (from the slot to the boards) just to deep
for the Bruins defense. Thus the Buffalo breakout was started with one
or more Bruins trapped in deep.
But the real reason the Buffalo Sabres beat the Bruins in the playoffs?
Buffalo had a secret weapon. None other than Buffalo native and Bruins
owner Jeremy Jacobs. Jacobs won financially no matter who won the
series, because he sells the suds and dogs in both buildings. But it
was the Jacob's mindset that sunk the Bruins.. Just about every other
club in the playoffs prepped for the second season by adding veteran
depth. Not Jeremy's crew -- they called up a rambling rotation of AHL
players that did little to add to the Bruins chances, and perhaps
detracted from them by placing playoff rookies in pressure-packed
circumstances. Buffalo, on the other hand, added three veteran players
who had recently been to the Stanley Cup finals: Joe Juneau (with the
Caps), Rhett Warrener (with the Panthers), and Stu Barnes (with the
Panthers, after stopping off in Pittsburgh).
While none of these players threatened to break a playoff scoring record
or take the captaincy away from Michael Peca, every one of them played a
solid series against the Bruins, and they were on of the reasons that
the Sabres could survive the injury to a 40-goal scorer (Satan) and
still win. Boston had trouble getting past an injury to AHLer Landon
Wilson, who had just started to make a place for himself when his
shoulder and his arm got a divorce. Boston had no replacement for Tim
Taylor, their third string checking center, who was able to play only by
becoming Kid Cortisone, shot up with painkillers and anti-inflammatory
drugs every game. Let's see how long it is before the off-season surgery
is announced. Even an injury to Dave Ellett required the call-up from
Providence of Mattias Timander, who wasn't good enough to be on the
Bruins roster all year.
Think we should blame Harry Sinden for this, not Jeremy? Then you must
not have read Jacob's annual "grinch" interview in the Boston Globe.
Jerry rolls out the same old "winning team, winning finances" lecture
every year, citing each of the teams who overspent during the season,
and the sorry end they have come to (he specifically mentioned Colorado,
who by the way is still playing hockey). He then talks about how
improved the Bruins are, and how proud he is that they are run like a
real business, and make money. He often calls them a product, rather
than a team. Well, you know what, they played in the playoffs like a
product, and the Sabres played like a team. The team is still skating,
and the product is headed for the recycling bin. For Bruins fans
everywhere, thanks, Jeremy.
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BUFFALO SABRES
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Head Coach: Lindy Ruff
Roster: C - Michael Peca, Curtis Brown, Brian Holzinger, Stu
Barnes, Wayne Primeau. LW - Dixon Ward, Joe Juneau, Michal
Grosek, Paul Kruse, Erik Rasmussen. RW - Miroslav Satan, Vaclav
Varada, Geoff Sanderson, Rob Ray, Dean Sylvester. D - Jay McKee,
Rhett Warrener, Alexei Zhitnik, Richard Smehlik, James Patrick,
Jason Woolley, Darryl Shannon, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, . G -
Dominik Hasek, Dwayne Roloson.
INJURIES: Miroslav Satan, rw (ankle, day-to-day); Jay McKee (left game five
with a possible concussion).
TRANSACTIONS: Recalled Dean Sylvester, rw, from Rochester (AHL).
GAME RESULTS
First Round vs Ottawa: Sabres won 4-0
04/21 at Ottawa W 2-1
04/23 at Ottawa W 3-2 2OT
04/25 Ottawa W 3-0
04/27 Ottawa W 4-3
Second Round vs Boston: Sabres won 4-2
05/06 at Boston L 4-2
05/09 at Boston W 3-1
05/12 Boston W 3-2
05/14 Boston W 3-0
05/16 at Boston L 5-3
05/18 Boston W 3-2
TEAM NEWS by Matt Barr
"We Want the Leafs"
The chant at the building currently called Marine Midland Arena
with four and a half minutes to go in the deciding game six
against Boston said it all: there's going to be a QEW Eastern
Conference final. They'd best hold off on building that new
Peace Bridge for the next week and a half or so.
The Leafs series will have some of the character of the first
two, against Ottawa and Boston: there were the Senators,
perennial doormats suddenly thrust into the favorite's role.
There were the Bruins, a young team riding hot goaltending and
astute coaching beyond their own expectations. The Leafs, not
only back in the Eastern Conference after a long absence but the
playoffs themselves, are a young team as well without as much
playoff experience as a contender would want to have. Their
defense is erratic, led in that regard by an enigma named Bryan
Berard, who can't decide if he's Brian Leetch circa 1994 or Phil
Housley circa, well, any time. As potent as their offense was in
the regular season, it's struggled since joining the Stanley Cup
foray, and the team's reliance on captain Mats Sundin makes them
susceptible to suffocation by Michael Peca and his linemates.
If the Sabres can take advantage of these traits the way they did
to perfection against Ottawa and against Boston at the Marena,
Rene Robert may not have the distinction of having scored the
only Stanley Cup semifinal winning goal in Sabres history much
longer.
The Sabres and Leafs have never met in the playoffs. The season
series went to Buffalo 3-2 in 1998-99. The Leafs were outscored
17-10 in the five games.
Ooh, Ahh, Bruins on the Golf Course
The Buffalo-Boston playoff series, 1999 edition, was the story of
a playoff-tested, savvy young team with the world's best goalie
up against a new-to-success bunch with a few productive, key
veterans and an out-of-his-mind stopper. Unlike last year's
Eastern Conference final, though, which had many of the same
elements, this one went to the Sabres.
The Bruins won game one by taking advantage of the Sabres'
rustiness after a long layoff and by executing and sticking to a
well-developed game plan, particularly offensively. Bruin point
men routinely shot not at the net but toward a forward in
position to deflect the shot; cross-ice passes and quick
one-timers were designed to keep Hasek moving. Kyle McLaren and,
of all people, Ray Bourque distinguished themselves with their
physical play, both giving and receiving. Erik Rasmussen was
equally effective on that front for Buffalo. Byron Dafoe fought
the puck and seemed to misplace a number of rebounds in the first
half of the game, but Buffalo couldn't take full advantage.
The Sabres earned a split in game two by stepping up the hitting
and killing penalties effectively. Bourque got a faceful from
Peca and a bazooka to the back from Alexei Zhitnik in the second
period as it became clear, if it hadn't been, that the Buffalo
game plan was to wear down the 46-time Norris Trophy finalist.
The Bruins blinked: Ken Belanger and Kyle McLaren took some shots
across Dominik Hasek's bow, but the arms race never materialized.
It's much easier to be aggressive if you can kill penalties, and
the Sabres did in game two, including three five-on-threes.
Curtis Brown's goal and assist and yeoman work on special teams
helped seal the win.
With the last change in games three and four, Lindy Ruff and
Michael Peca smothered Jason Allison as badly as Alexei Yashin in
the first round. Not coincidentally, Hasek had a nearly
120-minute shutout streak, most of which was accomplished at home
in games three and four.
In a down game for Hasek, the Bruins held off elimination in game
five. The Bruins scored four times on Hasek in two periods, and
Dwayne Roloson saw his first action of the series in the third
period. Later Lindy Ruff, probably trying to minimize any
psychological advantage the Bruins might have gained by chasing
Hasek, claimed he took Hasek out of the game out of concern for
his (Hasek's) lingering groin injury.
In the deciding game six, Geoff Sanderson victimized Bourque with
his speed and hustle to set up a Wayne Primeau goal late in the
first, then created some more offense out of nothing early in the
second as Curtis Brown scored the series-winning goal. The
Bruins pulled to within 3-2 with Dafoe on the bench with 1:03
left in the game, and then Rasmussen and, of all people, Peca
iced the puck to set up faceoffs in the Sabres' zone, but the
team weathered the final minute and advanced.
Among the subtexts of the series was a new concern, initiated by
Ruff but which quickly gained a life of its own, about Hasek's
groin. Ruff seemingly offhandedly (though we doubt any head
coach talks about injuries during the playoffs without knowing
exactly what he wants to say -- and not say) explained Hasek's
game five by wondering aloud whether Hasek's groin had been
bothering him on goals two and four. Ruff was alluding to the
same injury that sidelined him for twelve games earlier in the
season. This was apparently news to Hasek, who said he may have
been distracted by the groin during the game, but it had felt no
better nor any worse than it had for two and a half months.
Hasek looked fine in game six.
Pat Burns added some comic relief by launching on the officiating
in the series instead of talking up his team's effort after game
five. Peca, Burns said, got away with "murder" in the series.
Peca's wonderful and appropriate comeback was, "No one died. It
wasn't murder."
Just as the stories of the first round included Peca, Hasek and
the revelation of the McKee-Warrener pairing, some other Sabres
stepped up against Boston. Peca was just as large, and has been
the team MVP of the playoffs. Alexei Zhitnik logged over 25
minutes a game and played an outstanding two-way series.
Rasmussen was a force, hitting everything in black and gold in
sight and logging as much ice as any Sabre forward. In game six,
Dean Sylvester, fresh off nine goals in eight AHL playoff games,
joined the lineup on a line with Rasmussen and Wayne Primeau and
had a fine game.
The most unsung, and unlikely, hero was probably Sanderson. Two
of the Sabres' three goals in game six were a direct result of
his speed and hustle, and he was a buzzsaw all series.
Satan Misses Series
It's clear that the extent of Miro Satan's injury is being kept
secret, as he'd indicated during game four of the Ottawa series
that he was a day or two from returning, but he missed all six
games of the second round. Satan was injured in game three of
the first round when he took an Alexei Zhitnik slap shot off the
ankle.
The "new" information is that Satan is still day to day and might
play in game one against the Leafs, but circumstances have to
make you doubt it. He was spotted taking some shots at practice
in sneakers, and was getting around better as the second round
wound down.
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PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Head Coach: Kevin Constantine
Roster: C - Martin Straka, Robert Lang, Jan Hrdina, Tyler
Wright. LW - German Titov, Kip Miller, Matthew Barnaby, Dan
Kesa, Brian Bonin. RW - Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Aleksey
Morozov, Robby Brown, Martin Sonnenberg. D - Darius Kasparaitis,
Kevin Hatcher, Brad Werenka, Jiri Slegr, Ian Moran, Sven
Butenschon, Bobby Dollas, Neil Wilkinson, Jeff Serowik, Victor
Ignatjev, Maxim Galanov, Pavel Skrbek. G - Tom Barrasso, Peter
Skudra, Jean-Sebastien Aubin.
Injuries: Darius Kasparaitis, d (knee, out for the year); Jeff
Serowik, d (concussion, indefinite).
Transactions: None.
Game Results
First Round vs New Jersey: Penguins won 4-3
4/22 at New Jersey L 3-1
4/24 at New Jersey W 4-1
4/25 New Jersey W 4-2
4/27 New Jersey L 4-2
4/30 at New Jersey L 4-3
5/02 New Jersey W 3-2 OT
5/04 at New Jersey W 4-2
Second Round vs Toronto: Leafs won 4-2
5/07 at Toronto W 2-0
5/09 at Toronto L 4-2
5/11 Toronto W 4-3
5/13 Toronto L 3-2 OT
5/15 at Toronto L 4-1
5/17 Toronto L 4-3 OT
TEAM NEWS by Jerry Fairish
The city of Pittsburgh not only saw their Penguins lose to the
Toronto Maple Leafs in six games Monday Night, it may have seen
the last game ever to be played inside the Igloo.
Ex-Penguin Garry Valk scored two goals, including the overtime
winner, and advanced the Leafs to the Conference Finals to face
the winner of the Boston-Buffalo series. The Pens, who were
riding high after defeating the New Jersey Devils, were unable to
solve Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph and managed only 14 goals in the
six games. Alexei Kovalev, who returned to the lineup in Game
Six after missing two games with a sore foot, scored a goal but
it just wasn't enough. Jagr and Rob Brown scored the other two
goals for the Birds, however the Leafs had the deadly combination
of Garry Valk and Lonny Bohonos to give Toronto a 4-3 win in
overtime.
The Penguins went a lot further than people expected them to go.
After losing Ron Francis in the off-season to the Carolina
Hurricanes, nobody expected Jagr to be able to step up and lead
this squad. Jagr, except for a few minor incidents, became the
leader that the team needed to succeed. He made the fans start
to believe again. He brought hockey fever back to the 'Burgh.
The only problem now is that the team itself may not even be here
in a month or so.
As many people may or may not know, the 'Guins are in financial
turmoil. They are bankrupt and are facing the real possibility
that they'll be dissolved and all the players on the team will be
assigned to other clubs, sent to the minors, or be completely out
of hockey all together. This could be devastating for the city
of Pittsburgh, fans of the Penguins, and for the NHL.
Mario Lemieux is trying once again to be the savior of Pittsburgh
Hockey. He has proposed a plan that would pay of all creditors
of the Pens. However, in the last week or so, a "Mystery Buyer"
has proposed a plan that is about $30 million more than Lemieux
has offered to purchase the team. The "Mystery Buyer" WILL NOT
keep the team in Pittsburgh! Lemieux's plan will be decided in
Federal Bankruptcy Court next month and if it is declined the
city of Pittsburgh will lose hockey forever.
The fans of the Pens have taken it upon themselves to start an
online petition to display their outrage over the possibility of
losing their team. This petition will be sent to NHL
Commissioner Gary Bettman, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, and other
higher-ups in Pittsburgh city council. Will this make a
difference? It may or may not, but at least the fans can get
their say in this matter. So go to... http://www.robinzin
e.com/petition.html and sign this petition. There are
already about 50,000 signatures there. Even if you're not a
Penguins fan do it anyway. Do it for hockey. I mean if Detroit
was in the same boat, I'd sign it. I hate the Red Wings, but I'd
still sign it for the game itself. Go Avalanche! I will now get
down from my soapbox.
Since this will be my last article of the season, I would like to
take this opportunity to congratulate the Dallas Stars on winning
the Stanley Cup. I knew my boys could do it.
=================================================================
=================================================================
TEAM REPORTS
=================================================================
WESTERN CONFERENCE
=================================================================
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DALLAS STARS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Head coach: Ken Hitchcock
Roster: C-Mike Modano, Guy Carbonneau, Joe Nieuwendyk, Tony Hrkac,
Brian Skrudland, Derek Plante. LW- Benoit Hogue, Jamie
Langenbrunner, Jason Botterill, Dave Reid, Brent Severyn, Jere
Lehtinen. RW- Blake Sloan, Brett Hull, Mike Keane, Grant Marshall,
Pat Verbeek. D-Derian Hatcher, Craig Ludwig, Darryl Sydor, Shawn
Chambers, Richard Matvichuk, Sergei Zubov, Doug Lidster, Brad
Lukowich. G-Ed Belfour, Roman Turek.
"I-Word": Shawn Chambers, d (sprained knee, day-to-day). Tony Hrkac,
c (fractured ribs, indefinitely).
Transactions: Recalled Aaron Gavey, lw, from the Michigan K-Wings
(IHL). Recalled Alan Letang, d, from the Michigan K-Wings (IHL).
Recalled Marty Turco, g, from the Michigan K- Wings (IHL). Recalled
Jon Sim, lw, from the Michigan K-Wings (IHL).
Game Results
First Round vs Edmonton: Stars wins 4-0
4/21 Edmonton W 2-1
4/23 Edmonton W 3-2
4/25 at Edmonton W 3-2
4/27 at Edmonton W 3-2 3 OT
Second Round vs St. Louis: Stars win 4-2
St. Louis W 3-0
St. Louis W 5-4 OT
at St. Louis L 3-2 OT
at St. Louis L 3-2 OT
St. Louis W 3-1
at St. Louis W 4-3 OT
Team News by Jim Panenka, Dallas Correspondent
Dallas Drops St. Louis, Advances to Conference Finals
Well, quite a lot has happened since the last column. An entire
series was finished, as a matter of fact. So let's just do this
thing.
Game One
Eddie Belfour started the series strong with a 23-save 3-0 shutout
of St. Louis. The Stars got their goals from Verbeek, Hull and
Modano. Dallas had 8 days to rest after the Edmonton series, but
showed no signs of rust as they dived right into a thinking-man's
chess match of a first period.
Pat Verbeek returned from a knee strain problem in fine form,
banging in a Nieuwendyk rebound past Fuhr at 2:29 of the first
period. Brett Hull slapped in a bomb just under a minute into the
second period. It was Hull's first goal of the postseason.
Play got physical towards the end of the game. Verbeek drew a
penalty by boarding Pierre Turgeon in response to an earlier
pestering of Belfour by the Blues. St. Louis had a 6-on-4
advantage, but failed to score. In fact, Modano sopped up some
gravy by scoring an empty-netter with seconds remaining.
Game Two
Both teams opened it up, and both coaches were having fits as the
teams traded rushes in what was a very entertaining game. The Stars
continued getting into trouble with the league. Pat Verbeek was
suspended one game for his hit on Turgeon the previous game, and
sat this one out.
This was also Derian Hatcher's much-anticipated return from the
monumental 7-game suspension for crunching Roenick. Hatcher wasted
no time in returning to his usual hard-checking self.
Jamie Langenbrunner opened up the scoring with his third goal of the
playoffs, a hard slapshot that eluded Grant Fuhr. It was reminiscent
of Langenbrunner's center-ice goal against Osgood during last year's
Dallas- Detroit series.
St. Louis took advantage of Dallas mistakes and scored the next two
goals for the 2-1 lead. Dallas got back some life after Mighty Joe
Nieuwendyk tied it up with his fourth goal of the playoffs 5
minutes into the second period.
Mike Keane was the benefactor of some nifty passing between Zubov
and Marshall and scored to give the Stars the 3-2 lead.
The Blues had all the answers as they scored the next two goals to
retake the lead into the locker room at the end of the second
period.
Dallas got the crucial tying goal to send it into overtime from the
hands of Jere Lehtinen. Brett Hull had sent in a shot on Fuhr, and
Modano was able to corral the rebound and pass it to Lehtinen.
During the overtime, Mighty Joe Nieuwendyk scored the game-winner
(again! This guy has a knack for netting the big ones). Zubov
assisted with the setup pass.
Game Three
St. Louis handed Dallas their first defeat of the playoff season.
The Stars had gotten off to a good start as Brett Hull scored his
second goal of the series just three minutes in.
The Blues tied it up early in the second period. St. Louis continued
to play strong on the puck, and the Stars seemed to be lacking in
some tenacity. For whatever reason, Dallas failed to establish their
trademark forecheck, and seemed to be more reactionary than
aggressive.
As a result, St. Louis scored again in the third when Derek Plante
was stripped of the puck. Jochen Hecht (who?) netted his first
career goal and shifted momentum clearly in the Blues' favor.
Darryl Sydor scored for Dallas to send it into overtime on a fluky
play where the puck bounced off several players before Sydor batted
it into the net at waist level.
Pavol Demitra sealed Dallas' coffin and put the capper on a great
night for his line as he scored the overtime game-winner.
Game Four
The Blues continued the home-team winning trend and beat Dallas
again in their third straight overtime game.
Mike Modano had been challenged by Hitchcock to elevate his play
after a poor showing in game three. Modano took it to heart and
came out with speed to net the first goal at the first minute mark
of the opening period.
St. Louis again pulled ahead by two goals as Hecht (again) and
Courtnall scored.
Dallas tied it up 40 seconds into the third when Jere Lehtinen
finished a breakout play started with hard work by Mikey Modano,
who clearly wanted to get back into the series.
The Stars thought they had pulled ahead until a Pat Verbeek goal was
called back because Jamie Langenbrunner had a skate in the crease.
Damn lame punk-ass crease rule!
It was no matter. Dallas was being outworked and St. Louis pulled
out the hard-fought win. The Stars defense was getting more rattled
as the game went on, and they began committing uncustomary mistakes
late, and on into the overtime.
Sergei Zubov had a brain cramp and attempted to pass across the ice
in his own zone to Joe Nieuwendyk, instead of taking the safe, open
lane up the boards. Instead of a 3-on-2 breakaway, the Stars were
handed defeat as Pierre Turgeon netted Zubov's gift pass past a
stunned Belfour.
The series was tied and all the pressure was put on Dallas to pull
off a strong home performance.
Game Five
Hitchcock responded to the two losses by once again throwing all the
line combinations out the door. The main priority was to bust up the
top line of Lehtinen-Modano-Hull. Hitchcock wanted to put a grinder
on this line to get the puck out of the boards and free Modano up to
look for the opening and wait for the pass.
As a result, the Stars opened the game with the following lines:
Lehtinen-Modano-Marshall
Sim-Nieuwendyk-Verbeek
Hogue-Keane-Hull
Langenbrunner-Carbonneau-Reid
Hitchcock was free to experiment all night since he got the benefit
of the last change for being at home. The changes worked for
awhile, and Modano continued his return into the series by setting
up the first goal. The Blues were on a power play, but lost the
puck and sent the Stars into their transition game.
Modano freaked Chris "I will crush you" [best spoke with a thick
Russian accent] Pronger and drew two Blues to him - holding the
puck just long enough to dish out a sweet pass straight to
Lehtinen, who chipped the gravy goal up high over the committed
Fuhr. Nice goal! A clutch play from a big-game player.
The Stars' power play finally came back to life after a pathetic
streak of ineptitude. To say that Dallas hadn't scored much on the
power play was like saying the punk-ass crease rule sucks - it was
a foregone conclusion. Hey, I'm just saying it was hard for the
Stars to punch in a PPG, you see.
Anyway, Mike Modano once again broke into the Blues zone, this time
with the advantage. Modano drew coverage to him and lifted a
pinpoint saucer pass straight to a closing-in Langenbrunner, who
swept the puck in quickly between the post and Fuhr's pad.
Dallas struck again on the power play in the second period. The
Stars were schooling the Blues with their puck movement, and
managed to keep it alive in the zone despite some furious pressure
from the St. Louis penalty-kill unit.
The puck was cycled down low, almost lost, but then recovered and
sent to Derian Hatcher at the point. Hatcher slapped in a bomb that
Mighty Joe Nieuwendyk deftly tipped past Fuhr.
Two PPGs and a shorty! It was a veritable special-teams scorefest!
Eddie Belfour had another spectacular game, and kept the Blues off
the board until midway through the second period. Except for
another Jochen Hecht goal (who is this guy?) that was called back,
it was pretty much all over except for the singing.
Game Six
Brett Hull wasn't very happy with being busted from the first line
during Game Five. He never let it show, and instead wound up being
a key player in Game Six.
Hitchcock started with some weird combinations again:
Lehtninen-Modano-Marshall
Hogue-Nieuwendyk-Verbeek (reunion of a previous second line)
Langenbrunner-Carbonneau-Reid
Marhsall-Plante-Keane
But, eventually Hitchcock caved in and reunited the power trio of
Lehtinen-Modano-Hull. Dallas was playing a tight game, and this
time was showing more foot speed and was definitely beating the
Blues to the loose pucks more than the previous two games at the
Kiel Center.
Al MacInnis made it interesting by finally beating Ed Belfour with
his blistering slapshot from the point. The Blues scored first for
the first time in the series. They also had that home-team thing
going for them.
The Blues held Dallas scoreless until the third period, when Derek
Plante redeemed himself for a few mistakes earlier in the series.
Dallas continued playing with confidence into the overtime. The
deciding goal came when none other than Brett Hull sent a hard shot
in on Fuhr, who once again left a rebound in the crease. Mike
Modano fought his way to the rebound and backhanded the puck into
Fuhr's pads, which initially stopped the puck but left just enough
exposed for Modano to switch back to the forehand and stuff it home
for good.
That was it! Dallas will advance to the conference finals!
Afterglow
The Stars adapted well to not having key players throughout the
series: Hatcher, Verbeek, Carbonneau, Chambers had all missed games
at one point or the other. Hitchcock also challenged Modano to
climb out of his funk and back into the series. Modano said the
long 7-8 day break between series threw off his game. Mikey Mo
obviously found it again somewhere along the way.
Dallas played mostly with five defenders and a rotating cast of
forwards. But as is their trademark, the Stars once again found a
way to win-even if it wasn't exactly pretty along the way.
In the end, St. Louis did play well enough to have won the series.
But Ed Belfour simply outplayed Grant Fuhr. Fuhr did let in some
questionable goals, and submarined an otherwise fine effort from
the BlueNotes. Belfour was sensational and showed no signs of
imploding as he did against Detroit last year.
Looking Ahead
Dallas will face Colorado for the conference finals. This time, the
Stars will be facing a team on a major roll. And, they will have a
much harder time getting pucks past St. Patrick than they did past
Grant Fuhr. If Belfour can duel with Roy goal-for-goal, then it
will come down to a question of skill.
There is an awful amount of dedicated skill on that Avalanche team.
But then again, Dallas has proven they can beat any team in the
league. Can the Stars do it enough times to best the red-hot Avs in
the series? Who knows. This is the time for Modano to seal his
superstar status and rise to the top. Hope Mo's up to the
challenge-it all may be riding on his shoulders this time.
Other Notes:
* Guy Carbonneau lost his father recently. Carbo came back with a
valiant effort despite his grief and a knee problem. Stars fans
have already assured Carbonneau is recognized for his outstanding
career, and magnificent playoff contributions - every time he
handles the puck in Reunion Arena he is welcomed by a thunderous
chant of GUUUYYY!! It's just a great sign of respect for a
remarkable breed of player, and it sounds great every time I hear
it. Some of the hard work is finally being recognized.
* Dallas has officially retired those ugly all-black road jerseys.
Buy 'em while they're hot!
* The defense is definitely missing Shawn Chambers, who proved just
how solid and reliable he is as a minutes workhorse when Hatcher
was suspended. Chambers has a knee problem, and could resume
playing for game one versus Colorado. He will bring more stability
to a defensive corps that is still a little shaky.
* The blueliners have stopped contributing on the offensive end as
they had done during the regular season. At one point, Dallas had
the highest-scoring defensive squad in the league. Dallas is going
to need that second wave of attack against Colorado.
* Sorry Detroit, no three-peat for you! HA!
* Bring on the Mighty Men with Feet on Their Shoulders! And, get
ready for hockey exciting enough to possibly pull even the jaded
and apathetic LCS Hockey Editor Michael Dell back into the hockey
fold. Geez, now that there would have to be some excitin' hockey!
* This is your chance, Dallas. Don't Bonk.
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COLORADO AVALANCHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Head Coach: Bob Hartley
ROSTER: C - Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Stephane Yelle, Chris Drury,
Dale Hunter. LW - Valeri Kamensky, Milan Hejduk, Shean Donovan,
Warren Rychel, Chris Dingman. RW - Theoren Fleury, Claude Lemieux,
Adam Deadmarsh, Shjon Podein, Jeff Odgers, Scott Parker. D - Sandis
Ozolinsh, Sylvain Lefebvre, Adam Foote, Alexei Gusarov, Jon Klemm,
Aaron Miller, Greg deVries, Cam Russell, Eric Messier. G - Patrick
Roy, Craig Billington.
INJURIES: Stephane Yelle, c (knee, day-to-day); Cam Russell, d
(shoulder, out for season); Alexei Gusarov, d (knee, day-to-day).
TRANSACTIONS : Recalled Scott Parker, rw, from Hershey (AHL).
Recalled Chris Dingman, lw, from Hershey.
RESULTS:
First Round vs San Jose: Avalanche won 4-2
4/24 at San Jose W 3-1
4/26 at San Jose W 2-1 OT
4/28 San Jose L 4-2
4/30 San Jose L 7-3
5/01 San Jose W 6-2
5/03 at San Jose W 3-2 OT
Second Round vs Detroit: Avalanche lead series 3-2
5/07 Detroit L 3-2 OT
5/09 Detroit L 4-0
5/11 at Detroit W 5-3
5/13 at Detroit W 6-2
5/16 Detroit W 3-0
Team News by Greg D'Avis
What ever happened to the depth?
Coming into the Avalanche/Detroit series, all the talk was how the
Avalanche's depth simply couldn't match up to the Red Wings. And for
two games, they were right; particularly in Game Two, the Avalanche
seemed far more interested in racking up stupid penalties than, say,
playing defense. But with a few new additions and a new lease on
life, Colorado went flat-out wild.
Missing Yelle
Stephane Yelle went down with a knee injury in the final game of the
San Jose series - he's expected to miss the entire Detroit series -
and he's been a huge loss. The loss of the Avalanche's top penalty
killer forced Dale Hunter up to the third line for the first two
games, and that was a mess. The third and fourth lines were basically
useless; pundits called the fourth line of Warren Rychel, Jeff Odgers
and Shean Donovan the "IHL Line". Hunter appeared to be intent on
setting a record for ill-timed high-sticks (only teammate Peter
Forsberg, who played the first two games in a blind rage, could give
him any competition), and Detroit was able to key on the Avalanche's
stars and shut them down.
What A Difference A Russian Makes
Then, for Game Three, Valeri Kamensky made his first appearance with
the Avalanche in two months, since his arm was broken by Enemy of
Humanity (and Red Wing) Kirk Maltby. While Kamensky hasn't set the
world on fire since coming back - two points in three games - his
impact can't be overstated. He's outplayed the Red Wings' vaunted
Russian crew, and his presence allowed coach Bob Hartley to move Adam
Deadmarsh to the third line with Shjon Podein and Chris Drury and
Hunter back to the fourth - with fantastic results. Since Kamensky's
return, the third line has been hot, particularly Deadmarsh, and the
fourth line has even chipped in a couple of goals. So the Red Wings
can still key on the first line of Joe Sakic, Theo Fleury and Milan
Hejduk, as they've done with success, but now the Avalanche have two
more scoring-threat lines instead of just one.
Meanwhile, add a Russian, lose a Russian. The Red Wings have had to
live without smart, experienced center Igor Larionov, replacing him
with Brent Gilchrist - not a good trade-off. And the Red Wings'
much-ballyhooed depth hasn't paid off; no goals from Brendan Shanahan,
Darren McCarty, Martin Lapointe, Sergei Fedorov.
Miller Time
For the third straight year (and, admittedly, last year it was
nothing to brag about), Aaron Miller has been the Avalanche's best
defenseman in the playoffs. He's leading the league at +10, chipped
in a bit offensively, but most of all, just been a steady, strong
presence. This year, Avalanche fans have seem him evolve from a
seventh defenseman into a blueline leader, and that's continued in
the playoffs.
Other Avs deserve notes. Deadmarsh has been fantastic, Forsberg has
played well after being out for blood in the first two games, Adam
Foote and Sylvain Lefebvre have been steady, and while they haven't
been scoring as much, the line of Fleury, Sakic and Hejduk have
kept the Red Wings on their toes and worn them out. And, of course,
Patrick Roy has been great.
There's still at least one game left, and no one expects the Red
Wings to lie down and die. But, thus far, the Avalanche have put to
rest the concerns that surrounded this team coming in.
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DETROIT RED WINGS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Head Coach: Scotty Bowman
Roster C - Steve Yzerman, Igor Larionov, Kris Draper, Sergei
Fedorov. LW - Brendan Shanahan, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Doug Brown,
Tomas Holmstrom, Wendel Clark, Kirk Maltby, Brent Gilchrist. RW -
Darren McCarty, Martin Lapointe, Stacey Roest D - Nicklas
Lidstrom, Larry Murphy, Jamie Macoun, Aaron Ward, Uwe Krupp, Ulf
Samuelsson, Mathieu Dandenault Chris Chelios, Todd Gill . G -
Chris Osgood, Bill Ranford, Norm Maracle.
INJURIES: Ulf Samulesson aggravated groin ; indefinite. Igor
Larionov dislocated finger.. Joe Kocur rw; abdominal strain out for
playoffs. Uwe Krupp def; herniated disk out for playoffs..
TRANSACTIONS: None
Game Results
First Round vs Anaheim: Red Wings win 4-0
4/21 Anaheim W 5-3
4/23 Anaheim W 5-1
4/25 at Anaheim W 4-2
Second Round vs Colorado: Avalanche wins 4-2
5/07 at Colorado W 3-2 OT
5/09 at Colorado W 4-0
5/11 Colorado L 5-3
5/13 Colorado L 6-2
5/15 at Colorado L 3-0
5/17 Colorado L 5-2
Team News by Dino Cacciola
ROUND TWO, GAME ONE
Well it was not going to be pretty for either team in the second
round. The Colorado Avalanche and the Red Wings are the hottest
rivalry in the National Hockey League. Any playoff game between
these two teams was sure to have its up and downs. Game one in
Colorado was no different than expected. Chippy play on both ends
of the ice ignited tensions between the two.
The most please surprise was that of goaltender Bill Ranford who
stopped 37 shots as the Red Wings won 3 to 2 in overtime to take
the first game. Grind Line forward Kirk Maltby scored 4:18 into
overtime to get the win.
Ranford started in goal in place of the injured Chris Osgood who was
out with a sprained right knee. Maltby, stationed himself in the
overtime period just right of the goal, took a pass from teammate
Kris Draper behind the net and put it past Patrick Roy. It was the
Wings fifth playoff win in a row.
"I learned this morning," Ranford said of coach Scotty Bowman's
decision to give him the start. "Ozzie is doing better every day,
but they decided to give him a couple more days of rest. When you
haven't played for three-plus weeks, I tried not to get too wound
up in the game early on. I got my feet underneath me as the game
went on. The fatigue factor was a big concern, but I just tried to
shut that out." "Billy was great," said Bowman, "Our guys have a
lot of confidence in him." At least that was the case in the first
two games.
Avalanche coach Bob Hartley was upset that similar five minute
boarding penalties against Forsberg and Detroit's Darren McCarty
resulted in an ejection of Forsberg, but not McCarty. Jim Gregory,
NHL vice president of hockey operations, said the rules state that
an act of boarding that results in an injury to the face or head;
such as Forsberg's hit on Shanahan which cut him open, demands an
ejection. On McCarty's hit on Claude Lemieux, however, there was
no apparent face or head injury. Forsberg was unavailable for
comment after the game.
The Avalanche took a 2-1 lead after the Wings scored first. After
gaining a 5-on-3 advantage for 22 seconds Steve Yzerman chipped in
a shot from just left of the net at 3:54. But Theo Fleury tied it
on a power play at 10:51, taking a rebound and bouncing the puck
off the post from just right of the net. Less than two minutes
later, Colorado's Adam Deadmarsh, fighting off Chris Chelios
inside the right circle, redirected a shot from the point by Foote
for a go ahead goal at 12:34.
The Wings made it 2-2 in the second period when Slava Kozlov punched
in a rebound of a shot from the right circle by Sergei Fedorov on a
power play.
GAME TWO
Celebrating his 34th birthday, Captain Steve Yzerman lit two candles
so to speak as the Red Wings won game two over the Avs 4-0. Yzerman
scored two goals and Bill Ranford gained his fourth career playoff
shutout in the win. With the win the Wings take a two game to none
lead in the best of seven series. "I have spent better birthdays,"
Yzerman said ,"but I won't tell you what happened. It wasn't with a
bunch of sports reporters."
In a game featuring the sort of fierce tough hitting that has come
to define this rivalry, the Red Wings stayed unbeaten in these
playoffs. They registered their sixth straight playoff victory and
11th straight since last year's postseason Cup run.
Yzerman, scored in each of the first two periods, giving him eight
goals in the playoffs to equal a career high. Nicklas Lidstrom and
Wendel Clark added power play goals in the final period.
Billy Ranford had 28 saves in the shutout win. Ranford insisted he
was lucky in the game. "The guys played unbelievably in front of
me. There were times when I didn't see the puck, and they were able
to block it out for me. That first power play goal we got in the
third period took the wind out of their sails."
Colorado had 32 minutes in penalties compared to Detroit's 16.
Colorado is 1- 4 at home in the playoffs this season but 3-0 on
the road.
GAME THREE
The charm wore off for goaltender Bill Ranford and suddenly the Red
Wings aren't invincible any more. He let in five of the first 23
shots they he faced at the Avalanche continued their playoff
success on the road with a 5-3 victory in game three of round two.
"I'm just disappointed," Ranford said. "But, you play this game 27
years and I guess you expect nights like this once in a while."
With recently released POW Christopher Stone watching from the box
of Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch, the Avalanche also got goals from
Claude Lemieux, Theo Fleury, Dale Hunter and rookie Chris Drury.
Steve Yzerman, Tomas Holmstrom and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored for the
Red Wings in the defeat. Head coach Scotty Bowman wouldn't say who
might be in goal for Game 4, but it's likely to be Ranford again.
Chris Osgood was not ready to play. "We haven't even thought about
that," Bowman said. "He hasn't been on the ice since Sunday
morning. He got better, then he kind of leveled off."
The Avalanche took the lead on Fleury's fifth goal, with 3:01 left
in the first. And that was all she wrote, They then blew it open
with three goals in the first 5:05 of the second period and Norm
Maracle replaced Ranford.
"We finally got a couple rebounds by crashing the net," Avalanche
star center Peter Forsberg said. "They really didn't give us much
ice to work with until it got to be 5-1, but we did a good job of
going to the net."
Colorado goaltender Patrick Roy made 44 saves. The Red Wings outshot
Colorado 47-36, thanks to a 21-5 edge in the third. Igor Larionov did
not play because of a dislocated finger. Brent Gilchrist took his
place in the lineup. The last two games were Fedorov's to shine and
he did not.
GAME FOUR
Three peat? Well the thoughts of that have to be put on hold as the
Avs tied up the series with a commanding 6-2 victory. The Wings
basically looked pathetic. The neutral zone trap deployed by the
Avalanche minimized any effort the Wings could muster. Patrick Roy
made 31 shots in the win.
"Tonight was a lot easier for me, that's for sure," Roy said. "Our
defense did a great job, even though they outshot us. I thought we
were fantastic tonight. We played well in every part of the game.
"I don't think we've changed much from the first two games. We are
just playing better hockey." The Wings on the other hand could
have possible turned in one of their worst performances of the
season.
Bill Ranford failed to make it through the second period for the
second straight game. Ranford let three of the first 14 shots he
faced get past him. He was replaced by Norm Maracle at 14:04 of
the second.
"I don't ever recall being pulled two games in a row," said
Ranford, "But, you can't worry about the goalie."
He really didnt have any support in this game. "They told me it
wasn't so much me," Ranford said. "They felt we were flat, and
maybe that would give us a jump start."
Slava Kozlov scored twice for the Red Wings late in the game.
The so called faithful in Joe Louis Arena were booing by the end of
the period. "When you're that many goals behind, it seems like
you're skating in quicksand," Brendan Shanahan said.
The Wings lineup remained the same with Jamie Macoun and Todd Gill
being a healthy scratch. Stacey Roest isnt playing either. The
Wings are playing frustrated not getting the breaks and the bounces
to go their way. Not to take anything away from Colorado, but the
Red Wings are playing flat for whatever reason and they need to
improve or it is golf time.
GAME FIVE
Patrick Roy recorded his 12th career playoff shutout, as the
Avalanche beat the Red Wings 3-0 and all but secured the playoff
round win. The Avalanche, won their third straight game in the
series after losing the first two at home to the defending Stanley
Cup Champions.
Goalie Chris Osgood, who missed the first four games with a sprained
right knee, returned to the net and had 23 saves. But he was
noticeably favoring his injured right leg during the game.
"It was a pretty frustrating game," Head Coach Scotty Bowman said.
"We generated some chances. But we missed the net, I think it was
15 times by the end of the second period. Maybe we were trying to
pick corners. That happens sometimes." Martin Lapointe said,
"We're not dead yet. Obviously, our back is against the wall.
We've done it before. We've just got to play with more
desperation."
The Wings lost defenseman Ulf Samuelsson early in the first period
with what was announced as a groin injury. He did not return.
Bowman wasn't confident of getting Samuelsson back for Game 6.
Jamie Macoun was slotted to play in the next game in his absence.
The game was not pretty and things look very bleak for the Red Wings
who are not playing with any confidence or consistency.
GAME SIX
It's all over now. The Detroit Red Wings will not three peat as
Stanley Cup Champions. Losing at home 5-2 in game six at home was
really a devastating blow to end it all. Peter Forsberg scored
twice and Colorado goaltender Patrick Roy continued his great play
as the Avalanche advanced to the Conference finals.
"It's not that we didn't play well," said Steve Yzerman, "We just
couldn't score goals. It was just so frustrating."
But the Wings did not play well defensively in the series.
Milan Hejduk, Chris Drury and Joe Sakic also scored for Colorado.
Finally Nicklas Lidstrom and Darren McCarty scored for the Red
Wings.
"It was a tough game and we gave it everything we had," said coach
Scotty Bowman, "We came back, but a couple plays here and there
hurt us. "But, overall, when you lose four straight like we did
..." and his voice trailed off.
Chris Osgood had 26 saves for the Red Wings, but allowed some soft
goals again in the loss.
"To win four straight against Detroit, I never thought we had a
chance," Roy said. "But we had no choice. We put ourselves in a
really bad position, losing those two games in Colorado. Winning
three games in Detroit, it's not every team that can do that."
The Red Wings, on the brink of elimination for the first time in
three years, seemed tight during the first period. None of their 11
shots gave Roy much trouble. Still, the Red Wings managed for a
spell to bring the crowd back to life with two goals in a 29 second
span late in the period. Lidstrom scored on a power play at 17:24,
ending a scoreless streak of 98:07. McCarty made it 4- 2 with his
first goal of these playoffs at 17:53 with a deflection.
Forsberg scored an unassisted goal with 6:29 remaining, and that was
all she wrote.
NO, THEY WEREN'T READY
Its hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. It is one thing to
lose a series, it is another to not show up and play. Leading the
series two games to none and looking invincible then totally
collapsing is hard to swallow if you are a Hockeytown resident.
What happened will be the question of the day for many years to
come? Was it the fact that the new players were not given enough
time to gell within the system? Was it age finally showing? Can the
genius of Bowman be questioned for going with two young defenseman
instead of the proven veterans? Were the line combinations that
much out of sync with the loss of Larionov? Was the addition of
Kamensky to the Avs lineup that much more of inspiration? There can
be nothing at all taken away from the Avalanche in this series.
They capitalized on every chance they were given. They had great
goaltending and their role players came through. Their
explosiveness was something truly to behold. The Red Wings role
players were non existent. Did age finally show on this team?
Where was the magic from 97 and 98 from the Grind Line? Were was
the goals from Wendel Clark? Where in the world was that overpriced
superstar Sergei Fedorov? He totally disappeared. Steve Yzerman
alone was the only one who showed up to play as usual. The Wings
do not have a goalie that alone can win games on a consistent
basis. Bill Ranford stood on his head in games one and two, but it
was not enough. This team may have been too confident or may have
had no confidence. Did the trades that were made make the
remaining Wings feel as though they were in adequate and not up to
the challenge? Too many two on one breaks by the Avs were too much
to handle. The left wing lock completely broke down and the Wings
for some strange reason were unable to beat the neutral zone trap
this time as well. There will be some off season moves for sure.
Why don't the Wings have a goalie like Roy, Hasek, or Cujo that
can win a game all alone? Will Krupp help out? Where were McCarty
and Shanahan? Marty LaPointe? Will Scotty Retire? Will Murphy call
it quits? Will Shanahan or Fedorov get traded? Will Lidstrom go to
Sweden? So many questions. Why? Why? Why?
This loss hurts worse than the 95 Finals loss. Not because the Wings
lost to the dreaded Avs. It was the way in which they lost. The
system and talent was in place to repeat and it was not executed.
Either from lack of hunger or determination. That is not what
championships are made up of. This loss will not take anything away
from the two Cups, but is sure does put a tarnish on it. A tarnish
that cannot be erased until next season and only with a victory.
This is from Jason Baxter, a true Red Wing fan who writes a thank
you to the Red Wings:
Thank you for two Stanley Cups.
Thank you for giving our children decent, hard working, intelligent
role models.
Thank you for bringing well over 2 million people together over the
course of two years to downtown Detroit in peace to celebrate
accomplishment.
Thank you for introducing and recruiting legions of fans across the
U.S. to hockey
Thank you for giving us something to believe in.
Thank you for teaching us teamwork, dedication, and honor.
Thank you for providing us with a team we can hate (the Avs) and
giving us a rivalry that we can follow with anticipation for years
to come.
Thank you for winning with style.
Thank you for losing with grace.
Thank you for telling us that family is more important than hockey.
(Congrats Stevie!)
Thank you for giving us hours upon hours of entertainment as we
watched your successes and your failures and shared them with you.
Thank you for being so intriguing that two years ago my father, who
lives out of state and doesn't follow hockey, was inspired to call
me just to ask what the significance of the Octopi being thrown on
the ice was.
Thank you for crossing the racial, gender, cultural, and economic
lines in Detroit and bringing the community together.
Thank you for solidifying the nickname "Hockeytown" to Detroit
where it will be a fixture for years to come.
Thank you for sparking heated debate on line changes, defensive
pairings, the in the crease rule, bad calls (yes, Deadmarsh was
offsides), good calls, strategy, tactics, winning, losing.....the
list goes on.
Thank you for inspiring my daughter so much that she now wears a
Stevie Y #19 T-shirt with pride.
Thank you for the quality time we got when a family get together was
interrupted because there was a hockey game and EVERYONE stopped to
sit together, watch, and discuss.
That said....I don't care that you went down to defeat, I don't care
that talk radio is filled with second guessing and Monday morning
quarterbacking, I don't care that your stars are being criticized
for their play, I don't care that people are calling you over-rated,
over-paid, over-hyped, I don't care that you aren't going to win
this year's Stanley Cup.
I do care that you come back and play next season.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
ST. LOUIS BLUES
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Head Coach: Joel Quenneville
Roster: C - Craig Conroy, Mike Eastwood, Michal Handzus, Jochen Hecht,
Pascal Rheaume, Pierre Turgeon. LW - Lubos Bartecko, Geoff
Courtnall, Pavol Demitra, Scott Pellerin, Michel Picard, Tony
Twist. RW - Blair Atcheynum, Kelly Chase, Terry Yake, Scott Young.
D - Jeff Finley, Rory Fitzpatrick, Al MacInnis, Chris McAlpine,
Richard Persson, Rudy Poeschek, Chris Pronger, Jamie Rivers, Brad
Shaw. G - Grant Fuhr, Jamie McLennan.
Injuries: Kelly Chase, rw (shoulder 5/5, day-to-day); Jim Campbell,
rw (groin 3/20, out rest of season); Marc Bergevin, d (pulled
abdomin muscles 4/3, out rest of season).
Transactions: None.
Game Results:
First Round vs Phoenix: Blues win 4-3
4/22 at Phoenix W 3-1
4/24 at Phoenix L 4-3 OT
4/25 Phoenix L 5-4
4/27 Phoenix L 2-1
4/30 at Phoenix W 2-1 OT
5/02 Phoenix W 5-3
5/04 at Phoenix W 1-0 OT
Second Round vs Dallas: Stars win 4-2
5/06 at Dallas L 3-0
5/08 at Dallas L 5-4 OT
5/10 Dallas W 3-2 OT
5/12 Dallas W 3-2 OT
5/15 at Dallas L 3-1
5/17 Dallas L 2-1 OT
TEAM NEWS by Tom Cooper
Game One: Spotting Them One
After giving their all in a dramatic 1-0 overtime Game Seven
against Phoenix, nobody expected the Blues to be fully rested and
ready to play their conference semifinal series against Dallas.
Add in the fact that Dallas hadn't played in a nine-day period
compared to St. Louis' one-day break, and you were almost certain
the Blues were going to be down 1-0 in the series.
Pat Verbeek and former St. Louis sniper Brett Hull each tallied
their first goals of the post-season as the President's Cup winner
Dallas Starts defeated St. Louis 3-0 to take a one game lead in
their best-of-seven series.
The Blues, who were arguably in the game until Mike Modano scored a
short-handed empty netter late, tried to capitalize on Dallas' rest,
trying to jump on them while they were rusty.
"We thought Dallas was ripe to be beaten but it looks like we're the
ones who got picked off the cherry tree," said Blues coach Joel
Quenneville. "Belfour was very sharp."
Stars goaltender Ed Belfour earned his fifth career playoff shut
out, stopping all 23 of the shots he faced.
Game Two: Spotting Them Another For Good Measure
In Game Two, the Blues showed up and made it competitive.
Unfortunately for St. Louis, so did Joe Nieuwendyk.
Nieuwendyk whipped a shot past Grant Fuhr's glove 8:22 into overtime
to give the Dallas Stars a 5-4 victory and a two- game-to-none lead
in the best-of-seven series.
"[Sergei Zubov] gave me a nice pass and I was able to take it wide
which is something I like to do," Nieuwendyk said. "I hit the
crossbar in the third period in a similar situation. This time it
went straight in."
Nieuwendyk had another puck go straight in the net to give Dallas a
2-1 lead 5:35 into the second. He also gave Jaime Langenbrunner a
hand on his goal, which opened the scoring almost eight minutes
into the game. Pavol Demitra scored twice and added an assist for
St. Louis who had a 4-3 lead after the second period, but lost it
when Jere Lehtinen tallied 4:22 into the third.
"My goals don't matter because we lost," Demitra said. "It was a
very tough game for us to lose but we have plenty of games left. It
was good to finally get some goals against them, and scoring is
what I have to do."
Grant Fuhr lost his second consecutive playoffs decision, stopping
20 of the 25 pucks he officially faced. Ed Belfour picked up
another win, stopping 30 of 34.
Game Three: Enter Demitra
Guess who showed up to the party?
Pavol Demitra, who had been "The Man" up front for the Blues after
Brett Hull split town, finally made himself noticeable. He scored
the Blues game-winning goal just 2:43 into overtime to give St.
Louis a 3-2 victory and pulling the Blues back into the series,
Although Dallas still has a 2-1 lead.
Although Demitra's prefectly happy his goal gave the Blues a win, he
extremely satisfied just to score again.
"Everybody tried to help me and I'm back," Demitra said. "I'm just
happy and I'm enjoying my time on the ice and enjoying my time with
the puck."
Mannheim, Germany, native Jochen Hecht scored his first-ever
National League goal 4:52 into the third to break a 1-1 deadlock- a
deadlock caused by Mike Eastwood's first goal of the playoffs at
2:48 of the second.
Grant Fuhr saved a Pat Verbeek shot from the slot nine minutes into
the final period. He stopped Grant Marshall, too. But he couldn't
stop Darryl Sydor, who sent the game to overtime with his virgin
goal of the post-season.
Fuhr did make a few saves during the game - 16 to be exact. None of
them came in the extra frame since the Blues outshot the Stars 4-0
in overtime. Some guy named Brett Hull scored his second of the
series to open the scoring early into the first.
Game Four: Another Series Deficit Overcome
A 3-1 deficit???? Come on, that's child play!
What about a 2-0 deficit to the league's regular season
champions???? A little more difficult.
Why not call on the same guy who polished off the come back from the
round before?
Pierre Turgeon, whose redirection in overtime of Game Seven
eliminated the once-commanding Phoenix Coyotes from the playoffs,
stole a clearing pass from Sergei Zubov and sent a puck past Ed
Belfour 5:52 into overtime to give the Blues a 3-2 victory, tying
the best-of-seven at 2-2.
"He made a great play getting through when the space was open," said
Scott Young.
The Blues had to win it in overtime because they lost another lead
early in the third. This time around, Jere Lehtinen solved Grant
Fuhr just 40 seconds into the third to knot the goal at two goals
apiece.
Pesty Geoff Courtnall gave the Blues that lead with a power-play
goal 7:41 into the second. 2:39 earlier, Jochen Hecht created a 1-1
tie with his second goal in as many playoff games.
Grant Fuhr stopped 23 of 25 shots for the win, but another shot got
past him with 5:36 to go to give Dallas a 3-2 lead- a lead that
lasted only a minute or two. Video replay judges discovered Jaime
Langenbrunner's skate was is Fuhr's crease, and that's a no-no.
Hey, Big Mac got a point. An assist on Geoff Courtnall's goal gave
him his first point since Game Six of the Phoenix series.
Game Five: Back in "Big D" Where We Started
The textbook on the St. Louis Blues has always said that you need to
score more goals than their offense can.
The Dallas Stars took that rule to heart, especially with the
opportunities presented to them by St. Louis penalties. The Stars
went 2-for-5 on the man-advantage and scored a goal while Jaime
Langenbrunner was sitting in the box to give Dallas a 3-1 victory
and push the Blues back to the brink of elimination.
Langenbrunner, Jere Lehtinen, and Joe Nieuwendyk each scored for the
Stars with Mike Modano adding two helpers. Need a number one star?
Look at Ed Belfour. "The Eagle" completely shut down the Blues in the
final 30 minutes of the game. He stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced.
Grant Fuhr only faced 16 shots, stopping 13 of them. This means the
Blues outshot Dallas 31-16...and they still lost. That's a problem.
"We generated a lot of chances on Belfour, and came up with some big
stops," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "We just weren't able to get
our hands on loose pucks in front of the net."
Game Six: Elimination Game #4
It was another game that the Blues had to win. This time their luck
ran out in the form of a former teammate.
Skating behind Grant Fuhr's goal, Brett Hull flipped a backhand at
the feet of Grant Fuhr, who was perfectly stationed at the left
post of his goal. Mike Modano slipped through the Blues defense and
started to poke away at the puck at Fuhr's feet.
He poked until he eliminated the St. Louis Blues with his fourth
goal of the postseason.
Dallas won the game 2-1 and gave them the series in six games.
But the elimination of the Notes was thanks, in a large part, to St.
Louis' former No. 16, who had two helpers on the night.
"Brett was really into the game, playing hard," Modano said. "He was
probably hungrier than anybody. He did all the grunt work."
The only Blues goal came from an Al MacInnis slapshot. It was his
first goal since 11:50 of the third period during Game Six of the
Coyotes series.
For the first time since 1995, the Blues were eliminated from the
race for Lord Stanley's Cup by a team that doesn't call the state
of Michigan home. Oh well, maybe Colorado will drop them.
That'd be cool.
================================================================
NEXT ISSUE: Wednesday, May 26
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Playoff Player Stats thru May 16
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TEAM P NO PLAYER GP G A PTS +/- PIM PP SH GW GT S PCTG
ANA R 8 Selanne, Teemu 4 2 2 4 -1 2 1 0 0 0 7 28.6
ANA L 9 Kariya, Paul 3 1 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 9.1
ANA C 20 Rucchin, Steve 4 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
ANA C 16 McInnis, Marty 4 2 0 2 -1 2 2 0 0 0 12 16.7
ANA D 2 Olausson, Fredrik 4 0 2 2 -4 4 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
ANA D 23 Marshall, Jason 4 1 0 1 -1 10 1 0 0 0 5 20.0
ANA C 39 Green, Travis 4 0 1 1 -4 4 0 0 0 0 12 0.0
ANA D 7 Trnka, Pavel 4 0 1 1 -3 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
ANA C 22 *Davidsson, Johan 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
ANA L 12 *LeClerc, Mike 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
ANA D 34 Trebil, Dan 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
ANA L 32 Grimson, Stu 3 0 0 0 0 30 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
ANA D 24 Salei, Ruslan 3 0 0 0 -4 4 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
ANA C 18 Drury, Ted 4 0 0 0 -6 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
ANA R 17 Sandstrom, Tomas 4 0 0 0 -2 4 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
ANA R 19 Nielsen, Jeff 4 0 0 0 -6 2 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
ANA D 5 Haller, Kevin 4 0 0 0 -1 2 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
ANA C 14 *Aalto, Antti 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
ANA L 33 McKenzie, Jim 4 0 0 0 -2 4 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
ANA C 11 Cullen, Matt 4 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
ANA D 4 Pushor, Jamie 4 0 0 0 -3 6 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
BOS C 41 Allison, Jason 11 2 8 10 0 6 1 0 0 0 26 7.7
BOS D 77 Bourque, Ray 11 1 8 9 1 14 0 0 0 0 40 2.5
BOS C 6 Thornton, Joe 10 2 6 8 1 4 2 0 2 0 13 15.4
BOS C 33 Carter, Anson 11 4 3 7 -2 0 1 0 1 1 27 14.8
BOS L 12 Khristich, Dmitri 11 3 4 7 1 6 0 0 1 0 18 16.7
BOS R 23 Heinze, Steve 11 3 3 6 0 0 1 0 0 0 20 15.0
BOS L 14 Samsonov, Sergei 10 3 1 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 20 15.0
BOS D 32 Sweeney, Don 10 3 0 3 3 6 1 0 0 0 15 20.0
BOS D 20 Van Impe, Darren 10 1 2 3 -3 4 1 0 0 0 18 5.6
BOS C 26 Taylor, Tim 11 0 3 3 2 8 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
BOS C 19 DiMaio, Rob 11 2 0 2 3 6 0 0 1 0 20 10.0
BOS R 27 Wilson, Landon 7 1 1 2 -3 8 1 0 1 0 11 9.1
BOS L 11 Axelsson, P.J. 11 1 1 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 17 5.9
BOS D 18 McLaren, Kyle 11 0 2 2 4 10 0 0 0 0 19 0.0
BOS D 37 Timander, Mattias 3 1 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 3 33.3
BOS L 16 Belanger, Ken 11 1 0 1 2 14 0 0 0 0 7 14.3
BOS R 10 *Mann, Cameron 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
BOS C 21 *Robitaille, Randy 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
BOS C 72 *Nickulas, Eric 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
BOS D 36 Ledyard, Grant 2 0 0 0 -1 2 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
BOS L 22 Baumgartner, Ken 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
BOS D 44 Ellett, Dave 8 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
BOS D 25 Gill, Hal 11 0 0 0 0 14 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
BOS C 17 *Bates, Shawn 11 0 0 0 -1 2 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
BUF C 27 Peca, Michael 9 3 7 10 6 12 0 1 0 0 14 21.4
BUF C 90 Juneau, Joe 8 2 6 8 -2 6 0 0 0 0 12 16.7
BUF D 5 Woolley, Jason 9 2 6 8 0 2 1 0 0 0 24 8.3
BUF R 25 Varada, Vaclav 9 3 4 7 5 6 0 0 0 0 22 13.6
BUF D 44 Zhitnik, Alexei 9 3 4 7 -2 16 3 0 2 0 29 10.3
BUF R 15 Ward, Dixon 9 3 4 7 8 10 0 0 2 0 21 14.3
BUF C 37 Brown, Curtis 9 3 3 6 2 6 3 0 2 0 15 20.0
BUF L 81 Satan, Miroslav 3 2 1 3 2 0 1 0 1 1 8 25.0
BUF C 22 Primeau, Wayne 9 1 2 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 10 10.0
BUF L 18 Grosek, Michal 9 0 3 3 -2 14 0 0 0 0 17 0.0
BUF C 19 Holzinger, Brian 9 2 0 2 0 8 1 0 0 0 12 16.7
BUF C 9 *Rasmussen, Erik 9 1 1 2 -1 4 0 0 0 0 9 11.1
BUF D 4 Warrener, Rhett 9 1 1 2 4 10 0 0 0 0 12 8.3
BUF L 80 Sanderson, Geoff 7 0 2 2 0 8 0 0 0 0 16 0.0
BUF D 3 Patrick, James 8 0 1 1 4 6 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
BUF D 74 McKee, Jay 9 0 1 1 7 10 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
BUF C 41 Barnes, Stu 9 0 1 1 -3 6 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
BUF R 46 *Sylvester, Dean 1 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
BUF R 32 Ray, Rob 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
BUF D 8 Shannon, Darryl 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
BUF L 24 Kruse, Paul 7 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
BUF D 42 Smehlik, Richard 9 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
CAR R 26 Sheppard, Ray 6 5 1 6 -2 2 1 0 1 1 23 21.7
CAR D 3 Chiasson, Steve 6 1 2 3 1 2 1 0 0 0 17 5.9
CAR L 13 Battaglia, Bates 6 0 3 3 3 8 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
CAR L 23 Gelinas, Martin 6 0 3 3 -4 2 0 0 0 0 12 0.0
CAR C 55 Primeau, Keith 6 0 3 3 -3 6 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
CAR L 18 Kron, Robert 5 2 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 10 20.0
CAR L 24 Kapanen, Sami 5 1 1 2 -2 0 0 0 0 0 8 12.5
CAR L 10 Roberts, Gary 6 1 1 2 -3 8 0 0 0 0 13 7.7
CAR R 51 Kovalenko, Andrei 4 0 2 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
CAR C 21 Francis, Ron 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
CAR D 77 Coffey, Paul 5 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
CAR C 92 O'Neill, Jeff 6 0 1 1 -5 0 0 0 0 0 11 0.0
CAR C 31 *MacDonald, Craig 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
CAR D 33 Karpa, David 2 0 0 0 -2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
CAR D 4 Pratt, Nolan 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
CAR D 5 Malik, Marek 4 0 0 0 -2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
CAR D 14 *Halko, Steve 4 0 0 0 -2 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
CAR L 28 Ranheim, Paul 6 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
CAR R 11 Dineen, Kevin 6 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
CAR D 2 Wesley, Glen 6 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 15 0.0
CAR D 7 Leschyshyn, Curtis 6 0 0 0 -3 6 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
CAR L 44 Manderville, Kent 6 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
COL C 21 Forsberg, Peter 11 4 11 15 4 23 1 1 0 0 31 12.9
COL R 14 Fleury, Theo 11 5 9 14 1 10 2 0 0 0 36 13.9
COL C 19 Sakic, Joe 11 3 10 13 -4 2 1 0 1 0 34 8.8
COL R 18 Deadmarsh, Adam 11 7 2 9 6 18 2 0 0 0 27 25.9
COL R 23 *Hejduk, Milan 11 4 5 9 2 2 1 0 3 2 27 14.8
COL R 22 Lemieux, Claude 11 2 7 9 2 20 1 0 0 0 48 4.2
COL D 8 Ozolinsh, Sandis 11 2 6 8 1 16 2 0 1 0 32 6.3
COL D 3 Miller, Aaron 11 1 3 4 10 10 0 0 0 0 18 5.6
COL C 37 *Drury, Chris 11 2 1 3 0 4 0 0 1 0 21 9.5
COL D 52 Foote, Adam 11 2 1 3 1 22 1 0 0 0 17 11.8
COL C 32 Hunter, Dale 11 1 2 3 0 32 0 0 0 0 7 14.3
COL L 13 Kamensky, Valeri 3 1 1 2 3 2 1 0 0 0 6 16.7
COL R 36 Odgers, Jeff 11 1 0 1 1 14 0 0 1 0 2 50.0
COL L 16 Rychel, Warren 8 0 1 1 1 14 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
COL L 25 Podein, Shjon 11 0 1 1 1 8 0 0 0 0 16 0.0
COL D 24 Klemm, Jon 11 0 1 1 2 6 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
COL D 7 de Vries, Greg 11 0 1 1 1 10 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
COL D 29 Messier, Eric 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
COL D 5 Gusarov, Alexei 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
COL R 12 Donovan, Shean 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
COL C 26 Yelle, Stephane 6 0 0 0 -1 4 0 0 0 0 12 0.0
COL D 2 Lefebvre, Sylvain 11 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
DAL C 9 Modano, Mike 9 3 7 10 4 2 0 1 0 0 29 10.3
DAL C 25 Nieuwendyk, Joe 9 6 3 9 3 2 2 0 3 2 33 18.2
DAL C 15 Langenbrunner, Jamie 9 4 4 8 4 8 2 0 2 0 13 30.8
DAL R 26 Lehtinen, Jere 9 5 1 6 4 2 0 1 0 0 22 22.7
DAL D 56 Zubov, Sergei 9 0 6 6 6 2 0 0 0 0 14 0.0
DAL R 22 Hull, Brett 9 2 3 5 0 4 1 0 0 0 31 6.5
DAL D 5 Sydor, Darryl 9 1 4 5 2 6 0 0 0 0 22 4.5
DAL R 29 Marshall, Grant 8 0 3 3 1 18 0 0 0 0 14 0.0
DAL C 21 Carbonneau, Guy 3 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 66.7
DAL R 12 Keane, Mike 9 2 0 2 -1 4 0 0 0 0 12 16.7
DAL R 16 Verbeek, Pat 4 1 1 2 1 4 0 0 1 0 4 25.0
DAL D 2 Hatcher, Derian 4 0 2 2 0 6 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
DAL D 24 Matvichuk, Richard 8 0 2 2 0 8 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
DAL C 33 Hogue, Benoit 9 0 2 2 0 12 0 0 0 0 16 0.0
DAL L 14 Reid, Dave 9 0 2 2 -1 10 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
DAL D 3 Ludwig, Craig 9 0 2 2 1 6 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
DAL C 41 Hrkac, Tony 2 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
DAL D 27 Chambers, Shawn 6 0 1 1 3 14 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
DAL D 37 *Lukowich, Brad 6 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
DAL R 11 *Sloan, Blake 7 0 1 1 1 6 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
DAL C 49 *Sim, Jon 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
DAL D 6 Lidster, Doug 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
DAL C 18 Plante, Derek 5 0 0 0 -1 4 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
DAL C 10 Skrudland, Brian 6 0 0 0 -1 6 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
DET C 19 Yzerman, Steve 9 9 3 12 3 0 4 0 2 0 39 23.1
DET D 5 Lidstrom, Nicklas 9 1 9 10 1 4 1 0 0 0 25 4.0
DET L 14 Shanahan, Brendan 9 3 6 9 2 6 1 0 1 0 30 10.0
DET C 91 Fedorov, Sergei 9 1 8 9 5 8 0 0 0 0 35 2.9
DET C 13 Kozlov, Vyacheslav 9 6 1 7 -1 2 3 0 0 0 28 21.4
DET L 96 Holmstrom, Tomas 9 4 3 7 3 4 2 0 1 0 23 17.4
DET L 71 Clark, Wendel 9 2 3 5 2 10 1 0 0 0 22 9.1
DET R 17 Brown, Doug 9 2 2 4 2 4 1 0 1 0 14 14.3
DET D 24 Chelios, Chris 9 0 4 4 -2 14 0 0 0 0 15 0.0
DET D 2 Samuelsson, Ulf 9 0 3 3 1 10 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
DET C 8 Larionov, Igor 6 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
DET D 55 Murphy, Larry 9 0 2 2 2 8 0 0 0 0 13 0.0
DET R 20 Lapointe, Martin 9 0 2 2 1 20 0 0 0 0 13 0.0
DET R 18 Maltby, Kirk 9 1 0 1 -2 6 0 0 1 1 12 8.3
DET D 27 Ward, Aaron 8 0 1 1 2 8 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
DET D 11 Dandenault, Mathieu 9 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 13 0.0
DET C 33 Draper, Kris 9 0 1 1 -1 4 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
DET R 25 McCarty, Darren 9 0 1 1 -2 21 0 0 0 0 14 0.0
DET D 15 Gill, Todd 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
DET L 41 Gilchrist, Brent 3 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
EDM L 94 Smyth, Ryan 3 3 0 3 -1 0 2 0 0 0 7 42.9
EDM L 18 Moreau, Ethan 4 0 3 3 3 6 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
EDM R 25 Grier, Mike 4 1 1 2 3 6 0 0 0 0 9 11.1
EDM C 26 Marchant, Todd 4 1 1 2 2 12 0 0 0 0 10 10.0
EDM L 17 Murray, Rem 4 1 1 2 -1 2 0 0 0 0 6 16.7
EDM C 39 Weight, Doug 4 1 1 2 -3 15 0 0 0 0 4 25.0
EDM R 9 Guerin, Bill 3 0 2 2 -4 2 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
EDM R 28 Selivanov, Alexander AL 2 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
EDM D 21 Smith, Jason 4 0 1 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
EDM D 24 Laflamme, Christian 4 0 1 1 -4 2 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
EDM R 10 Falloon, Pat 4 0 1 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
EDM D 5 *Poti, Tom 4 0 1 1 -3 2 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
EDM C 19 Devereaux, Boyd 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
EDM R 34 Vorobiev, Vladimir 1 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
EDM D 8 Musil, Frank 1 0 0 0 -1 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
EDM D 23 *Brown, Sean 1 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
EDM L 20 Beranek, Josef 2 0 0 0 -1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
EDM D 22 Hamrlik, Roman 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
EDM D 33 McSorley, Marty 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
EDM R 16 Buchberger, Kelly 4 0 0 0 -4 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
EDM D 44 Niinimaa, Janne 4 0 0 0 -2 2 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
EDM R 27 *Laraque, Georges 4 0 0 0 -2 2 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
EDM C 15 Kilger, Chad 4 0 0 0 -2 4 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
NJD L 16 Holik, Bobby 7 0 7 7 -1 6 0 0 0 0 21 0.0
NJD C 17 Sykora, Petr 7 3 3 6 -3 4 0 0 1 0 12 25.0
NJD R 21 McKay, Randy 7 3 2 5 1 2 0 0 1 0 16 18.8
NJD L 26 Elias, Patrik 7 0 5 5 0 6 0 0 0 0 14 0.0
NJD C 18 Brylin, Sergei 5 3 1 4 2 4 1 0 1 0 12 25.0
NJD C 25 Arnott, Jason 7 2 2 4 -3 4 1 0 0 0 12 16.7
NJD D 27 Niedermayer, Scott 7 1 3 4 -5 18 1 0 0 0 13 7.7
NJD D 4 Stevens, Scott 7 2 1 3 -2 10 2 0 0 0 14 14.3
NJD D 24 Odelein, Lyle 7 0 3 3 -1 10 0 0 0 0 12 0.0
NJD L 23 Andreychuk, Dave 4 2 0 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 7 28.6
NJD C 9 *Morrison, Brendan 7 0 2 2 -1 0 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
NJD C 14 Rolston, Brian 7 1 0 1 -1 2 0 1 0 0 15 6.7
NJD L 20 Pandolfo, Jay 7 1 0 1 -5 0 0 0 0 0 10 10.0
NJD D 2 Souray, Sheldon 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
NJD C 10 Pederson, Denis 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
NJD L 29 Oliwa, Krzysztof 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
NJD C 12 Nemchinov, Sergei 4 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
NJD R 8 *Sharifijanov, Vadim 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
NJD D 6 Bombardir, Brad 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
NJD C 19 Carpenter, Bob 7 0 0 0 -1 2 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
NJD D 3 Daneyko, Ken 7 0 0 0 3 8 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
NJD D 28 Dean, Kevin 7 0 0 0 -4 0 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
OTW R 7 Emerson, Nelson 4 1 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 8.3
OTW R 11 Alfredsson, Daniel 4 1 2 3 -1 4 1 0 0 0 13 7.7
OTW D 6 Redden, Wade 4 1 2 3 -1 2 1 0 0 0 11 9.1
OTW L 15 McEachern, Shawn 4 2 0 2 1 6 1 0 0 0 11 18.2
OTW D 33 York, Jason 4 1 1 2 -1 4 0 0 0 0 12 8.3
OTW L 18 *Hossa, Marian 4 0 2 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 11 0.0
OTW L 20 Arvedson, Magnus 3 0 1 1 -1 2 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
OTW R 10 Dackell, Andreas 4 0 1 1 -3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
OTW L 28 Donato, Ted 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
OTW C 21 Johansson, Andreas 2 0 0 0 -3 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
OTW L 9 Berg, Bill 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
OTW D 2 Pitlick, Lance 2 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
OTW D 4 Phillips, Chris 3 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
OTW C 25 Gardiner, Bruce 3 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
OTW D 29 Kravchuk, Igor 4 0 0 0 -5 0 0 0 0 0 12 0.0
OTW C 19 Yashin, Alexei 4 0 0 0 -4 10 0 0 0 0 24 0.0
OTW C 22 Van Allen, Shaun 4 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
OTW C 14 Bonk, Radek 4 0 0 0 -1 6 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
OTW D 5 *Salo, Sami 4 0 0 0 -3 0 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
OTW C 13 Prospal, Vaclav 4 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
OTW D 27 Laukkanen, Janne 4 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
PHI D 37 Desjardins, Eric 6 2 2 4 1 4 1 0 1 0 21 9.5
PHI C 17 Brind'Amour, Rod 6 1 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 19 5.3
PHI L 10 LeClair, John 6 3 0 3 0 12 2 0 0 0 15 20.0
PHI R 20 Jones, Keith 6 2 1 3 4 14 0 0 0 0 11 18.2
PHI D 25 Duchesne, Steve 6 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
PHI C 28 Bureau, Marc 6 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
PHI C 18 Langkow, Daymond 6 0 2 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
PHI L 26 Zelepukin, Valeri 4 1 0 1 1 4 0 0 1 0 5 20.0
PHI D 24 Dykhuis, Karl 5 1 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 12 8.3
PHI L 32 Berube, Craig 6 1 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 7 14.3
PHI R 9 Greig, Mark 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
PHI R 14 Andersson, Mikael 6 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
PHI R 21 McCarthy, Sandy 6 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
PHI R 19 Renberg, Mikael 6 0 1 1 -1 0 0 0 0 0 18 0.0
PHI R 11 Recchi, Mark 6 0 1 1 -1 2 0 0 0 0 18 0.0
PHI D 3 McGillis, Dan 6 0 1 1 2 12 0 0 0 0 15 0.0
PHI D 5 *Tertyshny, Dimitri 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
PHI D 2 Burt, Adam 6 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
PHI R 8 Hull, Jody 6 0 0 0 -1 4 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
PHI D 6 Therien, Chris 6 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
PHO R 11 Drake, Dallas 7 4 3 7 3 4 2 0 1 0 18 22.2
PHO R 19 Doan, Shane 7 2 2 4 4 6 0 0 2 1 17 11.8
PHO C 16 Reichel, Robert 7 1 3 4 -2 2 0 0 0 0 16 6.3
PHO L 7 Tkachuk, Keith 7 1 3 4 -4 13 1 0 0 0 22 4.5
PHO D 27 Numminen, Teppo 7 2 1 3 -5 4 2 0 0 0 18 11.1
PHO D 3 Carney, Keith 7 1 2 3 5 10 0 0 0 0 5 20.0
PHO R 22 Tocchet, Rick 7 0 3 3 -3 8 0 0 0 0 14 0.0
PHO L 29 DeBrusk, Louie 6 2 0 2 -1 6 0 0 0 0 5 40.0
PHO R 23 Leach, Steve 7 1 1 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 4 25.0
PHO C 36 Ylonen, Juha 2 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
PHO R 18 Noonan, Brian 5 0 2 2 2 4 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
PHO D 10 Tverdovsky, Oleg 6 0 2 2 3 6 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
PHO L 17 Adams, Greg 3 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 11.1
PHO C 14 Stapleton, Mike 7 1 0 1 -1 0 0 0 0 0 3 33.3
PHO R 15 Cummins, Jim 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
PHO D 24 Neckar, Stan 6 0 1 1 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
PHO C 21 Corkum, Bob 7 0 1 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
PHO D 20 Lumme, Jyrki 7 0 1 1 -2 6 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
PHO C 97 Roenick, Jeremy 1 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
PHO D 39 Tiley, Brad 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
PHO C 47 *Hansen, Tavis 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
PHO D 4 Diduck, Gerald 3 0 0 0 -1 2 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
PHO C 26 Sullivan, Mike 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
PHO D 33 Daigneault, J.J. 6 0 0 0 -1 8 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
PIT C 82 Straka, Martin 12 6 8 14 3 6 1 0 0 0 25 24.0
PIT R 27 Kovalev, Alexei 9 4 7 11 2 12 0 0 1 0 22 18.2
PIT R 68 Jagr, Jaromir 8 4 6 10 1 14 1 0 1 1 26 15.4
PIT C 9 Titov, German 10 3 5 8 7 4 0 0 0 0 15 20.0
PIT C 37 Miller, Kip 12 2 5 7 -2 19 1 0 0 0 17 11.8
PIT R 44 Brown, Rob 12 1 5 6 -2 6 1 0 0 0 11 9.1
PIT C 38 *Hrdina, Jan 12 4 1 5 -2 10 1 0 1 0 14 28.6
PIT D 4 Hatcher, Kevin 12 2 2 4 0 4 1 0 0 0 15 13.3
PIT D 71 Slegr, Jiri 12 1 2 3 0 12 0 0 1 0 16 6.3
PIT R 95 Morozov, Aleksey 10 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 13 7.7
PIT D 5 Werenka, Brad 12 1 1 2 2 4 0 0 0 0 9 11.1
PIT C 20 Lang, Robert 11 0 2 2 -3 0 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
PIT R 24 Moran, Ian 12 0 2 2 -1 8 0 0 0 0 12 0.0
PIT D 49 Andrusak, Greg 11 1 0 1 0 6 0 0 1 0 8 12.5
PIT D 8 Dollas, Bobby 12 1 0 1 -3 6 0 0 0 0 6 16.7
PIT R 25 Kesa, Dan 12 1 0 1 -2 0 1 0 1 0 5 20.0
PIT D 23 Ignatjev, Victor 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
PIT D 47 *Galanov, Maxim 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
PIT C 28 Hlushko, Todd 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
PIT C 17 *Bonin, Brian 2 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
PIT L 12 *Sonnenberg, Martin 7 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
PIT R 36 Barnaby, Matthew 12 0 0 0 -2 35 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
PIT C 29 Wright, Tyler 12 0 0 0 -2 19 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
SJS D 5 Norton, Jeff 6 0 7 7 5 10 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
SJS C 25 Damphousse, Vincent 6 3 2 5 1 6 0 2 0 0 22 13.6
SJS C 18 Ricci, Mike 6 2 3 5 1 10 1 0 0 0 9 22.2
SJS L 39 Friesen, Jeff 6 2 2 4 -1 14 1 0 0 0 20 10.0
SJS C 19 Sturm, Marco 6 2 2 4 1 4 0 0 1 0 15 13.3
SJS R 15 *Korolyuk, Alex 6 1 3 4 -3 2 0 0 1 0 7 14.3
SJS D 2 Houlder, Bill 6 3 0 3 2 4 3 0 0 0 8 37.5
SJS C 14 Marleau, Patrick 6 2 1 3 -1 4 2 0 0 0 7 28.6
SJS R 17 Murphy, Joe 6 0 3 3 0 4 0 0 0 0 21 0.0
SJS R 11 Nolan, Owen 6 1 1 2 0 6 0 0 0 0 26 3.8
SJS R 21 Granato, Tony 6 1 1 2 -1 2 0 0 0 0 5 20.0
SJS D 10 Ragnarsson, Marcus 6 0 1 1 -4 6 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
SJS L 26 Lowry, Dave 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
SJS L 37 Matteau, Stephane 5 0 0 0 -3 6 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
SJS D 27 Marchment, Bryan 6 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
SJS C 12 Sutter, Ron 6 0 0 0 -1 4 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
SJS D 3 Rouse, Bob 6 0 0 0 -1 6 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
SJS D 40 Rathje, Mike 6 0 0 0 -6 4 0 0 0 0 4 0.0
SJS R 22 Stern, Ronnie 6 0 0 0 -1 6 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
STL C 77 Turgeon, Pierre 12 4 8 12 2 4 0 0 2 2 40 10.0
STL R 48 Young, Scott 12 4 7 11 1 10 1 0 1 1 37 10.8
STL D 2 MacInnis, Al 12 3 8 11 -2 20 2 0 0 0 63 4.8
STL L 38 Demitra, Pavol 12 5 4 9 -4 4 3 0 1 1 30 16.7
STL L 14 Courtnall, Geoff 12 2 4 6 -3 8 2 0 0 0 16 12.5
STL D 44 Pronger, Chris 12 1 4 5 0 26 1 0 0 0 40 2.5
STL R 23 Atcheynum, Blair 12 1 3 4 3 6 0 0 0 0 16 6.3
STL C 22 Conroy, Craig 12 2 1 3 -1 6 0 0 0 0 18 11.1
STL R 27 Yake, Terry 12 1 2 3 -3 14 1 0 0 0 13 7.7
STL D 7 Persson, Ricard 12 0 3 3 -1 17 0 0 0 0 10 0.0
STL C 55 *Hecht, Jochen 4 2 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 14 14.3
STL D 6 Rivers, Jamie 9 1 1 2 -2 2 1 0 1 0 4 25.0
STL C 32 Eastwood, Mike 12 1 1 2 2 6 0 0 0 0 8 12.5
STL D 37 Finley, Jeff 12 1 1 2 -4 8 0 0 1 0 5 20.0
STL C 26 *Handzus, Michal 10 0 2 2 0 8 0 0 0 0 14 0.0
STL C 25 Rheaume, Pascal 5 1 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 10 10.0
STL L 33 Pellerin, Scott 8 1 0 1 -2 4 0 0 0 0 11 9.1
STL C 21 *Mayers, Jamal 10 0 1 1 -2 8 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
STL L 18 Twist, Tony 1 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
STL L 9 *Nash, Tyson 1 0 0 0 -3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
STL D 28 Shaw, Brad 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.0
STL L 56 *Bartecko, Lubos 4 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 0 0 8 0.0
STL L 34 Picard, Michel 5 0 0 0 -3 2 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
STL D 19 McAlpine, Chris 12 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 7 0.0
TOR C 13 Sundin, Mats 11 4 4 8 3 12 1 0 2 0 27 14.8
TOR R 94 Berezin, Sergei 11 4 3 7 -1 2 2 0 2 1 39 10.3
TOR L 32 Thomas, Steve 11 4 2 6 1 6 1 0 1 0 22 18.2
TOR R 16 Bohonos, Lonny 4 2 4 6 4 0 0 0 0 0 11 18.2
TOR D 34 Berard, Bryan 11 0 5 5 -7 8 0 0 0 0 14 0.0
TOR R 20 Johnson, Mike 11 3 1 4 0 2 0 0 1 0 19 15.8
TOR C 11 Sullivan, Steve 8 1 3 4 0 6 1 0 0 0 13 7.7
TOR L 7 King, Derek 11 1 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 23 4.3
TOR D 36 Yushkevich, Dimitri 11 1 3 4 3 10 1 0 0 0 13 7.7
TOR C 44 Perreault, Yanic 11 1 2 3 -5 0 0 0 1 1 8 12.5
TOR D 55 *Markov, Daniil 11 0 3 3 7 6 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
TOR D 3 Cote, Sylvain 11 1 1 2 1 6 0 0 0 0 13 7.7
TOR D 15 *Kaberle, Tomas 8 0 2 2 4 2 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
TOR L 10 Valk, Garry 11 0 2 2 -2 16 0 0 0 0 9 0.0
TOR C 21 *Mair, Adam 3 1 0 1 0 12 0 0 0 0 1 100.0
TOR C 42 *Adams, Kevyn 1 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
TOR D 33 McAllister, Chris 6 0 1 1 -1 4 0 0 0 0 2 0.0
TOR R 28 Domi, Tie 9 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
TOR L 12 King, Kris 11 0 1 1 0 13 0 0 0 0 6 0.0
TOR D 2 Eakins, Dallas 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
TOR R 22 Korolev, Igor 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
TOR R 39 *Kohn, Ladislav 1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
TOR L 19 Modin, Fredrik 7 0 0 0 -1 4 0 0 0 0 11 0.0
TOR D 52 Karpovtsev, Alexander A 8 0 0 0 -5 8 0 0 0 0 5 0.0
TOR L 8 Warriner, Todd 9 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 12 0.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Playoff Goaltender Stats thru May 16
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TM NO GOALTENDER GPI MINS AVG W L T EN SO GA SA SPCT G A PIM
ANA 31 Hebert, Guy 4 208 4.33 0 3 0 0 0 15 124 .879 0 0 0
BOS 34 Dafoe, Byron 11 709 1.95 6 5 0 1 2 23 309 .926 0 0 2
BUF 39 Hasek, Dominik 9 550 1.75 7 2 0 1 2 16 283 .943 0 0 4
BUF 30 Roloson, Dwayne 1 19 3.16 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 .875 0 0 0
CAR 1 Irbe, Arturs 6 408 2.21 2 4 0 1 0 15 181 .917 0 0 0
COL 33 Roy, Patrick 11 676 2.40 7 4 0 1 1 27 371 .927 0 2 2
COL 1 Billington, Craig 1 9 6.67 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 .833 0 0 0
DAL 20 Belfour, Ed 9 614 1.76 7 2 0 0 1 18 239 .925 0 0 2
DET 30 Osgood, Chris 5 300 1.80 4 1 0 0 1 9 141 .936 0 0 0
DET 38*Maracle, Norm 2 58 3.10 0 0 0 0 0 3 22 .864 0 0 0
DET 40 Ranford, Bill 4 183 3.28 2 2 0 0 1 10 105 .905 0 0 0
EDM 35 Salo, Tommy 4 296 2.23 0 4 0 0 0 11 149 .926 0 0 0
NJD 30 Brodeur, Martin 7 425 2.82 3 4 0 1 0 20 139 .856 0 2 2
OTW 1 Rhodes, Damian 2 150 2.40 0 2 0 0 0 6 65 .908 0 0 0
OTW 31 Tugnutt, Ron 2 118 3.05 0 2 0 0 0 6 41 .854 0 0 0
PHI 34 Vanbiesbrouck, John 6 369 1.46 2 4 0 0 1 9 146 .938 0 0 2
PHO 35 Khabibulin, Nikolai 7 449 2.41 3 4 0 1 0 18 236 .924 0 0 2
PIT 35 Barrasso, Tom 12 725 2.57 6 6 0 1 1 31 320 .903 0 0 4
SJS 29 Vernon, Mike 5 321 2.43 2 3 0 0 0 13 172 .924 0 1 0
SJS 31 Shields, Steve 1 60 6.00 0 1 0 0 0 6 36 .833 0 0 0
STL 29 McLennan, Jamie 1 37 0.00 0 1 0 1 0 0 7 1.000 0 0 6
STL 31 Fuhr, Grant 12 727 2.39 6 5 0 1 1 29 276 .895 0 1 2
TOR 31 Joseph, Curtis 11 671 1.70 7 4 0 3 1 19 285 .933 0 0 2
Stats provided by Brad Murray. To subscribe to the free NHL boxscore or
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