Saturday, January 12, 2002
Salt Lake shakeup
By MIKE ZEISBERGER -- Toronto Sun
Attention Olympic coaches -- make sure you write in your tentative lineups in pencil, not ink.
You might be making a lot of changes in the five remaining weeks leading to the Salt Lake Winter games, if this past week was any indication.
At the beginning of the week, there was a legitimate chance that Peter Forsberg (Team Sweden), Mario Lemieux (Team Canada) and Pavel Bure (Team Russia) -- three of the best players in the world -- would compete in Utah. Forsberg (ankle) looked to rejoin the Colorado Avalanche, Lemieux (hip/back) aimed to return to the Pittsburgh Penguins lineup on Tuesday and Bure finally was becoming accustomed to Florida Panthers coach Mike Keenan's system.
Now there is the possibility that none will play in Salt Lake.
The announcement on Thursday that Forsberg needed further surgery on his left foot and will be out another four months sent shockwaves around the league.
"When you lose one of the top performers in the game, of course it hurts," Team Sweden goalie Tommy Salo of the Edmonton Oilers said.
Lemieux delayed his return and instead will be back this afternoon when the Pens host the St. Louis Blues in Pittsburgh. Question marks concerning Magnificent Mario's health continue to swirl, and Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky said team officials are monitoring the situation. Should Lemieux or another Canadian player be scratched because of injury, sizzling Joe Thornton of the Boston Bruins waits in the wings.
Bure, meanwhile, broke his left hand Wednesday against the Dallas Stars and will not know whether he can suit up for Russia until later this month. Bure said hand specialist John McAuliffe of the Cleveland Clinic in Fort Lauderdale has told him he wants to see him in 10-14 days for a re-evaluation.
"Right now it's just a fracture, it's not dislocated," Bure said. "He told me there's still a possibility it could dislocate, and if it does, I'll have to have surgery and I'll be out a long time."
BITTER BELFOUR
The Ed Belfour-Ken Hitchcock saga in Dallas continued yesterday when the Stars coach announced that Marty Turco would start today in Detroit against the Red Wings. Hitchcock wants to see how Turco handles a hostile environment, but said Belfour remains No. 1 and will play against the Minnesota Wild and Detroit next week. That was little consolation to Belfour, who said he was "disappointed." Question is, will this unstable relationship be settled by Salt Lake, where Hitchcock will be an assistant coach for Team Canada and Belfour one of the three goalies?
For the record, Turco has won his past seven decisions. He has an 8-3-1 record, a .2.06 GAA and a .923 save percentage. Belfour numbers are 12-14-6, 2.67 and .896.
ALPO'S BACK
Former Maple Leafs assistant Alpo Suhonen has taken over as coach of HIFK Helsinki. Suhonen stepped down as the coach of the Chicago Blackhawks last season because of alleged health concerns, but most observers suspected that was just the explanation provided by the Hawks so they could make a change without firing him.
For the record, his heart condition is good, say doctors. HIFK was 10th in the standings before Alpo took over.
HAWK TALK
The Hawks' success is forcing general manager Mike Smith to change course for the rest of the season. Smith said this week that Tony Amonte probably won't be traded because of how things are going and that the Hawks now figure to be active up to the trade deadline looking to boost their chances down the stretch. It was on Dec. 17 that Smith first said he would trade Amonte if the right deal came along.
"I'll say this, and I've sort of felt this way all year, the better the team and the better year we're having the less chance there is of us trading Tony," Smith said.
BEREZIN'S BLUES
Former Leaf Sergei Berezin had just six goals and eight assists in 36 games for the Phoenix Coyotes, drawing criticism from Phoenix coach Bob Francis. Francis recently made Berezin a healthy scratch.
"He's not scoring," said Francis of Berezin, who had just three power-play points despite getting first-unit duty. "And when you're not scoring, you've got to make sure you're doing things properly in other areas. We all go through it. There has been some pretty good players who had some time taken away from them and they responded, so the burden is on him to respond, too."
CROSS CHECKS
St. Louis Blues' Pavol Demitra put on a visor after suffering a serious eye injury last season and wonders if teammate Scott Young will now opt for a shield as well. Young, who does not wear a visor, was clipped in the eye this week and underwent immediate surgery. "I saw (Young) when came by the bench and you could see blood and it was around his eye," Demitra said. "It's a very scary thing." ... Atlanta Thrashers goalie Damian Rhodes has won only two games this season (2-10-1) and both have come over the Ottawa Senators, his former team ... Buffalo Sabres forward Miro Satan, the team's alleged sniper, has not scored in 13 games.
DASTARDLY DUDS I
ESPN this week ran a poll of the most forgettable hockey uniforms of all time. The results:
10. Capitals, 1974-75 red jerseys, white pants
9. Colorado Rockies, 1976-1982
8. Rangers, crested uniform, 1976-1978
7. Canucks, green and blue, 1970-1978
6. California/Oakland Seals, 1967-1976
5. Kings, all purple (road) and all gold (home), 1970s
4. Mighty Ducks, third jersey (Wild Wing) from 1995-96
3. Whalers/Flyers, Cooperalls, early 1980s
2. Islanders, fisherman logo, mid-1990s
1. Canucks, giant multi-coloured "V", 1978-1985
DASTARDLY DUDS II
While some of those aforementioned duds admittedly were brutal, we wonder why the NHL and a handful of its member teams did not learn from those past mistakes when coming up with some of the horrendous third jerseys on display this season. Here are a number of those which we find particularly annoying.
l Predators: Mustard jerseys? Where did the inspiration for adopting that irritating colour come from - the bathrooms at the local municipal swimming pool?
l Bruins: Take a team with one of the classiest looks in league history, dress them in fluorescent yellow, then put a bear logo on the front that suspiciously resembles the one on the Kraft peanut butter label.
l Avs: A blase maroon jersey with "Colorado" sloppily printed on the front. Looks like it took all of 30 seconds to design this thing. We've seen classier house-league jerseys.
l Sabres: When decked out in all-red, they look exactly like Carolina. Too bad they can't play as well as the Hurricanes.
DASTARDLY DUDS III
The garb sported by a number of teams -- notably a pair of recent newcomers on the scene, the Predators and Thrashers, are poor no matter which jerseys they decide to wear.
But the public obviously does not feel the same way about the look of another expansion team, the Minnesota Wild.
According to the Sports and Business Journal, the Wild now ranks No. 1 in the NHL in jersey sales.
In addition, it's No. 2 in the United States in overall product sales behind the Detroit Red Wings.
And the Wild is No. 3 in North America in overall product sales behind Detroit and the Maple Leafs.
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
