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Saturday, October 31, 1998
Avs' slide prompted deal
So Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix dealt his son to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday for left-winger Roman Vopat and a sixth-round draft pick.
"When you start struggling, people start to look for answers," Lacroix told the Rocky Mountain News. "The situation was a little distraction and then became a bigger distraction.
"I started asking what would be better for the team? What should I do? I came to the conclusion that I should go."
Pierre Lacroix acquired his son in June of 1996 from the Kings, along with a first-round draft pick.
"When you are 1-5-1 ... little things sometimes become a bigger distraction," said the GM. "Eric came to me after talking to his teammates and told me it was starting to be uncomfortable and for the best of the club and the best of Eric Lacroix, he should go."
Eric, pointless in seven games, said he didn't sense resentment from his teammates.
"Most guys liked me," he said. "Whether I'm naive or not, I don't know."
RANFORD'S POKE CHECKED: Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Bill Ranford's goal to play 600 career games was nearly derailed Wednesday when he was poked in the eye with a stick. Ranford suffered a scratched cornea and blurred vision when teammate Jassen Cullimore's stick became lodged in his facemask during a goal-mouth scramble in a 5-3 loss to Anaheim.
"It's a big deal for me to play in 600 games because there aren't too many guys who can say they've done that," Ranford told the Tampa Tribune. "But when I was skating off the ice, I was a lot more worried about my eye than any game."
Ranford's vision was back to normal on Thursday and he could play No. 600 tonight in San Jose.
SHARKS PANIC: The Colorado Ava-lanche's poor performance so far this season has been the talk of the NHL, but the Avalanche can at least take solace in not being the 0-6-2 San Jose Sharks.
San Jose is the only team in the league without a victory.
"We'd better start panicking," Sharks left-winger Dave Lowry told the San Francisco Chronicle.
STARS SHINE ON POWERPLAY: All but six of the Dallas Stars goals this season have come on the powerplay.
And while the Stars can enjoy their 27.1% powerplay (second in the NHL), their ability to score at even strength is a concern as they are averaging less than a goal per game five-on-five.
"It's like when you're playing the game of golf," winger Pat Verbeek told the Dallas Morning News. "You could be hitting your drives well, you could be hitting your irons well, but your putting stinks."
"It hasn't hurt us yet, but we can't continue to do this because somewhere down the line, the power play is not going to produce as much as it is now. We're going to have to pull ourselves up in that area."