March 2004

Around The NHL
By Anthony Mingioni

Philadelphia Flyers Report
Wham, Bam, Zham!

Those injury problems we talked about last month? Yeah, it’s gotten worse.

The Philadelphia Flyers have suffered enough serious injuries in a three- week stretch that it caused a series of more personnel moves by general manager Bob Clarke.

This month’s injury woes started with Robert Esche who had all taken over the number job from Jeff Hackett. He suffered a grade two sprain to the MCL of his left knee in a 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That precipitated Trader Bob’s first major move of the month at the All Star Break, sending center Mike Comrie to the Phoenix Coyotes for goaltender Sean Burke, right winger Branko Radivojevic, and the rights to unsigned forward prospect Ben Eager.

Ironically the reason for sending Comrie away after such a short stint was that the Flyers had enough center depth with the return of Claude Lapointe and the emergence of Patrick Sharp.

Burke started well for the Flyers in his first two outings against the New York Rangers, but his play, and that of the team in front of him, drastically fell off, leaving him with a goals against average of 3.51 and a save percentage of .888 after six games.

"My job is to stop the puck," Burke said. "All I can do is go out and work hard. If I don’t give the effort, then I’ll go right behind them and boo myself. I’m a big boy, I can handle it."

Then came a span of 32 seconds at Madison Square Garden that drastically altered the Flyers’ roster for the remainder of the season.

On February 12, a hard shot from the left point struck All-Star center Jeremy Roenick on the left side of his jaw, shattering it and leaving him with the ninth concussion of his career. He is out indefinitely.

Ironically, captain Keith Primeau helped Roenick off the ice and when play resumed, he collided with Rangers’ center Bobby Holik’s shoulder coming through the zone, suffering his own concussion.

Philadelphia was able to make it through their weekend with 2-1 and 6-1 victories, with tremendous efforts by the newly-formed Michal Handzus line, with Mark Recchi and John LeClair on the wings and Sharp, who scored twice in the later game.

Their lack of center depth caught up to them during the week of Feb 15, as they lost back to back against the San Jose Sharks and Lightning by 5-2 scores. This prompted Clarke to talk to the Chicago Blackhawks about Alexei Zhamnov, their erstwhile captain who was more than aware that his team was shopping him.

Just before the Flyers’ third loss in a row to the Boston Bruins, Clarke sent defenseman Jim Vandermeer, prospect Colin Fraser and a second round draft pick to the ‘Hawks in exchange for Zhamnov and a fourth-round selection.

It was the first time this season that the Flyers increased their payroll, lifting it to the $63 million mark and doing so with the blessing of chairman Ed Snider.

"Zhamnov is extremely talented offensively and defensively," Clarke said in announcing the trade. "He’s a very top level center ice man who makes the people who play with him better."

"I think you worry about what you are giving up," said Clarke, "but you don’t get a player like Zhamnov without giving something up. We’ve got enough defensemen we think that can compensate for the loss of Jimmy."

Roenick, Primeau Update

Both of the Flyers’ concussed All-Star forwards are at their respective homes recovering.

Roenick is at his summer home in Phoenix and stated that he felt better for the first time since his injury. He received further good news when an initial brain stem analysis showed no brain damage. If the second analysis confirms this, then Roenick will be cleared to work on recovery from his concussion, once his jaw is healed enough.

Primeau was at the Flyers Skate Zone practice facility on Feb 24. It is anticipated that he will be out for another three weeks.

Washington Capitals Report
"Operation Salary Dump" Claims Bondra, Lang.

It’s truly a sad thing, seeing a franchise jettison its top players while other teams circle over them like buzzards.

But the Washington Capitals have no choice. What makes it sad is that at least they managed to acquire a NHL player in Anson Carter when they dealt Jaromir Jagr last month. This time, they dealt long-time sniper Peter Bondra to the Ottawa Senators for prospect Brooks Laich and a pair of draft picks.

They followed that with a deal with the Detroit Red Wings for top scorer Robert Lang, acquiring juniors prospect Tomas Fleischmann, one of the Western Hockey League’s leading scorers and a first round pick in 2004 and a sixth rounder in 2006

"We could not have asked for more from Robert Lang over the past two seasons, general manager George McPhee said. "We consider him as the best free-agent signing in the team's history. We have given Robert a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup while adding a good young player and two valuable draft choices to our organization."

One train of thought is that the Capitals are preparing for the future by stockpiling picks to restock a barren farm system.

The other, more pragmatic, thought is that the Capitals are fighting for their future as a franchise and that with the hope of ‘cost certainty’ in the next collective bargaining agreement, they can again be competitive.

Of the two players, Bondra’s loss is the most keenly felt, both by the player and the organization. The team’s all-time leading scorer openly wept at his final press conference as a Capital.

"I grew up here. I grew up as a player. I grew up as a person," Bondra said in an emotional farewell appearance Wednesday in the Capitals locker room. "I have to understand that I have to move on."

"We're supposed to be big, tough guys, but there were a lot of tears this morning," McPhee said. "We thought it was best for Peter. We worked harder to find the best place for him to play. Peter didn't want to leave. This wasn't something management and ownership wanted to do."

The trade of Lang made financial and logistical sense.

Lang was originally brought in to be a supplement for Jagr, a center who could feed his fellow Czech mate the puck. While he never seemed to develop the chemistry with Jagr in Washington like they did as Pittsburgh Penguins, it seemed like money wasted.

That said, Lang came into his own this season as a top level scorer in the league at the age of 33, making him an exceptional trading commodity even though the Caps couldn’t pry an NHL player for.

With the press-time moving of Sergei Gonchar to Boston, the Caps could be at the end of their fire sale, although goalie Olaf Kolzig shouldn’t unpack any travel bags he may have loaded up already.

The white flag had been run up in DC long before these moves, but now hockey in Washington this season is officially dead. The hope is that it won’t be for the long term.

New York Rangers Report
Slats Steps Down

With his team on the verge of missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, Glen Sather decided to step away from coaching after meeting with team owner James Dolan.

He will stay with the Blueshirts as their president and general manager. Assistant coach Tom Renney takes over for Sather and fellow assistants Terry O’Reilly and Ted Green will remain on the staff.

"There were several reasons why I decided to do this," Sather said. "One is we’ve got a couple of weeks left before the trading deadline and this will give me an opportunity to concentrate on other duties that are involved in this job. The other thing is to get some kind of reaction out of the team so they’ll play a little harder and a little smarter in the remaining games."

The team certainly seemed like they got a spark in their initial game under Renney, winning 6-3 over their cross town rivals, the Islanders, whom they are pursuing for the eighth and final playoff berth.

As Breakaway! reported last month, the chants of "Fire Sather!" were ringing down on the team with vicious regularity, causing distraction for the players.

"They seemed to get uptight," Sather said. "You hear something like that as soon as you make a mistake, and instead of getting better, you get worse."

Sather might not have escaped the wrath of the New York faithful simply by stepping upstairs. Moving Alexei Kovalev is one thing, but the trading of Brian Leetch to Toronto for two draft picks and two prospects years away from the NHL couldsour fans on the team even more. They’ll be looking for signs that Leetch, still one of the league’s best defensemen and one of the greatest Rangers of all time, was not lost in vain.

New Jersey Devils Report
Marty the Magnificent

We’ve called Martin Brodeur the "Roy-apparent" in the past. We may have to scrap that for a better tag line.

After all, his numbers are making that statement a reality. With an 8-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Feb 25, Brodeur has nine consecutive 30 win seasons, more than all-time statistical leaders Patrick Roy and Terry Sawchuk.

"I’m proud of it," Brodeur said. "It means a lot because it’s all about durability, consistency, and longevity. These are things that I pride myself on."

Brodeur's consistency has been nothing short of amazing. He started with 34 wins during the 1995-96 season, followed by 37, 43, 39, 43, 42, 38 and 41.

The frightening part of Brodeur’s run is that he is only in his early thirties. He can set a mark for thirty win seasons that may eventually rank up in the pantheon of sporting achievements that are untouchable, such as Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak.

The mark that Brodeur is really eyeing is the 1,000 games played mark.

"I was talking to Patrick (Roy) a couple of years ago and he was talking about playing a thousand games as a goalie. And I thought 'Yeah, that really is something!' And he got there. So a thousand games, if I stay healthy and everything goes well, is something I'd like to achieve before I'm through."

That said, Brodeur has only one thing in mind when he goes between the pipes.

"All the other stats, goals-against (average) and save percentage, are great for people to analyze and kick around. But only one stat really interests me. Wins. Being a good goalie means making a difference, and whether that difference comes as a key save in a 5-4 game or a 1-0 game is irrelevant. We're in this; I'm in this, to win."

NewYork Islanders Report
Yashin, Parrish on the Mend

It seems like forever since we last saw Alexei Yashin, but before too long, he will return to help the Islanders lock up a third consecutive playoff berth.

The Islanders' star center practiced on Feb 23 with his teammates for the first time since an in-game accident on Dec 23, when the skate blade of Philadelphia's Michal Handzus sliced through Yashin's right forearm.

Yashin’s damaged tendons and nerve are repaired through surgery and rehabilitation. He spent much of the practice shooting into a net, hoping to regain the form and the shot that made him a feared player.

"My shot is still weak . . . it takes time to get it back," Yashin said to Newsday. "I've tried to work with the doctors and the coaches to make sure I can handle the puck as quickly as possible and get some shots."

"Will he be able to snap it as hard as he could? Maybe not, but if he can only do it at 95 percent with the way he shoots the puck, then 95 percent is better than a lot of guys in this league, so it still will be pretty good," Islanders coach Steve Stirling said.

The Islanders were able to stay afloat in the playoff race despite the loss of Yashin and Mark Parrish, two of the Islanders' best offensive players.

"I just don't want to mess things up. They're playing so well without me and Yash, I'm not so sure they're looking forward to having us back," Parrish joked about his teammates.