Inside the NHL
Posted: Tuesday November 03, 1998 05:46 PM
Elusive Goals | Beginning of
a Legacy? | Referees Have Fathers Too
The Heat's On | In the Crease
By Kostya Kennedy Elusive Goals
The league's moves to promote
more scoring haven't done the trick  When NHL higher-ups decided
during the off-season to reconfigure the ice surface, place stricter
regulations on the size of goaltenders' equipment and reaffirm their
dedication to calling obstruction penalties, they did so with visions of
red lights flashing in their heads. After all, the league was spooked last
season by its 5.3 goals per game average (the lowest in 42 years), a
scoring pace that was often as enjoyable to witness as watching ice melt.
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No amount of tinkering with the rules of the game can generate new marksmen like Jagr. Todd Warshaw/Allsport | Through Sunday, however, goals were down to 4.9 per game this season,
and an all-points bulletin went out for snipers. "After the changes people
expected 8-7 games," says Senators left wing Shawn McEachern, "but it's the
same guys this season who were playing last year." Those guys include
longtime minor leaguers whose numbers have steadily increased as the NHL
has expanded from 21 to 27 teams over the past seven years. Many of them
have speed and defensive ability, but they couldn't slip the puck past a
slumbering dormouse. No hockey skill is as precious as a scorer's touch,
which requires a mix of quickness, precision and calm calculation in the
milliseconds before a shot is unleashed. You don't find lamplighters in the
minors. Today, for every proven finisher, there are several lines' worth of
hardworking guys who make their bread playing defense. "Of course
expansion dilutes the number of highly skilled players," says Kings general
manager Dave Taylor. "There are only so many to go around." Los Angeles is
one of several teams expected to have winning seasons despite the lack of a
bona fide sniper.
The off-season tinkerings haven't gone for naught, however. Games have
better flow, and several teams are weaning themselves off the trap and
taking advantage of the added room behind the net to force the action with
forechecking. Though shots per game are virtually unchanged from last
season at this time—just under 55 for both teams—scoring chances
have increased. "It's more exciting than it was," says Penguins right wing
Jaromir Jagr, who through Sunday led the league with 15 points. "Maybe
because they're calling penalties more, and there's more space behind the
net."
The changes have helped the game. Unfortunately the new rules can't make
scorers out of scrappers. Back to
the top Beginning of
a Legacy? Manny Legace, a 5'9",
165-pound, orange-haired goalie for the Kings who could pass for Richie
Cunningham's chubby little brother, is experiencing some of the happiest
days of his life. At week's end Legace, who was expected to spend this
season playing for Los Angeles's IHL affiliate in Long Beach, had appeared
in seven NHL games and had amassed the league's second-best save percentage
(.955) and fifth-best goals-against average (1.49). When teammate and
Norris Trophy winner Rob Blake stopped by his locker after a 1-0 loss last
week against the Islanders to say "Good game," Legace grinned with wondrous
glee. "What a rush," he said. "Am I really here?"
His name is pronounced LEG-uh-see, and his NHL legacy is not yet three
weeks old. He was summoned from the minors after Los Angeles goalies
Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr suffered groin injuries in a 5-5 tie with
the Avalanche on Oct. 18. Legace made his debut three days later and
stopped 49 shots—the most saves for a debuting goalie in the last 20
years—in a 1-1 standoff with the Panthers. In his next game he was
bowled over by Lightning center Darcy Tucker and suffered a mild
concussion. "That is the only highlight I've seen of myself," says Legace.
"Me getting hurt." Legace beat the Hurricanes 3-2 on Oct. 25 for his
first win, and opponents are still trying to take his measure. "I'd like to
know who he is," said Islanders right wing Mariusz Czerkawski after Legace
stopped all four of his shots and 33 of New York's 34 in that 1-0 victory
on Oct. 27. "Where's he from?" The short answer is that Legace, 25, was
acquired from the Hurricanes in July for a conditional draft pick. Though
he suffered in the eyes of scouts because of his size, he was named the
best goalie in the AHL in 1995-96 while playing for the Springfield
Falcons. Before that he was the backup netminder for Team Canada in the
1994 Olympics. Legace may be sent back to the minors when Fiset and
Storr return to action, but he has fine lateral movement and positions
himself well, talents that combined with his early success, led Kings
general manager Dave Taylor to muse last week, "Who knows? Maybe Manny will
be around for a while." Back to
the top Referees
Have Fathers Too It must be tough for
a man whose work subjects him to so much name-calling to bring his dad to
the office. Yet there was Hilton Fraser, father of 46-year-old Kerry
Fraser, the NHL's most experienced referee, perched in the press box at
Nassau Coliseum as his son officiated an Islanders-Kings game last week.
Hilton, an avid seafarer who has navigated across the oceans in a sailboat,
has ruddy, weathered skin, and with his cropped white beard he bears strong
resemblance to a more famous Papa—Ernest Hemingway. In 1963 Hilton
launched Kerry's career when, while serving as head of officiating for an
amateur league in Sarnia, Ont., he hired Kerry, then all of 11, as a ref.
Last week Hilton snapped photos of his boy with a pocket-sized camera,
extolled the NHL's experiment with a two-referee system—"It cuts down
on Kerry's skating," he said—and was unfazed when the crowd began
chanting, "Fraser sucks" after it thought he had missed a call. Said
Hilton, "I only hope he doesn't make a bad call that I can see from
here—the kind that makes me say, 'Oh, Kerry, you've blown that one.'"
Back to the
top The Heat's On
Alexandre Daigle, Flyers RW
No, we're not talking about reports that he was dumped by Pamela Anderson.
But Daigle, who was the No. 1 pick in 1993 but failed miserably in Ottawa,
has been just as disappointing in Philadelphia since being acquired by the
Flyers last January. At week's end he had only one goal and was -2 this
season, and coach Roger Neilson had been forced to shuffle him between
lines to try to get some production. Back to the top Issue date:
November 9, 1998
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