Joe Thornton is the future. The only question is whether his future includes a February trip to Salt Lake City.
Though he is currently second in the league in scoring behind Jarome Iginla, Thornton is not on the Canadian Olympic roster. While his numbers were good in the first 10 weeks of the season, Thornton's improved play has brought him into the realm of the game’s elite scorers. He has lit it up for 19 points in his 14 games since Christmas, and now has 19 goals and 33 assists in 49 games.
Yet because of a Dec. 22 deadline for the big six nations to submit their Olympic rosters, Thornton isn’t on Canada’s list.
So with two weeks off coming up in the middle of February, there are a myriad of possibilities for Thornton to spend his time. He will have time to go see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new movie Collateral Damage. Or maybe he could settle into his recliner and catch up on his prime-time television.
Don’t bet on it. Thornton will be in Salt Lake City come hell or high water. Team Canada would have egg on its face if Thornton is leading the NHL in scoring at the Olympic break, but not donning a Canadian sweater at the Games. Though Wayne Gretzky and the Canadian team brass are saying they won’t pull someone off the roster, if no one gets legitimately injured, a minor injury could be embellished.
Thornton is sure to be the first forward on the call list if Mario Lemieux or Eric Lindros aggravate their injuries, or if Theo Fleury needs time off to deal with his personal problems.
“I'd play fourth-line wing if they asked,” Thornton told the London Free Press. “I'd go as waterboy.”
That would be one intimidating waterboy. A burly 6-4, 220-pound center who was the No. 1 pick in the 1997 draft, Thornton had flourished this season after getting a big confidence boost while playing under Mike Keenan last season. Thornton has a complete array of skills which make him among the prototypes when you think of the ideal forward of the future.
It's a future that should include some Olympic glory.
Leafs left behind For a team with aspirations of its first Cup in 35 years, Toronto is playing some lackadaisical hockey. The Leafs have lost three in a row (including defeats at the hands of lowly Atlanta and Nashville) and are just 4-6-2-1 since Christmas. The Flyers and Bruins have shot past the Leafs for the top spot in the East, and a tough road trip awaits Toronto with games at Calgary on Tuesday, at Vancouver on Friday and at Edmonton on Saturday.
Vision quest It’s hard to force multimillionaires to do anything, but it’s time to institute a rule mandating all players wear visors. Two teams have been surprisingly affected more than other by eye injures: the Blues and Maple Leafs. St. Louis has watched Pavol Demitra, Al MacInnis and Scott Young all suffered eye injuries in the past several weeks. Demitra and MacInnis are now sporting visors and Young will do so when he returns. Toronto’s Mats Sundin and Gary Roberts each have had close encounters, but plan to ditch their visors when the swelling disappears. Seems pretty shortsighted for two guys who watched Bryan Berard crumple to the ice less than two years ago after taking a stick to the eye.
The Olympics got this half right by saying players born in 1975 or later must wear visors. What, the eyes of someone born in 1974 or earlier aren’t as valuable as those born in the past 26 years? The NHL claims it can’t mandate the wearing of visors without the consent of the NHLPA. Well, it’s time for the Players’ Association to step up and protect its players.
N.Y. Rangers @ N.Y. Islanders -- Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST Round 3 of the Big Apple Battle takes place on Long Island, where the Rangers won 6-2 in their first meeting on Nov. 8. The two New York teams are a combined 5-11-1-1 in the new year, and pity for the Rangers that none of those five wins are theirs.
St. Louis @ Buffalo -- Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST Not exactly a lot of history between these two teams or an epic rivalry to speak of, but the Blues will be looking to extend their team-record winning streak to 10 games. And considering that Buffalo is a mediocre 12-10-3 at home while St. Louis is 9-8-5-2 on the road, a double-digit win streak isn’t out of the question.
Boston @ Ottawa -- Thursday, 7 p.m. EST The exciting and suddenly high-scoring Northeast Division features one of the top battles for playoff positioning. The Sens trail the Bruins by five, with the Leafs sitting in between them. Boston is 2-1 against Ottawa this season, including a 5-2 drubbing in Beantown on Jan. 17.
Florida @ Carolina -- Sunday, 8 p.m. EST It's the triumphant return of Sandis Ozolinsh to the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena. A more exciting subplot may be to see if Mike Keenan sends one of his six bruisers with more than 100 PIM after 'Canes center Kevyn Adams, who dropped an expletive on his former head coach in his last game in South Florida.
Plus: Petr Sykora
The Devils’ formerly vaunted “A Line” has been more like the “C-minus Line” this season. But Sykora is showing signs of life after a slow start. Sykora has scored eight goals in the past nine games after scoring just two in the 14 games prior to that. A little consistency would be nice if New Jersey is going to get it together for a playoff run.
Minus: All-Star Game
The NHL’s midseason classic has become a midseason joke. The players don’t want to play in it and fans don’t want to see 26 goals scored in a game. The league made a mistake by keeping the game in an Olympic year. The North America-World format was designed to generate interest in the Olympics, but with the NHL’s participation up in the air for the 2006 Games, the East-West format (or better yet, the Campbell-Wales format) should be brought back starting next year.
Plus: Donald Brashear
It may just be a coincidence, but the Flyers are 14-2 since dealing Jan Hlavac to Vancouver for Brashear. The burly enforcer beat up Tie Domi twice Saturday night, exacting revenge for Domi’s criticism of Brashear’s post-fight hand-wiping earlier this season.
Minus: Ken Daneyko
No one is pleased when they are made a healthy scratch, but a veteran leader with diminishing skills like Daneyko should know better than to snipe at management about it. The Devils’ defense has been terrible in front of Martin Brodeur and New Jersey needs to give young guys like Mike Commodore and Andrei Zyuzin more ice time to improve for the future.
Plus: Atlanta Thrashers
The Thrashers are 4-1-1 in their past six, thanks to continued great play by their two star rookies and steady netminding from Milan Hnilicka in the face of a continue barrage of shots (189 in past five games). And when did Pascal Rheaume turn into Cam Neely in front of the net? After scoring 23 goals in his first 154 games, Rheaume burned the sorry Panthers for four Saturday.
”It was unanimously agreed that this was a positive test but not a doping infraction, that sports bodies must be very careful not to interfere with the good and proper treatment of injured athletes by competent medical specialists, and that, at all times, we must be fair and reasonable in dealing with our athletes so that they can support our efforts to keep our sport drug-free.”
-- The Internatioal Ice Hockey Federation, in announcing on Monday that Canucks defeseman Matias Ohlund would be allowed to participate in the Winter Olympics despite a positive test for the banned drug Acetazolamide after a random test Dec. 11.
"That dumb [expletive] Alfredsson. He says he won't play in the All-Star Game so he is ready for the Olympics. Maybe he should say he won't play in the [expletive] Olympics so he'll win a Stanley Cup. It's the NHL who is paying his salary. That angers me when a player does that. Come over from Sweden and make a great living and not want to play in the All-Star Game. It bothers me when guys do that."
-- Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke, denouncing Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson’s desire to skip the All-Star Game, which he ultimately wasn’t selected to play in.
"I think if [Clarke] knew the circumstances, he wouldn't be making comments like that. That's all I'm going to say about it. I'm not going to get into that. I'm not worried about what he thinks.”
-- Alfredsson responding to Clarke’s critical comments.
"How many guys in the National Hockey League would actually do that? You guys thought I wouldn't do that. Recchs is a good friend of mine. I like to have fun. I'm stable in my sexuality."
-- Flyers center Jeremy Roenick after kissing teammate Mark Recchi when the two appeared on the Air Canada Center scoreboard’s “Kiss Cam” during a break in play.
As trades go, it wasn’t an earth-shaker. The Hurricanes and Panthers swapped blueliners Sandis Ozolinsh and Bret Hedican, hoping to get a spark among their respective defensive corps. According to Dave Wallace, neither the defensive-impaired Ozolinsh nor the offensively-challenged Hedican offer much in the way of fantasy value. But with the real trading deadline just eight weeks ago, stay tuned for trades that could shake up your fantasy league in a big way.
The struggles continued last week for Eric Lindros and the Rangers. Lindros continues to play tentative hockey and his goalless streak is at eight games. In 21 games since a 1-0 win against the Lightning on Dec. 2 upped their record to 17-9-2-1, the Blueshirts have gone 5-12-2-2 and sit 22-21-4-3 and in the seventh spot in the East.
Since coming back from his latest concussion, Lindros has taken 11 shots on goal, but none have found the back of the net. He is a minus-2 and has eight penalty minutes. Lindros had only four hits in three games last week and isn’t using his size and exceptional checking ability to his advantage. His passiveness on the ice is costing the Rangers and keeping him from his best effort.
The Rangers play three key Eastern Conference games this week, taking on the Islanders on Tuesday at Nassau Coliseum, playing host to the Bruins on Wednesday and finally entertaining the Capitals on Saturday afternoon.
Follow Lindros' progress this season here in the Head Games section of the Glance every week.
Last week's topic: Who do you think is the best two-way player in the world?
Michael Peca. He can score a great goal and thrown one of the hardest body checks on the same shift. Colin Parker, Barrie, Ontario
Easy. Sergei Federov. Not many players can switch to defense in a time of need. His skating ability is unmatched. JT Deloney, Dayton, Ohio
Mike York. He leads the Rangers in scoring and is not a big guy, but is speedy and never caught out of position on defense. Mark Gildard, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
I would take Mike Modano since he is younger than Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman. Craig Conroy of Calgary only started seriously putting up points this year to round out his game. Mike Sterzuk, Winnipeg, Manitoba
I don't care for the likes of Joe Sakic and Mike Modano, who aren't skilled checkers, so my vote goes to Jeremy Roenick. Roenick is one of the best passers in the game with a shot to go with it, and a great hitter and penalty killer. Pat Frappier, Cornwall, Ontario
Mike Modano. He plays against the opponent's top lines, plays in Ken Hitchcock's defense-first system, was a Selke finalist last year and is second in the league in scoring. Bob, Waco, Texas
This week's topic: Who will be the next coach to get fired?
Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for CNNSI.com. "Week at a Glance" appears each Monday during the season.
