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Day at a Glance
All-Stars remain patient with moronic media
Posted: Saturday February 05, 2000 03:46 PM
By David Vecsey, CNNSI.com
TORONTO -- Hockey writers won't get much sympathy from the poor slobs who just finished a full week of pre-Super Bowl "player availability," but Saturday morning's new conferences really put your notepad, your tape recorder and your patience to the test.
Picture a couple hundred reporters -- print, radio, TV and one Japanese woman with purple hair and a full body leather get-up -- milling about in a room, all vying for their two or three minutes with the All-Stars of their choice.
Of course, half the All-Stars don't speak very good English. But enough about the North American players. The Europeans speak wonderfully, you would think Mats Sundin, Teppo Numminen and Teemu Selanne were raised right here on Bay Street.
A German television crew wants to know why Brendan Shanahan left Germany so soon after a visit this summer. "Uh, the season was starting," Shanahan explains patiently.
An English crew wants the lowdown on Mark Messier's soccer knowledge. It turns out his brother was born in England.
A Finnish reporter asks Teemu Selanne how it feels to be an All-Star. I think. The question was in Finnish, so it could've been anything, really.
And moronic morning radio DJs want to ask anything that has nothing to do with anything, taking away valuable time from reporters who work for a living.
The big topic of day, however, was the state of Canadian finances and what future lies ahead for hockey in Canada. Pick up any paper in the country tomorrow and you will read that very question .... Followed by any All-Star saying, "I have no idea."
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All-Star Saturday
The SuperSkills competition and Heroes of Hockey doubleheader was scheduled to start around 6:30 p.m. tonight. The World has won the event each of the last two years, but then has gone on to lose the All-Star Game the next day.
Al MacInnis said he's ready to defend his hardest shot title despite the collapsed lung that sidelined him for five games over the last two weeks. Paul Kariya was asked about going against Pavel Bure in the fastest skater competition and humbly observed, "I hope he takes it down a notch against me."
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was to meet the press around 5:30 this evening at the Air Canada Centre. The state of Canadian finances is likely to dominate the session, but other subjects could include widening rinks, playing 4 on 4 and other potential ways to open up the game again.
Consensus is that NHLers are just getting bigger and bigger and the increased size and strength is leading to more injuries. One veteran NHL reporter told me he believes Bettman will eventually take the fall for the Canadian subsidy proposal falling on its face, stating that a stronger commissioner could have sold it to Canadians.
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Roman Turek will indeed get the start in goal, replacing injured Czech Repulic countryman Dominik Hasek. Again, Teemu Selanne, Mats Sundin and Jaromir Jagr are the starting forwads while Nicklas Lidstrom and Sandis Ozolinsh start on defense for tomorrow's game.
World coach Scotty Bowman said he envisioned playing Pavel and Valeri Bure together on a line, but that his other combinations were foggy because of a preponderance of right wings. He has seven among his 14 forwards.
Here are our thoughts on lines, knowing full well that Bowman shuffles lines like crazy in the regular season and will probably give many different looks: Viktor Kozlov centering the Bure brothers; Radek Bonk centering Sami Kapanen and Martin Rucinsky; Miroslav Satan centering Patrik Elias and Milan Hedjuk; and Mariusz Czerkawski centering Pavol Demitra.
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Coach Pat Quinn promised to mix things up as well, but said he was going into the game with his starting forwards of Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and Paul Kariya, followed by an all-Flyers line of Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mark Recchi; Mike Modano will center buddies Tony Amonte and Jeremy Roenick; and then an all-Canada line of Joe Sakic, Ray Whitney and Owen Nolan.
Rookie Scott Gomez and Mark Messier will float from line to line. Quinn also said that Mike Richter and Martin Brodeur will have to flip a coin to see who plays the the second period, that being the goalie who has to stay suited up for all three periods in order to back up the first- and third-period starters.
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Scalped tickets were a hot commodity outside the Air Canada Centre on Saturday .... For the practices. Prices were upwards of $100, which is like $5 U.S. Just kidding. But there was demand just to see the workouts, which left scalpers salivating at the thought of tonight's skills and tomorrow night's game events.
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