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Notebook Bourque's aim still as sharp as ever
Posted: Sunday February 06, 2000 02:14 AM
By David Vecsey, CNNSI.com TORONTO -- Another year, another accurate shot title for Ray Bourque. That's seven in 10 competitions. Guess you could say he has a knack for it. "Some of these guys score so many goals that I don't know why they don't hit more of the targets," Bourque said. "They're not that small." No, but they're neatly tucked into each corner of the net, requiring a pretty accurate shot from 10 or 12 feet away. Shooting eighth out of eight Saturday night, Bourque was chasing Florida's Viktor Kozlov who had nailed all four styrofoam circles in just five shots. Bourque calmly hit one, two, three … then missed … then settled for the tie. "[The fourth one] was real close," Bourque said. "An inch. But four out of five still works."
Pinch me!Nineteen-year-old rookie Scott Gomez managed not to trip over the blue line when he came out for player introductions Saturday night. But he wasn't quite in the right orbit either. How would you feel standing in line between Steve Yzerman and Chris Chelios. "I was like, 'Oh my God, are you kidding me?' " said Gomez. "I look in front of me, then I look behind me. It's just like, 'Omilord.' "Then Chelly says to me, 'Make sure you keep smiling because when you see this on TV later you'll wish you were.' So I just kept smiling."
Mr. Hockey in the houseIt'll take more than a cancerous lesion to keep Gordie Howe away from All-Star festivities. The man who played in a record 23 All-Star Games is in Toronto this weekend, just a few months after having surgery on his calf. He passed on the Heroes of Hockey game, but was his usual crowd-pleasing self in the North American lockerroom after the SuperSkills. As a player, Howe missed the All-Star Game in 1956 and 1966 because of injury. He made all the others, and has missed precious few since. "How many have I missed?" he repeated. "That's a good question. Not many."
Gimme the damn puckMysteriously missing from the competition this year was the goalie shot event, where the goalies play a puck behind their own net, then bring it into the crease area and shoot over a barrier at the empty net at the other end of the ice. Only Dominik Hasek made a goal in last year's inaugural event. But Martin Brodeur scored one when it counted … in the 1997 playoffs. "I don't know why they got rid of it," he mused. "I've been practicing for it for seven years."
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