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Notebook Selanne finally enjoys All-Star victory
Posted: Monday February 07, 2000 12:05 AM
By David Vecsey, CNNSI.com TORONTO--World domination at last. After two years of winning the skills competition on Saturday only to fall flat in the All-Star Game on Sunday, the European All-Stars finally put it all together this weekend at the Air Canada Centre. But for Teemu Selanne, the World's 9-4 rout of the North Americans ended much more than an 0-for-2 skid in the International Showdown. "This was my seventh All-Star Game," said Selanne, whose hat trick in the 1998 game earned him an MVP in a losing effort, "but this was my first win." Geez, Teemu, maybe it's you? "That's what I started thinking," Selanne said, adding that the Europeans truly do look forward to this game as a chance to play with people with similar cultural backgrounds. "We're still all foreigners here, really," he said. "It's more fun for us to get this chance to play together as a team." World coach Scotty Bowman, who despite his background in old-style Canadian hockey, has long been a proponent of European skill players. He said Sunday's game did show the fundamental differences between European and North American players. "You can't count this game because there's no checking," Bowman said, "but the training system for Europeans is the difference. They play on these big ice surfaces and learn passing and skating skills at such a young age. "When they're 12 years old, they may be working on 3-on-2's and 2-on-1's while we're working on how to get a hit. They utilize a lot of the ice. A couple of instances on those passing plays where the puck seems to go board to board." Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick had similar sentiments, although he put it a lot less technically: "They made us look silly."
More RoenickJ.R. was down about the loss, but more down about what lies ahead for him in the Phoenix lockerroom. "We don't like losses," he said. "It's a tough thing to lose to the Europeans, but now we have to back to our teams and we're going to get ridiculed just a little bit."
Pavol vs. PavelWhen Pavol Demitra scored his second goal of the game at 8:52 of the third period, it basically set up a "next goal wins" situation between him and World teammate Pavel Bure ... as in, "next goal wins a truck."Sure enough, it was Bure who picked up the hat trick, the Dodge Dakota and a crystal trophy when completed his hat trick just 39 seconds after Demitra scored his second goal. "No, I wasn't thinking about the truck," Demitra insisted. "I'm just starting out in this league. Guys like Pavel have spent so many years proving themselves."
A helping handWith a second-period assist on Tony Amonte's goal, Boston's Ray Bourque moved into sole possession of first place on the all-time All-Star assists list with 13. Mark Messier later joined him with an assist on Ray Whitney's second-period goal. They had come into the game in a five-way tie for the record with Joe Sakic, Adam Oates and Wayne Gretzky. Playing in his 18th consecutive All-Star Game, Bourque has been on the fence all season about whether this would be his last in the NHL. And Messier also may be nearing the end of his storied career.
Bad boy, whatcha gonna do?Colorado's Sandis Ozolinsh took the game's only penalty, a hooking call with just under six minutes left in the game. That marked the second year in a row that there was a single penalty. Last year, Al MacInnis drew a first-period tripping call. The first International Showdown in 1998 was downright ugly with a penalty called in each period, including a first-period cross-check against Slava Fetisov.
And the Oscar goes to ...Pregame video tributes can be pretty maudlin sometimes, but ABC's opener to the All-Star Game was a nice piece of filmmaking. If you didn't see it on television, it looked like this: Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are walking through the snowy Canadian countryside talking about the joys of hockey and their memories and growing older, etc. They come to a frozen pond in the woods where some guys are playing hockey. "Do you miss it?" Gretzky asks. "How could you not?" Lemieux responds. Gretzky grabs a stick in the snow and gingerly toes the edge of the ice as if he's about to head out onto the ice. That's when you realize the guys playing pickup are Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr, Paul Kariya and Pavel Bure. They're big, they're fast, they're young and they have a hungry look in their eyes. "Care to join us?" Lindros says. Gretzky steps back off the ice. "No. It's your turn now." And the three Hall of Famers turn to walk away only to be answered by the tapping of sticks on the ice from the four current All-Stars. The 18,000-plus fans in the Air Canada Centre joined the tapping with clapping as the video fades out. Pretty cool.
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