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Stanley Cup Notebook Langenbrunner looks to return for Game 4
Posted: Sunday June 04, 2000 07:38 PM
DALLAS (AP) -- Jamie Langenbrunner might be ready to return to the Dallas lineup, and not a moment too soon for the struggling Stars. "Jamie looks like a player tomorrow," Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said Sunday, the day before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals. "It's a decision for tomorrow, but right now we're leaning towards he's in." The Stars trail the New Jersey Devils 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Langenbrunner has not played since injuring his knee in Game 5 of the conference finals against Colorado. The Stars advanced without him, but are again trailing 2-1. This time they're behind the Devils following a 2-1 home loss on Saturday. Hitchcock was noncommittal as to whether Langenbrunner would return to a line with Joe Nieuwendyk. But with Nieuwendyk pointless since Langenbrunner went out, it seems to be the most logical place to play him. "Anytime you can bring a 16-, 17-, 18-minute player back in your lineup, it is going to make you more effective," Hitchcock said. "Whether I play him with Nieuwendyk or not at the start, we'll see." Langenbrunner barely stepped on the ice Saturday morning prior to the Stars' loss in Game 3. His return might have been further delayed had the Stars been victorious. The bottom line is Dallas needs him to help create offense outside of the line consisting of Mike Modano and Brett Hull. "I would say it is pretty much on the predicament side," Hitchcock said of why the time is right now. "We are not in a hole, we are in a little bit of a ditch, so we need to get out of this ditch." Other plansStars coach Ken Hitchcock was asked Sunday about local newspaper coverage that seemed to be writing off his team's chances in the Stanley Cup finals. "I think the series 2-1 is exactly where it deserves to be," Hitchcock said of Dallas' deficit to New Jersey. "I think they were better for more minutes (Saturday). We were great for about 30 minutes, but they were better in a significant area of the game." That answer was a bit too technical, so Hitchcock was pressed again. He was asked to respond to talk that the Stars were merely worn out in their drive towards a second straight Stanley Cup. Then he fired back. "No, they are probably tired of covering this," he said of the local reporters. "They want to get on with the Cowboys." No countdown for DevilsJust two wins away from the franchise's second Stanley Cup, the key number for the New Jersey Devils is still one. The Dallas Stars have been counting down since the playoffs began, writing the number of victories needed to repeat as Stanley Cup champions on a board in their locker room. Not the Devils. "We don't have anything like that, no countdowns," forward John Madden said. "I'm pretty good with numbers and I think we've got two games left to win the Stanley Cup. I think it's more of a memory countdown, you don't have to remind us how many games to win the Stanley Cup." For Dallas, the board still reads three. Top DevilsPatrik Elias, Jason Arnott and Petr Sykora have moved to center stage at the Stanley Cup finals. The trio combined for 11 points in a Game 1 win. Then they were bottled up in Game 2 as New Jersey lost. Coach Larry Robinson criticized the play of Elias and Sykora and they responded for New Jersey's latest win in Game 3 -- Arnott and Sykora getting both Devils goals. Not bad for three guys, two from the Czech Republic and another from Ontario, who were thrown together as a line last season. "I think every guy is putting some special stuff to the line," Sykora said Sunday. "If one guy is not playing well, the whole line is not playing well. To be successful, all three guys must be going." The language of choice is English, unless Sykora and Elias want to exclude Arnott. "We don't really let him into our conversations," Elias said with a smile. "We've got a good communication between all three of us and there is a lot of English words going through." Hull's timingNot only has Brett Hull scored 11 of Dallas' 49 playoff goals, he gets the big ones as well. Hull has scored the game-winning goal in three of the Stars' five victories the past two seasons in the Stanley Cup finals. Hull scored both goals in Dallas' 2-1 victory over New Jersey in Game 2, but was shut out in the Stars' losses in the first and third games.
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