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 Inside the NHL
Posted: Tuesday April 13, 1999 03:33 PM In the Crease It's too early to tell who among this year's top rookies will become stars By Kostya Kennedy
Remember the rookies who in the last 15 years or so have changed the face of the league? There was the Penguins' Mario Lemieux, who had 100 points as a 19-year-old in 1984-85. There was the Jets' Teemu Selanne, who led the NHL with 76 goals in 1992-93. Even in lockout-shortened 1994-95, there were the Nordiques' Peter Forsberg (50 points in 47 games) and the Mighty Ducks' Paul Kariya (18 goals). In recent seasons we have seen far less compelling debuts, and this year's rookie scoring leader will finish with a point total close to the 47 that Bruins left wing Sergei Samsonov put up en route to winning the Calder Trophy last year. Because the race for the Calder is run on uneven ice -- players at such different stages of development as Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier, 18, and Canucks right wing Bill Muckalt, 24, are competing for the 1998-99 award -- the voting won't tell us much about who will be the big stars in a few years. Against that backdrop, we present this year's top rookies, all of whom are forwards. 1. Chris Drury, 22, Avalanche. Our choice for the Calder, he was one point behind teammate Milan Hejduk (45 points) for the rookie scoring lead through Sunday and has played well defensively and also taken face-offs. At 5'10" and 180 pounds, he's also relentlessly scrappy. If he improves even marginally with age, he'll be a player to build a team around. 2. Brendan Morrison, 23, Devils. Our Calder runner-up is well-seasoned after playing four years at Michigan and one in New Jersey's minor league system. Morrison had 43 points in the Devils' low-powered offense, and though he may never become a shooting star, he should become one of those well-rounded forwards who keeps New Jersey in annual Cup contention. 3. Marian Hossa, 20, Senators. Only the fact that he missed 22 games recovering from surgery to his left knee will deprive him of the Calder. The dynamic Hossa (29 points and a superb +19 rating in 57 games) has played alongside Radek Bonk and Magnus Arvedson to form the most effective third line in the league. "Hossa has tremendous defensive instincts," says Ottawa assistant coach Perry Pearn. "He also has a confidence that will allow him to grow." 4. Lecavalier. The smartest thing Tampa Bay's brass has done this year is to bring Lecavalier along slowly. Fresh out of junior hockey, he's susceptible to defensive lapses but has shown glimpses of the awesome offensive skills that will make him the premier scorer to emerge from this year's group. 5. Muckalt. He's a fast starter who needs to improve his stamina: He led all rookies in points at the midpoint of the season but has been stuck on 16 goals since Feb. 23. 6. Jan Hrdina, 23, Penguins. Centering for Jaromir Jagr has padded his point total (41), but he's a keeper because of his ability to win face-offs (his 56.8% percentage was by far the best among rookies with at least 250 draws) and his knack for winning the battles for the puck along the boards and in the corners. 7. Mark Parrish, 22, Panthers. Parrish, the top goal scorer among first-year players (22), saw his production slow in the second half, and he needs to improve his play without the puck. Many observers believe that Parrish's 20-year-old rookie teammate, forward Oleg Kvasha (12 goals), will become the better of the two.
Four-on-Four in OT: Overtime can be a riveting period that ends with a dramatic victory, but in today's defensive-minded NHL, sudden death more often is a plodding five minutes that expires limply with the game still tied. In fact, through Sunday, 75% of the games that were tied at the end of regulation this season remained deadlocked after overtime, the same high percentage as last season. Hence the two-month-old experiment whereby the NHL asked the American Hockey League to have its teams play overtime with only four skaters per side, instead of the usual five. Since the experiment began, 60% of the AHL's overtime games had ended with a victor, up from 33% when teams skated five-on-five earlier in the season. Shots on goal had increased from .93 to 1.36 per minute of OT. "There's more room, and it's more exciting," says Cincinnati Mighty Ducks coach Moe Mantha. "You put your most skilled players on the ice and open up." The NHL will review the results over the summer and consider implementing four-on-four play in its overtime games. However the AHL's success at spicing up overtime has had less to do with the four-on-four rule than another change: Both teams are guaranteed a point in the standings for tying in regulation, and the club that wins in the extra session earns an additional point. "This system works because you know you have nothing to lose," says Kevin McCarthy, coach of the Beast of New Haven. "If both teams weren't assured a point, playing four-on-four wouldn't be worth doing -- you can still play defensive hockey four-on-four." In any case the NHL shouldn't think about going to four-on-four. Even if having two fewer players on the ice enhances the flow of the match, it artificially changes the game. Four-on-four isn't as bad as a shootout, but it's still a perversion of the rules. If the league wants to generate more aggressive play in overtime, the best thing to do is follow the AHL example and not penalize a team for an OT loss, but with this twist: To ensure that clubs wouldn't play cautiously in the third period of deadlocked games in hopes of sewing up a point, follow the plan of Oilers general manager Glen Sather. He suggests: "Give no points for a tie. Play overtime, and if the score is still tied when time runs out, neither team gets a point. If you win, you're rewarded; if you don't, you're not." Issue date: April 19, 1999
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