Flyers clicking on all cylinders
Posted: Tuesday February 09, 1999 09:58 AM
The reason Philadelphia has lost once in its past 24 games is not merely the Eric Lindros-John LeClair tandem or John Vanbiesbrouck's goaltending but the exceptional contribution from the second line, centered by Rod Brind'Amour. In a league with diluted talent, the Flyers are one of the few teams with two legitimate scoring lines. Mikael Renberg replaced Dainius Zubrus on right wing 10 games ago, and Brind'Amour, Valeri Zelepukin and Renberg have responded with nine goals and 11 assists.
Canadiens' best coming up short
The problem with the Montreal Canadiens is their best players -- Mark Recchi, Vincent Damphousse, Saku Koivu and defensemen Vladimir Malakhov -- haven't been their best players. Recchi has three goals in his past 18 games. Koivu has two in 24. Damphousse has but one empty-netter in 27.
And Malakhov was a healthy scratch Saturday after missing two games with back spasms, which angered coach Alain Vigneault. Malakhov aggravated his teammates last spring by missing a playoff game because of a minor injury and again last November when he had to be scratched in Dallas because his back stiffened during a game-day walk around a mall. Martin Rucinsky leads the team with 13 goals, setting up the possibility the Canadiens won't have a 20-goal scorer for the first time in 58 years. Montreal beats bad teams, but it is 5-19-4 against those with records of .500 or better.
Sharks experiencing Y99K?
Perhaps getting a jump on Y2K, the San Jose Sharks are blaming a computer for the schedule meltdown that has them on a 10-match, four-time-zone road trip -- the longest in the NHL in 11 years.
With San Jose Arena unavailable for much of February, the Sharks were counting on some slack from the league's schedule maker. But a computer has taken over those duties from the NHL executive who used to build the schedule by hand -- and as we all know, computers are notoriously inflexible.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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