October 16, 2000 | Volume 93, Issue 15

Ever wonder what the NHL's quaintly named year-end trophies look like? Call the Blues, they'll know. Last year St. Louis earned the Presidents' Trophy for having the league's best record...

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello has been called many things by his players: shrewd, stubborn, smart, stingy, as well as a register of unprintable nouns. Lamoriello's unyielding management...

Al MacInnis (1999) and Chris Pronger (2000) became the first teammates to win the Norris Trophy in consecutive seasons since the Canadiens' Tom Johnson ('59) and Doug Harvey ('60).

In the franchise's 25-year history no player has scored as many as 100 points in a season.

Center Mike Modano was talking about the dangers of playing in the NHL last month when he readily admitted, "If I had the chance to play [pro] golf, I would hang my skates up as quickly as...

To hear Detroit's critics tell it, you'd think the Red Wings' first line consists of Methuselah, Father Time and Strom Thurmond. While Detroit is the NHL's most mature team, with 10 players age 30...

Last season the Stars allowed a league-low 33 power-play goals while getting nine shorthanded scores. Their 24-goal differential was tops in the NHL.

With a combined 2,715 games coming into this season, Larry Murphy (1,558) and Chris Chelios (1,157) were the most experienced defensive duo to play on the same NHL team.

After winning the Vezina Trophy last June, goaltender Olaf Kolzig asked the Hockey Hall of Fame if he could bring the hardware home so he could bask in its aura. He had earned the award with a...

To be considered the Flyers' best player, it seems you've got to be able to put the puck into the net, and you've got to carry a little baggage. Last spring the oft-prostrate Eric Lindros, who...

Last year Olaf Kolzig became the second goalie not named Dominik Hasek to win the Vezina Trophy since 1994. The other? The Capitals' Jim Carey in '96.

Last season Brian Boucher became the first rookie netminder to lead the NHL in goals-against average (1.91) since 1992-93, when the Maple Leafs' Felix Potvin had a 2.50 GAA.

It was arguably the most public declaration about private parts in Buffalo sports history. After missing 40 games last season with a torn groin muscle, goaltender Dominik Hasek returned from his...

At a glance, Rob Blake's off-season appeared downright idyllic: days spent enjoying beach volleyball near his home in Manhattan Beach, Calif., playing in charity golf tournaments or visiting his...

The Kings were the only NHL team last season to have three players score more than a point per game: forwards Luc Robitaille (1.04), Zigmund Palffy (1.03) and Jozef Stumpel (1.02).

Wing Dave Andreychuk entered the season with 228 power play goals, 20 behind Phil Esposito's league record of 248.

Despite failing to muster a winning season in their nine-year existence, the Sharks fill the San Jose Arena to some 99% of capacity year after mediocre year—and it's not just because Silicon...

The Coyotes have no plans to sign Heather Locklear. That's bad news for TV buffs—after all, what's a good soap opera without her?—but it's good news for the Coyotes, who, after a tumultuous...

Right wing Owen Nolan was the NHL's most productive special teams player last season with 18 power-play goals and four shorthanded scores.

Keith Carney is one of two NHL defensemen who played all 82 games in each of the last two seasons. Oleg Tverdovsky of the Ducks is the other.

Nobody in New York seems to care that Mark Messier is 39, or that his plus-minus rating for his three-season stint in Vancouver was-37. Those are just numbers. To the overpaid, underachieving...

He made an immediate impact early in his NHL career then fell off the radar screen because of a bitter, seemingly irreconcilable contract dispute. Now he holds the key to the Senators' short-term...

Theo Fleury suffered the biggest drop in points per game of all players who appeared in 50 or more games in each of the past two seasons, from 1.24 in 1998-99 to 0.80 last year.

Last season 14 Senators scored a total of 24 unassisted goals, both league-leading figures.

Life after Sather has begun. The architect of five Stanley Cup championships, Glen Sather left Edmonton after two decades and beat a path to New York, following in the footsteps of nearly a dozen...

Not that the Panthers are expecting much from 21-year-old goal-tender Roberto Luongo, but.... "He's the guy teams have to have to win the Stanley Cup," says coach Terry Murray. "He's going to be a...

Last year Tommy Salo set an Oilers season record with a 2.33 goals-against average, breaking the mark (2.63) set by Curtis Joseph in 1997-98.

Center Igor Larionov is the only active player to have won two Stanley Cups (1997 and '98 with Red Wings) and two Olympic gold medals ('84 and '88 with the Soviet Union).

As training camp began, the Penguins were a team Václav Havel would be proud of and a team a yippie could trust. They were not, however, a club a hockey purist could appreciate. Pittsburgh had a...

For years the Mighty Ducks have been like an episode of Baywatch: fun to watch, not to be taken seriously and spectacularly top-heavy. Last season was no different. Wingers Paul Kariya and Teemu...

Jaromir Jagr got his fourth NHL scoring title last season. Only Wayne Gretzky (II), Mario Lemieux (six), Gordie Howe (six) and Phil Esposito (five) have won more.

Left wing Paul Kariya had the best plus-minus rating (+22) in 1999-2000 of any skater on a nonplayoff team.

A few days before the start of training camp, Bruins defenseman Don Sweeney and his old friend Raymond Bourque went for a casual skate at a neighborhood rink north of Boston. "Afterward we shook...

If one event endures from the Blackhawks' miserable 1999-2000 season, it's the gruesome fight on March 3 between Chicago enforcer Ryan VandenBussche and Lightning tough guy Kyle Freadrich. In a...

Last season was the first since 1960-61 in which the Bruins didn't have a player who was assessed 100 or more penalty minutes.

Right wing Tony Amonte, who has played in 246 consecutive games, is the league's current iron man.

New General Manager Craig Button's first order of business last summer was to get help in goal, which is why he acquired two-time Stanley Cup champion Mike Vernon. Vernon, 37, became the Flames'...

It's understandable if the Islanders faithful cringed when the team's new owners, Sanjay Kumar and Charles Wang, said they were studying the finer points of the game by reading Hockey for Dummies....

Last season forward Jarome Iginla ran up a 16-game point-scoring streak, the NHL's longest of the year. In that surge he had 12 goals and 14 assists.

Wing Mariusz Czerkawski's 16 power-play goals were second in the NHL last season and accounted for 35.6% of the Islanders' man-advantage scores, the highest rate for any player in the league.

How tough are times in Montreal? The NHL's most storied franchise is for sale, and no one is rushing to buy a team that has won a record 24 Stanley Cups. Once upon a time, every game in the the...

For the Canucks, training camp was like one of those classic-rock stations that plays Stairway to Heaven over and over. It was all-Sedins, all-the-time. Here were the 20-year-old twins, Daniel and...

Last season the Canucks lost nine games in overtime, tying the league record set by the Hartford Whalers in 1992-93.

Dainius Zubrus led the Canadiens with 28 assists last season—the lowest total to top Montreal since 1950-51, when Doug Harvey, Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard tied for team honors with 24.

Nouveau Country music fan Mike Dunham acknowledges that much of his first two seasons as the goalie of expansion Nashville would make sufficiently melancholy fodder for a Hank Williams song....

When Carolina acquired defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh from the Avalanche in a draft-day deal in June, Hurricane Sandis blew into Raleigh with such force that he changed the team's entire game plan....

Center Cliff Ronning, 35, has increased his production in each of the last three seasons, from 51 points in 1996-97 to 55 in '97-98 to 60 in '98-99 to 62 last year.

In just two seasons with the Hurricanes, goaltender Arturs Irbe has cracked the franchise's alltime top five in wins, shutouts, and games and minutes played.

You'll have to pardon Lightning general manager Rick Dudley's French, and not because he has a tenuous grasp of hockey's unofficial second language. "After our first day of camp last year, I...

In 1997 Peter Karmanos, owner of the Hartford Whalers, announced his intention to move his NHL team, preferably to Columbus, Ohio. He was so intent on taking the Whalers to Columbus that he...

Last season the Lightning played 17 rookies, the most of any NHL team. Defenseman Paul Mara, with seven goals and 11 assists, was the only one of them to get as many as 10 points.

In the last three seasons no NHL player has fought more often than 6'5", 235-pound enforcer Krzysztof Oliwa, who has been in 77 brawls.

Precocious 20-year-old center Patrik Stefan remembers when he was a wide-eyed 10-year-old Czech lad and he first saw Jaromir Jagr play for the national team in Stefan's hometown of Příbram. After...

The team will begin its inaugural season in the Xcel Energy Center, a name that is apt for the Wild. While expansion Minnesota will be hard-pressed to win more than 15 games, an invigorating,...

When Damian Rhodes beat the Islanders 2-0 last Oct. 14, the Thrashers joined the Panthers and the Rangers as the only current NHL teams to get a shutout in their first victory.

Goaltenders Manny Fernandez and Jamie McLennan had a combined 2.06 goals-against average for other teams last season, which would have ranked the Wild second in the NHL.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Texas MassacreOklahoma's Josh Heupel engineered a stunning rout of the Longhorns

•Oklahoma (5-0) at Kansas State (6-0)What do the Sooners do for an encore after routing Texas? Meet reality. Oklahoma hasn't played a defense as tough as the Wildcats'. Kansas State will extend...

If a good offensive lineman is a quarterback's best friend, it's no wonder that Georgia senior tackle Jonas Jennings once shared an apartment with junior signal-caller Quincy Carter. Jennings was...

St. Louis High in Honolulu has produced three quarterbacks now starting at major colleges: Darnell Arceneaux of Utah, Timmy Chang of Hawaii and Jason Gesser of Washington State. That's rare for a...

Deaf fullback Dwight Collins leads Central Florida backs to daylight

Sick LeaveAlonzo Mourning stayed home from camp as he awaited diagnosis of a possible kidney ailment

Magic Swingman Tracy McGrady says he has left several messages for his distant relative and former teammate, Vince Carter, in an attempt to patch up their relationship. Carter has not returned his...

Growing PainsThe Eagles' inexperience cost them dearly in a loss to the Redskins

For the first time in his four-year career, Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer has played consecutive games without throwing an interception. That hadn't happened in Arizona since Kent Graham went...

My Two Cents

Going into the season, every division except one had an overwhelming favorite, and together they formed an elite corps of Super Bowl contenders. But there was head-scratching all around in the AFC...

For reasons that scientists don't fully understand, there are still a few humans in this country who watch baseball games on television from start to finish, without the use of restraints,...

Knowing that these poor athletes don't get the respect they feel they deserve for making a huge contribution to our society breaks my heart.—SCOTT NORRIS, Lebanon, Ohio

Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer. They may be mailed to The Editor, Sports Illustrated, 135 West 50th Street, New York, N.Y....

FEBRUARY 23, 1981

...they're the only thing—in the world of sports, at least, in which there's a bromide for any situation

Highlights

Max Falkenstien has owned the same pair of binoculars (Sears Model No. 6243) for more than 50 years. He has never misplaced them, has never felt the need to upgrade to a newer pair. He even keeps...

Ironmanlive.com will allow you to follow each entrant's torturous pace

Forget closed captioning and the SAP option on our TV sets. Will someone please develop an A-Train chip that bleeps out ABC play-by-play man Brent Musburger whenever he refers to Michigan tailback...

Baseball's monumental skippers are on display during the postseason

Joe Morgan, 0-8.Former Red Sox skipper gets an F for getting swept by the A's in 1988 and '90.

Upon returning from Sydney, U.S. Olympic medalists promptly received the standard hero's welcome—they got to go on Letterman. How did the rest of the world celebrate the return of their conquering...

Have you ever sent a player into a game to get into a fight?

0Hours of live prime-time Olympic coverage NBC plans to air of the 2004 Games in Athens—because no events will be held during those hours.

Patrick Ewing's career as a SuperSonic began last week as NBA camps opened. Will longtime Knick Ewing, 38, find gold at the end of his career rainbow? Here's how other great athletes fared when...

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

Skied•Mount Everest, by Davo Karnicar of Slovenia. The 38-year-old ski instructor became the first to descend uninterrupted from the 29,035-foot summit to the base camp at 17,472 feet on skis, a...

While munching on liver and onions at Manhattan's Smith and Wollensky steak house, his three swimming gold medals sitting on a table between a house salad and plates of shrimp and crabmeat,...

Male fans relieving themselves on the walls inside Rio de Janeiro's massive Maracana Stadium have caused such severe corrosion that J officials had to hire an eight-man crew to ensure that men use...

FRANK BEAMERVirginia Tech coach, on Hokies quarterback Michael Vick: "We have two plays when he's in the game—the one we call and the one he winds up turning it into."

Oskar Johansson, MALMÖ, SWEDENTennisJohansson, a senior at Arkansas, won the men's singles title at the T. Rowe Price national clay court championships, the first leg of the college Grand Slam, by...

Guidance for those lost in sports

Investment guru Peter Lynch traces his success in finance to his caddying days

Athleticism meets absurdity in a bizarre series of team triathlons

FIFTH QUARTERBy Jennifer Allen / Random House, $23.95

In skivvies (but only before the game), Tony Meola lifted Kansas City to MLS's final

For complete NHL team rosters, schedules, stats and scores, plus more news and analysis from SI's Michael Farber and Kostya Kennedy, go to cnnsi.com/hockey.

Led by red-hot Jim Edmonds, the Cardinals swept the Braves and then watched the Mets beat the Giants in four to set up a showdown for the National League pennant

The St. Louis Cardinals are a close-knit bunch, and last Friday many of them whiled away part of the afternoon watching television on a sofa in the visitors' clubhouse in Atlanta. They were...

SI asked major league scouts who have closely followed the playoff teams to help prepare these reports on the four participants in the League Championship Series. The scouts were promised...

Although it is the policy of this magazine not to make election endorsements, rarely does a write-in candidate with such all-encompassing virtues come along. A candidate with honor. A candidate...

Lineup

Last Thursday afternoon, the off day between Games 2 and 3 of the Division Series, Seattle Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki sat in a nearly vacant Safeco Field clubhouse. The team had finished its...

Lineup

Flyer BewareCanucks wing Donald Brashear puts a new spin on caveat emptor while putting some wood on Philadelphia center Simon Gagne in the season opener for both teams, which the Flyers won 6-3.

It ended as all postseason series seem to end for the New York Yankees. Their American League Division Series against the Oakland Athletics culminated with Mariano Rivera, the Mr. October of...

Lineup

With a new passing hero, Ken Dorsey, directing a last-minute rally, Miami dethroned top-ranked Florida State and set the stage for its own national title run

The defensive unit of the surprising Dolphins is playing to rave reviews, as the Bills found out, oh so painfully

Unlike in other leagues, a captain in the NHL not only wears his rank on his jersey but also can wield as much influence over his teammates as the coach

Here are the men who are the heart and soul of their teams, the captain's log of the NHL

Here's how teams in the three other major pro leagues select captains—if they choose to have them at all—and what functions, official or otherwise, those players perform.

With good reason, the Lightning last season made Vincent Lecavalier, a rising star at 19, the youngest player in NHL history to wear the C: He was ready for it

The NHL has two new teams (the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild), two groundbreaking coaches (the Blackhawks' Alpo Suhonen and the Penguins' Ivan Hlinka, the first European head men)...

There was the late-night bus ride back to the hotel and then the gathering of the sundry items-toothbrushes, combs, pajama bottoms—that the Avalanche players had believed they would need for at...

Defenseman Ray Bourque holds the records for most postseason games played (193) and most playoff points (170) without winning a Stanley Cup.

April 22, 2000: The Maple Leafs trail Ottawa 1-0 in the third period of Game 5 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series that is tied at two games apiece. All night Toronto coach Pat Quinn has...

With 39 points and just two penalty minutes in 61 games last season, wing Sergei Berezin had the NHL's highest rate of points per penalty minute (19.5) among skaters who played at least 25 games.

For a guy with a need for speed, Bob May took his time in becoming the big wheel who was able to match Tiger Woods stroke for stroke in the PGA

Although most of his competitors tower over him, 5'10", 225-pound Jason Zuback has set the bar as high in long-driving competitions as Tiger Woods has on the Tour. It's not that the 30-year-old...

Pat Bradley's insistence that Annika Sorenstam replay the wedge shot that she had holed on Sunday is good for the Solheim Cup. It's these sort of ruthless decisions and their acrimonious...

What do these players have in common?

Who should be the Senior tour player of the year?

Based on the money list, here are the biggest winners and losers on Tour this year. The first group comprises players among the current top 125 money winners who have made the biggest jump up the...

Mina Hardin, Fort WorthHardin, 40, was victorious in the Texas Amateur for the fourth time in the last five years. The defending champ at Mira Vista Country Club since 1997 and at Shady Oaks...

Contrary to what was written in SI, the Presidents Cup is great for the game

No amount of acting can hide a reverse pivot

DAN DINELLI'S red-tailed hawks

Imagine the response if the Tour ordered Tiger to play in a tournament

•Rx for SuccessDavid Toms needs eight ibuprofens on Friday, and one extra hole on Sunday.

Enraged at a questionable call by U.S. captain Pat Bradley, Europe stunned the heavily favored Americans in the most contentious Solheim Cup ever

David Toms won at Kingsmill, but the talk of the tournament was a Presidential debate