Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Sunday, February 03, 2002

Compiled by Dejan Kovacevic

When Tom Barrasso bumped Arturs Irbe from his seemingly iron-clad spot as the Hurricanes' No. 1 goaltender early this season, he drew headlines across the hockey world and, to boot, earned a berth on the U.S. Olympic team.

But what has happened in the past six weeks has drawn markedly less notice.

Barrasso has appeared in only seven of Carolina's past 17 games, allowing 21 goals for a 3.27 goals-against average and an equally dismal .866 save percentage. That reopened the door for Irbe, and he appears to have regained the trust of Coach Paul Maurice as the team's starter.

For the season, Barrasso's numbers remain a respectable 11-11-5 with a 2.68 goals-against average and .906 save percentage, but no longer is there much talk about how he might supplant Mike Richter as the United States' goaltender in Salt Lake City.

Kevin Constantine's shrewdest move in winning his first two games behind the Devils' bench might have been moving Scott Gomez to the right wing on a line with Sergei Brylin and Bobby Holik. Gomez, owner of just five goals, had looked lost at his natural center position since the Devils lost his finisher, Alexander Mogilny, to free agency last summer. Gomez has four assists and a plus-4 rating since Constantine's arrival.

Because the Capitals play in the Southeast Division and trail the Hurricanes by only 12 points, it's still too early to write them off. But the clock is ticking. Although every team has a grind after the Olympics, Washington's is especially trying, with an eight-game trip to San Jose, Edmonton, Colorado, Toronto, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and New Jersey in March.

Ottawa's bean counters were devastated after the Senators' third consecutive first-round exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring, watching the season-ticket base plummet by nearly a quarter to 9,400. So, to prevent this from happening again, they have produced a rather clever plan by which current season-ticket holders can renew for the following season without a price increase as long as they pay by March 1.

Rick Dudley, Lightning general manager, told the St. Petersburg Times he has been on the phone with nearly all of his counterparts in the past week trying to find some offense to replace Martin St. Louis. He said he is having little luck and reiterated that Vincent Lecavalier is not being dangled.

There go the Rangers again. They are 3-9-1-1 in their past 14 and have been outscored, 51-34. They rank 28th in the NHL in goals allowed with 167, as Richter and Dan Blackburn weren't going to fend off the flood all season. Although Eric Lindros has been hurt, some blame in Manhattan is falling on Petr Nedved, who has one goal in his past 14 games and has posted a plus rating in just three of his past 22.

If Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley finish 1-2 in the NHL's rookie scoring race, as expected, they will be the first to do so since the Rangers' Brian Leetch and Tony Granato in 1989.

In what could generously be described as a typical NHL move, Kovalchuk was left out of the All-Star Game and relegated to the YoungStars exhibition Friday. Kovalchuk, the best 18-year-old since Mario Lemieux, might have drawn more attention than anyone besides Lemieux.