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Sunday, March 03, 2002

Compiled by Dejan Kovacevic

Good thing for the Canadians they won their Olympic gold when they did. A week later, they might not have been able to field a team.

From the moment athletes left Salt Lake City to return to the NHL, they began dropping.

It started with the Maple Leafs' Curtis Joseph, whose hand was broken eight minutes into his first game back. He is out two months.

There is much more.

Rob Blake of the Avalanche crashed into the boards in his first game back and is out indefinitely with a bruised knee. Teammate Adam Foote was nailed in the throat in the same game and needed help off the ice. The Red Wings' Steve Yzerman was ordered by doctors to rest his ailing knee. The Devils' Scott Niedermayer had a pinched nerve in his neck after colliding with a teammate in his first game back and is day to day.

Oh, and you probably know about Canada's captain.

The Maple Leafs will go nowhere without a No. 1 goaltender to replace Joseph, which is why sentiment is mounting in Toronto to acquire Tom Barrasso. The Hurricanes are making no secret of their desire to trade Barrasso, who can become an unrestricted free agent after this season. Trouble is, Carolina has its eye on Lightning backup Kevin Weekes and is far more interested in dealing with Tampa Bay.

Another painful after-effect of the Olympics routinely is felt by players who star for their national teams, then return to smaller roles with their NHL employers. Jani Hurme, for example, shined as Finland's starter, but he goes right back to being Patrick Lalime's backup with the Senators. And he doesn't like it. "It was so different to go to Salt Lake City and get more ice time. They let me play," Hurme told the Ottawa Citizen. "It's been my target to be No. 1 since I've been here. I believe I can do that, but you do that by playing."

Count Jaromir Jagr among those who would love to see the NHL enlarge its rinks in an effort to improve the game. "They want to improve the scoring," he told the Washington Post. "I think they can make the ice a little bigger. One meter on each side. I'm saying not like European ice, not that big. I know it's difficult because of the way the buildings are built. But I think there can be a happy medium. A little bit bigger can make a big difference in the scoring."

No one will be crying for the Canadiens soon. New owner George Gillett has vowed to put all the cash from a new naming rights deal for the Molson Centre -- it will be the Bell Centre next season -- into the player payroll. The deal is worth $40 million over 20 years. And that isn't the only new corporate revenue flowing in.

Is there any situation in hockey weirder than Larry Robinson coming back to New Jersey and working under Kevin Constantine, the man who replaced him as head coach? Even Robinson had trouble explaining it to the Newark Star-Ledger: "I really can't answer why I came back. Friends asked me why, and I couldn't give them an answer. ... I have to admit it's a little awkward. If you have an ego, you don't do this. I don't have an ego. It's kind of nice to feel wanted."

Doesn't require much ego, either, to produce the goal Curt Fraser has established for his Thrashers the rest of the way in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "It would be great to finish ahead of Tampa Bay." Now, there's something to print on a T-shirt.