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Sunday, March 17, 2002

Compiled by Dejan Kovacevic

When the Sharks' Evgeni Nabokov fired the puck the length of the rink for an empty-net goal Sunday, he celebrated as if he had just recorded a shutout in Game 7 of a Stanley Cup playoff game.

As he told the San Jose Mercury News, "I'm going to lie if I say it wasn't exciting."

Truth is, though, goaltender goals aren't that big a deal anymore.

Billy Smith had the first Nov. 28, 1979, being credited after an opponent passed the puck into his own net. And in 1987, Ron Hextall grabbed headlines when he became the first to shoot for a goal.

After that, Hextall did it again. Then Chris Osgood, Martin Brodeur, Damian Rhodes, Brodeur again and Jose Theodore a year ago this week.

That means that in the NHL's eight decades, eight of the nine goals by goaltenders have come in the past 15 years.

Warren Strelow, the Sharks' goaltending coach and a longtime tutor of Johan Hedberg, explained that modern players at the position fancy being part of the offense.

"They all talk about it, you know. ... The advent of goalies playing pucks around the net in the last 10 years or so has made that possible. Goalies work at shooting the puck. In the old days, they didn't work at it, so they couldn't shoot it."

The Flames' Jarome Iginla is about to join a fairly prestigious club. But if he had his choice, he undoubtedly would decline. Iginla is on the verge of winning the NHL scoring title, even as his team looks destined to sit out the Stanley Cup playoffs again. That has happened only two other times in the past 40 years: Mario Lemieux with the 1988 Penguins and Wayne Gretzky with the 1994 Kings.

Better sit down for this one: Jacques Lemaire, who has shaped the Wild into one of the NHL's most conservative teams, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he wants bigger nets: "Just a couple of inches, maybe. Think of all the shots that hit the posts. They would be goals now. It's the only way scoring will go up. I would love to see that. Goals are exciting. No one is indifferent when a goal is scored. You're either happy or sad. It causes some emotion, and that's what the game is about."

If this is a converted attitude, he might want to share it with his players. Wild center Jim Dowd balked at the idea: "I like the game the way it is. So it's tough to score. That's why it's the NHL. It's supposed to be tough. I say leave the rules alone. You don't see baseball changing rules."

Holding out hope the Penguins will keep Robert Lang? Don't think it escaped the notice of Lang or his agent that Brian Savage two days ago signed a four-year contract extension worth $14 million. The deal breaks down to $3.25 million each of the next two seasons, then $3.75 million the two after that. Lang is making $2.9 million this season and, unlike Savage, has made tangible contributions to his team beyond October on occasion.

Anyone who attended the Penguins' stab-to-the-heart loss to the Blue Jackets on Monday night wouldn't be relieved to learn that hero Jean-Francois Labbe regressed to minor-league form in his next outing. Thursday night against the Canucks, he stopped 20 of 24 shots and was yanked at 12:10 by Coach Dave King in what ended up a 5-1 loss. Soon, Marc Denis will be back, marking the official end of Labbe's Andy Warhol time.