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Sunday, May 12, 2002

It is, at least for the moment, little more than an annoying blip on the Penguins' long-range radar.

Team officials are focused on more pressing concerns -- everything from the entry draft next month to negotiating a new radio deal -- but the reality is that every move they make comes against the backdrop of 2004, when the NHL's collective bargaining agreement with its players expires.

And when the future of the league will be shaped.

If the next CBA gives ownership the "cost-certainty" Commissioner Gary Bettman believes is necessary -- regardless of whether it takes the form of a salary cap, revenue-sharing or both -- small- and medium-market teams again will have a realistic hope of competing for the Stanley Cup.

If not, hockey will continue to deteriorate into something alarmingly similar to baseball, in which the majority of clubs serve as the feeder system for a handful of deep-pockets teams.

If you like what the New York Yankees have done, you'll love what the New York Rangers could do if the system isn't overhauled. Or the Detroit Red Wings. Or the Philadelphia Flyers. Or the St. Louis Blues. Or the Dallas Stars. Or the Colorado Avalanche.

The Original Six of Open Wallets.

Should those clubs, along with others as Toronto and the New York Islanders, opt against taking a hard line with the players, the united front needed for ownership to bring salaries under control will not be possible.

And teams like the Penguins -- to say nothing of Calgary, Edmonton, Buffalo, Nashville and Ottawa, among others -- will lose any hope they have of being able to maintain a championship-caliber lineup, assuming they're able to assemble one in the first place.

"Something is going to have to happen in that regard," said Tom Rooney, president of Team Lemieux, LLC.

The league has been girding quietly for the 2004 showdown for years. Shortly after Mario Lemieux and his partners gained control of the Penguins in 1999, they were ordered to forward $10 million to the league to cover operating expenses in the event the 2004-05 season is not played.

Lemieux's group had to borrow the cash -- remember, this was a club fresh out of bankruptcy -- but that didn't matter. The NHL wanted to be certain no team loses its will to negotiate because of short-term financial worries.

"I'm calling it our '2004(K)' " Rooney said. "You have to be able to withstand [a season without games]."

That the league compelled its members to set aside such a substantial "rainy day" fund suggests that it views the threat of a protracted labor dispute as a very real possibility, even though no one in authority is saying so publicly. Not just yet, anyway.

"Because we have that $10 million set aside, that speaks to not just a worst-case scenario, but to some sort of expectation level," Rooney said.

While it's too early to know if the owners will seek a salary cap or revenue-sharing -- Rooney said, "the conventional wisdom would be a combination of the two" -- those details will be worked out in coming months, as the sides brace for what figures to be an epic confrontation.

One that might well lead to an abbreviated 2004-05 season. Or perhaps even a non-existent one.

"We all hope that it's not going to happen," Rooney said. "But we all have to recognize that it could."

Tip-ins

Think there's pressure on NHL coaches to win? Consider the plight of Josef Augusta, who succeeded Ivan Hlinka as coach of the Czech national team after Hlinka joined the Penguins. Augusta and his assistant, Vladimir Martinec, led the Czechs to two world titles, but, after a 3-1 loss to Russia in the quarterfinals of the world championships last week, team General Manager Frantisek Cernik announced that he has asked Karel Gut, president of the Czech hockey federation, to replace the coaches. The federation's executive board is expected to discuss the request at a meeting Friday.

The overwhelming majority of trade speculation does nothing more than fuel discussions on talk shows and Internet message boards, but one persistent -- and quite logical -- nugget making the rounds has Calgary weighing the merits of sending defenseman Derek Morris to Boston for left winger Sergei Samsonov. The Bruins' first-round loss to Montreal underscored their need for a big shot from the blue line, which Morris could provide, and Samsonov would diversify a Calgary offense currently dominated by Jarome Iginla.

While Atlantic Division partisans like to argue that it is the best, most competitive in the NHL, that's a pretty tough case to make these days. All three Atlantic teams -- Philadelphia, New Jersey and the New York Islanders -- that qualified for the playoffs were beaten in the first round, compiling a cumulative record of 6-12.

Canadiens center Doug Gilmour has been a pretty fair player for the better part of two decades, but his success came at a price; Gilmour told the Montreal Gazette that he has received about 2,000 stitches ("if you include those inside my mouth") during his career. "I have so much scar tissue around my eyes, I'm a bleeder now," Gilmour said. "I used to have eyebrows."

Edmonton General Manager Kevin Lowe's search for a second-line center likely will lead him to Philadelphia, where Jiri Dopita, 33, languished on the fourth line for much of the past season. Dopita had 11 goals and 16 assists in 52 games, and his agent already has told the Flyers that Dopita doesn't plan to spend another winter in Philadelphia.

Although the Penguins' drafting record over the past decade or so has been pretty lackluster -- history suggests that a three-legged yak has almost as good a chance of reaching the NHL as their average second-rounder -- it's unlikely anyone from Buffalo will taunt them about it. No Sabres draft choice since 1990 has scored 30 goals in an NHL season, and Brad May, who had 18 in 1993-94, is their only No. 1 pick to get more than 12 in one year.

New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey has unveiled his proposal to finance a $355 million arena in downtown Newark for the Devils and New Jersey Nets. It calls for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to issue $165 million in bonds, while Newark and Essex County chip in a total of $50 million. YankeeNets, which owns the teams, would put up $120 million, pay for half of a $20 million loan for predevelopment costs and cover any cost overruns. Whether there will be any parallel between that plan -- which has not been approved by any of the concerned parties -- and any that will be proposed to finance construction of a new building for the Penguins is hard to say. There's no evidence anyone will try to have Continental Airlines Arena designated a historical site, even though its unique design gives it the look of a giant albino crab rising out of the North Jersey swamplands.

There are some people north of the border who probably would take the following as evidence that the Apocalypse is upon us: All four Canadian teams that qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs have Europeans for a captain. That list includes three Swedes (Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson, Toronto's Mats Sundin and Vancouver's Markus Naslund) and a Finn (Montreal's Saku Koivu).

Tampa Bay made a belated run at a playoff berth during the regular season and is ready to go after immediate help to get it into the post-season for the first time since 1996. Lightning GM Jay Feaster is prepared to trade his team's first-round draft choice, No. 4 overall, to acquire "a player who can help us right now." Tampa Bay's blueprint for an upgrade is believed to call for adding a couple of scoring forwards, a defenseman and a backup goaltender.

The next time Colorado center Joe Sakic has to negotiate a contract, he might want to have Los Angeles coach Andy Murray represent him. Consider this assessment Murray offered of Sakic's play and value: "Every time he gets the puck, your heart kind of jumps to your throat. To me, in the last year, he's been the best [player] in hockey. He won the MVP of the league last year. He won a Stanley Cup. He won an Olympics gold medal. He was the MVP of the Olympics. You can't help but be impressed with what he's done."