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Sunday, October 27, 2002

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Pity the Predators.

They remain winless despite having stayed close to nearly every team they have faced. They actually couldn't be keeping much closer.

In their first seven games, before facing the Red Wings at home last night, all six of the losses in their 0-4-1-2 start came by one goal. For the season, they have been outscored by only 21-15, and have been outshot only three times.

Coach Barry Trotz is trying to shake up his lineup in search of the missing goal.

"We're just looking to see if we can get some guys going or some chemistry," he told the Tennessean. "It's like changing the batting order in baseball. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't."

Trotz's hands are somewhat tied, of course. Among his changes was creating a line of Martin Erat, Clarke Wilm and Brent Gilchrist.

He might need to find the goal elsewhere.

St. Louis apparently wasn't itching to sign Tom Barrasso. The Blues waited until they went through five goaltenders before deciding they would give Barrasso, 37, a shot. Brent Johnson and Fred Brathwaite went down with injuries early, prompting the team to recall Reinhard Davis and Curtis Sanford from the AHL. When Davis was hurt, up came Cody Rudkowsky from the ECHL. Rudkowsky dressed as the backup Thursday in Edmonton and was forced into action when Sanford's ankle was sprained. Rudkowsky, a backup with the Trenton Titans, stopped all 10 shots he faced and won the game, 2-1. Amazingly, the Blues rank fourth in the NHL in team goaltending.

Exhilarated as Rudkowsky was Thursday, that's how exasperated the Oilers were. Edmonton figured to be one of the teams benefiting from the crackdown on obstruction, but it ranks among the conference's worst in part because of a lack of offense. The loss to Rudkowsky marked the Oilers' third to a goaltender with little or no NHL experience. "I don't think we're hungry enough," right winger Anson Carter told the Edmonton Journal. "When you see a young guy, an inexperienced guy in there, you should want to blast every single puck at him every chance you get."

If the West has all the high- flying teams, why is it that only four of the NHL's top 18 scorers heading into this weekend were from the West, including none of the top seven? Could it be that teams in the East were much more guilty of obstruction and now are allowing their scorers to shine? That might be it, particularly when you notice that 10 of the 11 most penalized teams are in the East.

Rookie to watch: Stanislav Chistov is a 5-foot-9 dynamo who long has been compared to a current teammate in Anaheim, Paul Kariya. He is averaging a point a game and has been sound defensively. Moreover, he shouldn't take as long to assimilate to the NHL, as many young Russians do, because he has known English for years.

With Robert Lang returning to town tomorrow, it's a good time to point out that Jaroslav Spacek is third among the Blue Jackets' scorers and has been their best defenseman. It is believed that Spacek was offered to the Penguins by the Blackhawks at the NHL trading deadline in March for Lang. General Manager Craig Patrick opted to keep Lang and lost him to the Capitals through free agency in July without making a contract offer. Spacek is no All-Star, but there would be room for him on the Penguins' blue line.