Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Sunday, December 29, 2002

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

There might not have been a newspaper in any NHL city which didn't make an issue of Jeremy Roenick's reprehensible hit from behind on Mike Modano 12 days ago. And to hear Roenick fume to Philadelphia reporters this week, one would get the impression he read every word.

"I've played this game 15 years and been suspended twice now," Roenick said. "People call me dirty, call me cheap. I play the game hard. If people don't like it, don't watch it. It's too bad. I'm not going to stop hitting. ... The game is like touch football. Guys are afraid to go out and hit somebody or get hurt or make a hit and get a penalty. You just don't know what to do."

Much of the criticism of Roenick was in doubting his sincerity in referring to Modano, a regular teammate in representing the United States in international play, as a good friend. The New York Post's Larry Brooks wrote: "He hits guys and apologizes to them all the time afterward."

"They don't play this game," Roenick said of writers. "It's easy for them to sit back and criticize other people with pens in their hand instead of sticks. If they don't like hard players or a league of tough players, go watch pingpong or badminton. This is a man's game."

Curt Fraser's tenure as Atlanta's coach was marked by an unflinching optimism in the face of endless strings of losing. The morning after a 7-0 loss, he would still greet every stranger with a smile and his familiar, "Hi, I'm Curt." That ran out with a 5-1 loss Monday in Toronto, after which Fraser was, according to General Manager Don Waddell, "devastated." He told reporters, "I accept full responsibility." Fraser got the word Thursday, as the team wanted to wait past Christmas, and he turned off his phones and left for a vacation. It's difficult to imagine even Bob Johnson having maintained a smile with those Thrashers.

How big a deal are faceoffs in the NHL? The Senators are the league's next-to-worst team on draws at 45.6 percent, but they're nothing less than the league's hottest team in the standings. Why? They're so fast, so disciplined that they have no trouble getting the puck right back.

Beleaguered Bryan Trottier has failed to get much, if anything, from the Rangers' many high-paid stars, despite early-season outbursts aimed at getting Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure going. Now, he seems to be taking aim at the next tier. He blasted Radek Dvorak eight days ago, accusing him of playing afraid: "Scared to death. If I'd play against him, I'd say, 'Come on, let's go.' " Dvorak has played hard since then, but it hasn't mattered much.

The Sabres' Eric Boulton might not be the NHL's most hated man, except if you ask an enforcer. Boulton loves to goad and threaten, then turtles when his opponent's gloves come off. Steve McKenna has tried three times to tangle with him this season, including Monday, to no avail. The Panthers' Peter Worrell had a little more success nine days ago. Recalling that Boulton had threatened to "kill" him in a game last season, only to turtle, Worrell went hard at Boulton on his first shift and decked him with one punch. Asked the previous time he had struck someone with such force, Worrell replied, "I've thrown better punches at tougher guys." And on Boulton actually returning to log three more shifts: "If I didn't have a heart, he probably wouldn't have come back."

What McKenna thinks about Boulton isn't printable in a family newspaper.