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Sunday, March 09, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

So, who exactly is coaching the Panthers? And, if it's still Mike Keenan, how much longer will that last?

In one of the strangest coaching moves in memory, Florida management, spearheaded by General Manager Rick Dudley, fired assistants Paul Baxter and George Kingston Thursday with a month left in the season. On top of that, one of the replacements, Duane Sutter, was the man fired when Keenan was hired two years ago. The other was John Torchetti, coach of their AHL affiliate.

And way atop that, owner Alan Cohen, Dudley and Keenan agreed that Keenan would leave day-to-day team preparations to the new assistants, including the conducting of practices, same as Scott Bowman did during his brief stint as the Penguins' coach 10 years ago.

The Panthers explained that, because they have the NHL's youngest team, they wanted to emphasize teaching. Those close to the team said that was why the rugged Baxter, a former tough guy with the Penguins, was fired.

Keenan insisted he is fine with the arrangement, telling the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel the move "made sense in terms of looking forward with this program and the development of these young players."

You can take the Penguin out of Pittsburgh, but ... the Capitals are unhappy with the defensive work of Robert Lang to the extent Coach Bruce Cassidy has benched him and spoken with him on the matter in the past week. "When you talk about it, sometimes you've got to go to the next step," Cassidy told the Washington Post. "Now, it's to the point where maybe you take away some of his minutes or whatever, try some motivational tactics. I'd like to think he can get the job done on that line." Lang, who is skating between fellow former Penguins Jaromir Jagr and Kip Miller, has 18 goals, 37 assists and a plus-2 rating.

Consecutive victories by the Bruins this week ended an 0-5-3-1 slide which seemed to threaten Robbie Ftorek's job. The team's leaders told the Boston Globe they never believed Ftorek was in jeopardy. "I think Robbie's going to be here for a long time," Joe Thornton said. "That's my feeling."

With only a month left and Ftorek seemingly safe, the season is likely to conclude with seven coaches having been fired. And somehow, Paul Maurice, owner of the league's longest tenure with eight years in Carolina, will again survive the ax. He has been under significant pressure on an almost annual basis, even last season, when the Hurricanes reached the Stanley Cup final. None of his previous teams performed as poorly as this one, but General Manager Jim Rutherford insists no change will be made. That has something to do with the five-year, $4 million contract Maurice signed last summer, but it has more to do with Rutherford's passion for maintaining consistency.

As Mario Lemieux skated off the Mellon Arena ice Thursday night, he and old friend Ron Francis exchanged small waves from 40 feet away. A few minutes later, Francis offered his support for the off-ice decisions Lemieux has made in the past few weeks: "They're playing in the oldest building in the league, and they had to make the move with Alexei Kovalev. It's tough to make do like that. I'm pulling for Mario. I want the franchise to be successful."

Yet another reason for Cam Neely to detest Ulf Samuelsson, more than a decade after Samuelsson's hard checking in the playoffs and resultant injuries cut his career short at 13 years: Neely is lobbying to get into the Hall of Fame, using his three 50-goal seasons and style of play as the platform. But he has been eligible since 1999 and is gaining little momentum, mostly for having only 395 goals. "People have pointed out the term power forward was kind of coined after the way I played," he told the Boston Globe. "In some sense, it kind of revolutionized the way some players play." That will be news, of course, to the bullish likes of Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito, Tim Kerr, Kevin Stevens and countless others who played that way before Neely.