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Sunday, April 13, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Propaganda is the kind of term which should be reserved for serious matters such as war and politics.

So, let's generously refer to the news release the NHL issued Wednesday regarding its final regular-season scoring numbers as spin. Or spinorama, to reapply an existing hockey term.

The opening paragraph read: "While goal-scoring was up marginally this season (5.3 goals per game vs. 5.2 average in 2001-02), there are several indicators that there was more offense in the game, that the stars had more room to shine and that there was more flow."

The actual figures for this increase in scoring, when carried out an extra decimal point, are 5.24 to 5.31. That's a .07 difference in the amount of offense, less than a tenth of a goal.

Try to contain your enthusiasm, please.

It went on to point out that five players topped the 96 points with which the Flames' Jarome Iginla led the league in scoring last season. The Avalanche's Peter Forsberg had 106, the Canucks' Markus Naslund 104, the Bruins' Joe Thornton 101, the Avalanche's Milan Hejduk 98 and the Canucks' Todd Bertuzzi 97.

It adds that 12 players had 82 points or more compared to three from last season, that nine players had 55 or more assists compared to three, that there were 75 hat tricks compared to 57.

All of this is to serve as evidence that the game's top talents were better able to excel, but what the release does not say is that much of the offense created by the game's elite players came in the opening two months, when the obstruction crackdown was in full effect and power plays were up drastically. Goals per game were at 5.58 in October and fell to 5.09 by December. If interference rules had been enforced properly all season -- not just when players without the puck are violated -- the league surely would have had real numbers worth trumpeting without resorting to selective math.

The NHL's bizarre view that increased offense is not important was best evident in the second-to-last paragraph of the release, the one touting that 36 percent of all games were decided by one goal: "More goals do not necessarily translate to better games. The highest goals-per-game average in a season in the past 80 years was 8.3 in 1981-82. That season, only 18 percent of games were decided by one goal."

One could imagine those fans were nothing less than crestfallen at the low entertainment value of having to watch eight or nine goals scored every night with a breakaway or two-on-one guaranteed every few minutes.

This latter stance starts at the top with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and it traces to his days as David Stern's No. 2 man in the NBA. In the NBA, the quality of a game is measured by its closeness, but that is because high scoring is a guarantee given the nature of the sport. In hockey, 1-0 or 2-1 almost invariably represents a yawner.

Bettman passes this philosophy along to his highest-ranking employees, too.

Listen to the comments of two of them in a conference call Monday when asked about the lack of offense:

Andy van Hellemond, director of officiating: "Actually, what we were trying to do is create more scoring chances. We wanted the games played in the end zones. We wanted the play to go through the neutral zone, the north-south movement to be a lot better. I think that was accomplished. The game is played in the end zones a lot more. We had very few freezing the pucks along the sideboards in the middle of the rink."

Colin Campbell, head of hockey operations, "I don't always like to measure things in goals and assists. ... We want to do more than just produce points; we wanted to produce good forechecking. We wanted to let the hard-hitting, forechecking players get in there."

Until the NHL recognizes that it has a problem, it will not make a significant move toward fixing it.

Icy chips

The release also noted that the average game time this season was two hours, 20 minutes, shortest in 40 years and down 13 minutes from 2001-02. That was due almost entirely to the hurry-up faceoffs, which trimmed the average break to 23.8 seconds. Unlike most NHL crackdowns, statistics show that this one actually grew stronger as the season wore on.

Shortest game of the season was the Red Wings' 5-1 victory at Mellon Arena March 18 at 2:04.

Another plus: Fifty percent of overtime games, 156 of 313, had a winner, the highest rate since regular-season overtime began in 1983-84. This is a clear vindication of the league's once-controversial decision to award each team a point for being tied after regulation.

The next team to follow the Penguins' lead and cut payroll in anticipation of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2004 will be the Canadiens. Owner George Gillet was bitter that his payroll boost to $46 million this season produced a 10th-place finish with a veteran-laden cast and is worried that the team needs to pay -- and play -- a promising collection of younger prospects. That will spell the end for Patrice Brisebois and others in Montreal, even if it means buyouts.

If hockey were baseball, Theoren Fleury would have just swung and missed at strike three.

The biggest free-agent fish of the summer might not hit the pool. Teemu Selanne has requested -- and received -- an extension from the Sharks to decide if he will exercise his $6.5 million option to return next season. Selanne, 33, does not want to stay in San Jose if the team is rebuilding, and he is believed interested in rejoining good friend Paul Kariya in Anaheim, where he still has a home.

Neil Smith, special consultant to Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick, is one of three finalists for the vacant San Jose GM job. The others are directors of hockey operations, John Ferguson Jr. of the Blues and Dave Nonis of the Canucks.

Only 69 days until the Penguins step to the podium in Nashville.