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Sunday, June 15, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

On the eve of the Stanley Cup final, Gary Bettman threw a roomful of reporters for a loop when he blurted out the possibility the league could increase the size of its nets to boost scoring. Many felt the comment was made in jest, but others took it dead seriously.

Count Johan Hedberg and Sebastien Caron, the Penguins' goaltenders, among those who would not laugh at such a concept.

"Catastrophic," Hedberg said of the potential impact.

"Oh, it would be so bad," Caron said. "Oh, man . . . "

Hockey nets' official size has been 6 feet by 4 feet since the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada made it the fourth of the 16 original rules of the sport at the group's founding meeting Dec. 8, 1886. There never has been a significant variation in any league or at any level. Even the smallest of children shoot into the same net.

But change in this cardinal rule no longer is unimaginable. Nothing is, given the NHL's sorry state. Attendance is down, television ratings are plummeting, and fans across the continent -- even in Canada, hockey's homeland -- are calling the game boring.

Which likely explains why Bettman felt compelled to, at the least, broach the topic three weeks ago: "It probably will get discussed. Discussed, not necessarily implemented, not necessarily pursued at 100 miles per hour."

Another, more popular idea has been to shrink goaltending pads back to where they were in the 1980s, when two additional goals were being scored in an average game. As was evident in the recent final with the outrageously bloated -- albeit legal -- padding worn by Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the NHL has allowed goaltenders too much leeway in using their equipment not for protection but for prevention of goals.

Neither Hedberg nor Caron hesitated when asked if they would rather don smaller equipment or defend bigger nets.

"Definitely the pads," Hedberg said. "I've got 11-inch pads, and that's already an inch smaller than what they allow. To me, it doesn't matter: 12 inches, 11, 9, whatever. I know there are guys who build a style based on their equipment, but just look at Martin Brodeur: He's got the smallest pads in the league, and he's the best goaltender in the league. He plays with his ability to stop the puck."

"My pads are 11 inches, too, so I don't care if they're 10," Caron said. "Anything would be better than bigger nets. We're used to the same net, you know? All our lives, we've played in front of the same net. I think it would be a mess."

Both described the adjustment to a bigger net as monumental, even if the expansion were only by an inch or two.

"Just imagine how many shots right now hit the post or the crossbar," Hedberg said. "You would have to make huge changes to your game. Side to side, you're going to get beat on more lateral passes. And on a straight-ahead shot, you would have to come out another 10 inches or so to take away an angle. You would see more goals, for sure, but it would be really tough for us."

One argument made against smaller goaltending equipment is that it would increase the risk of injury. But neither Hedberg nor Caron support that view.

"Guys are going to have to stretch more, for sure," Hedberg said. "But I think guys are already as flexible as they can be."

Caron agreed, with the caveat that skaters make sacrifices, too.

"Hey, look at those new sticks the forwards are using, those composites. They all shoot the puck 100 miles an hour now," he said. "We have to be protected or they have to change, too."

It is highly unlikely the NHL will act radically enough to increase the size of nets anytime soon. But, if it happens, Hedberg maintained it surely would spell the end of the diminutive goaltender, already an endangered species.

"You can count on it" Hedberg said. "I think you'd need to find basketball players to do the job."

Icy chips

Other than Caron making the NHL All-Rookie Team, the Penguins were nearly invisible when the league distributed its awards Thursday in Toronto. Mario Lemieux received four votes for the Hart Trophy, one fourth-place and three fifth-place. He also received a fifth-place vote for the Lady Byng, while Martin Straka had one third-place and one fourth-place.

Peter Forsberg took a jab at the Penguins in accepting the Art Ross Trophy. Standing at the podium, he acknowledged that Lemieux likely would have won the scoring title if he "didn't have to trade the whole team away."

Irony of ironies: The Capitals are seeking a package of young players to get Jaromir Jagr's mammoth contract -- he still is owed roughly $55 million -- off their books. Trouble is, there are no takers. Not for Jagr, not for any of the high-priced players widely assumed to be getting shopped by their teams. Which underscores why it would be nearly impossible for the Penguins to move Straka, as they are believed to have tried to do in March and failed. He is due $4.35 million next season and, more important, $4.7 million in 2004-05, which would be the first year of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Even the Rangers are admitting they want no part of contracts that extend that far.

Expect the Bruins to make like the Penguins and stay in house for their next head coach by promoting assistant Mike Sullivan. If he is hired, Sullivan, 35, would pass Paul Maurice and Eddie Olczyk as the league's youngest head coach.

Curt Fraser, former Thrashers coach, on why he should be the Penguins' third assistant: "I'm 45, and I've already coached 900 games, 279 of them with young players at the NHL level." Will he get a call?

If the Penguins are serious about emulating the Wild, as Olczyk suggested Wednesday, they should heed this quote from Jacques Lemaire Thursday regarding keeping at least a few veterans around: "Wes Walz is probably the best example there is for our youngsters. We have a young team, and those young kids look to the old guys."

Six days until the Penguins step to the podium.