Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 27, 1994 TAG: 9409270096
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEN RAPPOPORT ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This is the season the NHL hopes to join the mainstream, to move from regional attraction to national hot property, to cash in on rising popularity.
Now if it can just get the season started.
Under the threat of an opening-day lockout Saturday, the NHL suddenly has a time clock ticking in the last few days before its 78th season.
Commissioner Gary Bettman has said he will decide Friday whether to postpone the start of the season if a collective bargaining agreement is not reached.
The labor impasse comes in the wake of one of the NHL's most glorious seasons, capped by a Stanley Cup victory for the New York Rangers that ended 54 years of frustration and raised hockey's standing in the consciousness of American sports fans.
With interest up, the NHL signed its first network television deal in two decades. All signs pointed to hockey becoming the hot sport of the '90s.
Then along came those nagging labor problems, propelled by the same two words that ended baseball's season six weeks prematurely - salary cap.
The standoff between owners and players was not the only negative news for the NHL as the 1994-95 season approached.
Mario Lemieux, one of the league's best players with the Pittsburgh Penguins, announced he would be sitting out the season because of health problems.
Mike Keenan was suspended for 60 days for what the NHL considered inappropriate behavior in leaving as Rangers coach to take over in St. Louis.
Bruce McNall was forced to relinquish his chairmanship of the board of governors and 72 percent interest in the Los Angeles Kings because of a financial scandal that rocked his empire.
And hovering over it all was the simmering labor issue.
The league and its players union held lengthy negotiations over the summer in hopes of heading off any labor problems. The players have been without a contract since Sept. 15, 1993, and Bettman said starting play before a new agreement was reached would leave hockey open to a midseason strike - just like baseball.
A work stoppage would be the second in three years. In 1992, the players struck for 10 days in April before agreeing to a new contract. The NHL lost some games on its schedule, but managed to salvage the playoffs with the agreement.
The most positive news of the off-season came with the NHL's new TV deal.
The NHL signed a 5-year deal with the Fox network and expanded its agreement with ESPN. The Fox deal represents a breakthrough for the league, which hasn't been on over-the-air TV on a regular basis since the 1970s.
In September 1992, the NHL and ESPN began a 5-year deal to carry games on cable. ESPN, which is owned by CapCities-ABC, bought time on ABC each of the last two seasons to air a half-dozen games.
If the contract dispute is settled, and if this season is anything like the last one, the networks will have plenty to show, right from the scheduled opening day.
The Rangers and New Jersey Devils, the top two teams in the NHL last season, are due to open at the Meadowlands on Saturday. There's also an early season rematch on Oct.30 between the Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, the Stanley Cup finalists.
And Central Division rivals Chicago and St. Louis will help to inaugurate their new arenas. The Blackhawks host the Blues at the 20,500-seat United Center in Chicago on Oct.2, while St. Louis plays its first game at the 18,500-seat Kiel Center against Chicago on Oct.11.
The league also will continue a schedule of neutral-site games in nine non-NHL markets, including debuts in Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., and San Antonio.
After winning their first Stanley Cup since 1940, the Rangers begin defense of the championship with a new look.
``People kept saying the Rangers were in trouble because they have so many over-30 veterans,'' forward Adam Graves said. ``Well, suddenly we have a young team.''
That includes newcomer Petr Nedved, 22, a skilled offensive player the Rangers obtained from St. Louis as part of the compensation for Keenan jumping to the Blues. His place as Rangers coach was taken by Colin Campbell, a longtime assistant.
With the scheduled start of the season fast approaching, the status of the Rangers' biggest star remained uncertain. Captain Mark Messier was holding out for a new contract that would pay about $6 million a season, more than twice what he made last year.
Whoever their coach and captain might be, the Rangers will find it hard to repeat as champions. There is strength throughout the league, with Vancouver, New Jersey, Pittsburgh and Detroit among the solid contenders.
The Canucks are basically the same team that was two goals away from the Cup in last year's riveting, seven-game final with the Rangers.
So are the Devils, who took the Rangers to a seventh-game overtime in the conference finals.
The Red Wings return the most valuable player from last year, plus an abundance of talent that includes a battle-tested goaltender who once helped Calgary win the Stanley Cup.
The Penguins, with the exception of Lemieux, boast much of the nucleus that won Cups in 1991 and 1992 and have added one of the league's top scorers to the mix.
Although the Penguins will feel the loss of Lemieux, they acquired left wing Luc Robitaille from Los Angeles in an off-season trade to beef up the scoring. Robitaille is a perennial All-Star who has scored 63 goals in a season.
The Penguins signed Jaromir Jagr to a fat, new contract and he figures to be their poster boy, at least while Lemieux tries to recover fully from medical problems ranging from a bad back to Hodgkin's disease.
The Penguins, though aging in some areas, particularly on defense, have players who know how to win - including goaltender Tom Barrasso, who has two Cups to prove it.
New York goaltender Mike Richter is now in Barrasso's class, following last season's sterling performance in the playoffs.
Richter wasn't the only goaltender who looked good in the playoffs, and the men in the nets should be the league's strong point this season. Such goalies as New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, the rookie of the year last season; Buffalo's Dominik Hasek, the Vezina Trophy winner; and Vancouver's Kirk McLean all sparkled in the playoffs.
The Red Wings, led by Sergei Fedorov, the NHL's Hart Trophy winner, might have gone further in the playoffs with a better goaltender. To this end, they made an off-season trade for Mike Vernon, who led Calgary to the Cup in 1986.
Keenan had four years to go on a five-year contract with the Rangers when he left for St. Louis one month after carrying the Cup around Madison Square Garden. In St. Louis, Keenan replaced Bob Berry as coach and also became general manager. But he was fined $100,000 by the league and forced to sit out most of training camp.
As part of the settlement, the Blues sent Nedved, one of the league's rising young centers, to the Rangers in exchange for Esa Tikannen and Doug Lidster.
In other coaching moves, George Burnett replaced Glen Sather in Edmonton; Paul Holmgren took over at Hartford, replacing Pierre McGuire; Lorne Henning became the new coach of the New York Islanders, taking over for Al Arbour; Terry Murray took over in Philadelphia from Terry Simpson; Marc Crawford replaced Pierre Page in Quebec; and Rick Ley took over in Vancouver for Pat Quinn, who remained as the Canucks' general manager and president.
Keywords:
HOCKEY
by CNB