Coast-to-Coast Shift Could Wake Up Sharks, Bruins

Doug Wilson heard the knocks against Joe Thornton.

That he was aloof. Unwilling to strap the team on his back. A failure because the Boston Bruins never went deep into the playoffs after they drafted him first overall in 1997.

Wilson, general manager of the San Jose Sharks, chose to believe his eyes, not his ears.

“We know Joe very well, and every time I see Joe he’s winning a gold medal, whether at the world juniors or the World Cup,” Wilson said Monday. “I don’t think that when you build a hockey team there’s one person who’s supposed to carry a team. That’s not hockey. Who carried Tampa?

“It’s very rare for a player of his prominence to become available, and I’m not going to be passive or timid when that opportunity arises.”

Wilson grabbed that chance last week at the cost of defenseman Brad Stuart, winger Marco Sturm and center Wayne Primeau. Trading Stuart was tough, especially in a league that now puts a premium on mobile, puck-moving defensemen.

“Maybe a change will be good and he flourishes in Boston,” Wilson said of Stuart. “I want him to do well.

“Maybe Brad wins the Norris and Joe wins the Conn Smythe. How is that bad?”

Before Thornton can become the most valuable player in the playoffs the Sharks must make the playoffs -- no sure thing. But they scored five goals in each of Thornton’s first two games and won both; they’d scored 21 goals in their previous 10 games and lost them all.

Wilson said he hoped Thornton, 26, can combine with Patrick Marleau for years, much as Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic did in winning two championships in Colorado.

“I don’t want to get committed to a player who’s 33, 34, 35 and has a long-term contract. I have no trouble compensating someone who earns it,” Wilson said of Thornton, who has two more seasons at $6.66 million per season.

Pacific Division rivals won’t like it as much.

“If Brad Stuart regains his form, that’s an excellent trade for the Boston Bruins,” Mighty Duck General Manager Brian Burke said. “Short-term, Thornton’s going to be a problem in our division because now you have him and Marleau, two talented guys with size, two big sides of beef that can play in the middle.

“We’re going to have to figure out a way to play them, how to get some size back in the middle against them.”

Wilson says the Sharks will benefit long-term -- as will the Bruins. “I’d love to see San Jose and Boston in the Stanley Cup final,” he said, “and may the best team win.”

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The Fight Goes On

A group of players hoping to overturn the hiring of Ted Saskin as executive director of the NHL Players’ Assn. invited agents to a meeting next Monday in Chicago, a day before agents are to meet there with Saskin.

Twenty-seven active players and former King Trent Klatt filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board contending that union leaders ignored their own constitution in choosing Saskin to succeed Bob Goodenow. The union later conducted a vote of player representatives but several teams, as a way to protest the process, refused to return their ballots. The dissident group now exceeds 100, a person with knowledge of the group’s actions said.

“The general feeling across the hockey industry is that Ted’s days are numbered. Momentum is building against what Ted has done,” the person said. “It’s only a question of whether the Department of Labor acts against Ted and his small group, or at the summer general player meeting I guarantee 400 to 500 players will be onside with Trent Klatt and Chris Chelios and sweep him out.”

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Smart Like a Fox

Jim Fox, the Kings’ TV analyst, defused a nasty situation with class last Friday when Ottawa Senator Coach Bryan Murray directed an expletive-filled tirade at him.

Fox had criticized Murray for barking at players and for sending 6-foot-9 defenseman Zdeno Chara out to line up as a forward against King defenseman Tim Gleason with a bit more than three minutes left. Chara instigated a fight against Gleason as payback -- in the Senators’ minds -- for King forward Sean Avery’s running Dominik Hasek.

Murray approached Fox outside the Kings’ locker room afterward and shouted, “You’re telling me I didn’t control myself? That’s a ... cheap shot on your part. You don’t have the right to ... cut me up. I’ve never done anything like this in my ... career. And for you to say that is ... wrong.” Murray added a personal insult and walked away only when Fox calmly told him that TV cameras were recording the scene.

Murray was fined $10,000, and Chara was suspended for one game.

“I told him, ‘Bryan, I have my opinion and you have yours.’ I tried to answer him because he was saying, ‘Why did you say this?’ I just felt it was the fair thing to listen and try to answer,” Fox said from Toronto, where the Kings will face the Maple Leafs today. “I’ve had many discussions with coaches, but nothing like this. ...

“I do stand by it. I experienced it as a player with Bryan. The upsetting thing to me was his reputation of yelling at players. A lot of events took place that night, and the NHL has handled it in an appropriate manner.”

Fox said he understood that Murray was trying to protect Ottawa’s players, “but I’ve got a job to do too.” “As an analyst,” he added, “you try to bring your experience to it.”

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Slap Shots

In a shootout on Saturday, Minnesota goalie Manny Fernandez trapped a shot by New Jersey’s Alexander Mogilny against his body and carried it back over the goal line, which would be a goal during a game. However, Colin Campbell, the NHL’s director of operations, told on-ice officials via telephone from Toronto that it shouldn’t count because replays didn’t show the puck crossing the line and it wasn’t clear if the play was dead, making it “inconclusive and not a good hockey goal.”

As new situations arise, shootout rules will be modified. Any rule change requires unanimous approval of the Board of Governors, which will meet next week in Scottsdale, Ariz. “There are some hard questions we have to resolve,” said Mike Murphy, the NHL’s vice president of hockey operations.

The plethora of penalty shots -- 40 through Sunday -- is a byproduct of the anti-obstruction watch and not a directive to call them more often, Stephen Walkom, the NHL’s director of officiating, said last week.

“Our hooking and holding standard and tripping standard on the puck carrier is different this year than it’s been any other year,” he said. “When a player gets by a defenseman, he’s hooked or tugged or poked and the scoring opportunity that he had in the slot is taken away and it isn’t restored until he’s two feet in front of the goalie; that needs to be restored in a penalty shot form.”