Carey Is Taking Some Hits After Being a Big One

To say Jim Carey has struggled this season is putting it mildly.

“I’m not going to win the Vezina,” he said wryly. “Surprise.”

He won the Vezina Trophy--awarded to the NHL’s best goaltender--last season with the Washington Capitals. He led the league with nine shutouts, was among the leaders with 35 victories and a 2.26 goals-against average and set team records for victories, games, minutes and saves.

But for the second consecutive spring, he flopped in the playoffs, compiling a 6.19 goals-against average as the Capitals lost to Pittsburgh in the first round.

Playing this season behind a low-scoring team depleted by injuries, Carey flailed and began to doubt himself. Traded to Boston on March 1 in the six-player deal that sent Adam Oates, Rick Tocchet and Bill Ranford to Washington, he’s nowhere near his trophy-winning form--and he knows it.

“When I came here I said, ‘I’m going to look at the last 15-20 games positively and make the best of it,’ ” said Carey, who won only three of his first 11 appearances with the Bruins, was pulled twice and has a 3.69 goals-against average and a .870 save percentage.

“I’m not going to change everything and make them a first-place team in one day,” he said. “My confidence is OK. Obviously, this year is not last year. I haven’t been at the top of my game night in and night out. . . . We were .500 [in Washington], and you’re playing on a team where if you let in two goals, you’re going to lose nine out of 10 nights. You start second-guessing yourself. The coaches were doing a pretty good job of second-guessing themselves and myself and it was a bad situation there.”

He’s still adjusting to the Bruins’ system, which emphasizes offense over defense.

“Things are going to be a little more chaotic in the defensive zone and I have to adapt to it,” he said. “There’s a whole different mentality here [that] if you’re going into the third period down two [goals], you know you’re still in it and that’s a good feeling. [Unlike in Washington] if you let in a goal, you’re not worried, ‘I let in the game-winning goal.’ ”

The Bruins have been hurting in net since they traded Andy Moog to Dallas in 1993. Carey may be the solution, but he looks more like a candidate to join Steve Penney, Blaine Lacher, Tommy Soderstrom and Tim Cheveldae on a list of goalies who had sensational starts but quickly faded.

IS NOTHING SACRED?

Instead of modifying the traditional “CH” logo on their planned third jerseys, the Montreal Canadiens should simply put a dollar sign on the chest. Money is their motivation, so why not be upfront about it?

Their original logo won’t change, but seeing the Canadiens in any other design is an affront to their great history. Let everyone else skate around in abominations that resemble pajama tops, the Canadiens should be above such crassness. Instead, they’re showing that dignity and tradition have a price.

WILL HE OR WON’T HE?

Prevailing wisdom says Detroit’s Scotty Bowman will give up coaching after this season to concentrate on his duties as the team’s personnel director, but that’s far from certain.

“Who knows?” said Jimmy Devellano, Detroit’s senior vice president for hockey operations.

“Scotty came to us four years ago and when he was hired, he signed a two-year contract. And at that time, most of us, including Scotty, thought he’d be here two years. But he’s done such a terrific job, it’s lasted four years.”

If championships are the gauge, it can be argued that Bowman hasn’t done such a terrific job.

“We haven’t won the Cup, no, but this team has been successful in every other way,” Devellano said. “We’ve won two Presidents’ Trophies [for the best regular-season record] and made two trips to the Stanley Cup finals. Prior to that, we had good clubs under [former general manager] Bryan Murray, but the problem was we could never get out of the first round of the playoffs. . . . I’m anticipating [Bowman] will finish his career with us.”

But probably not as coach, if the Red Wings fall short again this spring.

TRADE POSTMORTEMS

The Kirk Muller trade came closest to being a blockbuster deal on a day of generally inconsequential moves.

The New York Rangers were unhappy that Toronto traded Muller to the Florida Panthers for Jason Podollan because the Rangers believed their offer of a second-round pick and a prospect was better--and because Muller joined the team they probably will face in the first round of the playoffs.

The Panthers got better and the Toronto Maple Leafs got giddy. What other explanation can there be for Toronto agreeing to pick up one-third of Larry Murphy’s salary next season--about $825,000--when they sent him to Detroit?

By dumping Jeff Norton and his $1.25-million salary, the Edmonton Oilers signaled they will try to re-sign defenseman Luke Richardson when he becomes a free agent. Paring Norton’s salary will clear money for a competitive bid.

The biggest non-trade was the Philadelphia Flyers not getting a goalie. Ron Hextall’s inconsistency fueled speculation that the Flyers can’t win with him, but General Manager Bob Clarke still backs him. Whether that’s blind loyalty will become apparent early in the playoffs. The Flyers also didn’t get the brawny defenseman they needed, picking up only Frantisek Kucera from Vancouver.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ additions of Oksiuta, Ed Olczyk and Josef Beranek won’t have the impact of their earlier acquisitions of Darius Kasparaitis, Stu Barnes and Alex Hicks. They didn’t have much left to deal. It’s now or never for the Penguins in what appears to be Mario Lemieux’s final season, and these deals, which made them bigger but slower, won’t bring the Cup now.

AND HOWE

Despite widespread skepticism, Gordie Howe still plans to play a shift for Syracuse of the American Hockey League next Tuesday, a day after he turns 69. Carolina enforcer Trevor Doyle said he won’t make allowances for Howe’s age.

“I have grandparents as old as him, so it’s definitely going to be an awkward situation,” Doyle said. “But it’s a real game and I still have a job to do. If we’re on the ice together, I’ll try and finish my check and take him out of the play, but nothing too violent or aggressive.”

Said Howe: “I’ll get three inches extra on my stick, and if they get that close, they’ll have to run through that to get at Gordie. My whole career, whoever attacked Gordie Howe from the back got lumber. It could’ve been my mother. I don’t care.”

SLAP SHOTS

New Jersey Devil goalie Mike Dunham is two appearances short of 25, which would ensure he can’t become a free agent after the season. Some of his stints have been brief--41 seconds against the New York Islanders on Nov. 19 and the final 36 seconds of a loss at Tampa on Feb. 22, but they count. . . . Mike Ramsey, lured out of retirement by Bowman, went back to his sporting goods store after playing only two games for the Red Wings. Ramsey, 36, couldn’t regain his old fitness. “I could have played a regular season and got by, but when the play is elevated in the playoffs, I didn’t think it would work,” he said.

Kelly Buchberger was honored when the Edmonton Oilers made mention of his 200th NHL point. “It was nice of them to announce it,” he said. “It was even nicer that they didn’t say it took me 11 years.” . . . Shouldn’t Miroslav Satan have been traded to the Devils? . . . Pavel Bure will need two more weeks to recover from whiplash. The Vancouver Canucks’ collapse has jeopardized the jobs of General Manager Pat Quinn and his assistant, George McPhee.

If St. Louis winger Joe Murphy can’t score with Pierre Turgeon as his center, he never will. He has one goal in his last 22 games, on a Turgeon setup. “He makes things happen and he sees the ice well,” Murphy said of Turgeon. . . . Four shutouts in the last three weeks earned Phoenix goalie Nikolai Khabibulin a new nickname: “The Bulin Wall.”

The Florida Panthers, who have lost eight players to knee injuries, asked the NHL to consider treating knee-on-knee hits the same as checks from behind, which would result in ejection.

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Trade Winds

Including Jim Carey, three of the last five Vezina Trophy winners were traded not long after winning the award. Here are the winners who changed teams:

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Player-Team-Year Won Year Traded Jim Carey, Wash. 1996 Boston, 1997 Ed Belfour, Chic. 1993 San Jose 1997 Patrick Roy, Mont., 1992 Colorado 1995

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