O’Sullivan’s Clan Has Eyes on NHL and the Olympics

Calgary Flame defenseman Chris O’Sullivan doesn’t mind being told he plays like a girl--as long as the girl he’s being compared to is his sister, Stephanie, a forward on the U.S. women’s national hockey team. He often has been told he should play more the way she does--and he agrees.

While assigned to Calgary’s minor league affiliate in St. John’s, Canada, Chris and some teammates went to see the U.S. women’s team play the Canadian women’s team.

“They lost, 4-1, and she got into a fight,” he said. “The guys were joking about it and saying I should be as tough. But I made up for it last week at Dallas, when I got into a fight.

“She’s a tough player. She’s more tenacious than I am, but I’m learning.”

Their determination developed while growing up in the Boston suburb of Dorchester, where 13 O’Sullivans shared a small house with a single bathroom. Compared to the action at home on a busy morning, a hockey fight is a lark.

But their life hasn’t been easy. Their parents, John and Ann, died of cancer in 1990 and 1992, respectively, and the older children held the family together, acting as surrogate parents. Stephanie, 26, is the middle child in the clan and Chris is three years younger.

“She’s always been tough,” he said. “In youth hockey, she was always playing with boys. I feel bad for the girls she plays against. She’s used to playing with me.”

Stephanie, who will compete for the U.S. against Canada and Finland this week in the Three Nations Cup at sites around the northeastern U.S., honors her parents’ memories by wearing two small shamrocks on the back of her helmet. Chris’ tribute is silent but no less heartfelt.

“I’ve never gone out there and not thought of them,” he said. “Hockey was always an outlet for us. The year I got drafted [1992] was the toughest year of my life because my mother had cancer and was fighting for her life. I had scouts looking at me and it was tough for me to focus on hockey. I played in the state high school championships two weeks after she passed away.”

Chris won’t go to Nagano to watch Stephanie in the first women’s Olympic hockey tournament, but some of their siblings are trying to raise money for the trip.

“That would be quite a thrill for all of us, for her to be there,” he said. “When I made it to the NHL, she was very proud of me, and when I see her going there, I’ll be just as proud of her.”

ASSIST TO KARIYA

One of the happiest people when Paul Kariya rejoined the Mighty Ducks was Philadelphia Flyer center Eric Lindros. Kariya’s $8.5-million salary in the second year of his new deal will be the starting point for Lindros’ new contract, and talks between the Flyers and Lindros’ father-agent, Carl, will accelerate now that the market has been established. Lindros’ contract expires after this season and he could try restricted free agency, but Carl Lindros has said he hopes to have an agreement by Christmas.

With an MVP award and a 100-point season on his resume, Lindros is one of the few players who can justify asking for more than Kariya. Lindros also wants a short deal, probably two or three years, starting at about $10 million a year. The Flyers had offered him about $7.5 million a year, but Kariya’s numbers make that look inadequate.

“It used to be you got paid on what you did, not what somebody else did,” Bill Torrey, president of the Florida Panthers, said with a shake of his head. “But that seems to have fallen by the wayside.”

The Red Wings say Kariya’s deal won’t affect their talks with restricted free agent Sergei Fedorov because they intend to stay within their budget. Fedorov may think otherwise. He wanted $6 million a year, $1 million more than the Red Wings offered, and Kariya’s deal may inflate Fedorov’s price.

POSITIVELY MINUS

New York Ranger defenseman Brian Leetch has a modest goal for the rest of the season.

“I’m going to try not to be minus-80,” he said.

Hockey’s plus-minus system isn’t perfect, and it should be considered an indicator of a player’s ability, not the only standard. But when a two-time Norris Trophy winner is a league-worst minus-22, something is wrong somewhere. In this case, it’s Leetch’s game, not the system.

“We got off to a poor start and there were probably four games where I was a minus-15,” Leetch said. “I wasn’t playing as well as I could. We’d lose, 3-1 or 4-1, and Beuk [defense partner Jeff Beukeboom] and I seemed to be on the ice for the crucial goals against. Since then, it’s really been a holding mode. It’s frustrating.”

Leetch seems uncomfortable as the team’s captain, a role he inherited from Mark Messier. He’s not as aggressive as he used to be and doesn’t carry the puck as much, though that’s one of his strengths. His hesitance in deciding when to jump into the offense and the struggles of Beukeboom have put him in a bottomless statistical hole.

The Rangers have fallen with him, although he is not the only culprit in their uninspired season.

“We have the players,” he said. “We haven’t shown the ability to come up with the big play.”

General Manager Neil Smith is poised to make a major move before Friday’s holiday trade freeze to jolt his team out of its 2-7-4 slump.

“If I had my way there would have been a change by now,” he said.

That change may be acquiring Vancouver’s Trevor Linden--who has become Mike Keenan’s new whipping boy--and Alexander Mogilny for talented but erratic Alexei Kovalev and someone to play the point on the Rangers’ feeble power play.

GETTING BUFFALOED

Pat LaFontaine’s departure from Buffalo was big news, but Sabre goalie Dominik Hasek believes the Sabres also miss defenseman Garry Galley, who signed with the Kings as a free agent.

“We played without Pat for most of the last two seasons,” Hasek said, referring to knee and head injuries that kept LaFontaine out of Buffalo’s lineup. “The big difference is a player like Garry Galley. He is a veteran and we miss him for sure.”

Those are two of many changes for the Sabres, who parlayed Hasek’s stellar goaltending and a gritty defensive game into a first-place finish in the Northeast Division last season. Hasek’s conflicts with Coach Ted Nolan led management to offer Nolan a one-year renewal, which he declined. Fans protested, then jeered as Hasek and the team started slowly.

“It’s better,” Hasek said. “People don’t boo me anymore. That affects the whole team, not just me.

“The last two, three weeks we are playing with more discipline and playing much better defensively. . . . Our goal is to get back in a playoff spot and I believe we are good enough to make the playoffs again.”

SLAP SHOTS

Jari Kurri, who will retire after the season, has had a magnificent career. But his offensive struggles the last few years suggest he stuck around a bit too long. Before his empty-net goal Saturday, he hadn’t scored since Colorado’s second game. . . . Phoenix hopes to re-sign restricted free agent defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky by offering bonuses to supplement a salary of about $1.25 million. Tverdovsky rejected a similar deal last month. He and the Coyotes are now discussing a 50-game contract.

Memo to Dave Checketts, president and chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden: New York is not the center of the universe. “The Rangers are the most famous club in the NHL,” he told the New York Daily News. Not as long as the Montreal Canadiens exist, they’re not. . . . San Jose rookie Daniel Marleau, chosen second in June’s entry draft, skipped the world junior championships because he thought he would learn more in the NHL. “I hate it when kids that age have logic,” Shark General Manager Dean Lombardi said. Especially when they’re more logical than Lombardi’s plans for the flailing Sharks.

Dino Ciccarelli isn’t the only Tampa Bay player who thinks Brian Bradley faked wrist pain to avoid being traded. But the Lightning will feel the pain of Mikael Renberg’s broken wrist. He was their only legitimate scoring threat. . . . The Kings’ $100-million arena naming-rights deal with Staples has the Florida Panthers dreaming of a similar deal for their new home. They’re negotiating with several major south Florida corporations.