Some Tinkering Couldn’t Hurt

Given that the U.S. Olympic team will have only a few practices before the Nagano Games, it made sense to keep the roster, coaching staff and executive corps nearly identical to the group that led Team USA to an upset of Canada in the World Cup of Hockey last year. If it isn’t broken, why fix it?

It may not be broken, but the roster announced Monday does need some fixing.

That’s because Canada is sure to change its squad considerably and the U.S. may not be as successful against a younger, more energetic Canadian team as it was in defeating Canada in the best-of-three finals.

Offensively gifted center Pat LaFontaine, who ranks among the NHL leaders with four power-play goals and is successfully coming back from post-concussion syndrome, was not among the 17 U.S. players named Monday. He should have been.

Bryan Berard, a young and creative defenseman who would probably thrive on the wider Olympic ice surface, should also have been chosen, and fading veteran Gary Suter should not have been.

Defenseman Bret Hedican of Vancouver, a 1992 Olympian, wasn’t listed Monday but may be added.

As for the omission of New Jersey Devil right wing Bill Guerin, that’s an offshoot of his contract dispute with Olympic General Manager Lou Lamoriello, who is also the Devils’ general manager. Of course, Lamoriello denied any personal bias and said Guerin was left off because “he’s not playing at the highest level he can possibly play.”

The selection of center Joel Otto might also be questioned, although his faceoff skills make him useful.

“Fortunately for us, there is a core of players in the U.S. that would have to be on the team, no matter who’s picking,” Lamoriello said. “We have people we can use on the power play or when we’re short-handed. We wanted to give [Coach] Ron [Wilson] people he can go to in different situations. . . . Every team tries to maximize size, strength and skill, and chemistry in how players will receive the roles they’re given. Especially in a short series, we need everyone going in the same direction.”

That applies to Mighty Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira, an assistant to Lamoriello, and Wilson. Ferreira fired Wilson as coach of the Ducks last spring, but both said they can work harmoniously at Nagano.

“I don’t know what Jack does,” Wilson said. “My dealings are with Lou Lamoriello. . . . I’m not worried about it. You have to be professional about these things.”

Ferreira was also prepared to bury the hatchet, and not in Wilson’s back.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Ferreira said. “It’s behind us.”

Canada, expected to announce its roster Nov. 29, still faces some controversial choices. Can goaltender Patrick Roy be skipped over, as he was in the World Cup? Defenseman Al MacInnis and left wing Paul Kariya, who missed the World Cup because of injuries, are available, even though Kariya is unsigned.

But the biggest change may be a changing of the guard. Criticized after the World Cup for using an old team, Canada may drop Mark Messier and Paul Coffey. Several Canadian newspapers reported last week that Messier was not on the preliminary Olympic list, but General Manager Bob Clarke denied the existence of any such list.

“I’d love to play in the Olympics if I deserve to be on the team,” Messier said. “In order for Canada to avenge the loss in the World Cup, we need to make sure that we take our best players, and our best players participate.”

The U.S. hasn’t taken all of its best players, but there’s time to remedy that. Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia won’t rest on their World Cup losses, and the U.S. can’t rest on its success.

COACHES’ CORNER

If Tampa Bay Lightning fans thought things couldn’t get worse after Terry Crisp was fired as coach, they were in for a rude awakening when General Manager Phil Esposito laced on his skates and tried to “help” interim Coach Rick Paterson improve the power play last week. Why is it not surprising the power play went zero for six the next game?

Although Esposito has been talking to people about the coaching job--Ted Nolan said no thanks but former Philadelphia Flyer Coach Terry Murray is interested--it’s likely he will simply keep Paterson and at a relatively low salary. Murray wants to be paid at least the $400,000 the Flyers are paying him NOT to coach this season and the Lightning can’t afford it.

Nolan, last season’s coach of the year with the Buffalo Sabres, withdrew because he’s said to be waiting for a better situation, such as Vancouver or Toronto. Yes, the Toronto coaching job is occupied by Mike Murphy, but he was a holdover from the Cliff Fletcher regime and there’s speculation that Ken Dryden’s new management team will want a coach of its own choosing. Tom Renney’s hold on the Vancouver job grows more tenuous every day.

MELROSE’S PLACE

Nice to see that former King coach Barry Melrose, fired late in the 1994-95 season and now a commentator for ESPN, is as humble as ever.

While praising a save by St. Louis goalie Grant Fuhr last week, Melrose acknowledged he mishandled Fuhr when both were with the Kings. Melrose said Fuhr needs to play every game, even after a bad outing, but he didn’t do that because he was trying to spark competition between Fuhr and Kelly Hrudey. “That’s one area I made my only mistake in L.A.,” Melrose said.

There’s another mistake--thinking he made only one.

Another would be agreeing to coach the Lightning. Esposito contacted him, but Melrose likes his cushy studio seat, where he’s never wrong.

AND ON THE REPLAY . . .

The NHL has come to its senses and told on-ice officials to rely less on video reviews of goals and more on instinct, with replays to be used only if one official believes there’s a reasonable chance the goal might be disallowed.

They had become so cautious, the number of goals reviewed in the first 166 games this season was more than six times the number for the same period last season. Toronto Coach Mike Murphy joked that when watching games on TV, “I get up [and] grab a Coke and a bag of chips after every goal because I know they’re going to look at it five times. We have the best officials in the world and I think we should give them back that part of the game.”

Amen.

SLAP SHOTS

The Bruins decided to keep top draft pick Joe Thornton the rest of the season instead of sending him back to his junior team, even though he has yet to record a point. . . . Carolina Hurricane goalie Sean Burke is 0-4-3. That won’t help his bargaining position after the season, when he can be an unrestricted free agent. . . . New York Ranger Coach Colin Campbell broke up long-standing defense partners Brian Leetch and Jeff Beukeboom, benched Kevin Stevens for long stretches and ordered his team to practice at 9 a.m. last Friday, just like regular working stiffs. The Rangers, who have failed to click offensively and are rudderless defensively, need more of a jolt than that.

San Jose Coach Darryl Sutter benched center Bernie Nicholls in four of the last five games, and the Flyers sat Paul Coffey for a game last week. Also playing spectator was Chris Gratton, he of the $9-million bonus and one goal. He sat for about half of the Flyers’ 3-3 tie with Dallas on Sunday. . . . Ed Olczyk, left available by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the waiver draft, recently ended a six-game goal-scoring streak. He’s playing mostly on the power play.

Chicago and Florida tabled a deal that would have sent defenseman Gary Suter to Florida. Esposito wants to pry center Jeff Friesen from San Jose but has little chance. . . . Amazing statistic in the St. Louis Blues’ success: Brett Hull has only one goal in the last 11 games. . . . Phoenix goalie Nikolai Khabibulin has played 55 consecutive games, the third-longest streak since the expansion of 1967-68. Ahead of him are Ed Giacomin (58) and Fuhr (76). . . . Following the NBA’s hiring of two female referees, the NHL will scout the women’s Olympic hockey tournament for candidates for its referee and linesmen training program. “I would be interested in having a [female] referee,” Bryan Lewis, the NHL’s director of officiating, told the Toronto Globe and Mail. “It’s not a case of us not being into it. In every arena you go into, you hope there’s someone with potential. Whether their name is Mary or John is of no matter. I think what the NBA has done is wonderful.”