Burns Preaches Patience With Bruins

As the new coach of the Boston Bruins, who had the NHL’s worst record last season, Pat Burns faced some tough choices. Should he change the team’s system? Change its attitude? Change his phone number, to sidestep complaints during what is sure to be another rocky season?

Burns, who compiled a .580 winning percentage in eight seasons with the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, chose to work on the Bruins’ mental approach, hoping to keep a young team eager to learn as it experiences the pitfalls of life in the NHL.

Part coach and part teacher, he’s seeking a balance between tolerating mistakes and demanding more than players might think they can give.

“We’re going to have to be real patient,” Burns said Monday before the Bruins defeated the Mighty Ducks, 3-0, at the Pond. “The Bruins’ old identity used to be a big, bruising hockey club and we don’t have that anymore. We have a little speed up front. I want to make them find the identity of this club. It’s like saying, ‘What kind of team do you guys want to be?’ ”

So far, the Bruins don’t seem to know. They got into a run-and-gun game in defeating the Kings last week, 6-5, but they don’t have the offensive depth to play that style. They scored three goals or fewer in their next four games, acquitting themselves decently in all but a 5-2 loss at San Jose on Saturday.

The day after that loss, Burns put his team through a long, grueling workout. Players got his message: There’s no substitute for effort.

“I like Pat,” said goaltender Byron Dafoe, who was traded to Boston by the Kings last summer. “He’s different than any coach I played for before, a lot different from Larry [Robinson]. Pat commands a lot out of his players. Not that Larry didn’t, but with Pat, if you don’t perform, you pay. But he rewards us if we do well.

“Being a young team, we need his kind of discipline. He teaches us not to accept mediocrity. If you want to be a winner in this league, that’s how you have to look at it. I don’t see the Red Wings accepting mediocrity.”

For the moment, Burns has accepted that his team will have more bad days than good.

“There’s going to be times we’re up, times we’re down, times we’re sideways,” said Burns, who twice has been voted the NHL’s coach of the year. “I try not to be hard on them. They have to go through certain experiences. The patience part of it is the most important thing.”

DAFFY DISNEY

When the Mighty Ducks joined the NHL, critics feared they would dip into the treasury of the parent Walt Disney Co. and buy the Stanley Cup. Instead, the Ducks have proved to be Scrooge-like in their spending.

The extent of their cheapness was revealed last week, when an NHL source told The Times that Disney Chairman Michael Eisner had told Paul Kariya that because the Ducks lost an arbitration hearing with David Karpa, they wouldn’t be able to pay their office staff if they paid Kariya more than $7 million a year.

The Ducks made about $7 million last season and have never lost money. Disney’s revenues for the third quarter of the 1997 fiscal year were $5.2 billion and operating income was $1.1 billion. For the previous nine-month period, revenues were $17 billion and operating income was $34 billion.

Yup, the extra $200,000 the Ducks must pay Karpa will bankrupt them. And how dare those secretaries and staff people expect decent wages!

The Ducks want to stay within their budget, but how can they not realize their investment in Kariya will pay off many times over in playoff tickets, TV exposure and merchandise sales? Disney has a responsibility to its shareholders, but as owner of the Ducks, it also has an obligation to its fans to present the best possible team.

Disneyland may be the happiest place on Earth, but things aren’t so happy over at the Pond.

VOTE FOR THE SENATORS

The return of restricted free agent Daniel Alfredsson, who on Sunday agreed to a four-year deal worth about $10 million plus incentives, comes at a good time for the Ottawa Senators.

Alfredsson, a speedy and skillful right wing, wanted to play so badly that he flew to Los Angeles from Sweden so he and his agent, Mike Barnett, could meet with Senator General Manager Pierre Gauthier between Senators’ games against the Ducks and the Kings.

“All along, we both wanted to make a deal,” Gauthier said. “It was a question of timing. It’s not when you make a deal, it’s how good you make a deal.”

This deal will make a good team much better, although Coach Jacques Martin doesn’t give much weight to preseason predictions that his team will finish first in the Northeast Division.

“It would be interesting to know if the experts that picked us could list our roster,” he said.

Their names will become more widely known soon. A strong finish carried the Senators into the playoffs for the first time last spring, and they took the favored Buffalo Sabres to overtime in the seventh game of their playoff series before being eliminated. They’re the early leaders in the Northeast Division.

“I think we expect more from ourselves this season,” Martin said. “But Montreal has a good hockey club with a lot of speed and experience and we’re very young and still growing. There was a lot learned last year, and it’s a matter of us growing together.”

HEAD CASE

The Florida Panthers called Philadelphia Flyer center Eric Lindros a hypocrite--or worse--for a hit in the season opener that left Rob Niedermayer with a severe concussion, headaches and memory loss.

Recalling Lindros’ impassioned plea last summer that more attention be paid to head injuries after repeated concussions had forced his brother, Brett, to retire, the Panthers said Lindros should have known better than to hit Niedermayer with a forearm to the face and ram him into the boards.

Bob Clarke, Philadelphia president and general manager, had a quick response.

“If anything, Eric plays the style of game where players aren’t penalized for doing things to him,” he said.

Both sides were warned by the NHL not to inflame the situation but disciplinarian Brian Burke took no other action. And once tempers cooled, Niedermayer acknowledged that the hit might not have caused the injury but only aggravated a concussion he suffered in an exhibition game.

If he was that vulnerable, he shouldn’t have been playing. Players and coaches must recognize the potential dangers of someone coming back too quickly from a head injury, even if his absence hurts the team for a game or two.

SLAP SHOTS

The St. Louis Blues have scored 10 of their 21 goals during power plays. They’re 10 for 35 (28.5%), and have four power-play goals by Brett Hull and three by Al MacInnis. Defenseman Steve Duchesne, the power-play quarterback has scored seven of his 10 points on power plays. Given the increases in obstruction calls and power plays, his skills are especially valuable. . . . San Jose center Jeff Friesen, one of five restricted free agents who rejoined their respective clubs last week, signed a contract with bonus clauses that can more than double his $1-million salary. He will get another $1 million if he averages a point a game in the 80 games left when he returned and $50,000 for every point beyond 80.

Derian Hatcher’s new deal with Dallas pays him $2.3 million this season and $2.6 million next season. He has bonuses based on how many minutes he plays. . . . It took Kevin Stevens a month to score two goals for the Kings last season. It took him three games to score two goals for the New York Rangers. But the Kings still did well to get anything more than a potted plant for him. He simply couldn’t score for them, and the Rangers can afford to let him play a physical game and not pressure him to score.

Goalie Patrick Lalime, whose debut last season included a rookie-record 16-game unbeaten streak, asked to be traded because the Pittsburgh Penguins are committed to playing high-salaried goalies Tom Barrasso and Ken Wregget. The Penguins said they won’t oblige, believing Lalime is an insurance policy.