Hartley Trying to Wait Out Colorado Storm

Colorado Coach Bob Hartley had been on the job for only a few weeks when he began to hear calls for his head. Spoiled by a Stanley Cup championship in 1996--the Avalanche’s first season in Denver--and the spectacle of a high-scoring and highly successful team, critics and fans questioned Hartley’s coaching ability when the Avalanche flailed through a 2-6-1 October.

Despite constant criticism, he never flinched. And no matter how bad it might get, it still beats working at a paper mill or a windshield manufacturing plant, as he did before he took up coaching.

“There was no panic. Pressure from the outside, we can do nothing about that,” said Hartley, who joined the organization in 1993 and was appointed coach in June after Marc Crawford lost a battle of wills with General Manager Pierre Lacroix. “We can’t listen to that. We have to be able to transform that pressure into a challenge.”

This has been more of a challenge than Hartley could have imagined.

At one point, injuries deprived the Avalanche of all six of its regular defensemen, which magnified the struggles of goaltender Patrick Roy. When Roy found his rhythm and the defensemen healed, the team climbed above .500--but then the forwards began to go down, taking the offense with them and sending the team into a 0-3-1 slide that ended Monday with Colorado’s 4-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks at the Arrowhead Pond.

Joe Sakic suffered a sprained right shoulder last Thursday, which kept him out of Monday’s game against the Mighty Ducks at the Pond, and Peter Forsberg was hobbled by a groin pull. Forwards who haven’t been injured simply can’t finish: after Forsberg’s 35 points and Sakic’s 32, there’s a drastic drop-off to Valeri Kamensky’s 19 points. The absence of creative defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, an unsigned restricted free agent, has weakened the offense in general and the power play in particular. The power play was in an 0-for-27 before rookie Milan Hejbuk connected Monday.

“Not having him hurts our club. He’s a quality player. But that’s what we have to work with,” said right wing Claude Lemieux, who has nine goals and 11 points. “We’re still playing really well defensively, but we’re just not scoring goals. We’re getting enough chances to score, but we’re just not scoring. A bunch of us are in a slump at the same time.”

To create offensive sparks, Hartley tried many line combinations--too many, Lemieux seems to think. “We’ve got wingers playing center and centers playing wing,” Lemieux said. “I’ve played with everybody.” However, Hartley’s boldest move--shifting Forsberg to left wing with Sakic and rookie Milan Hejduk--was paying off until Sakic was injured.

“It hasn’t been easy because we haven’t been winning,” Lemieux said of players’ adjustment to Hartley and vice versa. “It hasn’t been a very pleasant road because of the fact we haven’t put together a real long winning streak. . . . [But] if we put another winning streak together we could be back on top. Obviously, some teams are pulling ahead, like Dallas, Phoenix and New Jersey. We have to look at our division, our conference, and take it one step at a time.”

For Hartley, it’s one step at a time, one crisis at a time. “Hockey is like many other businesses. It’s just like you’re riding a wave,” he said. “You’re going to get some lows and highs. You have to be able to show some leadership. We were not playing well, but we knew we could play better. Every day you have to make athletes perform. When you lose, it’s tougher.”

LEAFING TRADITION BEHIND

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ move from Maple Leaf Gardens to the Air Canada Centre will be marked in the traditional fashion: ceremonies, a parade of banners to the new arena and frantic scalping of tickets to the Feb. 13 finale.

Tickets that sell for $24 to $100 are going for $3,500, and a national lottery was scheduled to select those who get the right to pay $500 for two $26.50 tickets. The closing ceremony will be televised nationally, reflecting Canadians’ reverence for the 67-year-old building.

Perhaps no one will miss it more than Wayne Gretzky, who grew up about 60 miles away in Brantford, Ontario, and made his first visit as a starry-eyed 6-year-old.

“One of the greatest parts of professional sports is the teams and the buildings. You can’t sit down and explain to somebody what it was like at Chicago Stadium, hearing the national anthem, or in Boston Garden, where the people were right on top of you,” said Gretzky, whose two assists at Toronto on Saturday gave him 88 points in 30 regular-season and 11 playoff games there. “I was lucky enough to play one game at the Detroit Olympia, and growing up a Gordie Howe fan, that was a big thing for me.

“You don’t replace Maple Leaf Gardens. It’s a special place. It’s something I think is sacred. But I also understand the position management is in. It’s unfortunate. We will never recapture the atmosphere of places like Maple Leaf Gardens, Chicago Stadium or the Buffalo Auditorium.”

GO BACK FOR THE GOLD

The NHL won’t decide until February whether to send players to the 2002 Olympics at Salt Lake City, but Mighty Duck right wing Teemu Selanne has already made up his mind.

“I think it’s a great experience and a great thing for the game. This is a huge chance to make it bigger because it’s in the [United] States and the time difference won’t be so big as it was in Nagano,” said Selanne, who played on Finland’s bronze-medal team last February. “The NHL is missing something if they decide not to go.”

U.S. and Blackhawk right wing Tony Amonte agreed. “I’d love to play, and because it’s in Salt Lake City, it would be a great opportunity for the NHL,” he said. “I’d like to give it another shot. Coming up empty at Nagano left a bad taste in all our mouths.”

Oh, so that explains the broken furniture in their dorm rooms.

ZIGZAGGING

Ziggy Palffy is expected to make his season debut with the New York Islanders tonight, four days after agreeing to a contract worth $26 million for five years, plus bonuses, and $7 million more if the club picks up his option year. He was about to play in Slovakia, which would have killed his chances of playing in the NHL this season, before the agreement was reached.

The Islanders are likely to keep him and not trade him to Vancouver in a Pavel Bure deal because he’s far less expensive than Bure would be and is arguably as good a player while being less of a headache.

SLAP SHOTS

NHL knuckle-rapper Colin Campbell’s three-game suspension of Rob Blake for slashing Vancouver center Harry York probably was too harsh. One game would have been punishment enough for the crime, which bruised York’s arm. But Blake shouldn’t have whined afterward because he will be buried by Campbell the next time he looks at an opponent cross-eyed. As the Kings’ captain and leader, he should have taken it in stride and moved on. . . . Blake is merely the runner-up in last week’s open-mouth-disengage-brain contest thanks to Islander Coach and General Manager Mike Milbury, who called Mighty Duck center Travis Green “a gutless puke” after a hard hit on defenseman Kenny Jonsson Friday night. Milbury seems better at running off his mouth than running the Islanders, whose record doesn’t match their talent. He should worry more about his own players.

Campbell keeps handing out suspensions, giving St. Louis defenseman Chris Pronger four games for a careless slash to the head of Phoenix’s Jeremy Roenick and a lenient three games to Detroit winger Vyacheslav Kozlov for a nasty elbow to the face of Dallas’ Joe Nieuwendyk. . . . The world junior championships, which have been a showcase for many future NHL stars and draw dozens of scouts, begin Saturday at Winnipeg. . . . St. Louis scout Peter Stastny deserves credit for finding forwards Michal Handzus and Lubos Bartecko in his native Slovakia. They’ve been playing on an all-Slovakian line with Pavol Demitra. . . . San Jose defenseman Gary Suter underwent surgery on his triceps, which had been damaged by a staph infection. It was replaced with a tendon from a cadaver. He will sit out the rest of the season.

Dallas has defeated Detroit three consecutive times, most recently last week. The key reason is the Stars’ third- and fourth-line players outplayed their Red Wing counterparts. . . . The Flyers’ trade of Janne Niinimaa to Edmonton for Dan McGillis last season was panned, but it looks better now. McGillis worked on his skating and has become more mobile, while Niinimaa is struggling. . . . The Coyotes, who have 40 points in 27 games, didn’t get their 40th point last season until their 40th game. The Maple Leafs, with 40 points in 32 games, are also well ahead of last season, when they got their 40th point in their 48th game. . . . The holiday trade freeze ends Monday.