DeBrusk Sent to Las Vegas

Louie DeBrusk, a hard-nosed left winger who disappointed the Phoenix Coyotes in the exhibition season, cleared waivers and was sent to the Las Vegas Thunder of the International Hockey League.

Expected to be an enforcer, DeBrusk came to Phoenix on June 11 in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He had one goal, one assist and 20 penalty minutes in four games as Phoenix went 4-3-1 in exhibition games.

DeBrusk had three points and 166 penalty minutes in 54 games with the Lightning last season.

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After eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jaromir Jagr finally has arrived.

On Friday, Jagr’s teammates elected the 26-year-old star and Art Ross Trophy winner (as the NHL’s leading scorer) as their team captain.

“It cost me a lot of money, but it was worth it. I had to pay every guy who voted for me,” Jagr joked.

“When I came here I was 18 years old, and my goal was to make the team,” he said. “I made the team, and all of a sudden, now I’m captain of the team. So that’s a big honor for me, and I don’t want to disappoint anybody.”

Last season, Jagr became so frustrated during a scoring drought that he used the media to blast Penguin Coach Kevin Constantine.

But he has come a long way since .

Constantine and the majority of his teammates said they have noticed a difference since Jagr returned this summer from his native Czech Republic, but Jagr won’t reveal the catalyst.

“I voted, and he got my vote,” Constantine said. “So it’s not a surprise to me. I’m the commissioner of the election, so I could get 10 votes if I wanted to, but I only took one. I didn’t need any more.”

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Vladimir Konstantinov’s wife tries to make her husband’s life as similar as possible to life before a limousine accident left the former Detroit Red Wing defenseman’s brain severely traumatized.

“We don’t want to make him feel like his life changed so badly,” Irina Konstantinov said. “We want him to feel like everything is fine--just temporarily, instead of going to Joe Louis [Arena] for practice, he goes to rehab to walk.”

Konstantinov gets up at 7 a.m. every weekday. He undergoes physical, speech and occupational therapy from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at a Detroit Medical Center rehab clinic.

The care continues at home, where his wife, their 10-year-old daughter, Anastasia, and home-care nurses may take him for a stroll in his wheelchair through the neighborhood, or play simple games with him. At least once a week they eat at places they frequented before the June 13, 1997, accident.

“We do stuff we used to do together,” Irina told the Detroit Free Press. “We keep that routine, so it feels to him like he didn’t have any dramatic changes at home.”

After the accident, in which teammate Slava Fetisov and the team’s masseur also were injured, Konstantinov lay in a coma for several weeks before regaining consciousness.

Thanks to rehabilitation, Konstantinov now can carry on simple conversations. Only three months ago, that was impossible. He jokes and smiles. He can get out of bed himself and get dressed. A year ago, that was something Irina Konstantinov didn’t dare dream about.