Hitchcock Adds Fun to Drama

After losing the opener of the Stanley Cup finals to the Buffalo Sabres, Star Coach Ken Hitchcock doesn’t want his players to think tying the series will be as easy as merely showing up at Reunion Arena on time today.

“We are in a desperate situation. Trust me,” he said.

Although he was unhappy with his team’s failure to capitalize on a multitude of scoring chances in its 3-2 overtime loss Tuesday, Hitchcock never stopped smiling Wednesday.

He joked about making strategical and personnel changes for Game 2, hinting he will station hulking defenseman Derian Hatcher in front of Buffalo’s net to be a screen on power plays and that he may insert speedy center Derek Plante or veteran Tony Hrkac up front. He also laughed off Sabre Coach Lindy Ruff’s claim that Dallas center Brian Skrudland cheats on faceoffs as “Lindy’s way of saying hello.”

That’s not to say Hitchcock is taking any of this lightly. But at 47, with a long history of coaching junior, midget and minor league teams before he was hired by the Stars three years ago, he’s determined to appreciate every moment of his first trip to the finals, win or lose.

“This is what I do for a living and I love it. But there are other areas of the world where things are happening that are important,” he said. “I just feel I’ve got to take advantage because it may never happen again. . . .

“The [first-round] series against Edmonton was very emotionally draining for everybody because it’s, ‘What happens if we go out in the first round?’ You think, ‘If we don’t win, we’re going to get fired.’ You get here, you are where you are. The pressure of expectations and responsibility diminishes.”

*

The 1999-2000 season will begin Oct. 1 and the playoffs will end at least a week earlier, Commissioner Gary Bettman said during his state-of-the-game briefing. He also said the NHL will decide by Sept. 15 whether it will allow players to participate in the 2002 Winter Games at Salt Lake City.

He restated the NHL’s support for Mario Lemieux’s reorganization plan for the bankrupt Pittsburgh Penguins and said the league is watching the New York Islanders to ensure the financially troubled team doesn’t dump salaries. The Islanders recently traded Trevor Linden and are negotiating with several teams--including the Kings--for a trade involving winger Ziggy Palffy. “We will monitor all of the trades and make sure that we are comfortable from a hockey standpoint that the team simply isn’t being stripped down,” he said. “It is important that the trades be competitive hockey trades.”

He also said the NHL is searching for new revenue sources to pay players’ salaries, which have grown faster than revenues the last two seasons. “But if we keep increasing expenses faster than we’re increasing revenues, I’m not sure that this is a race we can win,” he said.

*

The NHL reviewed a head-butt by Skrudland on Buffalo’s Vaclav Varada in Game 1 but has not ruled on possible sanctions. “I think Varada should maybe have gone down like he was dead,” Ruff said. “It was a head-butt. . . . Maybe it doesn’t warrant a suspension at this time of year, but it is a major penalty.” . . . Since the best-of-seven format was adopted for the finals in 1939, the winner of Game 1 has won the Cup 48 of 60 times (80%).