They Have Little Time to Think

The length of the Stanley Cup finals has created a logistical challenge for the two finalists.

The Dallas Stars’ six-game victory over the Buffalo Sabres means a trade freeze will be in effect beginning today, at 2 p.m. Pacific Time, until the conclusion of Friday’s expansion draft.

Teams must submit protected lists for the draft to the NHL by Monday at 9 a.m. (Pacific Time). All teams (except Nashville, which is exempt) may protect up to five defensemen, nine forwards and one goalie or up to three defensemen, seven forwards and two goalies.

The Cup finalists won’t have time to consider their moves, and someone on the winning team will be exiled even before he rides in the victory parade. The Stars may try to trade goalie Roman Turek rather than lose him in the expansion draft, but they’ll have to pull it off quickly.

“It really is a surreal feeling when you recognize the [entry] draft is next week and the expansion draft is right away,” Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock said. “You’re going to have players who go from jubilant times to sad times.

“The good thing is our players have been able to stay in the moment and haven’t been thinking about that.”

Said Sabre General Manager Darcy Regier: “They’ll have to change the parade or change the timing of it. It’s a real squeeze right now. It’s something I’ve stayed away from talking about. . . . In the best-case scenario, you have 48 hours from the end of the season. In some unusual way, you’re being penalized for success because you don’t have the ability to do what other teams are doing and talk about it. If you do, you may as well shoot yourself in the foot.”

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Talks between the Kings and New York Islanders about a potential Ziggy Palffy trade are on hold and probably won’t be completed before the NHL’s trade freeze goes into effect. The embargo will be lifted after Friday’s expansion draft. The Kings are still the Islanders’ preferred and most likely trading partner, but the delay may allow other teams to assemble offers; the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks reportedly were prepared to enter the bidding.

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Dallas’ Ed Belfour and Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek recorded goals-against averages of lower than 2.00 in the playoffs and the finals, the first pair of goalies since the major expansion of 1967-68 to do so for the entire playoffs. They’re also the first to each post sub-2.00 goals-against averages in the finals since 1945, when Frank McCool of Toronto and Harry Lumley of Detroit each had a 1.24 goals-against average in a seven-game series.