Selanne Not Certain 50 Goals Attainable

Montreal’s Maurice Richard was the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a season, in 1944-45, and the league’s new trophy that goes to the goal-scoring champion this season bears his name.

Duck winger Teemu Selanne needs 11 goals in his final 13 regular-season games to reach 50 for the third consecutive season. He’s not sure it’s going to happen. He’s also not sure anyone else in the NHL will get there either.

If no one does, it will be the first time since 1969-70 that no one reached the milestone during a full season. No one got to 50 during the 48-game, lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, either.

“If you don’t score 50, maybe you shouldn’t win the trophy,” Selanne said with a laugh a day after moving into a tie with Ottawa’s Alexei Yashin for the NHL lead with 39 goals.

“What is a good goal scorer now?” winger Tomas Sandstrom wondered. “You get 40 and you’re considered exceptional. Not that many guys are even getting 20 this season.”

And to think, Selanne set the NHL rookie record with 76 goals in 1992-93 but didn’t win the goal-scoring title outright. Alexander Mogilny, then with the Buffalo Sabres, also had 76 that season.

Those days are long gone, however. Defense-oriented game plans have steadily thwarted scoring in the NHL for the last few seasons.

“If somebody said five years ago that nobody would score 50, I would have said, ‘No way,’ ” Selanne said. “But the game has just changed so much. What are you going to do?”

How about dumping the strict enforcement of players in the crease? Good idea, Selanne says.

“If you had two refs, four eyes, they should see everything [and eliminate the need for the video replay judge],” he said.

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Here’s the latest from the Duck trade rumor mill:

They had a scout stationed in Buffalo for the last week or two, but it doesn’t mean a deal with the Sabres will happen before Tuesday’s deadline. The Sabres have been at home for most of March and it was a good way to get a look at several Eastern Conference teams without flying all over.

Pierre Gauthier, team president-general manager, has said several times recently that he’s not desperate to make a deal.

“We haven’t talked much about it in [the dressing room],” Selanne said when asked if he had heard any trade gossip.