It’s News to East, but the West Is Best

Nothing that happens in the West seems to matter much in the media centers of the East. A Western team may win 12 consecutive games, but that won’t mean anything if a Toronto Maple Leaf burps or a New York Ranger misses a shift.

The Pony Express may not have carried the news across the Mississippi River yet, but it’s time Easterners learned that the NHL’s best teams are in the West--and have been for a while.

The Stanley Cup has been won by Western Conference teams the last four seasons--the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and ‘98, and the Dallas Stars in 1999. And the five highest-ranking teams this season are in the West: the Phoenix Coyotes, the Kings, the San Jose Sharks and East leader Toronto with 33 points each, followed by the St. Louis Blues and the Red Wings with 32 each.

Improvements by the Kings and Sharks have made the Pacific Division the toughest in the NHL. Its five teams average 30 points and its cellar-dweller is Dallas, which has 24 points and is tied with Colorado for the eighth and final playoff spot.

“There’s not really much difference,” San Jose Coach Darryl Sutter said of the Pacific standings. “You can flip them around and it’s not much different. It’s been that way right from Day 1.”

Said King right wing Glen Murray, “It’s unbelievable. You look at it and see Dallas at the bottom. We definitely can’t let up.”

The West is considered more offense-oriented than the East, but some East teams have dropped the trap defense in favor of a skating game. The Maple Leafs didn’t change their style when they moved from West to East before last season, and they’re one of the top teams in the East.

Sutter called the Red Wings the best team he has seen and also complimented the Blues and Kings.

“Detail,” he said of what impresses him about the Kings. “Defensively they’re a lot more aware of what’s going on.”

They have to be. The NHL’s five most prolific teams are in the West--the Kings, with 82 goals, San Jose with 81, Phoenix 79, Detroit 78 and St. Louis 75, tied with Toronto--but none neglects defense.

“In our division, it’s very tight,” said King right wing Donald Audette, who spent his first eight NHL seasons in the East, with Buffalo. “Dallas played so well last year, and everybody looks up at the West more than before.”

Ziggy Palffy, another former Easterner, has great respect for the West after spending 25 games with the Kings.

“I remember years ago, you played the West, and the teams weren’t so good,” he said. “[Now] there are better players here.”

King Coach Andy Murray is more concerned with his team’s performance than league trends. But the stronger the West is, the tougher it will be for the Kings to keep rivals at bay.

“As long as we stay in front of a few of them, so we can get into the playoffs, we’ll be fine,” he said. “We’re trying to keep things in perspective. Our goal at the start of the year was to get into the playoffs, and you do that by playing hard and competing every night.”

Which is what most West teams are doing.

NEW PAGE IN HIS CAREER

Pierre Page has found one good thing about working for a team that has yet to play a game.

“I can sleep at night without thinking about everything that went wrong,” said the former Mighty Duck coach, who recently joined the Minnesota Wild as a hockey operations consultant.

Page stayed in Southern California after the Ducks fired him in 1998. He has been scouting pro and amateur teams and will give Wild General Manager Doug Risebrough an idea of what will be available when the Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets join the NHL next season. Page doesn’t expect to find many gems in the expansion pool.

“There’s going to be a lot of high-priced players available and it’s going to depend on your philosophy as to whether you build with them or with younger players,” he said. “It’s going to be one of those years that everyone can lose a goalie, and that’s going to be important. Florida and Anaheim [which joined the NHL in 1993] were successful because they got good goalies.”

The Wild faces the sternest test of any recent expansion team because hockey is so entrenched in Minnesota. The North Stars left in 1993 because owner Norm Green had alienated fans, not because hockey was a fad. Page knows the Wild, which will play in St. Paul, can’t fool anyone with gimmicks.

“This is a hotbed of hockey. You have to give the fans something,” he said. “Look at the expansion Cleveland Browns. Fans there know football. . . . Fifteen thousand people were going to North Star games. It’s not like the team was dying. We hope to do it right.”

CONFERENCE CALL

Calgary Flame General Manager Al Coates has been lobbying to limit teams to play within the conferences. He believes that would enhance geographic rivalries such as the Flames versus the Edmonton Oilers, and minimize travel costs.

Any formal proposal to play an intra-conference schedule would face a battle. Influential Edmonton General Manager Glen Sather said he wouldn’t back it because Western fans wouldn’t see their favorite Eastern teams, such as the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto.

“Are you going to be completely sold out if you see Vancouver and Calgary more?” he said.

Tim Leiweke, the Kings’ president, agreed.

“I’d oppose it,” he said. “I think our fans enjoy seeing some of the teams from the other conference. And I think it would be a shame for us not to be able to showcase players like Eric Lindros or teams like Montreal and Boston, which have always been real special here. I think it’s already a stretch that we don’t see some teams now, and going further with that would be difficult.”

BOARD GAMES

The NHL’s Board of Governors will meet next week in Florida, mainly to play golf. There are no major items on the agenda--NHL spokesman Frank Brown said intra-conference play will not be discussed--but the governors may get a report on NHL participation in the 2002 Olympics.

The International Ice Hockey Federation wants an answer from the NHL and NHL Players Assn. by the end of December, so it can devise schedules. Union boss Bob Goodenow backs an Olympic reprise, as does Commissioner Gary Bettman. However, two conditions remain: the break in the NHL schedule must be minimized and NHL bigwigs must get more access to the Olympic village than they did at Nagano, the better to head off public-relations debacles like the room-trashing incident involving several U.S. players.

WILL 99 BE HONORED IN ‘99?

The Kings plan to replace the retired jerseys of Dave Taylor, Marcel Dionne and Rogie Vachon with bigger replicas scaled to the cavernous size of the Staples Center. However, plans to add Wayne Gretzky’s jersey are on hold.

“He wants to wait for a while,” Leiweke said. “He’s embarrassed by everything that’s been going on [such as his Hall of Fame induction last Monday]. We’re talking to him about it. He’s due something special here.”

SLAP SHOTS

Two games into his Coyote career, goalie Sean Burke injured ligaments in his thumb and will be sidelined for a month. That may force General Manager Bobby Smith to find another goalie, because Bob Essensa is a journeyman and call-up Robert Esche is untried. Smith isn’t desperate enough to reopen talks with unsigned free agent Nikolai Khabibulin. . . . Former Buffalo Sabre coach Ted Nolan, who interviewed for the Kings’ and Atlanta Thrashers’ coaching jobs last spring, will develop a hockey program for native North Americans. Plans call for a youth team and teams that would play in the World Championships and Olympics. NHL players such as Gino Odjick, Chris Simon and Sandy McCarthy would be eligible.

Al MacInnis’ shot, long feared as the NHL’s hardest, hasn’t lost its steam. A shot by MacInnis bruised Chris Osgood’s right hand in the Blues’ loss to Detroit last Wednesday, and another shot by MacInnis on Saturday broke the left index finger of goalie Jocelyn Thibault in Detroit’s rout of the Chicago Blackhawks. . . . Detroit defenseman Larry Murphy played his 1,500th game, adding to his record for games played by a defenseman. . . . The city of Kanata voted to give the Ottawa Senators about $2 million, Canadian, in tax relief a year.

Boston Bruin goalie Rob Tallas had a rough week. First, the tip of his left ring finger was ripped off by a shot by Ray Bourque in warmups. Then he had a bad reaction to the painkillers he was given after the finger was stitched up. . . . Philadelphia Flyer General Manager Bob Clarke told Lindros to ignore rumors that he would be traded to the Carolina Hurricanes--or anywhere else. Coach Roger Neilson got a vote of support too. . . . Blackhawk General Manager Bob Murray canceled a team trip to Las Vegas after a 3-1 loss at Phoenix and sent players to Edmonton for practice. The Blackhawks responded with a 3-2 victory but lost their next two games. They’re 1-5 on a trip that ends today at Ottawa.