In the Upper Echelon, Defense Rarely Rests

Elite defensemen are so rare that any NHL coach lucky enough to have one plays him until he drops.

Coach Joe Quenneville of the St. Louis Blues is blessed with two, last season’s Norris Trophy winner Al MacInnis and future winner Chris Pronger. And Quenneville got one on the ice for every shift in most of the Blues’ games last season. That’s why Pronger led the NHL with an average of 30.61 minutes of ice time and MacInnis was fourth at 29.12.

Defensemen held the top seven spots in minutes played. The New York Rangers’ Brian Leetch at 29.87, and the Boston Bruins’ Ray Bourque at 29.51 separated Pronger and MacInnis. Chris Chelios, 26.66 with the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings; the Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom at 26.52, and the Vancouver Canucks’ Mattias Ohlund at 26.07 followed.

“I have an idea about cutting their ice time back,” Quenneville said of his defensive stars. “I don’t want them both playing 30 minutes a game. But that’s easier said than done.”

It’s tempting to send out MacInnis or Pronger for a four-on-four, to kill a crucial penalty, or any time. The veteran MacInnis, 36, is rarely rattled and has one of the hardest slap shots in the game. Pronger, who is in his seventh NHL season and turns 25 next week, has exceptional reach--he’s 6 feet 6--is smart and physical.

King Coach Andy Murray understands that temptation. He not only worked with Pronger and MacInnis as an assistant coach of the Canadian Olympic team at the Nagano Olympics, he has his own workhorse in Rob Blake, the 1997-98 Norris winner.

Murray gave in to temptation and played Blake 29 minutes 1 seconds in the Kings’ 3-2 victory over the Blues Monday after playing Blake 28:21 on Saturday. But why not? Nine power plays in two games cried out for Blake’s fearsome shot, and he scored the Kings’ first goal Monday.

“That was maybe a little more what we’d like to see him play,” Murray said. “We don’t want his ice time to be like the two guys here.”

Blake, though, relishes his workload.

“That’s something everybody wants,” he said. “I like to watch the best in the league, and Al’s the best and Chris is right behind. The good thing with our team is, I don’t have to play that much. We have six solid defensemen, with Aki [Berg] coming back and the way Frantisek [Kaberle] has been playing.”

If Blake had voted for the Norris winner, he also would have picked MacInnis.

“He was by far the best in the league and has been repeatedly . . . ,” Blake said. “And if Chris hadn’t hurt his ankle, he would have been the runner-up.”

MacInnis led defensemen in scoring with 20 goals and 62 points and tied for fourth in the NHL with a plus-33 plus/minus rating.

“You appreciate that kind of award any time, but maybe a little bit more when you’re 35,” said MacInnis, who played 30:25 on Monday. “You get over that 30 hump and those things don’t happen as much. . . . I had a good run in the late ‘80s, and when I didn’t win, I said, ‘Well, that was my chance.’ It was a thrill. A lot of great defensemen never won it.”

Pronger hasn’t won, but he will.

“It was nice that he gave me a chance to win it last year,” MacInnis said. “There’s no question where he stands in the minds of people in the hockey industry and among his colleagues. He has to be the odds-on favorite. He’s the backbone of this defense. A lot of things have to go right, and if Prongs stays healthy he’ll be tough to beat.”

TIME FLIES. . . .

Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago that Brett Hull planted his left foot in the crease and scored the triple-overtime goal that won the Stanley Cup for the Dallas Stars?

In the 102-day interlude between the Stars’ triumph and last Friday’s openers, the Rangers went on a free-agent spending spree and were condemned by their rivals, enough restricted free agents sat home to stir rumors that the owners are colluding to hold down salaries, and the NHL instituted new rules designed to increase scoring.

In other words, it was like every other recent off-season.

However, a few intriguing issues did arise.

In an effort to support Canadian franchises in their battle against high taxes and a punitive currency exchange rate, the NHL proposed sharing the proceeds of Canadian sports lotteries. The money would go to the six Canadian teams, several of which already get subsidies from the league. The NHL even offered to allow the lotteries to use team logos and names to drive up the betting and increase the windfall.

“Our teams in Canada operate in a very difficult economic climate,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “The Montreal Canadiens pay three times the taxes on the Molson Centre as all the U.S. teams combined. . . . We are committed to doing everything in our power to keep the Canadian teams in Canada.”

That’s admirable, but it’s dangerous for a sports league to align itself with gambling. It’s naive to suggest betting isn’t a big industry, but such a close relationship creates moral gray areas. What’s to prevent a high roller from trying to influence the outcome of games?

Also noteworthy was progress made by the league and the NHL Players’ Assn. toward an agreement to again send NHL players to the Olympics. The first venture, at Nagano, had mixed results because of the time difference between Japan and North America and because a room-trashing incident involving three U.S. players caused outrage. The time difference won’t be a factor for TV at Salt Lake City in 2002, and NHL officials expect to have more access to the athletes and a chance to defuse incidents before they become public relations disasters.

As sketched out, the NHL will take a 12-day break, five days shorter than in 1998. The International Ice Hockey Federation let a Sept. 15 deadline pass but wants an answer by Nov. 15.

“We’re closer than we were three weeks ago,” Bettman said last week. “We’ve been fairly consistent since Nagano in saying that if it made sense, we would go back. . . . We told the [NHLPA] what we need to make it work. Now it’s a question of working out other details with the IIHF.”

SENATORS VETO YA$HIN

In Ottawa, Alexei Yashin is now known as “Cashin” for his refusal to honor the last year of his contract, worth $3.6 million, and his demand to be paid $23 million the next two years.

He got this contract by walking out on his previous deal, but the Senators aren’t likely to cave in again. And hooray for them. They were considering suing him for breach of contract, and they seem to have a good case.

Yashin’s selfishness is reprehensible, coming as the Senators have become Cup contenders. Equally repugnant was a claim by his agent, Mark Gandler, that the Senators discriminated against Yashin because he’s Russian. The Senators are as diverse as any other NHL team. They’re not bigoted, they’re merely expecting him to fulfill a bargain he willingly made.

SLAP SHOTS

Washington Capital General Manager George McPhee hardly seemed to regret having punched Chicago Coach Lorne Molleken after the Blackhawks let things get rough in an exhibition game. All involved should be ashamed: The Blackhawks for gooning it up; McPhee for letting his temper prevail; Washington Coach Ron Wilson for saying he wished he’d known about the scuffle because the team’s staff would have supported McPhee, and Blackhawk owner Bill Wirtz for proclaiming he’d take on all the combatants in a dark room. That’s just what the NHL’s image doesn’t need at the dawn of the post-Wayne Gretzky era.

Increased use of the two-referee system created an urgent need for referees and led league officials to ask linesmen if they wanted to make the jump. Jim Christison, a league supervisor, said 11 linesmen initially said yes but only seven attended a referees’ training camp and only two emerged as viable candidates: Brian Murphy and Shane Heyer. Both refereed exhibition games and will split this season between the NHL and the American Hockey League.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ trade of Kevin Hatcher to the Rangers was based on financial concerns. Signing Darius Kasparaitis to a two-year, $3-million deal put them over their self-imposed $30-million-payroll limit, so they exchanged Hatcher’s $3.1 million salary for Peter Popovic’s $1.4 million. “That’s why small-market clubs will never win the Stanley Cup again in the NHL,” ESPN analyst Barry Melrose said. Although the Penguins are on firm financial ground since Mario Lemieux rescued them from bankruptcy, they’re short of their goal of 12,000 season tickets. . . . When the Canadiens voted for a new captain, Shayne Corson cast his ballot for Saku Koivu--then lost the captaincy to Koivu by one vote.