Brooks Needs a Miracle to Make This Idea Fly

DENVER — Herb Brooks overcame the Soviet Union’s Big Red Machine in coaching the U.S. hockey team to an Olympic gold medal at Lake Placid in 1980. But Brooks, who will reprise his coaching role next year at Salt Lake City, is powerless to stop the NHL’s marketing machine.

Although Brooks told the New York Times the NHL should scrap next year’s All-Star game and give Olympic teams more preparation time, NHL executives said Friday the game will be played as planned Feb. 2 at Staples Center.

“Canceling it is not something that we’d even consider,” said William Daly, the NHL’s executive vice president and chief legal officer. “The All-Star game is a part of the fabric of our season. The Olympics are going to be fabulous, but they’re really ancillary. The All-Star game is important to our fans, our clubs, our sponsors and our players.”

And to the Kings, who last hosted it in 1981, at the Forum.

“I understand how he feels and what he’s trying to do and I have great respect for him,” King President Tim Leiweke said of Brooks. “But we’ve been told by the league they have no intention of canceling the game. We’re actually looking forward to it because we have a chance to make a major impact on the passion in the marketplace.”

Former King Wayne Gretzky, executive director of Team Canada, agreed the All-Star game should continue--even though he misstated its location.

“I can understand where Herb is coming from, but the other side is the NHL is something special and the people in Miami and Florida are looking forward to the NHL All-Star game,” Gretzky said. “That’s really something that’s not going to happen.”

But representatives of the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams, meeting in Denver for Sunday’s All-Star game, said they will press the NHL, the NHL Players Assn. and International Ice Hockey Federation to permit them to hold training camps next summer or to suspend the NHL season a few days sooner.

The top six teams in the Olympic tournament--Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Russia--signed an agreement that banned training camps or practices before teams assemble in Salt Lake City. The NHL will take a 12-day break, five fewer days than it suspended play to let players participate in the 1998 Nagano Games. The 2002 NHL season is scheduled to halt Feb. 13, and the six hockey powers will open Olympic play Feb. 15.

Craig Patrick, general manager of Team USA, said Brooks’ suggestion “kind of amused me,” and added it was Brooks’ alone and not a consensus. However, he agreed teams need more practice time. “We will try [to amend the agreement],” he said. “We think it’s important and we’d like to be able to do that.”

The U.S. and Canadian management teams and coaches met Friday to consider their preliminary Olympic selections, but neither team announced those picks. The six hockey powers must identify eight players no later than two weeks before the NHL season ends April 8. “There’s going to be some hard decisions,” Patrick said. “We can pick only 23 people. There are going to be 23 happy people and probably 200 unhappy people.”

Gretzky said he would like to announce the Canadian squad before March 25 but will coordinate his plans with the league and the players’ association.

*

Pittsburgh Penguin right wing Jaromir Jagr, who was voted to the World team’s starting lineup, withdrew because of a head injury he suffered Wednesday. Jagr, the NHL’s second-leading scorer, was replaced by Boston Bruin left wing Sergei Samsonov. . . . The latest Rob Blake trade rumor had the King defenseman, a member of the North American All-Star team, going to Detroit for goaltender Chris Osgood. “I’ve got a feeling that’s probably not a deal Dave [Taylor, the Kings’ general manager] would make,” Leiweke said. . . . Karyn Bye’s wrist shot from the right side eluded goaltender Sami Jo Small with 6:55 left in the third period and gave the U.S. women’s national team a 3-2 victory over Canada before 9,562 at the Pepsi Center, the largest crowd to watch a women’s game in the United States. Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell also scored for Team USA (32-1-0), which swept the teams’ two-game series.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

2001 NHL All-Star Game

* When: 11:30 a.m. Sunday. * Where: Pepsi Center, Denver. * TV: Channel 7

Rosters for the NHL All-Star game, with country and NHL team (x-denotes starters as voted by fans; y-injured, will not play; z-injury replacement):

NORTH AMERICAN TEAM

FORWARDS

x-Joe Sakic, Colorado Avalanche

x-Theoren Fleury, New York Rangers

x-Paul Kariya, Mighty Ducks

Jason Allison, Boston Bruins

Tony Amonte, Chicago Blackhawks

Donald Audette, Atlanta Thrashers

Simon Gagne, Philadelphia Flyers

Bill Guerin, Boston Bruins

Brett Hull, Dallas Stars

Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins

Luc Robitaille, Kings

Doug Weight, Edmonton Oilers

*

DEFENSEMEN

x-Ray Bourque, Colorado Avalanche

xy-Chris Pronger, St. Louis Blues

Rob Blake, Kings

z-Ed Jovanovski, Vancouver Canucks

Brian Leetch, New York Rangers

y-Al MacInnis, St. Louis Blues

Scott Stevens, New Jersey Devils

z-Scott Niedermayer, New Jersey Devils

*

GOALTENDERS

x-Patrick Roy, Colorado Avalanche

Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils

Sean Burke, Phoenix Coyotes

Coach--Joel Quenneville, St. Louis Blues

Assistant--Bob Hartley, Colorado Avalanche

WORLD TEAM

FORWARDS

xy-Jaromir Jagr (CZE), Pittsburgh Penguins

x-Pavel Bure (RUS), Florida Panthers

x-Peter Forsberg (SWE), Colorado Avalanche

Radek Bonk (CZE), Ottawa Senators

Sergei Fedorov (RUS), Detroit Red Wings

Marian Hossa (SLO), Ottawa Senators

Alexei Kovalev (RUS), Pittsburgh Penguins

Fredrik Modin (SWE), Tampa Bay Lightning

Alexander Mogilny (RUS), New Jersey Devils

Markus Naslund (SWE), Vancouver Canucks

Zigmund Palffy (SLO), Kings

Mats Sundin (SWE), Toronto Maple Leafs

z-Sergei Samsonov (RUS), Boston Bruins.

*

DEFENSEMEN

x-Nicklas Lidstrom (SWE), Detroit Red Wings

x-Sandis Ozolinsh (LAT), Carolina Hurricanes

Sergei Gonchar (RUS), Washington Capitals

Janne Niinimaa (FIN), Edmonton Oilers

Teppo Numminen (FIN), Phoenix Coyotes

Marcus Ragnarsson (SWE), San Jose Sharks.

*

GOALTENDERS

x-Dominik Hasek (CZE), Buffalo Sabres

Roman Cechmanek (CZE), Philadelphia Flyers

Evgeni Nabokov (KAZ), San Jose Sharks.

Coach--Jacques Martin, Ottawa Senators.

Assistant--Larry Robinson, New Jersey Devils.