Bowman Feels Fortunate

Detroit’s Scotty Bowman already has eight Stanley Cup championships and his Red Wings are one victory away from his ninth, which would move him ahead of his mentor Toe Blake for the record of most Stanley Cups won by a coach.

“I will enjoy it when I finish coaching,” said Bowman, whose Red Wings will play host to Carolina in Game 5 of the best-of-seven series Thursday at Joe Louis Arena. “Most of [the Stanley Cups] are caused by being in the league a long time.

“I was fortunate. I was 32 or 33 when I started, and got on some [good] teams the first three years. We weren’t as good as some teams in the league and we got in the finals and didn’t win any games. Obviously, that didn’t help that record. Then Montreal, when the team was on the ascension it was a team that had all kinds of draft choices.”

With the Canadiens, Bowman, 68, won five Stanley Cups with a team that was much different than his current Red Wings.

“[The Canadiens] drafted all their players, but they had a hoard on the market of draft picks,” Bowman said. “This team has gone out and spent quite a bit of money. I have been fortunate to be with a team that spent money to get players. I don’t think at my stage of my career I could go with a team that’s building to the future.”

Bowman, who has said that he will not coach after the 2002-03 season, compares his current Red Wings to the St. Louis Blues, a team he led to three consecutive Stanley Cup finals early in his coaching career.

“St. Louis also had a very experienced team of players that maybe in a lot of cases their prime was behind them,” he said. “But I mean, I started with Glen Hull, Doug Harvey, Dickie Moore [and] they rank in the NHL with the greatest players of all time and in a different era.”

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One of the biggest postseason disappointments for Carolina has been the play of forward Sami Kapanen, who has only one goal in 22 playoff games.

During the regular season, Kapanen was a force playing on a line with center Ron Francis. But in the playoffs, especially against the Red Wings, Kapanen has been a no-show.

“Ronnie’s going to see the top two sets of [defensemen] all night long,” Carolina Coach Paul Maurice said. “Sami has obviously struggled getting shots off at the net. It’s been difficult for him, and it [has] showed.”

In the Red Wings’ 3-0 Game 4 victory on Monday, Kapanen had only two shots on goal and Maurice moved him off the Hurricanes’ top line, skating him with Erik Cole and Rod Brind’Amour.

“It just seems like I don’t get a whole lot of offense right now,” he said. “I’ve got to focus on other things. At this point of [the] year, you want to get going offensively and bring something to the table.”

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Detroit defenseman Jiri Fischer became the first player suspended for a Stanley Cup finals game after the NHL reviewed his cross-check on Carolina’s Tommy Westlund in Game 4.

Fischer received a one-game suspension for slamming his stick to Westlund’s face--the Hurricane forward fell to the ice bleeding. Westlund needed five stitches inside his mouth, but no penalty was called on the play because referees Paul Devorski and Don Koharski did not see the hit.

“Mr. Fischer’s suspension was based on the fact that he delivered an intentional cross-check to the face of the Carolina player,”said NHL executive vice president Colin Campbell, who handles disciplinary issues for the league.

Philadelphia goaltender Ron Hextall was suspended during the Stanley Cup finals in 1987, but he served the suspension at the start of the 1987-88 regular season.

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ABC’s telecast of Game 3 Saturday night drew a 3.3 national rating--low by prime-time TV standards but a 3% increase from last year’s Game 3 between Colorado and New Jersey.

The Red Wing-Hurricane Game 3 was played on Saturday night, traditionally the lowest-rated TV night of the week.

The Avalanche-Devils Game 3 was on a Thursday.

The 5,482,462 total viewers for this year’s Game 3 made it the most-watched Stanley Cup Game 3 since at least 1994.

Monday night’s Game 4 had a 3.5 national rating, a 52% increase from last year’s 2.3 rating for Game 4, which was played on a Saturday night.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.