Longevity Club Keeps Admitting Members

Not too long ago, it was considered a rarity for an athlete to play in 1,000 NHL games. Because of the brutality of the sport, few hockey players reached this milestone.

That’s not the case any more.

Already this season, 13 players have joined the 176-member 1,000-game club, and there’s a chance two more will do so before the playoffs begin next month.

The Kings’ Kelly Buchberger, Nashville’s Cliff Ronning, Phoenix’s Teppo Numminen, Pittsburgh’s Stephane Richer, Dallas’ Joe Nieuwendyk, Tampa Bay’s Grant Ledyard, San Jose’s Adam Graves, Calgary’s Dave Lowry, the New York Rangers’ Theo Fleury and Brian Leetch and Colorado’s Mike Keane, Todd Gill and Joe Sakic have achieved this mark since October.

Philadelphia’s Mark Recchi (994 as of Sunday) and Calgary’s Craig Berube (982) are on pace to join them before the regular season ends next month with Philadelphia’s Jeremy Roenick (971) leading a pack of others primed to reach the mark next season.

And the funny thing about most of these so-called “old-timers” is that none seem prepared to quit soon.

“If you look at athletics in general, athletes are producing at an older age in all sports,” said Washington center Adam Oates, who will turn 40 in August and leads the league in assists this season.

“[Compared to] when I came into this league ... guys really treat this sport differently. It is more of a 12-month sport and guys train a lot differently, and myself included. I train 10 times harder now than I used to when I first came into this league. And I think for the most part ... everybody does.”

After playing in his 1,000th game earlier this season, Buchberger said he’s part of a generation of players who simply enjoy playing hockey. He should know because when he played for Moose Jaw as a junior from 1984 to ‘86, two of his minor league teammates were Fleury and Keane.

Staying physically sound enough has also been a key. Players are able to bounce back from injuries thanks to improved medical technology and better all-around conditioning.

“I think playing the games is the easy part because we all love to play them,” said Oates, who has played in 1,192 games. “The hard part is the training in the summer. The off-season conditioning is actually the hard part every year. Knowing that you have got to force yourself to get there and stay in condition.”

Size Doesn’t Matter

One of the most unlikely players to play in 1,000 games is the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Ronning, who joined Sakic to become the latest players to reach the mark Saturday.

Despite his lack of size, Ronning has been regarded as one of the league’s toughest players for years. He’s the Predators’ all-time leader in goals (80), assists (144), points (224), power-play goals (24), power-play points (95) and shots (877).

“He was my roommate for three years in Phoenix and probably one of the true freaks of nature that there are in sports today,” Roenick said about Ronning. “How you can have a guy who is 5-6, 5-7 or whatever he is and dominate a hockey game like he does?

“He’s tremendously skilled. He’s tremendously poised for being a little guy, and he is very, very, very smart in terms of knowing where to be and where the puck needs to be at the right time. Not to mention you can’t catch him.”

Speeding Up the Game

Reaction around the league was mixed after general managers decided to approve further exploration of three on-ice rules at their annual March meeting.

“We looked at a whole host of ways of moving the game along as quickly as we can,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “There are three things that we came out of the meeting wanting to pursue. One is hurry-up line changes/faceoffs, one is not allowing a defending player to use his stick or his free hand in the neutral zone to obstruct an offensive player who is not carrying the puck, and the other was a modified ‘tag-up’ rule. We want to pursue implementation of all three elements, but to do that we have to make sure we define them in a way that works.”

The NHL’s hockey operations department will refine definitions of the “hurry-up faceoff,” the “tag-up” offside rule and the standard of enforcement regarding obstruction, and then present the changes at a Board of Governors meeting in June.

That’s when the league will decide if any of the rules will be implemented for play next season.

“Before we make changes, we’ve got to be comfortable with [them],” San Jose General Manager Dean Lombardi said after last week’s meetings. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot wrong with the game we’ve got right now and you don’t want to jump into anything.”

A big concern is that the league might try to make changes based on the success of the hockey competition at last month’s Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

“We have to decide whether our goal is to get people out of the rink faster or are we trying to increase the flow of the game?” Lombardi said.

“What we have to do right now is look at the possibilities and then make an [informed] decision. We don’t want to keep revisiting these issues.”

Line Shifts

* The odds of Calgary making a late run to qualify for the playoffs may be long, but the chances of Flame winger Jarome Iginla holding on to win the league’s scoring title have greatly improved since the Olympic break. With 16 games remaining in the regular season, Iginla has opened up some breathing room in the race for points and goals. Iginla, who will be a restricted free agent after this season, has said that he wants to remain in Calgary, but the Flames are expected to open negotiations at around $4 million per season. Word around the league has Iginla looking for a long-term deal worth at least $6 million annually.

* Edmonton is another Canadian team hoping to get hot down the stretch and Oiler General Manager Kevin Lowe is looking to make a deal before the league’s March 19 trading deadline. The Oilers have been offering Tom Poti as a trade candidate.

* Dallas owner Tom Hicks is known as someone not afraid to pay big money for a player (note: Texas Ranger shortstop Alex Rodriguez and his $25-million-a-year contract), but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to make a deal for Florida’s Pavel Bure and his $10-million-a-year contract.

As long as Pittsburgh General Manager Craig Patrick believes that the Penguins have a chance to make the playoffs, don’t look for the team to trade Darius Kasparaitis or Robert Lang. But that could change, considering that both players will be unrestricted free agents this summer.

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