Rangers Can’t Get It Together

Two days after the New York Rangers dominated the Mighty Ducks in a performance that suggested they’re earning their inflated salaries and contending for a playoff spot, they reverted to their old, bad habits in a 4-1 loss to Colorado on Sunday and fell further out of the top eight in the East.

What does $75 million buy in today’s NHL? A lack of discipline. Spotty defense. Flashes of brilliance but no winning streak longer than three games.

Although Brian Leetch and Pavel Bure have recently returned from the injured list, the Rangers remain six points out of the playoffs with 17 games left, 12 of them against teams at .500 or better. All of their closest rivals have at least two games in hand.

“Every game, we have to come up with big efforts, like this is our last game, a playoff game,” said Alexei Kovalev, who was acquired from Pittsburgh Feb. 10.

If they fail, cheers will resound from general managers’ offices across the NHL.

“I think there are people that are trying to make it on a restrictive budget and are trying to be competitive that would prefer that maybe they wouldn’t make it,” Duck General Manager Bryan Murray said. “Kind of, ‘See, I told you so.’ We’re all like that, to an extent.”

Although the Ducks lost to the Rangers on Friday, they are sixth in the West, with a nine-point edge over ninth-place Chicago. Murray might envy the Rangers’ budget but not their methods or results.

“Sure, I want to be able to get some good players and I want to compete for players,” he said. “I don’t want one team to be loaded up all the time. But they’re not the only ones we compete with for players....

“It comes down to how well players buy into the roles they’re given. You can pay all kinds of money or as little as you possibly can. As long as guys buy in and believe in what you’re trying to do, you can compete every night, and that’s one thing I’m happy about with our team. We have players that, if you mention them to people around the league, a lot of guys wouldn’t be trying to get them. But they’ve played well together and we’re competitive most every night now.”

The deep pockets of parent company Cablevision enable the Rangers to collect stars such as Kovalev, Bure and Bobby Holik, but spending sprees don’t often buy success in the NHL. Teamwork plays a huge role, and the Rangers play like strangers with varied philosophies, even with General Manager Glen Sather behind the bench as coach to fix his own mistakes.

Sather might not have run out of money, but he’s running out of time.

Mark Messier said, “We know we have to win, and win a lot.”

Money has bought the Rangers a bunch of stars, but it hasn’t bought them a true team.

Can-Do Canucks

Suddenly, there’s a race for the top spot in the West.

The Dallas Stars have been on top most of the season but they’re being challenged by Vancouver, whose 9-0-4-0 streak moved them within two points of the lead.

“We have confidence right now,” said veteran Trevor Linden, who’s enjoying a renaissance centering for twin Swedes Daniel and Henrik Sedin. “We go into every game knowing we have a chance to win, so we do things to give us that chance.”

Canuck fans have had high expectations of the Sedins since General Manager Brian Burke chose Daniel second and Henrik third in the 1999 entry draft. They’ve been slow to develop, but they’ve clicked with Linden.

“They’re real good players,” Linden said. “They have good patience with the puck. I like getting through the neutral zone with some speed and they’re good at finding me.”

The success of Linden’s line ignited the Canucks’ surge. Before that, their only productive trio comprised Brendan Morrison, Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund. Having two solid lines makes it tougher for opponents to stifle the Canucks’ offense.

Singing the Blues

Uncertain that Brent Johnson can carry the playoff load, the St. Louis Blues reportedly are interested in acquiring goalie Sean Burke from Phoenix.

He was the Coyotes’ most valuable player last season but has been plagued by injuries and hasn’t taken a team deeper than five games into the playoffs since 1987-88, when he played 17 games for the New Jersey Devils. Since then, he’s 3-14.

If the Coyote demand is impressive rookie defenseman Barret Jackman, the Blues should look elsewhere. Another option is Arturs Irbe, recalled Monday from the American Hockey League by the Carolina Hurricanes.

His mediocre season hints he wouldn’t add much, either, but he was solid during the Hurricanes’ run to the Cup finals a year ago and might feel he has something to prove this season if someone picks him up.

He’ll Always Have Paris

Canadien defenseman Patrice Brisebois, told by doctors to take a week off after suffering stress-induced chest pains, followed their instructions perfectly.

He took off -- to France.

Although the journey might have been restful for him, it caused his bosses some stress because he didn’t tell them he was leaving town. General Manager Andre Savard learned about it in a local newspaper.

Brisebois has since returned and is ready to play but was held out of Montreal’s lineup Saturday night against Toronto, no doubt to avoid negative reaction from fans who don’t have the same luxury of jetting across the Atlantic to escape their workplace pressures.

Net Gains

With seven shutouts, Mighty Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere is tied for second with New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur and Chicago’s Jocelyn Thibault, behind the eight shutouts recorded by Ottawa’s Patrick Lalime. Sometimes, Giguere wonders what he’s doing in such company.

“Obviously, they’re all excellent goaltenders,” he said. “The guys I looked up to growing up in Montreal were Martin Brodeur and Jocelyn Thibault. It’s nice to be mentioned with them, but I can’t do this by myself. The team deserves the credit.”

Brodeur has played twice with Stanley Cup winners. Giguere has yet to appear in an NHL playoff game. He’s getting good practice in close games, though, as the Ducks continue their drive toward their first postseason appearance since 1998-99.

“I don’t have any playoff experience, but this is a good way to get ready,” he said.

“We’re still a pretty young team and you learn a lot playing these kinds of games.”

Slap Shots

Coach Brian Sutter scratched a healthy Theo Fleury from the Chicago Blackhawks’ lineup Sunday, signaling his dwindling patience with the mercurial winger as the team slides out of the West playoff picture. The Blackhawks have also soured on defenseman Phil Housley, who reportedly was with Fleury and other players at a strip club in Columbus last month when Fleury got into a brawl and was punched by a bouncer.

“The incident in Columbus came at a critical time,” owner Bill Wirtz told the Chicago Tribune. “We had gotten points in 14 straight games before losing to Vancouver and St. Louis. After we lost in Columbus, from there we went right down. It affected the team.”

Wirtz also said his team would lose $15 million this season and called for changes to the economic system. He’s not the first to make those suggestions but his long tenure and clout in the league make his comments noteworthy.

“Our players’ salaries are at a level that makes it impossible for the ownership to make sense of this business and to compete as well as we’d like to,” said Wirtz, who voted against the current labor agreement. “If changes are not made, then our ownership will have no interest in continuing to own the club because of our losses.”

Could Boston Bruin Coach Robbie Ftorek earn an unwanted historical footnote by being fired late in the season for the second time? Ftorek, former coach of the Kings, was dismissed as coach of the New Jersey Devils on March 23, 2000, and was replaced by another former King coach, Larry Robinson, who then led the team to the Stanley Cup. Ftorek, hired by Boston before last season, hasn’t been able to end a skid that has dropped the Bruins to eighth in the East.

NHL players are educated about but not banned from using ephedra, which has been linked to the death last week of Baltimore Oriole pitcher Steve Bechler.

NHL executives proposed a testing system that offered confidential counseling to those who tested positive, but the NHL Players’ Assn. said any such system would have to be agreed upon through collective bargaining.

The Philadelphia Flyers are looking at Phoenix defenseman Teppo Numminen, hoping the Coyotes will concede the season and break up their roster. The Columbus Blue Jackets are near the same point and are likely to trade Ray Whitney and Geoff Sanderson. Could they find a match with the Devils, who are looking for offensive help?

The Hurricanes, who gave up a few weeks ago, plan to deal defenseman Glen Wesley, rather than lose him as an unrestricted free agent. The San Jose Sharks may also be cleaning house soon, unless General Manager Dean Lombardi is fired first. The Sharks were touted as a Cup contender, and missing the playoffs is a huge setback.