Lang Is Red Wings’ Insurance

This is how a successful team perpetuates its success:

The Detroit Red Wings were outbid by the Washington Capitals for Robert Lang when he was a free agent in 2002 but tried to trade for him last summer, after the departures of Igor Larionov and Sergei Fedorov left them thin up the middle. Thwarted again, the Red Wings tapped their farm system and bought time until the right deal cropped up.

That deal fell onto the table last week when the cost-cutting Capitals decided they couldn’t afford Lang and the $15 million he’s due the next three seasons. Detroit General Manager Ken Holland was perfectly positioned to trade prospect Tomas Fleischmann, a first-round pick this season and a fourth-round pick in 2006 for Lang, who was tied for the league scoring lead when the deal was made Friday.

In one move, Holland fortified a powerful but aging team to make a run before a lockout plunges NHL rinks into darkness and gave himself financial flexibility to thrive under whatever system prevails under a new labor deal.

Holland could afford to commit $15 million of owner Mike Ilitch’s dough because he timed the contracts of 14 key players to end after this season. That group includes veterans Brett Hull, Steve Yzerman, Chris Chelios, Tomas Holmstrom, Nicklas Lidstrom and Dominik Hasek, who will earn $34.788 million of the team’s $77.8-million payroll. Hasek might be bought out in the next few weeks, and Hull, Yzerman and Chelios might retire if there’s a long lockout. When play resumes, the Red Wings’ payroll will drop, but their skill level won’t, thanks to Lang.

Lang, a Czech-born center, is 33 and a good fit strategically and competitively behind emerging star Pavel Datsyuk and two-way standout Kris Draper. Lang, a former King, is a good passer and sturdy enough at 6 feet 2 and 216 pounds to hold his own against Western Conference forwards. Coach Dave Lewis can now play Yzerman to the wing to save what’s left of Yzerman’s aching knees.

“We felt it was a move we had to take and couldn’t pass up,” Holland said. “And it’s at a price we could live with.”

Lang was delighted to go to a contender.

“I think Detroit was in the running before, and I hope that I can be just a little bit more help for everybody’s big goal: winning the Cup,” he said.

That trade may trigger an avalanche of responses in the week left before the trade deadline. Or, at the very least, a response by the Colorado Avalanche.

Colorado General Manager Pierre Lacroix reportedly has his sights on Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig and defenseman Sergei Gonchar and is willing to give up defenseman Derek Morris and draft picks, which would allow the Capitals to pare payroll and accumulate young players who would earn less under the next labor agreement. Kolzig could support or supplant David Aebischer, and Gonchar would be a fine quarterback for a power play that has struggled the last month.

Toronto and Boston supposedly want Gonchar too, and he’d look great in a King uniform. According to Tim Leiweke, the Kings’ president, General Manager Dave Taylor has a green light to make a deal that would expand the payroll, and adding an impact player would show management’s faith in a team that won on grit and perseverance when its skill players got hurt. Every day the Blues struggle is a day closer to the playoffs for the Kings, and once you’re in, anything can happen, at least against anyone but the Red Wings, who appear to be ahead of the field.

Hired to be Fired

Joel Quenneville had five 40-victory seasons in St. Louis. Bobby Francis squeezed enough juice out of a bunch of lemons to keep his job after the Phoenix Coyotes were sold and almost every position was turned over to an FOG (Friend of Gretzky).

Didn’t matter. Both were fired last Tuesday, and Glen Sather gave up coaching the Rangers a day later but remained as general manager and president, the better to clean up the mess he created with his overspending and poor planning.

“A couple of good coaches got fired, I know that,” said Mighty Duck General Manager Bryan Murray, who has been there before. “Players just get tired of hearing the same thing over and over.... The big thing is to challenge your players every day. Maybe after seven years, you run out of ways to do that. Washington said, ‘You know, Bryan, maybe it’s time we moved on,’ and we’d had three 100-point seasons.”

Murray sympathized with Sather, who’d been jeered by fans for months.

“I heard the chanting. It was sad,” Murray said. “If I was him, I don’t blame him at all.”

The Rangers today will play their first home game since Sather gave the reins to assistant Tom Renney, a disciplinarian. That’s a role Sather couldn’t or wouldn’t play. After snubbing Ken Hitchcock to hire the unqualified Bryan Trottier (who followed the equally overwhelmed Ron Low), Sather went behind the bench himself and did no better. He never benched players for repeated mistakes and didn’t seem to notice that his millionaires often couldn’t be bothered to display any passion.

With a playoff berth out of reach, Sather probably will let Renney finish the season, rather than hiring Quenneville. Sather’s primary aim is rebuilding, which he might begin by trading Brian Leetch, who had $6 million left on his contract, and free-agent-to-be Alexei Kovalev. He might want to get rid of Eric Lindros, who resumed activity a few days ago after suffering a concussion Feb. 12, but Lindros is too risky an acquisition.

Talk About Bad Timing

Firing Francis was the latest in a series of misfortunes for the Coyotes.

They’d hoped to make money and gain ground in the standings when they moved from America West Arena to the new Glendale Arena in December, but little has gone as planned. They sold out their first four games, but their collapse over the last two months, including a 4-9-3-3 record in their new palace, and their trade of fan favorite Sean Burke have discouraged fans from making the trek to the West Valley.

The Coyotes were 11-11-11-1 when the arena opened on Dec. 27 but are 4-14-4-2 since goalie Brian Boucher set an NHL record with five consecutive shutouts.

“The record we had when the arena opened was about what we wanted,” Coyote President Doug Moss said. “What happened was, we stopped playing well at home and that took the air out of the balloon. All that, though, is excuses. We have to do a better job of selling in this market.”

The area around Glendale is largely undeveloped, but Moss said studies indicate that the arena will be a hub of growth. The NFL Cardinals are building a stadium nearby, and a few hotels and shopping malls are under construction.

“It is like an expansion market out here,” Moss said. “The building is beautiful. The fans enjoy the experience here. We just have to do a better job on the ice and off the ice to get more people to come out.”

Slap Shots

Atlanta Coach Bob Hartley scratched Ilya Kovalchuk from the lineup Friday at New Jersey after the young winger missed a team meeting that morning, but there might have been more behind that. Rumblings out of Atlanta say Hartley thinks Kovalchuk is trying to do too much himself, yet it might just be that Kovalchuk needs to grow up a bit. General Manager Don Waddell must tread lightly, because he can’t antagonize his top scorer or the coach who guided his team back to respectability.

Brian Burke’s contract as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks expires in June. He hasn’t been offered an extension, and his bosses have said they’ll talk after the season. Burke was blunt when asked about it during a Vancouver radio interview.

“I am a lame-duck GM,” he said. “There’s no sense calling this anything other than what it is.”

Burke has built the Canucks into a contender since he took over in 1998, but they haven’t gone deep into the playoffs, where teams make their money. Another early exit would guarantee Burke’s departure and result in a promotion for assistant general manager David Nonis.

The NHL Players’ Assn. is backing an online auction to fund a scholarship named for Atlanta forward Dan Snyder, who died last year as the result of injuries he suffered in a car accident with teammate Dany Heatley at the wheel.

Jerseys worn by the Thrashers and the Red Wings on Dec. 31 will be up for bids, as well as pucks used in that game and jerseys belonging to players who didn’t play. Proceeds will go to the Dan Snyder Memorial scholarship. The auction ends March 10 and can be accessed at www.nhlpa.com/37auction.