Inside the NHL
Hull's career-defining goal broke hearts in WNY
Ten years, four months and three weeks have passed, including three days for leap years, since the doors busted open and the Dallas Stars rushed onto the ice to collect the Stanley Cup after Brett Hull scored the winner in triple overtime. Add another day if you include the date of when the game started, not when it ended.
Not that anybody is counting, of course.
All these years later, Hull still finds himself explaining how the goal was rightfully his and the Cup was rightfully theirs. Don't blame him for the controversy, he says. Blame the league for not sharing an in-season rule change that allowed players to have their foot in the crease so long as they maintained control of the puck.
"The NHL decided they weren't going to tell anybody but the teams," Hull said last week during a conference call. "It was because of people getting breakaways on the empty net — it would stay through the crease, lay it in the empty net — they were taking those goals away.
"They changed the rule to say if you had possession in the crease, and some people's definition of control [is] different, but if you have control in the crease, you can score the goal, and that's exactly what it was. But nobody knows that. You can tell people that a million times and they just will not listen."
Actually, he's right.
My beef for years with No Goal, after hearing the full explanation, hasn't been the call itself (Honey, change the locks, call the Realtor) in the early hours of June 20, 1999, but with former Sabres center Brian Holzinger's failure to clear Hull out of the slot.
Whether or not Hull maintained control can forever be debated. Whether or not Hull belongs in the Hall of Fame is indisputable. The winger will take his rightful place Monday along with forwards Steve Yzerman and Luc Robitaille, defenseman Brian Leetch, builder Lou Lamoriello and longtime Pittsburgh beat writer Dave Molinari.
Hull finished with 741 goals and 1,391 points, won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in 1991, captured two Stanley Cups and appeared in eight NHL All-Star Games. His goal total ranks third all time while his points are 21st. He had 844 goals in his career, including playoffs. He had a career-high 86 goals in 1990-91.
Everywhere else, he's known as one of the best snipers in history and among the most colorful players of his era.
In these parts, unfortunately, he will forever be known as the guy with his foot in the crease. Just so you know, the goal Buffalo fans anguish over the most is also the one he relishes the most.
"It ranks No. 1 to me," he said. "There was a boatload of people saying when I was leaving St. Louis, "You're never going to win with Brett Hull on your team.' ... To go out and score the goal in overtime — who hasn't sat as a kid on the ice with his buddies and dreamt or pretended that's the goal they've scored? — to do it in real life was something special."
Hull, Yzerman and Robitaille played on one of the NHL's best teams ever when they won the Cup in 2002 under Scotty Bowman. The Red Wings could have nine players off that team land in the Hall. The roster also included Chris Chelios, Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan and Dominik Hasek.
"I was lucky enough to kind of feel what it was like to be an old New York Yankee," Hull said. "I got to play with Babe Ruth of hockey [Wayne Gretzky, in St. Louis] and become one of his good friends. I got to play for Casey Stengel [Bowman], one of the greatest coaches that ever walked the earth.
"I had more fun in the one year of playing for Scotty than I did my whole career. To play on that team with him coaching, it felt, looking back, like you were on a team with [Mickey] Mantle, Lou Gehrig and Yogi Berra, all those great players. It's scary."
Jumping the flu line?
It appears the biggest difference between the United States and Canada when it comes to getting swine flu vaccines can be found in priorities. In the U.S., everything revolves around the almighty buck. In Canada, it's the almighty Cup.
Average Joes were outraged last week amid reports that Wall Street big shots were getting vaccinated before high-risk patients such as young children and pregnant women. Average Joe Juneaus were furious upon hearing several NHL players in Calgary and Toronto were also pushed to the front of the pack for H1N1.
Surprised?
One midlevel management type was canned in Alberta for allowing the Flames' players, staff members and families to cut in line. Premier Ed Stelmach called it "deplorable." Dr. David Butler-Jones, the top health care official, felt the need to make a public plea for players to wait their turns.
"We do love our hockey but ... those at low risk really should wait because the risk of death is higher in other groups," Butler-Jones said. "Hockey players are at no greater risk, unless they have underlying diabetes, or another chronic condition that puts them at greater risk."
Burkle shows off his crib
Penguins billionaire co-owner Ron Burkle opened up his Beverly Hills mansion to the Stanley Cup champs last week during their road trip to Los Angeles. The Pens quickly learned the great divide between the rich and the filthy rich.
Burkle's estate includes eight master bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, an underground tunnel system, nearly a dozen classic cars, a basketball court, tennis court and soccer field. Bruce Springsteen is one of his neighbors. Michael Jackson, the late King of Pop, once lived in the guest home for about three months.
"Oh, my, it was mind-blowing," winger Maxime Talbot told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "It feels like a resort. It's so big that you can't go everywhere — not in one night. ... It's just another world."
Burkle, who made his fortune through supermarket chains and other investments, counts former President Clinton among his friends and has a reputation as a Southern California party boy. Estimates had him worth more than $3 billion.
Last year, he had his private charter take Talbot and Evgeni Malkin to the NHL awards ceremony in Las Vegas. He also made a special trip to attend Sidney Crosby's 21st birthday party in Nova Scotia.
"He's like a lot of hockey players in that he's come from a hard-working background to make it, but he doesn't want to make a big deal about that," Crosby said. "He's very down to earth."
Malone's magic touch
Lightning winger Ryan Malone became the eighth player in NHL history and first since Brian Propp in 1982-83 to have four of his team's first five winners. The last came in overtime Tuesday against Toronto.
Malone had nine goals and 12 points in his first 14 games this season. He didn't score his ninth goal last season until Jan. 1 after signing a seven-year deal worth $31.5 million. Vincent Lecavalier, he of the 11-year deal worth $85 million, had just two goals, 12 points and was minus-7 going into the weekend.
"You look at the goals [Malone] gets, they're usually around the net," Bolts coach Rick Tocchet said. "That's the thing you try to preach to guys, to get to those areas, and Bugsy will do that. He gets to those areas and that's why he gets winning goals."
Cheechoo can't get started
Senators winger Jonathan Cheechoo, longing for the post-lockout days in which Joe Thornton was feeding him for 56 goals with the Sharks, could be headed to the press box if he doesn't get his act together.
Cheechoo had no goals and two assists to show for his first 13 games since the trade that sent him to Ottawa and Dany Heatley to San Jose. He's been kicked from the first to the fourth line and played less than nine minutes last week against Tampa. It's not what the Sens had in mind for a player making $3.5 million this year and next.
Alexei Kovalev hasn't been much better while going through the motions. He had been held to one shot or fewer seven times in 13 games and was minus-5.
Around the boards
• Colorado's surprisingly terrific start hasn't filtered to its fan base. The Avalanche returned home last week with an NHL-best 10-3-2 record but had their all-time lowest crowd waiting for them. The announced attendance was 11,012 for their game against Phoenix, but there were about 8,000 in the Pepsi Center.
• Red Wings defenseman Andreas Lilja, sidelined since February with concussion-related problems, is making progress after seeing Vancouver chiropractor Don Grant on the advice of Brad May. "The guy worked miracles on me," Lilja said. "I can't really explain what he did, but I had headaches for eight months and after seeing him once, the headaches disappeared for three days. It was unbelievable."
• Here's what Minnesota was getting from ex-Blackhawks winger Martin Havlat through 13 games after signing him to a six-year deal worth $30 million: one goal, six assists, 20 shots on goal, minus-12.
• Tampa Bay rookie Viktor Hedman had his "Welcome to the NHL" moment last week when Senators tough guy Chris Neil knocked the defenseman for a loop. It led to a brawl with Steve Downie, but Bolts coach Tocchet had no problem with Neil. "It was a good hit," Tocchet said. "The puck was there. That's hockey."
• Oilers coach Pat Quinn's patience is running thin with soft center Robert Nilsson, once considered the primary return in the deal that sent Ryan Smyth to the Islanders in 2006. He had four goals in 41 games going back to last season. The former first-round pick was benched last week with a minus-11 rating over 10 games.
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