Senators getting votes for their all-around play

Sporting News, The, March 8, 1999 by Larry Wigge

--L.W.

RELATED ARTICLE: inside dish

FRONT OFFICE RUMBLINGS AND LOCKER ROOM WHISPERS FROM LARRY WIGGE

Just when Calgary gets into the playoff race, G.M. Al Coates trades right winger Theo Fleury and third-line left winger Chris Dingman to Colorado for left winger Rene Corbet, defenseman Wade Belak and future considerations. "If you run an airline," Coates says, "and you sink all your money into one plane, what happens if it breaks down?" But unless those future considerations are extra special, Flames fans have a right to feel shortchanged, because they lose their best player and their hopes of making the playoffs this season. Meanwhile, Colorado can now pull ahead of Dallas and Detroit in the Western Conference. "We know we've added a great player," G.M. Pierre Lacroix says. "We've also kept him from potentially hurting us with another team, notably Dallas, where he might have gone if we hadn't gotten him." Fleury is still going to test the free-agent market, but a positive experience in Denver could help him decide to re-sign there.... Why is it that it takes a career minor leaguer--as a goaltender and coach--like new Blackhawks coach Lorne Molleken to come up with the sensible idea of meeting at least once a week with captain Chris Chelios and alternate captains Doug Gilmour and Tony Amonte to toss around ideas? "I've played in a lot of game plans over the years, but none that I physically couldn't handle," Gilmour says of the dump-and-chase blueprint of former coach Dirk Graham. "I pride myself on being able to work harder than most of my opponents. But to ask me to dump the puck into their zone and to get it, that's idiotic because I'm usually giving away three or four inches and 20 or 30 pounds to a defenseman. You have to allow players like Alexei Zhamnov and Tony Amonte and myself to be creative.... You have to work smarter, not just harder than your opponent." ... With defenseman Mark Tinordi expected to be sidelined beyond the March 23 trading deadline with a severely sprained ankle, the Ranger's Ulf Samuelsson will be more expensive. He likely will cost the Red Wings more than they expected to pay for him for the stretch run.... Hurricanes right winger Kevin Dineen on the opportunity for the Hartford/Carolina team to go the playoffs for the first time since 1991-92: "I've sat through a lot of Aprils watching other teams play. The difference this season has been the calmness and leadership Ronnie Francis has brought us."

Associate editor Larry Wigge covers hockey for THE SPORTING NEWS. E-mail him at wigge@sportingnews.com.