Western Nhl Conference

Sporting News, The, Oct 30, 2000 by Paul Grant

WHO'S HOT

Ode to whoever owns the Coyotes: "During nights of hard work It's often said Sean Burke Is a goalie who be rulin' He's hoping he'll stay To play another day After the return of Khabibulin. " Burke was making his case with his strong play, helping his club start 6-1-0. A highlight was a 37-save showing in Phoenix's win over Vancouver.

WHO'S NOT

The Flames are hoping the hobbled Valeri Bure is just having a tough time finding his range. Through eight games he had 33 shots and exactly no goals. Last year he had 35 goals. It gets worse: Bure hasn't scored since March 7, a span of 23 games. Has the magic disappeared? Could it all be relative (brother Pavel had more PIMs than points through Saturday)? Is this somehow Anna's fault? Stay tuned.

CHALKDUST

Scotty Bowman likes veterans. No kidding. But he might have to change his thinking this season, for two reasons: 1.) The edict enforcing slashing and obstruction, especially in the neutral zone, is giving opposing teams room to build up steam and blow past the Red Wings' old guard. 2.) With injuries to Chris Chelios and Steve Yzerman, he may have no choice but to turn to younger guys. Look for Jiri Fischer and Boyd Devereaux to benefit the most.

GAME OF THE WEEK

O.K., so we've gone on and on about the Oilers. But it can't be helped. It's good to see former Cup champions return to form (take note Canadiens, Isles, Flames). It's too bad the fans have bailed out. Maybe this contest will warm the hearts of Edmontonians: The Ducks fly in for the second meeting in four nights between the teams, which always makes for crabby conditions. And, hey, any game in the gun-slingin' West is fun to watch, right? Just another manic Monday.

STICKS & STONES

Everyone's gone ga-ga about Jozef Stumpel returning to La-La Land. The exception could be Eric Belanger, the Kings rookie who was centering Luc Robitaille and Ziggy Palffy in Stumpel's absence. All Belanger did was lead rookie scoring for a week or so. Tough problem, having scoring depth at center. Now if only L..A.'s goalies would catch pucks instead of Zs.

DROPPING THE GLOVES

"For me in the preseason, I wanted to see what (the referees) would do, and they didn't let you get away with much. So you've got to know how to cheat the system."--Chris Pronger, on the slashing crackdown