It was a sobering experience

Deron Quint is back in the NHL, or at least around it, and he'd like to stay for a while. A favorite son of Durham, N.H., and among the most talented hockey players ever produced by the Granite State, the 31-year-old Quint hooked on with the playoff-bound Islanders for a five-game hitch at the start of this month.

"Time flies by, you know?" said Quint, reflecting on his pro career, one that seemed destined to end prematurely in 2000 until he confronted his alcohol dependency via the NHL/NHLPA substance-abuse program. "When you're young, maybe you don't think about much, and just don't enjoy the moment. I know I just rushed through everything, and you don't realize how great it is -- until it's gone."

Quint, who spent the last two seasons playing in Germany, was added too late to the Islanders roster to be eligible for this year's playoffs. However, general manager Garth Snow asked him to remain aboard as a nonroster practice player for the playoffs. The former Winnipeg draft pick (No. 30 overall, 1994) was in Buffalo Thursday night, watching from the press box as the Islanders toiled against the Sabres.

"I've been sober seven years now, and I guess you could say it's been an interesting ride," said Quint, who is married and has a 2-year-old daughter, with a second daughter due this summer. "Seven years on that, trying to stay clean and working hard, trying to be the best person I can be . . . it was a tough run for a while."

The low point came in the spring of 2000, only a couple of weeks after the Devils acquired Quint in a swap with Phoenix. Only four games into his tour of duty at Exit 16W, Quint was shown the door by no-nonsense GM Lou Lamoriello, who had shipped Lyle Odelein to the Coyotes in hopes of upgrading the blue line with the then-24-year-old Quint.

It was Lamoriello's intolerance, Quint figures today, that put him on the path to recovery.

"The start of my career, I was only 18 years old, and I was there in Winnipeg, where the drinking age is 18," mused Quint, whose speedy legs and ability to move the puck drew the attention of many teams, including the Bruins, who passed up the chance to draft him and instead took Evgeni Ryabchikov, a little-known Russian goalie. "You know, you're young, and you think the world's at your fingertips. If you don't have someone there to watch you, it can get out of control. No one was there to pull me aside and say, 'Hey, slow down.'

"And it just all went downhill from there -- until Lou."

By Quint's telling, he was soon getting treatment, and by the end of June 2000, Lamoriello dealt his rights to Columbus. Prior to heading to Europe during the lockout season of 2004-05, Quint played for the Blue Jackets, Coyotes, and Blackhawks over the next four seasons. His tours abroad the last three seasons have included stints in Italy, Switzerland, and the two seasons in Berlin, where he was coached by ex-NHL bench boss Pierre Page.

To this day, said Quint, he has not spoken again to Lamoriello, but he figures that day will come. If not for his former boss's dismissive treatment, he can't say with certainty where he would be today.

"It was kind of my little wake-up," said Quint, who is represented these days by Brian Lawton, the former Rhode Island high school star and ex-Bruin. "It pushed me to get healthy and clean, although, to be honest, I can tell you at the time I was not happy about it.

"But I look back now, and no question, it got me going in the right direction. Someday I'll get a chance to talk to him. And you know, no hard feelings on my end -- it all worked out for the better. He obviously saw something that was a problem that needed to be fixed, and it got me over the edge, showed me that I needed help, and I'm thankful for that."

Quint caught the eye of Islander scouts with his impressive 18 goals and 46 points with the Berlin Polar Bears, making him the club's No. 1 goal scorer and second overall in points. He didn't pick up a point in his five games with the Islanders, but he wouldn't be around now if Snow didn't entertain the possibility of having him return next season.

"I'd like to see the guys through it," said Quint, expressing how thankful he is that Snow, the former Olympic goalie from Wrentham, gave him the chance to return to the NHL. "Someone asks you to stick around, I mean, how do you say no?

"It's really a great group, and a great organization. I'd love something to work out.

"And if not, maybe another NHL team will give me a shot. Who knows? Maybe even the Bruins. But if nothing works out here, I'd go back to Germany in a second, because I loved that, too, and with the shorter schedule and less travel, I bet I could play another seven years over there."

It's a longer view these days that matters for Quint, who once lost sight of the moment.

New chapters ahead

Paul Stewart isn't exactly sure what he wants to do now, and he's still tidying up some loose ends as he leaves his job as director of development for the Bruins Foundation, which heads up the club's many charitable works. The ex-NHL referee is certain, though, that he'd like the next chapter of his life to mirror much of what he has done for decades in his professional and personal life.

"I'm never going to abandon helping people," said the 54-year-old Stewart, who ended his formal connection with the foundation a couple of weeks ago -- a parting that both sides depict as amicable, despite its abruptness. "My passion has always been hockey, and I've been fortunate to be able to help some people, and also have that work open some doors for me. I'll always want to be a guy people can call, especially if it's to help in their missions to help kids."

Next month, Stewart will be a guest speaker at a US Hockey Coaches Association meeting in Pittsburgh. He said he also has been advising groups on building rinks and consulting on other hockey-related enterprises.

"I think I'd like to write a book, too," he said. "You know, not some kiss-and-tell thing, but something that has substance to it. A hockey book with a little more vitality than, say, the Dryden book."

"The Game," by Canadiens icon Ken Dryden, is widely considered one of the sport's great reads. That said, Stewie's look at the world, and his approach to it, has always been unique. If he's writing, I'm buying -- the facts and the fiction.

Coyotes boss expects more assists from Gretzky

The changes in the Phoenix Coyotes front office, including the dismissal of Mike Barnett as general manager and Hall of Famer Cliff Fletcher as director of hockey operations, were more widespread than anticipated. CEO Jeff Shumway also turfed assistant GM Laurence Gilman.

About the only guy left standing was part-owner/head coach Wayne Gretzky.

It was tough day for the Great One, whose ties with Barnett go back to their Edmonton glory days, when "Barnie" left the restaurant business to become No. 99's agent, taking over for Gus Badali. Barnett, noted Gretzky, has meant more to him "than probably anybody other than my father."

Financially, the parting won't be too hard for Barnett to take. He still has three or four years left on a deal he signed last summer. Fletcher and Gilman each had two years left. Total cost of the hit will be at least $2.5 million, but Shumway said it was time for new direction, to get someone to build the Desert Dogs through the draft and younger acquisitions. The roster was often top-heavy with underperforming graybeards.

Shumway wants Gretzky, whom he respects for his ability to spot talent, to be "a little louder in his opinions" when it comes to building the roster.

Among those on a prospective GM list: Steve Tambellini (Vancouver), Don Maloney (Rangers), and Jim Nill (Detroit). All are currently assistant GMs.

Gretzky's preference?

"Hopefully, somebody I don't know," he said.

In other words: mission impossible. Paging Peter Graves?

Etc.

The net is a little emptier
The game lost one of its true characters, and one of its strongest connections to the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" squad, with last week's passing of Warren Strelow, the legendary goaltending coach who stood behind the bench with Herb Brooks in Lake Placid. "An absolute privilege to be with him, work with him the last 10 years," said former Bruins assistant coach Cap Raeder, who worked alongside Strelow in varying capacities with the Sharks the last decade. "The work he did with our goalies was unbelievable, and they loved him. And not just the goalies, you know, but all the players. I mean, what hadn't the guy done? They loved hearing his stories." Strelow, who had many health issues in recent years, especially after a kidney transplant, suffered a stroke Feb. 28 and died in Worcester (home to the Sharks AHL affiliate) Wednesday. He was 73.

Sharks drew first blood
Jumbo Joe Thornton, still in need of making his postseason bones, got off to an impressive start with a pair of assists in the Sharks' 5-4 double-overtime win over the Predators Wednesday. In case you missed it, Belmont favorite son Patrick Rissmiller, who made the Sharks essentially as a walk-on from Holy Cross, potted the winner. Scott Hartnell's knee-on-knee hit to Jonathan Cheechoo in Game 1 had the Sharks worried about their winger's availability for the rest of the series, but he suited up in Game 2 Friday. All in all, the Hartnell hit wasn't even a foul, said Predators coach Barry Trotz. Of course, Sharks coach Ron Wilson felt otherwise. "Ask Barry Trotz if he'd say the same thing if he saw Peter Forsberg or Paul Kariya laying there," said Wilson.

Endless bummer
Opening night of the playoffs, and only friends and family could have been left by the TV late Wednesday night when Vancouver finally dumped Dallas, 5-4, in the fourth OT (Henrik Sedin netted the winner with only 1:54 to go before a fifth OT). Dallas peppered super goalie Roberto Luongo with 76 shots. Marty Turco faced 56 Canucks offerings. Top ice time: Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa, who logged a mother lode of 54:27. Low man for the night: Vancouver's Matt Cookie (9:51). Canucks winger Jeff Cowan landed nine hits -- only three fewer than Bruins rookie Phil Kessel logged over 70 games. But four OTs? Time for the NHL to employ the shootout for at least the first couple of rounds of the playoffs. Leave the old-world rules in place for the finals, but otherwise double, triple, and quadruple OTs only underscore that the game is still dominated too much by goalies and too gummed up by forwards and defensemen who refuse even to think about playing two-way hockey.

The Senators, who opted not to keep Zdeno Chara on their blue line at an asking price of $7.5 million, have been busy of late, handing blue liners Chris Phillips $3.75 million a year (times four) and Anton Volchenkov, a shot-blocker supreme, $2.5 million a year (times three). They also have Wade Redden tied up back there for one more year at $6.5 million, the end of the two-year pact he signed as Big Z departed. Total for the threesome: $12.75 million for next year. Meanwhile, rumors abound that the Senators, rendered chumps instead of champs in recent years, must go deep into the postseason or see the front office and/or bench get extreme makeovers. By the way, strange comment by Bruins coach Dave Lewis, saying, "Trust me, you'll like his old game," in reference to how Chara will play next season. Chara's hitting dropped by some 10 percent from the previous season (224 to 203), and he didn't have a single fight. The Bruins acquired him for presence but too often got pirouette. They waited all year to determine he had to change?

Among Deron Quint's teammates in Berlin: ex-Bruin blue liners Jeff Jillson and Ian Moran. Moran, according to Quint, won't return Stateside until June, once his children have finished the school year over there. Injured much of his time under the employ of the spoked-B, the 34-year-old Moran signed on as a free agent with Anaheim last summer but couldn't make the Ducks' cut. After 18 games in Portland (Maine, the Ducks' AHL affiliate), he headed back to Europe. The ex-BC Eagle played in Sweden and England during the lockout . . . Volchenkov led all NHLers in shots blocked (273), a 19.7 percent bulge over the Oilers' Jason Smith (228). Bruin Aaron Ward finished ninth overall at 188, with most of them made as a Blueshirt . . . Anyone else out there long for the day that Mike Milbury takes over an NHL bench, any bench? No doubt he's valuable in the Islander front office, doing truckloads of boring business stuff, but the NHL sure could use some impatient, fire-breathing coaches running those somnambulant benches. To an e-mail suggesting that the time could be right for him to do the right thing, the 55-year-old Milbury politely declined comment. Some 30 years into knowing Milbury, I'm interpreting that as a resounding YES! The over/under for him to call his first timeout and give his club a tongue-lashing: 37 seconds.

Kevin Paul Dupont's e-mail address is dupont@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.