Balancing act is incomplete

Owners, players vary on 84-game schedule

The NHL's much-anticipated move to an 84-game schedule won't happen for at least another couple of years, if at all, according to Paul Kelly, executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association.

According to Kelly, club owners are opposed to a specific scheduling matrix, one desired by the players as part of an 84-game schedule they proposed. The difference isn't about whether to go to 84 games per se, but how to divvy up those games across the two conferences, according to commissioner Gary Bettman.

"We would be in favor of going to 84 games this year," said Kelly, noting that the move also would mandate dropping two games from every club's preseason schedule. "But right now, it ain't happening."

Bettman last week said he has a consensus among the owners to expand the schedule by two games to 84, but that the union wants other scheduling concessions included, specifically one that, from a Boston perspective (just for simplicity's sake here) would have the Bruins playing a home-and-home set each season with every team in the Western Conference.

The league, which will implement a redesigned 82-game schedule in 2008-09, already has ratified 18 interconference games per season. Again, from the Boston perspective, this means the Bruins will play each of the 15 Western teams at least once next year. And in the case of three of those teams (representing games 16, 17, and 18 of interconference play), there will be an additional game, allowing for one game in Boston and one game in the Western city.

The union, according to Bettman, wanted 30 interconference games - one home and one away per opponent - but owners weren't in favor of taking the additional dozen games out of each club's conference schedule.

Most clubs in the East have grown to enjoy the lower travel costs, and fewer days on the road, benefits of the current unbalanced schedule. With heavy emphasis on divisional play since the lockout, the five clubs per division have played each other eight times (32 games total), leaving the remaining 50 games spread unevenly throughout the league, with an emphasis on intraconference play. Under the now-obsolete format, five teams per year (an entire division) were omitted from a club's interconference schedule.

By the union's view, the move to 84 games would pare a club's divisional games back to 24 each year (the format in place for the coming season), and the remaining 60 games would be divvied up among the other 25 clubs, with an emphasis on interconference play. The Bruins, for instance, would visit Vancouver once each season, and the Canucks also would make one Garden appearance. The same with the Flames, Sharks, Coyotes, etc. The remaining 30 games - for a total of 84 - would be played against the other 10 clubs within a team's conference.

The move to 84 games not only makes sense, but by Kelly's estimation, it also would increase the game's annual Hockey Related Revenues by $50 million - slightly more than 50 percent of which would be added to the players' salary pool.

Convinced that the 84-game schedule is a dead issue for 2008-09, Kelly said the NHLPA would be unlikely to OK its implementation for the 2009-10 season, an Olympic year. The 2010 Games are slated for February in Vancouver.

This new wave won't be a trend

Sean Avery, the Rangers' bad boy winger, forced a change in the NHL rulebook last week, less than 24 hours after he stopped on Martin Brodeur's doorstep and did his best (worst?) to block the future Hall of Famer's view of the puck.

Getting under the goaltender's skin is an age-old tactic, but the 28-year-old Avery, as is his wont, took it to an absurd, if not disgraceful, level.

Avery stood face-to-face with the legendary Devils goalie, and repeatedly waved his hands and stick right in front of Brodeur's mask, administering a sort of invisible facewash while Avery's fellow Blueshirts maintained control of the puck in the zone.

Boorish and tasteless, yes. But not a penalty. Until the next day, when league executive vice president/disciplinarian Colin Campbell amended the language for Rule No. 75, regarding unsportsmanlike conduct.

The rule now reads:

"An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender's face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play."

Chances are, now that the rule is in the books, it will never be called. Avery will be remembered for it, and it's possible that he was the first in league history to ever try it. There's ingenuity and creativity at its finest.

Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, when asked about Avery's shenanigans, said he often dealt with similar antics in his childhood, when playing garage hockey. His father and uncle, said Thomas, frequently got in his face with sticks, waving gloves and delivering assorted jabs. Hey, it takes a village to raise a goaltender, no?

"They did it all the time," said Thomas. "I'm ashamed to say that my family's related to Sean Avery's somehow, but . . ."

At last, Thornton was front and center

Sight for sore eyes: Jumbo Joe Thornton cutting to the front of the net, parking at the top of the crease, and tipping home a Doug Murray blast with 10 seconds to go in regulation in San Jose's 3-2 edging of Calgary Tuesday in Game 4 of their series.

Bruins fans, along with a string of frustrated Boston coaches, waited forever to see their franchise center show up there, playing the role of determined, immovable object.

But he has preferred one of two stations: 1. behind the net, trying to hook in goals with his backside facing the rearboards or 2. over on the right half-wall, where he has a knack of threading perfect passes.

If he's finally prepared to do the real dirty work (see: Mark Messier), he still has time to become one of the game's elite and punch his ticket to the Hall of Fame.

Thornton, who had but one assist vs. the Flames in four regular-season games, went 1-5 -6 in the first five playoff games vs. Calgary.

Noise coming from brass section

The Canucks are developing a real penchant for getting rid of good general managers. First Brian Burke, and now ex-Maine Black Bear captain Dave Nonis, who was shown the door last week after Vancouver's second postseason DNQ in three seasons. Affable and sharp make for a lethal combo in lower British Columbia.

Top rumored contenders for the Canucks job include a pair of ex-Bruin forwards, Brian Lawton and Mike "Dobie" Gillis, both of whom have spent most of their post-playing careers as agents. (Obvious question: When will one of these clubs finally hire a longtime hockey columnist, with the answer to all their problems, as GM?)

Another rumor has Burke, his Ducks the defending Stanley Cup champs, soon to be confirmed as the Maple Leafs GM, with longtime Hockey Canada boss Bob Nicholson simultaneously installed as team president.

If so, Burke will give that sleepy, underachieving franchise the rattle and hum it has needed for more than four decades, and some of his dustups with the Toronto media will be worthy of subscription blog premiums.

Etc.

They'll have to pipe up for Bronx classic
The NHL's next Winter Classic will be Bruins vs. Rangers at Yankee Stadium, Jan. 1, 2009, provided the House That Ruth Built can keep the house from flooding. Not kidding, folks. The Yanks normally shut down The Stadium at the end of October, and this year they will close the ballpark for good as they make their way around the corner to their bigger, cushier digs. If the NHL wants to go "Game on!" it will have to pay a $200,000 bill to preserve the pipes through November and December. If the league opts not to foot the expense - a decision that will have to come soon - then the Red Wings will face the Blackhawks at Wrigley Field. As for the potential game in the Bronx, no one knows whether the borough's trademark pinstripes will be painted under the surface. Think David Ortiz shows up, looking to bury a Bobby Orr sweater somewhere on that side of the Deegan Expressway?

Advancing the scouting game
Former general manager Mike Smith (Winnipeg, Toronto, Chicago) and Richard Coleman, his partner in Coleman Analytics, provided key statistical analysis that Team Canada used as one of the tools in picking the Canadian squad for the upcoming World Championships in Halifax and Quebec City. Smith and Coleman believe their data reveal player tendencies that talent evaluators often overlook when applying only conventional scouting means. Smith, reached via phone at his Martha's Vineyard home last week, also confirmed that he got a call last summer from the legendary Scotty Bowman, who at the time was being considered as the next Leafs president. "If you're asking me whether Scotty inquired as to my interest in becoming the Leafs GM, the answer is yes," said Smith. All a moot point, though, when Bowman wasn't offered the job.

Canadians were unable to deliver
A few readers chimed in here, outraged that Canadian-based interests bought advertising along the Garden's boards for the Boston-Montreal series. The ads included such things as a pizza shop, radio station, and a windows-and-doors company. A good pal south of Boston made the call to Pizza Pizza some 325 miles north and asked that they deliver a small cheese. When the young woman taking the order balked at sending the petit fromage so far out of Montreal - imagine that conversation with US Customs at the Vermont border - the caller expressed true disappointment. "I was hoping," said the chagrined Hub suburbanite, "that maybe I could hitch a ride back to Montreal with the delivery guy."

No saving Emery in Ottawa
Ottawa GM/coach Bryan Murray said Friday that he won't have goalie Ray Emery back next season. Question is, where do they send the 25-year-old backstop, along with his behavioral baggage? Ultimately, they might have to buy him out (at the cost of a $1.125 million cap hit each of the next four seasons), or simply ditch him to the minors, where he would collect the pay he is due ($6.75 million over two years). Most likely it's option No. 1, because not only would they rid themselves of a headache, they would save $2.25 million in the process.

They could be bolting Tampa
Rumors persist that John Tortorella won't be back behind the Lightning bench next season, once new ownership has been ratified by the league's Board of Governors. Could mean curtains for GM Jay Feaster, too. Whoever gets the keys to the store, he'll have to come to terms quickly with franchise center Vincent Lecavalier, who had shoulder surgery last week. Le Grand Vin has only one year left on his contract, and undoubtedly will draw a max deal ($10 million-plus per year) if he hits the open market July 1, 2009. Question is, how many years of $10 million-plus will the new owners be willing to extend him? He will be 29 in July 2009.

Loose pucks
Amid the many rumors flying out of Ottawa, where the Senators fell to the Penguins in four straight, was one late in the week that had Jason Spezza headed to Vancouver for franchise goalie Roberto Luongo. Well, the Canucks still have to announce their new GM, and nothing can happen until then, of course. Spezza, his skills profound (read: Joe Thornton-like), has yet to master the shift-to-shift application of his game. Sound familiar? . . . Sergei Samsonov, ex-Bruin winger and Rookie of the Year, inked a three-year deal with the Hurricanes, one that will pay him $2.3 million, $2.5 million, and $2.8 million. This season's Rookie of the Year? I'm going with Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom. Love Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in Chicago. One or both could end up with better careers than Backstrom. But for starts, I thought Backstrom's was just a touch more polished . . . Working assumption around the league was that Jacques Martin would lose both his GM and coaching jobs in Florida, and that Jeff Gorton would get a crack at fixing the Kitty Kats. But it looks as if Martin is staying, and his first priority will be to find a new coach . . . In case you are wondering, the constant booing of Zdeno Chara in Montreal is nothing new. The Bell Centre crowd has made a habit of shouting down the opposition's best player . . . Four names from the Bruins' glorious past - Wayne Cashman, John Wensink, Stan Jonathan, and Terry O'Reilly - will appear May 10 for autographs at Sportsworld in Saugus. According to some of his pals, Cashman, 62, in recent weeks escaped a near-fatal medical emergency. Who's willing to bet that Cash, once righting himself from the hospital bed, two-handed the attending physician on his way out?

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.