The last time Steve Valiquette played for the Rangers this season, actually the first time, he had an adrenaline rush from being in his home town with his parents watching and led New York to a shootout win over Toronto.

Valiquette wasn't quite as fortunate in his follow-up nearly two weeks later on Friday in a loss to Florida, but he was just as good if not better than he was against the Maple Leafs. The Rangers backup goalie stopped 33 shots in regulation and overtime, and four more in the shootout, and was the only reason New York escaped with a point they did not really deserve.

"I don't think we came out prepared to compete, we just weren't ready mentally and physically," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "Steve was terrific though and as the game went on, we understood that he would have to be the difference." Valiquette did keep the Rangers alive throughout the game, and particularly in the first period, when New York was outshot 19-6 and was dominated at both ends of the ice. The 6-foot-6 backstop made a number of brilliant saves, most notably robbing Kamil Kreps from point-blank range, David Booth and Stephen Weiss during a scramble and Greg Campbell from the face off circle.

"I was prepared for them to come out strong, because they've been playing very well lately and winning most of their games by higher scores, 4 or 5 goals," Valiquette said. "My objective really was to get out of the first 10 minutes first, and then the first period."

He did that and the Rangers actually took a lead into the locker room because Chris Drury opened the scoring for them with 7 seconds remaining. But the Panthers kept pouring in on in the second period and tied it when David Booth blew by defenseman Dan Girardi and cut in front before squeezing the puck in off the goal post.

"I thought our guy had cut him off so I was surprised (Booth) was able to get to the middle," Valiquette said.

What really surprised Valiquette was the Rangers inability to score on any of their shootout attempts after the teams traded third-period goals and forced the extra session. Valiquette made two great gloves saves off Jozef Stumpel and Rostislav Olesz before Olli Jokinen beat him along the ice. It marked the first time in their last three tries that New York had lost in a skills competition and handed Valiquette the loss on a night he deserved much better.

"It's a funny thing because I always believe our guys will score in the shootout, and they usually do, but not tonight," Valiquette said. "Without winning it feels like you've been cheated."

Unlike the rest of his team, he was.

When the Washington Capitals were in Florida last week, GM George McPhee insisted he was at a loss to explain the struggles his team was going through.

McPhee obviously figured something out because he fired coach Glen Hanlon seven days later, which essentially meant the general manager put all the blame on the guy behind the bench. Of course McPhee mentioned some key injuries that hit his team early this season as well, but by the time we had our conversation, captain Chris Clark and defenseman Tom Poti had already returned to the lineup, leaving only the young sniper Alexander Semin on the sidelines.

Still, the team that McPhee contended had improved defensively, in the faceoff circle and in overall competitiveness, couldn't score and he admitted that baffled him, particularly since the summer moves that brought in Michael Nylander, Viktor Kozlov and Poti were specifically designed to upgrade Washington's production.

"The issue is scoring for us and it's frustrating because as well as we played in a lot of games, it's looked like we just weren't going to be able to score," McPhee said. "Everything else has been fine, but we we'd like to see what this team would look like if it was completely healthy for a few weeks."

McPhee couldn't wait that long. Washington is healthy now because Semin returned to the lineup Monday, but the Caps then went out and turned in two stinkers. That prompted McPhee to make the move Thursday, and one of the telling comments he made about Hanlon was that the former coach had done a good job helping bring along some of the young players on the team. What McPhee didn't say, diplomatically, was that Hanlon was not really cut out to do more than that.

Hanlon was the right choice to soothe the ruffled feathers inside the room by predecessor Bruce Cassidy when he was promoted from Washington's farm team in December 2003, because of his easy-going personality and his familiarity with many of the players from the system. But really, he should have been a stop-gap solution and no more.

Hanlon was a good teacher in many ways, which is fine in the minors or with a young team that has no expectations. But at the NHL level all that matters is winning and Hanlon, even with the upgraded talent level he had this season, wasn't able to take advantage. He drew subtle criticism around the league for the way he changed lines and his inability to create an effective power play despite the firepower in his lineup made his shortcomings obvious.

Replacement Bruce Boudreau has had a lot of minor-league coaching success and seems to have a more offensive-minded view of the game, so maybe he can find a way to squeeze the kind of production out of these Caps that they seem capable of, at least on paper. McPhee has to hope so because the reality is his leash is getting shorter by the day as well.

For one thing, the GM seems to be on a different page than his owner. McPhee told me last week that he considers Washington just three years into rebuild plan and that a playoff challenge would depend on "everything would have to go well for us to do that." But over the summer, Ted Leonsis declared the rebuilding period was over and that he expected his team to make the playoffs.

More important, McPhee hasn't signed superstar Alex Ovechkin to an extension yet. The Caps are a very budget conscious team and maintain one of the league's lowest payrolls, and Ovechkin, who can become a restricted free agent next summer, will almost certainly demand and command a maximum salary of about $10 million per season. But he may not want it from Washington.

Ovechkin hasn't been shy in the past about expressing his frustration at losing, and it would not surprise anyone to see the young superstar get an offer sheet that the Caps cannot or will not match. The Caps have to turn around their season in a hurry to have any shot of keeping Ovechkin and McPhee knows that.

There aren't many regular-season trades made anymore in the NHL, at least not until the deadline, so for Don Waddell adding the interim head coaching duties to his work load isn't much of a burden these days.

Waddell is currently one of the NHL's only dual-role guys -- Florida's Jacques Martin is the other -- and he said that doesn't prevent him from keeping in touch with counterparts around the league on a regular basis, especially on non-game days when he lets assistants Brad McCrimmon and Steve Weeks run practices for his suddenly surging team.

Waddell offered the standard line about always being on the lookout for something that might improve the club, but as Atlanta starts to make its move toward playoff contention, the GM/coach said he doesn't really anticipate making any lineup changes, at least not in the foreseeable future.

"Right now, our chemistry in the room is great," said Waddell, who has about $6 million of cap space to work with. "Our players get along real well and like each other so you've got to be real careful. Sometimes you bring in a player who might be a better player, but you've got to make sure he fits the room."

One player that definitely fits the room is high-scoring winger Marian Hossa, who has been the subject of trade rumors since the summer because he hasn't yet signed an extension and can become a free agent next July. There has been some speculation that the ongoing court battle for control of the franchise by the five-man Atlanta Spirit group that owns controls the Thrashers, NBA Atlanta Hawks and operating rights to Philips Arena has stymied Waddell's attempt to re-sign the star player who will likely get a deal approaching $8 million a season, but the GM denied that and said his priority is to get a deal done.

"I have bi-weekly meetings with ownership and I've never been told no to anything we wanted to do," Waddell said. "The Hossa thing is all in my hands. We've had great talks, face-to-face meetings with his agent and we have another one in the next little while.

"I have not taken a deal to ownership to get it approved or disapproved, and I'm certainly confident I'll get support. I just don't have a deal to take to them yet."

There was some logic in the Capitals sending Brian Sutherby to Anaheim earlier today for a draft pick because they don't need a depth center like the Ducks do. Besides Washington has to clear a roster spot for Alexander Semin, who is returning from the injured list.

The same can't be said Brett Hull's first move as co-general manager of the Dallas Stars. Hull is supposed to shake things up in Dallas, which presumably means doing things that will actually impact the Stars in a positive way. His debut deal doesn't fit that bill. Still it is a move, one that probably won't hurt the organization either. And it comes less than a week after he got the job so at least Hull can say he isn't sitting still. Thing is while Hull's mandate is to improve the Dallas' fortunes on the ice, what's equally important for the organization is for him to create some buzz around the Stars as well. The hockey club is having a tough time getting attention in Dallas what with the Cowboys having the great season that they are and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban always a magnet for headline.

Hull has the kind of personality that could grab some of the limelight, which is why it would have been a lot better for his first trade to be a little more exciting than getting a no-name defenseman like Bryce Lampman from Tampa Bay. Lampman is a Minnesota native who was drafted in the fourth round by the New Rangers back in 2001, but he played only 10 non-descript NHL games for New York before they cut him loose last summer. He was subsequently signed by the Lightning and has spent this season in the AHL, the level he will remain at after Dallas picked him up today for a minor-leaguer named Mario Scalzo.

In other words, this is little more than some paper shuffling for Hull as he gets used to the mechanics of a job he's never done before. Guess you gotta start somewhere, right?

It's time to break up the Dallas Stars.

That rallying cry is usually born out of jealously by those who watch rival teams win a little too often for their tastes, but in this case, it's the not-so-subtle message by team owner Tom Hicks with his firing of GM Doug Armstrong.

In announcing the move Tuesday, Hicks released a statement saying his team, which is struggling to stay near .500 and looked pretty ugly blowing a game in Los Angeles over the weekend, "needed a change in direction." Effectively, he's admitting that the window to win a championship for an aging, some would say over-the-hill gang to win has already shut tight.

Armstrong, who became general manager midway through the 2001-02 season, had five years to get his team back to its glory days. The Stars made the playoffs in every full season he was boss, but won only one round, and his moves had only mixed results at best. Armstrong's downfall though was his post-lockout decision to invest expensively in retaining veteran players Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov, and Jere Lehtinen, leaving him little cap space to build the kind of support group necessary to be a serious contender. The three players -- Lehtinen at 34 is three years younger than the other two -- were key components on the franchise's only Stanley Cup, but that was eight years ago.

These days, the Stars are a slow, small team that is not very adept at scoring goals. Armstrong tried some desperate measures at the trade deadline last season, getting forward Ladislav Nagy and defenseman Mattias Norstrom, but neither move helped prevent the Stars from losing in the first round and they cost them their next two first round drafts to boot.

So it is time to rebuild in Dallas, which is never a fun process especially without a deep farm system. Still Philadelphia has done it pretty quickly with some bold and creative tinkering. In the Flyers case, that meant moving some key veterans to contenders at the deadline last season, deals which cleared tons of cap space and returned several young players and high draft picks. That's the way the Stars have to think, especially since Modano, Zubov, Lehtinen, and certainly even goalie Marty Turco will be attractive commodities for many desperate teams with title aspirations as the stretch run approaches.

They weren't playing Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" after the game in Florida because that would have helped celebrate the visiting team's victory and Carolina Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette's temper was subdued anyway because of a frightening injury to win one of his key players.

But Laviolette became the fifth American-born NHL coach to reach 200 wins seemed pleased to acknowledge his achievement, and that he joined compatriots Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick, who reached significant personal scoring marks this week.

And there was some optimism in the Hurricanes room with the early reports concerning Erik Cole, who suffered a broken neck two years ago, and was taken off on a stretcher after going head first into Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun's leg pads.

"From what I understand, he had movement in his limbs, so hopefully it's okay," Laviolette said. "But at this point, I don't think anyone can really comment one way or the other."

Laviolette was able to say a few things about latest intra-divisional win, which moved his team eight points ahead of its nearest rival and 11 ahead of the floundering Panthers.

"I'm fortunate to be here with a good team and good players," he said about the milestone win. "But what I really liked the effort we put in tonight."

No surprise there. The Hurricanes, who were frustrated here on Thanksgiving when they were victimized by several questionable diving calls, outplayed Florida for much of the game. Still it was a great goaltending duel between Vokoun and Cam Ward until the third period when Carolina scored three times on what could charitably described as weak efforts by the Florida netminder.

The first goal, just 52 seconds into the final period, came on a dump-in attempt by Cory Stillman from outside the blue line that caromed back off the boards and went off Vokoun who was caught out of position.

"You know what, he had done it a couple of times and (assistant coach) Kevin McCarthy told him to be aware Vokoun might be cheating on the dumps, so Stiller buried his head and put it on the net," Laviolette said.

Florida tied it just 18 seconds on Stephen Weiss' goal but Justin Williams put the 'Canes ahead again a few minutes later with a harmless-looking shot and seemed to surprise Vokoun.

Still the Panthers fought back to tie it again, only to lose with 66 seconds left as Stillman flipped a puck toward the crease from the corner and had in knocked in by Panthers defenseman Steve Montador.

"We had some fluke goals, for sure, but when you get pucks to the net good things will happen," Stillman said.

And sometimes, they're milestones.

Wayne Gretzky should be there for buddy Mark Messier, but he can't make it.

Neither can Martin Brodeur, who would like to help honor Scott Stevens. Same thing, unfortunately, for the members of the Carolina Hurricanes who were teammates of Ron Francis.

It's a big night for those great former players, all of whom go into the Hall of Fame on Monday with Al MacInnis and former Toronto general manager Jim Gregory, but many of the teammates who were so important to their success will have to miss the ceremonies because of prior commitments:

Games.

It's an embarrassment. This is arguably the best single group of players to enter the Hall at the same time, and instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to play up something positive, the NHL has scheduled five games to pull the spotlight away.

Among the teams who will be active are the Gretzky-coached Phoenix Coyotes, the Devils with Brodeur going for his 500th career victory and the Carolina Hurricanes playing in Florida. In case you were wondering, the Hall of Fame inductees were announced more than a month before this season's schedule was released.

The league says it is an oversight that won't happen again. You have to wonder, though, considering the NHL decided that an outdoor game this season between the Penguins and Buffalo, which will be broadcast by NBC and could have a lot of potential appeal, will take place in the afternoon on New Year's Day. Should be a real ratings boost against all those college bowl games, huh?

Anyway, maybe some of MacInnis' old buddies will drop by. St. Louis and Calgary, where he spent his career, have the night off, although the way they have played lately, they won't be in a celebrating mood.

The debate is really three years away since that's how long a player has to be officially retired before he is eligible for the Hall of Fame.

But in Eric Lindros' case, the speculation about his worthiness won't wait that long. Lindros was scheduled to officially announce his retirement Thursday in London, Ontario, and it has already sparked a lot of give and take about whether the strapping former first overall draft pick merits inclusion among the game's most illustrious names.

And one of the first expressions of support, surprisingly, came from Lindros' former GM, Bob Clarke, who had a less-than-ideal relationship with him.

"He won MVP, he was an All-Star, he went to the Stanley Cup Finals. If you eliminate the crap that circled him, he is easily a Hall of Fame hockey player," Clarke said during a panel on Canada's TSN network. "This was the first big, powerful, dominant forward with the skill, not (Wayne) Gretzky or (Mario) Lemieux, but close."

Lindros, who came to Philadelphia in a blockbuster 1992 trade after refusing to sign with the Quebec Nordiques who drafted him first overall, spent eight seasons with the Flyers but never led them to a championship. He was the league's MVP in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season but was traded by Clarke in 2002 after the relationship between Lindros, his parents and Clarke had deteriorated to the point of no return.

"The last few years were really tough but prior to that Eric was just a player playing hockey," explained Clarke. "Had his parents left him alone I don't know what this kid could have done because he could really play."

Even so, former New York Islanders GM Mike Milbury said Lindros, who scored 372 goals and averaged 1.12 points in his 760 career games, was not a Hall of Famer.

"Statistics are great but he wasn't a good teammate, he wasn't a good captain, he did not promote the game of hockey the way it should be promoted," said Milbury, who is now a Bruins broadcaster.

But Mark Messier, who will be inducted to the Hall on Monday, seemed to offer his support by describing Lindros as someone who should be recognized for his impact on the game.

"Eric was a guy that really kind of brought the big man, power forward, skill guy to the forefront," Messier said. "I mean, 6-5, 245 pounds that could skate the way a 5-9 player used to. On top of that, with the skill and a mean streak, he really epitomized what a power forward was and was going to be leading into the next era of hockey players."

You know what the first Tuesday after the first Monday means right? Well that election is still a year away and of course the names on the ballot have yet to be decided.

Not so with the NHL. The league released its All-Star ballot today, a week ahead of the scheduled start of voting. The campaign slogan is "vote now, vote often" and I'm taking it seriously. So here are my picks for the starting lineups after one month of play.

The goalie choices are no brainers with Pascal Leclaire of Columbus getting the nod for the West and Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers earning the East spot. These guys will fight it out for the Vezina if they keep playing anywhere near as well as they have so far.

For the rest of the West, I like Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg, Calgary's Jarome Iginla and Mike Cammalleri of the Kings as the forwards, and Anaheim's Francois Beauchemin and Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom on defense.

Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk has been unstoppable of late and should be one of the East forwards along with Toronto's Mats Sundin and Carolina's Rod BrindAmour. Montreal's Andrei Markov and Ottawa's Chris Phillips are my choices along the blue line.

Well revisit this at the beginning of December and once more before the voting ends Jan. 2.

Once upon a time, the 30/30 club was the exclusive domain of baseball, but a big-time hockey fan from has created his own version for the game on the ice. And he's not even Canadian.

His name is Steve Williamson, he's British and he lives in central Florida where he works as head of promotions for the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau. What could be more natural, right? Well, for Williamson it is, because he's is in the midst of a month-long break for his job in the land of Disney and he's using it to see a game in every NHL city.

That's 30 games in 30 nights folks, a jaunt that has seen him already seen him play hop-scotch around North America several times.

"No special algorithms involved here," said the 49-year-old divorced father of two teenagers who was in South Florida on Monday to see the Panthers host his beloved Lightning. "I just got the schedule and worked it out with a spreadsheet."

Williamson, who started watching hockey as a kid growing up in England, said he first thought about doing six years ago when he lived in Japan and had to fly 11,000 miles round trip to California for a hockey fix. He put together the vacation time for the trip, which is costing him about $10,000, although Williamson's expenses have been reduced a bit because some of the teams are providing him tickets and a few friends and family members have been putting him up along the way.

Florida was Williamson's 11th stop since his tour began on Oct. 26 in Detroit. He arrived in Fort Lauderdale mid-afternoon from Columbus after spending the previous day in Phoenix, and heads off to Ottawa in the morning.

"That's not an easy city to get to from the States," he laughed.

Williamson biggest concern has been flight delays, although amazingly, he has yet to endure one. Still, he says he has contingencies plans for every leg of his tour.

"I always get early morning flights out of my cities so if something happens, I can turn to plan B," he said. "If I have to rent a car some place and drive 80 miles an hour, I'm going to get there."

The tributes for former Islanders coach Al Arbour over the last few days have been flowing like the red ink usually does around the Nassau County Coliseum, and the common theme among his ex-players has been their admiration for the way he handled them and all their foibles.

Bob Nystrom for example, talked about how Arbour could run the team ragged in some practices during the regular season and keep the atmosphere light and funny during the pressure-packed playoffs. Pat Lafontaine called Arbour a father-like kind of role model, while Mike Bossy said he was responsible for the type of character and determination that was the hallmark of those great New York teams.

But the most important thing about the longtime coach, said Denis Potvin, was how much he cared about his players as people.

"He took more time knowing his players than he did coaching," Potvin said. "He knew his personalities real well and he did a great job keeping all of us in line."

At times that necessitated a tough-love approach from Arbour, and at others, a quiet conversation on an off day. But one thing everyone always appreciated was the fact that Arbour never used the media to send a message.

"He was a very big proponent of what went on in the dressing room, stayed there," Potvin said. "We were a tight team because of that."

And that was the goal, Arbour said.

"I was very hard on them, but there was a reason," Arbour said. "We had a lot of playboys on the team and I knew that, but I pretended I didn't. I just closed my eyes, plugged my ears and we had lots of fun over the years."

If you think the 10-1 Ottawa Senators are scary good now, consider that the core of the lineup is going to be together for several more years.

Credit that to Bryan Murray, who did some pretty good work as coach of the Senators by taking them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals last spring. But he's done an even better job as general manager since moving upstairs after the season, locking up key players who could have become free agents after the season.

The latest coup was Friday's seven-year, $49 million signing of center Jason Spezza, the No. 2 overall pick in 2001 who has become one of the top play makers in the league. Spezza is 24 and anchors a line that includes two-time 50-goal scorer Dany Heatley, who signed a six-year deal for $45 million as the season was about to begin, and captain Daniel Alfreddsson, who is under contract until 2011.

Murray has also re-upped goalie Ray Emery for three years at $9.5 million, second-line center Mike Fisher for five years at $21 million and defenseman Christoph Schubert for three years at least than $1 million per since the Finals ended.

Of course there are several other important pending free agents, including Antoine Vermette, Andrej Meszaros and No. 1 defenseman Wade Redden, who won't come close to the $6.5 million salary again from Ottawa, and Murray is going to have to do some roster juggling to fit everybody he still wants under the salary cap. But that's the nature of the game these days in the NHL. With only so many dollars to spend, teams are starting to realize that the formula for success is to create a foundation around a few star talents and then fill out the lineup with solid role players.

Ottawa has more than a few star talents now and they're not going anywhere. That's not a pleasant thought for the rest of the league.

I was fed up with language politics by the time I moved away from my hometown Montreal 15 years ago.

I speak French and had no problem when it justifiably became the official language by government dictate several years earlier. But it always seemed that regardless of the society's evolution, language would never cease to be a divisive issue. And it still is, even when it comes to one of the few truly unifying elements for French-speaking citizens of the city and the English-speaking minority that resides there: the Montreal Canadiens.

That became clear again this week when a loud-mouthed regional lawyer, who once called for a Team Quebec to participate next to Team Canada in the world hockey championships, raised a stink about Finnish-born Canadiens captain Saku Koivu's inability to speak French. The theme was then was picked up in the provincial legislature by the leader of an opposition party dedicated to separating the province from the rest of Canada.

Koivu does actually speak a little French, but he admits he is shy about using it in public or to the overbearing media there, which tends to castigate players for the slightest misspoken word. More important, he has been an outstanding and courageous member of the team for 11 seasons, someone who has survived a bout with cancer and an eye injury that nearly blinded him and has done immense charitable work in the community.

So he didn't deserve the headache, especially one that revisited some of last summer's unfounded criticisms that blamed him for prize free agent Daniel Briere's decision to spurn Montreal for the Philadelphia Flyers.

As it turned out, the Flyers visited Montreal for the first time Thursday night, and Briere was booed every time he touched the puck. Koivu, though, received a much different reaction, because during the taped pregame announcement of the starting lineup, he introduced his team by saying a few words in French. Then he went out and picked up a goal and an assist.

Koivu was the game's first star as he led the surging Canadiens to a 5-2 win. That's what he is supposed to be doing Montreal and it should be clear in any language.

It took 18 months for the NHL to come to terms with the fact that Rick Tocchet had done nothing to undermine the integrity of its game, something law enforcement officials made clear at the outset of their investigation into gambling activities that involved the Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach.

Tocchet wasn't completely innocent though, and he ultimately pleaded guilty in New Jersey to his part in a betting ring, ending up with two years probation. He also lost his job in Phoenix, but when all was said and done, it turned out that Tocchet was simply placing some bets for some hockey buddies and Wayne Gretzky's wife, and only on football and basketball games.

Dragging him and the NHL by extension into what they dubbed "Operation Slapshot" created a convenient smokescreen for New Jersey police who ended up putting away one of their own officers, the real focus of their investigation, for five years. But it necessitated a forceful and painful reaction from the NHL because when it comes to gambling, professional sports leagues can't afford for even a hint of that taint to surround it.

Tocchet was put on a leave of absence and the league hired a respected independent prosecutor named Robert Cleary to investigate the matter on its behalf. Cleary's probe exonerated Tocchet from any wrongdoing with respect to hockey and cleared the way for commissioner Gary Bettman to put the matter to rest by re-instating him. The problem is that Bettman decided to make Tocchet wait until Feb. 7, 2008, the two-year anniversary of his leave, to get back to work.

That may have a nice ring to it, but it seems counterproductive to a league that wants and needs to get this matter behind it as quickly as possible. Bettman said that Tocchet's actions were "inappropriate, even stupid, and evidenced extremely poor judgment" and there's no argument here on that score. The commissioner also suggested the Coyotes coach still has a gambling problem that needs and will receive treatment, but even so, everyone would be better off if Tocchet was allowed to get back to work right away.

The details of this case demonstrated that it paled in comparison to anything going on in the NBA or the NFL with Michael Vick. And because the league is dealing with it now, with Joe Torre and the upcoming Manning-Brady matchup dominating the sports news, this is the ideal time to bury, or at least minimize the story.

On February 7, the Super Bowl will be played. Pitchers and catchers will still be a few days from reporting. And more important, the NHL will be heading into its home stretch with the trade deadline and the race to the playoff wire rapidly approaching.

That's a time to look for positive attention. Instead, Tocchet's return will become a news story all over again, even though it probably should not have been in the first place.