NOTES : NHL'S BACKUP GOALTENDERS MOVE TO THE FOREFRONT.Byline: Ken Rappoport Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Backup goaltenders have gained prominence in the NHL NHL Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, see there this season, most noticeably with the New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York, U.S.A. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). , Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres. Glenn Healy has been a welcome relief in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , particularly with injury problems to No. 1 goalie Mike Richter. ``Healy might be a backup in New York, but he could be a starter anywhere else,'' says Detroit defenseman Marc Bergevin. ``The starters might be a bit tired from the long season, so the backups would play more.'' Mostly, it's been injuries, though. And when they happen, many backups have performed well in pinch-hit roles. Among them: Jeff Hackett for Ed Belfour in Chicago, Ken Wregget for Tom Barrasso in Pittsburgh and Andrei Trefilov for Dominik Hasek in Buffalo. ``The reason I think the backups are playing so well is because they're getting the opportunity to play.'' said Detroit coach Scotty Bowman. Adam's take: Unlike football, where 29 teams try to copy the style of the Super Bowl winner, hockey teams are less likely to mimic Stanley Cup champions This is a list of Stanley Cup champions, including the finalists/challengers. Originally, it was referred to as the "Challenge Cup"; the champions held onto the Cup until they either lost their league title to another club, or a champion from another league issued a formal . So says the New York Rangers' Adam Graves. ``It's different strokes for different folks, and there's no set course or no set recipe to winning the Stanley Cup,'' Graves said. ``That's why you can point year to year to a different style (depending on) which team wins it. ``When the Oilers won, it was free skating, pressure hockey. When Pittsburgh won it their two years, it was on counterattacks, when they preyed on your turnovers, and went down and scored. ``We were more of a pressure team (in 1994 when the Rangers won the Cup), and then when you look at last season, it was a trap team, more of a defensive team in New Jersey that won. I do think there's some constants, though: Discipline, key performances, total team effort and great goaltending goal·tend·ing n. 1. Sports The act of protecting a goal, as in hockey and other such sports. 2. Basketball are what any team needs to win the Cup.'' Having his fling: The Mighty Ducks are well known for their logo and for the antics this season of their mascot, ``Wild Wing.'' The feathered mascot nearly scorched scorch v. scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.tr. 1. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. himself on opening night, when he misfired jumping over a wall of fire. Later in the season, his normal entrance from the roof of the Arrowhead Pond - flying down on a guide wire - was delayed when the wire got stuck and the duck was left hanging. Sounds like a great idea for a cartoon, right? Well, the folks at Disney, which owns the Mighty Ducks, have developed a cartoon starring the wacky mascot that is scheduled to make its debut on ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. this fall. |
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