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Pavel on NHL's 'Cool Shots'
NHL Cool Shots Now on ESPNCool Shots travels to Toronto to preview the 2000 NHL All-Star Game, presented by Nortel Networks. Check out the Bure Brothers, who are the first brother teammates to play in the All-Star Game since the Mullens. Also, read about Ted Lindsay, who played for the Red Wings in the first All-Star Game in 1947. This season, the show will usually be seen on ESPN and espn2 in the U.S. and will usually air in Canada on CBC Saturday afternoons and CTVSN every Tuesday evening.
Pavel Bure NHL Superhero Box
 The following article was found in a current Ebay sale.
This Oscar Mayer Lunchable box features Pavel Bure of the Florida Panthers. It was released in Canada in 1999 and is one in a series of 12 "NHL Global Super Heros". There is a 2.5" by 3.5" card of Bure and a 5.5" by 4" drawing of him as a super hero (The Russian Rocket). The back has a comic strip describing Bure thwarting an alien plan to steal the Stanley cup.
Article about Pavel in 'The Hockey News' The new issue of The Hockey News has an article on Pavel by John Davidson, titled "Pavel Bure edges out Jaromir Jagr for right winger on the All-Excitement Team"
The cover Cover date of this issue is - February 11, 2000.
Bure a candidate for back-to-back honors Florida Panthers right winger Pavel Bure has already been named NHL Player of the Month for December. After an even more productive January, the question has to be raised: Could it happen again? Bure became only the second Panther to earn Player of the Month honors in the seven-year history of the franchise in January when he totaled 12 goals and 10 assists in 12 games. After picking up an assist in the first period of Saturday's game against Edmonton, his January totals were 14 goals and eight assists in 14 games. Bure's top competition for the honor might come from New Jersey's Patrik Elias, who entered Saturday's game at Detroit with at least one point in each of the Devils' 13 games in January and had 12 goals and eight assists and a franchise-record 14-game point streak.
Of course, Elias' streak would have ended had Robert Svehla done anything but hand him the puck in the final seconds of the Devils' game at Florida on Wednesday night. Elias cashed in the gift for the winning goal with 1.7 seconds left in a 3-2 victory.
Another assist
 Pavel Bure got an assist on the Panther's first goal of the night, which hung on to a 2-1 score at the end of the first period and a scoreless last two periods for a win ove Edmonton. Pavel registered only one shot on goal and was even on the plus minus scale.
Too big and too strong, But Pavel keeps scoring! Pavel Bure scored his NHL-leading 35th goal for the Panthers, beating Vanbiesbrouck on a breakaway to make it 1-0 in the first period. But Eric Lindros and Keith Primeau showed Thursday night why the Philadelphia Flyers' new "Twin Towers" could be big trouble. Primeau marked his return to the ice with a fight, and Lindros made a stirring comeback from a concussion with a goal, some crushing hits and a fight of his own as the Flyers beat the Florida Panthers 4-2.
Pavel had seven shots on goal and was a plus one for the night.
Hot Shot Whether the latest rumors link him to the Russian mob or to Anna Kournikova, Panthers scoring sensation Pavel Bure is at the center of attention in gossip-hungry South Florida--and he's loving every minute of it Sometimes the father will see his son on television--his pretty face, his penetrating blue eyes, his teenybop appearance. The father will hear how his son is doing far away in South Florida, how he is scoring goals and piling up points and bewildering goalies, how he is the most explosive player in the NHL this season, a superstar making the extraordinary look routine. He will hear about the gossip columns, the rumors. The father will turn away or turn the channel or just turn off the TV. It is too painful. Everything has gone wrong. "I made him king," the father, Vladimir Bure, says from his home in Vancouver. "From average guy, from worst guy, I made him king of the ice." Five hours till midnight. The king slouches on his couch, the wind off the Atlantic whipping through the curtains. Forty stories below, the streets of South Beach are humming. Cops have shut down intersections, traffic is snarled, and people are beginning to booze it up: The millennial turn has come at last. It is Dec. 31, 1999, and the night has taken on that rare feel of history come alive. The phone in the apartment buzzes and vibrates, then plays a familiar tune, again and again. Pavel Bure picks it up, glances at the caller I.D. and lets the answering machine take a message. Boris Yeltsin abruptly resigned the Russian presidency earlier in the day, the world may end at the stroke of midnight, but Russia's biggest sports star is loose and laughing. Anything can happen now. "That's the excitement of life," he says. "I really like excitement, no matter what. I try to live with excitement, I try to play with excitement." Out on the streets and airwaves, the revelers are only beginning to catch on. The South Florida conversation is still dominated by the usual names--Dan Marino, Jimmy Johnson, Pat Riley, Fidel Castro--all of them skating on reputations growing creakier by the day. After only 41 games with the Florida Panthers, though, Bure has established himself as Miami's athlete of the moment, a blend of talent, star power and, most important, production that has been nothing short of breathtaking. Consider: When he came to the Panthers a year ago in a nine-player trade with the Vancouver Canucks, Bure, now 28, had just finished his own power play--a five-month holdout in which he refused to suit up for the Canucks and demanded a trade even though he was under contract through 1998-99. Yet the layoff had no effect on his play; Bure scored two goals in his 12-minute Panthers debut, then four more over the next two games. He went on to score 13 goals in 11 games before a torn ACL in his right knee ended his season on March 3. After a slow start this year due to other nagging injuries, Bure has been even more spectacular. In 13 matches in December he scored 12 goals (including four game-winners and two hat tricks) chipped in 10 assists and scored points in a club-record 11 straight games. "What he brings to the team," says right wing Scott Mellanby, "is obviously the entire offense." Not since Marino's bombs-away days of the mid-1980s has Miami seen an athlete put up such spectacular numbers. Equally important, the Russian Rocket has given the polyglot, style-conscious South Florida market a new action figure it can obsess over--a dashing, high-octane bachelor who, despite his Garbo-esque protestations to the contrary, is delighted to be the center of attention. No one in the NHL over the past decade has provoked more speculation on such a wide array of subjects: Who was that woman Bure married and divorced just after he arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 1991? Did Bure try to blackmail the Canucks into renegotiating his contract during the '94 Stanley Cup finals? Is he connected to the Russian mob? Is he a backstabbing womanizer who poached an old friend's flame? His recent public forays with tennis starlet Anna Kournikova--not to mention his leasing of an apartment in the same building, just four stories below hers--have sparked questions about a love triangle involving a former Red Army teammate, Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings, and Kournikova. Bure's typically coy responses ensure that the questions won't stop anytime soon, which, it seems, is precisely the point. When, in early November, the Panthers faced the Canucks in Vancouver and Bure returned there for the first time since his bitter departure, he stopped by a coffee shop. Ten minutes later his cell phone rang. "I know where you are: Starbucks," a friend said. Bure asked how he knew. "I just heard it on the radio," his friend replied. In newspapers and on television, the Canucks ran spicy ads imploring fans to LOVE HIM, HATE HIM, JUST DON'T MISS HIM. It may have been the first time in years that Bure and the Canucks had agreed on anything--because, for him, there's nothing worse than being ignored. "That's the most important thing," Bure says. "If I stepped on the ice in Vancouver and I would hear silence, then I would be like, What's wrong? If they are either booing you or cheering you, it means they care about you." But Bure never stepped onto the ice during that trip to Vancouver--he had a broken finger at the time, and that was the first of three games Panthers' management made him sit out--and that couldn't have been more appropriate. Throughout his nine-year NHL career, no player has vacillated so rapidly from one extreme to the other, one day enthralling fans with his on-ice genius, the next simply vanishing for long stretches to rehab his knee or dispute a contract. It's not that he promises so much and fails to deliver; Bure delivers plenty. "I've had lots of good players, Steve Yzerman, Fedorov, but I've never seen a guy who is so automatic around the net," says Panthers general manager Bryan Murray, who coached the Red Wings from 1990-91 to '92-93. "Watching him is unbelievable. I shouldn't say it this early in the year, but when he gets in on a goaltender, it's almost no competition." Yet, there's always a string attached; sooner or later, Bure's fragile body or fragile ego rears up to exact a mighty price for all that talent--and he or his fans or his team pays. There's no better example than last March, when Bure blistered the Colorado Avalanche and all-world goalie Patrick Roy with a natural hat trick before blowing out his knee for the second time in his career. The Panthers squandered a 5-0 lead, and with Bure sidelined, their season was over, too. Always, it seems, the Bure option is heaven or hell, on ice and off. If he's your friend, he can be blindly loyal; if he's your enemy he can cut you cold. Bure's business associate, 50-year-old Anzor Kikalishvili, who has called himself Bure's "spiritual father," has been identified by the FBI and Russian law enforcement officials as one of the heads of the Russian mafia involved in extortion and racketeering in the U.S. and Russia. (He's never been charged with a crime, and in the past he has denied the allegations.) Until he changed his name and launched a political career last year, Kikalishvili was the president of the Twenty-First Century Association, a Moscow-based entertainment conglomerate that also runs a nonprofit foundation to assist Russian athletes. Despite reports that he is an officer of Twenty-First Century, Bure insists he has no connection with the company. Nevertheless ads featuring pictures of Kikalishvili and Bure together are plastered on billboards around Moscow, and Bure readily acknowledges that he maintains a friendship with Kikalishvili, whom he has known since he was 14. On the other hand, in the fall of 1998, Pavel severed ties with his father, who coached him as a child, engineered his departure from the Soviet Union in 1991 and served for most of Pavel's career in Vancouver as, in Vladimir's words, "his business agent, his masseur, his pool boy, his bodyguard." The two haven't spoken since. Neither situation is pleasant, but Bure says he will deal with the unpleasantness and any other turmoil the world sends his way. "I'd rather have crap and great stuff in my life than just be in the middle with no great stuff and no crap," he says. "I don't want it just O.K. It's like I want everything or nothing." PAVEL'S YOUNGER brother, Valeri, extends his left wrist to reveal a watch, fiddles with the strap and removes it. Sitting in a hotel in Dallas, he holds the watch up in the lobby light: It is square, shiny, with the words PAVEL BURE inscribed in Cyrillic on the face. "This was number three of 50," Valeri says. The first watch went to Yeltsin, the second to then Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. The watches, which reportedly are worth $30,000 apiece, carry great meaning in the Bure family. Pavel and Valeri's great-great-grandfather was a prominent watchmaker who lost his business at the end of the Romanov dynasty, just before the revolution of 1917. In partnership with Kikalishvili, Pavel tried to resurrect the watch company in '96, but the start-up distracted him from his NHL career and provided the most tangible link between him and Kikalishvili. After they produced these special-edition timepieces, the venture was put on hold. It has been a sweet winter for the Bure boys. In his sixth NHL season Valeri, 25, has become a star for the Calgary Flames, and if he can't match his older brother's gaudy numbers, he has plenty to be proud of: 24 goals and 46 points in 47 games through Sunday. Like Pavel he has earned a berth in the NHL All-Star Game, on Feb. 6 in Toronto. Like Pavel, he is a very good right wing, small but tenacious. His play, however, lacks the open-ice pyrotechnics that Pavel is known for, the ability to change the tone of a game in one sudden flurry. "It would be almost impossible to do something better than him," says Valeri. "He has something different from everybody right now. It's something natural that comes to him: All these people going one way, and he goes the other." With 34 goals and 57 points Pavel was on pace, at week's end, to score 59 goals this season, which would put to rest any lingering doubts about the condition of his knee or the larceny Murray committed when he sent defenseman Ed Jovanovski, forward Dave Gagner (since retired), goaltender Kevin Weekes (since traded), prospect Mike Brown (still in the minors) and a future first-round draft choice to Vancouver for Bure. Immediately after acquiring him, the Panthers tore up Bure's contract and signed him to a five-year, $47.5 million deal. Florida missed the playoffs the last two springs and has had to overcome its reputation as a numbingly dull practitioner of the neutral-zone trap. Now, the Bure-led Panthers are seen as a skilled, dynamic club, capable of scoring big in a league in which goals are hard to come by. At week's end Florida was 28-15-4-3 and had a firm grip on first place in the Eastern Conference's Southeast Division. The Pittsburgh Penguins' Jaromir Jagr can be as explosive as Bure, but no one in the NHL has had more impact. He inspires Stanley Cup dreams. He ignites the imagination. The reason is simple. "Pavel loves to score goals," says former Vancouver coach Mike Keenan. "Peter Forsberg might be a better playmaker, Eric Lindros adds a different dimension, but Pavel loves to score goals." Who doesn't? But it's one thing to love it and another to work at it, and nobody in hockey works at scoring the way Bure does. "I've never seen anybody play the way he plays, even in practice," says Mellanby. "There's no such thing as a warmup." In every Panthers practice there's a battle between Bure and whoever squats in goal. Florida netminder Trevor Kidd, an eight-year veteran who has been sidelined since last month with a dislocated right shoulder, says no one he has seen attacks the net like Bure. "It's not even close," Kidd says. "The unwritten rule is, the first shots in practice are [easy ones] for the goalies; you just wrist a few into the glove. Not Pav. He comes in trying to blow one by you, and if you make the stop, there's no question about him trying to swat the rebound. He hates to be stopped." When observers try to describe his talent, they often point to Bure's Gretzky-esque ability to see the play develop before others do. Bure doesn't buy it. "You know what? I don't have this vision," he says. "I heard some people say, 'For me it looks like watermelon coming.' No, it doesn't happen that way for me. I have to work on it." His conditioning is exceptional; he spends hours training or riding a stationary bike. "His body is amazing," says Panthers left wing Ray Whitney. "We go through a hard practice, and he just doesn't get tired." "Watch him, and you may think Pav doesn't work as hard as he should in the corners, but what he does is set people up," Whitney says. "When there's a chance to score by the net, Pavel is one of the grittiest guys on the team. He'll stick his nose in there and bang and hack away, and he knows he's going to get hit from behind. But when there's a chance to score, I've never seen a guy hungrier." On Dec. 20, in a mesmerizing 6-4 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, there was a perfect Bure moment. His two assists helped tie the game 2-2 after two periods, but most of the early attention had been on Kournikova, sitting behind one goal at the National Car Rental Center, all blonde hair and black leather. At one point when her famous face appeared on the scoreboard, the crowd gave a rousing cheer. Panthers broadcaster Denis Potvin, winner of four Stanley Cups as a player for the New York Islanders, stood in the press box during a break in the action and took a question about Bure's ambition. He nodded down to the stands. "What does he want? I think he's got what he wants," Potvin said with a grin. "He's got Anna Kournikova sitting in the corner, and he's got $8 million a year." Forty seconds into the third period Bure took a pass from Mellanby, bore down on goalie Curtis Joseph, juked and, as Bure whipped by him, backhanded a shot past the netminder. The puck bounced so softly off Joseph's rear end that it barely crossed the line, and for a second or two no one was sure what had happened. Joseph whirled and saw the puck behind him. Bure pointed to it and then pumped his fist in his typical childlike glee. Hungry men must eat. PAVEL WAS six and was wearing dull figure skates the first time he went to a rink to play hockey. Mostly he sat, immobilized by his fear. "He was last guy in the group," says Vladimir Bure. "If there were 103 guys, he was last, he was worst. I said to him, 'You know what your name is. You know who I am. Our family tries to be the best. If you'd like to be hockey player, you have to be the best.'" For more than a century the Bure family had been buffeted by the whirl of Russian history. The watchmaking business drifted off in the smoke of Lenin's revolution. By the mid-'30s Pavel's grandfather, Valeri, had established himself as the top goaltender on the Soviet Union's national water polo team, but then the Stalin regime exiled him and his teammates to a Siberian gulag. Pavel's father was born there, in Norilsk, north of the Arctic Circle. It was only after Stalin died, in 1953, that the family could return to Moscow. Valeri became a respected swim coach and established one of the country's first synchronized swimming programs, all the while pushing his son. Vladimir developed into an Olympic swimmer and represented the Soviet Union in the 1968, '72 and '76 Games, winning one silver and three bronze medals. In '72 he swam a personal best 51.77 in the 100-meter freestyle but came in third as Mark Spitz collected one of his seven golds in Munich. "This guy, Mark Spitz, was from the moon," Vladimir says. "[My father and I] never dreamed that someday I could compete with Mark Spitz." But that was one of the few times Valeri was satisfied with his son's effort. Vladimir was equally demanding of Pavel, subjecting him to endless athletic drills. When Pavel emerged as a young hockey star by the time he was eight, Vladimir set one condition for his continuing to play. "To be best on the team was nothing," Vladimir says. "There are how many cities in Russia? How many countries in the world? How many guys playing? So I say, 'If you like to be the best, you have to score 33 percent of all goals on the team.' I didn't care how the team played. Even if the team lost 5-3, but he scored three goals, we celebrated. If the team wins 10-0 and he scored just one goal, it was disaster. I told him, 'Why you make mistake here, why you make mistake there?' At that time he was looking for me [in the arena] after each shift. We had some signals. I told him what he had to do on the next shift. He would listen 100 percent, like good son, you know?" By the time Pavel was 16, he was playing on the prestigious Red Army team, on which he and Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny became one of the most dynamic young scoring lines in hockey history. But with the breakup of the Soviet empire in 1991 the team--like almost everything else--fell into disarray; Fedorov and Mogilny had already defected to the U.S., and Vladimir was sure his son would follow. In September 1991 Vladimir, Pavel and Valeri obtained tourist visas and left the Soviet Union for Los Angeles. (Pavel's rights were owned by the Canucks, who had drafted him in the sixth round in 1989.) Pavel then acquired a work visa which he held until he got his green card last year. Still, within weeks of his arrival in L.A., he tried to hedge his bets by marrying an American woman he had met at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle. "It wasn't a marriage," says Pavel, who was granted a divorce after nine months. "That's like the most stupid mistake." On the ice, though, Pavel could do little wrong. He was named NHL rookie of the year in 1991-92 and by '93-94 had become only the eighth player in league history to have two 60-goal seasons. He was viewed as the heir apparent to Gretzky and Lemieux. "It was unbelievable feeling when 20,000 people were screaming my last name," Vladimir says. It got even better: After scoring the winning goal in double overtime of Game 7 of the '94 Western Conference quarterfinals against the Flames, Bure led the Canucks into the Stanley Cup finals against the New York Rangers. Then, before Game 5, newspaper reports circulated that Bure had threatened to sit out the finals unless the Canucks agreed to renegotiate his contract. Bure hotly denied the report and played in every game, ringing up three goals and five assists as the Canucks lost in seven games. But Pat Quinn, who was then Vancouver's general manager and coach and now holds those titles with the Maple Leafs, says he knows that one of Bure's agents, Ron Salcer, made the threat. (Salcer did not return phone calls seeking comment.) "His agent did throw that threat out: that Bure wouldn't play if he didn't get the new contract," Quinn says. "Pavel claims he never knew about it, which I believe." Why? "Because I think he's a truthful young man." But Bure dismisses that scenario. Yes, he had been unhappy in Vancouver almost from the beginning because of various perceived slights, and had demanded a trade more than once. But, Bure says, he and the Canucks had a handshake agreement on a new contract before the playoffs began. It is the one issue in his career that he cannot address with his usual equanimity. "Seven weeks later, why would I say, 'Give me the money or I'm not going to play?'" Bure says. "It doesn't make sense. I asked Ron [Salcer], 'Did you do it?' He said, 'No, I never said that.' So I don't know who's lying. That pissed me off big-time. I don't care about other rumors; people can say whatever they want. But this is my profession. I've been doing this all my life. I reached a level where you can't get any higher: playoffs, the finals, Game 5, and I'm going to say that? F---it. No. No." Regardless, that Stanley Cup series remains the high-water mark of Bure's career. His relations with Canucks management deteriorated from there, and injuries along with the NHL lockout in 1994-95 limited him to a total of 49 goals over the next three seasons. In November '95 he tore the ACL in his right knee for the first time, and a year later his relationship with Kikalishvili became a recurring story in the media. In September '97 Bure fired Salcer and his other agent, Serge Levin, and, for the first time, stopped training with Vladimir. "Sooner or later we have to go on our own," Pavel says. "We can't totally depend on our parents. It doesn't matter if you're successful or not, you have to go. We live only once, and if you respect yourself, you have to go on your own and make things happen. Ask anybody--that's part of life. If I have children, the same thing is going to happen to me." The move didn't come as a shock to anyone familiar with Vladimir's heavy-handed manner. (In 1991, for instance, he slapped Pavel in the face for his inattention during a trading-card photo session in Los Angeles.) Vladimir admits that such splits are natural in coach-player relationships. A year later, though, after Pavel and Valeri had allowed their father to help train them for the '98 Olympics, they stopped speaking to him. Vladimir says he was never told why. When Pavel was scheduled to return to Vancouver with the Panthers this season, the Canucks invited Vladimir to the game, possibly looking for any way to distract Pavel. Vladimir was in the stands that night, but Pavel's injury kept him out of action, and Vladimir didn't connect with him before or after the game. The strain between father and sons had been growing for years--they even fought over the possible revival of the family's watch company. Vladimir, who had divorced Pavel and Valeri's mother in 1983, remarried in 1993 and has a four-year-old daughter with his new wife, Julia. Valeri makes no bones about where the sons' loyalties lie. "As much as my dad had an influence on us, the person who really raised us and gave us what we have is my mom," he says. "She did everything for us. We went through tough times and good times, a roller coaster, but she's been the one person who gave us everything that we know." Vladimir says he won't allow himself to get excited over his sons' success this season. He is a personal trainer for NHL players--"We work sometimes five hours per day, guys screaming, guys crying, but finally you get the result," he says--and trained New Jersey Devils rookie Scott Gomez in the off-season. Vladimir foresees no reconciliation with Pavel. "I don't think so," he says. "Because his friends who surround him are very bad, and my ex-wife is happy about [the split with his sons]." Asked if by "friends" he means Kikalishvili, Vladimir says yes. Told that Pavel is generally considered an intelligent person, Vladimir says, "No, I don't think he's so smart, because he makes lots of mistakes. I don't follow what he's doing, but the rumors are not good." Asked if he thought Pavel could be involved with the Russian mafia, Vladimir says, "There's not easy answer. But I always try to tell him, 'You're like king. But a king has to be careful. Before taking one step, you have to think three times. Each step under control. People are watching.' Maybe he's doing nothing wrong, but for the king he can't do this. He didn't listen to me." FOUR HOURS till midnight. Bure sits on his couch, the wind still whipping through the curtains. His mother, in town for the holidays, comes from the kitchen bearing water and coffee. Bure says he will work out tonight before dinner and go to bed early. He says he's happy, even though in the past few months there has been produced a documentary on Canadian TV detailing his ties to Kikalishvili and a biography that attempts to link him to other Russian crime figures. "When I heard, I said, 'Oh, it's pretty good, they're writing a book about me,'" Bure says. "I never read it. A friend of mine read it, and she said it was really boring." So far, no one has pinned anything on him, but there have been plenty of insinuations. The book, Pavel Bure: The Riddle of the Russian Rocket, describes a night, Oct. 30, 1993, on which Bure was supposedly out with alleged Ukrainian cocaine traffickers Eugene and Alexander Alekseev, which was said to be observed by Canadian authorities. That night supposedly ended with Bure taking a taxi home; while the Alekseevs' car was damaged by a bomb (the brothers escaped serious injury). Bure, who says that was the one page in the book he did read, calls the allegation "totally a lie, I never met those guys." Three weeks ago a high-ranking official with NHL security told SI that the Vancouver police had refuted the report, saying they'd had the Alekseevs under surveillance that night but "did not see Pavel with the Alekseevs." That's not to say the NHL is comfortable with Bure's off-ice associations. Two years ago the league hired a former FBI agent to investigate the Russian mob's connections with NHL players, including Bure's ties with Kikalishvili. According to NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly, "We haven't uncovered anything concrete, but we're concerned about the relationship simply because the FBI is not high on this guy. We're monitoring, and to the extent that it becomes problematic, we would do something about it." It is convenient to trot out Churchill's famous line--"a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma"--when trying to sort out anything Russian, and Bure has done nothing to disperse the smoke surrounding his life over the past decade. But when he says, "I think it's just my fate, no matter what I do," to be the object of constant speculation, it's not an easy notion to resist. Just as his father and father's father lived on the knife-edge of Russian history, so it is with Bure. He is the perfect poster boy for the aspirations of postcommunist Russians: flush with new money, held in high and cautious regard, an enigma wrapped in a rumor inside a tacky new skyscraper on Miami Beach. No, he insists, he has no connection with any mafia. It is all wrong, he says, and it has always been wrong. And Kournikova? Bure goes silent, then says he will answer that question later. His phone vibrates, plays its little tune: Bure glances at the caller I.D., puts up a hand. This one he has to take. "Hi, baby," he says. There's a woman on the other end, and she's not Kournikova. She wants to know what Pavel's doing now and later and where he'll be tomorrow. She wishes him a happy New Year and tells him she loves him, and he mumbles a smiling, noncommittal, "me, too," and says goodbye. Bure loves Miami. He loves the weather, he loves the ocean and the fact that he's famous. He loves that he is playing outstanding hockey after two major knee surgeries. "It's a gift from the gods," he says. "A very real privilege." He is asked about hockey, about what the sport does for him, and for a moment Bure doesn't answer. He is looking at his phone, punching numbers. "I like games," he says. "For me, all life is a game." Suddenly he lifts the phone to his ear. "Allo?" he says. He speaks a few sentences in Russian, then hands the phone over. "She wants to talk to you," he says. Kournikova is on the other end, speaking from somewhere in Australia, from one century to the other. "I'm already in 2000!" she says. Asked if there's anything the world should know about her and Pavel, she says, "No, there is nothing you should know. If everybody knew everything, it would be too easy." Bure takes the phone, says a few words, hands it back. "Hello?" she says. "Please don't write anything crazy about me. Just say we are friends." Kournikova hangs up, and Bure is laughing hard at the thought of turning the tables, toying with the gossipmongers for once. Life is a game, after all. And this city, this night, this moment: This is not just O.K. The king ends his year with a win.
No heroics by Pavel tonight An errant clearing pass out of their own zone by the Florida Panthers with seconds left in regulation time allowed the New Jersey Devils to shoot one more wrist shot which dribbled through goaltender Mike Vernon's pads. The Florida Panthers ended up losing the game 2-3, on this goal by Patrik Elias with less than 2 seconds left. Pavel was left scoreless, having mustered only two shots on goal, and a minus one for the night. Bure taking Hart race to heartRussian Rocket carrying Panthers by his shirt-tailsby Jim Matheson-- The Edmonton JournalWednesday, January 26, 2000 Make room, Jaromir Jagr. Step aside, Curtis Joseph and Chris Pronger. Thanks to Pavel Bure, this year's race for the Hart Trophy has turned a three-man competition into a four-player race. It's no longer just last year's winner Jagr vs. Joseph, with Pronger, the St. Louis Blues' rock and favourite for the Norris trophy, also in the picture. Now Bure has muscled into the running. He has 34 goals in 39 games for the Panthers this year. He got 12 goals in December when he was player of the month, and has 13 markers in 11 games this month with three games to go, including one against the Oilers this Saturday. In the 50 Florida games he has played since Canucks GM Brian Burke dealt him there a year ago (Jan. 17), Bure has 47 goals. How valuable is he? - When he has scored this year, the Panthers are 21-2. - In the 11 games he has played where Florida has lost, he has one goal. - The Panthers have 28 wins so far this season. They didn't get their 28th last year until April 12. - They're tied with Cujo's Maple Leafs for second in the Eastern Conference. - He has figured in 37 per cent of their goals (57 of 151). "I would say we're riding on Pavel's coattails right now," said Florida teammate Ray Whitney. No kidding. Whitney, the second most popular Panther player, has 20 goals himself and is ninth in league scoring with 47 points, 10 back of Bure. Bure is third, behind Jagr and Mark Recchi in the scoring race. "When a star of this calibre buys into the program, you become like an ocean liner," said Florida coach Terry Murray. "Once the engine gets you going, the ship can't be stopped. The engine can even shut off, but the momentum you have keeps you moving for a long time." Bure became the seventh fastest player to hit 300 goals in the Panthers' overtime win over Boston on Saturday -- 300 in 487 games. He made Ray Bourque look ordinary on a couple of dazzling plays, and how often does that happen? When he got the OT winner, pouncing on a loose puck after a Viktor Kozlov play, it was his eigth game winner in only 39 games. Only Phoenix centre Jeremy Roenick is keeping pace. The MVP award is always a difficult voting exercise. Trying to decide between most outstanding and most valuable player is tough. Jagr is the most dominant player in the league -- he always looks like he could stay out for three-minute shifts and nobody carries more defencemen on his back than he does. He's also running away with the scoring race, on pace for about 135 points. But the Penguins might not make the playoffs. Don't you have to make the post-season to win the MVP? Almost always. Lemieux won the Hart in 1988 and Pittsburgh didn't make it, but that was an anomoly. Jagr has missed three games with a pulled stomach muscle. The Penguins only had 14 shots in a 3-1 win over St. Louis last Thursday, and 15 against Montreal in a 4-1 loss Saturday. But they tied Philadelphia 4-4 Sunday without Jagr. "Do we miss him? It goes without saying. We don't have to belabour that," said Penguins coach Herb Brooks. Jagr is second in the NHL in shots with 202. Joseph's value is clearly evident. He has accounted for 52 of the Leafs' points when he has played. He keeps his team in more games than any other goalie considering the number of shots he faces. But he's a goalie and only Dominik Hasek has broken through an obvious bias against picking netminders for the MVP in the last 40 years. Plus, Jersey's Martin Brodeur may get some of Cujo's votes because the Devils are first overall in the league and Brodeur plays almost every night. Pronger plays more minutes every game, close to 30, than any other NHLer. He's the NHL's best defenceman. BURE FILE Name: Pavel Bure Born: Moscow, March 31, 1971 Vitals: Right wing, shoots left, five-foot-ten, 190 pounds Resume - Drafted by Vancouver, the 113th overall pick, in 1989 draft - Won Calder Trophy as NHL's rookie of the year in 1992 - Scored 60 goals twice and 51 once in seven seasons with the Canucks - Traded to Florida on Jan. 17, 1999 - Currently third in NHL scoring race with 34 goals and 23 assists in just 39 games
Davenport enjoys putting Special K away for breakfast She is tall, rich and Californian yet sat through a press conference where almost every question concerned her opponent, whom she had beaten 6-4 6-3. Welcome to the world of women's tennis where Lindsay Davenport, owner of two grand slam titles and no movie contracts, played a minor role to Russia's Anna Kournikova, yet to win a singles tournament but soon to appear in the latest Jim Carrey film. Davenport, 23, broke Kournikova in the first game yesterday on the Rod Laver Arena, and although the 18-year-old Russian staged a comeback in the middle of both sets, she could not win the critical points. The match, promoted as style versus substance, followed the script of most sporting contests where grit beats glitz. Kournikova is the Special K of tennis tournaments: a $20m-a-year marketing machine, with less than 10 per cent of her income coming from winning matches. She is light, flaky and tasty and leaves testosterone-stoked males wanting more. By contrast, Davenport is a hearty breakfast. She is a baseliner but is tall enough to be a serve-and-volley player, and has great volleying skills to complete the package. Traditionally, she was reluctant to come to the net lest her gawkiness be exposed by the passing shot. But yesterday it was the blonde, pig-tailed Kournikova who was embarrassed by deft lobs over her head. While Kournikova was more agile in net meetings, Davenport said "nyet" when the Russian broke back to win two successive games in the first set. Davenport, leading 3-2, was down love-40 in front of a crowd crying, "Anna, Anna", but came back to take the set. The second set went with serve until Davenport broke Kournikova in the fifth; the Russian broke back in the next game but could not stop the 1998 US Open winner and 1999 Wimbledon champion turning the tables in the very next game. Indeed, whenever Kournikova came close to leading, she could not capitalise. The diplomatic Davenport said: "I just think, on a few points she just came up with a few errors that really helped me win the big games." Asked to elaborate, she said: "Throughout the match she can be brilliant and go through patches where she makes a lot of errors, so even at 0-40 it was possible to still win the game. I was hoping, on the good points, I wasn't the one to make the errors." Clad in a purple dress with white trim - and tanned from her days living in a Miami tennis Gulag since she was 10 - Kournikova does look capable of playing the role of the girlfriend of a 65-year-old bum named Scooter in the Carrey film, Me, Myself and Irene. Her mother, Alla, also subject to ogling, took her usual court-side position yesterday but male glances were minimal - possibly because she was accompanied by husband Sergei, a former Greco-Roman wrestler. Maybe the presence of the wrestler explains why Kournikova has no need of bodyguards on this trip. While Anna sees herself as the next Madonna, Lindsay is the anti-prima donna. When she was a student at Murrieta Valley High School in California, none of her fellow students even knew she was a tennis player until it was announced she had beaten Gabriela Sabatini in the Florida Virginia Slims tournament. Davenport sat slumped on the floor outside the media room after yesterday's match, about as glamorous as the Tasmanian town with a similar name. While her victory yesterday was a further triumph of substance over style, it is simplistic to assume Davenport lacks style and Kournikova is deficient in substance. Davenport is a self-deprecating young lady who is endearingly honest and probably prefers the company of her two rottweilers to the press pack who Melbourne talkback radio callers say savaged 16-year-old Jelena Dokic. She demonstrated style at yesterday's "Kournikova questions only" press conference, just as Kournikova showed substance on the court with only one double fault. The Russian admitted Davenport stepped up when the occasion demanded, saying of the first set: "When it was 3-2 and 40-0 for me on her serve, the second serve I tried to go after it and I missed, and then afterwards she just served too good." In another victory for grit, comeback queen Jennifer Capriati reached the quarter finals of the Australian Open for the first time since 1993. The American defeated Switzerland's Patty Schnyder 6-3 4-6 6-1 and put her excellent fitness down to hard work with the medicine ball. In the quarter-finals Capriati will meet Japan's Ai Sugiyama, who surprisingly beat France's Mary Pierce 7-5 6-4, while Davenport plays France's Julie Halard-Decugis, who defeated Germany's Jana Kandarr 6-1 3-0 (retired). Tennis may have lost a couple of glamours from the draw, but as Kournikova said yesterday: "You have to use what you've got."
Bure lifts Panthers Although Pavel Bure's first goal was the milestone, it was his second that caused the celebration. Bure scored the 300th goal of his career, and added his 301st in overtime as the Florida Panthers beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 Saturday night. Bure, whose 34 goals tie him with Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr for the NHL lead, rebounded a shot by Viktor Kozlov 1:31 into overtime to score his 301st goal. Earlier in the game, Bure become the seventh-fastest player in NHL history to score 300 goals. "I was just looking for Pavel," Kozlov said. "I just shot to the net and Pavel scored. It was so simple." Simple and successful. "The overtime goal, that was just a huge individual effort by Kozlov," Panthers coach Terry Murray said. "He's got some world-class players on him on that particular play. He takes it to the net. Pavel is finding his spot as he normally does, around the net, looking for something." The puck glanced off goalie Byron Dafoe and defenseman Don Sweeney before coming back to Bure, who buried it. "It feels pretty good, but the big milestone in the NHL is 500, so I have a long way to go," Bure said. "(No.) 301 I'll probably remember for a long time." Kozlov, who assisted on both of Bure's goals, deserved a lot of the credit for the game-winner according to Bure. "He played well the whole game," Bure said. "The last goal, he was carrying the puck for 30 seconds. I guess (the Bruins) didn't know what to do because they couldn't get the puck out of him." Florida, 6-1-1 in its last eight, ended a two-game winless streak and stopped Boston's five-game unbeaten streak. Bure's 300th goal gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead at 3:47 of the second. He scored when he knocked in the puck from just in front of the crease past Dafoe. His 34 goals also set a team single-season record for goals, breaking a tie with Ray Whitney (1997-98) and Scott Mellanby (1995-96). Florida is 20-1-2 this season when Bure scores. "It's a big accomplishment for him," Whitney said. "Anyone who gets 300 goals nowadays is someone special. Even better, he got 301 for us." The game-winner was his eighth as a Panther -- breaking the mark held by Johan Garpenlov and Ray Sheppard. The Panthers, playing their seventh game in 11 days, took a 1-0 lead at 16:12 of the first on Whitney's 20th goal. Bure broke free down the center of the ice and slid the puck to Whitney, who buried it from the left circle after Dafoe came up in the crease. "Well, we tried to keep it in there and it bounces out and you know you get two on one with Bure and Whitney," Bruins coach Pat Burns said. "It's pretty scary." Four goals were scored in a 2:09 span in the second to give Boston a 3-2 lead. The Bruins tied it 1-1 on a shot by Marty McSorley that went over goalie Mike Vernon's left hand. After Bure gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead, Steve Heinze and Landon Wilson scored goals 25 seconds apart to put the Bruins up 3-2. Wilson's goal broke a 27-game scoreless streak dating to April 17, 1999. Mark Parrish tied the game at 3 at 12:19 of the second off a feed from Whitney. The game was played before 18,423 fans at the National Car Rental Center, Florida's largest home crowd of the season. The Panthers had lost four of their last five at home against the Bruins. "I was looking for (Bure) the whole time," Kozlov said of the final rush to the goal. "It was a very big win for us, because this is a conference game. It was a very big two points for us."
Bure gives Cats OT victory
"I just skate around and tried to read the play," Bure said after his second goal of the game gave Florida a 4-3 overtime victory over Boston on Saturday night. "I guessed right." That was his 301 NHL career goal in 478 games, the seventh fastest to 300. He has 34 goals this season, tying Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr for the NHL lead. He has 47 goals in 50 games as a Panther since the Jan. 17, 1999, trade that brought him and defenseman Bret Hedican to the Panthers. Bure's first goal gave him 33 for the season, breaking the team record of 32 he shared for 24 hours with Ray Whitney (1997-98) and Scott Mellanby (1995-96). His eigth game-winner of the season, eigth since Dec. 8, is also a team record. Bure also chipped in an assist on Whitney's 20th goal of the season. "He draws so much attention from everybody," said Whitney, who also had an assist. "That's why you see so many guys on our team having good years." Including center Viktor Kozlov, who did most of the work on both Bure goals. Kozlov picked up his 33rd and 34th assists of the season. On the winner, Bure swirled around the Boston zone as Kozlov played keep away from Don Sweeney, Ray Bourque, Anson Carter, Bobby Orr and half the guys who have worn the B since Eddie Shore. Kozlov tried a backhand wraparound as he came from behind the right post. Boston goalie Byron Dafoe stopped that, but Bure was behind Kozlov and slammed in the rebound. "He held the puck for, like, 30 seconds," Bure said. "I guess they didn't know what to do because they couldn't get the puck away from him." Kozlov said he was looking for Bure, but "when I went behind the net, I expected him to be in front, but he was behind me. I just shot, and Pavel scored." Bure brushed off 300 goals with, "It feels pretty good, but the big milestone in the NHL is 500 so I have a long way to go." The win ended a run of seven games in 11 days for a Panthers team that looked fatigued Friday in Atlanta and during parts of Saturday's game. "There was a lot of relief when Pavel scored at the end," Panthers defenseman Todd Simpson said. "It's not going to get much easier." Panthers coach Terry Murray said: "We're a little low on our energy and even our mental skills. [Today] will be a welcome day." Boston worked the forecheck well and constantly found people when cycling the puck with the three forwards along the boards. Florida's scoring chances generally came off the rush. It took about 10 minutes for this clash of styles to ignite. It took another 6:12 for the Panthers to get the first goal. As Hedican finished serving a penalty, Bure and Whitney jumped into the neutral zone, itching to be launched on a rush. Simpson yanked the puck out of a draw Hedican got with Boston's Kyle McLaren and Dave Andreychuk for the puck high in the Florida zone and sent Bure and Whitney off on a two-on-one. Bourque, who was a minus-four on the night, was deserted and helpless to stop Bure from serving up Whitney's goal. That rhythm carried into the second period, which saw four goals in 2:11. Panthers left wing Cam Stewart wobbled a weak clearing attempt that turned into a goal when right defenseman Marty McSorley's wrister deflected in off Kozlov's stick. The game stayed 1-1 for 1:02. Bure stripped Boston's Rob Dimaio in the neutral zone to create a three-on-two, then orbited the net to have solitude when he snapped home Kozlov's centering pass. Boston answered just 32 seconds later as Steve Heinze atoned for his earlier dereliction of duty by burying a 35-foot wrister off the rush.
Anna Kournikova is leading the media a merry dance in Melbourne ANNA KOURNIKOVA looked fetching in powder blue as she practised during a brief sunny spell in the afternoon, but Serena Williams, on the late shift in the Rod Laver Stadium, re-appeared in her scarlet number with its low-cut black top and her red shoes. Kournikova could afford to look like a fashion plate as it was her day off - she plays the No 2 seed, Lindsay Davenport, in the fourth round today - but it was strictly business for the younger of the Williams sisters, who had needed to work a little harder than she might have expected against the experienced Belgian, Sabine Appelmans, in a match that started under a pale sunset and then, as the rain returned, finished under the roof. The American eventually won 6-2 7-6. It was one of those days when the tennis never quite managed to divert one's attention from the gossip ricocheting off the walls of the long corridors that link the players' area with the cosmopolitan press room. Most of it centred on the titillating possibility that Kournikova, the little blonde from Moscow, might actually be entering into what is euphemistically called a relationship, with the tall, dark and handsome Mark Philippoussis. At the risk of being called a cynic, I doubt whether Kournikova has discovered what a real relationship means. She has plenty of friends, most of them male who spend much of the time gawping at her. The fact that they seem to be among the better-looking members of the men's locker room could be sheer chance, or it could be her choice. They are certainly numerous. In Sydney, Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti was in close attendance but he got ill down here in Melbourne and fell by the wayside. With Kournikova you have to be able stay the pace. Jan Michael Gambill, the American, was the next to be seen by her side as she watched matches and ate lunch. Then suddenly there were reports in a local tabloid of clinches in the car park with Philippoussis. In a press conference, Kournikova laughed off the inevitable questions with good humour and a twinkle in her eye. Then, on returning to the players' lounge, she stopped by the Australian's table to whisper and giggle in his ear before joining her own entourage at the other end of the room. The desire to lead the media a merry little dance must be irresistible. It's a game the Williams sisters play with different toys. As far as we know, no young man has yet mustered the courage to get within 10ft of Serena or Venus - or, one imagines, their formidable parents Richard and Brandi - so the games centre around deflecting questions in press conferences so as to lead the press up blind alleys. Neither sister will admit, for instance, that it is a family policy now to only play the big tournaments together, but the pattern which was set last year is being repeated. Serena will defend her title at the Paris indoors next month without Venus, while the older sister will fly to Hanover the following week when Serena returns home. For weeks last year the word was that Serena was not playing in Melbourne, but as it turned out she changed her mind and it was Venus who did not show, ostensibly because of injury. Last night Serena said she just changed her mind about playing the Australian Open because she realised that Mary Pierce, the champion in 1995, always did well here and she did not want to be overtaken in the rankings. Then she emphasised just how much she wanted to become top of the world. "I want to be No 1 now more than ever," she said. "But it's tough. Trust me, nobody's kidding around any more. Everybody from No 100 up wants to be No 1. But it takes a lot of work. You have to be more consistent and that's what I'm working on." Although she admits her game is still a little rusty, she was happier with her performance against Applemans. "I was more mentally stable tonight," she said. "I even found myself saying, 'Great shot!' to myself. I thought that was getting a bit out of hand although I always only say positive things to myself on court." Meanwhile, Emilio Sanchez has been trying to say positive things to his sister for some months now, and during most of 1999, it had little effect. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario was, for the first time in her life, distracted and uninterested when it game to tennis but that seems to have changed. Yesterday the little Spaniard, who reached the final in Melbourne in 1994 and 1995, went into the last 16 with a 7-6 6-1 victory over the Australian wild card, Bryanne Stewart. "Arantxa's got her appetite back," the patient Emilio told me. "She's fit again and should be able to do well again for this year at least. After that, who knows?" "Yes, I'm hungry to win again now," admitted Sanchez-Vicario. "I'm more fresh than last year and definitely look forward to getting back into the top 10." Sanchez-Vicario will now meet the blond Austrian, Barbara Schett, who beat her three times last year. Schett, a straight-set winner over Argentina's Florencia Labat, may expect to encounter more stubborn opposition this time, however. When the Spaniard decides to run, she can run all day. Martina Hingis looked as serene and unruffled as ever under the Stadium Court roof when she took on one of the most promising of the young Australians, 18-year-old Alicia Molik. The occasional pounding forehand from the 6ft-tall Molik gave Hingis pause but otherwise there was nothing to suggest the defending champion will not go into tomorrow's match against Sandrine Testud of France bursting with confidence. Testud, for her part, had to work hard to subdue Tamarine Tanasugarn 4-6 7-5 6-2 - a result that will confirm how close the Thai player is to breaking into the top echelon. Tanasugarn, who was born in Los Angeles, teamed with Paradorn Srichaphan to reach the final of the Hopman Cup two weeks ago, an achievement that gave tennis a rare set of headlines in Thailand. More good results and the game will be poised for a boom in Bangkok.
Without Bure, Gretzky fades to thin air
 The Rangers can only wonder what might have been as Florida's Pavel Bure slices through their defense. Wayne Gretzky, who wouldn't complain if you stole his hockey stick and used it for a can opener, very nearly whined last night. It wasn't a temper tantrum. It wasn't an ultimatum, or the sort of screeching protest likely to come out of the Knick locker room this season. But as he stood there, skinny, sweaty and heading for the All-Star break after another wrenching 2-1 defeat to Florida, you could hear a sense of betrayal in his voice when he spoke about playing against Pavel Bure, instead of with him. "That's not my responsibility," he said. "That's Ranger management. We'd all love to have guys like Pavel here. It didn't work out. I will say this: Miami fans are in for a treat. He's worth every penny they pay him." Gretzky is living, skating testimony these days to Michael Jordan's wisdom. The basketball superstar retired just in time, with full honors. The hockey superstar toils on, risking life and limb on lousy Garden ice, with no chance of success. Gretzky will turn 38 on Tuesday. He has a stiff side, a sore shoulder. He still leads the Rangers in scoring, he still puts the puck on people's sticks once he gets into the enemy zone, but he's minus-15 and he often looks sluggish on a team that is going nowhere, slowly. All of this would be bad enough, except that there was more last night, even worse. Gretzky found himself skating against Bure, the 27-year-old who zoomed away from New York and landed in Florida. Bure was supposed to be the guy who rescued the Rangers from another non-playoff season, who would give new life to Gretzky's line. Instead, Bure was wearing red, scooting in for a breakaway goal in the second period during a four-on-four stretch, his third goal in two games. Bure, allegedly rusty, torched the Rangers at will. Those people who watched Bure at the Olympics, who observed him motor these past two nights in the metropolitan area, know Ranger management has made a terrible error of complacency. Once Bure was lost to Florida, Gretzky had to know he was playing out this nearly invisible Ranger season as a world-famous novelty item. He has become everything that Jordan wanted to avoid becoming. Jordan, the greatest player in the history of basketball, went out near the height of his powers, after winning three straight titles with a worthy supporting cast. When he left, basketball begged for more. Gretzky, arguably the second greatest player in the history of hockey behind Bobby Orr, will go out after this season, or next, with waning speed and a string of losing seasons. His team has scored only three goals in the last four games, same as Bure has managed in a comeback of less than 30 minutes. "Losing is really difficult," Gretzky said last night, after his 1,462nd regular-season game. "Offensively, we haven't done a lot." Nobody should tell Gretzky to retire from a job he adores, heart and soul. He has every right to continue as long as he wants, dazzling us with moments of inspiration behind the net. He has not missed a single game this season, so you know he is not as frail as he looks. It is always better to see the Rangers with Gretzky than without Gretzky. But when they passed on Bure during 11th-hour negotiations last Friday, Neil Smith and an indifferent Ranger ownership basically told Gretzky to abandon all hope. With their decision, Gretzky officially became an expensive diversion, maybe even a decoy. Smith will desperately try to stall until the offseason, to sneak 82 games and his second-tier prospects past his bosses, then pick up some talented free agents for little or no compensation. He must do this, while holding onto Brian Leetch and his own job. With the Knicks back in business, Smith just might get away with it. The suits at the Garden, at Fox and at Cablevision, the same ones who are foolishly holding Leetch's contract negotiations hostage, don't seem to care much about hockey when they can throw money at basketball players. Regardless, it is probably too late for Gretzky now. He signed onto this team three years ago expecting to play for a perennial contender. The Rangers reneged on the deal. Without Bure, they are officially, chronically unremarkable.
The Scud courts Anna in Melbourne love match
  ANNA KOURNIKOVA may have trouble winning tennis tournaments but she has no difficulty attracting publicity, especially of the romantic kind. Yesterday Australia was a-buzz with rumours of a new liaison with Mark Philippoussis, the top Australian player, known as The Scud for his devastatingly fast service. The Melbourne Age reported that the two had been seen kissing passionately in the car park beneath centre court at the Australian Open championships. Kournikova, 18 and the women's 11th seed, was in the crowd yesterday watching Philippoussis as he won his third-round match. Subsequent denials of any romance were ambiguous. "I'm not saying anything," Kournikova said coyly. "I would not want to discuss my private life." She added that she had watched Philippoussis from the stands because her coach had told her to. The object of her attention rubbished the speculation but, like Kournikova, was half-hearted in his dismissal: "She's a friend. I've known her for years. That's about it."
Anna's love match is still on ice It should hardly be surprising that in the sudsy world of tennis, where the sub-plot so often becomes the main feature, the "are they or aren't they" speculation about Anna Kournikova and Mark Philippoussis occupied as many court-side conversations at Melbourne Park yesterday as their third-round matches. After a reported intimate encounter in the stadium car park, and Kournikova's appearance among Philippoussis's entourage, the insiders were keen to know if they had a romance on their hands or just another convenient piece of cross-promotion. However, even before she again took her place in Philippoussis's entourage beside her mother, Alla - giving Philippoussis's father, Nick, a kiss on both checks after taking her seat - Kournikova, who rarely answers questions about her private life in press conferences, had dismissed the inevitable enquiries. "Well, we're just friends," she said. "I know him from Florida. I've known him for a very long time, we played juniors together." When asked if there was any romance in the air, she replied: "None that I can tell you." Philippoussis was equally coy. "She is a friend ... known her for years," he said. "That's pretty much it." Of course, the Kournikova denial comes with no guarantees. For years she refused to comment about her long-time liaison with Detroit Red Wings ice-hockey star Sergei Fedorov, a widely reported romance which is believed to have come to an end last year. Cessation of that relationship might have come at a high price for Fedorov. According to Florida newspapers, Kournikova moved into an apartment in South Beach, Miami, that Dade County records showed Fedorov had purchased for $US3 million ($4.6 million) and sold to Kournikova for just $US100. That was in the days before Kournikova became a regular at Florida Panthers games, where she had eyes only for another Russian ice hockey star, the temperamental but talented winger Pavel Bure. After Bure moved from his home in Fort Lauderdale to South Beach, the rumours became supposition. So when Kournikova blew a kiss after her second-round match that she said was intended for someone "across the ocean", most assumed it was meant for her be-skated countryman. Accordingly, seasoned Kournikova watchers were yesterday keen to dismiss reports that Kournikova and Philippoussis were now an item. While it went virtually unnoticed, Kournikova also won her third-round match yesterday, polishing off an unexpectedly hard-fought 2-6 6-3 6-4 victory over Czech Kveta Hrdlickova with a rare ace. Kournikova now meets second seed Lindsay Davenport, the first test here of whether the Russian, who is yet to win her first professional tournament, has really added substance to her noted style.
See Pavel shoot, see Pavel score
Bure scored his second goal of the game and 301st of his career 91 seconds into overtime, giving the Florida Panthers a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins, who had a five-game unbeaten streak stopped. After setting up Bure's 300th goal early in a wild second period, Viktor Kozlov held the puck for nearly 30 seconds leading up to the game-winner. He carried behind the Bruins' net before turning back and skating to the left faceoff circle. Kozlov retreated, shrugged off a hook by All-Star defenseman Ray Bourque, came around the goal and tried a shot that deflected off defenseman Don Sweeney. Bure got to the loose puck at the right goalpost and swept it past goaltender Byron Dafoe for his league-leading eigth game-winner.
Bure's overtime goal caps his record-setting night
 Three hundred was special, but 301 was even sweeter. Superstar Pavel Bure, who in the second period became the seventh-fastest player in NHL history to reach the 300-goal plateau, got a head start toward 400 by scoring the winner with 3:29 left in overtime to lift the Panthers to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins. "Anyone who gets 300 goals nowadays is something special," forward Ray Whitney said. "But even better, he got 301 for us." An exhilarated crowd of 18,423 -- the largest this season to watch the Panthers at National Car Rental Center -- was treated to another example of Bure heroics as the Russian Rocket, who scored his third career overtime goal, set two Panthers' records and tied two NHL highs in the process. Bure scored his 33rd and 34th goals in his 39th game, breaking the Panthers' season goal total shared by Scott Mellanby and Ray Sheppard. Bure also tied Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr for the NHL lead in goals. Bure also scored his eigth winning goal, breaking the team record held by Sheppard and Johan Garpenlov. Bure also tied Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick for the NHL lead in winners. "I'd say we're riding his coattails right now," Whitney said. The winner in overtime came after Kozlov hustled into the zone. Bure trailed behind and watched as Kozlov put together one incredible individual effort. With Ray Bourque, who was a minus-4, and Don Sweeney chasing Kozlov around the offensive zone, Kozlov finally popped out in front and took a shot. Byron Dafoe turned it away, but Bure gobbled up the rebound and scored. "Kozzie played well the whole game," Bure said. "The last goal, he was carrying the puck for 30 seconds. I guess (the Bruins) didn't know what to do because they couldn't get the puck out of him." "It was a huge individual effort by Kozlov," coach Terry Murray said. "There's a lot of pressure on him, he's holding the puck and he makes some evasive moves. He just continues to be real strong on the puck. He's got some world class players on him on that particular play." Kozlov also did most the work on Bure's 300th in the second period. Bure gave the Panthers, who are second in the East and 14 points up on Washington in the Southeast, a 2-1 lead at 3:47 when Hal Gill's pass exited the Panthers' zone. Bure stripped Rob DiMaio by the Bruins' bench and glided into the offensive zone. Bure gave up the puck and circled into position at the far post. Kozlov gained possession, fed Bure in front and he converted easily for the milestone in his 478th game. "It feels pretty good, but the big milestone in the NHL is 500," Bure said. "So I have a long way to go. The 301st, I'll remember that probably for a long time." Bure had three points, giving him 57 on the season, moving him into third in the NHL. It is the seventh highest scoring season in Panthers' history. Bure, who had 12 goals and 22 points in 13 games in December to be named Player of the Month, has 13 goals and 20 points in 11 games in January. It was the Panthers' 17th win at home, equaling the amount they had last season. The typical game against Boston is a snoozer because of their trapping style and their fencing off at the blue line. The large crowd was treated to a wild second period in which the teams combined for five goals, including four within 2:09 at the start of the period. The Panthers carried a 1-0 lead into the period courtesy of Whitney's 20th goal off a Bure feed. After a long shift by the third line, an exhausted Cam Stewart, a former Bruin, tried to clear the zone. It was picked off and Marty McSorley tied the game. While the fans were celebrating Bure's prestigious goal, the Bruins skated up the ice and Joe Murphy hit Steve Heinze for the tying goal 27 seconds later. Before the goal could be announced, Landon Wilson gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead at 4:54. Finally, there was a lull in the scoring until Mark Parrish scored his 17th, and fifth in six games, with 7:41 left when Johnson fought off 6-foot-7 Gill behind the net. Whitney collected the puck, directed it in front through a pair of legs and Parrish blasted it for a 3-3 score. "Pavel draws so much attention from everybody that guys like Kozzie, Parrish and myself get a lot of room," Whitney said. "That's why you see so many people on our team having good years."
Paveliscious
Viktor Kozlov did all the work and Pavel Bure made it pay off. Bure scored his second goal of the game and 301st of his career 91 seconds into overtime, giving the Florida Panthers a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins, who had a five-game unbeaten streak stopped. After setting up Bure's 300th goal early in a wild second period, Kozlov held the puck for nearly 30 seconds leading up to the game-winner. He carried behind the Bruins' net before turning back and skating to the left faceoff circle. Kozlov retreated, shrugged off a hook by All-Star defenseman Ray Bourque, came around the goal and tried a shot that deflected off defenseman Don Sweeney. Bure got to the loose puck at the right goalpost and swept it past goaltender Byron Dafoe for his league-leading eigth game-winner. "You have to give credit to Kozzie," Bure said. "He was carrying the puck for 30 seconds. I guess they didn't know what to do because they couldn't get the puck out of him. I just tried to find where the rebound would be. I was lucky." "I was looking for Pavel," Kozlov added. "I just shot to the net and Pavel scored. It was was so simple." Mike Vernon stopped 36 shots for Florida, which is 6-1-1 in its last eight games. Florida's Ray Whitney had the only goal of the first period on an assist from Bure. The frenetic second period featured four goals in a span of 2:09. McSorley lifted Boston into a 1-1 tie at 2:45, but Bure got his 300th just 62 seconds later, whacking in Kozlov's cross-crease pass after Dafoe was caught with his back to the net. "It feels pretty good but the big milestone in the NHL is 500 goals, so I have a long way to go," said Bure, who moved into a tie for the league lead with 34 goals this season. "But No. 301 I'll remember for a long time."
Pavel had seven shots on goal, and was a plus two for the night.
A Bure Good Deal Pavel Bure spent much of his first practice with the Panthers frowning at his new blue gloves, which were as stiff as Neil Smith's upper lip after learning that Bure had been landed by Florida GM Bryan Murray Sunday. The media descended on Nassau Coliseum yesterday, not for Craig Janney's Islanders debut, but to witness the Russian Rocket's splashy, two-goal return to the NHL in a 5-2 win over the Islanders.  Pavel Bure parades victoriously around the Coliseum rink. The fact that the Panthers would get to parade their trophy through two buildings where Bure might have ended up playing was just ironic enough to become a lyric in an Alanis Morrissette song, but Murray refused to gloat. "Neil is a good friend of mine. I kind of chuckle when I read some of the things," said Murray, who was an underbidder for free-agent goalie Mike Richter during the offseason and also tried to land Petr Nedved from Pittsburgh and Bryan Berard from the Islanders. Pavel and the Panthers will play at the Garden tonight. "Maybe Neil said something to other people when he got Nedved or got Richter when I was in a position to try to get them, but I didn't hear anything, so why would I say anything?" Murray said. "There have been a couple of frustrating deals this year that I thought were done. We always know in this business that the deal isn't done until the guy shows up in your building. I'm happy we got him." Ecstatic would be more like it. Although the analysis can't be completed for a few seasons yet, at first blush it looks like Murray made this trade while wearing a ski mask. In addition to Bure, who will be 28 next month, the Panthers received an unspectacular but solid defenseman in Bret Hedican, defense prospect Brad Ference and a third-round draft choice in 1999 or 2000. The price tag was defenseman Ed Jovanovski, whose stock has dropped after a promising rookie year but who is the key to the deal for Vancouver; left winger Mike Brown, veteran center Dave Gagner, third-string goalie Kevin Weekes and a first-round draft pick in 1999 or 2000. It was a deal that shouldn't leave much of a hole in the Panthers lineup. Jovanovski, 22, was one of Florida's top four defensemen, but the Panthers' hopes are that any rise in goals-against will be surpassed by Bure's goals-for. Bure scored 51 goals last season. The entire Florida team scored only 203. Both the Islanders and Rangers were spurned by Canucks GM Brian Burke, who was in attendance last night. Both would have been more seriously wounded by the trade demands, and Bure's salary demands were just as daunting. Bure is expected to agree to a new contract with the Panthers that will average just under $10 million annually. Yesterday morning, Bure looked like just another smallish guy in Panther blue until he set up a score by Kirk Muller (two goals all season) and started beating Florida goalies with a flick of his wrist.  Bure didn't plan on playing. He ended up with 2 goals. Originally, Bure was not planning to play last night against the Isles. His agent, Mike Gillis, made it sound as if Bure had made Tuesday's trek from Moscow by unicycle, and his client would be too exhausted to play until after the All-Star break. A quick chat with coach Terry Murray on the ice changed all that. 'The conversation basically was, 'Let's get things started,' " said Murray. "There's another game against the Rangers (tonight) and then we've got three days for the All-Star break. It seemed to fit best in my mind, anyway, and I think he was convinced it would be a good fit for him." Bure was convinced, and his game was convincing. Bure played 12:09 — just nine seconds more than Murray had projected — and scored twice on four shots on goal. Bure is expected to follow the same blueprint tonight, perhaps with the same results, as Florida takes its Pavel-driven shot at a playoff berth, something the Islanders and Rangers will only be able to wistfully watch.
Pavel robbed in the game! Yannick Tremblay scored the tying shorthanded goal in the third period and goaltender Norm Maracle robbed superstar Pavel Bure twice in overtime as the Atlanta Thrashers played to a 3-3 tie against the Florida Panthers. After Bure tied the franchise record for goals in a season with his 32nd in 38 games, the Panthers had a 3-2 lead. Florida's Pavel Bure scored his 299th career goal with 8:48 left in regulation. But the Russian Rocket is still trying to become the seventh-fastest player in NHL history to reach 300. Bure had two golden opportunities in overtime for his second goal of the contest. Maracle stopped him on a wrist shot midway through overtime and on a slapper in the game's final minute. "(Bure) is a great player, he scores a lot of goals and I just got lucky," Maracle said. "He was shooting high and I just looked in my glove and itwent in there. I felt pretty good." "The first one, the puck was rolling," Bure said. "The second one, he made a great save. The top corner was open.
Pavel had seven shots on goal and was a plus one for the night.
Raw Deal Memoriabilia On February 20th, 2000, REAL DEAL Memorabilia had a private autograph signing with Florida Panthers Pavel Bure
Singles futility doesn't stop Kournikova MELBOURNE, Australia -- Popularity apparently has no correlation with productivity, at least when it concerns Anna Kournikova. The 18-year-old Russian-born, Miami-based Kournikova has been turning heads since she's been a pre-teen and the combination of looks, self-confidence and impudence unquestionably overshadows her lack of tournament titles. Apparently, both the adoring public around the globe, and Kournikova herself, believe that the paucity of titles is of little concern. The fact that Kournikova has yet to win one singles trophy since playing her first WTA Tour event in 1995 -- that translates to 57 tournaments coming into the 2000 Australian Open with only two finals showings at the 1998 Lipton Championships and 1999 Hilton Head -- didn't prevent fans here from overflowing Court 1 Wednesday to watch her demolish Natasha Zvereva of Belarus 6-1, 6-4 in the second round. "I have very good results. I'm No. 12 in the world and that's not because of nothing," said Kournikova, dismissing any concern about not having singles trophies to display in her South Beach apartment. "I think there's a lot of people who haven't won a tournament and they play well, but I think there's a time for everybody. It's going to come, going to work, but definitely I have it in my mind." It seems that no matter where Kournikova journeys around the world, she creates interest and tabloid fodder. The latest scuttlebutt centers around her recent swapping of NHL player boyfriends. Although Kournikova isn't talking other than to admit "there's somebody special, but not here, not in the crowd, but on the other side of the ocean," word is that she's ended a long-term relationship with Detroit Red Wings star Sergei Federov in favor of Florida Panthers dynamo Pavel Bure. Both are Russian. Lately, when in South Florida, Kournikova has become a regular at Panther games and it was these sightings that brought the Bure relationship to the forefront. Accompanying her on this first trip of 2000 are her usual road companion, mother Alla, plus coach Eric Van Harpen and her infrequently seen father Sergi. One thing is without question, Kournikova is off to a much better Australian Open start than last year. At the 1999 Open, she served an unbelievable 68 double faults in three matches, including a record 31 against second-round opponent Miho Saeki. This year, Kournikova started the tournament by posting her first 6-0, 6-0 match, a first-round win over Patricia Wartusch of Austria, and then handily took care of the No. 26-ranked Zvereva. "It was hard for me to see something in these two matches because we barely had any points,'' Kournikova said of the fast court conditions." So far it's great. I think that I play well on fast courts." While she hasn't racked up any titles in the singles arena, she has fared quite well in the doubles game. Kournikova, who missed nearly three months after suffering a stress fracture in her right foot last August, ended the 1999 season as the No. 1 doubles player in the world, winning titles at the Australian Open and Chase Championships, and reaching the French Open final with then partner Martina Hingis. This year, she is partnering Austrian Barbara Schett.
Pavel held scoreless Zednik recorded his second two-goal game in four nights and Olaf Kolzig made 29 saves as the Capitals shut down Pavel Bure and the first-place Florida Panthers, 3-1, for their sixth straight victory. Florida's Ray Whitney scored his 19th goal, but the Capitals kept the Panthers' primary weapon, Pavel Bure off the scoresheet. "We didn't do anything special against Pavel," Wilson said. "We didn't over play. We told the guys to stay in your area and take him when he comes through, but then let the next guy take him, and that seemed to work."
Pavel recorded 8 shots on goal and was a plus one for the game.
Kozlov is Panthers' Rocket launcher It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if you have a Tim Duncan or a Randy Moss or a Pavel Bure on your team, the top priority is to find someone to get the ball -- or puck -- to those stars. The Panthers spent the summer trying to lure veteran Czech Republic center Jiri Dopita to South Florida to complement Bure. When that failed, they began experimenting. But it wasn't until December 8 that Viktor Kozlov got his chance. Oddly, it has been the short quick passing among Kozlov, Ray Whitney and Bure -- not just the home run passes -- that has helped their line click. And the chemistry among the three has helped push Kozlov to heights many never thought he would achieve. Scouts drooled at Kozlov's Lemieux-like reach before the 1993 draft. But he dropped to San Jose with the sixth pick because scouts questioned his work ethic. The opinion on him changed only slightly when he set career highs with 16 goals and 35 assists last seasons. He should surpass those numbers easily this season. Playing alongside Bure, Kozlov says, is like switching to fast forward. "You have to push yourself all the time," he says. "You have to learn to skate faster, do everything faster." Kozlov has rewarded GM Bryan Murray for a controversial deal that cost the team a high first-round pick in November 1997. "We always felt he had the size and strength worth waiting for," Murray says. "Now, he's also showing us his creative side. I think Pavel has forced him to be better." Bure says he has talked to Kozlov about little plays he likes to make in certain situations. Clearly, many of those little plays have turned into big ones for the Panthers. "Obviously, Kozzie's handling the puck with confidence," says Whitney, a teammate of Kozlov's in San Jose. "He's using his body better than he ever has. He's doing things that a guy 6-5 with those skills should be doing." And, at 24, Kozlov is showing everyone that he was worth the wait. OH, BROTHER You could be "Bured" alive if you have to face the brothers Bure every night. Pavel already is at the 30-goal mark, and Valeri is at 22 and counting. Now, the talented Bures have become the first brother combination on the same All-Star team since Peter and Marian Stastny in 1983. Despite his early success, Valeri isn't keen on playing on a line with his brother February 6 at Toronto in the NHL's 50th All-Star game. "I'd have to be the defensive forward," Valeri says, "and I don't want any part of that." They were linemates on the Russian team in the 1998 Olympics at Nagano, Japan, and Pavel is much more explosive than Valeri. "You want to skate like him, shoot like him, be like him," Valeri says. "But hockey is a game of styles. He goes for the home run. I'm just a singles hitter."
Bure's Added Dimension has Panthers on the Prowl
 Pavel Bure and Jaromir Jagr are two favorites for the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player this season. NEW YORK - When the 1999-2000 season opened, Pavel Bure was 55th among active goal-scoring leaders in the NHL. But Bure was third when it comes to goal-per-game, checking in at .608. Only Brett Hull (.681) and Teemu Selanne (.645) have better ratios. That tells you two things about Bure - 1) he makes his shots counts, and 2) he’s missed a lot of games. A knee injury in 1995-96 scuttled Bure’s season with the Vancouver Canucks, as he appeared in only 15 games. And last season, Bure was a holdout from the Canucks and missed the bulk of the season until the trade that made him the linchpin of the Florida Panthers’ attack. But even in Florida, the injury bug bit hard. He missed eight games with a right knee injury, returned to the lineup, and then was lost for the season in early March with knee problems that eventually required surgery. This season, Bure looked to be the picture of health and he wasted little time proving the point, scoring the Panthers’ first goal of the 1999-2000 season on the team’s first shot on goal this season. Still, injuries have tried to compromise his season. A groin strain cost him five games earlier this season, and then a broken finger forced him to spend three more games on the sidelines. Bure, who was selected to play in his fifth NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 6th at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto (2:30 p.m. ET, ABC, CBC, SRC), has taken a philosophical approach to coping with the pain and frustration of injury. “Injuries are a part of hockey and it is not what happens to you, it is how you react,” he said of missing games. “Obviously, it was a big disappointment for me, but I just have to deal with it. I am really happy it is behind me.” But there were doubts in Bure’s mind as the 1999-2000 season began. Knee surgery has a way of planting doubts even among the strongest-willed athletes. “It was a pretty hard time for me,” Bure said of rehabbing from last March’s surgery. “I was kind of down, but I think I was just lucky because I have really good friends, really good family who was supporting me through this hard time. As I said, it is all behind me and now I have to move on. Last season was an eye-opener for the hockey fans of South Florida, who had grown accustomed to seeing a defensive brand of hockey. In 11 games with the Panthers following a Jan. 17, 1999 deal with the Canucks, Bure scored 13 goals, connecting on an impressive 29.5 percent of his shots. This season, the goal barrage has continued for Bure and the Panthers. Through 36 games this season, Bure has found the back of the net 31 times and has pumped up the volumn on his playmaking, too, collecting 22 assists. This season, Bure’s shooting percentage has been a more-than-respectable 17.71 percent. And the bottom line is the Panthers are turning back the clock to the form that saw the old Miami Arena turned into a rat trap as the Panthers and their rat-tossing fans - a remnant of some Scott Mellanby exterminating - played for the 1996 Stanley Cup. Through 44 games, the Panthers were 27-14-3. So the Panthers are well on their way to improving upon last season’s 30-34-18. Consider that Bure’s 31 goals already is five more that last year’s leading scorer, Ray Whitney, netted for the Panthers. It’s little wonder that Bure, who balky knee has cost him several games in the lineup this season, too, has become “The Man” for the Panthers. Coach Terry Murray admitted as much when he named Bure as one of the team’s alternate captains this season. Bure joins captain Scott Mellanby and alternate captain Rob Niedermayer in the leadership roles. "Pavel is the best player on our hockey club, and I think that it's important that the best player have an 'A' or a 'C' on his sweater," Murray said. "Pavel leads with his effort on the ice and he's a player that will be relied on tremendously over the course of the year." The respect that Bure commands among his teammates is why he's deserving, Murray says. Everybody on the team looks up to him, especially the club’s other Europeans players. "When you have a star player like this, they come to the game to get the job done," Murray said. "Not only on the ice, but in the locker room they help bring everybody together. I'll rely on him for that and to help the younger guys develop their overall skills and understanding of the game." Bure once was the most popular member of the Canucks, but for reasons he still won’t discuss, he opted to leave Vancouver and begin his hockey career all over again. The decision wasn’t an easy one and cast him in the role of villain with many hockey fans in Vancouver. Still, Bure remains convinced he did the right thing. "I know I did the right thing," Bure said. "I didn't betray anyone and I don't feel guilty. There's no reason to go back and talk about a couple years ago. What's done is done. I'm happy with my life now." He does insist that the decision to leave Vancouver had nothing to do with an adversarial relationship with the fans. "I keep reading about myself, that I didn't like the fans and I didn't like the attention," Bure said. "I've never said that in my life. ... After saying I wouldn't play for the Canucks anymore, I lived here for six weeks and the fans were supportive." Bure is content to allow the past to remain there, especially with the Panthers enjoying such a solid season. “I am just really happy right now because things are going really well,” he said. “I think we should give credit, first of all, to the management and the coaching staff who put a really good team together. And it is a great mix we have on the team. We have some guys who played for a long time. We have some young guys who bring lots of energy.” And Bure says it is just a matter of time before that combination captures the imagination of South Florida’s fan base. “We are trying to do the best we can,” Bure said. “We go to the hospitals and we do some signing sessions. But, obviously, our main job is to go out on the ice and perform there. As I said before, I can feel more and more people giving to hockey because it is really a new game for South Florida. I think it is like California years ago, when nobody knew of hockey in California and look at it now. They have three teams and people just relate to hockey, so hopefully it is going to happen in Florida.” Especially if Bure keeps piling up the goals. The 2000 NHL All-Star Weekend takes place in Toronto on Feb. 5-6, featuring the Heroes of Hockey game and the FedEx/NHL SuperSkills competition on Saturday, Feb. 5 and the 50th NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 6. Television coverage of the NHL All-Star Game will be provided by ABC in the United States and CBC/SRC in Canada at 2:30 p.m. ET, while All-Star Saturday will be broadcast in the United States by ESPN (7:00 p.m. ET) and in Canada by CBC (6:30 p.m. ET) and SRC (8:00 p.m. ET).
Rocket Launch Yesterday marked the first anniversary of Pavel Bure's trade to Florida from Vancouver. While the Panthers prospered from the blockbuster deal, the Canucks have continued to struggle. In fact after last night's 5-4 overtime loss to Toronto, the Canucks are 23 games below .500 since trading Bure. The chart below indicates each tean's record since the Russian Rocket joined the Panthers.
Fiction, friction on CanucksGM falling flat in attempt to justify his dubious dealsBy Al Strachan-- Toronto SunTuesday, January 18, 2000 Nothing seems to be working well for the Vancouver Canucks this year, not even their MRI equipment. The latest furor to envelop this controversy-shrouded team involves the events leading up to the trade of Kevin Weekes, whom general manager Brian Burke referred to as the team's "goaltender of the future" when acquired in the Pavel Bure deal a year ago. As it happened, Weekes wasn't even the goaltender of a full season. The Canucks moved him, along with Dave Scatchard and Bill Muckalt, to the New York Islanders on Dec. 19 for Felix Potvin. Potvin, however, has not been playing well, giving up a bad goal a game, a scenario that might sound familiar to fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As a result, Canucks management has been receiving even more criticism than usual. So during the weekend, how very convenient it was that a Vancouver newspaper published a story that appeared to justify the trade. A year ago, the same reporter also had a story explaining what Mike Keenan had done wrong and why Burke had to fire him. A similar set of circumstances unfolded last spring when the Canucks refused Peter Zezel permission to leave the team to be at the bedside of his terminally ill niece. Burke, of course, insists that he's not the source of these stories. It's just a coincidence that they're all written by the same writer, that they all happen to justify Burke's position, and that they all do so using the same words and anecdotes that Burke himself uses when he's justifying his position to his friends. Burke still is getting heat for the Bure deal, and so he should. Bure is the most exciting player in the game and now that he's finally getting back to full strength after a knee operation, has a good chance of matching Jaromir Jagr point for point down the stretch. In return, Burke acquired Dave Gagner, whom he referred to as "the key to the deal," then released him during the off-season. He got Weekes, who is now gone, and Ed Jovanovski. There were other peripherals, including Bret Hedican to Florida and a first-rounder to Vancouver, but right now, the deal looks like a bad one for the Canucks. Little wonder, then, that Burke desperately wants to make the Weekes trade look good. Hence the recent revelation by his tame writer that Weekes had faked a knee injury and that he had fabricated a robbery attempt on the goalie to justify arriving late for a game. First, the knee. There was a heated confrontation between Weekes and Canucks coach Marc Crawford -- who seems to be having heated confrontations with almost everybody he meets these days -- after Weekes insisted he had hurt his knee during a 4-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes on Oct. 28. When the Canucks' MRI failed to show any damage a few days later, Crawford blew his top -- again. He screamed at Weekes that from that point on, he would do what he was told. Relations between the two were extremely strained, especially when Weekes continued to insist that his knee did not feel right. Then came the trade and, during the weekend, the allegations of malingering. But lo and behold, the New York Islanders said yesterday that their MRI of Weekes' knee shows two tears and that as a result, he will have to undergo surgery during the off-season. On to the robbery attempt. The parts of Weekes' story that have been made public do indeed seem to have some inconsistencies. But Weekes says he's sticking to his guns and that he's shocked the story got out because he was only one of three Canucks to be robbed recently and Burke had told him that under no circumstances must the media be allowed to learn of these robberies. Then suddenly, in a story obviously planted by Burke, there it is for all to see. Why would Burke do this? Probably because he's desperate. Here's what he said after the Bure trade: "My guess is (people will say) its not enough, but it's all going to hinge on what these players do. If Dave Gagner comes on like we think he can and fills our No. 2 spot ... the deal's going to look better. "We feel ... whether this is a good deal for us or not depends on whether we're right on Weekes and (Mike) Brown and whether we do something with the (first-round pick). If we're wrong on those players and if we don't get a player with the first, then this deal is going to go down as a deal where value is not obtained." He was wrong on Gagner and Weekes, and Brown is still in junior hockey. It certainly appears therefore, that in both of Burke's trades, value was not obtained. Jagr, 4-on-4 play made first half out of this worldBy Larry Wigge-- The Sporting NewsJanuary 18, 2000 A mischievous grin crosses Wayne Gretzky's face when he is asked for his nominees for NHL midseason awards in his first season without hockey for more than three decades. "I guess," he says, "I can't nominate Jaromir Jagr for all of them, can I?"
Jagr, the Penguins winger, won his first MVP award and also captured his third scoring championship last season. He clearly has been the game's best player again this season.
MVP runners-up? Recchi, Toronto's Curtis Joseph, Florida's Pavel Bure and St. Louis' Pierre Turgeon. Can you settle this?-- Vancouver ProvinceJanuary 17, 2000 Q: Who do you think is the best Canucks of all time? -Peter Tyler - Vancouver
A: That's a little vague... Do you mean the best steal of a draft for the Canucks or the best player they've ever drafted? Panthers down Flyers, 3-1-- Vancouver ProvinceJanuary 17, 2000 Robert Svehla scored a pair of third-period goals as the Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 Monday and stretched their winning streak to five. Pavel was held off the score borad for the first time in the last six games. He finished the game with 5 shots on goal and was a plus one. Best Canuck draft pick of all time?-- Vancouver ProvinceMonday, January 17, 2000 Q: Who do you guys think is the best Canuck draft pick of all time? - Peter Tyler, Vancouver. A: That's a little vague... Do you mean the best stealof a draft for the Canucks, or the best player they have ever drafted? Oh well, it doesn't matter.because the answer would be the same guy anyway. While Stan Smyl(1978, 3rd round), Glen Hanlon (1977, 3rd round), Igor Larionov (1985, 11th round) and Adrian Aucoin (1992, 5th round) were all pretty good players drafted low, Pavel Bure is thebest player ever to play in a Canucks jersey - stolen in the sixth round in 1989. He almost made up for the first three Canucks picks that year, Jason Herter, Rob Woodward and Brett Hauer, who played a grand total of zero NHL games combined. Panthers still have much to proveFirst-place Florida must beat elite Eastern Conference foesBy David J Meal-- Miami HeraldMonday, January 17, 2000 The Panthers have vanquished Carolina, last season's most important Florida nemesis, for the moment. They're 2-0 against Washington, who has replaced Carolina as the Panthers' prime chaser in the Southeast Division. What remains to be proven is if the Panthers can beat the teams in the Eastern Conference that are their peers in the standings. Another chance to do so comes against Philadelphia today, the Panthers' first afternoon home game on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Once again, the Panthers get a break because of injury. Flyers center Eric Lindros is expected to be out for a week with a concussion he suffered Friday against Atlanta. Previously, Phoenix's Keith Tkachuk and Colorado's Peter Forsberg missed games against the Panthers. Look behind Florida's 0-5-0 record against three of the other four Eastern teams with more than 50 points (Florida, which has 58 points, hasn't played New Jersey), and there's no pattern besides losses. The Panthers have lost close (3-2 and 6-4 to Toronto, 2-0 to Philadelphia) and by blowout (5-0 to Ottawa, 6-1 to Philly). They've lost on the road and at home. They've lost with backup goalies starting and with No. 1 goalies in the net. They've lost on Wednesdays, Saturdays and a Sunday. While they have lost the night before a holiday, Thanksgiving, they haven't lost on a national holiday or a Monday. Students of irony and history might chuckle at the Panthers spending a holiday for a practitioner of nonviolence playing the franchise whose greatest teams were known for their undue violence. The Flyers haven't been The Broad Street Bullies for more than 20 years, but today's edition wins through the size and brute power that has characterized the best Flyers teams. And that's exactly the kind of team that has given the Panthers trouble. ``It's going to be a great test for us,'' Panthers center Rob Niedermayer said. ``The last time, they came in and kind of embarrassed us.'' On Nov. 24, the Flyers had a 3-0 lead before you could say ``Bull Connor'' and rumbled to a 6-1 crushing of Florida. The Panthers weren't as offensively explosive then as they are now -- 74 goals in their past 18 games and 32 in their past seven -- nor was right wing Pavel Bure burning out goal lights as he has been recently. If Bure scores today, he will tie his team record for longest goal streak, the five-game stretch from Dec. 11 to Dec. 20. A point of any kind will extend his point streak to eight games. This could be a test for Bure, too. Take out last season's virtuoso hat trick game and Bure's numbers against Philadelphia are decidely pedestrian: two goals, four assists for six points in 11 games.
Bure also hasn't played a full season taking an Eastern Conference pounding, which he will get over the final three months of this season. Hedican, fiancee cross pathsBy Brian Biggane-- Palm Beach PostSunday, January 16, 2000 OAKLAND -- As the lights dim at Oakland Coliseum, Panthers defenseman Bret Hedican gets comfortable at rinkside, preparing to watch fiance Kristi Yamaguchi perform as a member of the Stars on Ice ensemble. "Watch the height they get on their jumps," Hedican whispers. "From ice level it's just incredible." Hedican is asked if he gets nervous when he watches Yamaguchi, the Olympic gold medalist in figure skating in 1992, do her routines. "I used to," he said. "But she's such a professional, she's such a good skater, that I don't anymore, even when she's jumping. "There's been nights when she might have tumbled, or fell, or not landed a jump she usually does in practice. But I've seen her so much it becomes routine to see her land all her jumps most of the time. And when she doesn't, it's like, well, nobody's perfect. "That's true of hockey players as well." No match for Yamaguchi Only a lucky accident of scheduling has allowed Hedican to be in Oakland tonight. The Panthers have a night off between games at Los Angeles and San Jose, and the tour stop is just 40 miles up Interstate 880, close enough for not only Hedican but Yamaguchi's San Jose-based family to attend. The following night, while the tour heads to Sacramento, the Yamaguchis, who are Sharks season-ticket holders, will watch their future son-in-law -- the wedding is set for July in Hawaii -- play more than 20 minutes in Florida's 4-2 victory. But tonight it's Yamaguchi's turn. And Hedican is delighted to be on hand. "I hope to get to five shows this year," he said. "Tonight, two or three during the All-Star break, and the show in February in Florida (at the National Car Rental Center)." Yamaguchi is a featured attraction of the show, but not the only one. The cast also includes 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, Canadian Kurt Browning and veteran Scott Hamilton. Hedican passes on the inside information that Hamilton is "nursing an ankle" on this night. "I'm glad I've gotten the opportunity to be around these people because they're great people, and unbelievable athletes," Hedican said. Hedican, considered one of the fastest, strongest skaters in the NHL, knows his technique is no match for that of Yamaguchi. "I like to be smooth, to be a strong skater, but Kristi is at another level, the way she skates, the way she moves," he said. After an early appearance as a member of the ensemble, Yamaguchi appears by herself about 40 minutes into the show. Hedican, smiling and staring, watches her every move. "Do I notice her more?" he asks later, repeating a question. "Obviously I do because I'm engaged to her, but I really think if I was just here watching the show I would notice her more. Her personality on the ice is just so magnetic." It seems a stretch to ask if there are things Hedican can translate from Yamaguchi's performance to his game, but he insists there is: professionalism. "The way she performs translates over," he said. "I'm not only a hockey player bashing guys against the boards, but I can show the things I do best, show what I can do." 'She does her own thing' Hedican isn't the only Panther with a celebrity attachment. Rob Niedermayer has been dating supermodel Niki Taylor for years, and Pavel Bure recently has been linked to tennis star Anna Kournikova. On occasion those two will join other Panther wives and girlfriends before and after games. Hedican knows it'll be a rarity to be able to go home to Yamaguchi after a game, but insists he doesn't mind. "It's great that she has her own life, her own profession, her own goals," he said. "I like that. That's what I've always wanted in a wife. She does her own thing, and she's happy with skating, and I support her, and vice-versa. "The great thing is I know what she goes through every night and she knows what I go through every night. So on both the good nights and the bad nights we can kind of lean on each other. That's nice." Bure scores again; Cats rollPanthers' division lead stretched to 16 pointsBy David J Meal-- Miami HeraldSunday, January 16, 2000 TAMPA -- Pavel Pure is on a scoring streak, and the rest of the Panthers aren't doing too bad, either. The Panthers put away the Tampa Bay Lightning with three second-period goals Saturday night and cruised to a 5-2 victory. The win lifted Florida to a 16-point division lead over Washington and Carolina. Over the past 18 games, the Panthers are averaging 4.11 goals and have scored three or more goals 16 times. For the second consecutive game, the Panthers spread out the scoring. Five players scored, and Bure didn't get his goal until 10:35 was gone in the third period and the Panthers already were leading 4-1. Bure, second in the league with 31 goals, has scored 10 times and added seven assists in his past seven games. He has 41 points in his past 21 games -- 24 goals and 17 assists. Saturday's goal extended his scoring streak to six games. Bret Hedican, Mark Parrish, Rob Niedermayer and Ryan Johnson also scored for the Panthers. ``That's why our team is doing so well,'' Niedermayer said. ``You need to have good balance. You can't let teams key on one guy or one line. It's hard for other teams to check the whole team.'' Tampa Bay has just one win in its past 13 games and just 32 points, compared to Florida's 58.
The Panthers beat the Lightning for the sixth straight time -- the third time in 20 days -- and lead the rivalry, 21-6-6. Florida has outscored But this could have been a dangerous game for the Panthers. The Lightning had just broken a 12-game winless streak, a ruinous stretch in what had seemed a promising season in October and November. Florida was coming off an important victory over Carolina on Friday night and looking ahead to a Monday game against Philadelphia. But the Panthers were not overlooking the Lightning. The score was 4-0 by the time Frederik Modin scored for Tampa in the third period after Florida's Todd Simpson was called for an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. Modin's goal blew the shutout for Mikhail Shtalenkov, who stopped 25 of 27 shots behind one of the Panthers' best defensive efforts of the season. ``Coming off [Friday] night, we were concerned about a mental letdown,'' Panthers captain Scott Mellanby said. ``One thing that happens sometimes is, because of a little lack of energy, you play better positionally. You're not all jacked up and running around all over the place.'' Tampa's Kyle Freadrich kneed Panthers center Oleg Kvasha in the right knee with 3:51 left. Kvasha skated off on one leg but is expected to be fine by Monday. Tampa Bay's Pavel Kubina, who hit Bure with a cheap shot in Florida's 6-1 win on Dec. 27, was on the ice for most of Bure's shifts. He was on the ice for the opening face-off, but Panthers coach Terry Murray put Bure out with another line. It took Kubina 26 seconds to go to the box for slashing. On the power play, Niedermayer smoked Bruce Gardiner on a face-off to get the puck back to Hedican. Hedican's wrister from the point boinged off Tampa Bay's Ian Herbers and past goalie Rich Parent. Even though Tampa Bay couldn't muster much offense in the first period, the Panthers' lead was only 1-0 entering the second period. Then, 2:44 into the second, Herbers made a mistake. He was out of position, which gave the Panthers a two-on-one with Parrish and Cam Stewart. Herbers tried to get back into the play with a diving belly slide only to have Parrish's pass bounce off his rump and past Parent for a goal. Another 2:26 later, Mellanby dropped the puck for Niedermayer on a two-on-two, then Mellanby went at Kubina and partner Petr Svoboda to give Niedermayer room. Niedermayer converted to make it 3-0 and put the game out of reach. Johnson's first goal since Oct. 9 came at 15:45 of the second period when he sent a loose puck past the high short side on Parent to make it 4-0. Tampa Bay's Mike Sillinger scored his 14th goal on a breakaway with 2:05 left. Before Long, Hart Can Be Spelled B-U-R-EBy Phil Coffey-- NHL.comSunday, January 16, 2000 How important has Pavel Bure been to the Florida Panthers? Consider that in less that a full season with the club he already is well under way to rewriting the franchise's record books. So far, Bure has 13 records - and counting - to his credit. Through 33 games this season, Bure had 29 goals and that's just three short of the club record currently shared by Ray Whitney and Scott Mellanby. Here are the other records currently held or shared by Bure: Bure has gotten the new century off to a flying start, too. Heading into weekend action, Bure already has scored eight goals and four assists in Florida's five games played in 2000. Let's face it, the guy is more than a little deserving of his berth on the World All-Stars for the Feb. 6 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. The fact that his brother, Valeri, will be a teammate makes the game very special. The Bures are the eigth set of brothers to compete in the All-Star Game. This will be Pavel's sixth All-Star appearance and the first for Valeri. "I'm really proud of my brother to make the All-Star Game for the first time," Pavel Bure said. "I think it's going to be really exciting to play together." Bure said he hopes to play on the same line with his brother. The two played together du | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
