Midseason Funk Due To Lack Of Goals

The NHL season has reached the halfway mark.

There have been four scoreless games in the NHL this season, and it’s only January. The NHL has been fighting dullness allegations for months.

Forty-one games into the season, here’s what we have learned about the NHL’s lack of sizzle:

Blame it on parity.

More teams have fewer superstars and more mediocre players. More teams resemble one another, play similar styles, play not to win, but rather, not to lose. Mario Lemieux is gone. Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier are old.

Offensive superstars are expensive. Checking forwards are not. It’s easier to build and pay a team by acquiring players who shut down scoring stars than to identify, draft, develop and pay those stars.

Blame it on defense.

Only a few teams - Dallas, New Jersey, Washington - have superb defensive teams. But most teams play well defensively, thanks to the dreaded neutral-zone trap.

Teams play a simple style, designed to clog the neutral zone and, once in their own end, to clog the center of the ice. Defenses push opponents to the perimeter and to the boards, where scoring is difficult.

The teams that can beat the ugly defenses out there must be willing to pay the price and take the punishment to score goals in front.

Blame it on the in-the-crease rule.

Even when teams fight their way to the net, they often are punished for doing so. So much as a toe in the crease has voided goals. The league must fix this problem.

Blame it on goaltending.

Let’s face it, goaltending is good. Goalies are bigger, quicker and more athletic than ever. And there are plenty of them. Look at New Jersey, which has All-Star Martin Brodeur and Mike Dunham, a backup who would start on many other teams.

And, finally, blame it on a compressed schedule.

Because the league is shutting down for two weeks for the Olympic break, teams play too many games without enough days off.

Buffalo now bullish on Hasek

Buffalo forward Mike Peca isn’t surprised by the dramatic turnaround of goaltender Dominik Hasek, who pulled off a rare feat with six shutouts in December.

“We’ve been playing fairly decently in front of him,” Peca says. “If we get goals early in the game and show him that we’re going to work, he’s going to get that much better. That’s why we’ve always stressed getting off to good starts.”

Peca says Hasek is “really talking a lot more, communicating on the ice. He’s smiling a lot more around the rink.”

Small wonder. Hasek has been hearing cheers lately at home, quite a difference from his early season start when he was booed.

Sergei who?

First Vladimir Konstantinov was seriously injured in a June limousine accident, and then Sergei Fedorov’s salary demands shot through the roof. Coming off their first Stanley Cup since 1955, the Detroit Red Wings faced a season full of questions without their best defenseman and one of their best forwards.

Their reply? The Stanley Cup champs have the second-best record (25-10-8) in the league.

“The players they have there have taken pride in their team, and they want to continue to do things the right way without those guys,” Chicago coach Craig Hartsburg said. “They’re playing with a purpose and a commitment to each other. They have guys who want to play for each other. That’s why they’ve accomplished so much over the last couple of years.”

It appears as if they’ll keep on beating teams without Fedorov, who reportedly is asking for $6.5 million a season. Los Angeles, Florida, the Rangers, the Islanders and Washington have been frequent callers to Detroit general manager Ken Holland. But if the right offer doesn’t jump out at Holland, the organization is prepared to let Fedorov sit out the season.

“The team’s not going to fold if (Fedorov) is not here,” coach Scotty Bowman said.

On the ice

Wayne Gretzky scored his second goal of the game with 22 seconds left in the third period as the New York Rangers rallied to defeat the Washington Capitals 3-2 Saturday night in Washington.

At Pittsburgh, Valeri Kamensky’s third goal of the game at 3:04 of overtime gave Colorado a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins and extended the Avalanche’s unbeaten streak to 11 games.

At Boston, Anson Carter scored a second-period goal to end Boston’s scoring drought and Byron Dafoe stopped 23 shots for his fifth shutout of the season to lift the Bruins to a 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks.