NHL / ALL-STAR GAME NOTES : Players’ Goal: Lots More Goals

NEW YORK â€”  You won’t find a group less fond of the defensive style suddenly so pervasive in the NHL than the All-Stars--those whose speed and skill the defense-oriented teams are trying to neutralize.

Buffalo’s Alexander Mogilny: “It’s terrible.�

Quebec’s Joe Sakic: “It’s been frustrating for everybody.�

Added St. Louis’ Brett Hull: “I think the game is going backward with the defensive style teams are playing. I know guys in the stands are paying a pretty penny to watch me play. They don’t want to see me get checked or Wayne Gretzky get checked. They don’t want to see a 2-1 game. People want to see 5-5 or 6-5 in overtime.�

The goals-per-game average is at its lowest in 20 years--about 6.58 a game for both teams combined, down from 7.20 last season.

The various theories include improved goaltending, but focus mostly on the spread of the neutral-zone trap, extensive clutching and grabbing that isn’t being called and a general attempt by less-skilled teams to do anything they can to narrow the gap.

For the skilled players, frustration builds.

“(Officials) let everything go, and that’s why you see one- and two-goal games,� Mogilny said. “I don’t think that’s exciting to watch. What do you think?�

Said Sakic: “There’s such a big difference in the way everybody’s playing this year compared to last year. Everyone gets frustrated when you’re not getting chances. There’ve been a lot of games where, because you get frustrated, you try to open it up and then you turn the puck over. That’s what happens.�

Of course, there are some who think the influence of the neutral-zone trap is being over-emphasized.

“The neutral-zone trap?� Gretzky said. “Everybody’s talking about it. I still haven’t figured out what that is, though.

“You know, hey, you do what you have to do to win. All it takes to sell tickets is to win. If that’s going to work for San Jose, good for them. If that’s going to work in Florida, good for them.�

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In Friday night’s skills contests, Al Iafrate won hardest shot with a 102.7-m.p.h. slap shot, Sergei Fedorov won fastest skater, and Brendan Shanahan won most accurate shot. Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr suffered an injurd groin and his status is undetermined for the game. Patrick Roy and John Vanbiesbrouck tied in the goaltending competition. The Western Conference won the overall competition, 18-11.

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If today’s game ends in a tie, the outcome will be determined by a shootout if the standard five-minute overtime period ends with the score still deadlocked.

Score a point for Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner, one of a minority of NHL governors who strongly favor adopting shootouts and doing away with ties--and a member of a 10-man committee appointed Friday by Commissioner Gary Bettman to study the idea of implementing shootouts.