Off the Ice, Governors Skate Into Action

VANCOUVER, Canada â€”  The NHL’s Board of Governors on Saturday unanimously approved the purchase by Phoenix Coyote co-owner Richard Burke of Steven Gluckstern’s half-interest in the club. The board also unanimously approved Gluckstern’s offer to purchase the New York Islanders. That transaction is expected to be completed in two to three weeks.

In other actions, the board voted to continue the Canadian Assistance Program, which helps clubs in small-market Canadian cities compensate for the difference between Canadian and U.S. currency. Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa each received about $2.5 million last season. Also, the governors voted to donate $500,000 (Canadian) to assist victims of the recent ice storms that left millions of residents without power in Quebec and eastern Ontario.

The governors discussed how to increase scoring but deferred action until general managers meet next month in Arizona.

“This is something that we’ll continue to evaluate slowly and carefully,� Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “It may well be that we’ve gotten to the point where defense has gotten too much of an upper hand over offense and we need to turn the dial down. We’re not talking radical solutions.�

The NHL will continue to explore the idea of dividing games into four 15-minute quarters instead of three 20-minute periods. The quarter format will be used in an International Hockey League game in March at Las Vegas.

Bettman said the experiment isn’t designed to accommodate TV. “It’s more at the behest of looking at various things on an experimental basis to see if we can speed the game up,� Bettman said.

Bettman also anticipates that the Nashville Predators, who are scheduled to join the NHL next season, will sell 12,000 season tickets as stipulated as a condition for their admission. Current sales are at about 7,500.

*

Mighty Duck right wing Teemu Selanne is glad he will have another chance to play with his idol, Colorado right wing Jari Kurri, before Kurri retires at the end of this season. They are members of the world all-star team.

“There’s not enough words to say about Jari,� said Selanne, who played with Kurri in Anaheim last season. The Ducks did not re-sign Kurri.

“He’s done so much for hockey in Finland. In my generation, it’s so much easier to get into this league because of what Jari did. I was really following him when he was in Edmonton. I had pictures of him and Wayne [Gretzky] on my wall at home.�

Said Kurri of the Finns who have followed him to the NHL: “They owe me a few dinners, yeah.�

Ken Hitchcock of Dallas, who will coach the world all-stars, plans to play Selanne with fellow Finns Jere Lehtinen and Saku Koivu. He will also assemble an all-Swedish line of Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg and Daniel Alfredsson. “We want to put on a show,� Hitchock said. “The excitement of playing with their own countrymen will pick things up. That’s why you’re going to see energy at a high level.�

NHL Notes

Teemu Selanne slipped a backhander past Colorado’s Patrick Roy in a tie-breaking shootout to help the world all-stars win the breakaway relay and win the SuperSkills competition. Al MacInnis of the St. Louis Blues and the North American all-stars won the hardest-shot event for the fourth time, with a shot measured at 100.4 mph. . . . Despite reports that he is near agreement on a six-year $48-million deal, Pittsburgh right wing Jaromir Jagr said nothing is certain yet. “I don’t know what’s happening,� he said. “We still need to talk.� . . . Right wing Peter Bondra has agreed to terms of a new four-year contract with the Washington Capitals. The deal, for between $13 million and $14 million, according to the Washington Post, will replace a five-year contract Bondra signed in the fall of 1996. . . . Alexandre Daigle, who never realized his potential after the Ottawa Senators made him the top pick in the 1993 NHL draft, was acquired by the Philadelphia Flyers for center Vaclav Prospal, right wing Pat Falloon and a 1998 second-round draft pick.

Times staff writer Elliott Teaford contributed to this story.