If It’s Bye-Bye Bure, Canucks Won’t Cry

VANCOUVER, Canada —  At last report, Pavel Bure was in Moscow. Maybe he’s waiting for the Russian ruble to stabilize--or for the Vancouver Canucks to grant his trade wish. In either case, he’s in for a long wait.

“People ask me where he is, and I say I don’t know and I don’t care,” said Brian Burke, the Canucks’ first-year general manager. “But payday starts today and he won’t be getting those checks.”

Bure, who was suspended by the Canucks for refusing to report to camp and has demanded a trade, will miss his $8 million more than the Canucks will miss him. Or so they said Monday, after they began the season with a 4-2 victory over the Kings before a crowd that filled only about two-thirds of GM Place.

“We have to put him out of our minds,” center Peter Zezel said. “Obviously, Pavel is a great hockey player and he has his responsibility to himself, which he’s taking care of. But Mike [Keenan, the Canucks’ coach] wanted us to eliminate from our minds what’s going to happen with Pavel, and Brian Burke said the same thing, that we have to play through it.

“Whether the trade comes sooner or later, it’s up to us in this room to win hockey games.”

They won Monday by playing a scrappy, tenacious style. They have to. They can’t wait for Bure, who has scored more than 50 goals three times, to cruise up the right wing and rifle a shot past a helpless goalie. “We’re a bunch of junkyard dogs,” center Dave Scatchard said. “Without one guy like Pavel, who scores 60, we can get two or three guys who each score 15 or 20. Management would like to have three or four guys going, instead of just one.”

And to think Burke left a comfortable job as the NHL’s chief disciplinarian for the headache of dealing with Bure and the problems of turning around a team that last season finished last in the Western Conference and 24th overall and lost 15% of its 12,000 season-ticket holders. A team coached by Keenan, who has never hesitated to stab a general manager in the back.

“Teams that don’t have problems don’t bring in new GMs,” Burke said. “You know you’re taking on a leaky ship. I told ownership when I signed a three-year deal that I was in it for the long-term process, not a quick fix. Am I a patient person? No. But I can be when I have to be.

“I work with Mike the same way I worked with Paul Holmgren [when Burke was general manager of the Hartford Whalers and Holmgren was the coach]. We have a shared philosophy about how the game is played and the type of players we want. We despise the trap and we like physical hockey. Everything has been terrific so far. I know we haven’t lost any games yet, but people who were expecting us to have a blowup are probably disappointed.”

Hey, it’s early. But for Bure, it might be too late.

NO GOLD IN THESE OLDIES

Esa Tikkanen, 33, is skating on the left side of 37-year-old Wayne Gretzky for the New York Rangers after making the team as a training-camp invitee. Which is either a tribute to Tikkanen’s resilience after a horrible season--he had three goals in 48 games with Florida and Washington--or a sad commentary on the Rangers, who apparently can’t come up with anyone better for their first line.

After signing Tikkanen to a $1.5-million deal with a mutual option for next season, the Rangers waived Kevin Stevens. Predictably, given Stevens’ lack of production and the $6 million or so he’s owed the next two seasons, no one claimed him.

Coach John Muckler has little to work with on a team that’s slow, small and old. He has separated longtime defense partners Brian Leetch and Jeff Beukeboom, hoping Leetch will bounce back from being an astounding minus-36 last season and has experimented with moving left wing Adam Graves to center because he’s so desperate for a second-line center. But nothing went right in the first weekend, a 1-0 loss to Philadelphia and a 7-1 collapse at Montreal. And it’s not likely to get a whole lot better.

WHERE’S THE SUSPENSE?

The NHL hopes new rules will improve the flow of games and make for a more attractive show that will highlight players’ skills. But there’s another reason officials hope scoring increases: They want to create drama.

Last season, teams that trailed after two periods could just about pack their skates and go home. The cumulative record of teams that trailed before the third period was 56-688-98, meaning the trailing team rallied to win only 6.7% of the time. With so few goals scored, a one-goal lead was often prohibitive.

“That’s a tough way to present it,” said Colin Campbell, the NHL’s new senior vice president for hockey operations. “Hopefully, there will be a little bit of a difference this year. You don’t want to feel doomed if you don’t score the first goal or if you’re losing, particularly going into the third period.”

HE’S HOT WHEN IT’S COLD

A surprise snowstorm last Friday snarled traffic in Edmonton, but goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov loved every flake.

“It’s hockey weather and a hockey town,” he said. “I’m pretty happy to be here.”

Shtalenkov took a circuitous route there. Left unprotected by the Mighty Ducks in the expansion draft, he was chosen by the Nashville Predators and was settling into Music City when the Predators traded him to the Oilers in a five-player deal Oct. 1. He was settling into a spot on the bench in Edmonton’s opener against the Kings last Saturday when Bob Essensa suffered an ankle injury, thrusting Shtalenkov into action.

“The situation he was put in, ice cold, I asked if he needed a warmup,’ Coach Ron Low said. “He said, ‘I’m always warm.’ ”

Shtalenkov is used to having a hot hand as an understudy. He replaced Guy Hebert in Game 2 of the Ducks’ playoff series against Detroit in 1997 and made 38 saves in a game that went into triple overtime. He made 44 saves in Game 3 and 69 in Game 4 of that series; he pulled off several spectacular saves among the 22 he made in Edmonton’s 2-1 loss to the Kings.

“You can’t train yourself for a situation like this,” said Shtalenkov, who will start the next few games while Essensa’s ankle heals. “You just go on the ice and try to do your best. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Of course, I wanted to play well. It’s a new team and they don’t know me.

“I’m glad to be here. It’s a good, young team, a very talented team. They have a good future and a great bunch of guys and a real good atmosphere.”

SLAP SHOTS

Trevor Linden was unhappy with the New York Islanders’ $2.5-million offer--the same as last season--but signed because he wanted to play. He gets a $250,000 bonus if he scores 30 goals. . . . Islander winger Ziggy Palffy wants $6.8 million a year and management is offering $4.3 million. He asked to be traded. . . . New Jersey defenseman Scott Niedermayer also wants out. The restricted free agent cut his asking price to $7.25 million over two years, which on average would pay him less than teammates Scott Stevens and Martin Brodeur, but General Manager Lou Lamoriello won’t budge. A year ago, Bill Guerin missed a chunk of the season before losing a battle with Lamoriello and was traded to Edmonton soon after he signed.

Brothers and NHL alumni Neal, Aaron and Paul Broten will play for the U.S. in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world championship qualifying tournament next month in Klagenfurt, Austria. Also on the team is Mark Johnson, who played with Neal Broten on the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team at Lake Placid in 1980. Eight teams will try to make the A pool--the elite level--for the 1999 world tournament in Norway, which will determine the seedings for the 2002 Olympics at Salt Lake City. The U.S. must requalify for the A pool because it finished 12th in this year’s world tournament. Coach of the U.S. entry in Austria will be Ben Smith, who coached the U.S. women’s team to the gold medal at Nagano.

A decision is likely by the end of this year on whether NHL players will again play in the Olympics. Commissioner Gary Bettman has talked to NBC about its planned coverage, hoping for prime-time exposure. Scant coverage from Nagano soured many NHL players and executives on the Olympic experiment. . . . A repeat of last season’s North America vs. the World format for the All-Star game seems likely. The game will be Jan. 24 at Tampa. . . . Referee Paul Stewart, who underwent surgery for colon cancer a few months ago, got clearance to return to work. He will skate his way into shape in the minor leagues.