Senators Are Holding Firm With Yashin

Losing their last two games won’t melt the Ottawa Senators’ resolve against yielding to center Alexei Yashin’s demand for a new contract. Yashin, who ranked sixth in scoring last season with 94 points, has refused to honor the final year of his contract and is working out in Switzerland.

A dispute is brewing over whether Yashin will remain under contract to the Senators if he misses the entire season, with the NHL strongly backing the club and the NHL Players Assn. supporting Yashin.

“Next year, we had budgeted a substantial raise for Alexei Yashin,” said Roy Mlakar, the Senators’ president and chief executive officer and a former King executive. “Not this year. His contract is over next year. I sent a memo to Mark Gandler [Yashin’s agent] to hold a great farewell party when he’s 31 [and can be an unrestricted free agent]. He picked the wrong owner and the wrong team. . . .

“I’ve had great conversations with his agent. The fact is, in the U.S. and Canada, we honor a contract. In Russia, maybe they don’t. We do. And we budget what our expenses are. I never planned on Alexei making a penny more than what he is due this season. With Wade Redden and Magnus Arvedson, you budget what it takes to sign them because they were Group 2 free agents. Alexei is under contract. That’s what his contract is. I can’t change it.”

The Senators’ payroll was about $22 million last season. It was projected to grow to $24 million, including Yashin’s $3.6 million. Letting him sit is more a matter of principle than economics, but the Senators are mindful of their expenses.

“We were 13th in gross revenues last season and third in suites, with 141 a year. We’re not a small market. We do what we do,” Mlakar said. “We doubled Magnus’ salary and Wade’s salary. We’ve doubled other players’ salaries. Radek Bonk got a 50% increase. But as close as I am to Lance Pitlick, when Lance got an offer from Florida, I told him, ‘God bless you.’ He made $475,000 with us and he got close to $2 million from Florida. We’ll play [rookie] Patrick Traverse.”

The Senators are a terrific success story, having climbed from the dregs to post the NHL’s third-best record last season. But no mention of them can avoid a discussion of economics, which may lead them south of the border.

The Canadian government has been reluctant to ease tax burdens of the NHL’s Canadian teams, and Senator owner Rod Bryden has said he might sell his club to American interests if he gets no relief. Last week, Canadian teams’ hopes of deriving money from betting on NHL games were dashed by Ontario Premier Mike Haris. Mlakar said the Senators and their compatriots don’t want favors, but merely the same treatment other Canadian industries get.

“Mr. Bryden said, ‘I would not move the team until I’m sure we can’t have tax fairness. Not a subsidy. Not equality, but fairness,’ ” Mlakar said. “If Nortel, which is building a high-tech facility in Napean [near Ottawa] was told it had to pay $28 million for a highway offramp [as the Senators did], they’d go to Baltimore.

“The Ottawa Senators are the No. 1 team in points earned per dollar paid and my good friend John Muckler [coach of the Rangers] is last. We spent $222,000 per point earned and made the playoffs two years in a row at less than half the New York Rangers’ payroll. That’s how you judge a business, by what it made, what you paid and where it finished. By that measure the Ottawa Senators are No. 1.”

HOMEY OR HOMELY?

Staples Center will feature all the luxuries any team could want. But will the Kings’ new arena truly be home, sweet home?

As they prepare for their home debut Wednesday, the Kings might consider the sorry home records of some other NHL teams that have moved to arenas with luxury suites:

* Since leaving Chicago Stadium for the United Center, the Blackhawks have had two losing home seasons--their first since 1957-58--and missed the playoffs the last two seasons. That ended a 28-year playoff streak.

* The Montreal Canadiens haven’t been the same since they left the Forum for the Molson Centre. Once dominant on home ice, they’re 59-56-22 since moving and haven’t advanced past the second round of the playoffs.

* The Boston Bruins were 14-20-7 at the FleetCenter in 1996-97, their first sub.-500 home record since 1966-67. Overall they’re 77-61-29, but they play before seas of empty seats.

* The Philadelphia Flyers are 69-35-23 during the regular season at the First Union Center, but they have won only one home playoff game each of last two seasons.

* The St. Louis Blues were 18-17-6 at the Kiel Center last season and have had two sub-.500 home seasons since moving in for the 1994-95 season.

The standardization of rinks is a key reason home ice is no longer a big advantage. The ice was shorter than the regulation 200 feet in Buffalo, Chicago and Boston, and the neutral zone was small, leaving those teams to mold their rosters accordingly. And the Molson Centre doesn’t inspire the same awe among visitors as the Forum did; it’s bland and could be anywhere in North America.

NHL home teams’ winning percentage fell from .605 in 1991-92 to .536 in 1997-98, before rising last season to .543. But home ice was no advantage at all in the playoffs. Home teams have gone from a .635 winning percentage in 1989-90 to .488 last season.

DOING HIS TIME

Some friends of former King owner Bruce McNall, serving a 70-month sentence for two counts of bank fraud, one of wire fraud and one of conspiracy after defrauding financial institutions of $236 million, say he has told them his sentence has been greatly reduced and he will be released in little more than a year.

However, his attorney, Tom Pollack, said the most McNall’s sentence can be cut is 15%, or 10 1/2 months. McNall entered prison on March 10, 1997, and even a 15% reduction would keep him there until February, 2002.

“I don’t know where they’re getting that from,” Pollack said.

Pollack confirmed that McNall has been moved from Lompoc, Calif., to a higher-security facility in Safford, Ariz. After his release, McNall faces five years’ probation and must repay several banks $5 million.

HABS AND HAB NOTS

How low have the Canadiens sunk? Low enough for the Montreal Gazette to list 50 signs the Canadiens are in trouble. The best:

* The coach keeps asking the stick boy if he’s ever played in nets before.

* NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman inadvertently announces league plans to expand to Montreal.

* Old Forum ghosts, apparently ghost-busted from the Molson Centre by blaring music, were last seen heading back to the old Forum.

* The Molson Centre Zamboni driver is offered a $50 bonus for every player he runs over.

SLAP SHOTS

Colorado center Peter Forsberg resumed skating after undergoing shoulder surgery, but he’s not allowed physical contact. . . . After the Maple Leafs lost Mats Sundin for six weeks because of a broken ankle, they looked at unsigned forwards Dmitri Khristich, Keith Primeau and Robert Reichel. But Reichel signed a two-year contract with Litvinov in the Czech Republic, Primeau would cost more than $5 million a year, and Khristich has been knocked as selfish and lacking intensity.

According to the Boston Globe, unsigned restricted free-agent Byron Dafoe reduced his salary request to $9.35 million over three years, asking for bigger bonuses, but the Bruins responded by rescinding their previous offer and reverting to their initial offer of $3 million a year, plus some bonuses. . . . Thirteen of the first 15 overtime games this season stayed tied, but two of the next six were decided in overtime. Overall, four of 21 games tied after 60 minutes have been decided. Last season, through the same number of games, one of 16 was decided in overtime.

Jaromir Jagr has changed his way of celebrating when he scores.Instead of his old military-style salute, he has adopted a Sammy Sosa-like move of kissing his fingertips, pointing to his chest and then to the crowd. . . . San Jose goalie Steve Shields stopped 86 of 87 shots in victories at Dallas and Nashville last week, and made 35 saves in shutting out the Stars. . . . Flyer owner Ed Snider gave Coach Roger Neilson a vote of confidence, despite the team’s horrible start, which took a turn for the better Sunday with a 5-2 victory over Buffalo. Snider said his opinion counts less than that of General Manager Bob Clarke--but there’s reason to wonder if his fingers and toes were crossed when he uttered that.

The Sabres held a players-only meeting after losing at Philadelphia on Sunday. They’ve lost the drive that carried them to the finals last spring--and they lost center Brian Holzinger to a shoulder separation too.