Red Wings' offense is getting scary again

No rose

garden

If the season had ended last weekend, the Kings would miss the playoffs after making it to the finals last spring.

At the start of a four-game road losing streak, Coach Barry Melrose said, "There are some players who aren't hustling, and they're weeding themselves out. This team will be different. It just takes time to make all the changes."

But no one seems to want center Jimmy Carson and his three-year, $3.3-million contract, and the Kings' trades of Paul Coffey to Detroit, Bob Kudelski to Ottawa, Corey Millen to New Jersey and Marty McSorley to Pittsburgh have backfired.

Icy bits

Quebec General Manager Pierre Page has to be a busy guy these days. Despite Washington G.M. David Poile's asking, Page is denying interest in trading center Joe Sakic to Washington for defenseman Kevin Hatcher. That is because Page still has his eyes on Edmonton defenseman Dave Manson, who just returned to the Oilers' lineup after missing six weeks because of an injury. Page would like to trade defenseman Steve Duchesne and left wing Valeri Kamensky. Both would be of interest to the Offers, but they make much more than Owner Peter Pocklington and his last-place team would agree to. But the Oilers have taken on players with big tickets such as Vincent Damphousse and Shayne Corson on the condition that their previous teams pick up more than half of their salaries. And with the Oilers having the worst record in the NHL, don't be surprised to see Pocklington pull off a big deal with those same kinds of conditions.

Dale Hunter's importance to the Capitals? It took him only 19 seconds last Friday to get his first point of the season.... Here's a strange one: The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are 2-10-2 in California and 6-5 elsewhere in North America.... And how about those Sharks? San Jose already has equaled its 24 points from last season. And its 5-8-1 road record and 11 points are just four points short of what they had on the road in their first two seasons combined. ... Without Pat LaFontaine, sidelined for the remainder of the season, the Sabres are talking to Vancouver about holdout center Petr Nedved. . . . Give the jets the edge over Florida in the Stu Barnes-for-Randy Gilhen trade. The Jets need some role-playing, two-way forwards to complement their finesse players. Gilhen will be a more productive third-line center than Barnes was for them. . . . And the Flyers made a good move in acquiring veteran defenseman Rob Ramage from Montreal for a draft choice. Ramage's leadership, in fact, is worth a couple of draft choices. ... Fighting majors went up from 1.5 per game to 2.4 in the first two weeks without the regular referees and linesmen. The NHL and the NHL Officials Association have agreed to the league's 29 percent increase in salary, meaning it's time for both sides to give a little more this week before another star player gets knocked out of the lineup with an injury

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