Eric Messier

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Eric Messier broke his left elbow Saturday against the Ottawa Senators and is expected to be out three months. * After playing two games between the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks in Tokyo over the weekend, the NHL plans to review its commitment before staging any more games in Japan. From jet lag, the costs, the attendance and the ice, the NHL has had more than its share of complaints.

Every year, it's the same thing. The NHL's big-name players get the media hype before the playoffs begin, but once the games start, it's usually role players who step up with the big plays. This story line held true again in the Kings' 4-3 loss to Colorado in Game 1 of their first-round series against Colorado on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center. Peter Forsberg had two assists, Joe Sakic scored a goal and Patrick Roy finished with 26 saves, but Colorado's hero was often-overlooked defenseman Greg de Vries.

Left wing Eric Messier is not the best player in the Stanley Cup finals. He has scored only two goals and four points in 19 playoff games for the Colorado Avalanche. But Messier is the only player for the Avalanche or its opponent, the New Jersey Devils, discovered in a roller hockey league. And that makes him unique among a stable of all-stars and future Hall of Famers playing in this best-of-seven series.

Left wing Eric Messier is not the best player in the Stanley Cup finals. He has scored only two goals and four points in 19 playoff games for the Colorado Avalanche. But Messier is the only player for the Avalanche or its opponent, the New Jersey Devils, discovered in a roller hockey league. And that makes him unique among a stable of all-stars and future Hall of Famers playing in this best-of-seven series.

Every year, it's the same thing. The NHL's big-name players get the media hype before the playoffs begin, but once the games start, it's usually role players who step up with the big plays. This story line held true again in the Kings' 4-3 loss to Colorado in Game 1 of their first-round series against Colorado on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center. Peter Forsberg had two assists, Joe Sakic scored a goal and Patrick Roy finished with 26 saves, but Colorado's hero was often-overlooked defenseman Greg de Vries.

Eric Messier scored two early goals Sunday night in Denver to help the Colorado Avalanche gain a 3-3 tie with the Minnesota Wild. Colorado outshot the Wild, 45-16, but failed to gain ground on Minnesota, the Northwest Division leader. The Wild have an NHL-high 14 points to Colorado's 10. In the third period, Minnesota's Pascal Dupuis beat Patrick Roy on a breakaway at 11:35. Antti Laaksonen scored on a rebound of Willie Mitchell's shot from the slot at 14:50.

The Mighty Ducks were the third-worst team against the power play last season and aren't doing much better this season. They were two for 13 with a man advantage in an 8-5 loss to the Colorado Avalanche Saturday night at Denver. It was the third loss in a row for the Ducks (1-4-0), who got three goals from Teemu Selanne. Selanne scored two goals in the first period, the second one coming on the power play at 18:11 to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead.

Ziggy Palffy had just returned from a New Year's Eve dinner when the call came to catch a plane to report for duty. "Vacation is over," Palffy said Monday after sweating through his first workout with the Kings since suffering a hamstring pull Dec. 16. "Actually, this is good. It's been two weeks. It's supposed to be three to four weeks with this injury." Palffy has actually been back on the ice for about a week, skating at HealthSouth Training Center at El Segundo.

Colorado's Claude Lemieux figured he settled an old score Tuesday night. Lemieux started fighting Detroit's Darren McCarty only three seconds into the game, then reserve goalie Craig Billington stopped all 32 shots he faced to lift the visiting Avalanche to a 2-0 victory over the Red Wings. Rene Corbet and Eric Messier scored third-period goals as Colorado won the first meeting of the season between the last two Stanley Cup champions.

Andrei Nikolishin and Jeff Halpern scored on consecutive shots at the end of the second period and the Capitals defeated the New York Islanders, 3-2, Tuesday at Washington. The victory increased the NHL's longest head-to-head unbeaten streak to 21 games. The Islanders haven't defeated the Capitals since March 2, 1997, going 0-18-3 over the span. Sergei Gonchar scored for the Capitals, who won for only the second time in seven games. Gonchar leads NHL defensemen with 14 goals and 39 points.

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Eric Messier broke his left elbow Saturday against the Ottawa Senators and is expected to be out three months. * After playing two games between the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks in Tokyo over the weekend, the NHL plans to review its commitment before staging any more games in Japan. From jet lag, the costs, the attendance and the ice, the NHL has had more than its share of complaints.

Eric Daze and Jon Klemm each had a goal and two assists as the Chicago Blackhawks extended their unbeaten streak to six games with a 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday at Chicago. Kyle Calder and Alex Zhamnov also scored for Chicago, which improved to 4-0-1 at home. Patrick Marleau and Todd Harvey scored in the third period for San Jose, which has won one of its last six.

They threw slap shots, backhanders and rebounds at Dominik Hasek, and even took a shot after the goalie lost his stick. But nothing got through in the third period, and Hasek's 13 saves in the frame helped preserve the Detroit Red Wings' 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night at Denver. The Red Wings raised their NHL-best point total to 82.