Hockey

Wayne Gretzky had Dave Semenko beside him to discourage foolhardy souls from taking cheap shots at him. NHL scoring leader Sidney Crosby got a personal protector Tuesday when the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Georges Laraque, the league's consensus heavyweight champion. Although the NHL is building its future around talented kids such as Crosby and teammate Evgeni Malkin, several deadline-day trades proved that enforcers still have high value.

The NHL missed a great marketing opportunity when it suspended New York Islanders henchman Chris Simon for playing T-ball with the chin of New York Rangers enforcer Ryan Hollweg. The league ordered Simon to sit out a minimum of 25 games, a sentence that will carry over to next season if the Islanders exit the playoffs quickly.

Ales Kotalik and the Buffalo Sabres provided an answer to anyone questioning whether they are the elite team in the NHL. It's a response that came through loud and clear Wednesday night in a 5-2 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. "I think we showed everybody we were ready," Kotalik said. "A lot of things were said before the game, and we made sure we showed to respond not in the paper but on the ice."

Former NHL player Rick Tocchet pleaded guilty Friday to running a sports gambling ring, but might not have to serve jail time. Tocchet, who played for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, the Kings, Boston, Washington and Phoenix in a career that spanned 22 seasons, is on leave from his job as an assistant coach for the Phoenix Coyotes. He pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to promote gambling and promoting gambling. Such offenses usually do not carry a jail sentence for first-time offenders.

A Los Angeles-area hockey team is playing for the Stanley Cup and our founding father in such things is looking on, certainly with great interest, from the afterlife. Whether Jack Kent Cooke is watching from above or below, however, is another issue. Most of those who worked for him in the golden days of the Fabulous Forum would probably check the "below" box, but with a smile for the memories.

There is something not quite right about Don Cherry. It's not his trademark visage -- a pugnacious mug that sprouts from one of his outrageous pink-flowered sport coats and beckons: "Go ahead, take a swing. I dare you." It's not his oft-uttered proclamation: "I'm a redneck." And it's not his matter-of-fact self-analysis: "I can go a little insane sometimes with guys who cross me."

LONDON -- History will be made here today. The Ducks will take to the ice for the first time as the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Kings will launch the career of a 19-year-old goaltender who is so good he may be beyond their time-tested ability to ruin young netminders.

Amusement park rides aren't nearly as scary as the upper reaches of Pengrowth Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames, which is why news that the team's goal judges would be stationed in the thin air of the catwalk sounded like a bad joke. So, Pluto was unavailable? Maybe they're planning on playing U2's "Vertigo" when a goal is scored. And just an idle thought, will these goal judges be given high-powered binoculars along with their official blazers at Thursday's home opener?

Rod Gunn had insisted that all three of his children play a sport, but he was stunned when his eldest child, Chanda, found her new athletic calling at age 14. "For the first week I walked around muttering to myself, 'My daughter is a goaltender,' " he said. "I didn't try to stop her. At the time, it was somewhat of a blessing. She had always been active and her mother had taken swimming away from her because of the epilepsy."

Two old friends, a generation and a continent apart, crossed paths Thursday, when Luc Robitaille first tied, then broke Marcel Dionne's King career record of 550 goals. Dionne sent Robitaille on that quest in 1986, feeding the then-20-year old rookie for a goal seconds into his NHL and Kings' career. A little more than 20 years later, Robitaille passed Dionne by doing what he does best: finding room to work.