Jari Kurri

Goaltender Robb Stauber has lived with the memory of the Winnipeg Jets for 2 1/2 years. He saw lots of those red, white and blue uniforms swarming during that game--and red lights, too--while giving up three goals during the first four minutes in an inauspicious NHL debut for the Kings in March of 1990. Rogie Vachon, then the general manager, saw red, too, outraged at the lack of support in front of Stauber.

When Tony Granato was a young TV viewer, he would watch Wayne Gretzky in awe and tell anyone who would listen: " I could score goals skating on his line." General Manager Glen Sather of the Edmonton Oilers once said: "A fire hydrant could score 40 goals on Gretzky's line." Who couldn't? Several players, as it turned out. Skating with the Great One, it seems, is one thing. Supplying some greatness of your own is quite another.

'Tis the season for trade winds. They seem to blow around the NHL constantly, but never more so than now, in the week before next Tuesday's trading deadline. Be assured, everybody is talking deals. Newspapers in every league city are filled with possibilities. The problem is, many of those potential deals that appear in print never happen. And some come as news to everybody, including the clubs supposedly involved. Where do these notions get started?

For converted King center Jari Kurri, it wasn't a textbook goal by any means. But his 500th NHL goal was a vintage Kurri trademark, at least in one sense. Kurri's defensive skills led to his ascension into the NHL's most-exclusive offensive club. After a faceoff in his own zone, Kurri stole the puck from Boston defenseman Ray Bourque and outraced Bourque and another Bruin defender down the left wing and lofted a wrist shot about 30 feet into the net. An empty net.

Jari Kurri may be the most underrated player in hockey. No matter what he does, and lately he has done plenty, Kurri, a right wing for the defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers, can't seem to skate out of the massive shadow cast by Wayne Gretzky, his linemate and star center. Wherever you go in Edmonton, or other parts of Canada for that matter, Gretzky's face is smiling down at you from a billboard, selling everything from insurance to cameras.

Jari Kurri, a step slower and no longer in the Mighty Ducks' plans, signed Friday with the Colorado Avalanche as a free agent. His one-year contract is worth $1.2 million. "He did a decent job for us, but we're trying to do some other things and he couldn't wait," Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira said. Meanwhile, the Ducks' interest in Don Hay apparently has been rekindled. Hay is expected to soon be hired as an assistant coach.

It had been widely predicted that the departure of Wayne Gretzky would be felt by Jari Kurri more than by any other Edmonton Oiler player. Most of his career, Kurri had played on the same line as Gretzky. There were doubts that Kurri, considered mainly a shooter, could remain a star without help from the team's leading player. Suddenly, left on his own, Kurri has become the Oilers' best playmaker.

Jari Kurri scored a short-handed goal to spark a 3-goal second period, then added an empty-net goal to snuff out a Vancouver comeback, giving the Edmonton Oilers a 4-2 victory over the Canucks Wednesday night at Edmonton, Canada. The Oilers' win was their first point in 3 games against Vancouver this season and halted the Canucks' 6-game unbeaten streak.

One by one, the Mighty Ducks filed down the runway from their dressing room and onto the Pond ice for the first Stanley Cup playoff game in their four-season history. Center Steve Rucchin was not among them. Back spasms sidelined Rucchin, the team's third-leading scorer, for Game 1 of the Ducks' first-round series against the Phoenix Coyotes.