NHL

With the beginning of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight (Channel 45, 8 o'clock), the curtain begins to come down on Fox's relationship with the NHL, and to call it tempestuous is to put it mildly.The network and the league seemed to butt heads continually during their five-year marriage, and the parting, while amicable, isn't exactly smooth.For one thing, during the course of the relationship, Fox officials were repeatedly rebuffed as they asked the league to make subtle changes to make the game more appealing to television audiences.

Spend a few minutes talking to Fox sports executives and you become convinced that, when it comes to hockey, they are fighting a game of reality vs. perception.In truth, Fox says, hockey is a great game whose ratings and demographic appeal are right on line with regular-season college basketball. In the wake of the New York Rangers' 1994 Stanley Cup win, Fox signed a five-year, $155 million contract with the NHL, in part on the theory that with its ability to market hockey, interest in the game would only grow.

Offense: The Red Wings' offense is built around the best center foursome in the NHL: Sergei Fedorov, Steve Yzerman, Igor Larionov and Kris Draper. Yzerman leads the NHL in playoff scoring with four goals, 16 assists. Lately, he has been teamed with Fedorov, second in postseason scoring with nine goals, eight assists, and power forward Brendan Shanahan. A wicked line. Larionov has 11 points and Draper, whose line produces energy more than points, has three. The Caps counter with two strong scoring lines and centers Adam Oates, Andrei Nikolishin, Mike Eagles/Esa Tikkanen and Dale Hunter.

Wayne Gretzky can't wait to play for the Canadian Olympic team in Nagano, Japan, next month. But it's not as if he's reached a lifelong goal."When we grew up, we were in a system that kind of dictated that you were going to play junior or college hockey," said Gretzky, who was born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, just outside Toronto. "Then your dream was to play in the NHL. Once you did that, it ruled the Olympics out. So I didn't grow up dreaming about it."While Gretzky concentrated on reaching the pros -- and did so by the time he was 17 -- other Canadian kids played for the national team and tried to dethrone the Soviet teams that dominated international hockey.

NAGANO, Japan -- Maybe next time, the U.S. men's ice hockey professionals should just stay home.They've certainly done their best to ruin the first Olympic tournament to include National Hockey League players, an international breakthrough for the sport.After their elimination by the Czech Republic, the Americans capped off a week of questionable conduct and embarrassing play by trashing their quarters in the Olympic Village, U.S. Olympic Committee officials said.In 1980, ABC's Al Michaels shouted, "Do you believe in miracles?"

Winter break sounds like a ski weekend. But this is more serious. This is the NHL closing down for 17 days to participate in the Winter Olympics.It is uncharted territory."

Three Japanese women sat at the Big Hat Arena, wearing Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys, waving Czech Republic flags.It's a small world, after all.One of the women held her "I Love Jaromir" sign the entire game. Another fan waved a sign that said, "Happy Birthday Jagr," in tribute to his 26th.The Japanese love their hockey, all right. They sign and clap to the "Faceoff" song played before each period. And they display stunning knowledge of the NHL players.Why are the Czechs so popular?"Their hockey style is beautiful to watch," said Ta-Keshi Fujino, who wore a white Czech jersey and a white helmet with a Czech flag on top.But the Japanese don't just adore the Czechs.

Ron Wilson's eyes are like a camera's shutter. With every blink, another hockey picture is taken.Wilson, the coach of the United States Olympic team, has spent his life prepping for this assignment.From the time he learned to skate as a toddler, to the days when he'd vacuum the Buffalo Sabres locker room and pick up tape in return for ice time when his dad was an assistant coach there, he remembers only wanting to be in hockey.His dad, Larry, and uncle, Johnny, played in the NHL and won Stanley Cups -- four total -- with the Detroit Red Wings.

NAGANO, Japan -- He's Randy Johnson in a short series, only 11 inches shorter. He's Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals, only with even less of a supporting cast, except for Jaromir Jagr playing the role of Scottie Pippen.He's Dominik Hasek, goaltender for the Czech Republic men's ice hockey team. He's "The Dominator," the most feared player in the Olympic men's hockey tournament."A goalie cannot win the game," he says. "That is impossible."Perhaps, but there is no psychological barrier in sports quite like the hot goaltender, no mountain as high, no ocean as wide, no road as impenetrable.

NAGANO, Japan -- So, after shutting down the season 16 days, lugging 125 of its top players thousands of miles and rolling the dice in a great gamble to sell the sport to the world, the NHL came up with this Final Four at the Winter Olympics:Czech Republic vs. Canada and Finland vs. Russia.But if NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is upset by the turn of events -- underscored by the embarrassing performance of Team USA -- he's not letting on."From all the empirical touch and feel data we've been accumulating, we believe this is a positive experience," Bettman said yesterday.

Defenseman Mike Green broke a tie on a power play 43 seconds into the third period, then added an empty-netter, lifting the host Washington Capitals over the Florida Panthers, 3-1, last night and giving him goals in six consecutive games. That's the longest goal streak by a defenseman in Capitals history. Green leads NHL defensemen with a career-high 19 goals and 46 points this season, despite missing 13 games. He's second in the NHL with 14 power-play scores. His tiebreaker came off assists from reigning Most Valuable Player Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, and while Panthers center Stephen Weiss was in the penalty box for holding.

Coach upset Ovechkin won't start All-Star Game nhl The Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin, the NHL's reigning Most Valuable Player and second this season in goals and points entering yesterday, finished only sixth among Eastern Conference forwards in voting for the All-Star Game - which mystified his coach. "It's dumb," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, adding, "It's not right the best player in the game is not a starter." The NHL announced the starting lineups for the midseason classic, and the host Canadiens filled four of the six slots for the Eastern Conference.

Report: Yankees to make Sabathia record offer baseball The free-agent season opened yesterday with the New York Yankees planning to give CC Sabathia a record offer for a pitcher. The Yankees formulated a proposal to the left-hander that would exceed Johan Santana's six-year, $137.5 million contract with the New York Mets in total and average, a baseball official familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press. Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner confirmed last night at the team's spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., that an offer was made to Sabathia and that proposals will be forthcoming for pitchers A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe.

The Milwaukee Bucks traded forwards Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to the New Jersey Nets for forward Richard Jefferson yesterday. Milwaukee has been looking to rid itself of several bloated contracts and decided it was worth trading the rookie whom former general manager Larry Harris selected with the No. 6 pick last year along with the rest of Simmons' contract. Simmons has two years and a little more than $20 million left on his deal. Jefferson, the second leading scorer in Nets history, averaged 22.6 points last season and has three years and more than $42 million left on his contract.

The NHL is threatening to kick the owners of the New York Rangers out of the league or force them to sell the team as punishment for accusing league officials of violating antitrust laws. The NHL filed court papers Wednesday that included a draft letter from commissioner Gary Bettman proposing discipline against Madison Square Garden L.P. that could lead to suspension or termination of its ownership of the Rangers. The Garden responded by accusing the NHL of using "bullying tactics." In its court filing, the NHL asked a judge to agree Madison Square Garden breached its contract by challenging league rules.

The reckless abandon with which Alex Ovechkin dominates the NHL has turned Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau into a praying man. But as Ovechkin finishes one of the most remarkable seasons in a decade -- and as his team closes in on a playoff berth -- Boudreau is setting aside concerns that the 22-year-old Russian's bruising brand of hockey will lead to serious injury. Rein him in? Not a chance. "We pray," Boudreau said of how his coaching staff reacts to Ovechkin's risky, all-out style.

Monday night, Ovechkin recorded a hat trick to break out of a scoring slump in which he had one goal in the previous eight games. The offensive outburst raised the left wing's goal total for 2007-08 to 52, making him the first player to reach 50 in the NHL this season. (It is the second time he has achieved that milestone in his three-season NHL career). And with 15 games remaining, he has a chance to be the first to reach 60 in more than a decade. The last two players with that many goals in a season were Lemieux, with 69, and Jaromir Jagr, with 62, in 1995-96 for the Penguins.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. --To his coach and teammates, Chris Simon isn't the stick-swinging, skate-stomping fiend outsiders view him as. To the NHL, he is an out-of-control enforcer who keeps pushing the league to never-before-seen heights of discipline. The New York Islanders forward, who spent seven seasons with the Capitals, was hit with a 30-game suspension yesterday, breaking the mark of 25 he set in March with a ban that stretched into this season. Simon, on a leave of absence from the team after the Saturday night dustup with the Pittsburgh Penguins' Jarkko Ruutu, will miss more than a third of the season and can't return until Feb. 21 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I think the "never people" are shortsighted, all wet and past their prime. The never people are the ones who enjoy saying "never." They construct sentences around the word and connect it frequently to Baltimore: Baltimore will never this and never that. Baltimore will never have an NBA team or an NHL team, or a population of 850,000 again. I don't have much time for never people anymore. They're decent people, a lot of them, but they're just not much fun, and I think they suffer from some kind of weird inferiority thing that can be contagious.

Baseball CARDINALS -- Agreed to one-year contract with IF Cesar Izturis. NATIONALS -- Traded C Brian Schneider and OF Ryan Church to Mets for OF Lastings Milledge. PIRATES -- Named Lou Frazier first base coach. RAYS -- Agreed to two-year contract with P Troy Percival. ROCKIES -- Agreed to terms with P Matt Herges. TIGERS -- Agreed to one-year contracts with P Kenny Rogers and P Francisco Cruceta. Designated 1B Chris Shelton and OF Timo Perez for assignment. Colleges OKLAHOMA STATE -- Signed football coach Mike Gundy to one-year contract extension through 2013.