WESTERN CONFERENCE

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Brett Hull (L) of the Detroit Red Wings laughs out loud as Head Coach Scotty Bowman looks on during a team practice before the game against the Detroit Red Wings at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado on May 24, 2002.

Photograph by : Getty Images

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Sergei spouts off

Scotty Bowman was scratching his head over Sergei Fedorov's comments to a Russian publication that indicated his Wings teammates were jealous of him and that Bowman didn't want to play The Russian Five (Igor Larionov, Slava Kozlov, Viacheslav Fetisov and Vladimir Konstantinov) all that much. Things get lost in the translation often in those Russian papers, but Bowman was still a little taken aback.

"When we put the Russian Five together, Sergei was actually opposed to it," said Bowman. "I don't know if he was jealous of Larionov, but he made Igor play right-wing and he was a small guy. Sergei wanted to play centre. I used to plead with Sergei, 'you're a big, strong guy who has to play on the wing.' He said 'no.' ''

Bowman always knew how good the Russian Five were, but he watched their ice time.

"They played such a different style ... they were so amazing that all of sudden (defenceman) Konstantinov would be going in on a breakaway. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want the other team ganging up on them so I'd only use them as my trump card in the games, only when I had to. I used them in the third period. But I never told the players that."

Bowman also chuckled at Fedorov saying he'd treated him differently than a North American.

"When we were in, say, Phoenix, I'd let him miss practice to go and see Anna Kournikova because it was getting serious," said Bowman, who also thought he gave him lots of work. "His father would look at his ice and if he didn't get 20 minutes, well (he was upset) ... so one year I said 'OK, if you want to play more, Sergei, why don't you try defence?' I talked to Wayne Gretzky about that six or seven years ago and he said to me, 'I couldn't play forward and defence. Mario couldn't do it. Jagr couldn't play defence. But Sergei could. He was a hell of a player.' ''

Bad intentions

James Neal is a heck of a player but you never want to get a reputation as a guy looking to hurt people. His elbow to the back of Derek Dorsett's head to drive him into the glass the other night got him a two-game suspension. I'm just wondering, if it had been Dorsett hitting Neal, how many games he would have received. Neal, who leads the Stars in scoring, also gave Steve Staios a concussion this year. "He was running around," said Staios, who has undoubtedly taken Neal's number down for when the Oilers are in Dallas early next month.

"I played against him in junior hockey. I know what kind of player he is. I know what his intention was. He can say he was going too fast to stop ... but if anything he sped up. A really cheap hit," Dorsett told the Columbus Dispatch.

Dorsett was in rough shape as he tried to get to his feet.

"Looked like I was trying to do the funky chicken."

It would be nice if Neal--heck it would be nice if any offending player--just once said, "You know, that was a stupid thing to do ... but for the grace of God it wasn't me being plowed from behind," but there is seldom a mea culpa from the bad guys, just a lame, "I hope he's OK."