Chelios eyes management post

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Sean Avery.

Photograph by : Getty Images

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Have I mentioned that when my pal Chris Chelios decides to retire, he'd like to remain in the game? Chelios, as you know, is the player responsible for removing Ted Saskin from the players' association top job, but working for that organization is not on Chelly's radar. Instead, he'd prefer to return to his home town of Chicago for a management post with the Blackhawks if one were available. "Something like Brett Hull is doing in Dallas," Chelios told me recently. (Hull is co-GM of the Stars.) "That would be cool."

Winning pays off for Stars

While Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs warns the game will take a stiff bodycheck because of the gravity of the U.S. economy, the Dallas Stars are enjoying an upswing in interest following the team's first trip to the Western Conference final since 2000. Season-ticket sales have topped 13,000 for the first time in five years, team officials say. Individual game sales are up 45 per cent. The Stars had about 500 new season-ticket buyers last year. This year, they have 1,270. All you have to do now is win.

'New' mindset for Panthers

Florida first-year coach Peter DeBoer is putting a new face on his Panthers. "It's more about a change in mindset than a major transformation of how they'll play," he told Florida reporters. "Everyone's got to have the aggressive mindset, but it's not reckless aggression. It's aggression with a purpose." In other words: uptempo with lots of forechecking and backchecking, a relentless attack of the puck and constant pressure on the opponent. (Isn't that the way winning teams are supposed to play?)

Wobbly start for Raycroft

Former Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Andrew Raycrof isn't likely to retain his home debut with Colorado among his treasured memories. The preseason doesn't mean a thing to players, but when you're on the wrong side of a 7-4 loss, it stings for a little while. He allowed six goals on 23 shots before Chicago's Martin Havlat scored into an empty net. "Obviously, when you give up six goals, it's never good," Raycroft told reporters. "Pucks were getting tipped and it wasn't bouncing anywhere near my way often, but you never want to give up six, no matter when, even in practice. But I've got a perspective of it and I'll just work hard the next week and be ready to go." (The question is: where?)

And finally ...

One of my favourite photos on the Wall of Fame at my home shows an 18-year-old Bobby Orr chatting with a 41-year-old reporter. Now, I read where Orr, now 60, will be featured in a MasterCard TV commercial showing the many scars on his knees which underwent surgery more than a dozen times during his career that began in 1967 in Boston. The commercial ends, of course, with the word "priceless," which is easy to understand. But Orr ... now 60! Impossible!