Jeremy Roenick has been playing with a broken little toe on his right foot since the second game of his comeback.
“It happened in Game 3 in Vancouver,” Roenick said Monday. “It doesn’t feel so good, but hockey players can play with that stuff. Getting in your boot is the hardest part.”
Other Hawks are playing with hurts big and small. Coach Darryl Sutter said goalie Ed Belfour is all right, although Belfour was limping on his way out of the locker room Sunday and Dr. Louis Kolb, the team physician, was trying to locate one of the coaches to discuss the goalie’s problem. Belfour skated by himself Monday.
Belfour’s backup, Jeff Hackett, had to be helped off the ice Monday after apparently suffering back spasms. ” Tretiak worked him too hard,” quipped Sutter. “All those Russians believe in the eight-hour day.” But if Hackett’s problem persists, Jimmy Waite could be on the bench Tuesday night.
Quality counts: The Hawks have been outshot badly by the Red Wings in the first two games of the series, but Sutter insists that “shot totals don’t mean a darned thing. It’s strictly quality chances. If we get 20 shots tomorrow night and four of them go in, nobody will mention shot totals.”
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Ticked off: Sutter went into the officials’ room after Sunday’s game to complain about what he considered a missing three seconds. But after watching the replays Monday morning, he says it was more like five seconds.
The officials had put two seconds back on the clock, taking it to 15.4, because the Detroit net had been dislodged and time ticked off the clock after referee Dan Marouelli blew his whistle. But Sutter thinks there should have been about 20 seconds left.
“After he blows the whistle and Cheli touches the puck, it’s at 19.8,” said Sutter. “Dan didn’t do anything wrong. There are three officials on the ice. When one of them blows the whistle, the others’ job is to watch the clock, and they didn’t do it. impact on the game, but let’s do it right.”
Blue-light special: They call Kris Draper “Dollar Bill” in the Wings’ dressing room because the journeyman center who scored Detroit’s winning goal Sunday was acquired from Winnipeg for $1 two years ago. “We got him out of Winnipeg as a free agent,” said Jimmy Devellano, the Wings’ senior vice president. “The purpose was to get a good player for Adirondack .”
“You know,” said Draper, “I don’t even think it cost them a U.S. dollar. It might have been a Canadian buck.”