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Tuesday, October 24
Hawks struggle out of gate, vow to maintain tough style

By George Johnson
Special to ESPN.com

His detractors accuse him of putting together his own "Fight Club," but pretty boys like Brad Pitt and Edward Norton need not apply for membership. In the Chicago Blackhawks' first six games, coach Lorne Molleken's team averaged 27.0 penalty minutes a night -- nearly triple that of the league's most gentlemanly bunch, the one-time big, bad Boston Bruins.

"Tough" is a word that peppers Lorne Molleken's conversation. Play tough. Be tough. Tough it out.

He is of the old school (some might say the old and outdated school), convinced that aggressiveness and respect are inseparable bedfellows. That turning the other cheek simply invites someone to slap it. He is also, to a lot of cursory hockey fans, that coach with the shiner, the guy who got into it with a general manager -- can you believe it -- underneath the stands.

"Goons?" ... Molleken considers the description a moment. "Frankly, I don't care what people call us. Doesn't bother me. Everyone has an opinion. Good for them. I will say this, though -- I don't think there are 'goons' in the NHL anymore, not in the sense of players who fight but can't play at all.

"If by that term people mean we have tough players who'll stick up for themselves and each other, I'd agree with them. We have lots of guys who'll fulfill that role. They play hard. They play to win."

The Hawks are off to a shaky start, piling up the penlty minutes (173) but not the wins (0-3-4). They're giving up close to four goals a game and rank near the bottom of the league in penalty killing, a suicidal stat for a team so willing to queue up for a coveted seat in the hoosegow.


	Tony Amonte has played well offensively, but he can't do it alone.

Last season, when Molleken took over the floundering Hawks from Dirk Graham, it was a totally different story. They promptly went 13-6-4, providing renewed hope for what was to come. But so far, it's been more of the same for the frustrated Chicago faithful.

"You said it, last year was last year," cuts in Molleken. "It's good to reflect back on that, but we can't live in the past, either.

"We had a couple of interruptions during the exhibition season that hurt us. I had to go home for seven days because my dad was sick. Then the Washington thing" -- the almost surreal fight between Molleken and Caps GM George McPhee -- "took focus away from what we were trying to do. Now that we've been home for a while, and have been able to get a few practices in, I think it'll start to come together for us."

Molleken wants his Hawks to play "tough." They are, after all, representing a rugged, big-shouldered, uncompromising town. A town epitomized by the Monsters of the Midway, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Butkus leaving teeth marks on running backs in pile-ups. Singletary's eyes, Rodman's rebounds.

"When I was coaching in Hamilton (Edmonton's AHL affiliate), another tough city, we led the league in penalty minutes in the first half of the season. And we'd win, lose, win, lose ... you know. But in the second half, after we'd established our identity, we wound up going to the championship.

"Personally, I think this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. For instance, after Alex Zhamnov came to the aid of Tony Amonte after he'd been slashed by (Jeremy) Roenick, I said I backed Alex up completely. Two days later we get to Pittsburgh and a guy's quoting me as saying I advocate fighting in hockey.

"What I said was that I believed in sticking up for your teammates."

Molleken believes there is a distinct difference between 'tough' and 'dirty.'

"That hit on Modano by Salei? Now that's dangerous. Hits from behind in that six-to-eight-foot area from the boards. I know we're coming up to the milennium and everything's supposed to be new and improved. But guys today have lost a lot of respect for their fellow players."

Molleken doesn't only talk tough -- he isn't afraid to make tough decisions. Such as telling a proud old warrior like Wendel Clark that he's going to be a healthy scratch if need be.

"No. 1, I have great respect for Wendel Clark," he points out. "For the way he plays, of course. But it goes deeper than that. We're both products of the Saskatoon Blades organization, so there's a kinship involved. I know what Wendel's all about, what type of person he is. But I had to make that decision."

Clearly, the Hawks are to make any inroads into the Western Conference playoff picture a few things need to be straighted out in a hurry. Zhamnov and Amonte are off to good starts. But they need more, much more, from center Doug Gilmour, still the pivotal player in the mix; the emotional fulcrum on which the Hawks turn.

Gilmour had only one assist and was a team-worst minus-4 in the opening half-dozen games.

"We've sat down a couple of times and talked things over. A guy like Dougie Gilmour is never going to lose his confidence. He'll be back. In fact, in the last couple of games he's played exceptionally well."

At the moment, they languish at the very bottom of the Western Conference, still looking for their first win. But these Hawks, Molleken assures you, are not about to back down from a, uh, fight.

"We're not going to change," he vows. "Hockey is a game of emotion channeled in the right directions. I'm not going to take that away from my players. Call us what you want. But we're still going to play hard."

And if you don't like it?

Well, buster, isn't that just ... tough.

The Rest of the West
Poor Grant Fuhr. He packed up and headed back north to try and prolong his career. At the moment, all he's prolonging is the agony.

The low point in a brutal start to the Calgary season was undoubtedly that 7-1 shellacking they absorbed in St. Louis, the city that considered Fuhr too old, too expensive and too risky. Fuhr, totally abandoned by his teammates, was given the hook after being stung for six goals. The loss left him 1-4-1 this season, and he's already twice been pulled from the net with the job left undone.

"I want to win every game," he said after the drubbing. "I think that's one of the reasons I still want to play. I haven't learned how to lose, and I don't plan on learning now. It's not an acceptable thing. I am way too old to learn how to lose now."

Fuhr is still in search of that elusive win No. 400 for his career. "I'll be at 450 by the time I leave this team," he vowed. "It just might take a while."

A while? The way the Flames are playing in front of him, it might take another lifetime or two.

Quick hits
There is still speculation that Bill Guerin, embroiled in a contract dispute with the Oil, may take a fling in the IHL with Houston, where ex-Edmonton coach Ron Low is running the bench ... Avs center Peter Forsberg is with the team on its current road trip and skating but is still not expected back before December ... Oiler defenseman Frank Musil is still experiencing numbness in his right arm after sliding head-first into the boards Oct. 2. Musil has a compressed nerve in his neck, between vertebrae, and will undergo an MRI to determine severity. A few years ago, Mats Lindgren sustained nerve damage to his leg and missed the entire season ... While adjusting himself to North America, goalie Roman Turek, then with Dallas, learned English watching cartoons with his son. So now another Czech who arrived here not knowing the language, Pavel Patera, has been given one to two hours homework a day by the Stars -- yup, watching cartoons. Patera, by the way, communicates with coach Ken Hitchcock through Juha Lind. Both Lind, a Finn, and Patera can converse in Swedish.

Quotable
"It was probably only the second time I tried to block a shot in my entire career. It was probably payback for all those guys I've hit in the ankle over the years," -- Blues' hard-shooting Al MacInnis, sidelined by a fractured ankle.

George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com.


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