Thursday, May 15, 2003 | 9:22 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
If, indeed, this is the most important team meeting in the history of the organ-I-zation, as they say in hockey, it makes you wonder why the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes chose the Bellagio in Las Vegas as the site for it, rather than say, the Erie, Pa., Holiday Inn.
If I were a CEO and business really was more important than pleasure, I'd always schedule staff meetings where you don't feel a need to bring along golf clubs. You know, just in case the meetings adjourn in time to fit in a quick nine.
"But this time, I didn't bring my golf clubs," said Jim Rutherford, the president and general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, who are here through Saturday.
"We always have our annual meeting before the (NHL) draft at the end of June. It's a long year for people who work in sports, with a lot of travel involved away from families. This is a chance for our scouts to bring their wives somewhere other than Raleigh."
Can't say I blame them there. I mean, if you've seen one tobacco leaf, you've seen them all. Some of the nation's best truck drivers recently met in Raleigh to show area residents how to safely navigate the city. But I don't think the resort owners in Hilton Head are getting nervous just yet.
Besides, given the year the Hurricanes had, who came blame Rutherford and company for wanting to get away for a few days?
Just one year after losing to the Detroit Red Wings, the next-best team money can buy (after the Yankees) in the Stanley Cup final, the Hurricanes were reduced to a harmless zephyr this season. Beset by injuries and underachieving forwards, Carolina struggled to a 22-43-11 record. The Hurricanes' paltry 61 points ranked 30th in the NHL.
In the event you haven't kept up with expansion into the USA Sun Belt, that's dead last.
"It's really not anything you could put your finger on," said Rutherford, just the latest big-time hockey person to return a phone call to a reporter he has never met.
(That's the great thing about hockey. You don't have to be Dickie Dunn to get somebody to call you back.)
"Last year, we played into June, and I think the short off-season hurt our players. There was only a very short time to get ready before the first day of training camp. And then there's so much parity in the league."
If you don't believe it, just look who's still playing in the Western Conference final -- upstarts Anaheim and Minnesota.
"And we did it last year, although you couldn't really call us an upstart," Rutherford said.
But the Hurricanes are the former Hartford Whalers. That's worse than being an upstart, when respectability is the goal.
Had Carolina shown just a little more patience with Jean Sebastian-Giguere, the goalie who has become the hottest thing to hit Anaheim since the Rally Monkey, maybe Carolina would still have it. It was the Hurricanes who drafted Giguere out of juniors but finally wound up trading him to Calgary for gritty veteran Gary Roberts before the 1997 season.
"Usually with a goalie, it takes 2-5 years to develop," said Rutherford, who used to be one, having spent 13 seasons with the Penguins, Maple Leafs, Kings and Red Wings. "With Giguere, it was 2-7."
Giguere's name most likely will be referenced during the Hurricanes' skull sessions in Las Vegas, as Carolina is contemplating using the second pick in the draft to select the man who may be his second coming, fellow Quebec native Marc-Andre Fleury.
Most hockey people believe drafting a goalie that high is risky. That's why Martin Brodeur lasted until the 20th round in 1990 and Patrick Roy until the 51st round in 1984. I think that was two rounds after somebody picked Denis Lemieux, the goalie for the Charlestown Chiefs in "Slap Shot."
But if the Hurricanes decide to gamble on a net minder, at least they picked the right town in which to discuss it.
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