When the Maple Leafs visit former teammate Ed Belfour on Thursday they might want to check whether he is packing a bottle of water before they approach with greetings .
An incident involving Belfour and fellow Florida Panthers goalie Alex Auld has made headlines in the sunny south.
After the Panthers lost to the New Jersey Devils in East Rutherford , N.J., on Thursday , they took a bus to Long Island, where they met the Islanders on Saturday. Upon arriving in Garden City , N.Y., late Thursday night, Belfour and some teammates went to a nightclub.
Later, Auld slipped and fell on the floor of the hotel lobby. He suffered a cut above his right eye and required stitches .
"They have marble floors there, and they are slippery ," Belfour told reporters. " We were just horsing around with each other . I dropped my bottle of water and we all slipped. Alex hit his head when we fell down."
Belfour denied that he had been belligerent earlier at the nightclub. It was reported he scuffled with teammates and bouncers .
"There was no alcohol involved whatsoever," Belfour, 41, said. "I don't even know why we are talking about it. "
An infamous story with Belfour occurred on March 8, 2000, when he was with the Dallas Stars. He was charged with resisting arrest following an incident and reportedly offered police $1 billion US to let him go .
Belfour, who stayed out of trouble when he was with the Leafs , played against the Islanders and lost in a shoot-out .
FIGHTING WORDS
The argument that no one gets hurt in hockey fights took a few blows on the weekend.
Todd Fedoruk and Steve Ott can attest to that.
Ott, of the Dallas Stars, is out for two months after breaking an ankle in a scrap with the Los Angeles Kings' Tom Kostopoulos. Fedoruk, of the Anaheim Duck s , is out indefinitely with facial injuries suffered at the fists of the Minnesota Wild's Derek Boogaard. The right side of Fedoruk' s face appeared to cave in, W ild players said later.
"You never wish that on anybody, but you've got to look at in a different way," Boogaard said of Fedoruk's injury. " What happens if he had you in that position? Do you think he would let up? You know he wouldn't."
Ott is not a scorer but his absence will be felt.
"He is a jack-of-all-trades," coach Dave Tippett said. "He gives us that feistiness. He'll certainly be missed."
SYKORA KNOWS MALKIN
Evgeni Malkin has nine points, including five goals, in his first five NHL games after recovering from a shoulder injury. Though the production has not been unexpected, one NHL player saw some traits in the Pittsburgh Penguins rookie a few years ago that have helped.
Petr Sykora of the Edmonton Oilers and Malkin were linemates with Magnitogorsk in Russia during the lockou .
"He was one of the few (Russian) players who played the body," Sykora said." One of the few guys who didn't dive , who liked to go through traffic or to the net. He played hockey the way it is played over here."
When Malkin scored on Saturday, he became the first player since the Boston Bruins ' Dmitri Kvartalnovin 1992-93 to score five goals in his first five NHL games.
ICE CHIPS
The San Jose Sharks were close to trading goalie Evgeni Nabokov to the Phoenix Coyotes for defenceman Nick Boynton but talks broke down, the New York Post reported ... Speculation surrounds the future of Ken Hitchcock, who was fired by the Philadelphia Flyers last week. One rumour has him joining the Panthers, while another has him staying with the Flyers as a scout or consultant ... Fired by the Islandes after mere weeks on the job this past summer, ex-general manager Neil Smith has joined the Stars as a consultant.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Jordan Staal , who has four goals and one assist in nine games with the Penguins, will find out before the club's nex t game, Wednesday in Los Angeles, if he is staying or heading back to the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League. It's hard to see Staal being demoted, given his strong play ... With 607 goals, Brendan Shanahan of the New York Rangers is closing in on 13th place on the NHL career goals list, which is held by Dino Ciccarelli and hi 608 goals. The rangers continue a western swing tonight in Los Angeles ... Former Canadiens coach Claude Julien, now behind the bend of the New Jersey devils, leads his new team into Montreal's Bell Centre on Saturday for his first game there since he was fired in January.
