Defenseman Desjardins finished after 17 years
Philadelphia – Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Eric Desjardins, the second-highest scoring defenseman in team history, will retire.
Flyers spokesman Zack Hill said Wednesday that Desjardins will make an official announcement today.
A two-time all-star, Desjardins’ 17-year career was slowed by injuries in recent seasons. He played in only 45 games last season and 48 games in 2003-04 and was not offered a contract by the Flyers this summer.
Desjardins, a seven-time winner of the team’s most outstanding defenseman award, had surgery last season to repair a partially dislocated right shoulder and missed 29 games. He missed the 2004 playoffs with a broken arm.
Desjardins spent the past 11 seasons with the Flyers after he was acquired from the Montreal Canadiens in a 1995 deal that also brought John LeClair to Philadelphia. Desjardins had 396 points with the Flyers behind only defenseman Mark Howe’s 480.
Desjardins finishes his career with 136 goals, 439 assists and 575 points in 1,143 career games.
NHL
Bruins president Sinden resigns
Harry Sinden, president of the Boston Bruins for the past 17 of his more than 40 years with the team, resigned to become an adviser to club owner Jeremy Jacobs.
The move is the latest in the reorganization of a franchise that last won the Stanley Cup in 1972 and hired Peter Chiarelli as general manager and Dave Lewis as coach after last season.
The team said it would not hire a new president, but instead align all hockey operations under Chiarelli.
Sinden, 74, said the timing is right for him to step down, because he has been moving toward an advisory capacity with the Bruins for some time. He added that he needed to step aside to ensure people know that the new management team was running the Bruins, not him.
“I can’t control perception. I don’t think I ever have over the years been able to control the fact … that somehow I was pulling all the strings in some people’s minds. It was totally false,” he said. “Whether or not I can convince people that that’s not the case, it wasn’t the case and won’t be the case now, I don’t know.”
Sinden began in the Bruins organization in 1961 as a minor-league coach in Kingston, Ontario, and became head coach in Boston in the 1966-67 season. In his fourth and final full season as coach, he led the Bruins to the 1970 Stanley Cup, their first in 29 years.
Sinden spent the next two years in private business before taking over on Oct. 5, 1972, as general manager, a job he held until Nov. 1, 2000. He also served as team president since 1988 and began overseeing operations of the Bruins home, the TD Banknorth Garden, as its chairman in 2002.
The San Jose Sharks re-signed left wing Patrick Rissmiller and added free-agent defenseman Mathieu Biron.
Rissmiller, a restricted free agent who got a two-year contract, will make $520,000 next year. He was a solid late-season addition to San Jose’s lineup last spring, getting three goals and three assists in 18 regular-season games before appearing in all 11 playoff games.
Biron, who signed a one-year deal for $450,000, had four goals and 19 assists in 52 games with the Washington Capitals last season.
The St. Louis Blues signed free-agent goaltender Manny Legace to a one-year contract. Legace, who spent the past six seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, is expected to compete with Curtis Sanford to be the No. 1 goalie in St. Louis.
Legace went 37-8-0 as Detroit’s starter last season, but struggled in the postseason.
The Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes will play the Buffalo Sabres, and the Avalanche will face the Dallas Stars in an Oct. 4 opening-night doubleheader on Versus, the channel now known as OLN.
The NHL all-star festivities on Jan. 23-24 in Dallas also will be televised on Versus. OLN will change its name to Versus on Sept. 25. The network will feature a 54-game schedule, broadcasting mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays. Versus will have 24 exclusive dates and a post-game studio show.
Defenseman Filip Novak, who played 11 games with the Ottawa Senators last season, signed a two-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
MOTORSPORTS
Unsers arrested for disobeying deputies
Racing veterans Al Unser Sr. and Bobby Unser were arrested after sheriff’s deputies said the brothers ignored orders to leave an area where authorities had cornered a carjacking suspect.
The Bernalillo (N.M.) County sheriff’s department said the suspect led police on a high-speed chase while shooting at them Wednesday morning. The man eventually crashed into a car in Albuquerque and later shot himself.
During the standoff, authorities had cordoned off a road named after the Unser family.
Deputies said Al Unser Sr. started to go through the roadblock to get home when deputies warned him to stop. Bobby Unser, who was in a separate vehicle, also refused to leave.
“They simply told them numerous times to leave the area and they simply refused to do so,” said Erin Kinnard Thompson, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department. “We’re not talking about a situation where we’re trying to catch a shoplifter. This was a serious and dangerous situation.”
Both men were arrested for resisting arrest and obstructing officers. They were booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center and later released.
