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Slapshots

DRESSED TO KILL

The NBA's new dress code reminded Atlanta coach Bob Hartley of when he coached former tough guy Gino Odjick, a poor kid from the Algonquin Indian reservation, in junior hockey.

"All Gino had was a white T-shirt and blue jeans," Hartley said. "So we took him out to the men's store in town and got him a nice sweater and a pair of corduroys to wear to the games."

Then one night about an hour before the game, Odjick, one of the roughest players ever, came in with blood all over his hands and clothes, which were ripped to shreds. Hartley thought Odjick had been in a fight.

"His dad was driving him to the game and they spotted a deer and shot it," Hartley said. "Apparently they had to chase him down through the woods, and (Odjick) got caught on a barbed-wire fence. But he and his dad were so happy. They made me go out to the car to see this deer in the trunk.

"Anyway, the next day, we had to go out and buy Gino some new clothes."

With Brett Hull retiring last week, the NHL lost one of its most honest and entertaining players.

"I played with him in Detroit, what can I say, he was a classy guy," Ottawa goalie Dominik Hasek told the Ottawa Citizen. "It was always fun to be around him. He said whatever he felt. He didn't care. He had the best wrist shot I ever played against. No doubt about it. His wrist shot was unbelievable."

Wait a minute. Didn't Hull score the controversial in-the-crease goal that allowed Dallas to beat Hasek's Sabres in the 1999 Stanley Cup?

"Oh, yeah, you're right," Hasek said. "Well, forget what I just said."

A movie based on the life of Canadiens great Maurice Richard is due out later this year and there are a slew of NHL players in it, including the Lightning's Vinny Lecavalier, who plays his idol, Jean Beliveau. Other NHL players appearing include Pascal Dupuis, Sean Avery, Mike Ricci, Stephane Quintal and Philippe Sauve.

"I skated with the old skates, wooden sticks, no helmet and the combover," the Wild's Dupuis, who played Boston's Milt Schmidt, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "It was fun."

Dupuis was supposed to be the stunt double and do all the Richard skating scenes, but it turned out the lead actor, Roy Dupuis (no relation to Pascal), was a good enough skater.

"That would have been fun," Pascal Dupuis said.