MacLean doesn't foresee reunion

By Damian Cristodero
Published March 10, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [Ken Helle | Times] Doug MacLean hasn't been asked to join OK Hockey.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Doug MacLean said he has no plans, and hasn't been asked, to join the group trying to buy the Lightning.

"I don't think that far ahead," MacLean texted Sunday, when asked about joining Oren Koules' OKHockey, which has a $200-million purchase agreement to buy the team.

MacLean, the former Blue Jackets president and general manager, partnered with Koules in Absolute Hockey Enterprises, which failed last year to buy the team. The group imploded when Koules defaulted on a $4.17-million payment and was sued for $50-million by MacLean and fellow investor Jeff Sherrin.

Even so, MacLean said he and Koules "were never enemies. We've always stayed in touch." And the Columbus Dispatch reported MacLean might join OK Hockey.

But MacLean said, "We have never talked about me going there since the breakup."

NO MO:Fredrik Modin called his season "brutal." The former Tampa Bay left wing, traded to Columbus in July 2006 for goalie Marc Denis, has played 19 games mostly because of two fractured vertebra.

The bones are healed. But Modin sat out Sunday's game, his fourth straight, because of groin and lower back pain: "I'm just dealing with not being able to stay in shape from those two months and with all the strain on my groin and lower back from, basically, sitting on the couch."

BUSINESS IS BUSINESS:Vinny Prospal, sent to the Flyers in the Alex Picard deal, said his trade was a business decision.

"If there was money to be handed out, maybe they would be able to sign me," said Prospal, who is expected to ask for up to $5-million as an unrestricted free agent.

Bigger picture, he added: "We put ourselves in position to be dealt away because we weren't successful as a team."

EXTENDED STAY: After getting 12 minutes in penalties Sunday two for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct 9:29 into the first period, defenseman Shane O'Brien was eligible to come out of the penalty box 1:29 into the second.

But players serving misconducts are released only during stoppages, and with continuous play from 1:09 of the second period until 8:25, O'Brien was stuck in the box close to an additional seven minutes.

ODDS AND ENDS: Defenseman Filip Kuba (knee) played after sitting out six straight games. ... Defenseman Doug Janik was a healthy scratch. ... The game was played with three officials because linesman Derek Arnell (leg) could not skate. ... Sunday was the 19th time, 13th in regulation, the Lightning lost after entering the third period tied or ahead.

Damian Cristodero can be reachedat cristodero@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 9, 2008, 23:55:15]