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Coffey Holds Fire in Bowman Spat

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Paul Coffey calmly talked about getting a chance to win his fifth Stanley Cup -- until Detroit Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman was mentioned.

``I don't want to talk about any of that stuff,'' the defenseman said Tuesday after the Philadelphia Flyers finished their first day of preparation for the Stanley Cup finals, which start Saturday night against Detroit.

Coffey, the NHL's career leading scorer among defensemen, was clearly following that old piece of advice: if you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything at all.

Bowman was Coffey's coach at the start of the season before a bitter squabble ended with Coffey being traded, very much against his will, to the Hartford Whalers on Oct. 9.

Coffey worked furiously to get traded from the Whalers to a playoff contender, and his efforts paid off when the Whalers traded him to the Flyers in December.

Not long after that, Bowman wasn't very complimentary as he talked about the three-time winner of the Norris Trophy, which goes to the NHL's best defenseman.

``He's not one of my favorites,'' said Bowman, referring to Coffey as ``a role player.''

``A guy that can skate like he can, has all that talent, why can't he play defense?'' Bowman asked. ``He's not as good on the power play as people think. The main thing he can do is carry the puck up the ice, but his work at the point isn't that great.''

Bowman also said Coffey, who won three Stanley Cups with Edmonton and a fourth with Pittsburgh, had little impact on the Penguins' championship team.

``He didn't win the Cup in Pittsburgh, Mario Lemieux won the Cup in Pittsburgh -- Mario and (then-coach) Bob Johnson,'' said Bowman, who was Pittsburgh's director of player development then.

Earlier in the season, after his trade to Philadelphia, Coffey used an expletive to describe Bowman. But Tuesday, Coffey refused to get into a war of words with his former coach.

``I'm not going against Scotty,'' he said. ``It's Philadelphia against Detroit, plain and simple.''

Asked what makes Bowman, who has led teams to six Stanley Cups, a good coach, Coffey said flatly, ``I don't know.''

While Bowman was glad to be rid of Coffey, the Flyers are glad to have him. During the regular season, he had 26 points in 37 games for Philadelphia.

In the playoffs, Coffey, who has a goal and eight assists in 15 games, has skated with an authority that was missing over the last few years.

More importantly, he has served as a tutor for rookie defenseman Janne Niinimaa, and as a confidant and mentor for Eric Lindros.

``I can't put enough emphasis on the trade they made for Paul Coffey,'' New York center Wayne Gretzky said of his former Edmonton teammate after the Flyers defeated the Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals.

``Not only as a player, but as a leader, he is a winner, and I'm sure he's had a huge influence on Eric,'' Gretzky said.

``Coffey, from our standpoint, has been the best acquisition we've been able to make,'' said Flyers general manager Bob Clarke, who feels Coffey's dedication to conditioning has been an example to the rest of the team.

``A lot of our younger players learn when they see a guy like that work that hard,'' Clarke said. ``He's a Hall of Famer who's got to be one of the top two or three defesenmen ever.''

Coffey will provide something else this week. Coach Terry Murray said he plans to pick Coffey's brain for whatever insights he can provide on his former team.

``It could be very substantial,'' Murray said. ``I'll certainly talk about it, make some notes and put it all together in the next couple of days and we'll go through it as a team.''

Specifically, Murray feels Coffey can provide insight into the the strengths and weaknesses of certain players.

``(Things like) the tendencies and habits of individual players, how they handle pressure and pain and how they recover from injuries,'' Murray said. ``That's good stuff to know.''

For his part, Coffey, who joined the Red Wings midway through the 1993 season, said he'd gladly talk with Murray, but wasn't sure what he could provide.

``I had a chance to play there for four years and I know a lot of their players,'' he said. ``If I can help out any way I can, I will.''

© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press

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