Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Trottier confined to home with back trouble
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Rangers coach Bryan Trottier didn't lead the
team for the third time in four games, this time because of a bad
back.
Trottier, who served a two-game suspension on New York's
just-completed road trip, was out Tuesday night when the Rangers
played the Anaheim Mighty Ducks because of back trouble that
confined him to his home.
The 44-year-old Hall of Fame player, has had stenosis -- a
genetic narrowing of the spinal column -- since he was 19. He
received a cortisone injection Monday, after the Rangers returned
home from a four-game trip that ended over the weekend in
Vancouver, British Columbia.
The rookie head coach also was given an injection while the team
was in Calgary, but that differed from the one Trottier received
from his New York doctor.
Trottier also was thought to be troubled by a disc in his back,
as well as the stenosis that pinches the spinal cord and nerves.
The injury has kept him off the ice at practice for more than a
week.
He didn't coach the team during games in San Jose and Calgary as
a result of a suspension he was given because of a brawl in the
final seconds of New York's loss at Columbus on Nov. 8.
The NHL held Trottier responsible for sending out several
enforcers for the final 2.5 seconds and the game's outcome no
longer in doubt.
New York went 2-2 on the trip, winning the two games that
assistants Ted Green, Terry O'Reilly, and Jim Schoenfeld coached in
Trottier's absence. The trio also was in charge Tuesday night.
It is not the first time the Rangers have had to fill in for a
sidelined coach.
Back in the 1986-87 season, coach Tom Webster was limited to
just 16 games because of an inner ear problem that prevented him
from flying. General manager Phil Esposito took over for 43 games,
and assistant coaches Wayne Cashman and Ed Giacomin ran the team
for two.
Webster didn't return to the Rangers the following season.
Trottier played 1,279 games in 18 NHL seasons, with the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins. He scored 524 goals, had 901 assists and won six Stanley Cups -- including four straight with the
Islanders from 1980-83.
