Monday May 23, 2011

HILARY Duff says playing pregnant hasn’t made her broody.

The former Disney idol plays an expectant teen in new movie Raven but the experience has hardly made her hurry along her family planning with her husband, ice hockey star Mike Comrie.

“It was funny,” says Hilary. ” I had this lumpy, old pillow for a belly so I was just squishing it around a lot and trying to get it to look more like a round bump, instead of some lumpy thing. I can’t say it made me long to be pregnant for real.

“We’ve only been married a year. Mike plays hockey, so he’s away from September to April, and we don’t really get that much time together, so we’re looking to wait.”

Duff, 23, was recently asked when she plans to have kids.

“We talk about it. Yes, we’re excited to do that, but I want to work a little bit more,” she replied.

“I’m tossing around the idea of making another record and obviously that wouldn’t be very good timing.

“We want it, we’re excited for it, but I think it can wait just a little while longer.

“Mike’s supportive of me, he knows that I’m still young and if I want to work more, he’s totally supportive of that.”

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But the managers will also consider other changes aimed at improving player safety in ice hockey, the team sport with the second-highest rate of concussions after football.

New rules installed after the 2004-5 lockout have sped up the game and made it more crowd pleasing, but they have also led to more high-speed collisions. Commissioner Gary Bettman said in January that the slight rise in reported concussions in the N.H.L. this season was mainly the result of accidental contact.

“At one point, I went through all the injuries in the league, and there were 124 players out on that given night,” Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier said last Friday, adding that a significant number of the absences were due to concussions.

One measure under consideration is to change the N.H.L.’s icing rule, which encourages races to the end boards for the puck. If an opposing forward can outskate a defenseman and touch the puck first, the icing is negated — but that has led to harrowing collisions like the one in 2008 that shattered the leg of defenseman Kurtis Foster, sidelining him for 11 months.

In collegiate and international play, icing is called the moment the puck crosses the goal line, but N.H.L. general managers want to preserve the excitement of the icing-negating race.

The potential solution is “hybrid icing,” in which linesmen make an icing call based on which player reaches the face-off dot first rather than on who touches the puck first. Such a rule, already in place in the developmental United States Hockey League, would largely remove the dangerous end boards from the icing equation.

Brian Burke, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ influential general manager, has spoken in favor of restoring permission to defenseman to do some obstructing — what is called a bearhug rule. Such obstruction would theoretically slow forwards, who currently rocket through the neutral zone, looking back over their shoulder for long breakout passes and leave themselves vulnerable to unexpected, concussion-causing collisions.

Perhaps the most radical measure under discussion involves calls to widen N.H.L. rinks.

“If rinks were only a few feet wider, it would change the angle that forwards receive passes,” said Eric Lindros, whose N.H.L. career was ended by concussions. “They wouldn’t get hit straight on as often, but rather going laterally. And defensemen would have more ice to cover, making it harder for them to deliver big hits.”

RICK MARTIN DIES IN CRASH Two weeks after being reunited on the ice in Buffalo, the Sabres’ famed French Connection line lost a member when Rick Martin, a five-time 40-goal scorer, died Sunday in a traffic accident.

Martin, 59, was pronounced dead at a Buffalo-area hospital around 1 p.m., shortly after the car he was driving crossed the center line on the road, rolled along the shoulder and struck a utility pole before coming to rest against a tree, Capt. Steven Nigrelli of the New York State Police said.

Nigrelli said witnesses had spotted Martin driving with his head slumped and eyes closed before the crash, which occurred in Clarence, N.Y.

Martin was selected fifth over all by the Sabres in the 1971 draft and set an N.H.L. rookie record for goal-scoring, with 44, the next season. He played left wing on the French Connection line with center Gilbert Perreault and right wing Rene Robert.

SABRES 6, SENATORS 4 Tyler Ennis scored two goals and Jhonas Enroth made 34 saves to lead Buffalo over visiting Ottawa.

Thomas Vanek and Paul Gaustad both had a goal and an assist for the Sabres, who tied the Rangers for seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

KINGS 3, STARS 2 Michal Handzus scored the tie-breaking goal for visiting Los Angeles with 20.8 seconds remaining as the Kings improved to 83 points, 1 more than Dallas in the tight Western Conference playoff race.

IN OTHER GAMES Mike Knuble scored at 3 minutes 51 seconds of overtime to give Washington its eighth straight victory, a 4-3 home win over Chicago. The Capitals moved to a point behind Philadelphia for first place in the Eastern Conference. … Chris Kunitz scored two goals, and host Pittsburgh moved to 3 points off the Eastern Conference lead by topping Edmonton, 5-1.