Carbonneau plays young at heart

By Jennifer Floyd, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1/15/00

Maybe it's an indictment on the Stars that their best forward this season has been a 39-year-old center who occasionally loses feeling in his hands.

Then again, maybe it's just that Guy Carbonneau isn't your average 39-year-old center.

"A fountain of youth," Stars forward Mike Keane likes to call him.

"If I'm doing what he's doing as well as he's doing it at age 39, I'll either (a) commit suicide or (b) be one hurting unit," Stars winger Blake Sloan said. "That's a real testament to the type of player he is."

The type of player he is defies every current athlete stereotype there is.

He's unselfish, willing to spend maybe his last season helping a player like Sloan develop. He's a yeoman, playing a defensive role as he goes against other teams' top lines night after night. He has become Dallas' best player by doing what he does best. Working hard, being consistent and never giving less than everything he has.

He's doing it in pain, playing with cervical stenosis, a lot like Michael Irvin's condition. An unusually narrow spinal cord causes him to sporadically lose feeling in his hands.

Bodies, of course, wear down with time. Carbonneau turns 40 in March, spending almost three-fourths of those years playing a game that grinds on a body like a grater on cheese.

"When I signed, they told me the same thing again that I wouldn't play as much, maybe 50 games, and I started laughing because I knew that wasn't going to happen," Carbonneau said. "The reason it doesn't happen is I don't let it happen. I want to play because of who I am, and I know I can do my job and help the team."

The Stars have never needed him more. Of the five centers who were on the roster when the season began, two will be in the lineup at 9 tonight against Vancouver at General Motors Place.

Mike Modano is out with a"real mild" concussion. Brian Skrudland is out indefinitely with a chest contusion. Derek Plante was relegated to minor-league affiliate Kalamazoo long ago. That leaves only Joe Nieuwendyk and Carbonneau, who has played more than any of the rest of them, seeing action in 42 of the Stars' 44 games this season.

He isn't just filling time either. The oldest player in the NHL is averaging 15-plus minutes a game and ranking among the team leaders in plus/minus (second at plus-9), hits (fifth with 90) and blocked shots (third with 40).

Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said that he thinks Carbonneau has played so well that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman should use one of his commissioner's picks to put him in the All-Star team. There were no commissioner's picks last season, but Bettman selected Mark Messier, Al MacInnis, Jari Kurri and Igor Larionov in 1998.

"The two guys that have had terrific years this year are Carbonneau and Keane," Hitchcock said. "Carbo's a perfect example of how long attitude can carry you. Because to me, Carbo is a player when he steps on the ice, whoever he's playing against, his attitude is `I'm better.' I think that cockiness and that aggressive attitude has given him a career longer than anybody thought."

Just about everybody thought he was done after the 1993-94 season in Montreal. The few that weren't thought he was after the 1994-95 season in St. Louis.

Everybody that is except Carbonneau and Stars general manager Bob Gainey.

Gainey traded for him on Oct. 2, 1995. Carbonneau is now in his fifth season with the Stars. Oh yeah, he's also going to be the guy tonight asked to shut down the Canucks' top line of Mark Messier, Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund.

"Yeah, and I love it," Carbonneau said, a gigantic smile creasing his face. "I love a challenge. That's how I built my career."

The way he plays, though, wears on a body. The effects of the cervical stenosis is felt when his neck is in certain positions, usually after checks.

The spinal cord plucks the nerve and sends electrical stimulations down to his hands, causing them to lose feeling.

And that is only one of the injuries he has battled.

"I would probably say he's had most everything," Stars trainer Dave Surprenant said. "Yet, he's in as good of shape as anybody on the team. That's his longevity."

Sure, he needs a little more rest. As Hitchcock said, "I think for us to be successful we have to find periods of time, regardless of who is in our lineup, to rest him."

Carbonneau had the day off yesterday, watching practice from atop the rink. He was talking about wine (he collects it) and France (he has never been there).

"I may go in September on a wine-buying trip," Carbonneau said.

But that's training camp isn't it, Carbo?

"That's why I said maybe," he said with a sly smile. "I don't know if I'm going to retire. I'm pretty sure [I am]. But I thought last year was my last year. Really, definitely, I thought after winning a Stanley Cup that was going to be my last year. Then one morning in July I got up, and I felt like running again. That's how it happens. This summer, I'll get up in July sometime, and if I don't feel like running then I'll know."

So no, it isn't an indictment of the Stars that their best forward this season has been a 39-year-old center who occasionally loses feeling in his hands.

Not when that player is Guy Carbonneau.