Hockey Hotline

Islanders center Alexei Yashin (below) isn't the most popular person in Ottawa . After refusing to honor his contract with the Senators and holding out for the 1999-00 season, Yashin, who returned to play last season, was traded to New York in June and landed a 10-year, $875 million deal. Through Sunday the Islanders had the best record in the Eastern Conference , and Yashin was dating supermodel Carol Alt . Life isn't fair, but Ottawans have a place to vent at faceoff.com, a website that offers the user the opportunity to respond to every story found on it and continue that dialogue with other users.

The Sound Off feature is only one reason this site is a must bookmark. With a European editor stationed in Edmonton , the site covers not only the NHL but also leagues in nine countries outside North America . The foreign reportage zeroes in on former or future NHLers. Last week, for instance, the link to the Swedish leagues had a story on the four-goal performance of Red Wings draft pick Henrik Zetterburg in Sweden 's 5-2 victory over Finland in a tournament. The site also provides high quality NCAA and North American minor league coverage.

A user can follow all NHL matches on the Game On scoreboard or stick with one game, for which stats and play-by-play are revised every 30 seconds. The site posts a preview for every NHL game—which a user can have delivered automatically to his desktop via e-mail—and lists player injuries and salaries, thanks to Face Off's 22 correspondents and 14 columnists from eight newspapers. Says executive editor Tim Doyle, "We like the idea that fans come to us for more than the game stories."