Jeremy Roenick

The red blazer Jeremy Roenick was wearing seemed appropriate for his mood. He was on fire. "It's just being careless," he snapped. The Flyers had managed to blow a two-goal lead, not once but three times, before losing by 5-4 to the Mighty Ducks on Wednesday night at Arrowhead Pond. "It's crappy play in our defensive zone," Roenick said after the game. "Letting a team like that skate and not playing physical, they could do whatever they want. They scored with 12 seconds left in the game.

The NHL has begun its own investigation into Flyers center Jeremy Roenick's admission that he paid for gambling tips and bet on football. A Florida law-enforcement official who worked with the FBI said in Sunday's Inquirer that Roenick spent more than $100,000 for the services of a sports gambling operation in Fort Myers. "We are following up on the facts reported in the [Inquirer]," Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice president and chief legal officer, said yesterday. "If they are as reported, then there is nothing Jeremy Roenick did that was in violation of the league's policy.

Though he didn't score, Jeremy Roenick enjoyed almost a perfect return to Chicago. His face got bloodied "like the old days. " He was cheered by the United Center fans. Close friend Tony Amonte scored twice for the Blackhawks. And his new team, the Phoenix Coyotes, beat his old one, 4-2, last night. "I don't think I realized how much I missed it here until I came back," said Roenick, whose contract impasse with the Blackhawks forced his trade to the Coyotes after an often-stellar eight-year career that included three 100-point seasons.

Before the Flyers' recent Western trip, center Jeremy Roenick and coach Ken Hitchcock cleared the air about the perception that perhaps one of them wasn't on board with the other this season. Hitchcock "really wants to challenge me this year in a lot of different ways, and it's not a points thing," Roenick said yesterday. "It's more of a leadership thing - how I am going to play and how I will lead these guys system-wise," Roenick added. "He wants me to be the best at it. I think he knows when to push buttons and when not. I think everything he does with me is to keep me motivated and on edge.

Shortly before huge Derian Hatcher of Dallas shattered Jeremy Roenick's jaw, another Stars defenseman broke Roenick's right thumb by slashing his hand with a stick, the Phoenix Coyotes alleged yesterday. "I asked the league to review the slash on his hand as well, which - absent the broken jaw - the broken thumb would have kept Jeremy out for three to four weeks," general manager Bobby Smith said. Roenick, the Coyotes' leading scorer, underwent surgery to repair a jaw broken in three places.

Former Flyers star Jeremy Roenick, 37, retired yesterday after 18 seasons. Roenick appeared in 70 games last season with the Phoenix Coyotes but scored just 11 goals. He leaves the NHL needing just five goals to reach 500. His career spanned 1,252 games. He scored 495 goals and added 675 assists for 1,170 points. He made one trip to the Stanley Cup finals, in 1992, when the Chicago Blackhawks were swept by Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins in four games. Among U.S.-born players, Roenick is ranked third in goals behind Mike Modano (507)

Finally, Jeremy Roenick and the Phoenix Coyotes have made peace. The star center ended his two-month holdout, signing a five-year, $20 million contract. He joined his new team last night, getting an assist in a 6-3 loss to visiting Edmonton. "It's a deal they wouldn't have taken in the middle of August, and it's a deal we wouldn't have offered," said Bobby Smith, the team's vice president of hockey operations. The Coyotes acquired the rights to the restricted free agent from Chicago on Aug. 16 for center Alexei Zhamnov, right wing Craig Mills and a first-round draft pick.

Jeremy Roenick was sitting in his backyard in Paradise Valley, outside of Phoenix, watching his daughter Brandi jumping on her trampoline. Her voice could be heard through the phone imploring her father to come jump with her. "I wish I could, Brandi," the Flyers center shouted back. Nineteen days have passed since Roenick underwent two days of intensive neurological testing at McGill University in Montreal to determine what damage was done last season by multiple concussions.

Jeremy Roenick is nothing if not candid. Even when it comes to criticizing himself. Before the Los Angeles Kings left for an important four-game road trip yesterday, Roenick publicly said what others have been whispering for weeks: that he's playing some of the worst hockey of his NHL career. "I haven't felt comfortable on the ice since Day 1," Roenick said. "Is my game where it was 3 years ago, or 2 years ago? No. Will it be? You know, I really don't know. " Roenick is a future Hall of Famer, but he is in his 18th season and turns 36 next month.

In an agreement worked out with the Flyers, center Jeremy Roenick will be paid between $1.09 million and $1.5 million as an injured player for games he would have missed in October and November because of postconcussion syndrome, according to an NHL source. Roenick was to receive $7.5 million this season. The deal, the source said, will pay him six to eight weeks' worth of salary for the time the club believes he would still have been out injured had there not been a lockout. Roenick underwent testing in Montreal in October and in Philadelphia last month.

American football fans will be able to watch this year's Grey Cup game on television, along with regular-season CFL matches. The 100th Grey Cup will be telecast live in the United States on Nov. 25 on the NBC Sports Network. The cable channel's regular-season coverage of the CFL will begin Aug. 27. The NFL asked a U.S. District Court judge to dismiss Jonathan Vilma 's motion seeking to have his season-long suspension overturned. Officials at Fort Campbell, Ky., said Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt was charged with driving under the influence as he attempted to pass through a security gate at the Army installation.

JEREMY ROENICK once kissed a teammate. During a game. That doesn't mean he understands goaltenders completely. But it probably explains why he felt empowered to seek out Ilya Bryzgalov during the Winter Classic and offer words of encouragement. "It's a very tough position," Roenick was saying over the phone yesterday. "And when you get a contract like he got in a city like Philadelphia, where the expectations are immense, it's very easy to feel the pressure. " What is hard to figure out is if that is what's going on here.

Two big cities, known more for grit than for glamour, with long histories of ethnic voting and machine-style politics. Two of a bare handful of U.S. markets where the NHL enjoys strong roots and proud tradition. "Similar? Oh, my God, they're almost identical," Jeremy Roenick, never one to equivocate, said yesterday as he ordered lunch in Pasadena, Calif., before flying to Chicago. Roenick, who starred for both the Blackhawks and the Flyers during his eventful 18-year NHL career, will analyze the Cup finals for NBC, starting tonight.

HERE ARE A FEW words to live by from former Flyers forward Jeremy Roenick: "Don't drink and you won't stink. " Actually, Roenick didn't say those exact words, but that was his sentiment when he told the Associated Press that refraining from alcohol has given him a new lease on life and more energy to torment defenders. Now playing for San Jose, Roenick led the Sharks past Calgary on Tuesday night with a four-point performance (two goals), the NHL's highest-scoring effort in a Game 7 playoff since "The Great One" did it with the Kings in 1993.

Former Flyers star Jeremy Roenick, 37, retired yesterday after 18 seasons. Roenick appeared in 70 games last season with the Phoenix Coyotes but scored just 11 goals. He leaves the NHL needing just five goals to reach 500. His career spanned 1,252 games. He scored 495 goals and added 675 assists for 1,170 points. He made one trip to the Stanley Cup finals, in 1992, when the Chicago Blackhawks were swept by Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins in four games. Among U.S.-born players, Roenick is ranked third in goals behind Mike Modano (507)

Jeremy Roenick was standing at the far end of the bar on Saturday night dressed in a cream-colored designer suit. A procession of adoring fans rubbed elbows to greet him as he sipped club soda. "We're doing a booming business," Roenick said about the Muze Lounge, a nightspot that opened last month, which he co-owns with restaurateur Bill Deacon. "We're going to open up in New York City soon. We've got to get back there and scout a location above 56th Street. " The former Blackhawk, Flyer and King is in the twilight of his career.

Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky benched Jeremy Roenick for last night's home game against Columbus, but said he and the Phoenix forward worked out their issues at a meeting earlier in the day. The punishment was handed down because Roenick left the arena in Vancouver on Tuesday before the Coyotes played the Canucks. Roenick was scratched from the lineup because of a back injury and later said he watched part of the game while having dinner in a restaurant. Roenick was upset, because he felt he was healthy enough to play.

Jeremy Roenick is nothing if not candid. Even when it comes to criticizing himself. Before the Los Angeles Kings left for an important four-game road trip yesterday, Roenick publicly said what others have been whispering for weeks: that he's playing some of the worst hockey of his NHL career. "I haven't felt comfortable on the ice since Day 1," Roenick said. "Is my game where it was 3 years ago, or 2 years ago? No. Will it be? You know, I really don't know. " Roenick is a future Hall of Famer, but he is in his 18th season and turns 36 next month.

After sleeping on it for a night, Los Angeles Kings general manager Dave Taylor phoned Bob Clarke yesterday at 5:30 a.m. Pacific time, as he got on a freeway. "We want to make a deal for J.R.," Taylor told the Flyers' GM. "I'm on my way to the office, and as soon as I get there, I'll call back. " A few hours later, Jeremy Roenick was an ex-Flyer. Among coach Ken Hitchcock's players, none wore the orange and black with as much enthusiasm, bombast, egotism, and on-ice courage as Roenick.

In an agreement worked out with the Flyers, center Jeremy Roenick will be paid between $1.09 million and $1.5 million as an injured player for games he would have missed in October and November because of postconcussion syndrome, according to an NHL source. Roenick was to receive $7.5 million this season. The deal, the source said, will pay him six to eight weeks' worth of salary for the time the club believes he would still have been out injured had there not been a lockout. Roenick underwent testing in Montreal in October and in Philadelphia last month.