Canucks Thin On Talent But Olmstead Gets Most Out Of Vancouver Team

VANCOUVER, B.C.— After a brief slump, coach Bert Olmstead has the Vancouver Canucks back on the beam again with six wins in their last seven starts. At this writing, the surge had propelled the team back into second place, although streaking Seattle had closed in and Oakland and Victoria remained strongly in contention for the runnerup role. Although Olmstead was talking about the coaching job of the forming Los Angeles Kings of the NHL’s expansion division with King owner Jack Kent Cooke, Bert still was working hard at the job at hand, working the Canucks hard enough to make the most of their limited personnel. The club can be proud of the fact it has been outhustling its foes. Vancouver has some good players, but fewer high-scoring stars and fewer experienced veterans than…

“Big Names” Just Not Producing Says Punch After 10th Setback

TORONTO, Ont.— Is old age ruining the Toronto Maple Leafs? Punch Imlach, the coach and general manager, rejected that theory after a prolonged losing streak had extended to ten games and had dumped Leafs out of third place in the National Hockey League standings and allowed the fifth-place Detroit Red Wings to hurtle past them. “Don’t blame the wrong people,” Imlach said. “Four of our guys collect big salaries and they’re the ones we have a right to count on to carry this club. They aren’t. I’ll name them, too: Frank Mahovlich, Bob Pulford, Dave Keon and Eddie Shack.” The Big M, it must be pointed out, was injured about the time Leafs’ skid began and then Pulford was hurt. But Imlach was absolutely right in contending that these four players are far behind…

NHL’S Point Scoring Race

Abel Decides Hockey Play Not For Him

DETROIT, Mich.— Sid Abel figures he’s getting a little too old for this stuff. “All I was going to do was skate from the bench to the faceoff circle and back to the bench again,” the Red Wing coach said. “I was in razor sharp shape for that.” But Abel saw considerably more ice time in the fourth annual Red Wing Old-timers game and he wound up with a six-stitch cut and a black eye. Abel was nicked by-Montreal Old-timer Dollard St. Laurent’s stick while falling to the ice. The Montrealers took their third straight victory, 5-4, on St. Laurent’s second goal late in the third period, and while the old boys are supposed to be only glowing embers of what they once were, there’s still plenty of fire in Ted Lindsay and Dickie Moore. The…