The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

September 19, 1981

The Hockey News September, 1981

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011153/4414478-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Bruins weren&rsquo;t reluctant to let Dwight Foster go because of their young talented centers such as Barry Pederson (above), Craig Mac-Tavish and Tom Fergus.</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;Ever since the Boston Bruins made an early exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs last April, their fans have been waiting expectantly for general manager Harry Sinden to make the blockbuster move that will bring the team out of its two-year-long tailspin.But, as August moved into September, nothing happened.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that we haven&rsquo;t been trying,&rdquo; said Sinden, whose track record includes one of the biggest blockbusters of them all. Brad Park for Phil Esposito. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve wanted to make same moves but no one wants to tradee us the type of players we want.&rdquo;Since Sinden is not one to make a deal just for the sake of movement, the Bruins appear to be committing themselves to a continuation of the youth movement of the past two years in which they have fallen from Cup contenders to a spot somewhere in the middle of the pack.&ldquo;You will see more new faces on the Bruins this year than in any single season since I&rsquo;ve been here,&rdquo; Sinden promised. &ldquo;We anticipate having at least six young players coming out of our&rsquo;system and playing for the big club.&ldquo;We have eight or 10 veterans who can still play very well. This is the year to bring the kids up while we still have the good older players around to help them.&rdquo;The biggest deal of the summer was the one that saw the free agent rights to Dwight Foster going to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for a switch (at the Bruins&rsquo; option) of first round draft choices and the Rockies&rsquo; second round pick in the 1982 amateur lottery.Sinden was elated with the deal for Foster, the Bruins&rsquo; first round draft choice in 1977 who suffered a knee injury in his first NHL season and never lived up to expectations until last season when he scored 24 goals.&ldquo;We feel that the 1982 draft will be one of the best ever,&rdquo; said the Bruins&rsquo; general manager. &ldquo;The consensus among scouts is that the first 10 picks should be excellent players. It should be very beneficial to the Bruins to move up in the first round and pick up another second round choice.&rdquo;It might be too much to hope that the Rockies, who were the third worst team in the NHL in 1980-81, might drop all the way to the bottom in 1981-82 which would give Boston a crack at Brian Bellows of Kitchener, whom everyone is calling the next pubescent superstar in the NHL.The parting between the Bruins and Foster was amicable. Both player and management seemed relieved.&ldquo;We feel his future will be better served elsewhere, not in Boston,&rdquo; said Sinden, who is said to have offered Foster nothing more than a one-year contract. &ldquo;We have three centers in our system&mdash;Craig Mac-Tavish, Barry Pederson and Tom Fergus&mdash;who we regard as just as good, if not better, than Dwight Foster.&rdquo;&ldquo;I have no bad feelings about leaving,&rdquo; said Foster. &ldquo;If things had worked out, obviously Boston would have been the place to play. But it wasn&rsquo;t. 1 have no argument with the way I was treated in Boston.&rdquo;Foster&rsquo;s big gripe was his lack of playing time.&ldquo;When I played regularly I thought I was helpful to the team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it seemed like every time 1 got going, the rug was pulled out from under me and no one said anything to me. Either I wasn&rsquo;t appreciated or they just didn&rsquo;t want me.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash; Delaware North, the parent company of the Bruins, has given up on its plan to build a combination arena/dog and horse racing track in Salem, N.H., and move the Bruins some 35 miles north of Boston.But the crew of politicians and businessmen who were hastily recruited to keep the Bruins in Boston say they are still going through with their plan to build a new arena to replace the 53-year-old Boston Garden.The plan, unveiled in early August by Sen. Paul Tsongas, calls for a $56 million, 16,000-seat arena on the site of the parking lot behind the present Garden. It would be ready in two years from the day the State Legislature gives approval to an arena authority to float tax-exempt bonds.And, of yes, it would be called Sheraton Garden since the hotel company proposed to buy the name for a $2 million contribution.The Bruins&rsquo; training camp, located at Town Line Twin Rink in suburban Danvers for the second year, will open Sept. 10 for rookies and Sept. 14 for everybody else.The exhibition schedule opens Sept. 18 against the Philadelphia Flyers at Portland. Maine. The Flyers will be met twice, Buffalo and Montreal twice each, Hartford once and the Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders three times. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Bruins To Continue Rebuilding From Within

Team Canada didn&rsquo;t win the 1981 Canada Cup but it did manage to dominate the individual and team scoring.Canada outscored the Soviets 37-32 and Wayne Gretzky won the points title. Canada placed seventh of the top 11 scorers.Here are the individual scoring leaders and the team-by-team statistics:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01140/4415982-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="581" height="689"></div><h2>CANADA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0284/4415975-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="571" height="576"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0356/4415968-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="543" height="91"></div><h2>SOVIET UNION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0444/4415961-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="564" height="642"></div><h2>UNITED STATES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0536/4415954-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="561" height="637"></div><h2>CZECHOSLOVAKIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0630/4415947-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="549" height="278"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0727/4415940-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="542" height="361"></div><h2>SWEDEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0825/4415933-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="548" height="664"></div><h2>FINLAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0919/4415926-1-eng-US/f0041-092.jpg" title="f0041-09" width="548" height="638"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1018/4415919-1-eng-US/f0041-102.jpg" title="f0041-10" width="1189" height="1559"><figcaption class="caption-body">Canada&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky emerged as the leading point-getter in the 1981 Canada Cup tournament with 12 points. Gretzky scored five times in seven tournament games. (Photo by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Team Scoring For Canada Cup ’81 Tournament

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Swedes A Big Disappointment; USA Surprising

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011163/4414904-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="276" height="338"></div><h2>Unlikely Hall Of Famer</h2>THE&nbsp;least&nbsp;LIKELY player ever to obtain hockey&rsquo;s supreme accolade is now a member of The Hall of Fame.Allan Herbert Stanley holds the dubious distinction of being booed out of his NHL home in New York not once but twice. No other member of Hockey&rsquo;s Hall of Fame can make that statement.Few who applauded the debonair defenseman at the induction ceremonies in Toronto recall that Stanley holds the world&rsquo;s record for villification by a professional athlete. Nor do they realize that his ascent to stardom despite such adversity is as much a reason for his induction as was Stanley&rsquo;s pure defensive ability.If &ldquo;Big Allan,&rdquo; as we knew him, had told anyone in 1954 that someday he would make it to The Hall of Fame, New York City&rsquo;s Tactical Patrol Force would have rushed him to the Bellevue Hospital psychiatric ward in a strait-jacket.At the time Stanley was a member of the New York Rangers and happened to be the unwilling recipient of the biggest build-up of any hockey player in the Blueshirts&rsquo; history.The men responsible for the torrent of ink were Frank Boucher, GM of the Rangers, and Stan Saplin, the club&rsquo;s creative press agent. Together in the fall of 1948, they created the myth of Stanley&rsquo;s invincibility.&ldquo;One night,&rdquo; said Saplin, &ldquo;Allan was a minor-leaguer in Providence, enjoying a post-game glass of beer with a few teammates at midnight. The next noon he was in Leone&rsquo;s restaurant and being acclaimed, in effect, as the savior of the downtrodden Rangers.&rdquo;To obtain Stanley, the Rangers dispatched three pro players, cash and the rights held by the Rangers to the services of an amateur. The value was estimated at the time to be about $70,000. By today&rsquo;s fiscal standards it would be close to $1,000,000.Rangers&rsquo; fans, who had savored the luxury of but one playoff team in seven years, delighted in Stanley&rsquo;s build-up but could not tolerate the letdown that followed. They had expected a combination of Superman and The Incredible Hulk. Instead, they got a defenseman who played D-E-F-E-N-S-E.&ldquo;For $70,000,&rdquo; Stanley once analyzed, &ldquo;they wanted me to go streaking down the ice with the puck. That&rsquo;s fine for cheers but I might get checked, they might score on us and we might lose.&rdquo;In no time at all the &ldquo;$70,000 Rookie&rdquo; was being chided as the &ldquo;$70,000 Beauty&rdquo; and then the &ldquo;$70,000 lemon.&rdquo; None of this would have happened had the Blueshirts been winners but they hovered between mediocrity and melancholy.&ldquo;The booing,&rdquo; said Stanley, &ldquo;never had anything to do with whether I played good hockey for them. The few times we were winning, everything was all right. It was when we were losing&mdash;that&rsquo;s when they started in on me.&rdquo;Ironically, opponents appreciated the kid&rsquo;s talents and rarely applied the stilleto, although there were exceptions. Once, as he lined up for a face-off, Stanley was conf ranted by a foe who sneered: &ldquo;Some $50,000 Beauty! &ldquo;Stanley turned to his tormentor and instantly squelched him. &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; Allan insisted with mock indignation, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s &lsquo;$70,000 Beauty&rsquo;.&rdquo; They both laughed and the opponent never bothered Stanley again.Allan also tamed at least one of the 13,000 Madison Square Garden regulars but that, obviously, was not enough. One season ticket holder who was near the ice never stopped hurling the &ldquo;$70,000 Beauty&rdquo; needle at Stanley..In the midst of a game one night, Stanley skated over to the boards, spotted the fan and snapped: &ldquo;It used to be $70,000 but the way I&rsquo;m playing now it has gone down considerably.&rdquo;The fan roared with laughter&mdash;and never bugged Stanley again. &ldquo;I wish,&rdquo; Allan once lamented, &ldquo;that I could have reached the people in the balcony to talk to them.&rdquo;He couldn&rsquo;t of course, and the booing developed momentum. Stanley was alternately nicknamed &ldquo;Snowshoes&rdquo; and &ldquo;Sonja,&rdquo; as in Sonja Henie, the figure skating star.Boucher, who had brought Stanley to New York, appreciated Allan&rsquo;s talents more than most and was upset by the fans&rsquo; reaction. He decided to spare Stanley any more hurt by playing him only in away games, but that just left the Rangers with a rusty defenseman, and further increased the fans hostility.&ldquo;They&rsquo;d boo every time I touched the puck. Then they began to boo every time I got on the ice. Why, even the few games when I sat on the bench, they&rsquo;d yell at me.&rdquo;<h2>Catcalls Never Ceased</h2>THE AGONY ENDURED for six years, with one brief break when the Blueshirts took the Detroit Red Wings to the seventh game of the 1950 Stanley Cup finals before losing. Lynn Patrick (father of Rangers&rsquo; Craig) was New York coach at the time and called Stanley his most valuable Ranger.&ldquo;Every summer,&rdquo; Stanley once recalled, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d think about improving my play the next year and winning the fans over to my side. I was always in hopes that I&rsquo;d play like Superman.&rdquo;I worked in the Rangers&rsquo; press department during the 1954-55 season and vividly remember that Wednesday in November 1954, when Stanley&rsquo;s agony was stilled.Boucher rushed into the office and announced with a mixture of anger and relief that he had traded Stanley and forward Nick Mickoski to the Chicago Black Hawks for Bill Gadsby, a high-quality defenseman, and Pete Conacher, also a forward.The trade was as sensational as the original deal for Stanley since Gadsby also was considered a potential star. (As it happened, Gadsby played 20 years in the NHL, never skated for a Stanley Cup-winner, and was named to the Hall of Fame in 1970.)Big Allan played two seasons in Chicago with little hint of martyrdom. In the fall of 1956 the Black Hawks gave up and GM Tommy Ivan prepared to send him to the Hawks&rsquo; minor league affiliate in Buffalo.Lynn Patrick, who had moved on to Boston quickly grabbed the &ldquo;$70,000 Beauty&rdquo; for less than $15,000 and the Bruins were off and running.Needless to say, Stanley played some of his best games against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Saplin, who had become one of the continent&rsquo;s best hockey writers with the old New York Journal-American, remembered a poignant interchange between Stanley and a Ranger fan as Allan left the Garden dressing-room after an outstanding game against his former mates.&ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t play that way when you were with us,&rdquo; the fan said accusingly.&ldquo;Yes I did,&rdquo; Stanley said with a touch of melancholy, &ldquo;yes I did.&rdquo;He played two seasons in Boston and when the Bruins figured that Big Allan had had it Punch Imlach gladly interceded and signed the old geezer for his Toronto Maple Leafs. It was the kind of move that helped brand Imlach a genius.<h2>Appreciated In Toronto</h2>STANLEY SKATED JUST as deliberately in Toronto as he had with the Rangers when New York fans had hung signs from the front of the Garden balcony reading, &ldquo;Stanley Is a Bum&rdquo; and &ldquo;Sonja Must Go.&rdquo; The difference was that he was now playing before a sophisticated Maple Leaf Gardens audience which appreciated his defensive gifts as much as his boss, Imlach.It was no coincidence that the Leafs annexed four Stanley Cups with the big guy snowshoeing behind the blue line. Stanleys&rsquo; play had a blend of majesty and intelligence that was both hard and clean. Textbook defense, you might say, the kind that is as rare today as a nickel cup of coffee.Could Big Allan have achieved the same distinction as a Ranger? Under the circumstances, it would have been a 50-1 shot.The inescapable problem in New York was the frustrated corps of fans who would not&mdash;or could not&mdash;get off his back.&ldquo;There is always a nucleus of fans,&rdquo; said Saplin, &ldquo;who pay their way in whether their team is a winner or not. They need an outlet, though, for the bitterness that grows within them as failure piles upon failure.&rdquo;In the eyes of the Rangers&rsquo; faithful, Stanley was an abject failure, a skater who never fulfilled his notices, who would never cut it on Broadway and, needless to say, would never ever make it to Hockey&rsquo;s Hall of Fame.Welcome to the distinguished club. Big Allan. Nobody every beat bigger odds than you.NOTES&mdash;Catch the Rangers at Madison Square Garden this year because you won&rsquo;t see them there again&hellip;My informants say the Blueshirts will be the New Jersey Rangers in 1982-83, playing out of the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, N.J&hellip;. Costs of playing at MSG are higher than the Empire State Building&hellip;My guess is that the Garden will ultimately be razed and replaced by an office building or taken over by New York State. Who knows if the Garden is saved we then might have the New York Americans resurrected after almost 40 years of sleep&hellip;If nothing else, the baseball strike should have convinced the NHL Players&rsquo; Association that their grievances, no matter how serious are not worth a walkout&hellip;Best news of the summer was Freddie Creighton&rsquo;s decision to forsake his clothing job in Atlanta to become GM-coach of the CHL Indianapolis Checkers. The game can never get enough people with class and brains like Freddie&hellip;Lawrie Mifflin, who covered hockey for the N.Y. Daily News, quit the paper to work for Howard Cosell&hellip;Phil Esposito&rsquo;s switch from the ice to the airwaves has been eased by his pal sportscaster Len Berman. Espo has been doing radio and TV gabbing which is what he always said he wanted to do after scoring goals. &#9632;

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ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01720/4416382-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">While Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak was making acrobatic saves like the one in the top photo, Team Canada&rsquo;s Mike Liut was victimized by eight goals in the final game, including the one by Sergei Shepelev in the bottom photo. And when the massacre was all over, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (right) and Alan Eagleson were on hand to present the Canada Cup to Soviet captain Valery Vasiliev. (Photos by Bruce Bennett/Brian Winkler)</figcaption></div>A WRAP-UP OF THE DISASTER &#9632;

Cover-01

WOE CANADA!

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011103/4414423-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Potvin, whose effectivenss in the last game was severely limited after he reinjured his groin, tries to explain what happened to reporters. (Photos by Bruce Bennett/Brian Winkler)</figcaption></div>Although the scoresheet will tell you that the reason for Team Canada&rsquo;s 8-1 drubbing by Team USSR in the final of the Canada Cup tournament were Sergei Shepelev&rsquo;s three goals and an awesome goaltending performance by Vladislav Tretiak, what really beat the Canadians was the Russians&rsquo; patience and uncanny ability to capitalize on every opportunity they had.&ldquo;We had more chances than they did earlier in the game,&rdquo; an exhausted Larry Robinson said in a hushed lockerroom after the disaster was all over, &ldquo;but Tretiak kept them in it. Then, when the momentum shifted, they were able to score.&rdquo;They certainly were, although in the opening minutes of the game it was Team Canada that looked as if it was on the verge of breaking the game wide open. Early in the first period both Denis Potvin and Robinson missed the net with shots from the point and Bob Gainey, stationed in front of Tretiak, failed to convert a feed from Brian Engblom after Engblom had made a beautiful length-of-the-ice rush.A few minutes later Rick Middleton missed a rebound of a weak shot from the point and Marcel Dionne was robbed of what looked like a sure goal when he fired a blistering shot at Tretiak after taking a pass from linemate Guy Lafleur only to see Tretiak flash his right pad out at the last possible instant and deflect the puck into the corner.That looked to be Canada&rsquo;s best opportunity of the period until the 15-minute mark, with the Canadians on the power play. Bryan Trottier passed the puck from behind the net out front to Mike Bossy, who promptly shot&mdash;and missed. The rebound went out to Potvin, who lofted a high pass to Bossy, who gloved the puck, dropped it to the ice and in the same motion unloaded a blast that was labeled for the lower corner. Somehow, some way, Tretiak stabbed the shot with his glove hand and held on.Tretiak&rsquo;s counterpart at the opposite end of the arena, Mike Liut, wasn&rsquo;t exactly inactive, but he wasn&rsquo;t nearly as busy as the Russian. Liut handled the four shots that came his way with no problems and his only anxious moment came toward the end of the period, when the Soviets had a two-man advantage for 19 seconds and were up one man until the 17:11 mark, when Alexander Skvortsov drew a penalty for holding. During that span, Liut stopped close-in challenges by Sergei Kapustin and Andre Khomutov and when the buzzer sounded to end the period, the game was scoreless.The second period, however, was an entirely different story. Once again, Team Canada had its share of opportunties while the Soviets seemed to be laying back, calmly clearing rebounds away from their gallant goaltender, never rushing or panicking as they moved the puck up-ice and out of danger.Guy Lafleur had a marvelous opportunity two minutes into the period when he busted down the right side, chants of &ldquo;Guy, Guy, Guy&rdquo; ringing in his ears, and drove a shot at Tretiak. The puck broke through the goalie&rsquo;s pads and, as the crowd screamed in anticipation of the red light, skittered harmlessly past the post and away from the net.Shortly after that, Butch Goring hit Engblom with a beautiful pass right in front of Tretiak. Engblom tipped the puck with his stick, Tretiak&rsquo;s left pad shot out to stop it and then, with the puck up in the air and Tretiak lying flat on his back as several Canadians tried desperately to swat it into the net, the goalie&rsquo;s glove darted up and snatched it away.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02943/4414416-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1157" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body">In post-game ceremonies, goaltender Vladislav Tretiak and Soviet captain Valery Vasileyev prove that Russians do like to smile&mdash;once in a while.</figcaption></div>Moments later it was Ray Bourque&rsquo;s turn to miss converting a pass, this one a beauty from Bossy, and on the ensuing rush back up-ice by the USSR, Igor Larianov banged the puck by a helpless Liut after being beautifully set up by Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov.Team Canada bounced right back, however, when Bossy&mdash;who was one of the few Canadians to put in a creditable performance on this night&mdash;hit Gillies from behind the net with a perfect pass. Gillies, cruising in towards the goal, wristed a shot behind the screened Tretiak, who never budged.Inspired by the suddenly rejuvenated crowd, waving Canadian flags, chanting and clapping, the Canadians had the Russians temporarily on the run after the goal, thanks to some great forechecking by the line of Ron Duguay, Bob Gainey and Goring. But the crowd&rsquo;s cheers turned quickly to a collective moan when Shepelev scored the first of his three consecutive goals at 11:15.The next goal would be a crucial one, for the Canadians knew that attempting to overcome a two-goal lead with Tretiak playing the way he was would be a near impossible task.&ldquo;Tretiak has been the dominant goalie in hockey for the past 10 years,&rdquo; Potvin said after the game. &ldquo;We knew that he wasn&rsquo;t going to fold if his teammates gave him a two-goal lead.&rdquo;They did, at 16:28, when Shepelev, parked in the slot, took a pass from Sergei Kapustin in the corner and whipped an impossible shot past Liut&rsquo;s outstretched glove hand, off the crossbar and into the upper left corner of the net. That goal was the beginning of the end for Canada.The period ticked away, with Dionne fanning on a perfect pass from Lafleur and the Islanders&rsquo; line of Bossy-Trottier-Gillies swarming all over the net with just seconds remaining. They had a great chance when Gillies, behind the net, dumped the puck out in front to Trottier, who tried to jam it past Tretiak. But the goalie somehow managed to reach behind him and pull the puck back, just before it crossed the line. End of period.With the score only 3-1 and the crowd still optimistic that Team Canada could come back, the third period opened with even more screaming, flag waving and yelping. But before the Canadians could even test Tretiak, the Russians had scored again. Shepelev completed his hat trick just 1:39 into the period, beating Liut with a wrist shot from right in front of the net. A groan went up in the Forum and those people that didn&rsquo;t sit back, shaking their heads or burying their faces in their hands, quickly began heading for the exits.And then, perhaps knowing that their plight was totally hopeless, Team Canada suffered a complete breakdown. Canada was on the power play, when Krutov took the puck right off Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s stick, blew around Lafleur as if he was stationary and slapped a shot past Liut at 4:08.At 16:00, Larianov scored his second of the game to make it 6-1 and he was followed in quick succession by Vladimir Golikov, who scored at 18:39 and Alexander Skvortsov, whose tally at 19:19 finally, mercifully, put the Canadians out of their misery.Final score: USSR 8, Canada 1.What did it prove?&ldquo;Only that this game was kinda like the Super Bowl,&rdquo; said Robinson. &ldquo;You work towards it for almost two months, thinking about it, gearing up for it. And then, when you finally get there, suddenly all those days of work and training boil down to who is hottest on the particular night you play the big game.&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; Robinson said wistfully as he pulled off his soaking equipment, &ldquo;On this particular night, they were certainly a lot better than us.&rdquo;Amen. &#9632;

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Tretiak Awesome In Soviet Romp Over Frustrated Team Canada

Because we didn&rsquo;t want to close this issue until after the conclusion of the Canada Cup, we are bringing it out much later than we normally do. That means that the first weekly issue, dated October 2, will be out next week. In it, you&rsquo;ll find the 1981-82 schedule for the National Hockey League, as well as our annual team previews by each one of our NHL correspondents.Not only that, but we&rsquo;ll also have the results of some of the early exhibition games and our feature story will be on Guy Lafleur, the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; superstar who is anxious to put last year&rsquo;s dismal season behind him and make this season his best ever. Don&rsquo;t miss us! &#9632;

Coming Next Week

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;The Red Wings, idle through the early weeks of the offseason, began to make their move as the Sept. 14 opening of training camp neared.The biggest transaction was a trade with Minnesota which brought veterans Don Murdoch and Greg Smith, along with the North Stars&rsquo; top draft choice in 1982, to Detroit for the Wings&rsquo; top pick in the same draft.&ldquo;Murdoch is a proven NHL&rsquo;er&hellip;always a top goal scorer,&rdquo; said Jimmy Skinner, the Wings&rsquo; director of hockey operations. &ldquo;Greg Smith will fill our hole on left defense.&ldquo;This trade will definitely help our hockey club this season.&ldquo;It was something I have worked for long and hard. I know we have been criticized for not making a lot of trades this summer but it now proves my philosophy that, through&rdquo; negotiations and patience, we finally get what we set out for. We are not going to panic and make trades just for the sake of making a trade.&rdquo;With the deal, the Wings now have traded away their own top pick in each of the last three drafts, the previous pair going to Los Angeles.Murdoch, 25, split last season with Edmonton and its minor league farm club. He regained his scoring touch in the Central Hockey League, notching 32 goals in 40 games.In the days leading up to the deal, the Wings made several other moves.The Wings re-signed free agent goaltender Gilles Gilbert and promptly hailed him as their No. 1 man for at least the next two seasons.His back-up could be a newcomer&mdash;Corrado Micalef, the Wings&rsquo; second pick (third round) in this year&rsquo;s draft.Then there was a trade&mdash;minor league goaltender Al Jensen to Washington for minor league right wing Mark Lofthouse, a 48-goal man last season.At one point Jensen was heralded as the Wings&rsquo; goalie of the future but the current regime obviously didn&rsquo;t accept that view. Lofthouse, a talented offensive player with significant shortcomings in other areas, could bolster the Wings at a position they need immediate help.Another move added Walter McKechnie, a 34-year-old center, to the roster as a free agent from the Colorado Rockies. It&rsquo;ll be McKechnie&rsquo;s second tour of duty with the Red Wings.McKechnie was banished by the Red Wings&mdash;then under the control of Ted Lindsay&mdash;in the summer of 1977. He bounced around&mdash;from Washington to Cleveland to Toronto and finally the Rockies, where he had 15 goals and 38 points in 53 games last season.McKechnie played with the Wings for 2&frac12; seasons from 1974 to 1977 and was the club&rsquo;s leading scorer in his two complete campaigns with the club. However, he fell into disfavor with Lindsay and was sent to Washington in the deal for free agent goaltender Ron Low.&ldquo;We needed experience now at center ice to play with our young wingers and Walt has proven he&rsquo;s an NHLer,&rdquo; said Skinner. &ldquo;We have young centers in our farm system but they need more time in Adirondack before we bring them up, and Walt will give us that time.&rdquo;Coach Wayne Maxner agreed and added that, unlike another veteran center who was dispatched to the minors last year. Peter Mahovlich, McKechnie hasn&rsquo;t lost his skating legs. Incidentally, the Wings assigned Mahovlich, 34, to their Adirondack farm club in the American Hockey League on a fulltime basis. He will not attend the Wings&rsquo; major league training camp which opens Sept. 14 in Detroit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021105/4414533-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="578" height="906"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Smith should move right into the Red Wings&rsquo; lineup and help steady their defense corps.</figcaption></div>Gilbert, the Wings&rsquo; No. 1 goalie through last season despite being limited to 48 games by injuries, posted a 4.59 goals-against average. His back-up for most of last season was rookie Larry Lozinski. But Micalef, 20, can pry that job away from Lozinski.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited by Micalef,&rdquo; Maxner said. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;s as good as he showed last year in junior, he can help us.&rdquo;Clearly, the Wings are keeping a spot on the roster open for the young man from Quebec who joined the Cornwall Royals for the Memorial Cup last season and made them a winner with outstanding performances in the finals in neighboring Windsor, Ont. Wing officials got a good, hard look at Micalef in the Memorial Cup and jumped on the opportunity to draft him after taking Claude Loiselle as their top choice (in the second round).Early in the off-season, Skinner said he wouldn&rsquo;t be parting with any of his talented youngsters in a bombshell trade that had been anticipated after the disastrous 1980-81 season and that just about ended all speculation and turned the summer into a tranquil waiting period for 1981-82.The only controversy was a blast by Hall of Famer Sid Abel, a former Red Wing executive and currently a color commentator for the club both on television and radio, who criticized the organization, Skinner, Lincoln Cavalieri and even got down to the players. Abel questioned the performances of Skinner and the behind-the-scene&rsquo;s role of Cavalieri and said center Dale McCourt &ldquo;has a skating problem.&rdquo;That stirred a hornet&rsquo;s nest which remains unresolved but Abel said he&rsquo;d like to stay on as a broadcaster. In reality, Abel&rsquo;s comments weren&rsquo;t anything new. The same words, perhaps in different ways, have been echoed by the likes of Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe, also former employees.MOTOR CITY SHORTS&mdash;Maxner said that &ldquo;realistically&rdquo; Loiselle can be expected to return to junior hockey in Windsor for more seasoning. &ldquo;I wonder if we don&rsquo;t rush young kids too fast these days,&rdquo; Maxner said&hellip;. Mark Kirton, John Ogrodnick, Gary McAdam and Larry Lozinski are entering their option year. &#9632;

f0004-02

Wings’ Last-Minute Deals Follow Summer’s Patience

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;No one was shocked. Some people were sad.Serge Savard, who spent 14 full years with the Montreal Canadiens, officially retired from hockey last month.And while he officially announced his retirement during a mid-August news conference, Savard admitted he knew his National Hockey League career was over last April.The veteran defenseman was the last player to leave the ice after the Canadiens were eliminated in three straight games by the Edmonton Oilers in a preliminary Stanley Cup playoff round. He also intimated to teammates that he had played his last game with them.He sat down with Canadiens&rsquo; managing director Irving Grundman shortly after the club&rsquo;s humiliating finish and the pair came to a mutual agreement.&ldquo;When I first met with Serge after the season to discuss what the future held for him, it was agreeable to both Serge and myself that for the good of his career, himself and his family the 1981-82 season would start without Serge Savard,&rdquo; said Grundman.The last two seasons will not be cherished among the memories Savard took with him from his hockey career. A broken bone in his foot kept him out much of the last half of the 1979-80 season and his effectiveness was limited when he returned briefly.Throughout the 1980-81 season, he struggled and was often jeered by the critical paying customers at the Forum.Savard, who suffered two broken legs during his playing career, played on eight Stanley Cup-winning teams with Montreal and was a member of Team Canada in the 1972 showdown series against the Soviet Union. He played in the 1976 Canada Cup and 1979 Challenge Cup international hockey series.In 1969, Savard was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the outstanding Stanley Cup playoff performer and in 1979 he captured both the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy and an All Star team berth, the only time he ever received All Star honors.&ldquo;The last two years have been sad for me,&rdquo; Savard said, referring as much to the catcalls he frequently received from fans as his diminished output. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like the way things went in the last two years.&rdquo;&ldquo;The series against the Russians in 1972 was the greatest thrill,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;But the 1976 Canada Cup team was the best one I ever saw.The Canadiens also made a couple of other moves, officially naming Jacques Laperriere as assistant coach and signing right winger Mark Hunter and defenseman Gilbert Delorme, their top two draft picks last summer.No other changes were forthcoming although Grundman said he was still trying to make some deals to shed some excess bodies.IN PASSING&mdash; Only two of Savard&rsquo;s teammates, Rejean Houle and Mario Tremblay, were at his farewell news conference. They were headed to a hockey school in Quebec City before they turned around and came back to the Forum. Marcel Dionne, in town with Team Canada, also attended while Canadien players with the team didn&rsquo;t&hellip;More than 6,000 people were on hand to see the Canadiens play softball against a team bolstered by people such as Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Raymond Bourque at the Olympic Stadium. The game finished in a 6-6 tie&hellip;Coach Bob Berry will do away with the unpopular day-of-game trips by the Canadiens.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011003/4414564-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="577" height="1027"><figcaption class="caption-body">When Serge Savard left the ice after the Canadiens&rsquo; upset by Edmonton he knew it was his last game.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

Disappointing End For Habs’Savard

<div class="byline">BY BOB MILLER</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Questions, questions, questions.One thing is clear as the Los Angeles Kings opened their 1981-82 pre-season training camp in picturesque Victoria, B.C.&mdash;they could use a hockey version of the Shell Answer Man.There were as many questions sur-rounding the club as there were players on hand&mdash;61 reported&mdash;as Kings Ianuced preparation for their 15th season in the National Hockey League.&mdash;Will Parker MacDonald be an able replacement for Bob Berry, who wasn&rsquo;t good enough for Jerry Buss but just fine for the Montreal Canadiens?&mdash;Will be the Kings repeat their regular season success of last season? And will they improve upon their post-season record, an absolute must if Buss&rsquo; team is ever to become a hit in this warm-weather depot?<blockquote class="pullQuote">Buss&rsquo; cash bonus system may have cut the club&rsquo;s effectiveness for the playoffs.</blockquote>&mdash;Will Charlie Simmer (broken leg) and Rick Martin (damaged knee) recover from their injuries to provide the Kings a powerful 1-2 punch at left wing?&mdash;Can the Kings find someone to score goals besides Marcel Dionne at the center spot?&mdash;Will Mario Lessard&rsquo;s fourth season be good as his third, or will he slide as he did his sophomore season?That&rsquo;s just the surface, boys and girls.One thing is certain: The Kings will not expend all of their energy in concentrated drives this season as they did last. New coach MacDonald will see to that.Faced with losing his job last season, Berry prepared his team hard during the pre-season and raced the team to a 10-1-1 record and 21-7-1 mark after just 29 games. And at the three-quarter mark of the season, following a lengthy slump, owner Buss installed a cash bonus system that resulted in a drastically reduced number of goals against.But in MacDonald&rsquo;s mind, it also cut the club&rsquo;s effectiveness when it was needed most&mdash;in the playoffs.&ldquo;We were tired, and we played like a tired club,&rdquo; said the affable MacDonald. &ldquo;A lot of pressure went on the club&rsquo;s defense late in the season and Mario saw a lot of rubber&mdash;much more than he should have.&rdquo;MacDonald wasn&rsquo;t indicting either Berry or Buss, just following a growing trend in the league which favors peaking in April, when the playoffsMacDonald is optimistic that the &lsquo;81-82 addition of the Kings will be as formidable as last year&rsquo;s unit which posted 99 points and finished with the fourth best record in the NHL.&ldquo;There won&rsquo;t be many deviations from last year&rsquo;s system,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll still try and keep the number of shots down. If we can improve ourself personnel-wise at a few positions, we&rsquo;ll have a good club.&rdquo;A position-by-position rundown:GOAL&mdash;Lessard returns as the No.1 man. Reports from the Canada Cup tryout sessions were mixed. Islander goalie Billy Smith said Lessard had the best camp of any of the goalies, while reporters on the scene felt Lessard was a tad overweight. Whatever, the job is his. Jim Rutherford is the probable backup, with Gary Bromley pressing him. Kids Doug Keans and Paul Pageau are expected to split time in New Haven.DEFENSE&mdash;Virtually the same group returns, led by steady Dave Lewis, sophomore Larry Murphy and unsung Mark Hardy. The Kings will need improved play from veterans Jerry Korab, who had a bad playoff, and Rich Chartraw, who had a miserable playoff. Enforcer-type John Gibson might press for a job. The Kings could use some help here.LEFT WING&mdash;If Simmer and Martin are okay, the Kings might have the strongest left wing in the NHL. Otherwise, Billy Harris might be forced back to the left side. Steve Jensen returns as well after a solid season. J.P. Kelly and high-scoring rookie Scott Gruhl will bid for roster berths.CENTER&mdash;Dionne and&hellip;well, maybe Andre St. Laurent, an erratic vet, or talented but immature Greg Terrion, or hustling Dan Bonar. A job is available to rookies Bernie Nicholls and/or Steve Bozek if either is ready for the NHL.RIGHT WING&mdash;Very solid with Dave Taylor, Harris and Jimmy Fox, who may be the best of the 1980-81 King Kids. Veteran Mike Murphy might lose his job. &#9632;

Questions Circle King Encampment

<h2>FINAL STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1220/4414825-1-eng-US/f0006-122.jpg" title="f0006-12" width="537" height="200"></div><h2>PLAYOFF STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1316/4414818-1-eng-US/f0006-132.jpg" title="f0006-13" width="535" height="172"></div><h2>PLAYOFF SCORES</h2>Championship FinalSun. Sept. 13Soviet Union 8, Canada 1Semi-FinalsFri. Sept. 11Canada 4, United States 1Soviet Union 4, Czechoslovakia 1<h2>TOURNAMENT SCORES</h2>Wed. Sept. 9Canada 7, Soviet Union 3United States 4, Finland 4Czechoslovakia 7, Sweden 1Mon. Sept 7Canada 4, Sweden 3United States 6, Czechs 2Soviet Union 6, Finland 1Sat Sept 5Canada 4, Czechs 4Soviets 4, United States 1Sweden 5. Finland 0Thu. Sept 3Canada 8, United States 3Soviet Union 6, Sweden 3Czechoslovakia 7. Finland 1Tue. Sept. 1Canada 9. Finland 0United States 3, Sweden 1Soviets 1. Czechoslovakia 1<h2>PRE-TOURNAMENT GAMES</h2>Soviets 2, Sweden 1Soviets 4, Sweden 1Soviets 4, Finland 3Sweden 5. Czechs 5Soviets 5, Finland 2Sweden 7, Czechs 3Finland 2. Czechs 2Finland 5. Czechs 5Canada 5, United States 2Canada 6, United States 5Canada 10, Sweden 3Canada 3. Soviets 2United States 4. Czechs 1Sweden 6. Finland 3 &#9632;

f0006-12

Canada Cup Scoreboard

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C Publishing Ltd214 King St. West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>A Bad Night For Canada</h2>AT A RECEPTION OVER the weekend preceding Team Canada&rsquo;s showdown with the Soviet Union, someone collared Canada Cup organizer Alan Eagleson as he made his obligatory rounds and asked him how things were going.&ldquo;Great,&rdquo; The Eagle replied, &ldquo;as long as we do OK, the tournament will be a success.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; his questioner shot back, &ldquo;and as long as you make a profit.&rdquo;&ldquo;That,&rdquo; Eagleson responded before stalking off, &ldquo;is not an issue here.&rdquo;At the time, Eagleson&rsquo;s reply seemed a mite insincere, what with all his talk before and during the tournament about why it was necessary to charge so much for the tickets, how the tournament could break even and why the bleak attendance at the arenas for preliminary games wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily affect the bottom line. Talk like that, one would think, doesn&rsquo;t come from a man who claims to be unconcerned about red and black ink.But now that the tournament is over and Canada has been humiliated&mdash;there&rsquo;s no use resorting to euphemisms here; losing 8-1 to anyone is a humiliation&mdash;Eagleson&rsquo;s words at that cocktail party suddenly don&rsquo;t seem as disingenuous as they did initially. Everyone associated with Team Canada&mdash;from Eagleson to the players to the disbelieving fans walking along Ste. Catherine Street long after the game was over, clutching their Canadian flags and commiserating with each other&mdash;desperately wanted to retain possession of the Cup. And everyone, to a man, was bitterly disappointed and embarrassed when Canada not only failed to keep her prize but lost it in such a disheartening way.After the Soviets defeated the NHL in the Challenge Cup in 1979, endless articles were written, questioning not only the style of hockey endorsed by the NHL but the very system Canadian coaches were teaching at all levels of the game. Were they teaching the right things, people wondered? Was it not time, some asked, to revamp the whole structure and start from scratch with a more European approach?As it turned out, the furor over that catastrophe eventually abated with time and more and more European techniques appeared, not because of any great restructuring of Canada&rsquo;s hockey program, but by gradual osmosis and growing receptivity to and respect for new ideas by the North American coaches.So while everyone has a perfect right be disappointed with the results of that final game at Montreal, let&rsquo;s take care not to overreact and start talking about what the NHL now has to do to ensure that something like this never happens again. It well might&mdash;just as it happened to the Soviets in the second game they played against Canada in the tournament. The score of that game was 7-3 and the Soviets looked as inept and disorganized then as the Canadians did four nights later. Only difference was, on the night the Soviets were inept, they had already clinched a berth in the semifinals and may have been saving themselves for the really significant portion of the tournament. The night the Canadians rolled over and played dead was the significant game&mdash;and they came up short, way short.Why?Who knows? The theories will abound ad nauseum for months to come but none will probably make more sense than the one offered by Canadian defenseman Larry Robinson as he slumped, totally exhausted, in front of his locker, reflecting on the six weeks of work he&rsquo;d just completed and contemplating the nine months ahead.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d been thinking about this game for almost two months,&rdquo; Robinson said, &ldquo;working towards it and gearing up for it. And when we finally got here, it all boiled down to who was the hottest team on the night you play the game. On this particular night, they were a lot better than we were.&rdquo;Indeed they were. But it&rsquo;s comforting to know that there will be more games of this sort in the future and that the Soviets are capable of having bad nights themselves.After all, look what happened at Lake Placid not so very long ago. &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY ROGER BOILEAU</div>When the 35 candidates for Team Canada&rsquo;s entry in the Canada Cup 1981 Tournament were first announced in early July, there came a cry of indignation from Quebec City with lawyer Guy Bertrand in the front ranks, questioning the selection of only six French-speaking native Quebeckers to the team and the absence of any members of the Quebec Nordiques, specifically Jacques Richard and Real Cloutier.Bertrand called for the formation of a national Quebec hockey team, a prime consideration in the formation of the Equipe Quebec Hockey Committee. One of the committee&rsquo;s members is Laval University sociologist Professor Roger Boileau, who discussed with THE HOCKEY NEWS some of the implications of the unfair treatment received by French-speaking hockey players.At this time, the objective of the Committee Equipe Quebec is to foster and develop Quebec hockey at the international level. It means participating in the Canada Cup, but not only the Canada Cup. It would mean other international tournaments, depending on when they are scheduled and the kind of arrangements that players within the National Hockey League can make. Any Canadian team has to take into consideration the professional season, so it wouldn&rsquo;t be a different story for the Quebec team.I would say that for Alan Eagleson and the success of his Canada Cup tournament, a Quebec team will generate great enthusiasm for any future tournaments, within Quebec first, but Canada, too. A delegation of Quebec hockey players could be appreciated for their talent and what they can do on the ice.This applies not only to hockey players, but also all of the people that are around them&mdash;trainers and all the other people involved within a hockey team. Globally, Quebec hockey players are treated like a minority group, no more, no less. This means that they are considered for teams as long as they are very, very good. If not, there&rsquo;s always some other people from other parts of Canada that could take their place within a team.This is a conclusion which comes from a study by [University of Cincinnati sociologist] David Marple, who studied the presence of francophone players within the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association during the 1972-73 season. We will soon be trying to update his data, but what it says is that francophone players performed better in goals and assists, having as a mean a better rank at the end of the season than the other players even though they played an average of less games during the season. This is evidence that these players have to be very good to make the league, and indicates that for players of equal talent, a francophone wouldn&rsquo;t be taken.<blockquote class="pullQuote">To be in the National Hockey League, a francophone almost has to be a superstar.</blockquote>I am not a hockey journalist; I don&rsquo;t have all the insight that a journalist would have, but I would say that the impact that the Marple paper had for journalists was that they had so many little bits of information in their minds through their contacts with the players. They were following the teams and had the insight, but no systemization of these things. That&rsquo;s what Marple&rsquo;s paper did; it put these things together for them.Another point is the very low percentage of junior hockey players from Quebec as compared to Ontario and the West, that are playing in the National Hockey League. In a 10-year period from 1969 to 1979, the percentage was only about seven percent. I think there is something there that is unusual, that low percentage. And then if you compare this very low percentage with the performance of the francophones that are in the NHL, to me, this reinforces the assumption that to be in the National Hockey League, a francophone almost has to be a superstar. I would say that the ordinary player, a middle-range player from Quebec, doesn&rsquo;t make it as opposed to Ontario and the West.The whole idea of Hockey Quebec has nothing to do with the points I have just mentioned in the sense of the basic motivation for creating Hockey Quebec and having a team for tournaments. We didn&rsquo;t look at the figures and say there&rsquo;s been mistakes and injustices and that we&rsquo;re going to correct them.The basic motivation for Hockey Quebec was that we think for the sport of hockey itself, for Quebec hockey players and for hockey within Quebec, that it was worthwhile to have another good team within these tournaments. It&rsquo;s the same assumption that Scotland is good in rugby and is accepted in the Tournament of Five Nations, just as well as Wales is accepted there. Not because they are a minority, but because they are good at that sport. Sport develops itself not by eliminating good players, but by multiplying the teams and the confrontations. We felt that for the sake of hockey in general, for the sake of hockey in Quebec and for the players, too, that it was a good idea and a good project.We also felt that for the amateurs of hockey, especially the Quebec population in this case, that it would be a good challenge to have another good team. Hockey is probably the only sport in which Quebec is systematically producting elite players at a good rate. We do have some elite people in other sports from time to time, but not systematically. The other sports don&rsquo;t have the appeal within the Quebec population that hockey has.We have one statistic from a thesis a couple of years ago on mobility within the National Hockey League. There was one question in a questionaire given to players, not only francophone, but players from all over who had retired during a 25-year period from 1949 through 1973. The question was something like: &lsquo;When you were playing, did you hope or expect or think it would be interesting after you retired to continue your career within a professional club as a scout or whatever, or within the National Hockey League organization?&rsquo; About 11 percent of the francophone players said yes, that they thought it was a good idea, that it was manageable for them and they would have liked to have done it.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Hockey is the only sport in which Quebec is systematically producing elite players.</blockquote>That compares to about 52 percent of the anglophones who thought that it was a reasonable thing to do; who said that they would like to do that. There&rsquo;s a huge discrepancy there. A lot of explanations were put forward&mdash;that francophone hockey players thought they would be refused, that there was no precedent since few francophones made their careers in administration, and it was the same thing with wanting to become referees, the same thing at almost every level.My interpretation is that they probably thought it was a dream, an impossibility, that there was no room for them, as opposed to the perception of the anglophone, that it was a realistic option.I don&rsquo;t think that this is true only for professional sports. If you look at the amateur delegation of hockey, within the Olympic games you find almost the same pattern. Only about seven percent of all the hockey players from Canada who have represented the country for the last 50 years in the Olympic Games were francophones. Again it&rsquo;s a gross under-representation.It&rsquo;s the same thing with coaches and all of the other people who could learn something from international competition. There were almost no francophones there, either, and it&rsquo;s a kind of vicious circle.This vicious circle is the kind of basic treatment any minority receives, inside or outside sports. Sport is not different in regard to this issue. Nobody gets there; nobody gets experience, so no one can teach things to others or gain more experience to help some other people. &#9632;

Quebec Hockey Players Treated Like Minority Group

<div class="byline">BY STEVE WINTER</div>LANDOVER&mdash;At last&mdash;at long last&mdash;the word is official. Bobby Carpenter, Jr., the highly-touted 18-year-old star from St. John&rsquo;s Prep in Danvers, Mass, is indeed a Washington Capital.With a heavy air of speculation dangling for two months over his young head, Carpenter finally ended the suspense when the club called a Capital Centre news conference late last month to announce the signing of their No. 1 1981 draft choice. But the news conference more resembled that of a U.S. Presidential media event than a sports event, if one based such determination on the number of press in attendance.With representatives from Baltimore, Washington, New England and Canada on hand, Carpenter&mdash;the highest American ever chosen in the NHL draft&mdash;took the podium and said &ldquo;I&rsquo;m real proud to be a Capital. I didn&rsquo;t think it would happen to me this early. I really thought I&rsquo;d be spending four years at college first.&rdquo;For a while during the negotiations between Caps&rsquo; GM Max McNab, legal counsel Peter O&rsquo;Malley and Carpenter family lawyer Jack Herlihy, that was indeed a viable option. In early summer, Carpenter signed a &ldquo;letter of intent&rdquo; to play at Providence College of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, and after learning that he was selected by the Capitals&mdash;instead of his preference, the Hartford Whalers&mdash;that possibility loomed even larger.And with family friend and advisor Bobby Orr (yes, the Bobby Orr) guiding the way, it appears as though McNab and Co. would be in for a long hard struggle if they were to lure their prize catch away from college.&ldquo;The ultimate factor,&rdquo; Carpenter said, &ldquo;was my dream to play in the NHL. If I had the chance to do it now and if I didn&rsquo;t do it, I&rsquo;d really regret it in the long run.&rdquo;By making such a decision. Carpenter stands the chance of becoming the first high school player&mdash;American or otherwise&mdash;to jump straight into the NHL. In fact, as the third player chosen overall in the June entry draft, Carpenter has established himself as the most sought-after American hockey player ever, a laurel which could possibly stand alone for many years to come.As for the pleasure of performing up to his headlines, Carpenter said &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think back on things I&rsquo;ve done except to look at what got me here. For now, I&rsquo;ve just got to keep going and doing what I&rsquo;ve been doing all along.&rdquo;If that&rsquo;s what happens, then the results will please McNab and coach Gary Green very nicely.&lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been waiting in anticipation all summer long,&rdquo; said Green. &ldquo;I only saw him play at the summer festival [in Syracuse] in July, and when I saw what he could do, I wanted to represent him.&rdquo;Of course, had Green represented his &ldquo;star-of-the-future,&rdquo; he probably would have settled for less than the estimated $500,000 three-year arrangement agreed upon by Herlihy, but that dollar figure seemed a relatively minor concern to those in attendance at the conference. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just glad that Bobby has decided to accept our very modest offer,&rdquo; quipped McNab.As for Carpenter&rsquo;s role on the team, that still remains to be determined. He fielded questions about whether he could handle the pressure of leading the Capitals into the playoffs by saying that he &ldquo;still had to make the team first.&rdquo; And as for his starting assignment, well &ldquo;if Mr. McNab and Mr. Green feel that [Hershey of the AHL] is where I should start, then that&rsquo;s where I&rsquo;ll start.&rdquo;Speculation, of course, has Carpenter standing at center-ice when the Capitals play their home opener on Saturday night, October 10, against the Detroit Red Wings. And that speculation was further supported when questions were raised about the # 10 jersey at the news conference with Carpenter&rsquo;s name sewn on the back, a number which previously belonged to Rolf Edberg.&ldquo;Rolfie decided to return to the Swedish elite division, play over there and scout for us this year,&rdquo; said Green, implying that with Carpenter on board as another center, space for the 30-year-old Stockholm native would be hard to find. &ldquo;Rolfie&rsquo;s got a good understanding about his talents and his role as an NHL player. It was his decision all the way. He&rsquo;s still eligible to return and play for us the following year.&rdquo; &#9632;

Star Carpenter Sets Up Shop In Washington

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011109/4414959-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="290" height="346"></div><h2>The Last Canada Cup?</h2>ORGANIZATION AND EXECUTION of the 1981 Canada Cup International Hockey Tournament had been about as much fun for R. Alan Eagleson as a good flood.You see, the Canada Cup is the Eagle&rsquo;s baby. But there were times in the month of August when he figured that the entire production was Rosemary&rsquo;s baby.The problems in bringing together the best of Canada, the U.S., the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Finland in a round-robin tournament, the soaring costs of staging such an event and a reduced profit from the &lsquo;81 event compared to what was earnd in the inaugural Canada Cup in &lsquo;76 were enough to give some hints that this year&rsquo;s cup might be the last one.Add to that the woes Eagleson encountered during the tournament and if another Canada Cup is staged around 1985, it, first, will be a bit of a miracle and, second, the financial format for the event will be altered drastically.The first Canada Cup grossed approximately $6 million and a produced a profit of $3 million which was divided between the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association pension fund and Hockey Canada to advance the game in Canada.This year, the cup likely will gross close to $6.5 million but the profit will be in the neighborhood of $1 million, perhaps a little more. Of that profit, the first $600,000 goes to Hockey Canada which means the NHL pension fund won&rsquo;t receive that big a boost.&ldquo;Air fares and accomodation&mdash;hotel rooms and food&mdash;have risen between 100 and 200 per cent since 1976,&rdquo; Eagleson said. In &lsquo;72, we chartered a plane to bring the first Team Canada to Toronto from Prague after the first summit series and it costs $13,000. This year, we chartered a plan to fly the team from Edmonton to Winnipeg and it cost $13,000.&rdquo;However, rising costs are only part of the problems encountered by the Canada Cup. Less than a week before the tournament opened Eagleson was forced to move two games scheduled for Quebec City to Ottawa because of lack of ticket sales. Low response in Winnipeg meant that alternate sites for games there were explored but the plan to shift matches was abandoned, mainly because the Canadian network televising the games had made a sizeable commitment for rental of equipment.Response in Montreal was excellent and it was good in Edmonton, however, and that gave the tournament the boost it needed.<h2>Losing Toronto Hurt Event</h2>WHEN EAGLESON WAS unable to reach an agreement with Harold Ballard, the owner of Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, to hold Canada Cup games there, the tournament received a large setbackToronto is one of the great hockey cities. Think not? Then how do you account for the fact that the dismal Maple Leafs play to packed houses for every home game?But Ballard, who can&rsquo;t get his name in the papers for any other reason than being ridiculous, claimed he didn&rsquo;t want the Soviet Union&rsquo;s National Team playing in his building.In this journal&rsquo;s August issue, Ballard explained his reasoning in one of the greatest examples of ideological gobbledygook ever committed to paper. It read as if it had been written by Prof. Irwin Corey. Soviet gymnasts and the Moscow Circus have appeared in MLG but then, happy Harold never has been a model of consistency.Had Eagleson been able to book the Canada Cup games into the big rinks in the three big towns&mdash;Montreal, Edmonton and Toronto&mdash;the Canada Cup would have been another unqualified success.In an attempt to guarantee decent crowds for all games in the series, tickets were sold in packages. That meant the customers had to pay $15, $20 or $25 per game not only to see Team Canada or the USSR, the big attractions, but to view the games of lesser interest, too, even the pre-tournament exhibitions.Eagleson wanted to guarantee at least some sort of house for the poor attractions by selling the tickets in packages. Perhaps it would have been better if the tickets had been sold on a three-plateau price structure&mdash;one price for the exhibition games, a slighterly higher price for the tournament games and premium tabs for the playoff matches.<h2>For Glory, Not Cash</h2>EAGLESON FEELS THAT in any future Canada Cup the incentive must be something other than cash.&ldquo;If there is another one, maybe it will have to be held for the honor, rather than the profit,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had to twist the arms of corporate friends and clients and I&rsquo;ve just about run out of tradeouts that are needed to put it together.&rdquo;When Team USA trained in Bloomington, Minn., there was large amount of interest in the club and the good showing by the U.S. in the Canada Cup indicates that tournament games would have been a good attraction there. Had Team USA, with a great many Minnesota-born players on its roster, been based there, the gates would have been solid.However, Eagleson needed the U.S. team to supply a good secondary attraction in the Canadian cities.The Eagle did hedge a little when asked if this definitely would be the last Canada Cup he would organize. The question came on a day when things were piling up on him&mdash;games had to be moved out of Quebec, ticket sales in Winnipeg were slow and the Soviet Union hockey people, as always, were making extra demands after signing agreements convering everything they would need.&ldquo;I suppose at this point I&rsquo;m like a fighter who&rsquo;s just lost a big bout or a politician who&rsquo;s lost an election,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They say at the point that they&rsquo;ll never fight or run again but a few days later, after they&rsquo;ve had time to lick their wounds, they start looking for another bout or talking about the next election.&ldquo;So maybe about November, I&rsquo;ll start thinking about the next Canada Cup. But I won&rsquo;t know if that will happen until November.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-01

HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY FRANK FONTAINE</div>QUEBEC&mdash;&ldquo;This is my 14th season and it&rsquo;s the first time I&rsquo;ve had to submit to this sort of exercise. I don&rsquo;t like this kind of training; in fact, I hate it&hellip;But I think it&rsquo;s essential.&rdquo; So said a sweaty, tired Moose Dupont after the first day of the Nordiques&rsquo; special pretraining camp; a day spent running in mountainside woods and playing games on a field; a day of training with no skates.As is the case with more and more NHL teams, the Nordiques started their pre-season activities with a few days of physical conditioning, at Lake Delage, about 20 miles north of Quebec. Dupont and his buddy goalie Michel Plasse, looked for all the world like a pair of wrongly condemned prisoners being escorted to their execution, as they started to run up the winding trails of a not so high mountain, behind 52 other players.&ldquo;I never thought I could make it to the top. 1 was sure this was it; I&rsquo;d leave my hide somewhere in those woods,&rdquo; admitted Dupont with a sigh of relief after realizing that all he had left in the woods, was a few pounds. Truth is, in fact, The Moose said he had never fell so good since the start of his career. Could it be that despite his dislike for office training, the 32-year-old rearguard had followed the summer training program which had been prepared for each Nordiques&rsquo; player, by assistant coach Charlie Thiffault&mdash;the former Laval University coach who holds a doctorate in Physical Education.For coach Michel Bergeron, the program prepared by Thiffault was of the highest importance. Attendance at the Lake Delage camp was not compulsory since it was being held before the time allowed by the NHL Players Association for compulsory camps. Seven players did not accept the Nordiques&rsquo; invitation; the three Stastnys who rented a nearby arena a month ago, in order to help newly arrived brother Marian to get back in the groove after a year of inactivity in Czechoslovakia; Prairies farmer Dale Hoganson; Team USA captain Robbie Ftorek; goalie Dan Bouchard, still haggling over his new contract&hellip;and Marc Tardif, said to be the highest paid player on the team, who does not have to worry about a contract for the next three seasons.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t hold anything against those who didn&rsquo;t show-up,&rdquo; [at the Lake Delage camp], said Bergeron, &ldquo;But 1 will against those who won&rsquo;t be in shape when they step on the ice. Charlie had prepared a program for them. Those who don&rsquo;t report in good shape will show a lack of good will. I have no use for such players.&rdquo;Not too many new faces are expected to make it with the team this year. The best of the newcomers are more likely to wind up with the Fredericton Express, the Nordiques&rsquo; new AHL farm team. However, there will be some changes; most notably at center. &ldquo;I was handcuffed last year, by being able to work with only three centermen, [Dale Hunter, Robbie Ftorek and Peter Stastny], I want to play with four lines and six defensemen, this we had to let John Wensink and Kim Clackson go. Clackson did as much as he could for us last season, but nowdays, you can&rsquo;t afford room on a bench for a guy you can use only when things get rough.&rdquo;In other words, the Nordiques are counting on refining their recipe from last season, speed, finesse, and size, to keep moving up in the standings following their 11th place finish. This means their number one draft pick, defenseman Randy Moller, will have to show he can skate and stickhandle as well as check NHL style, if he&rsquo;s to stick with the Nordiques. The 6-2, 205-pounder, who waited until he had turned 18 two weeks before training camp, before signing a three-year contract, is primarily known for his ability to shake-up and knock down opposing players&hellip;inside the boundaries of the rules of the game. At the tryout camp for Canada&rsquo;s National Junior Team, held in Kingston, Ontario, recently, he was politely told to restrain his enthusiasm lest the roster of candidates be prematurely amputated.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s true I&rsquo;m a hard, aggressive player, but I&rsquo;m not a goon,&rdquo; said the tall, well mannered, soft-spoken, young western gentleman. Moller realizes it&rsquo;s a big &ldquo;Kangaroo jump&rdquo; for a defenseman, to go from junior hockey to the NHL. Moreover, he&rsquo;s stepping into a situation where he&rsquo;ll have to beat out one of four other young defensemen: Dave Pichette; Normand Rochefort; Mario Marois; and Pierre Lacroix&hellip;or one of the only two vets with the team; Dupont or Hoganson. On the other hand, he can take heart from the fact that Lacroix, Pichette, and Rochefort all made it to the Nordiques&rsquo; blueline directly from junior ranks. Moller says he&rsquo;s prepared to go back to Lethbridge if he does not make the team.Should that turn out to be the case, he can look to Dale Hunter for consolation or inspiration. Hunter went back to the Ontario Junior League two seasons ago, after being the Nordiques&rsquo; number one draft pick, and despite having had an excellent training camp. The spunky centerman came back to establish himself as a team leader last season. &#9632;

Nordiques Take To Woods For Pre-Training

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011135/4415014-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="292" height="343"></div><h2>Fred Shero Returns</h2>&ldquo;THE BAND ELLWOOD, the band!&rdquo;John Belushi&rsquo;s revelation to Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd came to mind when Fred Shero returned to the Spectrum to promote a Flyers&rsquo; Oldtimers game. Like Belushi&rsquo;s Joliet Jake film character, someone in the Flyers&rsquo; front office finally saw the light and realized it was proper hockey decorum to bring Shero back to coach the Flyers&rsquo; oldtimers prior to an exhibition game.Last season, the Flyers made a big production of naming their Team of the Decade. Invited back, by popular demand, were such Stanley cup gems as Bernie Parent, Ed Van Impe, Gary Dornhoefer and even Dave Schultz (second team). Curiously, however, the ballot neglected to include Coach of the Decade. Had such a category been present, only one name could have been entered&mdash;Fred Shero, the man who coached the Flyers to consecutive Stanley Cups.That Shero had criticized Flyers&rsquo; management, announced his retirement as coach in May 1978, then, two weeks later, surfaced on Broadway as coach-general manager of the Rangers, made some of us question the renowned class of the Philadelphia organization. Surely Ed Snider and associates weren&rsquo;t still punishing Shero for his defection? Hell, the Flyers received a first-round draft choice, who turned out to be Ken Linseman, from the Rangers for Shero.By the time Philadelphia&rsquo;s Team of the Decade was announced, Shero was in exile at his Westchester County home, fired by the Rangers just one-and-a-half years after taking them to the Stanley Cup finals.Shero&rsquo;s problems with the Rangers included lack of communication, a few players who thought they were smarter than one of hockey&rsquo;s most successful coaches, judgment errors in hiring some friends as aides, and a drinking problem.Several months after he was fired I told Shero 1 thought the airing of his drinking problem was a wise move, that perhaps now the whispers would fade away. If he cured the problem, which was no worse than that of a few coaches, front-office people, baseball managers and sports writers who are still functioning, I thought some progressive-minded NHL team would sign him again as coach.<h2>Wouldn&rsquo;t Take A Chance</h2>IT WAS DISAPPOINTING to learn that the NHL rumor circuit was beeping out the message that no team was willing to take a chance on Shero. Whatever happened to rewarding a man for honesty and the courage to admit his mistakes?Anyway, the Shero who appeared at the Spectrum for a press conference sounded like a man ready to work again.&ldquo;I want to get back&mdash;there&rsquo;s no sense denying it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t get back in the big leagues, even if 1 don&rsquo;t make any money, I&rsquo;d like to help out some team. Even a high school team. Get the feel of things again. You feel useless doing nothing. Why shouldn&rsquo;t I be able to help?&rdquo;What about a college job? His son, Ray, is an outstanding player at St. Lawrence University. Maybe college coaching is the place for Shero.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like it because you have a chance to coach,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Once the season starts in the pros, there&rsquo;s no chance to teach.&rdquo;During the pleasant session with the Philadelphia press, Shero even admitted his taking the Rangers&rsquo; GM job was a mistake. This was a point any of us could have made to Sonny Werblin before Shero was recruited for the Rangers, but Werblin never asked.&ldquo;Gulf and Western is so big,&rdquo; Shero said. &ldquo;What I should have done is assume control immediately. Say 1 am the boss, like Keith is here.&ldquo;It was my fault. I&rsquo;ve never been successful when I started to listen to other people.&rdquo;<h2>Start Of Comeback?</h2>MAYBE THE FUN NIGHT behind the Flyers&rsquo; bench will start Shero on the road back to coaching. Among the ex-Flyers lacing on the skates again will be Lou Angotti, the team&rsquo;s first captain, Andre Lacroix, Simon Nolet, Larry Zeidel and Forbes Kennedy. Zeidel and Kennedy? Presumably these two have mellowed in their middle-age. Otherwise, have the riot squad on standby.Scheduled to face the former Flyers are such distinguished NHL oldtimers as Henri Richard, Yvan Cournoyer, Alex Delvecchio, Harry Howell and Jean-Guy Talbot.Many of us hoped the Flyers would stage such a reunion on the 10th anniversary of their first Stanley Cup. But that occasion is still three years away. If this night helps remind people that Fred Shero is still a capable NHL coach, then those of us who have known him a long time will be delighted. &#9632;

f0012-01

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The Penguins let one free agent named Greg get away, but managed to hang onto another.Pittsburgh, who lost goaltender Greg Millen to the Hartford Whalers in June, signed center Greg Malone to a new contract for one season and an option year.Malone, 25, became a free agent June 1. He has been among the Penguins top two scorers during three of the last four seasons, but tallied only 21 goals and 29 assists in 62 games last year after reinjuring a knee.He had undergone knee surgery in February 1980 after scoring 19 goals and 32 assists in 51 games. Malone reinjured the same knee in the second game of last season, and sat out 16 games before getting back into the lineup.&ldquo;If Greg can remain healthy, he will be one of the keys to our club this year,&rdquo; said general manager Baz Bastien. &ldquo;His return gives us strength up the middle with Paul Gardner, Mike Bullard and either Gregg Sheppard or Mark Johnson.&rdquo;With the surplus at center, the Penguins are expected to make a deal to obtain a goaltender to replace the departed Millen.&ldquo;Now that we&rsquo;ve got Malone back, we can concentrate on getting another goalkeeper,&rdquo; said coach Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a position now of being able to put together a package.&rdquo;The Penguins No. 1 netminder is Michel Dion, who was signed as a free agent from Winnipeg without compensation. The No. 2 goaltender is Nick Ricci, who has only 13 games of National Hockey League experience, and could probably benefit from a full season in the minor leagues.Malone led Pittsburgh in scoring with 65 points on 35 goals and 30 assists in 1978-79, and had the most assists with 32 in 1979-80 even though he missed 29 games with the knee injury.He was represented in contract negotiations by agent Alan Eagleson, who reportedly turned down a four-year contract offered by the Penguins.&ldquo;Greg wants to prove that he&rsquo;s healthy and then renegotiate again next year,&rdquo; Eagleson said.Malone, who is the Penguins&rsquo; player representative, is married to a Pittsburgh girl.In two other player moves, veteran left wings Nick Libett and Errol Thompson decided to hang up their skates.Libett, 35, came to Pittsburgh in August 1979 in exchange for Pete Mahovlich from Detroit, where he played for 12 seasons. He scored 237 goal and 268 assists in 982 NHL games during his 14 seasons.The Stratford, Ont., native will become a salesman for a Detroit paint company, a firm he has worked for during recent offseasons.Thompson, 31, was traded to the Penguins from Detroit during last season for Gary McAdam. He decided to accept a sales position with a soft drink firm near his Prince Edward Island home even though he had one season and an option year left on his contract.A 10-year NHL veteran, Thompson sessed one of the best backhand ts in the league, which helped him score 194 career goals.Just prior to training camp, the Penguins lost free agent center Orest Kindrachuk to Washington, with compensation due, and then lost defenseman Dave Burrows, 32, to retirement.PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Team owner Edward J. DeBartolo has taken over control of the Civic Arena from the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. DeBartolo signed a 50-year lease with five 10-year options. He has plans for the Arena and surrounding properties that include double-decked garages on three existing parking lots, a restaurant which will be an extension of the Arena, new dressing and training rooms, and the repainting of the inside of the facility&hellip;Pittsburgh will play six preseason games, including two each with Quebec, Washington and Detroit. &#9632;

Penguins Retain Malone’s Services

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;There comes a time in the life of every successful professional athlete when he must consider just how he wishes to be treated by history.Bursitis and the second mortgage are much closer than the first goal in the Memorial Cup playoffs. The years may have been kind, but they&rsquo;ve also been many. Time and youth have not run out, but the direction is irreversible.Can an athlete who has done it change environments and objectives, and, at 31, crank himself up enough to do it again?That is the question which Rich MacLeish must confront as he embarks on a &ldquo;second career&rdquo; with the Hartford Whalers. His reputation, as well as his spot in NHL history, hinges on continued production.&ldquo;At first. I wasn&rsquo;t too thrilled about coming to Hartford.&rdquo; said MacLeish, traded from Philadelphia to Hartford in a multi-player deal which included Hartford&rsquo;s No. 1 draft pick next year. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been hearing that I would be traded for about four years, so it didn&rsquo;t come as a shock. I&rsquo;m one guy that the Flyers could get something for. I&rsquo;m kind of excited now. Hartford is an up and coming team. I&rsquo;m hoping to have a great year.&rdquo;MacLeish has been to the mountaintop. In 11 NHL seasons, all with the Flyers, he has accounted for 320 goals and 355 assists. He was a prime ingredient in the Flyers&rsquo; back-to-back Stanley Cup years, 1974-75. In his last nine years, MacLeish has scored 30-plus goals seven times, including 38 Jast season despite a demotion to a fourth lipe.&ldquo;MacLeish should give us instant offensjve firepower and leadership, two areas we need help in, &ldquo;said Larry Pleau, Whalers&rsquo; head coach and general manager. &ldquo;Youth cannot learn from youth. You need some veterans. MacLeish is a proven winner.&rdquo;Despite his track record of sustained offensive excellence, the knock on MacLeish somehow won&rsquo;t go away. He doesn&rsquo;t always extend himself. In some cities, that&rsquo;s considered a misdemeanor. In Ph illy, it&rsquo;s akin to grand larceny.&ldquo;Hey, I&rsquo;ve heard it all,&rdquo; MacLeish said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not Jack McIIhargey. 1 don&rsquo;t jump up and down after a goal. I don&rsquo;t yell a lot. It isn&rsquo;t necessary for me to run somebody to get into a game. If a guy wants to fight, 1&rsquo;11 fight, but I&rsquo;m not going to go into a corner looking for it.&ldquo;The way I skate, it sometimes looks as if I&rsquo;m lackadaisical, but, try to catch me.&rdquo;Hartford isn&rsquo;t in the same division as Philly in more ways than one. The demands on MacLeish will be greater in Hartford than they were in Philly, while the prizes that can be won are considerably less. The Whalers are not thinking Stanley Cup. Instead, they are trying to build a competitive team which must acquire character and pride while losing. The winning years are down the road.On one hand, MacLeish, at 31, is not in the cheeriest of spots. The motivation must come from within, not from a bag of loot at the end of the playoffs.On the other hand, MacLeish has been blessed with a glorious opportunity to silence his critics, once and for all. If he can do for Hartford what he did for Philly, the skeptics would be forced to grant him his place in history.&ldquo;I think I can play four, maybe five, years here,&rdquo; said MacLeish, who will wear No. 7, Gordie Roberts&rsquo; old number (No. 19, MacLeish&rsquo;s Philadelphia number, was worn by John McKenzie and has been retired). &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in the toughest division, but you never know. We might be able to make some noise.&rdquo;The prospect of 500 NHL goals is not beyond reach for MacLeish, who finds himself at a crossroads. Will he be remembered as the star in Philly who played out the string in Hartford, or as the former Flyers&rsquo; ace who provided credibility and respect for a young franchise?Not everyone, remember, has won often enough to teach the art. MacLeish has.&ldquo;I can play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I can help Hartford.&rdquo;He could help Hartford more than anyone else who has walked before him<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011086/4415069-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="579" height="868"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick MacLeish hopes to prove he can be as big a winner in Hartford as in Philadelphia</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0013-01

MacLeish Facing Career Crossroads

<div class="byline">BY JIM MATHESON</div>EDMONTON&mdash;If it&rsquo;s true that the best deals are the ones that aren&rsquo;t made, you need only look at the Edmonton Oilers. Last December, Oiler GM Glen Sather was so desperate for a proven scorer on left wing that he almost swapped defenseman Paul Coffey to Buffalo for Rick Marlin.If the deal had gone through, it would have been the most one-sided swap since the Indians sold Manhattan Island for a song and a dance. Martin, who has close to 400 career NHL goals, may be on his last legs. He was bothered by a bad knee almost all of last year and needed an operation to repair the damage. He&rsquo;s still hobbling. Coffey, after struggling for the first half of the &lsquo;80-81 season, came within one cut of making Team Canada.&ldquo;I would like to think I was close to making the deal,&rdquo; said Buffalo coach-GM Scotty Bowman, who also doubled as coach of Team Canada. Bowman wasn&rsquo;t about to expound on the wherefores of the deal, but did tell some people he would have considered it the best deal he&rsquo;d ever made had it gone through.Why didn&rsquo;t it? Apparently Coffey, 20, came up with two solid games, back-to-back in December, and Sather had second thoughts. He cooled it. &ldquo;I guess it was about time I did something,&rdquo; said Coffey,&rsquo; looking back on his rocky start. &ldquo;Until then I had been brutal. I had heard there might be a possible deal with Buffalo but I didn&rsquo;t know who for. I know Slats [Sather] was looking for a leftwinger to play with Gretz [Wayne Gretzky].&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">Sather was so desperate he almost swapped Coffey to Buffalo for Martin.</blockquote>While Martin struggled through a painful Season, before being eventually swapped to Los Angeles in March, Coffey dazzled in the closing stretches. By playoff time, after half a dozen star votes, he was on a roll. His play against Montreal and the New York Islanders earned him an invite to Team Canada camp.Cliff Fletcher, GM of the Calgary Flames, gave him the good news in July. &ldquo;I remember when I got the message to phone Mr. Fletcher, I thought I was being traded to Calgary,&rdquo; said Coffey. &ldquo;When I found out I was coming to the Team Canada camp I was completely surprised.&rdquo;When he was cut, after starring in scrimmages and at least one of the intra-squad games, it was the same feeling. &ldquo;I was disappointed,&rdquo; admitted Coffey. &ldquo;I thought 1 had played my way onto the team during the camp, but I guess I played my way off in our exhibition games [against Team USA] in Quebec City. I was brutal.&rdquo;Coffey was over-dramatizing a little. He wasn&rsquo;t sharp in the exhibition, but it wasn&rsquo;t the real reason he was cut&mdash;according to Fletcher. &ldquo;Paul was a unique case at camp, he was the youngest player there, and with only one year of experience in the NHL,&rdquo;said Fletcher. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a future star in this league; who knows? He may be the anchor on our defense in future Team Canada competitions. But it basically came down to the fact we felt we needed more experience on the blueline.&rdquo;So they went for three-year-pro Craig Hartsburg of Minnesota and two-year pro Paul Reinhart, instead. Hartsburg had a shaky camp, nothing like his play in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Reinhart had a strong game in Quebec City.Ironically, Coffey and Reinhart roomed together at the camp in Montreal. When the phone rang at 8:30 in the morning Aug. 26, they knew something was up. Somebody was going to get cut. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;d had my way,&rdquo; said Reinhart, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d have thrown the phone out the window the night before.&rdquo;Coffey finally summoned enough courage to answer the phone. Hello became a quick goodbye as Fletcher broke the distressing news. &ldquo;What can 1 say,&rdquo; said Coffey. &ldquo;I gave it my best shot and there&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it.&rdquo;His release even got a few veterans by surprise. Buffalo&rsquo;s Danny Gare had trouble believing that Coffey, who was no worse than the fourth defenseman in camp, had been dropped. &ldquo;He had as good a camp as anybody on defense&hellip;he had enthusiasm and worked very hard. I&rsquo;m disappointed he didn&rsquo;t make it,&rdquo; says Gare.In other news, it&rsquo;s extremely doubtful whether Don Murdoch will ever play in a Canada Cup. But, at least the 24-year-old winger has a place to play, period. Murdoch, who spent much of the &lsquo;80-81 NHL season on the Oilers&rsquo; farm team in Wichita, was dealt to the Detroit Red Wings in a complicated turn of events.Murdoch, a free agent, was first swapped to Minnesota for minorleague defenseman Don Jackson and a third-round draft choice in 1982. Before he could get into a Hallelujah chorus, Minnesota GM Lou Nanne peddled the forward and Greg Smith to the Red Wings. The North Stars and Wings exchanged first-round draft picks in &lsquo;82, giving Minnesota a better shot at Kitchener winger Brian Bellows the resident PHENOM of the &lsquo;82 crop of juniors.Murdoch was overjoyed to be getting another crack at the NHL, after a 40-game stint in Wichita produced 32 goals. He couldn&rsquo;t come to terms on a contract with Sather, so the Oiler GM started making phone calls. He couldn&rsquo;t get what he wanted from the Wings, but Nanne came into the picture at the last minute.On paper, a Don Murdoch for Don Jackson trade looks one-sided, but Sather was in no real position to be choosy. Jackson will probably play in Wichita, while Sather gets another draft pick in the deal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011116/4415100-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="580" height="603"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey played well enough in the second half to be invited out for Team Canada.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0014-01

Second Thoughts Proved Blessing For Sather

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011069/4415131-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager Punch Imlach was hospitalized during the Leafs&rsquo; rookie training camp this year, and owner Harold Ballard will take over his duties.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;The Maple Leafs sent some 60-odd players to their rookie camp which opened in the second week of September in St. Catharines, Ont. Coach Mike Nykoluk was looking for some players to challenge for positions with the National Hockey League club which finished 16th overall last season. But before the Leafs broke their rookie camp to join up with the veterans for the start of the big training camp, they were faced with the prospect of going into the season without the services of general manager Punch Imlach.While watching a scrimmage at the second day of the rookies&rsquo; training camp, the 63-year-old Imlach was taken to a St. Catharines hospital complaining of chest pains and then transferred the next morning to Toronto General Hospital where he was placed in the coronary intensive care unit under the care of Dr. W.F. Greenwood, his personal physician.Imlach&rsquo;s condition was listed as fair and the hospital would not release details of his hospitalization, under orders from Imlach. Either a heart attack or angina were suspected causes of his illness. Later Imlach&rsquo;s condition improved to stable and he was transferred out of intensive care.In the summer of 1980, Imlach was hospitalized by his second heart attack on August 25. The first occurred in October, 1972 when he was the coach and general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Last season, Imlach gradually returned to the duties of being the Leafs&rsquo; GM, although he took only two road trips with the team all season.Leafs&rsquo; owner and president Harold Ballard acted as the general manager last season until Imlach&rsquo;s health per-mitted his return to more-or-less regular duty, and once again now, general manage in Imlach&rsquo;s absence.From a player/prospect standpoint, the news coming out of the rookie camp for the Leafs was much more heartening. By the mid-point of the camp, Nykoluk was saying that at least three new faces and possibly more would be in the starting roll-call of 20 or 21 players making the Leafs for the opening of the 1981-82 season.With a ranking of 19th in the NHL in goals allowed, it is expected that much of the Leafs&rsquo; juggling will come in their defense corps and the rookie camp lived up to expectations in that regard.High-touted defenseman Jim Benning, the Leafs&rsquo; first choice, and sixth overall in the 1981 Entry Draft, overcame first day jitters to emerge as one of the top candidates for a spot on the big club&rsquo;s blueline. Benning is an excellent puckhandler and a good skaterand showed his maneuverability to great advantage during training camp.<blockquote class="pullQuote">While watching a scrimmage, the 63-year-old Imlach was taken to hospital, Complaining of chest pains.</blockquote>Nykoluk has also been seeking a defenseman who can move people out of the Leafs&rsquo; crease and rugged rookie Bob McGill and free agent Dave Logan seemed to fill the bill in that capacity, earning promotion to the regular camp.McGill, 19, was attending his second Leafs&rsquo; camp after being selected in the 1980 Entry Draft. Last year he returned to Victoria junior club and scored 41 points. He also picked up 295 penalty minutes and the 6-0, 202-pounder seems to thrive upon contact, displaying a ferocious brand of defensive hockey in camp to rate as perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the defense corps, although the Leafs were expecting to hear from him this year.Logan, who along with defenseman Bob Manno and right winger Rick Blight, was one of three former Vancouver Canucks to attend the Leafs&rsquo; camp, also showed a penchant for mixing it up and impressed Nykoluk with his willingness to keep the crease free of opposition bodies.Among the forwards, center Gary Yaremchuk, the Leafs&rsquo; No. 2 1981 draft choice, was easily the most outstanding of the newcomers. The 6-0, 183-pound Portland Winterhawks&rsquo; star scored 135 points, including 56 goals in his final year of junior hockey, but has been most noticeable because of his skating, hockey sense and checking abilities.Nykoluk allowed that the Leafs were quite solid at center with Darryl Sit-tler and Bill Derlago, but that Yaremchuk could challenge Laurie Boschman who is coming off a second half where he was plagued by mono-nucleosis. Yaremchuk would also have to beat out Bruce Boudreau, who started for the Leafs in the second half of the season and attended his seventh rookie camp with the club and newly signed veteran Don Luce.There&rsquo;s also Mike Kaszycki and Normand Aubin who played in the Central and American Leagues, respectively last season. Aubin, in fact led his team in scoring with 89 points and has apparently improved his one major deficit&mdash;skating.For many of the players who attended the Leafs&rsquo; big training camp in Toronto, there will be more opportunities to remain in the higher ranks of the organization this year as the Leafs will fully staff their Central League affiliate in Cincinnati, the Tigers, coached by former New Brunswick mentor Doug Carpenter, which will mean jobs for 19 or 20 players. Toronto will also continue to provide eight to 10 players for New Brunswick as they help the Chicago Black Hawks operate that team. &#9632;

f0015-01

New Faces Anticipated For Maple Leafs’ Lineup

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01920/4415162-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="567" height="1097"><figcaption class="caption-body">Harry Neale is preparing to step from behind the Canucks&rsquo; bench into the general manager&rsquo;s job when Milford retires.</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;It is usually the general manager of a hockey club that makes most of the waves during the off-season and this year was certainly no exception with Jake Milford of the Vancouver Canucks.As well as announcing his own retirement next spring. Milford pulled the Czech number on the league, settled the issue and now has undergone another rigorous series of denials that there is something further pending with the protagonists, Colorado and Winnipeg.It will be remembered that the Canucks grabbed Czechoslovaks Jiri Bubla and Ivan Hlinka when it was discovered by Vancouver that there was no agreement between the NHL and the Czechoslovak Federation. After the dust settled, an agreement was reached whereby Brent Ashton was sent to Colorado and Lucien DeBlois to Winnipeg in a compensation roundabout. Ever since that agreement was reached, Milford has been assailed by speculation that there has been more to the deal than was announced.One story had Colorado having the rights to three veteran Canucks, including right winger Rick Blight, if the three failed to make Vancouver&rsquo;s starting roster in October. The Canucks may have conveniently left the door open to the Rockies to pick up Blight when they announced that the veteran right winger was one of three players whose NHL contracts were not being renewed. The other two were left winger Hal Phillipoff and defenseman Bob Manno, who is reportedly looking into the prospect of playing in the Italian Hockey League next season.Milford did admit to one little minor matter he failed to tell the media about.&ldquo;I have promised that I will give Jets&rsquo; president Michael Gobuty first option on my summer place on Lake of the Woods. That&rsquo;s true, 1 did give him that. But that is all there is to it. We have heard stories about how Ashton will becoming back to Vancouver with Lanny MacDonald and everything else. There is absolutely nothing to it.&rdquo;Milford had been getting calls from all over the continent asking who else was included, some of the calls coming from his own players. There had been earlier speculation that Glen Hanlon would be part of the compensation but that petered out. But not before it caused the 65-year-old Milford more distress. The speculation broke on that weekend that Hanlon was married, causing considerable embarrassment to Milford who attended the wedding.Milford has said that he will definitely be stepping down at the end of the forthcoming hockey season and that Harry Neale will betaking over as general manager at that time. What Milford&rsquo;s future will be is not clear but total retirement seems unlikely as he is governor for the club and will most certainly remain in that capacity. It would mean a reduced work schedule for Milford, but not the cold turkey shutoff of his hockey activities, something he seems to fear.Rumors about McDonald wishing to rejoin his old coach Roger Neilson and teammate Dave Williams are also rampant with several players involved in trade rumors for the right winger. The gossip is always given more credence because of the club&rsquo;s obvious shortcomings on the right side, the vacancies having been created by the gassing of Bobby Schmautz and the departure of Ashton to Colorado. Presently, B. J. MacDonald and Jerry Butler are the only two natural right wingers, but the Canucks claim they&rsquo;ll uncover others in training camp.&ldquo;We may use Oley [Per-Olov] Brasar and [Lars] Molin on the right side.&rdquo; Milford said. &ldquo;Brasar played right wing when he was in Minnesota and we&rsquo;ve seen him play on the left side very effectively. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s going to be a real problem. I honestly expect to go to training camp with exactly the same roster as we have at this moment. I don&rsquo;t anticipate any trades.&rdquo;Usual stuff, but the club is obviously going to have to get a right winger, now that Blight, who played well in Dallas last year, has been released.Meanwhile, the Canucks have been talking to the Quebec Nordiques about the possibility of sharing the Fredericton, New Brunswick American League team at the end of the 1981-82 season. The Canucks are paying a fortune in salaries and expenses for their Dallas operation and the difference between the American and Canadian dollar is causing economic hardship on the Vancouver budget.&ldquo;We definitely have to get a team in Canada for the next few seasons,&rdquo; said Milford. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re working on Fredericton or reviving the idea of running a league in the Okanagan [the interior of B.C.] with Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-01

Milford Has Things Hopping In Canucks’ Camp

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Maybe&mdash;and emphasize the uncertainty of the word. Just maybe, Bill Nyrop REALLY is going to come out of retirement and join the North Stars for the 1981-82 National Hockey League season.And maybe. Just maybe, Gary Sargent REALLY is going to be healthy for &lsquo;81-82.General manager Lou Nanne is banking, heavily on having these two quality defensemen in the lineup next month when the Stanley Cup runner-up Minnesota North Stars open the season.Why else would wheeler-dealer Nanne drop Greg Smith, one of the team&rsquo;s most outstanding performers in the playoffs last spring, without an immediate return?Smith, the cowpoke from Ponoka, Alta., said he was not very happy in Minnesota the past season and had asked to be traded. As a teammate said, &ldquo;If somebody says they&rsquo;re unhappy here, Louie will do his best to grant their wishes.&rdquo;Less than a week after Smith&rsquo;s desires became known, he was gone. Poof. Here today, gone to Detroit tomorrow.In an intricate series of deals with Edmonton and Detroit, Nanne sent Smith packing to the Motor City.The Stars sent 6-3, 203-pound defenseman Don Jackson, a Bloomington resident, and a third-round draft choice to the Oilers for the rights to forward Don Murdoch, the erstwhile ex-Ranger who is trying to make a comeback.Then Nanne turned around and sent Murdoch, Smith and Minnesota&rsquo;s first-round choice in the 1982 draft to Detroit for the Red Wings&rsquo; first pick in 1982.In effect, the Stars will not benefit now from the trade. But Nanne is playing a hunch that the Red Wings will finish near the bottom of the NHL again, and that the Detroit pick will provide Minnesota with a superstar commodity.It&rsquo;s a gamble&mdash;what if the Red Wings, especially with the acquisitions acquired from the Stars&rsquo; finish in the middle of the pack or higher? And what if the Stars, unlikely as it seems, drop back toward the.midlands?Nanne&rsquo;s not counting on that What he is counting on is a player by the name of Brian Bellows, a Canadian youngster who is already being proclaimed the &ldquo;Next Gretzky.&rdquo;&ldquo;Look, even if we didn&rsquo;t get Bellows, there are eight sensational players who will be draftable next June,&rdquo; Nanne told St. Paul writer Charley Hallman. &ldquo;The second pick on this year&rsquo;s first round wouldn&rsquo;t go in the top 10 next year, that&rsquo;s how good the junior players are. If the Red Wings have the kind of season we anticipate they&rsquo;ll have, we&rsquo;re going to get a great player.&rdquo;What Nanne is counting on is the return of Sargent and Nyrop, the 29-year-old former Montreal Canadien who has not played for three seasons but took part in the 1980 training camp and joined up with Team USA for the Canada Cup. Pneumonia, however, knocked Nyrop out of the tournament.Nyrop, whose name is etched on three Stanley Cup championships with the Canadiens, has established himself in the re-insurance business, and now says he can devote time to hockey without hurting his off-the-ice career. Another factor that might have figured in Nyrop&rsquo;s decision is a divorce.Sargent apparently is ready for a comeback from back miseries that forced him to miss most of last season. Sargent had a spinal fusion late in the year, and planned to be ready to skate in training camp.Smith&rsquo;s departure has an ironical twist. The 26-year-old blueliner missed 25 games in 1979-80 after knee surgery. And, the past season, he didn&rsquo;t really show the 1978-79 form that won him honors as Minnesota&rsquo;s MVP defenseman until late in the year.The defenseman&rsquo;s unhappiness stems from the manner in which coach Glen Sonmor finally got Smith turned around, in a somewhat poignant conversation. The strange turn of events is that it was Sonmor who spoke so highly of Smith a year ago when there were very strong rumors that Nanne was going to trade him before &lsquo;80-81. But Smith still wanted out even after the Stars collected the second-highest playoff payoff.&ldquo;I told Greg unless he changed his mind, I&rsquo;d deal him,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;Now, he&rsquo;s gone. I wish him the best and that&rsquo;s that. Jackson is a good prospect and I hope he does well.&rdquo;In this respect, Nanne will have some relief from the two departures: Two less contracts to pay and two less men to protect in the 1981 waiver draft.In three seasons with the North Stars, Smith had 15 goals and 61 assists. Last year, he had five goals and 26 points. In 10 games with the North Stars, Jackson, a Notre Dame graduate, had three assists.&ldquo;We still have seven defensemen with NHL experience&mdash;eight if you count Bill Nyrop. And that doesn&rsquo;t in-clude Ron Meighan, our top draft pick from this year. We didn&rsquo;t hurt ourselves and we have a great chance to help ourselves in the future immeasurably.&rdquo;The future starts with Nyrop and Sargent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02762/4415193-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="569" height="943"><figcaption class="caption-body">Back miseries forced Gary Sargent to spinal fusion surgery, but he&rsquo;s ready to open training camp.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0016-02

North Stars Gamble On Comebacks

<div class="byline">BY PAT CALABRIA</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Bobby Nystrom, who dates back to the Islanders&rsquo; first season, became the latest player signed by general manager Bill Torrey in a whirlwind of pre-season activity. Nystrom said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m tremendously pleased,&rdquo; and he had a right to be.One of several players who was scheduled to enter the option year of a contract signed in 1975, Nystrom happily signed a contract for four years plus an option year at what was believed to be a substantial raise. At the signing ceremony, Torrey presented Nystrom with a whipped cream cake, celebrating Nystrom&rsquo;s 29th birthday a month early to coincide with the celebration of the new contract.&ldquo;Bobby gets the icing,&rdquo; Torrey said, &ldquo;and I get the crumbs.&rdquo; He was talking about either the cake or the contract.But Nystrom&rsquo;s signing could indeed be significant. Anders Kallur and Dave Langevin also had agreed to terms and Mike McEwen was reported to be near an agreement, too. Nystrom said: &ldquo;I think it shows that Mr. Torrey wants to sign his players and the guys want to stay here. I know I wanted to stay. Who wouldn&rsquo;t want to play for the Stanley Cup champions?&rdquo;Torrey suddenly has embarked on an aggressive campaign to sign his players, a departure from his old habit of moving deliberately, sometimes at an excruciatingly slow pace for agents and players, before concluding negotiations. That might be an expression of Torrey&rsquo;s appreciation for two straight Stanley Cups and it might be an indication of the team&rsquo;s improving financial picture.For instance, Torrey extended the contract of Langevin, who was outstanding last season. The contract will keep Langevin an Islander for at least the next five seasons. Langevin said he was surprised when Torrey made the suggestion of an extension, but welcomed it.And while Torrey said that he still continues to renegotiate contracts, there were signs that Torrey did agree to raise Langevin&rsquo;s salary in addition to the extension. Said Langevin&rsquo;s agent, Art Kaminsky: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know too many players who extend their contracts so they can take a cut.&rdquo;It was especially surprising because Langevin, unlike Nystrom, was not one of the players who were scheduled to enter the option years of their contracts. Still remaining to be signed are Mike Bossy and Denis Potvin. Garry Howatt probably will play out his option unless he is traded and free agent Bob Bourne also remains unsigned.&ldquo;It kind of surprised me that with so many players going into their option years, they came to me and gave me an extension,&rdquo; Langevin said. &ldquo;This contract is longer than I can conceive.&rdquo;Like Nystrom, Langevin earned his new contract. At 27 and in his second season in the NHL after playing in the WHA, Langevin was steady throughout the season and made his mark with bone-jarring checks. He played confidently and enthusiastically.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a defensemen in the league who made a bigger contribution to his team,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said.To keep a strong defense, which was essentia! to the team&rsquo;s championship, Torrey also was eager to wrap up the negotiations with McEwen, who came from the Colorado Rockies in the late-season trade for Glenn Resch and Steve Tambellini. McEwen enjoyed playing for the Islanders last season and both Torrey and McEwen said they did not anticipate any problems agreeing to a new contract.Certainly, no player was more happy to remain an Islander than Nystrom. He scored that goal that produced the team&rsquo;s first Stanley Cup two years ago, confirming his reputation as the most recognizable and, perhaps, the most popular Islander. It has been that way since Nystrom played 11 games at the tail end of the team&rsquo;s first season in 1972-73.Nystrom has settled on Long Island, and his wife, Michele, grew up on Long Island. They met when Nystrom was giving a hockey clinic at a shopping center and Michele happened by. And Nystrom has been among the most active Islanders in charity work and community functions. &#9632;

Isles Ink Nystrom, Langevin To Long Pacts

f0017-01

BEP: It’s Ziegler Vs. Equipment Manufacturers

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01830/4415300-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Bauer Supreme Custom 100 comes with a revolutionary anatomic footbed system for comfort.</figcaption></div><h2>BAUER</h2>The Bauer Division of Greb Shoe Inc. continues to offer the world&rsquo;s most extensive selection of hockey skates, including 10 models of stitched skates, three molded varieties and two kinds of goalie skates.Beginning with the molded skates, the top line is the Pro Form which has a trim profile toe cap and features a wrap-over instep lacing system for support. These skates have a one year warranty and feature a ballistic nylon covered sock-liner with a snug heel fit and sewn-in ankle insert. Sizes 6-12 retail for $114.95 with sizes 3&frac12;-5&frac12; checking in at $94.95.Two other molded skates are the Black Panther, which is also available in a stitched model, and the Turbo. Each has a polyurethane hinged top guard and an all-eyelet lacing system. The senior-sized Black Panthers retail for $81.95 down to only $44.95 for the smaller sized (junior sizes 8-13) Turbos.In the goaltenders&rsquo; skate category, Bauer offers their Supreme Pro, which is used extensively in the National Hockey League and the Goaler, a model which can be used by players who wear sizes 1-12.The Supreme Pro is a fully padded boot with full grain leather trim and lining. It also features a white, shock resistant shell for protection and durability. Sizes 6-12 are available at a retail listing of $199.95.Bauer&rsquo;s Goaler model has a leather lined fully padded upper with a solid core man-made trim. It also includes the white, shock resistant outer shell with a 90-day warranty on the boots and a one-year warranty on the special Bauer blades. Sizes 6-12 retail for $116.95; sizes 1-5 for $103.95.Of the 10 stitched models on the current market, the piece de resistance is the Supreme Custom 100 for sizes 5-12 which retails for $216.95.This top of the line model has full grain leather trim with ballistic nylon uppers. Its features include counter stitching and a full felt &lsquo;Pro-Style&rsquo; contoured tongue plus two recent innovations. They are Flolite &reg; ankle padding and Superfeet &reg;, a revolutionary anatomic footbed system.Bauer also has three more Supreme models, the comparably-priced Supreme 96 and 92, retailing for $191.95 and $182.95, respectively. The former has the added feature of a padded ankle collar with a new velcro closure system and both styles fit sizes 6-12, narrow, medium and wide, while a third supreme, the 192, is for sizes 1-6, medium and wide, and retails for $99.95.Six other models are also available, ranging from the Special Pro, an 800 Denier nylon padded skate which retails for $114.95, plus the Proliner, Black Panther, Junior Supreme, Triumph and the Challenger, a durable 200 Denier nylon upper with felt-backed vinyl lining and trim, which has a full range of sizes and retails for less than $50.<h2>CCM</h2>For the professional player who prefers more comfort, CCM, makers of the world-famous Super Tacks, have introduced a new skate, the Super (Cushion) Tacks.These are essentially the same boot as the Super Tack, but with a unique cushion lining throughout which molds to the foot for extra comfort. The Super (Cushion) Tacks, available in narrow, regular and wide in men&rsquo;s sizes 5 to 11, and in custom order full sizes of 12, 13 and 14, are listed to retail at $224.90 a pair, the same price as the Super Tacks.Features common to both skates are their tackaberry lasts, cut resistant ballistic nylon uppers, natural slope fit, polyfoam ankle pads and their new Tackfit BM 12 sock liner and insole. The new material here offers excellent wear, no shrinkage, high moisture absorption and evaporation, quick drying, no delamination, sole comfort and no slipping or creeping. Also featured is the full molded surlyn outsole a ballistic nylon covered Pro Fort toe, a pre-shaped polyester covered foam tongue with new smooth contour binding to provide maximum comfort and fit, as well as brown side leather trim and new super strength positive lock eyelets.The step before the Super Tacks for the above average player is CCM&rsquo;s Nylon Tacks. They feature an English Kip lining, the Tackfit BM 12 sock lining and insole and heavy gauge nylon armor uppers, plus many of the same features as the Super Tacks and retail at $183.20.All three of the above styles also come in the CCM Junior line with the Junior Super Tacks and Junior (Cushion) Tacks retailing at $124.85 and the Junior Nylon Tacks at $88.20 a pair. These skates come in full and half sizes from 1 to 6.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02661/4415293-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="1159" height="982"><figcaption class="caption-body">Super Tacks are the top of the CCM line that features 11 models for both the skater and the goaltenders.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03487/4415286-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="1152" height="1375"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daoust skates are in both leather and molded. Here&rsquo;s the Mach 7 molded lace type that is a big favorite.</figcaption></div>With all of the Super Tacks and Tacks skates, CCM offers their Prolite II blade. The CCM Prolite&reg; revolutionized the hockey world with a specially designed icesurface radius that introduced a new level of cornering, stopping and acceleration. The new Prolite II blade is combined with a tough lightweight Zytel&reg; blade-holder featuring an extended heel protector. And since CCM Prolite&reg; steel is the strongest skate steel, the blades hold their edge longer and require less sharpening. These blades retail for $41.65.CCM also offers four other styles of skates for hockey, the Mustang, the Charger, the Junior Mustang and Youth Tacks, which range in retail price from $106.50 for the men&rsquo;s Mustangs (sizes 6 to 11) to $54.85 for the Youth Tacks.For goaltenders, there&rsquo;s the Pro Tack Goal, at $199.90 and the Junior Tack Goal, which features the same molded white plastic armor protection of the men&rsquo;s skates, priced at $116.55.<h2>DAOUST</h2>Montreal&rsquo;s Daoust Lalonde Inc. feature four models of hockey skates, three of them molded, including their skates for goaltenders which retail for $125. The goalie skates are offered with SLM blades while the three other models come equipped with Tuuk blades or in the case of Daoust&rsquo;s popular 301 model, with Perfecta blades. SLM, ICM and Perfecta blades can all compliment the Daoust boots.The Daoust 301 is the only Heather and synthetic skate offered by the company featuring a nylon mesh upper and leather insole with arch support, leather counters for comfort, leather lining with heel huggers for better fit and leather sock linings. These extremely light skates have a waterproof surlyn outsole.Two molded skates produced by Daoust are the Mach 7 and the Futura. The Mach 7 has a two-piece polyurethane boot with hinge rivets. It&rsquo;s a lace boot which features a nylon liner with heel huggers.The Futura is a skate which looks like a ski-boot, thanks to its exclusive flat buckles and polyurethane straps. But it&rsquo;s light and long-lasting and has the flexibility of a three-piece polyurethane boot.<h2>JOFA</h2>Jofa Hockey, a division of the Volvo of America Corp., offers five distinct styles of stitched skates for hockey players, ranging from the 200 Custom Pro to the 185 Jr. Advantage.The custom Pro is designed for professionals with sizes 6 to 12. Top quality leather uppers, cut resistant nylon and a buffed cowhide sock lining &lsquo;J&rsquo; heel hugger give Jofa the feel of quality and the durability to withstand rigorous use. These skates retail at $189.95.Similar to the Custom Pros are Jofa&rsquo;s 200 Advantage skates which offer the same qualities with a slight change in the nylon Kip leather. They retail at $149.95.For sizes 1-5&frac12; among the juniors, Jofa&rsquo;s 185 Advantage Jr. are available, retailing at $89.95.<h2>LANGE</h2>The Incredible Ice Machines now number an even dozen with six hockey skates, three more for goaltenders and three for figure skaters now being marketed by Lange U.S.A., a division of Volvo of America Corp. All of the skates are molded models.Lange Laser 5 and the Lange pro Competition are the two top of the line models being used by many professional hockey players. The Laser 5 has a hinged polyurethane shell with scuff resistant matte finish, while the Pro Competition is a hingeless model combining flexibility and the feel of a traditional skate with the protection and comfort of the shell/liner models. Each skate has a liner made of a combination of leather, foam and ballistic nylon and velcro closing microfit pouches, plus a large felt-backed tongue.Other Lange hockey models range from the TNT for serious junior and senior skaters, the Elite, the Leader and the new Leader YT, a comfortable youth skate with exceptional support, warmth and protection.Among the goalie skates, all three models feature a hinged polyurethane shell with an outer Zytel layer added for superior protection as well as a floating molded tongue. The Pro Goaler has the same leather, foam, ballistic nylon liner with the velcro closing microfit pouches as the professional model skates, while the Elite Goaler and the Junior Elite Goaler have an Elite Red deluxe foam liner.Lange is continuing its commitment to world leadership in the molded skate concept. Their traditional qualities of strength, lightness, resistance to impact and cutting are constantly being upgraded with the testing of stronger yet lighter materials.The wide range of models have been designed for every type of skater, with a combination of shell, liner and blade features for every level of skating ability, but produced at an affordable price.<h2>MICRON</h2>The &ldquo;Scotty&rdquo; is Micron&rsquo;s most recent addition to their line of skates bringing their total to eight varieties of hockey skate models plus three styles for goaltenders.A new high-performance model which is the first to be designed solely for junior players, the Scotty, named for Micron consultant Scotty Bowman, offers superior support, protection, flexibility and quality for the young skater who wants to get the most out of developing his skating skills.Among the features of the Scotty are finger pads in the heel area specially designed to grip a child&rsquo;s narrower ankle; a form-fitting stretch corduroy liner with a ballistic nylon tongue with felt backing for added protection plus quick lacing upper area and combination quick lacing and eyelet lacing lower area to simplify lacing for the youngsters. The skate comes in sizes 1, 2 and 3 with half-sizes from 3 to 6 at a suggested retail price of $76.25.For the goaltenders, Micron offers the M-l Goaler for Juniors and Seniors, priced at $107 and $122 respectively, and the top of the line model, the Master Goaler at $191.50 with sizes ranging from 6&frac12; to 12.The M-l Goaler skates have a shock-resistant Zytel St cowling, a molded polyurethane tongue and lower boot and a high quality brushed nylon liner with added foam protection and shaped insole supports.Injection molding is the key feature of the Master Goaler skate which gives the skate extra protection in both the tongue and boot area. There&rsquo;s also a foam layer between the cowling and the boot for even more protection.Each of the other molded skates of the Micorn line include the MX, the Master, the Magnum, the M-l, the M-l Master, the Max and the Mascot, feature their own distinctive innovations which will appeal to the full spectrum of players&mdash;from pro to recreational.Suggested retail price range for these skates is from $60.50 to $175 for the MX Senior, the top of the line model worn by players in the NHL. The MX was the first one-piece skate to feature a cantilever system for flexibility and this model also offers a very high quality black suede liner incorporating its heel-hugger design.Micron, which also makes figure and speed skates, roller hockey and roller skates, has a one-year warranty on all their skates.<h2>RIEDELL</h2>Riedell Shoes Inc. of Red Wing, MN., offer a line of hockey boots and blades as well as figure skates and blades, with the skates under a one-year guarantee.Riedell skates feature a nylon-leather combination construction with three models available for most skaters and two for goaltenders. Prices range from $78 for the 36 All Star Nylon leather model to $165 for the III Phantom Nylon-Leather skate. In between is the 25 Kango Pro-Kangotan Leather skate which retails from $125 to $145.All available blades will fit the boot and the above mentioned models are sold with Tuuk Stainless or Perfecta blades.The goalie skates by Riedell come in two models: adult, the 20 Pro Goalie for $175 and juvenile, the 32 Goalie, at $125. These all leather skates have a St. Lawrence Pro Blade offered with them.<h2>SK LIMITED</h2>A Toronto company, SK Limited, has introduced a rather novel concept to hockey skates&mdash;individual models for defensemen and forwards.While most skate companies put out a separate line for goaltenders as opposed to all other skaters, SK has developed skates which offer the defenseman the added protection he needs and grant the forward the lightness necessary to make him most effective.The most distinguished feature of all of the SK Hockey Boots is the fine workmanship and care put into the manufacturing which shows in the exceptional finished quality of the product as well as in its durability.The SK LTD is the defenseman&rsquo;s boot, featuring added built-in protection needed whether a player is blocking shots or removing an opponent from the crease.The SK LT skate, like the LTD, is composed of leather and nylon and is a light, strong boot for forwards. Soft foam rubber heel huggers are built into the boot for snug support and comfort, while plastic tendon reinforcement is an added feature with these skates.The newest model is the LT II Padded and all three of the models retail at $185.<h2>SKATE BLADES</h2>CANPRO SPORT INC.Tuuk Hockey Blades, ICM Hockey Blades, as well as riveters and accessories are the product line of Canpro Sport Inc., a St. Laurent, Que. company.All Blades are covered by a one-year warranty against manufacturing defects with a total of nine different blades available between the prices of $30.00 and $50.00The Tuuk Stainless Steel Clear or Black Polycarbonate models are sized from 190 millimeters to 250 millimeters for juniors and from 260 to 310 mm for seniors. The Tuuk Carbon Steel Clear or Black Carbonate blades are also offered in the same size range.The ICM Stainless Steel Carbon Black Zytel ST blade has sizes 1 to 6 for juniors, 7 to 12 for seniors and is priced the same as the Tuuk blades.Three sizes are offered in the ICM Carbon Steel Black Zytel ST, 8 to 13 for youth, 1 to 6 for juniors and 7 to 12 for seniors, again with the same price range as the Tuuk blades.<h2>P.F.Z. ENTERPRISES INC.</h2>Perfecta Molded Hockey Blades, Model Pro III are worn by Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky among other National Hockey League skaters and are manufactured by P.F.Z. Enterprises Inc. of St. Laurent, Que.Made of molded Zytel, a super tough nylon, the blades come equipped with stainless steel interchangeable runners and feature the Chicago fastening system. The blades are now available in two colors with white, worn by Gretzky, joining the original black blades. The white blades have been redesigned for greater strength and rigidity although the black blades offer greater flexibility.The suggested retail price is $49.95 which usually includes mounting on the boots. There&rsquo;s a one-year warranty on parts and labor.<h2>ST. LAWRENCE MANUFACTURING INC.</h2>For more than 35 years, St. Lawrence Manufacturing Inc. of Beauport, Que., has been producing a full range of skate blades&mdash;for hockey, figure skating, speed skating, for goalies, for beginners.SLM is billed as the world&rsquo;s largest skate blade manufacturer and their product was good enough to convince Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders to switch from steel blades to the SLM 1095.SLM goalie skate blades are designed in two models&mdash;the 2925, which is designed for junior goaltenders and is punched out of high quality alloy steel and heat-treated for better endurance, and the 3025 designed with the professional player in mind. The latter are stamped out of high carbon special alloy steel and the structural design of the use of high alloy silver solder assures maximum strength.These blades are exported to 22 countries.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01517/4415279-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="1192" height="986"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey&rsquo;s winningest coach, Scotty Bowman, is a member of the Micron Advisory Board and has helped develop the company skate line. Here he&rsquo;s shown fitting his son, Stanley, with the new &lsquo;Scotty&rsquo; model designed for the 1982 skate market.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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EQUIPMENT SUPPLEMENT—Skates

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Hockey Skate Analysis

Avon Sportswear and Shain of Canada, who are both located in Toronto, have joined forces.The announced amalgamation of the two companies brings together Avon, one of Canada&rsquo;s largest manufacturers of sports team jackets, and Shain, the official licensee of jackets for major league baseball, the National Hockey League, the Canadian Football League and the North American Soccer League.The merger of the two firms is an effort by Shain and Avon to provide a wider scope for both companies in the sports field.Avon&rsquo;s larger manufacturing licensed jackets will give both of the companies&rsquo; clients a better selection of fabric and styling according to a spokesman for Avon.Despite the amalgamation of the two, both Avon and Shain are expected to retain separate identities, including their respective sales forces. A spokesman said management responsibilities have not as yet been determined but an announcement will be made in the near future. &#9632;

Avon, Shain Amalgamation

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01468/4415386-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div><h2>Canpro Sport Inc.</h2>Two of the major skate blade manufacturers in the country are now functioning under one roof.Warrington Inc., acquired Tuuk Sports Limited in March of this year and since the company already has strings on ICM, the two top skate blade producers are now being marketed by the same organization. The result was the formation of a new company, called Canpro Sport Inc. to develop and distribute both Tuuk and ICM hockey and figure skate blades.Tuuk Sports&rsquo; sales manager Dave Johnson will head up the new firm and will assume the duties of general manager. In other management appointments, Bill Herb, formerly the sales manager with ICM, has become the sales and service coordinator with Can-pro.<h2>NHL Flyers First To Wear &lsquo;Girdles&rsquo;</h2>The Philadelphia Flyers will become the first team in the NHL to choose lightweight girdle-type protectors that replace the old-style padded hockey pants.The team may also depart from the traditional hockey attire by wearing long pants over the girdles&mdash;instead of the time-tested short pants and high stockings. &#9632;

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<div class="byline">BY LOIS KALCHMAN</div>&lsquo;Face protectors are great for the cids. If we had to wear them in the NHL, I would get used to them too.&rdquo;Mike Bossy&mdash;Safe Hockey (pub. 1981 Charles Scribner&rsquo;s Sons)Vladislav Tretiak was fantastic in the Soviet-Union net during the 1981 Canada Cup series and it is unbelievable that nine years have lapsed since he stepped onto North American ice and sportswriters labelled him as a 20-year-old wonder wearing a &lsquo;birdcage.&rsquo; It was Tretiak who gave the wire mask credibility and no one could refute his ability to see the puck while wearing a face protector. It was his spectacular play in the 1972 super series while wearing the mask that eventually changed the faces of our amateur hockey players.In 1974, the Canadian opthalmo-logical society began an investigation into hockey eye injuries. During the 1974-75 season 256 eye injuries were reported with 42 players blinded of which 20 were under the age of 16.That same year the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) suggested face protectors could be used. Manufacturers started to mass produce polycarbonate half-shields and wire masks became available in the United States.In 1977-78 Dr. Tom Pashby, a Toronto opthalmologist and head of the Canadian Standards Assn (CSA) steering committee for setting standards for facemasks, did a survey and found two-thirds of the surveyed players were wearing face protectors. Only 52 eye injuries were reported that year. None of the injured players had been wearing protectors.But hockey people still objected as it is difficult to change attitudes. &ldquo;The kids are outfitted in suits of armor and the sticks have come up,&rdquo; could be heard in the stands. But the statistics did not lie and could not be ignored. Molded goalkeeper masks came under fire in 1978 when four blinded eyes were reported and all four netminders were wearing molded masks.In November of 1959 Jacques Plante first appeared on the ice in a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers wearing a mask after he had been hit by a puck off the stick of Rangers&rsquo; Andy Bathgate. Suddenly goaler masks were acceptable. And to this day facemasks are designed and custom-made for many. NHL goaltenders. It has, in fact, become an art. But it is no longer acceptable in minor hockey in Canada.The CAHA made CSA (Canadian Standards Association) approved facemasks mandatory for all minor hockey players in Canada in 1980-81. However, they did not include junior hockey&hellip;above juvenile. A survey showed there were 68 eye injuries and 20 blinded eyes but none of the players were wearing facemasks at the time.Greg Neeld, an Ontario junior hockey star, had his dreams of an NHL career shattered when he lost an eye in a hockey game in 1973. In January 1981 Neeld was quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying he wished his brother, John, would wear one. &ldquo;He should but he won&rsquo;t. They&rsquo;d say: &lsquo;Hey Neeld, you chicken!&rsquo; He&rsquo;d be laughed at and they&rsquo;d take cheap shots at him.&ldquo;But these guys [junior hockey players] should realize that all it takes is one dirty shot and your career, everything you worked for is gone,&rdquo; continued Neeld.&ldquo;I asked a Junior A coach if he was in a position to do something about the matter of eye protection,&rdquo; writes Mrs. Enid Didcott of British Columbia in a letter to the B.C. Amateur Hockey Association following her 18-year-old son&rsquo;s eye injury during a junior game this past season. &ldquo;He replied that when people pay money to see Junior hockey players they want to be able to see their faces. In light of this remark it would appear that we are selling our sons&rsquo; eyesight and facial disfiguration to a bunch of unknown and often ignorant hockey fans and the owners of the B.C. Junior hockey clubs. Personally, I do not think we, as parents, are living up to our responsibilities.&rdquo;Whether it be B.C. or Ontario, it seems to be the choice of hockey today.Brett Kelleher of Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey Association&rsquo;s Provincial Junior A league, had been wearing a facemask all season as the OHA had made it mandatory for all players, except major junior A, to wear them for the 1980-81 season. Facemasks were optional in the CAHA playdowns.&ldquo;Belleville was in its first game against Thunder Bay and most of the players had taken off their facemasks,&rdquo; recalls Kelleher&rsquo;s mother. &ldquo;He stepped on the ice and a slapshot hit him in the eye.&rdquo; It made young Kelleher another eye statistic in junior hockey.In spite of this, at the OHA annual meeting in April, the OHA voted to make facemasks optional in all junior and intermediate levels of hockey.Bill Steffan, secretary of the Provincial Junior A leagues in the OHA, explained after the meeting,&ldquo;Teams in the Provincial Junior A league complained they lost about six quality players last year because of the mandatory facemask rule.&rdquo; They didn&rsquo;t want the facemask rule.The CAHA has legislated for the minors but junior hockey and the status of facemasks is still optional. Quebec juniors wear them and it will spread in time just as helmets did when they were first introduced. No one argues there are still some design problems but a player can become accustomed to wearing a facemask by sitting in front of the television with it on and gradually the bars will meld into the background.Lois Kalchman is a Toronto-based, freelance writer.The CSA standards insist the openings in the mask be no greater than two inches because the maximum legal width of a blade is two inches. However, in the United States they can still have openings up to two and three quarter inches, at least this year. &ldquo;The U.S. has a new draft which will bring the U.S. standard in line with the National standard for Canada,&rdquo; Dr. Pashby later told THE HOCKEY NEWS.The tests for facemasks are strict:Toughness&mdash;the ability to deflect a puck; restrictions on how much the mask can move when properly attached; and it must lift away from the face in case of an emergency.Often it is the club that supplies the masks for its players but only the player can feel if the mask fits properly. Fit is the key to protection.Dr. Pashby reports they are presently working on a lighter weight helmet and facemask unit for the novice age level. The chin should fit snugly into the chin cup permitting only slight movement.Like all equipment, facemasks must be looked after. Make sure they are screwed on properly. The chin cup should be in place and the straps done up at all times for a snug fit. Check for any breaks in the welding or bends in the wires. If the model used has a polycarbonate shield then make sure there are no scratches and keep it away from vinyl or household chemicals as they can interact and cause weakness in the actual material of the mask.Facemasks will never completely eliminate all injuries but they will minimize the possibilities. In the past four years statistics have shown that facemasks have actually prevented eyes from being blinded, a most rewarding outlook for the future. &#9632;

Facemasks A Hard Sell, Despite Safety Record

<h2>CANADIEN</h2>Among the more than 500 pros playing in the NHL, Canadien provides a total of 125 of the big leaguers with their hockey sticks.Canadien makes three basic sticks. First, there is the wood stick with a new plywood handle and lightwood core. There is also the fiberglass handle model with undirectional fibers and a light wood core, the stick the pros most prefer. The third brand of stick is the all injected goal stick, with fiberglass and light synthetic core, designed to be much more resistant than wood.Canadien also has on the market their revolutionary 9600 Fiberglass special model. The company, through its advisory staff of NHL pros, has introduced many new specifications to improve its sticks. Leafs&rsquo; defenseman Borje Salming will be a Canadien stick user for 1981-82. Last season such NHLers as Laurie Boschman, Ian Turnbull, Brad Park and Marc Tardif, to name a few, carried Canadien sticks.<h2>CCM</h2>With a half dozen top pros, led by the dynamic little Marcel Dionne of the Los Angeles Kings using their sticks, CCM continues to be one of the leaders in the industry. Dionne&rsquo;s ice performance lends a high quality of efficiency to CCM sticks. The top-scoring Kings&rsquo; center has been on the company&rsquo;s advisory board for the past seven years and provides CCM with expert stick advice along with such other NHLers as Rejean Houle, Bobby Smith, John Anderson, Laurie Boschman and Rocky Saganiuk.CCM has an extensive stick line on the market including seven laminated models for forwards and defensemen and four goalkeeping sticks for both the pros and the junior class player.Most all CCM models are fitted with the new ABS plastic heel and come in assorted color bands. Sticks are both natural and black coloring with contrasting lettering.The CCM Custom Pro PPM101 and the CCM Junior Custom Pro CPX102 carry Dionne&rsquo;s name on the shaft. For the left hand shooters, the Junior Custom Pro CPX102 also has the name of Bobby Smith in foil on top of the stick.With 11 sticks to choose from, CCM again offers a wide and diverse selection for the hockey stick buyer.<h2>CHRISTIAN</h2>In keeping with the growing hockey stick market, Christian has added one new model to its marketing line for 1982.The 1000 # 2 is the newcomer to the Christian line and it is a near replica of the already established Pro 1000. Like all other Christian sticks, it is made of white ash and comes with a rock elm fiberglass blade and a fiberglass overlay in the heel of the stick.Other Christian models are the Team U.S.A., Custom Made Pro, Pro 1000, Superlite 5000, Northern Pro, Northern Pro II and the Competition I. Christian sticks are extremely popular with U.S. college hockey teams and were used by the American Olympic team last February at Lake Placid when the U.S. pulled off its historymaking hockey miracle and won the Gold Medal.<h2>JOFA</h2>With nine sticks and two goalie models on the market, JOFA continues to make big strides in the industry. Their fiberglass wrapped sticks are popular in both North America and Europe. Steve Shutt of the Montreal Canadiens is still JOFA&rsquo;s big equipment and stick user although their sticks were also in evidence among the European teams at the World Cup championships in Sweden last spring and more recently, in the Canada Cup.JOFA has three top-line models, starting with their 9080 powerlite box laminated stick. The company is delighted with this model, which features a very lightweight side laminated construction. This patented technique enables the shaft to remain stiff yet reduces the weight of the stick in the hand of the player without sacrificing strength and durability.The JOFA sticks are reinforced with glass wrap and designed for the heavy shooters, like Shutt, who is always among the top goal getters in the NHL.<h2>KITCHENER</h2>By constantly maintaining their standards of workmanship, Kitchener Hockey Stick has established a reputation for manufacturing quality. They have made good technical advances in the woodcraft industry and their improvements, combined with their rock elm blade for strength and balance, have produced a fine line of sticks.Durable and economical, Kitchener sticks are all fiberglass wrapped. Their Fibre-Lite 1020 model, a new creation, is already very popular. A light adult stick that is made of very light and tough wood, it features a urethane reinforced heel and is well suited for players who favor the slapshot.Kitchener features four laminated and four ash models along with two goaltender sticks, including one designed for the top professional netminder.<h2>KOHO</h2>With probably the biggest following among pro stick users, KOHO continues to progress in the wood industry with a wide range of sticks. After originating in Europe, the company has made great strides in the North American market by mixing wood and fiberglass effectively and creating a most durable hockey stick.There&rsquo;s no end to the number of KOHO stick carriers in the NHL, starting with one of the biggest stars, Bryan Trottier and the European player invasion has further enhanced KOHO&rsquo;s name on this side of the Atlantic. The 2210 wood-fiberglass model, which is the firm&rsquo;s top line, is gaining in popularity with the pros.Durability has been the keynote of KOHO sticks and last spring when the New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup again almost half the team used KOHO sticks, including goalie Billy Smith, who has been a faithful KOHO user the past two cup seasons.<h2>LOUISVILLE</h2>There are more Louisville sticks showing up in pro hockey than ever before and it is primarily because the company has put seven solid skater sticks on the market and two popular goaltender sticks.The goalie sticks&mdash;the 625 Pro Curve and 625 Super Pro&mdash;are very much in evidence in NHL games. At least six big league netminders are using Louisville sticks including Dan Bouchard of the Quebec Nordiques, Roland Melanson of the Islanders, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Pete Peeters, Vancouver&rsquo;s Richard Brodeur, young Don Beaupre of the Minnesota North Stars and Eddie Mio of the Edmonton Oilers.For the individual skater, Louisville has a wide variety of sticks to choose from. Their 110 Super Pro is the top of the company line. A lightweight laminate with an ash and fiberglass blade as well as a Pro wrapped heel make up the construction of the stick.Louisville also has the 115 Custom Pro, the 120 Pro Pattern, the 120H Pro Hook, the 142 Pro Flex, the 310 Bomber and the 520 Custom Pro II. The last two named are for minor players especially and are big favorites with the kids.<h2>MONTREAL</h2>It isn&rsquo;t uncommon to see the Finnish National team sitting on their bench with their Montreal sticks upraised in unision. The European-produced stick is in evidence every time coach Kalevi Numminen puts his team on the ice.Montreal has developed an innovative multilam construction for both the handle and the blade of its stick, allowing maximum solidity. The handle is stiff enough, but still flexible to be effective. The multilaminated construction in the blade of the stick has been reinforced by glassfibre to keep the Montreal stick light but solid.The company&rsquo;s sticks are cropping up more and more because of the excellent technical quality that goes into the production process.Montreal currently has three major models and two fiberglass goaltenders sticks on the market. A fourth stick is the durable 55 Star, which is not available in Canada.<h2>NORTHLAND</h2>There&rsquo;s a distinctive new look to Northland&rsquo;s 1982 line with the emphasis not only on attractive cosmetics but quality as well.Designer Robert De brey has added an identifiable character to each stick with his graphics. A new lean profile has been given Northland&rsquo;s blades, adding lightness, strength and a new feel to the stick. The Northland Pro features a 17-ply birch laminate handle with a straight glass-wrapped ash blade. The Powerlite has a 19-ply lamlnate and like all Northland sticks, features the company&rsquo;s exclusive armour plated heel for durability.An exciting newcomer to the stick scene is the Super Stick model, a development of Northland for the sophisticated player who wants something light but also strong and accurate.Northland is featuring six top models this year, as well as the Northland goalie stick, which is used by Chicago&rsquo;s Tony Esposito and Mike Liut of St. Louis.,<h2>SHER-WOOD</h2>You don&rsquo;t fool with success, even in the hockey stick business, The Sher-Wood Drolet Corp. decided its 1981 line was so good, it did not attempt to make any changes for 1982.Sher-Wood, one of the most popular sticks with the NHL pros, has many of the game&rsquo;s top stars under contract, with Canadiens&rsquo; Guy Lafleur currently the company&rsquo;s No. 1 stick ambassador. Lafleur, like many of his fellow pros, has swung over to Sher-Wood with its extra lightweight laminated wood shaft.The Sher-Wood PMP 5094 Graphite is at the head of the company line, featuring a lightweight black shaft with undirectional Glasfibre-graphite laminations and a five-piece hardwood blade. The 5094 is strong and has become the stick for players like Bobby Clarke and Don Marcotte.In addition to its top of the line 500 series, Sher-Wood also features four solid goaltending sticks. Among these, the GLAS 2099 Lite Custom Pro is easily the most in demand. It provides extra protection and durability with a double overlay, graphite reinforced jacket.<h2>TITAN</h2>If scoring production contributes to the greatness of a hockey stick, then TITAN leads the way. The company has both of the NHL&rsquo;s two big shooters, Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky, under contract and everyone knows they counted a combined total of 147 goals between them in 186 league and playoff games last season.But TITAN isn&rsquo;t sitting on its laurels. The company is planning for 1982 and is putting its hopes for a productive year on two professional calibre sticks. Featuring a Karlan blade with a laminated birch core, ABS tip and sole protector and a Birch veneer surface, the TMP 3020 is a spectacular stick. But TITAN has other goodies like the TMP 3010, which features a 21-ply double box birch shaft and a new Harwood blade. With a 57&rdquo; length, it has been designed with the tail player in mind.Both Gretzky and Bossy have approved sticks for the TITAN line. The Custom Pro 1723 and the Super Pro 1728 are senior level hockey sticks which have been tested and sanctioned by the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Whiz Kid. For the junior player, the Pro Junior 1726 bears Bossy&rsquo;s name on the shaft. It has a 50&rdquo; 13-ply birch shaft handle and an expanded composite blade core for lasting wear.TITAN also produces a 21-ply Custom Pro birch, glass reinforced goalie stick with their special Karlam blade.<h2>VICTORIA VILLE</h2>Although they have not put any new models on the stick market for 1982, Victoriaville can look back at a progressive year with five skater models and three top goaltender sticks to choose from.The Pro Vic 1000 and the Custom Vic 1000 are already popular with their lightweight handles and 10 pro patterns to pick from. All Victoriaville sticks are manufactured with fiberglass and white ash blades and are made in both straight and curve blades.The Pro Vic 1000 goaler stick is often seen in NHL games. Produced in black or blue shafts, the stick is the top of the goalie line. There is also the Custom Vic 1000 and Pro Vic goaler sticks for adult and junior performers. &#9632;

EQUIPMENT SUPPLEMENT—Sticks

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Hockey Stick Analysis

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Hockey Equipment Product Analysis

<h2>ALL SPORT</h2>One of the most important but more obscure parts of a player&rsquo;s equipment is his hockey bag. In it he carries around his skates and all the other expensive paraphe-nalia that he needs to play the game.All Sport Bag specializes in such equipment bags. Their canvas models measure 36 inches long and are 24 inches deep and 16 inches around. They come in assorted colors of red, navy, royal, black and green and are manufactured to provide adequate space for every aspect of a player&rsquo;s equipment.<h2>BROWN</h2>John Brown custom sporting equipment is a goalkeeper&rsquo;s delight. With the highest quality and design going into its entire goalie line, Brown&rsquo;s Collingwood, Ont., plant is turning out everything for the sophisticated net-minder.The Brown catch glove differs from conventional products because of its ultra lightweight construction. Brown has combined many types of shock absorbing foams and plastics in such a way that with a small amount of effort, the gloves are quickly broken in to the desired shape and flexibility. They are hand made and have a specially designed palm that reduces hand bruises even after the glove has been broken in.Brown has added a forehand protector to give double protection from slashing sticks. All gloves are available in either right or left hand sets. They also make gloves to the individual specifications.<h2>BRUCKER</h2>When your hockey gloves have grown thin and worn out, think twice about tossing them out to the garbage. Instead you would do well to consult Ben Brucker, the &ldquo;glove doctor&rdquo;, who specializes in restoring leather palms as well as other parts of your hockey equipment.Brucker started out as an orthopedic bootmaker, an expert at filling prescriptions for special shoes and repairing them. As word of his skill spread, pro athletes started bringing their shoes to him. One thing led to another and soon Brucker was fixing all sorts of athletic equipment, particularly hockey gloves.Today Brucker Gloves Inc., of Los Angeles, is servicing the hockey equipment needs of such NHL teams as Los Angeles, Boston, Detroit, Vancouver and the New York Rangers.<h2>CANADIEN</h2>Canadien Hockey Industries have broadened their equipment line this season to include two polyethylene helmets in six different colors and with attachable facemasks.The company&rsquo;s hockey sticks are rapidly reaching all corners of the hockey world and at last count, Canadien provided 125 of the NHL&rsquo;s players with their sticks last season.There is diversity in Canadien&rsquo;s equipment both for skaters and goaltenders. They have both. Their top SP 90 senior pro shoulder pads provide excellent rib cage and mid back protection. Their HG 56 gloves have reinforced thumb and backrolls for comfort and flexibility. They carry a complete line of shoulder, elbow, and shin pads as well as pants and gloves.<h2>CCM</h2>There is no end to the vast CCM sporting equipment line. It ranges from skates all the way to the new TPP, a futuristic concept in slimmer hockey suits that are fast becoming popular in the hockey world.CCM produces everything for the hockey player. They have a wide skate line, sticks for both forwards and goalies, all sorts of body protective equipment, pants and helmets.In the skate line, any time you mention CCM you have to think of Tacks. The company has a Super Cushion Tack, all leather skate made with the new Prolite II blade and is the choice of the selective player. CCM also has a Dynomax moulded model that is both inexpensive and durable for the younger players.The Pro Tack goal skate is all leather and rated highly by the professionals who wear them.The TPP one-piece hockey suits are an innovation with CCM. The package includes everything&mdash;inner girdle and outer long shell pants to replace the conventional short models. All this is complemented by CCM&rsquo;s superior pads for shoulders, arms and legs.One of CCM&rsquo;s most popular items has to be the CSA and CAHA tested and approved helmets. Their helmets were conspicuous in the 1981 Canada Cup series as CCM provided Team Canada with its major equipment supply. For the ordinary player, the CCM helmets are produced in no less than six different colors and have F17 buttons for facemast fittings.<h2>COOPER</h2>Cooper continues to make monumental strides in the hockey equipment business and this season the company will again feature a full line of sticks, jerseys, pads, gloves, helmets and goalie equipment.The introduction of the revolutionary Cooperall hockey uniforms has indeed projected Cooper into the equipment limelight. Many of the U.S. and Canadian college teams adopted the new, slimmer uniform concept and it is catching on with teams in Canada&rsquo;s three major hockey leagues as well.The Cooper equipment line features three top hockey stick models, including the Superlite II with an exclusive multi-lam shaft; three shoulder, elbow and shin pad models; the 30-ounce pro model glove and the super body-fitting Cooperall full-length pant suits made of nylon.Cooper&rsquo;s goaltending equipment comes in pro, senior and junior models and also features leg pads, chest protectors, arm pads and stick and trapper gloves.There are three Cooper helmets on the market and all are approved by the Canadian Standards Association and the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States. The polyethylene helmets come in six colors, carry a two-year warranty and are reasonably priced. They are also compatible for facemasks.<h2>DUPLISKATE</h2>Keeping hockey players&rsquo; skates razor sharp for the games is an essential part of a player&rsquo;s preparation for a game. For this reason, the skate-sharpening process has become an important part of all hockey teams.DupliSkate is one of the top manufacturers of skate sharpening equipment, mainly because of their ability to produce a skate sharpener that can duplicate any predetermined skate contour with minimum skill or training by the operator.DupliSkate has a totally new concept for skate sharpening and the company has become internationally accepted because of its innovations, among them; Controlling grinding, proper pressure, adjustable hydraulics to maintain the speed of the machine and the safety aspects for the operator.<h2>GRAB ON</h2>Many of today&rsquo;s hockey players favor a rubber grip on the top of their sticks for better control. The newest concept to hit the market is called Grab On, which is produced by a U.S. firm.The Grab On grip was specifically designed not only to increase a player&rsquo;s control on his stick but also to bring a higher degree of safety to the sport.Manufactured from a firm, expanded, synthetic foam, the large end of the grip provides over a half inch of padding that ensures the stick won&rsquo;t slide through your fingers. If you do drop your stick, the large end allows an easy pick up with even the stiffest hockey gloves.<h2>JOFA</h2>Now that they have merged resources with the Lange Skate Company, JOFA is moving rapidly ahead in the hockey equipment field.The JOFA-Lange operation is a division of Volvo America with outlets in New Jersey and Ontario. They are turning out a full line of equipment, ranging from sticks, leather and molded skates and goalie equipment to their CSA-AHAUS approved helmets that are popular with both North American and European teams.Innovations are limited this year since JOFA made two big equipment changes last season with their molded caps on elbow pads and the introduction of a helmet with facemask that also offers full ear protection.Their custom pro line of pads, pants and gloves are also accompanied by a junior product for the 12 and under hockey players. All feature extra padding and flexibility for today&rsquo;s fastmoving game.JOFA has a good range of goalie equipment, including leg pads, chest protectors and both blocker and catching mitts as well as masked helmets.Lange&rsquo;s incredible &ldquo;ice machines&rdquo; are stalking the hockey horizon and their inclusion in the JOFA line has enhanced the company&rsquo;s image on the skate market. In all there are seven molded skate models, including the top Laser 5 for the pros down to the new Lange Leader YT for young players. Along with JOFA&rsquo;s leather skate boot, the Volvo subsidiaries are fast becoming leaders in the skate field.<h2>KIM CROUCH</h2>The hockey protective collar is undoubtedly one of the great new innovations to the game of hockey and Kim Crouch Collar has produced three diverse products that provide the players with greater safety while going at top speed.Crouch makes three collars, including the Kim Crouch Special that protects throat, neck and the upper chest area. There is also the Crouch collar for all ages, which guards the throat and neck area, and the Crouch neck band. All are washable, light weighted and made of ballistic nylon material and ensolite foam.Two young NHL goalies have worn and endorsed the Crouch collar. Hartford&rsquo;s Greg Millen and Steve Baker of the New York Rangers both use them for added protection of the vulnerable throat area.The Ontario-based company also produces leg and wrist guards and has branched out with their product to provide protectors for dirt bike riders, horse racing jockeys, sulky drivers and baseball catchers.<h2>KOHO</h2>With a manufacturing plant now located in Canada, the KOHO company is stepping up its equipment production for the 1982 season.With a high quality of sticks, which are produced of top wood laminates, KOHO has added new fibreglass reinforced models for adults and juniors. Their sticks are designed for long-lasting performance.The hockey equipment line follows the same pattern of high production as their stick collection. KOHO is manufacturing in all sizes and has added protection to its pants, pads and gloves for all age groups.With many NHLers endorsing their products, KOHO is now marketing a full equipment complement in both Canada and the U.S. There isn&rsquo;t anything that KOHO isn&rsquo;t producing for hockey and they have also ventured into the soccer field as well.They feature a top pro line in a variety of colors and have come up with great new designs in hockey pants and protective equipment. The most discernable product is undoubtedly the KOHO Pro 900 glove, which many of the pros are wearing. KOHO sticks are carried by many NHLers, including the Islanders&rsquo; Bryan Trottier.<h2>NORTHLAND</h2>The popularity of Northland sticks is legendary in hockey. The goaltenders around the NHL swear by them, notably Tony Esposito of Chicago and Mike Liut of the St. Louis Blues, but Northland is also making its mark in another line of hockey equipment.The Northland helmets, which carry the name of Stan Mikita on them, are most popular and come in two caged models with their 12-point suspension built in. With Mikita&rsquo;s guidance, Northland has produced a helmet with peace-of-mind features and wearer comfort and boasts that their Mikita II helmet is the safest design in the world.Northland&rsquo;s famous Flip-Guard mask&mdash;the only one shaped like a human face&mdash;provides total eye protection which is vital in today&rsquo;s game.<h2>NPI</h2>One of the most popular new gadgets around a hockey team these days is the hand skate sharpener. National Pro Industries of Quebec has come out with a new sharpener that they hope will take the work out of putting an edge on your skate blade.Called the &ldquo;Gizmo,&rdquo; this two-inch sharpener has been produced in two models using the same size grindstone that gives a one-inch hollow ground.The new &lsquo;Gizmo&rsquo; is fully adjustable to any type of blade, from the 2MM speedskates to the 5MM figure skate blade. The standard model features eight different sized slots as a guiding system.NPI isn&rsquo;t restricted to hand skate sharpeners. The company also makes in excess of one million pairs of skate guards per year for all makes of skates.<h2>POLAR SPORT</h2>Form-fitting warmup suits are becoming as much a part of the hockey scene these days as the regular equipment. Polar Sport Ltd., of New York has moved into the hockey field and is producing many variations of the so-called sweatsuits, as they were previously known.Warmup suits are now being used by competitors, coaches, managers and even officials in some cases. Polar has stepped up its manufacturing program to include warmup suits, jackets, zippered trousers, body suits, skating skirts, and many other products.Primarily they are turning out warmup suits for skaters and hockey teams, team travel suits, figure skating dresses and bodysuits for the athletic types.<h2>PRO-TEC</h2>Many hockey players owe their very existence to the introduction of the faceguard. It has become the savior of today&rsquo;s fast-rushing sport and Pro-Tec has taken the lead in producing the protective facemasks for both player and goaltenders.With the 1977 AHAUS ruling that all amateur players must wear full-face protectors, Pro-Tec proceeded at once to produce a top mask to meet the stiff AHAUS standards and they came out with the first full-face mask for hockey players after the AHAUS edict. Today, the quality and design of their masks is evident everywhere the protectors are worn.With faceguards for skaters as well as goalies on the market, Pro-Tec is able to fit all type helmets with their simple attachment, which requires no special maintenance.After 12 years of research and testing, the company&rsquo;s faceguards have stood up to pucks travelling over 100 miles per hour. The fact that they are removable, makes them extremely popular with both young and older players.<h2>RLS</h2>Roller hockey is a fast growing sport in many parts of the U.S. and Canada and RLS, &ldquo;the next best thing for hockey players,&rdquo; has moved to the front of the industry with its patented BiSkates.The two-wheel roller skates are manufactured in California for both indoor and outdoor use and for off-ice conditioning programs and roller hockey leagues.Retailing for $250, the all-leather two-wheel roller skates, with no toestop, are the top of the RLS line. The BiSkates are composed of top grain leather with a stitched insole and crushproof toe. The wheels, toepicks, toestops and scuffguards are made of Dupont Urethane rubber which has unsurpassed abrasion resistance.<h2>TSM</h2>Nothing is more apt to throw a skater off balance more than a crooked hockey blade. With this in mind, TSM Industries of Mis-missauga, Ont., has introduced a new skate blade straightener to meet the growing demand for bent blades.TSM recently announced completion of licensing discussions for the manufacturing, along with Canadian Skate Contours, of their new blade straightener, a valuable yet economical skate care service tool. A lightweight constriction allows all blades to be straightened easily using only fingertip pressure.The new blade straightener can be fastened to a machine table with minimum time and space in any dressing room. The bent blade can also be straightened while still on the skater&rsquo;s foot and can travel with the team at all times. &#9632;

EQUIPMENT SUPPLEMENT—Products

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>Changes in the equipment for hockey players have been among the most gradual in all of sport, professional or otherwise. Skates, a puck and a hockey stick have been hockey&rsquo;s essential ingredients since the game&rsquo;s origin and really haven&rsquo;t changed that much until the past decade.It was during this recent period that other innovations concerning players&rsquo; equipment began to be accepted by the professionals. First, there was the growth of the popularity of the hockey helmet; prompted by the removal of the stigma associated with the helmet that it was for &ldquo;timid&rdquo; players and also by the proliferation of the helmet at the junior and minor levels of the sport. A second major change was the introduction of the plastic blade holder, an idea incorporated by nearly all of the pros today and by most hockey skate manufacturers. These lightweight yet durable holders gave the skaters a feeling of quickness as well as added maneuverability. Following close behind are the &ldquo;space-age uniforms&rdquo; of the future, which have already become the standards of some Canadian junior leagues as well as university teams. Looking more like track or basketball warm-up suits, these new uniforms are not only tighter fitting than the traditional hockey apparel, but also have built-in layers of protection.Today great strides are being made in the manufacture of skates&mdash;on the traditional stitched skates and on the molded varieties of skates as well.&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;ll find overall with every skate company, a lot more development work going on in the next couple of years. And of course the guy who&rsquo;s going to benefit is the hockey player,&rdquo; says Randy Curran, sales manager for Bauer skates of the Greb Shoe Inc. of Toronto. &ldquo;Now the hockey player is going to start getting things done for him that have never been done before. To the consumer, that&rsquo;s the most important thing.&ldquo;Bauer recognizes that we&rsquo;ve got to spend money on research and development,&rdquo; Curran explained. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re spending a lot of time on feet. We&rsquo;re looking at the foot and trying to see how it functions in a bio-mechanical nature. We&rsquo;re working with a man whose expertise is very well known in the ski boot and running shoe industry. He&rsquo;s helping us to build our product around the foot instead of just building the product and sticking your foot into it. We&rsquo;re asking ourselves certain questions before we go and do things and the result is something like Superfeet, which we put into our Supreme this year, which is an anatomical footbed system. That was the first step towards recognizing that you have to know what the foot&rsquo;s all about before you can build a hockey skate.&rdquo;As the manufacturers strive to produce skates which will last longer, are more comfortable and also more affordable, the whole process becomes a matter of skate companies competing with each other to offer a better pair of skates and as the manufacturers begin to reach their goals of a better skate, they are encouraged by the support of the consumers, who also seem more aware of what it is they are looking for in today&rsquo;s skate.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re having phenomenal success with the Supreme 100, at the pro level and with top hockey players,&rdquo; Curran said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t know why it fits better, but it has to be attributed to the two main features of Superfeet and Flolite&mdash;they&rsquo;re features that make the foot more solid inside the boot; they make it more comfortable and they make it fit better, and that&rsquo;s exactly what the hockey player wants.&ldquo;The running shoe industry spent a lot of money on R and D [research and development] work. And the ski boot industry, everybody knows what they spent. But nobody&rsquo;s ever spent money on hockey skates before the last few years,&rdquo; Curran continued.&ldquo;Skates haven&rsquo;t really changed,&rdquo; Curran said. &ldquo;The skate boot hasn&rsquo;t changed in 20 years. Look at the [CCM] Super Tack; they&rsquo;ve been made the same way for 20, 25 years But now we know we can do better than what we&rsquo;ve done in the past and that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re trying to do.&rdquo;While the direction taken by Bauer, a company which produces both the conventional stitched skate and the more recent molded skates, seems clear-cut, a strictly molded skate producer like Micron, of Montreal, faces a different set of problems and challenges.&ldquo;I think the biggest fear we have is that there&rsquo;s a tremendous anti-molded body out there of very unknowledge-able people,&rdquo; says Micron sales and marketing vice president Robin Burns. &ldquo;They consider the molded skate as some sort of plastic ashtray.&ldquo;But the technology of molded skates has changed so drastically in the last five or six years and really, there isn&rsquo;t such a thing anymore as a leather skate. Even if you take the top of the line&mdash;CCM, Bauer&mdash;there&rsquo;s in excess of anywhere from 50 to 70 pieces of material going into a skate. And the percentage of leather might be as small as 10 percent of the entire skate. It&rsquo;s ballistic nylon, a molded toe piece and a molded heel shank. The biggest fallacy that people talk about when comparing the two kinds of skates is flexibility and the ability for ankle movement. We say that there is as great or more flexibility in our new product line that there is tn stitched skates.&rdquo;Scotty Bowman, coach of Team Canada, points out another myth in a commercial for Micron moldeds. It goes like this: &lsquo;Sure Scotty, we know that molded skates give much better protection than the old stitched skates,&rsquo; but then they go on to tell me that molded skates offer too much support, especially for kids just starting out to skate so that they&rsquo;re ankle muscles don&rsquo;t have a chance to develop.&rsquo;To this Bowman says: &ldquo;The problem with this line of reasoning is that there is no such thing as a weak ankle. Maybe there are weak skaters or skates that don&rsquo;t fit properly, but the point is you can&rsquo;t strengthen your ankle muscles to support your body weight no matter what you do.&rdquo;&ldquo;Contrary to many beliefs, we have dozens of pros who are wearing our skates and we have changed people,&rdquo; Burns points out, &ldquo;Wayne Cashman for example. He was a traditional type player who had never tried a molded skate. But he had problems with his tendon and the doctor said he should try a molded. Wayne put on the molded skates two seasons ago and he swears by them. He says he should have been into them for the last five years or so.&ldquo;People say that molded are good for a defenseman for their protection purposes,&rdquo; Burns said, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ve got a guy like Kenny Linseman on Team Canada wearing them and Linseman is about as much a dipsy-doodle, stop and go fancy-dan as you&rsquo;re going to get. What happens in Canada is that we&rsquo;re all part-time experts on hockey because it&rsquo;s our national sport. That&rsquo;s why you get some bad-mouthing, people saying &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t wear those molded skates, they&rsquo;re too bulky,&rsquo; That&rsquo;s fine if you have an opinion, say it, but I come back at them, not with opinions, but with facts. Top medical people, physical fitness people, pediologists, swear by the molded skate. It&rsquo;s a tremendous battle for us to change traditional thinking but I believe strongly in molded skates because I know the truth, the percen-tages and figures [and they indicate] that the other skates don&rsquo;t offer what the molded can.&ldquo;We offer durability.&rdquo; continued Burns. &ldquo;The breakdown factor of our product is far less than the breakdown factor of a conventional skate, so it&rsquo;s value for your money. And then there&rsquo;s the protection&mdash;against the speed of the puck and the comfort. The break-in period of our skates is far less than the break-in of a normal skate. When you finally get a normal skate broken in, it&rsquo;s broken down.&rdquo;On that point, Burns will get little argument from stitched skate manufacturers as Curran attests: &ldquo;Not only do molded skates give you durability and support, but with them, you can give a youngster a little bit of room to grow into them whereas a stitched skate might be a little more difficult because by their nature they will break down and be too big to give proper support.&rdquo;After that, the philosophies of the two companies diverge. While Micron contends that their technology has produced a variety of molded skates which can be enjoyed by players of all ages and levels, the Bauer people feel that while molded skates are great for beginners or for the rapidly-expanding industrial league players, that the really serious players eventually move back into a stitched hockey skate. The reason? The fit.&ldquo;If a consumer looks at a low-end molded hockey skate and then looks at a mid-price or high-price point,&rdquo; Curran said, &ldquo;the question he asks hintself is what am I getting for my money. It looks like the shell is the same and the liner has just got a little more padding to it. It may have a couple of other features, but basically it&rsquo;s just more padding and you need more than just more padding to make a skate fit.&ldquo;Of course. Bauer is very fortunate because we do deal with both products, so we know the problems involved in both skates. We know what we&rsquo;re trying to find in a molded skate because we deal with the stitched skate all the time. We also know that it would be nice to put extra protection into a stitched skate that you get in molded skates. And we want to get the stitched skate to be as comfortable as the molded. We are in the fortunate position to have both to play against.&ldquo;Molded skates have definitely got a place in the skate industry,&rdquo; Curran contends. &ldquo;As a manufacturer, we&rsquo;ve got to do some more research and development to try and make them fit better, more like a stitched skate. When I&rsquo;m talking about fit, I talk mostly about the heel area, trying to get the back of the foot solid inside the boot because that&rsquo;s the most important thing.&rdquo;One of the ways that Micron has improved the fit of their molded skates is with the insertion of new liners for skaters. &ldquo;Families hand down a pair of our Mascots, the first price point skate, to two and three kids,&rdquo; Burns said. &ldquo;We have a liner program where they can purchase, for a reasonable price, a new liner. They stick in a new liner, new laces and the kid&rsquo;s got new skates for the year.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s going to be some big change in the next little while,&rdquo; Curran forecasts. &ldquo;If someone said, &lsquo;Is it the right move?&rsquo; I&rsquo;d have to say, &lsquo;Yes, because the research and development is working.&rsquo; The study of the foot and finding out what you need to make a skate fit better is working because it&rsquo;s turning people around and they&rsquo;re buying our product because of it.&rdquo; &#9632;

Molded Or Stitched—Today’s Skates Best Ever

<div class="byline">BY ARNOLD IRISH</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The Blues aren&rsquo;t likely to be the NHL&rsquo;s most improved team for the third straight year. They&rsquo;re too close to the top to shake the hockey world with another quantum leap this time.That simplifies their objective, but not their task. To take a page from the astronauts&rsquo; book. One small step for the Blues, one giant step for their reputation.A year ago at this time, flushed with the success born of escape from the dank confines of the NHL&rsquo;s cellar regions, the Blues were cautiously optimistic. They hoped to improve their total by a few points. Maybe move up a notch. Basically, having scrambled to the middle of the pack, they hoped to solidify their position. And with luck, to rise above that logjam.Instead, they moved near the front of the pack early, actually led the NHL point parade down the regularseason homestretch, then tightened up at the wire and finished second behind the New York Islanders, 110-107.The Blues weren&rsquo;t a factor in the playoffs. Mike Liut, the best goalie in hockey but badly overworked in the season&rsquo;s second half (coach Red Berenson, are you listening?), looked as if he hadn&rsquo;t slept in weeks. Wayne Babych, a 54-goal scorer during the regular season, wasn&rsquo;t heard from either during the Blues&rsquo; narrow first-round escape from Pittsburgh or when the New York Rangers unceremoniously blew them out of the tub.And because their superb regularseason showing was cancelled out somewhat by their playoff pratfalls, the Blues were denied not only the Stanley Cup, which like all teams they covet, but also the recognition they think they deserve.Around the league, the Blues are generally respected by their peers. But St. Louis, out in the hinterlands as it is, hasn&rsquo;t yet been &ldquo;discovered&rdquo; by the international media, some of whose representatives probably would be surprised to learn that the Blues no longer skate on double runners.&ldquo;Maybe there are some people who still think we aren&rsquo;t for real,&rdquo; conceded Emile Francis, the Blues&rsquo; president and general manager.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s OK,&rdquo; Francis said with a thin smile that conveyed no warmth whatever. &ldquo;Let &lsquo;em think that.&rdquo;There is no simple way for the St. Louis Blues to convince the heretics, and that is to win the Stanley Cup. No mean objective, but well within the range of their capabilities.When the Blues circle the rink holding hockey&rsquo;s Holy Grail above their heads&hellip;Then, and only then, is when the international hockey media and public are going to believe there really IS a St. Louis.When, in their locker room, every St. Louis player in turn has tipped the hallowed Cup and felt the champagne cascade out of it into his mouth and nose and eyes&hellip;Then, and only then, is when the Blues are really going to believe emotionally that they&rsquo;re as good as they know intellectually they are.And while, ultimately, the Blues must do it on the ice, two things that had to be done to give them their best shot&mdash;a sensible draft and a major trade&mdash;already are history.It doesn&rsquo;t take a Phi Beta Kappa to surmise that if Liut is the NHL&rsquo;s first-team All Star goalie, and if the Blues last season scored a club record 352 goals with 10 players scoring at least 20 goals (Babych 54, Jorgen Pettersson 37. Brian Sutter 35, Perry Turnbull 34. Bernie Federko 31, Mike Zuke 24, Tony Currie 23, Larry Patey 22, Blake Dunlop 20 and Blair Chapman 20), then St. Louis must need&mdash;uh, let&rsquo;s see now&mdash;more quality defensemen.So, in the NHL entry draft they selected defensemen on the first three rounds.And in the off-season, they traded for highly regarded Scott Campbell of the Winnipeg Jets.Campbell, 6-2 and 215 pounds, is sound defensively, capable offensively and enjoys mixing it up. He could be the difference.So could Rick Wilson, the defenseman St. Louis picked No. 1 in 1980.Or one of the backliners&mdash;Marty Ruff, Sweden&rsquo;s Hakan Nordin and Gordon Donnelly&mdash;St. Louis drafted in the top three rounds this year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02264/4415606-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="570" height="1040"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Wilson, an underage pick in 1980, could bolster the Blues&rsquo; weakest spot&mdash;defense.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

Blues Confident They’re For Real

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div>DENVER&mdash;Enthusiasm and optimism are essentials of any winning organization. And new Colorado Rockies&rsquo; coach Bert Marshall is high on both as his first season in the NHL coaching ranks approaches.But it seems, at least in Denver where the Rockies have become one of the league&rsquo;s whipping boys the past five years, optimism is always a byword during the summer months when the team can match losses with the Islanders and Canadiens.Marshall has spent most of the summer in his home in Lake Wild-wood, Calif., in the Sierra mountains. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a resort-type development, halfway between Reno and Sacramento up in the mountains. It&rsquo;s a nice summertype home with a lot of deck living.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a private golf course, a private lake, private tennis courts and it&rsquo;s a good place to relax. There&rsquo;s a lot of interaction up here. There are all kinds of people, businessmen, doctors, lawyers and a few guys who were exNFL players,&rdquo; Marshall explained.All that blend of people has been a help to him as he prepares for the rigors of taking over the coaching reins of a team which has been identified as the &ldquo;Pebbles,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Pet Rocks&rdquo; in the past for its lack of prowess.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice for me to be able to pick their brains in a relaxed atmosphere,&rdquo; Marshall said of his never-ending search for psychological tips. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not looking at it as strictly business.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a little anxious and ready to get going. I&rsquo;m trying to keep my head straight&mdash;doing a lot of reading I&rsquo;m trying to make sure I have the right information to work with the right guys. I&rsquo;m just getting charged up&mdash;like you charge up a battery. I want to be ready,&rdquo; Marshall said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been reading a lot of motivational stuff and a lot of psychology. Just good plain ordinary stuff where you believe yourself. It&rsquo;s individual and it&rsquo;s collective. It&rsquo;s just to make sure you have a good self image,&rdquo; Marshall said.Marshall is enthused about the coming season&mdash;and with good reason. General manager Bill MacMillan and assistant GM and assistant coach Marshall Johnston have collaborated to sign five Europeans, resign goalie Glenn &ldquo;Chico&rdquo; Resch and deal for forwards Dwight Foster and Brent Ashton. There could be seven new faces on the Rockies&rsquo; roster come the Oct. 6 opener.&ldquo;A lot of times, especially with this franchise, we&rsquo;ve got ourselves in a situation where we feel we&rsquo;re handcuffed with fences out there to sur-round us and keep us in. The direction is different than what it was before and that&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re so excited.&ldquo;The big thing is, I believe, the players as individuals should be ex-tremely excited about coming to camp and being a part of what the Rockies are going to be. There&rsquo;s always going to be a guy who doesn&rsquo;t recognize what&rsquo;s going on. But they&rsquo;re not going to be around very long,&rdquo; Marshall said in a veiled warning to some Rockies who have hung on for lack of competition the last couple years.ROCKY RAMBLINGS&mdash;The Rock-ies are assured of the best media exposure they have ever had by virtue of signing a contract with 50,000-watt KOA Radio to carry 60 of their 80 games this season&hellip;The Rockies lost veteran center Walter McKechnie when he signed as a free agent with Detroit. McKechnie&rsquo;s high contract, an abundance of centers available to the Rockies and his rejection of the team&rsquo;s one-year termination contract offer led to his leaving Colorado. &#9632;

Marshall Mentally Set To Motivate Rockies

<div class="byline">BY HARVEY ROSEN</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01359/4415575-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="574" height="1032"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul MacLean, above, may &ldquo;ride shotgun&rdquo; for Winnipeg&rsquo;s top draft choice Dale Hawerchuk this fall.</figcaption></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Any uninformed individual gravitating towards the famous Winnipeg intersection of Portage and Main on Thursday, August 13 who espied the police, a Brinks truck, and a throng of curious on-lookers would likely draw the conclusion that several desperados had just carried out a daring daylight heist of a major downtown bank.In time they would have discovered that the armored vehicle contained no large sums of money per se, but rather a diamond in the rough which might eventually generate sufficient sums of that root of all evil.This particular little gem, according to Jets&rsquo; general manager John Ferguson, is &ldquo;genuine.&rdquo; And for that rationale, Fergy never had any intention whatsoever of parting with Dale Hawerchuk, the number one selection in the June entry draft.With temperatures soaring close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit noon hour shoppers and employees on their lunch break began to emerge from an underground concourse, leaving the cooler subterranean atmosphere be-low, to approach a raised platform replete with city dignitaries to witness the signing of the Cornwall Royals&rsquo; flashy phenom center.Ferguson, beaming like the proverbial father of the bride, handed the pen to the Quebec Major Junior League&rsquo;s leading scorer last year (81 goals and 102 assists) and pronounced &ldquo;Sign on the dotted line, Dale.&rdquo; And to Jets&rsquo; president Michael Gobuty he imparted: &ldquo;&lsquo;Michael, you be the witness.&rsquo;&rdquo;Prior to the momentous signing Ferguson optimistically informed the spectators that &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t intend to be drafting first overall anymore.&rdquo;Should Hawerchuk, who last year received no less than five individual awards, play up to his potential then perhaps the Jets may no longer have the dubious privilege of doping out in mid-winter who the nation&rsquo;s best amateur may be in the subsequent draft.For a lad who just turned 18 on April 4, Dale handled himself at a postsigning press conference like a veteran pro. Nattily dressed in a three-piece suit he responded candidly to the barrage of queries levelled at him by a flock of media types.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any particular goals,&rdquo; said Dale: &ldquo;If I have a good year, maybe the team will too. I never really set goals for myself.&rdquo;As for pressure, Hawerchuk doesn&rsquo;t feel that the jump to the pros will cause him any more than did his climb from bantam to midget to junior.&ldquo;Tom Watt has had a lot of success with younger players,&rdquo; noted the Toronto native, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m looking forward to playing for him this year.&rdquo;The comparisons with Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky have been most flattering to Hawerchuk. &ldquo;I play sorta&rsquo; the same type of game. I like to hang onto the puck more.&rdquo;When reminded of Gretzky&rsquo;s prowess from behind the net, Hawerchuk said that he doesn&rsquo;t &ldquo;go much behind there, but if I have to I will.&rdquo;The 5-11 left handed shooter who confirmed that he has added six or seven pounds to his sturdy frame doesn&rsquo;t know who his wingers might be in &lsquo;81-82. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s up to Mr. Watt,&rdquo; he said.According to Ferguson, speedy left winger Normand Dupont, acquired last season from Montreal for a second round pick in &lsquo;82, is a possibility.On right wing, Ferguson concedes that there will have to be some muscle to ride shotgun for the &ldquo;new kid on the block&rdquo; who may be put to the test by opposing skaters.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got depth at right wing that we never had before,&rdquo; cited the optimistic GM. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s [Danny] Geoffrion, [Rick] Dudley, [Willy] Lindstrom, [Paul] MacLean, [Kris] Manery, [Bengt] Lundholm, and [Jimmy] Mann could be ready, you know.The man on the right side that Ferguson spoke most enthusiastically about, however, was MacLean, the ex-Canadian national skater who was obtained in the early July five-player-swap with the St. Louis Blues.MacLean played with Salt Lake City of the CHL and scored 36 goals and 42 assists. His 160 minutes in penalties seem to indicate that he isn&rsquo;t easily intimidated and could well play &ldquo;big brother&rdquo; for Hawerchuk this fail and winter.Exactly nine years, one month and 17 days prior to Hawerchuk&rsquo;s ceremonial signing another pretty fair talent, Bobby Hull, also was honored at Portage and Main.The impact that the &ldquo;golden jet&rdquo; made on both the NHL and WHA is well documented. Should Hawerchuk turn out to be even close to a reasonable facsimile to Hull, it may well be that a giant heist did take place on a hot August afternoon in downtown Winnipeg.JETS JABBER&mdash;Hawerchuk will wear sweater number 10, the same digit, he wore in junior. Last season Peter Sullivan, who will play in Europe this year, wore that jersey&hellip;The length of Dale&rsquo;s pact was not announced. Agent Gus Badall said it&rdquo;was more than three years&hellip;Former Red Wing Glenn Hicks and Ex-Canuck Dave Logan have been invited to the Jets&rsquo; training camp&hellip;Only 520 of close to 10,000 season ticket holders chose the privilege of buying into the seven-game Canada Cup package held at Winnipeg Arena&hellip;Jude Drouin will not be back with the team this year in any capacity. &#9632;

f0033-01

Jets Convinced Hawerchuk Is Genuine Jewel

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSSPRINGFIELD&mdash;Following his release by the Adirondack Red Wings Tom Webster has found a new hockey life as coach of the Springfield Indians.Webster was left out of the picture after he led the Red Wings to the Calder Cup championship as co-coach with J. P. LeBlanc. LeBlanc moved to Kalamazoo to coach in the IHL this season and Kalamazoo mentor Doug McKay swapped positions in moving over to guide the Red Wings. In the move Webster was given his release, but by winning the AHL title his services were in demand.Springfield wasted little time in pursuing Webster and soon signed the former Adirondack coach to a contract for the 1981-82 season. The new Indians&rsquo; boss replaces John Wilson, who retired to private business.The 31-year-old Webster is the alltime leading scorer in New England-Hartford Whaler history.The Indians also selected former WHA goalie Bruce Landon as their new Director of Marketing. Landon led the Springfield Kings to the Calder Cup in the early 1970&rsquo;s.Both Springfield and New Haven will be wearing identical red, white and blue uniforms of the New York Rangers this year. The Indians replaced New Haven as the top farm club of the Rangers, but the Night-hawks, due to a prior commitment, will continue to don the same uniforms before switching to the colors of the Los Angeles Kings sometime in the future.Springfield released their schedule for the coming year and will play 37 weekend dates of their 40 home games including 23 Saturday dates. The Indians will open the home portion of their schedule on October 10 against the Calder Cup champion Red Wings.The Indians will also produce a 15-minute radio program on Monday evenings beginning Oct. 5 that will deal with happenings in the AHL. PR director Bob Galerstein will host the show.ADIRONDACK&mdash;New coach McKay was introduced to the media at a special press conference and the new mentor related it would be tough to duplicate last year&rsquo;s success, but he was prepared to do his best.McKay&rsquo;s job could be just a little easier since Detroit obtained AHL scoring champ Mark Lofthouse from the Washington Capitals in a one for one trade for goaltender Al Jensen. Should Lofthouse end up in Adirondack he would bring with him some impressive statistics that included 103 points and 131 penalty minutes last year.It was a tough decision to deal Jensen based on his accomplishments in Adirondack, but the parent Red Wings felt it was necessary to strengthen the right side which has been a weak spot for the organization.The Red Wings will open the home portion of the regular season on Oct. 7 when they host the Maine Mariners in a rematch of last year&rsquo;s Calder Cup finals. General manager Ned Harkness was pleased that the team will play many away games early in the season and will be home during the crucial part of the campaign late in the year.Adirondack will also play home and home exhibitions with Rochester on Sept. 25-26 and with Binghamton on Oct. 2-3.MAINE&mdash;The Mariners were another team that will polish off a majority of their road games early in the campaign. By the end of December the Mariners will have played 24 of their 40 away contests.Last year&rsquo;s Calder Cup finalist will open their home season on Saturday, Oct. 10 in hosting New Haven and then play on 10 consecutive Saturday nights. Maine has 22 Saturday games on the schedule.The parent Philadelphia Flyers and the Mariners will open a joint training camp at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Sept. 15. A new group of first year players have generated plenty of fan interest including Finnish right wing Ilkka Sinisalo, defenseman Fred Arthur, forward Barry Tabobondung and Ray Allison. Mariner stars Pelle Lindbergh and Tom Eriksson are playing with Sweden in the Canada Cup series.PR director Dale Arnold will be the new voice of the Mariners over their nine station network, the largest in minor league hockey. Kurt Mundt and Kevin Cady are the new trainer and assistant trainer respectively with former trainers Dave &ldquo;Sudsy&rdquo; Settlemyre and Jim Evers moving up to the Fivers.ERIE&mdash;The first year Blades announced the formation of a three station radio network which would originate from flagship station WLKK. Communications director John Paul Dellacamera was set to return for his fourth straight season as the voice of the Blades.Two more members of last year&rsquo;s EHL champion Blades signed NHL contracts. Wing-defenseman Val James inked an agreement with the Buffalo Sabres and will be reunited with coach Nick Polano, who joined the Sabres as an assistant this summer. Forward Sylvain Cote, among the leaders in penalty minutes in the EHL, agreed to a contract with the Quebec Nordiques.The parent Pittsburgh Penguins will perform in two exhibition games at the Erie County Fieldhouse bringing National Hockey League teams to Erie for the first time. The Penguins will tangle with Quebec on Sept. 26 and Detroit on Oct. 3.The Blades will play home and home exhibitions with Rochester on Oct. 2-3. Wednesday and Friday will be hockey nights in Erie and the new AHL entry debuts before the home fans on October 7 against Binghamton.BINGHAMTON&mdash;The Whalers will host the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Officials Clinic, Sept. 25-27. The clinic is attended by both current and prospective AHL linesmen and is conducted by the league with an instructional staff provided by the NHL.Veteran NHL linesman John D&rsquo;Amico will be among the staff at the Chenango Ice Rink. Some 40 to 45 linesmen are anticipated.Binghamton scheduled five exhibition games including two which will be held at the Chenango Rink and one at the Broome County Arena. Hershey and Rochester supply the opposition at Chenango on Sept. 26-27, while Adirondack moves in for an Oct. 2 meeting in the Arena. The Whalers close their exhibition slate on Oct. 4 as part of a twinbill featuring the Islanders and Bruins in the second game.The Whalers will play the majority of their regular season games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and continue their three traditional holiday games on Thanksgiving, New Year&rsquo;s Eve and St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day.NEW HAVEN&mdash;The Nighthawks will be completing their first decade in the AHL when they open camp with the parent Los Angeles Kings in Victoria, British Columbia.During their stay in Victoria, the Nighthawks will play three exhibition games with the CHL&rsquo;s Dallas Black Hawks on Sept. 19-20-21 before breaking camp a week later.The Nighthawk players are expected back in New Haven on Sept. 30 and will host the Mariners in an exhibition struggle on Oct. 2. New Haven will return the favor and move to Maine for a game on Oct. 3 before finishing off their exhibition schedule on Oct. 4 with Binghamton at home. All proceeds from the Nighthawks&rsquo; exhibition outings will go to benefit Youth Hockey.Season tickets were over 1,400 When this issue went to press and the New Haven staff is looking to eclipse the record mark of 1.698 set two years back.New Haven has curtained off part of Veterans Memorial Coliseum to cut their seating capacity down to the 6,000 range from 8,000 and have eliminated their $4 seating. The club is expecting sellouts for their first two home games on Oct. 16 against Adirondack which is welcome back night for New Haven coach Don Perry and Oct. 19 against Springfield which will be last year&rsquo;s Nighthawks team.ROCHESTER&mdash;Americans&rsquo; fans could be seeing &ldquo;The Hulk&rdquo; in Rochester this season. The parent Buffalo Sabres announced they had signed Dean &ldquo;The Hulk&rdquo; Turner to a contract and he could see action in a Rochester uniform.Turner played mostly in the CHL last year, but also saw duty with the Colorado Rockies and Springfield Indians. The signing of Turner and ex Erie Blade Val James gives the Buffalo organization plenty of muscle.Coach Mike Keenan will be able to view his charges in seven exhibition games including three at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid. Rochester will play home and home pre-season tilts with Erie, Binghamton and Adirondack and a single game with Nova Scotia.NEW BRUNSWICK&mdash;The Hawks remained the only team without a coach into late August before they finally announced that Orval Tessier, who coached the Kitchener Rangers into the Memorial Cup, would leave the Ontario Hockey League for a position in Moncton.New Brunswick will play the majority of their home games on Wednesday. Saturday and Sunday and will begin their home slate on Wednesday. Oct. 7 against Rochester.HERSHEY&mdash;The senior franchise in the AHL. dated back to 1938-39. will have a compliment of 22 Saturday night games and 12 Wednesday dates.The Bears are entering their fifth year in affiliation with the NHL&rsquo;s Washington Capitals and will begin training camp on Sept. 14 at the Her-sheypark Arena. Washington will play exhibitions in Hershey with Pitts-burgh on Sept. 27 and Philadelphia on Oct. 2 while the Bears will scrim-mage Binghamton and Maine.FREDERICTON&mdash; The Express will host the Officials Clinic for the American Hockey League in Canada for this season. Two such clinics are held every year with Fredericton hosting the meeting in Canada for Canadian personnel and Binghamton for the American linesmen.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01389/4415661-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="572" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug McKay traded in his K-Wings&rsquo; for a set from Adirondack as the Red Wings&rsquo; new coach.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

Indians Quick To Lasso Webster; McKay Starts At Top With Wings

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSTULSA&mdash;Bobby Gilbert, sole owner of the Oilers for more than six seasons, was back in his old office at the Assembly Center. Bobby was named acting general manager of the hockey club, following the resignation of AI Rollins.&ldquo;There are no hard feelings,&rdquo; said Rollins, as he packed his bags to return to his home in Phoenix. &ldquo;I had a difference of opinion with the new owners. 1 have very definite ideas on how to run a hockey club, I&rsquo;ve been in this game a long time. If they don&rsquo;t agree with me, there&rsquo;s nothing for me to do but get out.&rdquo;The former NHL All Star goalie for the Chicago Black Hawks and Toronto Maple Leafs said his plans for the immediate future were &ldquo;indefinite&rdquo;. He has relinquished his financial interest in the Oilers.Scott Simpson, who became club president in a restructure of the Oiler ownership last April, said Gilbert would be acting general manager&mdash;&ldquo;until or unless we hire a general manager, and unless something dramatic happens. 1 expect that general manager to be Bobby Gilbert.&rdquo;Gilbert, who has the concessions contract for both the Assembly Center and Tulsa&rsquo;s downtown Performing Arts Center, said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to be back as the Oilers&rsquo; GM, but it&rsquo;s a differed. situation now. I have no financial interest in the club, I&rsquo;m just a salaried employee.&ldquo;Of course, when I was the owner, all I owned were three desks, two typewriters and a bunch of used equipment. But 1 was saddled with the financial burden, and I don&rsquo;t have that now.&rdquo;As Gilbert reassembled the front office staff, he reported season ticket sales had reached 1,300 in early August, down 300 from a year ago at that point.A radio broadcasting contract was being finalized to carry 69 of the 80 regular-season games over KELI (1430-AM). The only games not to be broadcast would be those which conflicted with University of Tulsa foot-ball or basketball games, which are broadcast by the same station.The Oilers have had only three general managers in their 18-year history in the Central League. Ray Miron held the post for 10 years (1964-74). Gilbert took over when he bought the club in the summer of 1974, and was sole owner until last November. At that time Rollins was named GM, as one of three men who purchased a controlling interest in the club, while Gilbert remained a minority owner.OKLAHOMA CITY&mdash;Tommy McVie, new coach of the Stars, was in the process of moving to Oklahoma City to take up permanent residence. Meanwhile general manager Gary Hail and\ice-president Steve Michaels were making plans to accompany Oke City press, radio and television representatives to the training camp of the parent Calgary Flames and a five-day &ldquo;tour&rdquo; of the province of Alberta.DALLAS&mdash;Preston Pearson, famed running back for the National Football League&rsquo;s Dallas Cowboys, has become a minority owner of the Black Hawks, and has pitched in enthusiastically with promotions and public relations.&ldquo;My hockey background is nil,&rdquo; the popular halfback said at the press conference announcing his new connection. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve only been to five or six games, I still don&rsquo;t know the rules. But it&rsquo;s a tremendous game, fast and hard-hitting. My job is to let the football fans of the Dallas area know there&rsquo;s another game in town.&rdquo;Black Hawks&rsquo; president Mike Hargis, the principal owner, announced that Danny Belisle, CHL coach of the year for 1980-81, would be both coach and general manager of the Hawks this season. Hargis also revealed that the Chicago Black Hawks would supply a &ldquo;handful of players, maybe four or five&rdquo; to Dallas. The bulk of Belisle&rsquo;s roster will come from the parent Vancouver Canucks.Dallas Jaycees began selling season tickets on a commission basis, and were confident of topping previous seasons. Plans for radio broadcasts of Black Hawk games were still to be confirmed. Steve Johnson was to be play-by-play announcer. He is a former program director in Bozeman, Mont.WICHITA&mdash;Greg Hallaman, formerly with the Indianapolis Checkers, became the new &ldquo;Voice of the Wichita Wind&rdquo;, with the announcement that all 80 regular-season games will be broadcast over station KBUZ (FM 106).Spencer Manuel, new public relations director, revealed a television package was also being put together. Under new coach John Muckier, the Wind&rsquo;s second season in the CHL will start with the parent Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; training camp in Spruce Grove, Alta.FORT WORTH&mdash;New general manager Allen Rajanen was lining things up for the coming season, but the parent Colorado Rockies as yet had not named a coach for the Texans, succeeding Ron Ullyot.&ldquo;I hope we have a coach before we go to training camp,&rdquo; Rajanen said. The Texans will train with the Rockies in suburban Littleton, Colo.Rajanen said he was close to naming a public relations director for the club. Interest had been shown in a radio broadcast, but the new p.r. man would be the one to finalize that.CINCINNATI&mdash;Howard Cornfield was named public relations director of the Tigers, one of two CHL expansion teams for 1980-81. Coach Doug Carpenter, with an American Hockey League background, was preparing for his CHL debut, heading for training camp with the parent Leafs in Maple Leaf Gardens at Toronto.INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Left wing Neil Hawryliw, who opened the 1980-81 season with a hat trick for the Checkers, was signed by the parent New York Islanders for the Indianapolis farm club. Hawryliw has scored 65 goals in two seasons at Indy.The Islanders were scheduled to meet the Chicago Black Hawks in a Sept. 21 exhibition at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum, new home of the Checkers.Season ticket sales hit the 1,000-mark in half the time it took a year ago, and the sales staff was pushing hard toward a goal of 2,000. Last year they sold 1,400.Checker general manager-coach Fred Creighton announced that radio station WIBC (1070-AM) would be the flagship station for broadcasting all regular season and playoff games over a network which is being organized. Local sportscaster Kevin Calabro will become the &ldquo;voice of the Checkers&rdquo;.NASHVILLE&mdash;The start of an active season ticket push for the South Stars, Nashville&rsquo;s first pro hockey team in 10 years, brought an enthusiastic response. In the early days of the campaign, the club had sold 350. The most season tickets ever sold by the Dixie Flyers in the old Eastern League was 293.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01368/4415692-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="577" height="887"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Oilers&rsquo; owner Bobby Gilbert is now a salaried employee of the CHL club.</figcaption></div>Defenseman Bob Suter of the champion 1980 U.S. Olympic team was &#9632;

f0035-01

Gilbert Jumps Back Into Tulsa GM’s Saddle

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSTOLEDO&mdash;Bill Beagan is back in the International Hockey League. Not as the commissioner. But as an owner. Or at least a part owner.Beagan, who served the IHL as the commissioner from 1969 to the end of the 1978-79 season, was successful in keeping the Toledo franchise afloat. Complete details of the deal haven&rsquo;t been released but Beagan apparently will work closely with Virgil Gladieux, chairman of the board of the Toledo Sports Arena which also owns the hockey club.Beagan had been involved in a movement to keep Toledo in the IHL almost from the time it was announced during the playoffs last season that the franchise would be put in escrow for at least one year. Beagan originally teamed with former Columbus-Grand Rapids owner Al Savill in the drive to take over the Toledo franchise.The movement lost impetus when it appeared that Saginaw might not answer the faceoff for the 1981-82 season, causing Savill to cool off his interest. But Beagan apparently found a new fire and Toledo will remain active.The decision in Toledo boosted the IHL membership for the coming season to seven. That&rsquo;s one below the muster role of last season, but it&rsquo;s three above the total the most pessimistic bystanders forecasted a few weeks ago. At one time, only five clubs&mdash;Fort Wayne, Muskegon, Mil-waukee, Kalamazoo and Flint appeared certain of operating again. But Saginaw solved its problems and now Toledo is ready for another try.When the 1981-82 season opens early in October, at least two new coaches will be behind the benches. Ron Ullyot, son of Fort Wayne general manager Ken Ullyot, was announced as a coaching replacement for veteran Moose Lallo last month. Since then, Muskegon has announced the signing of Poul Popiel, a veteran of both the NHL and WHA, as a player-coach.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re excited about the signing of Popiel,&rdquo; said general manager Gerry Moore. &ldquo;We know his age [38] may be against him, but we think he can help us both on and off the ice.&rdquo; Popiel played a key role in Houston winning the WHA championship in 1974 and 1975.In addition to naming a new coach, Muskegon has added Pittsburgh to its list of NHL affiliates. The Mohawks also work with Vancouver and Calgary.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really excited about our deal with Pittsburgh,&rdquo; said Moore. &ldquo;I am confident we will get player help from them. This should be a good addition to our operation.&rdquo;Moore said that ticket sales to date have &ldquo;been a little slow&rdquo;, but 1 think it will pick up now that we have a coach named and a new agreement with Pittsburgh. &ldquo;There were some rumors at the end of last season that Muskegon might not return to the IHL fold for 1981-82, but those rumors have since been silenced.Moore said he felt that the earlier announcements by Port Huron and Toledo (during the playoffs) that neither would be back for the coming season hurt early ticket sales. &ldquo;But now that Toledo is back, 1 think that things will pick up. I&rsquo;m optimistic about the season.&rdquo;Fort Wayne was the most active in the draft of Port Huron players during the recent IHL meetings. The Komets drafted three players although just one, center Bob Sauve, played at Port Huron last season.In addition, the Komets acquired the rights to Gary Murphy and Larry Huras, both of whom played in Europe last season. Murphy is also a center, while Huras is a defenseman.Other players drafted: Brian Kinsella, left wing, by Toledo; Larry Gould, left wing by Muskegon; Dave Faulkner, center, by Kalamazoo; Wayne Ramsey, defenseman, by Saginaw; Steve Blue, right wing by Flint; Kevin MacDonald, defenseman by Milwaukee.The league has agreed to increase team rosters from 16 to 17 players and to institute an overtime system for the 1981-82 season.With the new overtime system, the two teams would play a five-minute, sudden-death overtime period at the end of regulation play. If the score remains tied, each team would receive the traditional point each in the standings. If one team scores, that team would receive two points, but the losing team would still receive one point.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01347/4415723-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="572" height="786"><figcaption class="caption-body">Muskegon became the latest IHL team to name a coach when Poul Popiel took the Mohawks&rsquo; job.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

Toledo Operating For ’81-82 Season Swelling IHL’s Membership To Seven

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSSALEM&mdash;The Eastern Hockey League in looking for a new image has become the Atlantic Coast Hockey League and will operate for the 1981-82 season with a minimum of six teams.According to league spokesmen, the new Atlantic Coast loop sought a clean break from the image of the Eastern League and decided to completely reorganize for the new year.&ldquo;We wanted a completely new image and this is how we decided to go about it,&rdquo; related Bill Horton, who is serving as temporary spokesman for the league and also as coach and general manager of the Mohawk Valley Stars.Six franchises are slated to open the campaign and all have or are in the process of gaining working agreements with National Hockey League teams. Set for a new season are teams in Baltimore (Clippers), Utica (Mohawk Valley Stars), Salem (Raiders), Johnstown, Cape Cod (Bruins) and Winston-Salem (Firebirds). Johnstown was still forming their organization at press time. Two of the clubs, Baltimore and Salem, are returning from the EHL while the rest are first-year franchises.Baltimore will be affiliated with the Minnesota North Stars as they were last season, while Salem will work with St. Louis, Calgary and the Islanders. Utica has a firm working relationship with the Hartford Whalers and Cape Cod with the Boston Bruins. Johnstown and Winston-Salem have not announced their intentions, but it was reported that the Firebirds are talking to the New York Rangers.The fledging league is prepared to proceed with six teams, but the possibility remains that two other cities could join to make the circuit a solid eight team league. Richmond and Hampton, Virginia were members of the EHL, who are actively seeking membership into the new loop.&ldquo;We want to keep this a solid league and keep the budgets under control,&rdquo; said Horton. &ldquo;We want to have a limitation on the amount of pros in the league because we want this to be a truly developmental league.&rdquo; By limiting the number of pros the ACHL is hoping to avoid a situation that existed in the EHL in which the Erie Blades dominated the circuit for three consecutive seasons.Horton noted that camps would open in late October with the first regular season games set for November 1. A 60 game schedule loomed as a possibility with 30 home and 30 away, but more could be added before a final decision is made on scheduling.In league notes, Victor Ehre was selected as president of the league and a commissioner was to be named.Baltimore rehired public relations director Tim Donelli and team spokesman Jim Watson again made it clear that the Maryland city is working toward an American Hockey League franchise for 1982-83.Salem owner Bob Payne announced that Pat Kelly would be back for his second year in Salem with Steve Saunders heading the PR for the team.New boards were being installed in Utica and ex-Johnstown player Jim Cardiff was heading the drive to form a group in the Flood City. &#9632;

EHL Re-Emerges As Atlantic Coast League

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01305/4415778-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div>RINK EQUIPMENTPERSONALSFAN CLUBSOPPORTUNITIESPOSITIONS WANTEDPLAYER EQUIPMENT<h2>OPPORTUNITIES</h2>JUNIOR HOCKEY TEAMS WANTED: Fifth annual CAN/AM Invitational Junior hockey tournament, Leamingtorr Ontario, Dec. 26-30.1981 Openings available for teams in this prestigious international hockey tournament. Open to all OHA Jr. C. teams and Jr. teams from other provinces and the United States For further information contact: Bob Johnson 154 Erie St. North, Leamington, Ont., Canada, (519) 326-5749.HOCKEY PLAYERS WANTED: IHL caliber, forwards and defensemen. Tryouts Sept. 12, 13 and Sept. 19, 20. Write: Peoria Blades, Box 3581, Peoria, IL. 61614 or call 309-688-8381 evenings. (81-82 Blades will be given tryouts for 82-83 Peoria Pro IHL team).PLAYERS WANTED: Anyone interested in playing Jr. hockey in Northern Manitoba, Canada. If you enjoy hunting, fishing and living in the wilderness we can offer you an excellent paying job with security and free medical and dental plans as well as an excellent pension plan Contact Peter A. Tomko, Manager/Coach, of the Snowlake Spartens Jr Hockey Club, Box 31, Snowlake, Man, ROB 1M0 or call collect (204) 358-2243.WANTED: Southern Ontario AAA Juvenile team would like a home and home series with 1 East Coast team 2. Northern Ontario team. Preferably during Xmas or March break Call Lloyd J. Shaw at (519) 354-3899ALASKA HOCKEY TOURNAMENT: 11th annual Squirt Al-Can tournament (ages 9-10). Tournament to be held December 27, 28, 29, and 30 For further information write to Anchorage Hockey Association, Squirt Al-Can, P O Box 3-457, Anchorage, Alaska, 99501 or call (907)-345-1615.TOURNAMENT: The 3rd Annual Ottawa Travel Oldtimers (Men&rsquo;s 30 and over) Hockey Tournament will be held at Tom Brown Arena, Ottawa, Ontario, October 23-25, 1981. This year&rsquo;s tournament will again also feature a Senior Ladies&rsquo; Division. For more information, contact Tournament Co-ordinator, c/o 65 Findlay Ave., Ottawa, Ont., K1S2V1, or (613)-232-9881.PLAYERS WANTED: The Kimberley Dynamiters, member of the Western International Hockey League, Canada&rsquo;s oldest and finest, are looking for hockey players. If you would like an opportunity to relocate (at our expense), to live within two miles of one of Canada&rsquo;s finest ski areas, to be guaranteed employment and a chance to play hockey in a nice arena in the Bavarian City of the Rockies, please send full resume to Bob James, President Kimberley Dynamiters, 856 Rotary Drive, Kimberley, B.C. V1A 1E5 (CANADIAN CITIZENS ONLY).<h2>PERSONALS</h2>WANTED: Yearbooks MTHL or predecessor THL write: Al Mason, 76 Keeler Blvd., West Hill, Ont., M1E 4K8, Phone (416) 284-8509.WANTED: Looking for teams interested in playing on a home and home basis with the University of Alabama in Huntsville collegiate hockey program Many dates open in November, December, January, and February. We are prepared to help defer expenses of trip for a two-game weekend series. Please contact Joe Ritch, P.O. Drawer 527. Huntsville, AL, 35804 or call (205) 533-5030.WOMEN&rsquo;S COLLEGE ICE HOCKEY NEWSLETTER: 20 issues per year $10 00 (U.S.) everything on U.S and Canadian women&rsquo;s hockey and then some. Send cheque or money order to: WCIHA, Circulation department, 5 Warwick Road, Belmont, MA 02178.ATTENTION: If you have the potential to play senior hockey, then we need you. We are an established club with professional coaching. We are located in northern Ontario, close to an urban center which has a university and a community college. We will seek to find employment for successful applicants. Send a com-WANTED: My name is Konstantin Daviskiba and I am a 23-year-old Ukrainian boy and I am a big collector of ice hockey and soccer souvenirs. I would like to correspond with collectors in Canada and the United States. Please write: Konstantin Daviskiba, per Kovalshij 22 ap 16, 252057, Kiev-57, U. S. S. R.FOR SALE: One pair, size 7&rsquo;/? Lange goalie skates, in excellent shape $70.00. Contact: John Pegg, P.O. Box 41521, Cincinnati, OH 45241.AVAILABLE: Yearbook of the 1978-79 Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. Features color photos of all the Canadien players including, Cournoyer, Dryden, Lemaire, Lafleur, Robinson etc. Send $2.50(U.S. Funds) and $1.00 postage to Yearbook, 93-10 Francis Lewis Blvd Queens Village, N.Y, 11428 Supplies LimitedBACKYARD RINK: 1981 edition of our popular &ldquo;howto do-it&rdquo; guide gives you easy step-by-step instructions, plans, materials list and more! $5.00 ppd, Schobertsons.. 8 Vermont, W. Seneca, N.Y 14224T-SHIRTS AND CUSTOM MADE JACKETS: Free estimates from 12-2,000 for organizations or groups. Call Chatham Screen Printing (519) 354-3899, 99 Pine Street, Chatham, Ont., N7M 5G3.BUY NOW: At wholesale prices and save $$$ Micron M1 with clear Tuuk (sizes 3&frac12;, 4 only) $39 99. Change your steel blades over to clear Tuuk $39 99.. Micron M1 with conventional steel blades size 3&frac12; and 4 only) $9.99&hellip;We ship anywhere via UPS. Reliable Hockey Service, 73 Bloomfield Street, Springfield, MA. 01108, or call (413) 736-6188. &#9632;

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CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BROPHY</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSKITCHENER&mdash;Just exactly how important Orval Tessier was in the Kitchener Rangers&rsquo; quest for the Memorial Cup last season&mdash;they lost to the Cornwall Royals in the final&mdash;may come into focus this season.Tessier dropped a bomb on the Rangers by resigning from the team Friday. Aug. 21 to take over as coach of the New Brunswick Hawks of the American Hockey League. He replaces Doug Carpenter who moves on to Cincinnati.Many around the Ontario Hockey League felt last season, that without Tessier behind their bench, the Rangers would have been a last place team in their division. As it was. they were last at Christmas time but had a super second half and playoffs despite their youth and inexperience.With much of the same crew returning this season, including Canada&rsquo;s, top junior prospect Brian Bellows, Tessier&rsquo;s importance should be evident.His resigning from the Rangers so late in summer (and so close to the opening of training camp) has left the team in a bind. Following Tessier&rsquo;s announced resignation. Rangers&rsquo; president Bob Ertel had many inquiries about the coaching position but said he would have to sit down and review the applications before making a decision.&ldquo;We were totally unprepared when Orval told us.&rdquo; said Ertel. &ldquo;So I guess you could sav it came as a shock. We&rsquo;ve had quite a few calls but we&rsquo;re going to take our time.&ldquo;We could probably step on the ice right now and go with the players we have coming back this season so there&rsquo;s no real panic to select a replacement right away. It&rsquo;s just a matter of sitting down and trying to find the right man to fit the job.&rdquo;Tessier proved last season that a system (even an unorthodox one) with a team of diggers can often beat a more talented group of individuals. While he sometimes frustrated the players with his lack of communication, he made believers out of them. That was the bottom line.As August turned to September, Ertel found his man. Named to the coaching job was Joe Crozier, formerly the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Buffalo Sabres and assorted other pro teams. Crozier said he was looking forward to the opportunity of teaching players in the junior ranks.When the 1981-82 OHL season opens, Kitchener won&rsquo;t be the only team with a new coach behind the bench.In Brantford, former Boston Bruins&rsquo; coach Bep Guidolin will coach the Alexanders, replacing Ken Gratton who replaced Dave Draper who replaced Ron Carrol who went on to coach the Windsor Spitfires replacing Ron Harris. Carrol has since been replaced by Marcel Pronovost. Phew!!At Niagara Falls, Bert Templeton returns as manager-coach of the Flyers after severing his connection with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the AHL. Templeton replaces Paul Gauthier. He formerly coached the Flyers before going on to the pros.Of course there is the matter of a new GM-coach with the league&rsquo;s new Belleville franchise. Former pro defenseman Larry Mavety will take over the dual role with the first-year Bulls, who are moving into the OHL along with the Memorial Cup champion Cornwall Royals. Bob Kilger, the ex-NHL referee, will be back at the helm of the Cornwall team, which is shifting from the Quebec Major Hockey League to the OHL.Paul Theriault returns behind the bench of the Oshawa Generals replacing departed Bill LaForge who moved on to the Regina Pats of the Western Junior Hockey League. LaForge you might remember, would have been suspended until January 1,1982 had he stayed with the Generals, for his part in a post-season, pre-game brawl with the Peterborough Petes. His suspension doesn&rsquo;t carry over to the WHL.Oddly enough, LaForge now gets off virtually unpenalized for his part in the brawl while the Petes&rsquo; player he beat up&mdash;Doug Evans&mdash;still must serve a 10-game suspension. Evans feels he was the victim in the crime and is still puzzled as to why he was suspended at all.Theriault coached the Generals two years ago but left to coach in West Germany last season. He has also coached the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.The Sudbury Wolves will also have a new man behind the bench but he is hardly a stranger to the organization. Excitable general manager Joe Drago will take over for Andy Laing, who left the team on bad terms after a few frustrating years as coach. Laing was widely respected as a coach but never had the players to form a contender. Injuries, players lost to professional ranks as underagers and poor drafting led to his dismisal.If nothing else, Drago is hoping the club&rsquo;s luck will change under his guidance.One of the biggest surprises was the naming Jimmy Jones as new coach of the Toronto Marlboros. taking over the reigns from Wayne Ego who wasn&rsquo;t offered a new contract..Jones had actually been hired before Ego was notified that he wouldn&rsquo;t be back. Ego attended the midget draft, unaware that he would not be coaching the team this season&mdash;Jones already had the job.A disciple of the Roger Neilson school of defensive hockey, Jones played under Neilson in Peterborough and again with the Leafs in Toronto. It is hoped he will be able to instill some discipline into the players. Owner Harold Ballard was never crazy about Jones&rsquo; style of play; hopefully that won&rsquo;t carry over to his coaching too.There was some talk over the summer that Kingston Canadians&rsquo; coach and general manager Jim Morrison might be headed to the Leafs as an assistant coach. Nothing much developed but in the light of Tessier&rsquo;s sudden departure, anything can still happen.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01362/4415809-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="570" height="1103"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jimmy Jones, who once played for Peterborough, will make his coaching debut at the helm of the Marlies.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Tessier’s Departure Stuns Rangers; OHL Experiences Coaching Shake-Up

TORONTO&mdash;The Ontario Hockey League is hoping the net result of their new realignment plan for 1981-82 will be increased attendance and greater rivalries between the cities.The OHL board of governors unanimously approved the plan as well as a new playoff format which will allow 12 of the 14 competing teams to enter the post-season round.The Leyden Division will undergo the most radical facelift of the two divisions. The Toronto Marlboros will change from the Emms to the Leyden to join the Peterborough Petes, the Oshawa Generals, the Kingston Canadians and the Ottawa 67s. Also added to the Leyden group will be the OHL&rsquo;S two new franchises&mdash;the Belleville Bulls and the Cornwall Royals.To get the Memorial Cup champion Royals into their fold, the OHL had to hand over $100,000 to the Quebec Major Hockey League as compensation for losing Cornwall. The Royals were the No. 1 team in the QMJHL the past two years.The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and the Sudbury Wolves are being shifted from the Leyden to the Emms Division, which will also include the Kitchener Rangers, the Brantford Alexanders, the London Knights, the Windsor Spitfires and the Niagara Falls Flyers.Each of the 14 OHL teams will play a 68-game schedule. At least six games (three home and three away) will be played against each of the other Six teams in their respective division for a total of 36. They will also play two home and away games against each of the seven teams in the other division for another 28 games. To make up the remaining four games each, the teams will engage in an additional home-and-away series with closely located teams as part of the increase in rivalries. For example, the Toronto Marlies will play both Peterborough and Oshawa. Ottawa and Cornwall will play each other and Kingston and Belleville.Under the new OHL playoff format there will be first-round byes for the first- and second-place finishers in each division and it will match third against fifth and fourth against sixth in six-point preliminary series, survivors advancing against the two division leaders (the fourth-sixth winner meeting the first-place club) in eight point semifinals. The division finals will also be eight-point affairs, survivors advancing to the league final. &#9632;

OHL Hopes Realignment Will Promote Rivalries

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSCALGARY&mdash;For a long time now, Western Hockey League president Ed Chynoweth has envisioned a scholarship program.And, finally, that dream has come true.As of the beginning of this, the 1981-82 season, the NHL has a scho-larship program, involving all 13 teams.&ldquo;Some of our teams have had their own scholarship or educational assistance programs in the past,&rdquo; commented Chynoweth. &ldquo;But, this plan will be available to every player in our league providing they qualify.&ldquo;The new plan hopefully will also give many western Canadian players the choice of playing major junior hockey and, if they do not turn pro, or decide they have had enough hockey, they will be able to attend a Canadian University at the expense of the NHL.&rdquo;The scholarhsip is applied to tuition, books and room and board. The maximum benefit per player under the plan is $2,500 a year for four con-secutive years.To qualify, a player must have played at least two years in the WHL and must have exhausted his junior eligibility with a WHL team.Then, that player has to apply to the WHL scholarship committee, providing official documentation verifying that he has been accepted at a Canadian University or college.A player who should receive a career-ending injury is also eligible for the plan.But, at the same time, any player who signs or plays professionally shall no longer be eligible.While Chynoweth was obviously most pleased with the scholarship program, he also announced a change in the format for the WHL&rsquo;s All Star game.The 1982 Classic&mdash;slated for the Winnipeg Arena on Jan. 19&mdash;will differ from last season&rsquo;s in that it will feature the best of the eastern division against the western division selects. Last season&rsquo;s game had the host Victoria Cougars take on a league-wide team of all stars.And, in case you&rsquo;ve lost track of who is coaching where as the 1981-82 season nears, here&rsquo;s a glance around the league, starting with the five western division teams:Kamloops Junior Oilers&mdash;Lyle Moffat has ended his professional playing career&mdash;he spent last season with Tulsa Oilers of the Central League&mdash;and joined the major junior coaching ranks. He takes over a franchise that, up until a couple of months ago, was known as the new Westminster Bruins. Muzz MacPherson coached the Bruins last season but he&rsquo;s moved on to Drumheller Miners of the Alberta Junior League.Portland Winter Hawks&mdash;Ken Hodge, the NHL&rsquo;s 1980-81 coach of the year, is back for another go-round.Seattle Breakers&mdash;Jack Sangster, who was with Regina Pats last winter, has taken over from Mike Mesic, who replaced Monte Miron with only a couple of weeks remaining last season.Spokane Flyers&mdash;former NHLer Ron Harris takes over from Wayne Coxworth, who replaced Tom Gauthier midway through last season. Gauthier, who is no longer with the Spokane organization, was then the Flyers&rsquo; general manager and served as an interim coach after Buddy Bod-man packed it in. Harris spent most of last winter with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.Victoria Cougars&mdash;Jack Shupe, who took this outfit to the Memorial Cup last winter, returns to the bench.And, in the Eastern Division:Brandon Wheat Kings&mdash;Les Jackson is back for his second full season at the Wheat Kings&rsquo; helm.Billings Bighorns&mdash;Les Calder returns, but without assistant Joe Arling who has moved on to Kamloops. where he is in charge of player personnel.Calgary Wranglers&mdash;Doug Sauter, the coach of the year two seasons back, has signed on for one more season.Lethbridge Broncos&mdash;John Chapman, a rookie coach in this league last season, is set for another try.Medicine Hat Tigers&mdash;Pat Ginnell is back for yet another season behind the bench of a major junior team. Ginnell has been coaching for so long that the word now is each season will be his last.Regina Pats&mdash;Bill Laforge, late of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals, has replaced Sangster behind the Pats&rsquo; bench. Laforge is the Pats&rsquo; fifth coach since the start of the 1978-79 season.Saskatoon Blades&mdash;Daryl Lubiniecki, who took over from Lorne Frey midway through last season, is set for a full season.Winnipeg Warriors&mdash;Bruce Southern moves up from assistant coach to head coach, taking over from Fran Huck, onetime star of Canada&rsquo;s National Team. Huck stepped down in order to devote more time to his law practice.And, the WHL also has a new referee-in-chief. Rick Doerksen, the league&rsquo;s statistician for the past few seasons, has taken over from Joe Cassidy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01340/4415864-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="575" height="828"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jack Shupe had Victoria in the Memorial Cup last year and would like to make it two years in a row.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Chynoweth’s Scholarship Dreams Come True

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSMONTREAL&mdash;Newly-elected Quebec Major Junior Hockey League president, Jean Rougeau, has lined up sponsors to assist players with their education.St. Hubert Bar-B-Q, Etco Photo and Co-operative Federee have donated $165,000 for players who are financially-strapped. When Rougeau was appointed president July 13, replacing Marcel Robert, one of his mandates was to ensure education would be taken as seriously as hockey.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s [sponsorship and money donated] good for a start,&rdquo; Rougeau said. &ldquo;If things work opt, I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ll have no trouble getting more sponsors lined up next year.&rdquo;Rougeau has met with Camille Laurin, the Minister in charge of Education, in an attempt to implement a program whereby each of the nine teams orient its players on levels of education available in each community.Over 80 per cent of QMJHL players attended school last year, but Rougeau wants 100 per cent enrolment.Obviously, if a 19-year-old wants to suspend his studies for one year to concentrate on hockey, that&rsquo;s fine,&rdquo; Rougeau said. &ldquo;If the guy has the talents of a Mike Bossy or a Guy Lafleur and he has his parents&rsquo; approval, I can understand him devoting all of his time to hockey so that he&rsquo;ll improve his draft position. I won&rsquo;t allow a 17- or 18-year-old to do it because they&rsquo;d be skipping school just to go out and have fun.&ldquo;For a boy to loaf all day isn&rsquo;t right. This league must be a school of formation. You don&rsquo;t get it just by playing hockey and doing nothing else.&rdquo;Rougeau also announced players will be wearing only protective visors this season. Players wore cages last season and were to be allowed to select one or the other in the upcoming campaign.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be all visors. There will be no options,&rdquo; Rougeau ex-plained. &ldquo;I sincerely believe a player must protect his eyes, but there&rsquo;s always going to be a percentage of risk involved in sports and people want to see a player&rsquo;s facial expressions. Visors will give enough protection.&rdquo;Rougeau said the topic of expansion will be brought up at the next league meetings, Sept. 14. After the expansion committee gets formal applications from interested cities&mdash;Jon-quiere, Rimouski, Longueil, for example&mdash;the league will analyze each submission.&ldquo;I like expansion,&rdquo; said Rougeau. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing worse than making a schedule with nine teams in the league. The teams are all in one section and I would like to see two, which would cut down travel. Teams could play four games against teams in their sections (at home and away) and two against other section&rsquo;s teams.&rdquo;With teams having to reduce rosters from 19 to 17 players this season, Rougeau said there would be enough players available to stock expansion teams.Rougeau also said he will be looking to improve the league&rsquo;s relationship with English media members. His first move was to send bilingual press information over the Telbec wire service.Rougeau announced the re-structuring of administration posts. John Horman, who had been assistant secretary-treasurer, now becomes vice-president, replacing Paul Cazeau, who now is the assistant to executive director Paul Dumont.&ldquo;With Cazeau in Quebec and me here [Montreal] it would have been difficult,&rdquo; said Rougeau. Horman is a Montrealer. &ldquo;Dumont is getting on in age [63] and it&rsquo;s a good idea to give him an assistant who can step in when he retires.&rdquo;AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Rougeau is attempting to renew the Montreal-Quebec City rivalry. The Remparts entertain the Juniors in this season&rsquo;s league opener, Sept. 24. In conjunction with the game, a Hockey Showdown competition, involving former Remparts now playing for the Nordiques&mdash;Real Cloutier, Jacques Richard, etc.&mdash;will be staged. The league&rsquo;s past presidents&mdash;Robert Lebel, Raymond Legace, Aime Constantine. Art Lessard and Marcel Robert&mdash;will also be in attendance.The Trois-Rivieres Draveurs have restructured their front office. Clement Riopel is the new president; Yvan Leclerc is vice-president (hockey); Jean-Pierre Dube is VP (administration); Yvon Monfette is secretary; Jean Bertrand, is treasurer; and Fernand Bedard and Aurey Thiffeault are directors. Other shareholders of the Draveurs, who came close to disbanding last season, are: Alfred Vigeant; Gaston Bellerive; Theo Mongrain; Bertrand Verner; Pierre Marchand; Guy Cote; Guy Beliveau; Marcel Houle; Real Proulx; Roland Thibeault; Romuald Provencher; Marcel Mongrain; Leopold Alarie; Jimmy Doucet; Roy Lafontaine; Roger Dubois; John Marcotte; Andre Bendwell; Andre Tra-han, Cotnoir, Pleau and Michel Hebert. &#9632;

QMJHL Sponsors To Aid Education Of Players

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-11" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1118/4416013-1-eng-US/f0041-112.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THOMSON

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National League Training Camp Rosters

BOSTONThu. Oct. 8 QuebecBUFFALOWed. Oct. 7 WashingtonCALGARYThu. Oct. 8 VancouverCHICAGOWed. Oct. 7 PittsburghCOLORADOSat. Oct. 10 NY IslandersDETROITThu. Oct. 15 St. LouisEDMONTONWed. Oct. 7 ColoradoHARTFORDSat. Oct. 10 BostonLOS ANGELESWed. Oct. 7 NY IslandersMINNESOTAThu. Oct. 8 TorontoMONTREALThu. Oct. 8 HartfordNY ISLANDERSThu. Oct. 15 VancouveNY RANGERSTue. Oct. 6 DetroitPHILADELPHIAFri. Oct. 9 DetroitPITTSBURGHSat. Oct. 10 QuebecQUEBECTue. Oct. 6 HartfordST. LOUISTue. Oct. 6 PittsburghTORONTOSat. Oct. 10 ChicagoVANCOUVERTue. Oct. 6 ColoradoWASHINGTONSat. Oct. 10 DetroitWINNIPEGTue. Oct. 6 Toronto &#9632;

1981-82 Home Openers

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0299/4416106-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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The NHL’s 1981 Pre-Season Exhibition Schedule

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01130/4416165-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div><h2>King Of The Scorers</h2>Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders, right, accepts the Seagram 7 Crown Trophy from Vince Partridge, senior national product manager for Seagram&rsquo;s, after Bossy was named by the sports computer evaluation system as the &ldquo;most consistent and most productive&rdquo; player in the NHL during 1980-81. Bossy also received a check for $10,000.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0285/4416158-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="1798" height="1604"></div><h2>Player Of The Year</h2>Wonderful Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers did it all last season capturing the NHL scoring title and walking off with two other individual player awards. Here&rsquo;s the Edmonton Whiz Kid receiving the NHL&rsquo;s Subaru Player of the Year Award from George Bilquie, right, president of Subaru Mid-America. Gretzky received the keys to a new Subaru automobile from Bilquie.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0350/4416151-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="514" height="1778"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0436/4416144-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="1792" height="1248"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photos by Linda Pentz)</figcaption></div><h2>Hockey Has Its Tennis Buffs</h2>It may seem a trifle unusual to see the likes of Bryan Trottier of the Islanders and the Rangers&rsquo; Ron Duguay out of hockey uniform but they took time off from their summer schedule to participate in the NHL Players&rsquo; Association tennis classic at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Over 20 pairs of hockey players competed for the $5,000 prize money donated by Molson&rsquo;s Brewery and later donated to the Nevada branch of the Special Olympics. Here&rsquo;s Duguay, at right, waiting at the net for a shot. That&rsquo;s Walt McKechnie on the left about to serve and the man with the microphone in the center is former Ranger great Phil Esposito, who is interviewing Trottier, middle, and Lorne Henning, right, of the Islanders. How did it all turn out? Well, Blake Dunlop and Bernie Federko of St. Louis walked off with the title. Henning and Trottier lost to Espo and Duguay but the Ranger pair were later defeated. McKechnie and Lanny McDonald combined for Colorado but they, too, were ultimately defeated.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0527/4416137-1-eng-US/f0044-052.jpg" title="f0044-05" width="622" height="1771"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01108/4416196-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Meeting the boss was the first order of business for Tony Tanti, left, the hot-shot Oshawa junior who signed with the Chicago Black Hawks, where coach Keith Magnuson calls the shots.</figcaption></div>CHICAGO&mdash;Bruno Baseotto, the high scoring right wing who dropped out of the University of Michigan last fall after a much-publicized hazing incident involving another player, is going to training camp with the Chicago Black Hawks.&ldquo;I consider him a fine prospect,&rdquo; says Bob Pulford, the Hawks&rsquo; general manager. &ldquo;American college combitation seems to keep getting better and better and, as a freshman, seotto was outstanding.&rdquo;During his only season of college competition, Baseotto had three goals in the first period of his first game, and went on to set a Michigan freshman scoring record with a 76-point season.But instead of being a hero last year as a sophomore Baseotto found himself the object of scorn and it was a factor in his decision to leave school.The hazing incident involved J.T. Todd, a walk-on, who reportedly was stripped; had his head shaved; was covered with jam, eggs, and cologne; was forced to consume large quantities of alcohol; and then was left out in the cold.A couple of weeks later Todd quit the team: &ldquo;strictly for academic reasons&rdquo;&mdash;to concentrate on his engineering studies.Meanwhile, three players were suspended for the Wolverines&rsquo; first two games by Athletic Director Don Canham for their role in the incident.Baseotto wasn&rsquo;t one of them but he nevertheless decided to go home to Calgary and play Junior hockey.&ldquo;Frankly, the hazing incident was a minor detail in my leaving Michigan,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;But it did contribute to my decision. Those of us on the team took a lot of heat.&ldquo;I was singled out and ridiculed by an anatomy professor in a class of 400 people. Who needs that kind of pressure?&ldquo;When I played at Michigan as a freshman I weighed 180 pounds but all that happened last fall affected me so much that I went down to 155.&ldquo;The main reason I left was because I didn&rsquo;t feel there was any future for my hockey career at Michigan. The hockey budget was being cut way back, we were wearing facemasks, and our coach Wilf Martin, was always sick. (Eventually, Martin was replaced by John Giordano, his assistant, and the Wolverines had a good season.)&ldquo;Believe me, the facemasks are an awful impediment to playing good hockey. You have a hard time seeing the puck and anybody can be a tough guy&mdash;all of a sudden guys try to get away with things that they wouldn&rsquo;t dream of if they weren&rsquo;t wearing the mask.&ldquo;It just wasn&rsquo;t working out the way I wanted. Since I was a little kid, I&rsquo;d wanted the best of both worlds&mdash;using hockey as a means of getting a good education and then becoming a professional with a career to go into after I quit playing. I had scholarship offers from 10 U.S. colleges.&ldquo;I was in physical education but my objective was sports medicine. Most of my courses dealt with the human body; these weren&rsquo;t your typical courses. My father came from the old country and wasn&rsquo;t well-educated. He always was very concerned about my getting an education. When I dropped out, I promised him that eventually I&rsquo;d be resuming my studies.&rdquo;Baseotto, who turned 21 in March, scored 55 goals and assisted on 59 after leaving Michigan.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t pleased because I think I should have gotten 75 goals,&rdquo; says Baseotto, who joined the Hawks as a free-agent. &ldquo;I could have had a much better year. It took me a month and a half to convince myself that I made the right move in leaving college.&rdquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;The Black Hawks are switching to a major Chicago station, WIND (560 on the AM dial), from a small suburban station, WYEN-FM, but Pat Foley is staying on as the play-by-play announcer. &ldquo;Pat did a fine job in his first year and we wanted him back,&rdquo; says Pulford&hellip;A 27-year-old native of suburban Glencoe, Foley worked for several stations in Michigan before joining the Hawks last season&hellip;The deal with WIND is for two years and includes all regular season and playoff games plus selected exhibitions. &#9632;

f0045-01

Black Hawks Invite Baseotto To Camp As Free Agent

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0271/4416234-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">William (Bill) Jennings was an active president when he headed the New York Rangers from 1962. Here he is shown at the far left with team owner Sonny Werblin, center, and then coach Fred Shero, right, at the signing of Swedish stars Ulf Nilsson, second left, and Anders Hedberg, second right. Jennings poses with the Lester Patrick Trophy, an award he won in 1971 for his contribution to professional hockey in the United States.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0347/4416227-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="1022" height="902"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;The man who was credited with the first ever expansion of the National Hockey League, William Jennings, is dead at the age of 60.The energetic Jennings, president of the New York Rangers since the 1962 season, was instrumental in bringing about the NHL&rsquo;s first expansion program in 1967-68.A native of New York, Jennings had been in ill health for the past eight months and lost his long battle with throat cancer on Aug. 17 at his Byram, CT., home. He had only recently been named to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder.Jennings, who had been termed &ldquo;one of professional hockey&rsquo;s most dynamic and successful executives for more than two decades,&rdquo; was a New York attorney who turned to pro hockey. He was the founder of the Westchester, NY Golf Classic, a national golf tournament on the U.S. pro tour, and since its inception in 1967, Jennings and his committee had managed to raise $4 million dollars for hospitals in Westchester County, from proceeds of the golf tournaments.Born in New York on Dec. 14, 1920, Jennings attended Princeton University and attained a law degree from Yale. He was named counsel for the Madison Square Garden Corp., in 1962, and went on to become president of the Rangers for the next 18 years.In 1967, Jennings with the help of the NHL&rsquo;s expansion committee and then president Clarence Campbell, engineered the first expansion of the league from the original six teams to 12 franchises.Besides helping originate expansion, Jennings was chairman of the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors from 1968 to 1970. He was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1971 for his outstanding contribution to hockey in the U.S. and in 1972 was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame.His most recent achievement came when he was voted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame at Eveleth, MN., just prior to his death.Jennings is survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Hite of Greenwich, CT., two sons, William Jr., and Jeffrey, both of New York, and three daughters, Eunice Gambrill of Port Chester, NY, Elizabeth and Pricilla. &#9632;

f0045-02

William Jennings Was Expansion Originator

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01111/4416265-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="570" height="1052"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Flames signed free agent goalie Hardy Astrom as a veteran back-up insurance precaution.</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;On the trail of the Canada Cup almost all summer, Cliff Fletcher made few significant organizational changes in the off-season.The Calgary Flames were, after all, coming off the most successful season in the franchise&rsquo;s history and Fletcher was, after all, in charge of Canada&rsquo;s entry in the recently completed Canada Cup tournament.Fletcher spent the first part of the summer in Hawaii and Florida trying to squeeze in his first vacation in two years. (The business of shifting the franchise here from Atlanta occupied his summertime a year ago.)He spent the last part in Montreal, putting together Team Canada and seeing the club through the tournament.In between, however, he found the time to spend some of the franchise&rsquo;s new-found wealth on the players that may plug potential gaps in the hockey club.It took almost a full summer of shopping before Fletcher finally purchased the goaltending insurance the Flames needed, for example.As was his pattern, Fletcher went into the free agent market to get Hardy Astrom, the former Colorado Rockies&rsquo; goaltender, under contract.Astrom gives the Flames more depth at a position where they were a little short.&ldquo;Ever since last winter, when we traded Dan Bouchard, we were nervous about our goaltending,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;If we sustained an injury there, we would have found ourselves in a vulnerable position.&rdquo;Astrom became expendable in Colorado when the Rockies traded for Chico Resch and Phil Myre last season. He is expected to play in Oklahoma City this year and will be available as an emergency replacement should either Pat Riggin or Rejean Lemelin get hurt.Fletcher compared Astrom&rsquo;s acquisition to the way the team originally signed Lemelin. Both were deemed expendable by NHL clubs and in Lemelin&rsquo;s case, the 26-year-old rookie received a fresh start with the Flames.&ldquo;His [Astrom&rsquo;s] career in the NHL has been spotty,&rdquo; conceded Fletcher. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s played some great hockey and some mediocre hockey. However, we surveyed the market, and in our opinion, he was the best goaltender available.&rdquo;Astrom played 30 games for the Rockies and recorded a 3.76 goals-against average.IN BRIEF&mdash;The Flames also announced that team captain Brad Marsh had signed a multi-year contract and confirmed at a press conference that defenseman Bob Murdoch would assume a duel player/coach role in the coming season.Murdoch, like much of the team&rsquo;s hierarchy, began his career in the Montreal organization and indeed played for Flames&rsquo; coach Al MacNeil on the Canadiens&rsquo; 1971 Stanley Cup championship team.&ldquo;I feel I can help in a coaching capacity, but I hope they don&rsquo;t forget me as a player,&rdquo; Murdoch said. &ldquo;I think I can still play, and my primary concern this year will be to play. The amount, of course, will depend on how the younger players develop.&rdquo;Even before the Canada Cup tournament had started, Cliff Fletcher was saying that much of the success which Team Canada was to enjoy could directly attributed to Pierre Page, Flames&rsquo; assistant coach who served an assistant to Team Canada coal Scotty Bowman.Page designed an off-season fitness program for Team Canada hopefuls, similar to the one he introduced to the Flames a year ago, which had them in extremely good shape for the stretch run of the NHL season.When the players reported for the start of Team Canada&rsquo;s camp. Page was impressed at how well they had done their homework. &ldquo;They looked pretty fit,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;They looked like they&rsquo;d been following the program pretty closely.&rdquo;With the majority of the played getting the earliest start to a season their careers, a season which, for some, will extend through most May, Page designed a program which could be a building base for a period of nine or 10 months on skates.&ldquo;The players know this was the start of a very long season,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;For them to last until the end of it, they have to be in good shape. Once they&rsquo;re in shape, it will be easier for them to stay that way.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0046-01

Fletcher Allays Flames’ Goaltending Fears

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;At age 42, Bobby Hull has a physique that is awesome compared even to those of his fellow athletes. His legs are still strong and behind him is the traumatic divorce that cost him his fortune and several years of his playing career.But as the Rangers&rsquo; varsity prepared to convene in Scandinavia for training camp and a two-week tour of Finland and Sweden, one question loomed large. Can the Golden Jet make a comeback on Seventh Avenue?If the answer is yes, it will result in a reunion of the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s most memorable line, that of Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, and will provide the Swedes with the linemate they have sought since their arrival here three years ago&mdash;with all due respect to converted defenseman Ron Greschner, who late last season came closer than any of his comrades to clicking with the two former Winnipeg Jets.Hull&rsquo;s tryout with the Rangers was arranged by general manager Craig Patrick with the hearty approval of coach Herb Brooks, who will take ultimate responsibility for the venture. &ldquo;If this blows up in our face, it&rsquo;s my fault,&rdquo; Brooks told New York&rsquo;s Daily News late in August. &ldquo;Craig usually takes a wait-and-see approach. I&rsquo;m more aggressive in pursuing this.&ldquo;This is no reflection on Greschner. What I&rsquo;m saying is that Hull with Hedberg and Nilsson is a handing love situation. The three got along so well.&rdquo;Hull, who gave the WHA its first real seed of legitimacy when he jumped from the Chicago Black Hawks to the Winnipeg Jets in 1972, last played for the Hartford Whalers, who would have to be compensated if he were to make the Rangers.Hull will join 24 Rangers in a training camp and pre-season contests on the larger, European ice surfaces, a potentially tiring two weeks to which the Rangers were committed before Brooks took office. But that is not the only possible disadvantage to the arrangement.The other 30 players who received the invitations to training camp will train in Westchester County at the Rangers&rsquo; Rye facility, and Brooks will not have a real chance to evaluate these players before the varsity team returns from Europe on September 25. Many of them were with the Rangers for part of last year, and among the names on the Rye list that raised a few eyebrows were Doug Sulliman, Dave Silk, Tim Bothwell, and John Hughes.Sulliman was one of a couple Rangers who were preparing to enter their option years at the beginning of September. While a settlement was reached on negotiations between Patrick and Nick Fotiu&rsquo;s attorney, Larry Rauch, Ron Duguay seemed to be locked in a contract battle with the Rangers&rsquo; GM, and was hoping to gain ammunition after an impressive performance in the Canada Cup series.The Rangers enter this season with yet another cloud hanging over them&mdash;the Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. It is no secret that the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority is itching to land an NHL franchise, but one obstacle is the fact that the facility is within shouting distance of Madison Square Garden. Any team considering moving there&mdash;be it expansion or an established club&mdash;would have to pay the Rangers a hefty indemnity for invading their territory.Unless, of course, that team happened to be the Rangers themselves, which is a far-from-remote possibility. They now play in a building, Madison Square Garden, that is an increasing financial drain on its owners, the Gulf & Western conglomerate. Insiders say the building loses $5 million-a-year now and that figure could easily double by the end of the decade.So guess who is taking part in the first athletic event at the Meadowlands Arena? The Rangers, that&rsquo;s who, in an exhibition game against their Patrick Division rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, on September 29. The Rangers beat the Boston Bruins to the puck by scheduling that contest; Bruins&rsquo; GM Harry Sinden had been trying to schedule an exhibition game against the Sabres for September 28, but a Rangers&rsquo; veto of that match was guaranteed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0280/4416296-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="570" height="1146"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Hull will try a comeback with the New York Rangers on their European training camp tour.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0046-02

Rangers Hoping Hull Golden Again

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Jimmy Roberts, associate coach of the Buffalo Sabres, received lots of good-natured kidding, after the 1981 June draft, about how he would have to spend the summer at a Berlitz school, learning foreign languages.Scotty Bowman, the Sabres&rsquo; general manager and now, again, head coach of the team, had drafted three players from Finland, one from Sweden and one from Czechoslovakia.It probably won&rsquo;t matter that Roberts followed other pursuits during the summer but he probably should have a Finnish dictionary with him at training camp in Lake Placid.The three Finns taken in the draft&mdash;defensemen Hannu Virta and Heikki Leime and forward Mauri Eivola&mdash;all were scheduled to try for jobs on the club, along with three Finns already in the Buffalo organization.The other three are goalie Jari Paavola, who played for Rochester in the American League last season; defenseman Kari Suoraniemi, who signed with the Sabres late in the 1980-81 campaign and played a few games for Rochester, and left winger Kai Suikannen, who signed during the summer.The Czech, Jiri Dudacek, regarded by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau as the top junior in the world last season, wasn&rsquo;t expected at camp&mdash;unless something very unusual was to happen&mdash;and neither was Anders Wikberg from Sweden.The young Finnish draftees probably aren&rsquo;t ready for the National Hockey League but Suoraniemi and Suikannen are expected to vie for jobs on the big club.With the Sabres undergoing a youth infusion, there is expected to be competition for jobs at every position, except maybe goal. Jacques Cloutier, who was in goal for 61 games with Rochester last season, appears to be the principal challenger to Don Edwards and Bob Sauve, who make up perhaps the best goaltending tandem in the NHL.Gil Perreault, Derek Smith and Andre Savard, the three regulars of last season are back at center, where several young players will be working for a job.Rob McClanahan, J.F. Sauve and Bobby Mongrain, all of whom have played for the Sabres at one time or another, will be battling to stay up and Randy Cunneyworth, a big first-year pro drafted in 1980, appears to have a good chance.There should be considerable competition at left wing, where only Craig Ramsay and Tony McKegney played a full schedule last winter.Lindy Ruff, who has performed at both left wing and defense, will get a good look up front. He&rsquo;s big, likes the rough going and has a strong shot. Others in contention should be Gilles Hamel, Jim Wiemer, Pete Horachek and Suikannen.Mike Moller and Sean McKenna, coming off high-scoring junior campaigns, will battle Alan Haworth and Steve Patrick, rookies of last season, for right wing jobs behind Danny Gare and Ric Seiling. Dave Gorman, from Nova Scotia of the AHL, is another possibility.Including Ruff, there should be at least 11 defensemen fighting for six jobs. They are incumbents Jim Schoenfeld, Bill Hajt, Larry Playfair, Richie Dunn, John Van Boxmeer and Mike Ramsey, plus Virta, Suoraniemi, Bob Hess, and Mark Robinson.ICE CHIPS&mdash;John Andersen, who acted as Buffalo general manager between the time Punch Imlach was fired, in December. 1978, and Bowman was hired in June, 1979, was let go by the Sabres when his contract was up in August. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not bitter,&rdquo; said Andersen. who came to the Sabres with Imlach in their first year. &ldquo;Like anybody else, I guess, Scotty wants his own people around him. I do hope I can stay in hockey, though.&rdquo;Andersen was director of player personnel under Imlach, when such players as Perreault. Ramsay, Schoenfeld, Hajt, Gare, Smith and Rick Martin were drafted.The Sabres purchased a rink in the Buffalo suburbs to use as a practice facility when Memorial Auditorium is not available and to. promote youth hockey in the area. &#9632;

Sabres Are Developing International Flavor

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>business degree and to get away from the inevitable questions about his. status. &ldquo;I think you guys would have been camped out at my house,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was a lot easier this way.&rdquo;Ultimately, Bridgman had only one viable option, to go to Switzerland. Milne, squawking with the New York Rangers at a decible level considerably louder than his dealings with the Flyers, was shopping free agent Ron Duguay to several Swiss teams, and Mel said he had an invitation to go along. The Flyers, observing Switzerland&rsquo;s historical neutrality, never took the threat very seriously, but Mel said it was no joke.&ldquo;If it wouldn&rsquo;t have been for Frank, I probably would have gone,&rdquo; he said yesterday. &ldquo;He kept steering me back to the Flyers. I never really wanted to leave, but I wanted to get what I was worth.&rdquo;The Flyers, forever mindful of their salary structure, say that&rsquo;s exactly what he got. For his holdout, Mel received the college credits, a tan, 7,000 miles on his car, and a mild swipe from his coach. At midsummer Pat Quinn said he was forced to make plans for the coming season without Bridgman, and Mel wondered aloud whether Quinn&rsquo;s opinion of the drag-ged-out proceedings would cost Bridgman his captaincy.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know Pat&rsquo;s feelings,&rdquo; said Mel. &ldquo;Whether the contract problems would affect his decision or not. If he chose me again, I&rsquo;ll be happy. If he doesn&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;ll still be part of the team.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;Bob Dailey, underwent clean-up surgery on his right knee in late July, but was expected to be ready for training camp&hellip;Jimmy Watson reports encouraging progress with his fused spine and, pending the final okay from Dr. Ian MacNab, who performed the surgery in late January in Toronto, also expects to be available when the Flyers report to camp. &ldquo;He told me the pain would subside and it has,&rdquo; Jimmy said. &ldquo;He said it&rsquo;s really a full year before it will go away completely.&rdquo;&hellip;The Flyers, burned by press criticism when Fred Shero was excluded on their Team of the Decade in April, have invited Freddie back for an old-timers game before a FlyersRangers exhibition Sept. 26 at the Spectrum&hellip;The Flyers are still negotiating contracts for Reggie Leach and Behn Wilson, who are entering their option years.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01123/4416351-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="597" height="822"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mel Bridgman, talked out of moving to Switzerland by his agent, re-signed with Philadelphia.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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September 19, 1981

Bruins To Continue Rebuilding From Within

Team Scoring For Canada Cup ’81 Tournament

Swedes A Big Disappointment; USA Surprising

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