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.

August 19, 1982

The Hockey News August, 1982

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01772/4738617-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>$1.25 64522 THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY AUGUST, 1982 Vol. 35, No. 36PAUL COFFEY AND THE OILERS: A SUMMER OF SOLITUDE &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeySALT LAKE CITY&mdash;Jack (Tex) Evans, the most successful coach in Salt Lake City&rsquo;s entire pro sports history, will be behind the bench again when the Golden Eagles open the 1982-83 season.Evans, back for a sixth season as Eagle mentor, has compiled a 268-154-33 record in CHL (regular-season play (36-25 in the playoffs), has produced four regular-season champions and three Adams Cup championships.The rehiring of Evans by the parent St. Louis Blues and Eagle owner Art Teece was announced in late June, as the CHL apparently had five clubs set for the upcoming season, two other proposed operations still far from certain, and four of last year&rsquo;s league members dropping out of the picture.Adams Cup champion Indianapolis&rsquo; Checkers were the only other team returning from the 1981-82 campaign with the same parent club (New York islanders) and the same coach (Fred Creighton, who is also general manager).Two months of negotiations were climaxed with the mid-June announcement that the Tulsa Oilers have a new working agreement with the New York Rangers, and were expecting to select a new coach soon.Oiler owner Mark Ebenhack had vowed to keep Tulsa in the CHL with an independent operation if the Rangers couldn&rsquo;t be persuaded to move their farm club into the Oil Capital. However, he completed the new arrangement with the Rangers&rsquo; GM Craig Patrick during the CHL&rsquo;s mid-summer meeting in Lake Tahoe, Nev.Tulsa had been a farm club of the Winnipeg Jets for three years, but the Jets severed that connection at the end of last season, and will operate a new American League franchise at Sherbrooke, Que.Denver returned to the CHL after a seven-year absence, with the announcement that the Colorado Flames would play in McNichols Sports Arena as a farm club of the Calgary Flames.Pierre Page, former assistant coach of Calgary, was announced as the new farm club coach, even before the franchise was settled. Calgary moved its CHL operation from Oklahoma City after a year there.Doug McKinnon, a Denver attorney, and Doug Spedding, an auto dealer, head the group of local owners who made the arrangement with Calgary general manager Cliff Fletcher and McNichols Arena manager Fred Luetzen.Denver was in the CHL in 1974-75 as a farm club of the St. Louis Blues, following the demise of the old Western League, but the Blues moved out when it was announced Denver would receive a National League franchise&mdash;the ill-fated Colorado Rockies.Another city returning to the CHL is Birmingham, where the Minnesota North Stars are moving after a season at Nashville. Birmingham was a CHL farm of the Atlanta-Calgary Flames for a little less than two seasons as the franchise folded in February, 1981.Mike McClure, general manager of the new Birmingham entry, was in the process of finalizing an agreement with North Stars&rsquo; GM Lou Nanne, when the project was interrupted by the serious injury of Nanne&rsquo;s son in an auto accident. Gene Ubriaco, who coached in Nashville last season, is expected to be the new Birmingham mentor.The CHL meeting in Lake Tahoe ended on the assumption that Wichita and Nashville would remain in the league. But neither city had a parent club as June turned into July.The Edmonton Oilers, after operating in Wichita for two seasons, had announced they would operate in Moncton, N.B. in the American League, but that move was still being held up.Meanwhile, Wichita Wind general manager Larry Gordon was actively wooing the New Jersey Devils, who abandoned the Fort Worth franchise at the end of last season, The Rockies had been in Fort Worth for three years.Nashville, after losing Minnesota as a parent club, had also been pursuing the Devils. Nashville owner Lou Schmittou was less than intrigued by the thought of having to go independent and eventually joined the Atlantic Coast Hockey League for the 1982-83 season.Still another unanswered question in the CHL maze was what the Toronto Maple Leafs would do. Toronto, after a costly season in Cincinnati, wanted to quit the CHL and start a new AHL team in St. Catharines, Ont. But that move was blocked by AHL governors and the Leafs were, while looking for a farm site, threatening legal action to back their claim in St. Catharines.On the assumption that the CHL would have seven members this season, the governors voted at Lake Tahoe to play as a single division, with four teams advancing to the playoffs. The semi-finals will be best-of-seven, and the Adams Cup finals will be a best-of-nine series, the first time the league has tried that format.In other developments at Lake Tahoe, Chuck Schell, Salt Lake assistant general manager, was voted Executive of the Year for the past season, and the 1983 all-star game was scheduled for Salt Lake on Jan. 18. The league&rsquo;s first all-star game was played there in February, with the Stars edging the host Eagles 4-3 in overtime.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01411/4738345-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="604" height="988"><figcaption class="caption-body">Salt Lake City&rsquo;s most successful sports coach Jack Evans is back for another season with the Eagles.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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CHL Has Five Teams Certain; Aiming For Seven

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Ten year of broadcasts of Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; games on CJOB have come to an end.But the voices, could remain strangely familiar.Play-by-play announcer Ken (Friar) Nicolson and color commentator Curt Keilback are being considered as the one-air personalities on CKY, winners of a bid for the rights.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m on the understanding they will make a pitch to get them,&rdquo; said John Ferguson, general manager of the Jets and a staunch supporter of the two.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly in their corner.&rdquo;Nicolson has broadcast Jets&rsquo; games&mdash;approximately 950 of them&mdash;since the team&rsquo;s inception in 1972. Keilback joined the broadcast team in 1980.CKY&rsquo;s successful bid for the rights seemed inevitable. The station, owned by Moffatt Communications Ltd., is on the verge of investing $2 million into the club.It was a dark day for CJOB and its station manager, John Cochrane.The Jets and CJOB had become synonymous. It was a good marriage, made during the uncertain days of the World Hockey Association and strengthened through time and service.&ldquo;Technically, I suppose no one had the right,&rdquo; said Cochrane. &ldquo;But by investing in the team I feel CKY had some sort of inside opportunity to have them.&ldquo;They had first right on the rights and that was it.&rdquo;The rights were purchased from Canadian Sports Network, a subsidiary of Molson&rsquo;s.Barry Shenkarow, governor of the Jets, denied CKY had an advantage.&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, it was Molson&rsquo;s decision,&rdquo; said Shenkarow. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not aware of any deals. It is wrong to think that their involvement in the team was contingent upon them receiving the rights. CKY merely made a higher bid than anyone else.&rdquo;Cochrane considered CJOB&rsquo;s chances of keeping the rights all but finished when he read a story carried in the Winnipeg Free Press, quoting Randy Moffat, president and chairman of Moffat Communications.&ldquo;He (Moffat) said he was becoming involved in the ownership of the Jets because it would put him in a much better position regarding radio and TV rights,&rdquo; said Cochrane.&ldquo;Well, the Jets told us the very same thing. Do you think CKND will have the TV rights very long?&rdquo;CKND had the television rights until 1984.By breaking CJOB&rsquo;s strangehold on radio sports in the city&mdash;the station also broadcasts Winnipeg Blue Bombers games&mdash;CKY can now flex its 50,000 watts of muscle.The station has had listeners as far away as Sweden.Bill Davis, vice-president and treasurer of Moffat Commnications, has been intimately involved with the Jets before.He was the club treasurer when the Jets were publicly owned during the mid-70s.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen the numbers,&rdquo; said Davis. &ldquo;I am very impressed with the shape of the team since we had it. Today, it&rsquo;s on a solid financial base and plenty of long term benefits.&ldquo;I see us becoming involved for a long, long time.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;Defenseman Craig Levie, the free agent on the Jets&rsquo; roster, signed a two-way contract for three years and immediately started shopping for a house. Life in an apartment block does not appeal to him&hellip;Also signed for three more years was left winger Doug Smail. He was given a one-way contract. Smail set an NHL record last season, scoring the fastest goal in league history. Only five seconds had elapsed when Smail rifled a shot past Paul Skidmore of the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 20&hellip;More than 400 guests attended the double wedding of the Babych brothers to the Buffalo twins on July 3. Dave Babych, a Jet&rsquo;s defenseman, married Sherrey Buffie while his brother, Wayne, a right winger with St. Louis Blues, married Shelley Buffie&hellip;The Jets are attempting to sign their first-round draft choice, Jim Kyte, a defenseman from the Cornwall Royals, and Brian Mullen, a left winger from the University of Wisconsin&hellip;Although he has been advised by doctors to abandon any comeback attempt, Barry Long is working out daily and appears bent on rejoining the Jets. He is wearing a specially designed glove on his right hand, which went numb during the season due to circulation problems. Doctors described his condition as &ldquo;jack-hammer syndrome&rdquo;. Construction Workers who operate jackhammers have been known to damage their hands in a similar fashion. &#9632;

Jets’ Broadcasting Rights Changing Hands

<h2>ARTIS</h2>Hockey stick importers are not too plentiful on the North American market which makes Artis unique. Produced by Omnitrade Co., Ltd. of St. Laurent, Que., and Omnitrade Industrial Co. Ltd., of Plainview, NY, Artis is basically a Czechoslovakian-made hockey stick that offers good value through durability.Omnitrade has such confidence in the new Artis, that the company has marketed 12 models and two goalie sticks. The Lion series, for pee wees and juniors, is highly popular with injection-molded plastic blades fastened to a wooden shaft. To make the stick even more unusual, Omnitrade offers a warranty on them, the only known company to do so. With a highly attractive cosmetic line, the new Artis should prove eye catching to the young players.As well as their molded series, Artis offers five adult models of wooden sticks with reinforced blades. Most sticks are curved but some do come with straight blades.<h2>CANADIEN</h2>For the first time, Canadien has ventured into the aluminum hockey stick market and if their success is anything compared to its popular wood and fiberglass models, the company has another winner on its hands.The National Hockey League gave its approval to the aluminum shafted stick last fall and Canadien proceeded to market the stick. As soon as the NHL gave the go ahead, Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Brad Park tested the aluminum shafted stick in regular league games. Other NHLers who gave it a try included Marcel Dionne and Ulf Nilsson.Canadien said it will sell replacement blades separately under its full-scale marketing program. The aluminum sticks first appeared in four Canadian cities, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver. Canadien is hoping the newness and uni-queness of the stick will be positive factors in future mass production.Meanwhile, Canadien&rsquo;s three basic wood and fiberglass models were going ahead full steam.With such NHLers as Borje Salming, Gilbert Perreault and Bob Gainey, shooting left handed, and Danny Gare, and Mario Tremblay, firing from the right side, Canadien manufactures sticks to their exact specifications, including method, style of blade, rigidity of the handle, lie and rocker.The pros pick the 530 CPM model with a laminated birch veneer handle and blade giving off a lightweight look. Overall, Canadien has a total of 10 stick models and five for goaltenders. The 5001 and 6001 are their most popular in the entire line. They are also one of the toughest sticks available on the market. Both feature box molded fiberglass handle with a lightweight core. The white ash blade is also highly durable and the joint is a five-piece contruction for strength. Some models come with black and white shafts.<h2>CCM</h2>An eighth model has been added to the skaters&rsquo; stick line by CCM for the 1982-83 season, the Junior Professional, a black stick with white lettering and contrasting bands.This stick has a charcoal laminated handle, an ash blade and a one-quarter-inch curve is the standard. It&rsquo;s available in lies 5 or 6 and in 50 and 51-inch models.The Junior Professional is the fourth stick in CCM&rsquo;s lineup for the younger players, joining the Junior Custom Pro, the Junior Super Pro and the Atom X models.For the juniors, seniors and professionals, there are the Custom Players, featuring such names as Marcel Dionne, Rejean Houle, Bobby Smith and Duane and Brian Sutter, the Custom Pro, the Professional and the Super Pro Senior, all in 55&rdquo; lengths.CCM also carries three goaltending sticks the Custom Pro Goal 101 and 1010 models which are 52-53&rdquo; in length with 13 to 15 lies have a laminated handle, an ash blade and a double wrapped fiberglass heel as well as the Junior Custom Pro featuring all of the same qualities in a 48-50&rdquo; length.<h2>CHAMPION</h2>Another relative newcomer to the hockey stick business, Sports Keybec International Inc., of Boucherville, Que., has unfolded a new line of sticks under the heading of Champion, which are hand made by skilled craftsmen with more than 20 years experience.Sports Keybec has turned out Super Pro, Pro and Junior and two goalie sticks for both pros and juniors as well. Made of laminated wood and fiberglass, Champion is a lightweight stick. The Super Pro sells for $16 and the Pro for $12. For the small fry, the Junior 30 goes for $6.50 and is composed of a lighter lamination with a fiberglass wrapped shaft.The Champion GP 401 goalie stick is extremely resiliant with a five-piece construction and has a fiberglass wrapping and retails for $16.50.<h2>CHRISTIAN</h2>Christian Hockey Sticks are offering dealers a new field of aluminum hockey sticks. Their aluminum sticks were the first ones approved by the National Hockey League with Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; center Dave Christian and several of his teammates employing the stick on a regular basis throughout the 1981-82 season.Made with an Easton 7001 Aluminum shaft, the Christian Aluminum is lighter than wood and each stick has the exact same weight, the exact same flex. Because it is lighter shots can be made more quickly and the uniform flex allows you greater control of your shots time after time.Christian blades feature their patented rock elm construction and with an aluminum stick if the blade breaks, it&rsquo;s only a simple matter of fitting in a new blade. Replacement blades cost roughly half the price of a one-piece stick.Christian Brothers also continue to offer their full line of hockey sticks including the Team USA, Custom Pro, Pro-1000, 1000-2, the Northern Pro, the Northern Pro II and the Competition I.<h2>COOPER</h2>Three solid models feature the 1982-83 Cooper line as the company continues to make inroads in the hockey stick field.Topped by the TNT Graphite the pros use, the Cooper stick features balance and stiffness with a reinforced laminated ash shaft and their special ABS heelpiece that protects the critical area of the stick from moisture and excessive wear and tear.The TNT stick sells for $17.50 and is closely followed by the Superlite II, which has a Finnish laminated construction with a black and silver shaft. It sells for $16.00.The Superlite GL is a quality goaltender&rsquo;s stick that retails for $22.00 and Cooper has constructed it with a bonded laminated handle. It also has a five-piece sturdy blade with a epoxy resin finish with lies stocked from six all the way to 15. The cosmetics include an attractive black finished shaft and handle.<h2>FINN-AM</h2>Finn-Am sticks are designed for the hard shooting hockey player who demands performance without sacrificing durability from equipment. The price of $30 plus, reflects the quality of materials and hand-made care that goes into each stick.Not only are Finn-Am sticks durable; lasting several times longer than their competitors, but they also provide more power to a slap shot. This comes as a result of the perfect blend of lightness, strength and balance.The Finn-Am stick is a combination of Finnish design and North American materials. Strength is achieved without losing any of the &ldquo;wood feel&rdquo;. With the unique lamination of specially selected woods (alder, fir and hickory), glue and fiberglass, the handle, heel and blade distribute the maximum power from player to puck. The shaft is designed to impart different characteristics between forehand and backhand shots.Blades are available in a wide variety of curves, making adjustment by heating a thing of the past. It is now possible to order sticks with an almost identical curve, weight and feel.The only adjustment necessary with a Finn-Am stick are handle length, taping and any personal changed needed in the lie of the blade, the heel and the toe.<h2>JOFA</h2>If you&rsquo;ve watched International hockey on television, you have probably noticed more than one player with a Jofa hockey stick in his hand. The Europeans are extremely fond of the stick with its fiberglass wrapped finish.Jofa has a variety of sticks, six for players and two for the goaltenders, on the market. Constructed with the company&rsquo;s famous powerlite box lamination, the top of the line is the Jofa 9080. The stick is lightweight without sacrificing durability. The retail price is $18.95.The Jofa sticks are mainly reinforced with glass wrap and designed for the heavy shooters, of which there are plenty around the National Hockey League.<h2>KOHO</h2>Reflecting their continuing high standard of excellence, KOHO will introduce the Silverfibre, their newest innovation in a fiberglass hockey stick for the 1982-83 season.Already boasting the most complete range of sticks in the business and with the biggest following among the professionals, KOHO is stepping out with a newly designed fiberglass reinforced handle stick, constructed of selected ash and aspen wood. It is reinforced on both sides by unidirectional strands of fiberglass. The design will allow excellent strength and stiffness. The blade is also composed of KOHO&rsquo;s highly rated seven laminated construction.In addition to the new Silverfibre, KOHO will market two new Superlite models, the 2500 for adults and the 1500 for intermediate and junior players.KOHO expects its new Silverfibre to become even more popular with NHLers and European players than any of its other nine models.There are five goalie models in the KOHO line including the company&rsquo;s top 231 Pro Curve with the reinforced blade. Soviet net-minder Vladislav Tretiak is a staunch KOHO stick user as well as many of Europe&rsquo;s leading players.<h2>LOUISVILLE</h2>The introduction of a revolutionary X-Calibre blade to their line for 1982-83 can only enhance Louisville&rsquo;s position in the hockey stick field.Available in either a reinforced fiberglass or an ash handle, Louisville&rsquo;s new X-Calibre series feature three different models, the 2110-Xtra-Lite, the 2115 Super Pro and the 2142 Pro-Flex, all of which have black power-glazed blades giving a distinct appearance with lightness and play ability never before matched. The Xtra Lite sells for $17.98, the Super Pro for $16.98 and the Pro-Flex for $12.98.While Louisville has made much progress in the stick industry&mdash;the company is currently the No. 1 seller among Ontario junior leagues&mdash;it has become world renowned with its line of goalkeeping sticks. Their Pro Goal series has been among the top manufactured sticks for the past five years and many of the big NHL name goalies, such as Vancouver&rsquo;s Richard Brodeur, Dan Bouchard of Quebec, Pete Peeters of Boston, and others are regular users of Louisville. Their 2625 goalie stick comes in a full color line and retails for $22.98 to $24.98.<h2>MONTREAL</h2>Finnsport Limited of Toronto, and Montreal Hockey Company of Stamford, CT., are again marketing their superb line of Montreal hockey sticks imported directly from Finland. Since the introduction of the Montreal 44 Multilam, domestic sales in Finland have increased over 120 percent in the past two years.The Montreal stick is made out of the finest Finnish Birch and is constructed in a way that gives the maximum performance over the longest time for the player who can&rsquo;t afford to have a stick losing its flex and resilience.A hockey stick with 41 laminations in the handle isn&rsquo;t cheap, but the cost quickly justifies itself. It is stronger, lasts longer and keeps its feel over a longer period than other sticks. Montreal sticks are also the only sticks on the market with a totally uniform curve.<h2>SHERWOOD</h2>The Sher-Wood Graphite shaft has a composite laminated shaft of wood, fiberglass and resin and is much stiffer with graphite than with any other combination of wood and other materials because of the strength of Thomel graphite yarn.Recovery is so complete with graphite that it will increase the velocity of a player&rsquo;s shot by 30 percent while allowing the same feeling for stickhandling as with an all-wood stick.<h2>TITAN</h2>The company&rsquo;s new saying is &ldquo;No other stick scores like it,&rdquo; which was well proven during the 1981-1982 NHL hockey season, with the scoring achievements of both Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky, two of the biggest supporters of Titan hockey sticks.For 1982 Titan has introduced a TPM collection which consists of four models.1) TPM 3030&mdash;A stick which is recognized for its durability and &bull; performance. Due to these qualities, this model is preferred by many pros, junior and college teams.2) TPM 2020&mdash;Thus model features the same construction and cosmetics as the stick used by superstars Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky. By combining the new Ultra-Glass shaft and Karlam blade, the 2020 has a super feel and maintains a high standard in consistency and durability.3) TPM Junior&mdash;This model is scaled down in the blade and in the shaft, which enables the stick to be well balanced, which is so important in a junior stick. This model is also long-lasting and durable due to the Karcor blade, which is a blade composed of ABS core, fiberglass and wood veneer.4) TPM Goalerstick&mdash;This new goalerstick model is produced with a totally fiberglass blade. The fiberglass blade is constructed so that it has the same feel as a wooden blade, yet is far more durable. The goalerstick will be used by several goalers in the NHL, junior and college teams during the 1982-1983 season.The 1982 line also consists of four other senior models&mdash;Custom Pro, Super Pro, Pro and Master. All the models are approved by superstars like Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky and all are durable and long lasting. The construction features of these sticks are that all the blades are composed of ABS plastic, fiberglass and wood. The two remaining sticks in the line are the Master Junior and Custom Pro goalerstick. The Master Junior is scaled down and has a Karcor blade construction. The Custom Pro goalerstick has a Karlam blade, which is an ABS, fiberglass and wood construction.<h2>VICTORIAVILLE</h2>The arrival of the famous Stastny brothers in the National Hockey League has thrust the Victoriaville hockey stick into the limelight.The three Czechoslovakians, Peter, Anton and Marian, are the company&rsquo;s new hockey ambassadors as Victoriaville continues to go ahead in the stick business with amazing success. The company introduced its new Ultra Vic model for 1982-83 and the stick, a new shaft-to-blade construction, highlights the Victoriaville line.The Ultra Vic has a Lunarglass shaft with the inner softwood core shaved down at the heel and hardwood ash added in a vertical grain for strength. The blade is wrapped in a fiberglass sock and retails for $15.95. Victoriaville has high expectations that the Ultra Vic will be a big winner.Victoriaville also has the Pro Vic, which the Stastnys use, and the Custom Vic. They are both made from white ash and are box laminated. The Pro Vic sells for $12.95 and the Custom for $9.95. &#9632;

EQUIPMENT SUPPLEMENT-Sticks

Next month&rsquo;s issue marks a milestone for THE HOCKEY NEWS. It will be our 35th anniversary and we invite all our readers to join the celebration. We&rsquo;ll be turning back the clock and taking a look at our own history.That isn&rsquo;t to say we&rsquo;ll forget about the present. As the opening of National Hockey League training camps draws near, we will have complete reports on every team as well as our regular features and columnists.Plus, we will make a couple of exciting announcements regarding new features to be included in THE HOCKEY NEWS once we get back on a weekly schedule.Also, we&rsquo;ll have an update on how the National Hockey League owners and the Players&rsquo; Association are progressing on their attempts to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement.And don&rsquo;t miss a behind-the-scenes look a controversial magazine story about one of the greatest players ever to have played the game&mdash;Bobby Orr.All that and more in the September issue. Don&rsquo;t miss it! &#9632;

Coming Next Month

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011165/4737065-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="322" height="372"></div><h2>Hope In Motor City</h2>THE NATIONAL HOCKEY League board of governors&rsquo; annual meeting was not a big upper for president John Ziegler. Tough to chuckle much when you&rsquo;re the boss of a league in which six teams made money last season, losses totalled $20 million, the Washington Capitals were in a fiscal crisis and the players&rsquo; association was making militant in negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement.However, when Ziegler escorted Mike Hitch to a small press conference, the NHL pres wore a small smile.Ilitch is the midwest fast-food baron who purchased the Detroit Red Wings from Bruce Norris. &ldquo;I have 290 outlets, we opened two today and we&rsquo;re looking at a possible 100 new sites,&rdquo; Hitch said that day.Now, a cynic could ask why a man who had made a big success in the pizza business would risk losing it on turkey. However, the word is that Hitch made a bargain buy of the Wings, paying less than $10 million while John McMullen will part with more than $25 million to own the Colorado Rockies, now the New Jersey Devils.Ziegler said that although he had to be a neutral as NHL president, he allowed himself a small soft spot for the Red Wings. After all, Ziegler is from Detroit and came into the NHL picture as the Red Wing counsel.Once a showcase NHL franchise, the Wings have been an NHL joke for the past 16 years, a stretch when they&rsquo;ve earned a playoff spot in two seasons. Norris&rsquo; interest in the team dwindled and he just didn&rsquo;t seem to know how to rescue it.There was a small rekindling of hope in 1977-78 under general manager Ted Lindsay and coach Bobby Kromm but the club quickly returned to chaos and nowhere.Ziegler said that while he was sorry to see Norris, a member of the family that had owned the Wings for 50 years, leave the league, he was pleased that Hitch, who has sponsored kids&rsquo; teams for years, was the new man.While Hitch talked modestly of his plans for the team, Ziegler looked back at the decay of a once-great team. Management was the key word for both.<h2>Wings Didn&rsquo;t Adapt</h2>ZIEGLER DIDN&rsquo;T dodge the obvious question: How could a team fall so far and stay down so long? Really, the Wing decline started when the late Jack Adams&rsquo; reign as the club&rsquo;s main honcho ended in the early 1960s.&ldquo;The Norris family had allowed Jack Adams to run the team and he made the Red Wings one of the NHL&rsquo;s dominant forces,&rdquo; Ziegler said. &ldquo;He built a great system at a time when the league was a six-team private club.&ldquo;But in the 1960s, the entire world of pro sports changed, few as much as hockey because of our big expansion. But it seemed hockey didn&rsquo;t have enough of the modern executives for the transition. Up to that point, the operation of a hockey team was a fairly simple proposition. Since the late &lsquo;60s, though, it&rsquo;s been a very complex deal.&ldquo;The Red Wings, it seemed, never quite made the adjustment to the new approach.&rdquo;Ziegler talked of how the &ldquo;closed-shop&rdquo; oper ation of the NHL&rsquo;s six-team days worked against the development of executives and added that the cast of bright, young candidates for front-office positions wasn&rsquo;t exactly huge these days. Of course, until the 1970s, there were no assistant GMs or coaches&mdash;men learning the job.&ldquo;Yes, for a long time, there were few opportunities for young executives to develop,&rdquo; Ziegler said. &ldquo;Even now, there aren&rsquo;t large numbers from which to choose a top candidate to run a team.&rdquo;<h2>The Best Available</h2>ILITCH, WHO obviously saw the Wings perform last season, made no boasts about any instantaneous turnaround in the team&rsquo;s fortunes. He was optimistic about the franchise&rsquo;s potential. Detroit is a fine hockey market and there appears to be little doubt that a modestly successful team would have a chance to fill the 19,275 seats in the Joe Louis Arena.&ldquo;The first thing our organization must convey to the fans is that we&rsquo;re doing everything possible to produce a contending team and we hope our players will show that attitude on the ice, too,&rdquo; Hitch said.On that day when his ownership of the Wings was approved, Hitch stated that a general manager was his first big chore.&ldquo;I want the best available man and when he&rsquo;s hired, I want him to concentrate on the pure hockey side of our operation,&rdquo; Hitch said. &ldquo;We can find the people to look after the business side of things. Our first task is to improve the hockey team and I want my man to be able to devote all his time and energy to this.&rdquo;For the past few years, the word around the NHL was that the best young executive candidate was Jimmy Devellano, who learned the craft at all levels with the New York Islanders. He was a scout, director of personnel, GM of a Central League team and assistant to Islander boss Bill Torrey.Ilitch figured the same way because he hired Devellano as the man to rebuild the Red Wings. &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011182/4737152-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="596" height="1004"><figcaption class="caption-body">David Branch</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02984/4737145-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="594" height="994"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Murray</figcaption></div>Two years ago, THE HOCKEY NEWS brought together some of the top names in the game for the first Newsmakers&rsquo; Roundtable. If afforded them an opportunity to discuss the important issues and offer their criticisms and suggestions. Better still, it allowed our readers a chance to gain an insight into the opinions of hockey&rsquo;s top newsmakers. All in all, it was an unequivocal success. So, at the National Hockey League Annual Congress in June at Montreal, THE HOCKEY NEWS assembled another all-star cast for our second Newsmakers&rsquo; Roundtable and the edited transcripts of those discussions will appear in this issue and the September issue. As was the case in 1980, HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; publisher Don Wall moderated the event. Joining him at the table were:&nbsp;MARCEL AUBUT&mdash;the dynamic president of the Quebec Nordiques, who has made the Quebec City franchise into one of the classiest in the NHL;&nbsp;DAVID BRANCH&mdash;the progressive thinking commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League and a driving force behind junior hockey at the national level;&nbsp;PHIL ESPOSITO&mdash;the outspoken, retired NHL star who will make as big a mark off the ice as he did on;&nbsp;JOHN FERGUSON&mdash;the former hard-rock player who, as the vice-president and general manager of the Winnipeg Jets this past season, was presented with THE HOCKEY NEWS Executive of the Year Award:&nbsp;LOU LAMORIELLO&mdash;the well respected head coach of Providence College and one of the elder statesmen in U.S. college hockey;&nbsp;RALPH MELLANBY&mdash;the award-winning executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada, the program that sets industry standards;&nbsp;TOM MURRAY&mdash;the outgoing editor in chief of THE HOCKEY NEWS, a first-rate journalist who was primarily responsible for the publication&rsquo;s improved editorial standards, and&nbsp;BILL WATTERS&mdash;one of the top player agents in the game, who, as president of Branada Sports Management in Toronto, has earned a great deal of respect among players, management and his colleagues. NHL president John Ziegler, who participated in the 1980 Newsmakers&rsquo; Roundtable, was invited to take part again, but he declined. As far as the topics of discussion were concerned, we tried to touch base on as many of the key issues as possible. To begin the 1982 Newsmakers&rsquo; Roundtable discussions, the moderator opened with a brief statement regarding one of the hottest subjects of the past season&mdash;the overall question of discipline in the NHL and how it is administered.MODERATOR: I think the problem with the league on this (discipline) seems to be that they get really annoyed at anything we talk about regarding fines. They say we don&rsquo;t understand that the fines are limited to $500 by the collective bargaining agreement (between the NHL and the players&rsquo; association). Okay, that may be true but that doesn&rsquo;t limit the suspensions. When THE HOCKEY NEWS had editorials on this, John (Ziegler) has come back not to address the question of suspensions, but the fines.FERGUSON: The problem is that $500 is the maximum fine allowed, but the player is supposed to be suspended without pay over the course of the suspension. So, in the case of Terry O&rsquo;Reilly (who was given a 10-game suspension for striking referee Andy van Hel-lemond in a playoff game), he is supposed to go without pay for 10 games next season, about one-eighth of his salary.WATTERS: But that never happens, does it?FERGUSON: No, not usually. My policy, and I&rsquo;m only speaking for myself, is that if the player gets a fighting major, I&rsquo;ll pay the fine. If they are forced into doing something for their team, then I feel I should pay it. But if they go out and do something on their own with a referee or linesman or anything that I feel takes away from their teammates, then they have to pay the fine.ESPOSITO: To me, there is something wrong with the disciplinary system when it takes two weeks to hand down a decision. I can never forget when I pushed Bob Sloane (an official) in 1971. It took three weeks to make that decision. It came down on the 15th and we were playing in a nationally televised game (in the United States) on the 19th. They told me my suspensions didn&rsquo;t start until the 20th. Talk about television controlling sports. That&rsquo;s what makes the league look bad. It should be done a lot quicker. Frankly, I know that (NHL executive vice-president) Brian O&rsquo;Neill, who hands down most of these decisions, is all alone on this. He takes a lot of criticism because he is in a no-win situation.AUBUT: As you may know, that whole situation is going to change. There is a committee (the NHL&rsquo;s Blue Ribbon Panel) working on a new system. We want the league level to avoid the situation where only one man must do everything.MURRAY: The one thing I was concerned about, and it was expressed in some of the (HOCKEY NEWS) editorials, was that those of us who know the game, know why certain things are done in certain situations. But if you could put yourself in the shoes of someone who just watches a game once in a while or someone who watches the evening news that carries a film clip&mdash;it&rsquo;s usually of Paul Holmgren hitting Andy van Hellemond or something along those lines&mdash;and then when the ensuing disciplinary action comes down, it always takes a few weeks and, in the case of O&rsquo;Reilly, 10 games and $500, you have to wonder what the perception of the game is by the general public. You hear remarks such as what are these guys doing or why aren&rsquo;t they taking definitive steps? I don&rsquo;t understand why, if a guy goes out and punches a ref, there isn&rsquo;t a rule that clearly states he is going to get 20 games for doing it.AUBUT: I think we exaggerate the public concern about these things. I&rsquo;ve spoken with the fans and they don&rsquo;t care so much about the 10, 20 or 25 games. They just want to see a game of hockey. It becomes a big issue after the decision is made and the press, for all the respect I&rsquo;ve got for them, asks why is this less than that and starts making all sorts of comparisons. And I say that with all the respect I&rsquo;ve got for the press.MODERATOR: That&rsquo;s okay, you don&rsquo;t always have to have respect for the press because I don&rsquo;t have a lot of respect for a good part of the press either. I, as an American working in Canada, notice there is a tremendous difference in the perception of violence between Canada and the United States. The further south you go, you find more of that raking over the disciplinary system or the so-called violence issue.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-0941/4737138-1-eng-US/f0003-092.jpg" title="f0003-09" width="592" height="1004"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lou Lamoriello</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-0861/4737131-1-eng-US/f0003-082.jpg" title="f0003-08" width="588" height="1002"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Esposito</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03655/4737124-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="594" height="1004"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Watters</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04382/4737117-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="592" height="996"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ralph Mellanby</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-05216/4737110-1-eng-US/f0003-052.jpg" title="f0003-05" width="598" height="996"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Ferguson</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-06141/4737103-1-eng-US/f0003-062.jpg" title="f0003-06" width="596" height="1000"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Wall</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-0791/4737096-1-eng-US/f0003-072.jpg" title="f0003-07" width="592" height="998"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marcel Aubut (Photos by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>ESPOSITO: When I first broke into the old six-team NHL, it was a helluva lot more violent than it is now.FERGUSON: Close to 800 NHL games were played last season and in 450 of them, there wasn&rsquo;t even a fighting major. Only five per cent of the players in the league have 10 or more majors over the course of the season. The game used to be a lot tougher. A lot has been done to clean it up, but we&rsquo;ve still got a few more things to do. On the other hand, I cannot believe that a fan doesn&rsquo;t get excited by a fist fight. I don&rsquo;t think they like the brawling or the stickwork but one on one, I think the fans like that and it is part of the entertainment dollar.AUBUT: I think you have to admit that.ESPOSITO: In pro hockey, and I think you have to differentiate between it and amateur, there is nothing wrong with two guys going at it. The biggest problem in pro hockey now is the gang fight. If anybody doesn&rsquo;t go to the bench when a fight starts, they should be kicked out of the game. No exceptions.FERGUSON: That&rsquo;ll clean it up.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We should be trying for preventive maintenance&hellip;If someone knows he&rsquo;s going to get 20 games, that&rsquo;s preventive&rsquo;</blockquote>BRANCH: I feel strongly about what Tom (Murray) touched on. With discipline, you are treating the illness. We should be trying for preventive maintenance so you won&rsquo;t have so much need for discipline. Like Tom said, if someone knows he&rsquo;s going to get 20 games for hitting an official, then that&rsquo;s preventive.FERGUSON: I think the vice-president of the NHL is under so much criticism because he has to make decisions that may or may not be right. But the thing is, he can&rsquo;t win no matter what. Look at the O&rsquo;Reilly case. The majority of people out there are expecting 20 or 25 games. Now, it&rsquo;s 10. If I&rsquo;m Harry Sinden, I&rsquo;m happy. But on the other hand&hellip;I think it (having pre-determined minimum penalties) is a good idea.WATTERS: Part of the problem with the O&rsquo;Reilly incident was what was said after the Holmgren incident. Everybody said Holmgren only got six games but the next guy would have the book thrown at him. Terry gets 10 games, which is the stiffest penalty ever given to a NHL player for hitting a ref. But everybody figures he got off lightly. Brian O&rsquo;Neill just can&rsquo;t win.BRANCH: But what happens if you have the pre-determined, minimum penalties for things like that?WATTERS: That&rsquo;s right. As soon as O&rsquo;Reilly touches van Hellemond, he should know as he skates off the ice that he is gone for the next 20 games.FERGUSON: David, do you have anything like that in the OHL?BRANCH: Yes, we have different plateaus. Physically touching an official is a minimum of seven games. If you assault an official, the minimum is 20 games. I stress that those are mandatory minimums and can be increased if the situation calls for it.MELLANBY: I think some of these suspensions should be automatic because it&rsquo;s not often what you do, but where you do it. I disagree with what Marcel said about fan interest. Everybody I talked to after seeing what I thought was one of the best playoff series in a long time&mdash;Quebec against Boston&mdash;wanted to know what was going to happen to O&rsquo;Reilly because he did it (hit the ref) on national television. Public pressure on one guy, Brian O&rsquo;Neill, can be so much greater because of television. It&rsquo;s too much for one man to handle.MODERATOR: Marcel, will the Blue Ribbon Panel do something to help alleviate the single-man pressure situation?AUBUT: Yes, that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re trying to do right now. Does it make any sense to have just one man handing down all the discipline, to have the league&rsquo;s whole image in his hands? I mean, the league spends thousands of dollars on public relations and, in one hour, one guy&rsquo;s decision can kill the whole thing. Does that make sense?LAMORIELLO: You have to have a set of rules and follow them. Marcel, your committee, are they just procrastinating to the point of being a pacifier that they are doing something? I just read a great article on procrastination. As soon as we have a problem, we don&rsquo;t try to solve it. We strike a committee and get as many members with differing views so we can&rsquo;t come to any agreement. But it still looks like we&rsquo;re doing something. I don&rsquo;t think any of these problems will be solved unless somebody takes the bull by the horns. I have to agree that the public is very concerned about this issue. Unless you have a definite rule, say 30 games for hitting an official, nothing will change. Now, maybe someone might say that&rsquo;s too severe. But the problem we have is what&rsquo;s going to happen next time? Suppose the next guy to do it is a big-name player, the epitome of the game, and for one second, he snaps, which we all capable of doing. Now, a decision had to be made. That&rsquo;s where it&rsquo;s not fair to Brian O&rsquo;Neill or anyone else. It&rsquo;s got to be that no matter who you are, how good you are or what your name is, these are the rules we play by. But don&rsquo;t put that off until tomorrow because this thing can snowball.AUBUT: I can assure you that the committee is very active right now. It&rsquo;s such a hot issue for the league and we are urgently meeting right now (June).LAMORIELLO: But what happens when the sun starts shining and the O&rsquo;Reilly situation dies down over the summer?AUBUT: I can tell you that we are going to have to make a decision on the referee thing, whether it&rsquo;s going to be a committee (to hand down suspensions instead of one man) or a sanction that we know in advance. That&rsquo;s going to be decided pretty quick.BRANCH: You&rsquo;ve got to sell the game, right? You must not lose sight of the changes that have been made over the past 10 years. The NHL, and hockey in general, is evolving to a better, more clean, acceptable social style of play.ESPOSITO: Except for one thing. I believe there is a helluva lot more stickwork now than there ever was in this game. And it gets back to a favorite subject of mine and it&rsquo;s all this protection-helmets, masks and all that stuff. You protect those kids so much with that damn birdcage that they don&rsquo;t know how to defend themselves properly. So, they go around hitting each other with those sticks and as they get older, it gets to be a more serious problem.FERGUSON: I scout a lot of U.S. college kids who wear the cages and I cannot believe the stickwork I see. I absolutely cannot believe it.MELL-ANBY: I don&rsquo;t advocate taking off the birdcages just because the sticks are high. Maybe highsticking should be a major penalty. You get the sticks down by enforcing penalties.FERGUSON: It&rsquo;s a form of intimidation, no matter which way you look at it. The kids won&rsquo;t scrap anymore because they&rsquo;ve got the birdcage on but you can&rsquo;t believe what they&rsquo;ll do with their sticks.MODERATOR: We have a fellow here who has lived with the cage more than anyone because he&rsquo;s a NCAA Division I coach. Lou, how many years have you had them and what are your feelings on them?LAMORIELLO: We&rsquo;ve had them three years and I&rsquo;m on the record, and I&rsquo;ve been criticized for it. as being totally against the facemask. My reasoning is that the skill level that we play at is quite high and the facemasks takes away from that. I also find that the homework done before legislating this was just so terrible. It was initiated by some guy sitting at a table like this who knew nothing about what he was saying. The reason we supposedly put the facemasks on was to save eyes. Okay, I almost lost an eye once so I know what that&rsquo;s all about. But our masks are penetrable. They were outlawed in Canada. Now a kid stands more chance of being injured. At our recent Division I coaches&rsquo; meeting in Florida, we voted 27-5 in favor of removing the facemasks. Like John said, we felt they were detriment to our hockey because of the increased amount of stickwork. When someone loses all fear, they also lose respect. These kids who wear the masks have no fear of injury and they&rsquo;ve lost respect for the guy they&rsquo;re playing against. They&rsquo;re saying &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t be hurt and I can&rsquo;t hurt him.&rdquo; It goes both ways. I don&rsquo;t know if I want to take the faceshields off the little guys. I&rsquo;m saying it&rsquo;s a skill level thing. Four kids who used to play for me just came back from Europe, where they, for the first time in their lives, played without the cage. They told me they couldn&rsquo;t believe the difference, the increase in their peripheral vision. They couldn&rsquo;t believe what a detriment the mask had been to them. We&rsquo;re doing a lot of homework on this to try and get it out diplomatically.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;When someone loses all fear, they also lose all respect&hellip;We voted 27-5 in favor of removing the facemasks&rsquo;</blockquote>NEXT MONTH: The issues of respect for the referee and the future of minor-league hockey. &#9632;

f0003-01

NEWSMAKERS’ ROUNDTABLE

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011226/4737183-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="608" height="1280"><figcaption class="caption-body">A free agent as of June 1, Denis Potvin has let his agent do his talking.</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Denis Potvin was playing it cool in the middle of a New York heat wave. So was Islander general manager Bill Torrey. Only Potvin&rsquo;s agent, David Cogan, appeared ready to settle his client&rsquo;s contract before the end of summer.Cogan reported that &ldquo;a lot of progress has been made&rdquo; in negotiating a new long-term contract for the veteran defenseman, who became a free agent June 1. Cogan also indicated that Potvin had withdrawn his request for a no-trade clause in exchange for financial considerations.Torrey made it clear in early discussions with Cogan that he has never included a no-trade clause in a player&rsquo;s contract and the general manager was not prepared to make an exception in Potvin&rsquo;s case.&ldquo;I understand there are some things general managers feel they cannot do because it affects other players,&rdquo; Cogan said. &ldquo;So we&rsquo;ve talked about other considerations&hellip;I think a lot of progress has been made. Everything has been very positive.&rdquo;Said Torrey: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad David feels that way, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.&rdquo;Potvin has declined comment-on his contract negotiations, directing all questions to Cogan, a New York-based business agent. However, it was learned Potvin is seeking a salary of about $450,000 a year. The Rangers would be willing to cough up that kind of money for Potvin, but what could they offer as compensation?The Islanders lost one of their founding fathers when Jimmy Devel-lano surrendered three jobs he held in the organization to become general manager of the Red Wings. Torrey hired Devellano as a scout when the Isles joined the NHL in 1972. He was chosen as the team&rsquo;s chief scout in 1974 and became assistant general manager last season. Devellano also had been serving as GM of the Isles&rsquo; No. 1 farm club, the Indianapolis Checkers, winners of the Central League championship and the Adams Cup last season.Devellano, 39, is an astute judge of talent who operates on the belief that draft choices should never be traded. During his tenure with the Islanders, the team never traded a first-round choice. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t build through trades,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You build through the draft&hellip;I&rsquo;ll make a commitment to the fans of Detroit. We won&rsquo;t trade any draft choices.&rdquo;He launched his new job by declining an offer from his former employer for Detroit&rsquo;s first-round pick next season. When Devellano informed Torrey that he would accept the Detroit job, Torrey offered four players for the Wings&rsquo; No. 1 pick. &ldquo;I told Bill he had been too good a teacher for me to do that,&rdquo; Devellano said.Tex Ehman is expected to succeed Devellano as the Isles&rsquo; chief scout. Ehman has served as the team&rsquo;s western scout for several years. He is a trusted aide who played for the Oakland Seals when Torrey was general manager there and has a good rapport with coach Al Arbour. &#9632;

f0004-01

Agent Pleased By Progress In Potvin Contract Talks

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;During the summer, the Quebec fans and players take a much-needed vacation from the world of hockey in a city where, for nine months each year, the media is saturated with National Hockey League analysis.Last season, the coverage was intense as the Nordiques made it to the semi-finals of the Stanley Cup. But in July and August, the fans are much more interested in the fate of the Montreal Expos. The players, meanwhile, are completing a tour of the province of Quebec playing exhibition softball games.On the hockey scene, not much has been happening. There is nothing new in the Marc Tardif situation. General manager Maurice Filion promised some news by the end of June, but nothing materialized. NHL officials investigated Tardif&rsquo;s in-volvement in the player-agent field, and ruled out any misconduct on Tardif&rsquo;s part. The veteran forward withdrew from the enterprise many months ago when a possible conflict of interest was brought forth. Expect Tardif at training camp in the fall.Meanwhile, the Nordiques announced the signing of veteran defenseman Jean Hamel to a two-year contract (one year plus option) as well as the addition of Simon Nolet to the coaching staff. Nolet joins Michel Bergeron and Charles Thiffault, also an assistant coach with Quebec.Hamel was a victim of circumstances in 1981-82, and even the Quebec management admitted at the completion of the season that sending him twice down to the Fredericton Express of the AHL was perhaps a mistake. But when Hamel, who played 40 games with the Nordiques last year, refused to report to Fredericton the second time and announced his retirement, he caused his own problems. Within a few weeks the Nordiques had injuries on defense, and Hamel would certainly have immediately been recalled at that time. His brief retirement cost him some valuable playing time in the NHL.The 30-year-old defenseman came to Quebec last year as a free agent from Detroit. He made the team in training camp and worked his way into the lineup. Filion is now showing confidence in his ability by giving him a two-year contract.&ldquo;I think it became clear in the playoffs that I can do the job and that Quebec needs some experience on defense,&rdquo; commented Hamel. &ldquo;I am happy with the contract and that the team has shown confidence in me.&rdquo;&ldquo;The addition of Nolet to our coaching staff reflects the sophistication of the game in the 80&rsquo;s,&rdquo; Filion added. &ldquo;Simon did great work for us as a scout in the last two years and we know he will be a valuable addition to our coaching staff.&rdquo;Nolet has signed a three-year deal with the Nordiques. He has vast experience in professional hockey and was part of a Stanley Cup championship with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1973-74.Bergeron welcomed his new assistant. &ldquo;I talked to him recently specifically about what his duties with the team will involve and I liked his attitude,&rdquo; the head coach said.NORDIC NOTES&mdash;The Nordiques have aleady sold more than 90 per cent of the 13,000 season tickets they had last year. The team has set a limit of about 13,000 in order to satisfy the fans from outside the Quebec City area and to help build fan support for the future at home. &#9632;

Quebec Is Quiet In Summer Recess

THE INTERNATIONAL HOC KEY WEEKLYFounded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenzieDONALD R. WALLChairman and PublisherBOB MCKENZIEEditor in ChiefAdvertising and Editorial Offices214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314Toronto. Ontario. Canada M5H 1K4(416) 598-1753Executive Office850 Third AveNew York. New York. 10022(212)593-2100EDITORIAL STAFFCharlie HalpinEditorial DirectorMike Dennis, Assistant Editor Tom Murray, Editorial ConsultantContributing Editors Stan Fischler, Frank OrrTOM WORSLEY&nbsp;Business ManagerPaula Heard,Subscription Services ManagerElaine Watkinson,Special Projects Manager(416) 499-8222<h2>ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES</h2>RANDY GREEN&nbsp;District ManagerEsther SumkaAdvertising Service Manage! (416) 598-1753 214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314 Toronto. Ontario, Canada M5H 1K4New York:Bob Bassinette Bob Bassinette Co 8 Jackson Ave Syosset, NY 1179 (516)921-0508Minneapolis-St. Paul:Chuck Grillo & Herb Brooks 12890 Dory Ave.Apple Valley. MN 55124 (612) 423-2447THE HOCKEY NEWS. (ISSN 0018-3016). is published weekly except monthly June through September by W.C.C Publishing Ltd., 214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314, Toronto. Ontario M5H 1K4 (416) 598-1753. In U.S. c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $18.95 in the U.S.A. $18.95 in Canada. $24.95 in Foreign Countries Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS, P.O. Box 13035, Postal Station &lsquo;A&rsquo;, Toronto, Ont. M5W 1V7. U.S. subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo. N.Y. 14240. Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing.SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE HOCKEY NEWS. 214 King St. W&bdquo; Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4. Second Class mail Registration No. 1327 All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News, 214 King St. W, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4, Canada.IN THE UNITED STATES: Second class postage paid at New York. N.Y and at additional mailing offices U.S. POSTMASTER send address changes to: The Hockey News, 214 King St. W., Suite 314. Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4.Member of the Audit Bureau ot Circulations &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;For Ron Greschner, the waiting is the hardest part.The 27-year-old defenseman is banking on an unorthodox semi-surgical procedure to end the back problems that have sidelined him for all but a handful of games since last fall. All he can do is, literally, sit and wait. Even the simple act of bending over is forbidden.Greschner&rsquo;s problems began when he banged his tailbone while attempting to hip-check Wilf Paiement, then of the Maple Leafs, in Toronto last October 24, when the 1981-82 season was only three weeks old.After that, he was in and out of the Rangers&rsquo; lineup&mdash;mostly out, appearing in little more than two dozen games&mdash;thanks to the pain that radiated from his lower back and shot down his legs.Finally, his problem was diagnosed as a partially herniated disc, a condition that affects the sciatic nerve as it passes through the lower back and continues down the legs. The frequent solution is surgery&mdash;the removal of the disc&mdash;and in an effort to forestall going under the knife, Greschner tried everything from traction to hanging upside-down by his heels from a trapeze apparatus.Finally, Rangers&rsquo; orthopedist Dr. Norman Scott sent Greschner early this summer to Toronto for an injection of chymopapain, a chemical extracted from the papaya fruit that hopefully will dissolve the damaged disc and make surgery unnecessary.The procedure was performed at St. Michael&rsquo;s Hospital in Toronto because it is still considered in the experimental stages in the United States and is, therefore, unavailable. Recovery time is from one to-three months, which means that Greschner is unlikely to know his status before training camp and, therefore, unlikely to be in the Rangers&rsquo; line-up on opening day. Skating, running, or any kind of conditioning are off-limits until then.Several weeks after Greschner&rsquo;s trip north of the border, Dr. Scott was asked the bottom-line question about Greschner&rsquo;s condition.&ldquo;It depends how he declares in three months,&rdquo; said Dr. Scott. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there will be surgery for him.&rdquo;Summer in The Big Apple, then holds an ascetic existence for Greschner. &ldquo;I had to have someone put on my socks for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be doing no bending or lifting. 1 lay on the beach all day and I&rsquo;m in bed by 10:30 at night.&rdquo;Meanwhile, he is preparing to open a restaurant on Manhattan&rsquo;s East Side, within blocks of several other jock hang-outs, in partnership with Phil Esposito and Ron Duguay. He is doing occasional promotional work for a discotheque in Westchester County.All of which is a far cry from the fashion show in which Greschner and Ed Hospodar participated, along with five Penthouse Pets, a few weeks after the Stanley Cup. playoffs at the trendy East Side disco Magique. They modeled bathing suits and danced on a runway and Greschner said it &ldquo;was about the weirdest thing I ever did. I don&rsquo;t dance, and I went home and practiced that afternoon.&rdquo;It was worth a few laughs but did little to establish modeling as a backup career for Greschner. Now the question is whether that extract of papaya will do its job. If so, Greschner, among the best offensive defensemen the Rangers have, as well as a key to the Rangers&rsquo; power-play, may be back on the job this fall, driving his teammates crazy with practical jokes.Greschner did come out on a sweltering July day to lend moral support at a press conference held in Manhattan to announce an admirable and ambitious undertaking&mdash;the formation of the Nick Fotiu Foundation, a chance for the home-grown left winger &ldquo;to give something back to the community.&rdquo; Fotiu and Greschner room together on the road.Among the foundation&rsquo;s goals&mdash;all in the planning stages at this moment&mdash;are the establishment of a hockey rink on Staten Island, Fotiu&rsquo;s hometurf, the development of athletic programs, scholarship programs, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities for New York City youth, and the distribution of Christmas toys to underprivileged kids.As a youngster on Staten Island, Fotiu had no ice available to him and he would leave home at 5 a.m. to practice on Long Island. &ldquo;I took a bus, a ferry, and two subways&mdash;with a hatchet in my duffel bag,&rdquo; he recalled.The formation of his Foundation started recently when Fotiu drove out to a local Junior High School for a speaking engagement. &ldquo;When I pulled up in the car, I thought, &lsquo;this can&rsquo;t be the place,&rdquo; said Fotiu, recalling the building&rsquo;s state of disrepair. &ldquo;But inside, the mothers and the fathers had made a spaghetti dinner, and when they offered me a fee I said, &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t take this money.&rdquo;A celebrity golf tournament was being planned as a Foundation fundraiser, and negotiations were underway to finalize the site of the Staten Island Rink. On the foundation&rsquo;s board of Directors were Rangers&rsquo; President Jack Krumpe, Fotiu&rsquo;s attorney Larry Rauch, Ralph Casella, a Staten Island-based attorney, Congressman Guy V. Molinari, Allan Esses, the owner of the Roy Rogers hamburger restaurant that was the site of the press conference, and Fotiu. &#9632;

Greschner In Waiting Game To See If His Back’s Back

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011084/4737286-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey began feeling fatigued after the all-star game and made the mistake of trying to change his style of play. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>When you phone the Edmonton Oilers and they put you on hold, you are treated to snippets of the team&rsquo;s glorious past&mdash;the good, old days of six months ago&mdash;and serenaded by Oiler play-by-play highlights.Gretzky shoots, he scores! Fifty goals in 39 games, the place is going wild&hellip;Coffey rides his man out of the play&hellip;One can only assume that, should you be left on hold all day, as soon as the highlights hit the end of the 1981-82 NHL regular season, the tape is over and the Oilers&rsquo; version of telephone-line Muzak starts all over again, not unlike what the Oilers will be doing this September.After all, there weren&rsquo;t any Oiler highlights once the Stanley Cup playoffs began. The Los Angeles Kings&mdash;who, incidentally, opt for candlelight and wine music instead of hockey highlights on their phone system&mdash;made sure of that by upsetting the heavily favored Oilers 3-2 in the best-of-five preliminary series.The Kings delivered the final blow on April 13. Oiler coach and general manager Glen Sather and his players need not be reminded what a long hiatus it has been. For them, this has been a summer of solitude, a summer of trying to answer the question: What happened? It&rsquo;s one they must often ask themselves.All of which contrasts sharply with the off season of just a year ago, when the Oilers basked in the euphoria of upsetting the Montreal Canadiens and taking the powerful Cup champion New York Islanders to six games in the semi-finals.This time around, the young Oilers got a good taste of what they administered a year ago.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly been a trying time,&rdquo; said Sather, who had, from the shores of Hawaii, nursed his wounds and taken a retrospective look at what went wrong. &ldquo;First, it was the playoff loss. Then it was the kidnapping and shooting (of Oiler owner Peter Pocklington). It&rsquo;s all been very emotional.&ldquo;But I think the playoffs were a pretty good learning experience, although they were very painful. All the guys have had a summer of having to answer everybody&rsquo;s questions. Now, we have to come back and prove the playoff series was a fluke. That isn&rsquo;t to take anything away from the Kings. They deserved to win. But as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, a lot of things have to be done within one&rsquo;s self to prepare for this coming season.&rdquo;Simply put, the Oilers have something to prove. To say that they are &ldquo;weak-kneed wimps&rdquo;, a label hung on them by columnist Terry Jones, who just recently moved from the Edmonton Journal to the Edmonton Sun, may be going too far. But the fact remains that the Oilers, in their first real pressure-packed test, came away losers.By the same token, the team&rsquo;s parade down the playoff tubes highlighted some personal misfortunes, primarily the late-season and playoff performance of Paul Coffey, who collected 89 points (tops among NHL defensemen) and was chosen to the second all-star team.Because the spotlight was firmly fixed on the Los Angeles-Edmonton series&mdash;once it was determined an upset was in the making, of course&mdash;the trials and tribulations of Coffey became a prominent sidebar.Through most of the NHL regular season, Coffey was one of the top defensemen in the league. Always maligned for his defensive abilities, he is arguably one of the top two offensive defensemen, possessing both an outstanding shot and, as scouts are prone to say, great wheels.But his late-season play deteriorated and by Game Four of the Los Angeles series, he was hitting rock bottom. In that game, which was televised nationally in Canada, Coffey came off the bench just once and it was a brief appearance. What was wrong with Paul Coffey? became the second most-asked question of that playoff series, trailing the No. 1 query: What was wrong with the Oilers?At one point, Sather told reporters that he was afraid to put Coffey on the ice for fear of surrendering a goal.Now, toss in the fact that Gus Badali, Coffey&rsquo;s agent, says he is 99 per cent sure that they will go to binding arbitration to settle the dollar amount for the final two years of his client&rsquo;s contract, and you understand why the summer of &lsquo;82 is a time of reflection for the 21-year-old from Malton, Ont., a suburb of Toronto.Besides answering questions concerning the plight of the Oilers, he has had to contend with queries regarding his own performance, trade rumors and the contract negotiations.On his late-season play:&ldquo;I guess it all started just after the all-star game. I started feeling a little bit fatigued, but I also made the mistake of trying to change my style of play. I was trying to become more of a defensive defenseman for the playoffs. I kept on hearing and reading that I wasn&rsquo;t a good defensive defenseman. I&rsquo;m an offensive player and I should stick with what I do best.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t know if you could say I lost my confidence. All I know is that I&rsquo;m the type of player that has to get into the game early and be a part of things. There were some games there where we would run into penalties and, because I wasn&rsquo;t playing much when we were shorthanded, I might go the whole first period without playing more than a few shifts. I think that hurt me.&rdquo;Whatever the reason, Coffey, who normally is as cocky as any of the young Oiler stars, seemed tentative and unsure of himself, not unlike when he broke in with the Oilers as a 19-year-old straight out of junior.Was it humiliating to sit the bench in Game Four?&ldquo;I guess you could call it that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just tried to talk through the whole thing. In a situation like that, you cannot afford to get upset because it doesn&rsquo;t help the team. If we lost, we were out. So I just tried to keep my spirits up and keep the other guys going. I was glad to win that game.&rdquo;After being eliminated, Coffey said most of the Oilers just wanted to get as far away from Edmonton as possible. By mid-June, when the wounds were starting to heal some, Coffey had some more food for thought.On the trade rumors: &ldquo;That stuff doesn&rsquo;t bother me too much. In fact, it&rsquo;s nice to know other teams are interested in you. Gus told me Buffalo was after me, but Glen had turned them down. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d ever want to leave the Oilers&mdash;they are a great bunch of guys&mdash;unless maybe they didn&rsquo;t want me anymore.Which brings us to the contract negotiations. Coffey is entering the third year of a four-year deal&mdash;three years plus an option. When Badali and Sather worked out the deal two years ago, they agreed to fill in figures for only the first two seasons. That way, Coffey either gets a big raise in the third and fourth years or he gets next to nothing, depending on whether he plays like a star or a flop. He is, of course, a lot closer to the star category, but negotiations haven&rsquo;t gone all that smoothly.On his contract: &ldquo;I try not to pay attention to that stuff. That&rsquo;s what I pay Gus for. I can&rsquo;t worry about it. And because it&rsquo;s going to be settled (in arbitration) one way or the other, I&rsquo;m not too worried. I&rsquo;ll be back in Edmonton.&rdquo;Badali says the contract situation would have been settled a long time ago if it wasn&rsquo;t for the dastardly federal budget in Canada, which has taken away numerous tax shelters for pro athletes.&ldquo;We (Glen and I) had some discussions before the budget,&rdquo; Badali said, &ldquo;and we were pretty close. But along comes the new tax laws and they substantially reduce the net value of the contract. Now it looks like arbitration is the only way.&rdquo;Sather, meanwhile, is adamant that the tax situation has nothing to do with the contract and, if it does, that&rsquo;s not his problem.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t deal with that stuff because I have to deal with 17,000 Canadians who can&rsquo;t relate to the tax problems of a guy who makes $100,000 a year. I refuse to talk in net dollars after taxes in the U.S. compared to Canada. If Gus Badali thinks he is going to change that, good luck to him.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to keep Paul from making money. I don&rsquo;t mind giving him a raise because that was the idea of the contract in the first place. But I am trying to keep everyone within the same range. Besides, I don&rsquo;t think a guy deserves a huge pay hike until he wins the Stanley Cup. We didn&rsquo;t even get by the first round so why does anybody deserve a raise? Because a guy does well individually? That does not make sense to me. Hockey is a team game. So if the team does well, everybody should do well, including management.&rdquo;Regardless of what happens with Coffey&rsquo;s contract, barring a trade, he&rsquo;ll be back with the Oilers this season and as it draws closer, the players&rsquo; thoughts of evening the score intensify.&ldquo;I played also pitch with some of the guys down at that tournament in Niagara Falls,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;We all figure we&rsquo;ve got more to prove this year than ever before. Personally, I guess I&rsquo;ve got a lot of incentive because of some of the things that were said about me last season when things weren&rsquo;t going well.&rdquo;And as for Sather, his pondering this summer resulted in this attitude: &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t let three games spoil our whole plan. We can&rsquo;t let three games ruin everything we worked so hard for. In this organization, we have a schedule, a plan that we have been following. And you know what? We&rsquo;re still ahead of schedule&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

Coffey And His Mates Looking For Rebound

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;You better believe losing breeds changes.Also, it goes without saying, problems.And, if anyone out there figured the playoffs were a problem for the Edmonton Oilers, well, have we got news for you.Shortly following the Oilers&rsquo; hasty preliminary-round playoff exit at the hands of the 17th-seeded Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton manager-coach Glen Sather opted for a lengthy vacation on the beaches of Hawaii. Undoubtedly, he had an inkling of what was in store and required the rest in order to face a tangled-web off-season that has stockpiled grief and woe on his doorstep ever since returning home.Perhaps we should deal with this categorically&hellip;<h2>Player Personnel</h2>On June 1, six members of the outfit Sather led to second place in the overall 1981-82 National Hockey League standings became free agents. Of the six, the futures of only two were determined at press time.Right winger Dave Lumley, who increased his goal production from seven to 32, was rewarded with a new three-year contract. The new lease on life marked quite a turnaround for the 27-year-old who cleared waivers back on Oct. 30.Such was hardly the case for Brett Callighen, Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s original left winger.Callighen, the oldest Oiler in terms of service, nixed a minimal raise offer from Sather, opting instead to sign a one-year deal with an outfit in Vienna. He didn&rsquo;t exit quietly.&ldquo;It became obvious after a few conflicts that I wouldn&rsquo;t be back,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old, who joined the Oilers back in 1976-77 during the World Hockey Association days. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d still love to play for the Oilers, but the situation wouldn&rsquo;t allow it. I never was given a fair opportunity (to make a comeback following a shoulder injury Jan. 10 in Calgary).&rdquo;The other four free agents&mdash;wingers Jari Kurri and Dave Semenko, plus rookies Charlie Huddy and Tom Roulston&mdash;were still at large at last report. Huddy, a defenseman summoned from Wichita just prior to Christmas, didn&rsquo;t anticipate any problems re-signing, although such was hardly the case among the others.The failing Canadian dollar has been the brunt of most of the problems where the Oilers are concerned.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re offered dollars by a Canadian club and offered dollars by a U.S. club,&rdquo; said Kurri&rsquo;s agent, Don Baizley. &ldquo;Jari wants to play in Edmonton&mdash;and we stress that first of all&mdash;but the way the dollar&rsquo;s stacked&hellip;Neither side can really blame the other side for the position they&rsquo;re in either.&rdquo;Semenko, Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s $85,000 a year bodyguard, has been entertaining a lucrative offer from Los Angeles where Kings&rsquo; free-spending owner Jerry Buss would like to see the big, two-fisted dude protecting his pintsized forwards. Semenko, who turned 25 on July 12, points out he wasn&rsquo;t overly impressed with the &ldquo;small raise&rdquo; offered in Sather&rsquo;s initial pitch.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t even consider staying for something like that,&rdquo; said the 215-pounder. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for something more substantial if I&rsquo;m going to stay in Canada. In fact, I won&rsquo;t even talk with other Canadian teams. If I move, it won&rsquo;t be in Canada. That would defeat my purpose.&rdquo;The Oilers&rsquo; trade on June 22 to acquire 6-4, 220-pound Paul Mulvey (in exchange for minor leaguer Blair Barnes) was hardly a coincidence as far as the Semenko situation was concerned. Mulvey gained notoriety&mdash;not to mention demotion to the minors&mdash;last January when he refused an order from Kings&rsquo; coach Don Perry to vacate the bench to participate in a fight. But with Semenko&rsquo;s situation in jeopardy, the Oilers need all the muscle they can find.Veteran Finnish center Matti Hagman also won&rsquo;t be back as Sather chose not to renew the contract of the 26-year-old who started quickly last season but tailed off badly. Hagman had 17 goals and 17 assists during his first 25 games, but only scored twice over the last 33 games. His spot figures to be assumed by Marc Hab-Scheid, a sixth-round 1981 draft who starred for Saskatoon juniors last season.In other player dealings, Sather flew to Czechoslovakia to sign fourth-round draft Jaroslav Pouzar, 30-year-old veteran of the Czech national team, while steady captain Lee Fogolin&rsquo;s contract was extended through the 1985-86 season. More woe, though, comes in the form of blueliner Paul Coffey&rsquo;s contract. (Story on page 5)<h2>Assistant Coach</h2>For the third year in succession, the Oilers have spent a good deal of the summer searching for an assistant coach. The annual want ad became a necessity again on June 1 when Sather chose not to renew the contract of popular Billy Harris. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see the team heading in the direction I wanted unless I made a change,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see it getting there with Billy.&rdquo;Sather&rsquo;s No. 1 choice to replace Harris, it has been whispered, was malcontent Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; associate coach Jimmy Roberts. But Roberts has a year to run on his Buffalo contract and will be remaining with the Sabres.The vacant job appears to be going to Johnny Muckier, who guided the Oilers&rsquo; Central League farm last season. The trouble is that Muckier, an off-season resident of Providence, R.I., isn&rsquo;t too enthused about living in Canada due to the economic situation. &#9632;

No Respite For Sather In The Oiler Off Season

<div class="byline">COMPILED BY STAN FISCHLER AND THN STAFF</div>Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s father Walter has taken a leave of absence from his job with Bell Canada in Brantford, Ont., and the betting is that he won&rsquo;t ever return to Ma Bell. The elder Gretzky has become much more involved with his son&rsquo;s off-ice affairs, a move that has prompted queries regarding the relationship between him and Gus Badali, Wayne&rsquo;s agent. One story says there is no rift between Walter and Gus and the only reason Mr. Gretzky has become involved is because he feels services for his son could be expanded. But he is apparently operating independently of Badali, which makes it difficult for the agent to be sure of where and what Wayne is up to on any given day. Rumbles out of Toronto indicate that Badali may find a spot in his office for Walter. There are, however, some whispers that say Walter and Gus are not exactly buddy, buddy. &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t as if Wayne Gretzky and Gus Badali will part ways over it,&rdquo; says one insider, &ldquo;but let&rsquo;s put it this way, if Wayne&rsquo;s younger brothers need an agent, I wouldn&rsquo;t bet on it being Badali.&rdquo;&hellip;Toronto Star hockey writer and HOCKEY NEWS columnist Frank Orr has a book slated for release this fall. It&rsquo;s entitled PUCK Is A Four-Letter Word and is fictional. Toronto Maple Leaf boss Harold Ballard has his name in the novel, though. Orr, who has had a running feud with Ballard for years, dedicated the book to Pal Hal. To paraphrase the dedication: To Harold Ballard; He&rsquo;s always wanted to have his name associated with a winner and this may be as close as he ever gets&hellip;These who purport to know the man, insist that Abe Pollin had two offers to unload his Washington Capitals, both of which were rejected. The deal, sources say, involved Pollin also wrapping up his NBA basketball team (the Bullets) and the Capital Centre in the package. If at all possible, Abe wanted to hold on to the building and the basketball team&hellip;A Washington Post story mentioning that New York agent Art Kaminsky was involved with a group seeking to buy the Caps raised a few eyebrows, especially the role he would have vis-a-vis the team if his investors took over the Caps. At least one heavyweight owner has frowned on the Kaminsky move&hellip;Red Berenson was slated for the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coaching job before Scotty Bowman decided to handle the bench again. Dollars were a dilemma in landing Berenson&hellip;Gerry McNamara no longer is &ldquo;acting&rdquo; Leafs GM. His boss, Harold Ballard, is pleased with McNamara&rsquo;s methodical, no-nonsense approach. &ldquo;Gerry won&rsquo;t make bad mistakes,&rdquo; says one NHL insider who knows the man&hellip;Ballard, more than most of his owner colleagues, was stung by Bruce Norris&rsquo; sale of the Red Wings and departure from NHL campus. There was a strong affection there&hellip;The talk in publishing circles is that Scott Young&rsquo;s book on Punch Imlach will be out soon and that Ballard, will not put it on his best-seller list.Jack Driscoll, who left the NHL&rsquo;s New York office last spring, is back in the hockey business on the marketing level. He&rsquo;s swung a deal with Mike Bossy&rsquo;s Montreal-based agent, Pierre Lacroix, to handle Bossy business on Madison Avenue. Driscoll has a few other NHLers in mind&hellip;The NHL may be losing another veteran exec. A publicist for an American club whispers that a very private meeting was called in Montreal for p.r. men wishing to voice their beefs over the main office. According to the tipster, three of the 21 publicists boycotted the secret session; one of them being Bob Casey, the league&rsquo;s former p.r. boss&hellip;A real shocker on press row was the Broadway rumor that two New York hockey writers&mdash;from the same paper&mdash;bid for the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; p.r. job&hellip;A Winnipeg journalist says the NHL tried to settle the suit Vince Abbey of Seattle has against the league by offering him the Colorado Rockies. Abbey had once hoped to place an NHL team in Seattle&hellip;A member of the Rangers training contingent believes Anders Hedberg will make a comeback with the Blueshirts but he&rsquo;s doubtful about Ulf Nilsson&hellip;An associate of John McMullen was asked why McMullen would sink so much money in buying the Devils. &ldquo;Knowing John,&rdquo; his pal confessed, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s not his money.&rdquo;&hellip;Despite their late start with promotions and season ticket sales, the Devils are expected to regularly sell out.Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s lady friend, Vicki Moss, recorded a demo tape for RCA records in New York. Vicki is regarded by the pros as a fair singer who is getting major attention because of her beau. The doorman at an Edmonton night club puts it this way: &ldquo;It costs $6,000 to get Wayne Gretzky for an ad. We&rsquo;ve got him for $750 a week because Vicki is singing here.&rdquo;&hellip;According to an Edmonton literary insider, Peter Gzowski had two, not one, versions of his best-seller, &ldquo;The Games of Our Lives,&rdquo; the chronology of a year with the Oilers. The manuscript the public didn&rsquo;t see, the man says, &ldquo;had all the dirt in it.&rdquo;&hellip;The Devils considered placing an American League farm club in Atlantic City, which would have infuriated the Flyers whose Philadelphia base is just a short bus ride from The Boardwalk&hellip;A neutral observer&rsquo;s view on why the Bruins unloaded Brad McCrimmon: &ldquo;He had an attitude problem.&rdquo;&hellip;At least six NHL clubs, including the St. Louis Blues, had rated Gord Kluzak ahead of Brian Bellows&hellip;Now that the Bruins have Pete Peeters, there is some skepticism in Beantown about Peeters ability to cut it in the Hub&hellip;The buzz in The Big Apple is that the Rangers have dangled Mike Allison before Emile Francis as the bait for Joe Mullen. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011265/4737365-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Finnish defenseman Pekka Rautakallio, who led Calgary rearguards with 68 points, will not be returning to the club for personal reasons. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;On the day he was chosen coach of the Flames, Bob Johnson was asked whether he, like other professional coaches, would stamp his personal imprint on the roster, whether he would make a lot of changes?&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t answer that now,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;That was on June 1. By June 10, the Flames had rid themselves of five players that finished the season in Calgary and lost another one through a series of circumstances. Moving and shaking up a club that finished 12th in last year&rsquo;s overall standings, the Flames traded away Willi Plett, Ken Houston and Pat Riggin, dropped Gary McAdam and Dan Labraaten and also learned that Finn Pekka Rautakallio would not return for the 1982-83 season.As replacements, the Flames secured the services of Don Edwards, Richie Dunn, Steve Christoff and Bill Nyrop. The latter three, all Americans, played for Johnson on Team USA in last September&rsquo;s Canada Cup.&ldquo;I know what we&rsquo;re getting with them,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what we&rsquo;ve given up.&rdquo;&ldquo;I consider the four world-class players. I saw Edwards beat the Soviets right in Montreal. I said if he were available, I&rsquo;d certainly be ready to take him.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to start on Sept. 12 to create a new identity, a new Flames&rsquo; hockey team. It&rsquo;s a good time for me to come in. The players will have to show me what they can do. The ones who had a bad year are in a good position: they get to start over. The ones who had good years will have to do it again.&rdquo;The 51-year-old Johnson said he did not accept the Flames offer over one to coach the 1984 Olympic Hockey Team without giving it a lot of thought.&ldquo;I considered coaching in the pros more and more as time went on,&rdquo; said Johnson. It wasn&rsquo;t just a snap decision I woke up with one day.&rdquo;In the Flames, Johnson inherited a club that did not get a single all-star vote last year, an indifferent team that also ran into some bad luck, losing key players, Kent Nilsson, Guy Chouinard and Paul Reinhart, for long stretches at a time.The Flames did a lot of grumbling last year, grumbling about the coaches, the fans, the city. Johnson said he hoped to change the team&rsquo;s attitude, inject a little fun back into the game for the players.&ldquo;If a player&rsquo;s not enjoying it, he&rsquo;s not going to play as well as he could if he was,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t do the same things in practice every day. You&rsquo;ve got to do different things. We have what we call work days, fun days, skill days, offensive days, defensive days and some days, we take the day off. The key is timing. A lot of times, when things are going bad, the worst thing you can do is go to the rink. Maybe the best thing to do is see a western, a movie, anything, just stay away from the rink.&rdquo;With all of the wheeling and dealing the Flames did at the National Hockey League&rsquo;s entry draft, the loss of Rautakallio was almost overlooked.Rautakallio informed the Flames that for &ldquo;personal reasons,&rdquo; he would not be returning next year. The 29-year-old from Pori set a club record for defensemen last year with 68 scoring points and was the only Flame selected for the mid-season all-star game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the toughest decision I&rsquo;ve ever had to make because we really love the city and the people,&rdquo; said Rautakallio. &ldquo;My decision has nothing to do with hockey. It&rsquo;s a family thing. I want to be a good husband, a good father and that&rsquo;s No. 1 with me right now.&rdquo;Rautakallio had an escape clause in his contract, which had two years remaining, that will let him play in Finland next year. He will also pursue one of a number of business opportunities in his native country.Rautakallio thought the changes the Flames made would help them next year.&ldquo;The biggest problem I&rsquo;ve seen in my three years has been attitude. We neally got pumped up at home, but we had no winning attitude, especially on the road. The problem was not with the coaches, it was the players. I believe they&rsquo;ll have an honest team now, one that can build a winning attitude.&rdquo;IN BRIEF&mdash;The Flames&rsquo; first-round draft choice, Dave Reier-son of the Prince Albert Raiders, will attend Michigan Tech next year on a scholarship. The Flames would then like to place him on Canada&rsquo;s 1984 Olympic Team, which would allow them to monitor his progress closely. The Canadian Olympic team&rsquo;s permanent headquarters are in Calgary&hellip;Forward Jim Peplinski reached agreement with the Flames on a multi-year contract. &#9632;

f0006-01

Flames Look For New Image From Training Camp’s Start

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011130/4737396-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="302" height="366"></div><h2>Treadmill To Oblivion</h2>FOR MONTHS BEFORE the June draft, while the Boston Bruins debated whether to select Brian Bellows, Gord Kluzak or the secret Serbian sensation Inevuh Passdipuck, my thoughts kept drifting back to Wayne Dillon.Then, I would say a silent prayer, fervently hoping that neither Bellows nor Kluzak will follow Dillon&rsquo;s treadmill to oblivion.According to the prophets of 1972, Wayne Dillon should have been the Wayne Gretzky of today. Long and lithe&mdash;reminiscent in many ways of Gretzky&mdash;Dillon emerged from the lush Ontario hockey breeding ground, well-embossed with the label of greatness.He turned pro with the WHA&rsquo;s Toronto Toros. His sidekick, Pat Hickey, a kid from Gretzky&rsquo;s home town, Brantford, Ont., was also supposed to be a star. Hickey and Dillon were to be the Gretzky and Mark Messier of their day. At least the New York Rangers thought so, giving them everything but the Statue of Liberty. The Rangers, as usual, were hoping for a Stanley Cup in return.Only the New York City subway system has been a bigger disaster than Dillon; not that Hickey has been the bargain of the century. Wayne speedily moved from mediocrity to obscurity. Now, at a time when he was expected to be a record-breaker, Dillon is not even listed in the NHL Guide, having played last season with Fredericton Express of the American League.Will such be the fate of the Bellows brigade? One never knows, but before putting any bucks on Brian, turn your calendar back two years for one of the drafting blunders of the half-century. Montreal Canadiens, who once owned a finely-tuned radar machine for French-speaking aces, took a good look at Denis Savard, who had merely been skating under their noses with the Junior Canadiens, and with the first choice overall, drafted Regina Pat Doug Wickenheiser instead.(Mind you, those same Forum geniuses once had Mike Bossy in their backyard and passed on him as well.)At the moment, Wickenheiser is a serious contender in Fischler&rsquo;s pursuit of &ldquo;The Ten Worst NHL Draft Picks of the Decade.&rdquo; (To be published here next month.)Not that Wick&mdash;like Bellows today&mdash;didn&rsquo;t have good credentials. The following was a Wickenheiser analysis made before the 1980 draft:Western junior league scoring champ with 170 points and Canadian junior Player of the Year, he&rsquo;s got it all&mdash;size, strength and skill in all areas. An easy mover, his style reminds scouts of Jean Beliveau, the former great of the Montreal Canadiens.Last season, Wick finished 12th in scoring on the Canadiens with a paltry 35 points in 56 games. What went wrong? Perhaps he couldn&rsquo;t handle the build-up. Perhaps the Canadiens mishandled him. Perhaps he&rsquo;ll be a late bloomer. Look at Barry Beck.Before the 1977 draft, the Colorado Rockies knew they wanted Beck. They did everything but give the huge defenseman a brain scan before signing him. (Beck was the second pick behind Dale McCourt) &ldquo;Barry was the most intensively scouted player in history,&rdquo; says a former Rockies&rsquo; official.While Beck doesn&rsquo;t qualify for the &ldquo;Ten Worst&rdquo; list, he has been far from the commanding figure the Rockies, or even the Rangers, anticipated. Nor have many of the other top picks. Consider the 1976 selections as an example.The top six 1976 choices, starting with the first, were: Rick Green, Blair Chapman, Glen Sharpley, Fred Williams, Bjorn Johansson and Don Murdoch. Not a big winner in the lot.The temptation is to blame the big bucks; to figure that these kids get spoiled before they ever lace on a bigleague skate. Then, you think of what Gretzky is accomplishing in spite of his millions and realize that the problem transcends wealth.My feeling is that Bellows and Kluzak will ripen in the manner of Beck and Bobby Smith; not the greatest but not bad at all. My hope is that they don&rsquo;t fall into the Dillon-Hickey mold.<h2>Take Lowe Over Coffey</h2>NOTES: Paul Coffey finished the season third-highest scorer on Edmonton but if you ask Oiler people, they&rsquo;ll tell you, privately, that Kevin Lowe (63 points to Coffey&rsquo;s 89) is their preference as a defenseman&hellip;The Rangers have established a farm team in Tulsa (CHL), which is great for Oklahoma and airline companies.,What they should have done was place a team in Providence, a hockey town that rates an AHL club&hellip;The Sabres&rsquo; move to keep the Maple Leafs&rsquo; AHL farm team out of St. Catharines is a public relations blunder at a time when Buffalo can least afford one. The Sabres&rsquo; high command should have encouraged Harold Ballard&rsquo;s move to St. Kitts&hellip;Famous Last Words Department: Scotty Bowman saying on April 13 that he wouldn&rsquo;t coach the Sabres n 1982-83. &ldquo;I just came in to finish the (1981-82) season,&rdquo; blurted Bowman&hellip;Edmonton Sun&rsquo;s Dick Chubey got huffy-miffy over the fact that Bryan Trottier received five first-place votes in the all-star voting at center. He calls it an &ldquo;injustice,&rdquo; suggesting that Wayne Gretzky rated every single first-place vote. Chubey blames &ldquo;the narrow-mindedness of New York City writers.&rdquo; Give the man a mirror, please!&hellip;There&rsquo;s no way the Devils will send their top draft pick, Rocky Trottier, back to junior hockey although he&rsquo;s still eligible for the amateurs&hellip;The Jersey sleeper who figures to make the NHL club is 18th overall pick Ken Daneyko, a defenseman&hellip;Most sensible line of the summer comes from Marshall Johnston, who explained why he didn&rsquo;t turn down a chance to be assistant coach of the Devils: &ldquo;There are,&rdquo; said Johnston, &ldquo;enough unemployed people in this country!&rdquo;STRIKE TALK: Before the NHL Players&rsquo; Association takes its next strike vote, it would be a good idea if the stickhandlers cracked open their hockey history books and looked up the heading &ldquo;Walkout.&rdquo; A quick reading might persuade the lads to change their minds.The one and only NHL walkout took place 57 years ago, during the 1925 Stanley Cup playoffs, of all times. Ultimately, the winner was the NHL and the loser was Canadian hockey. The catalyst for the entire upheaval was the Hamilton Tigers, then an NHL franchise, and the best in the league.Having finished first, the Tigers obtained a bye in the opening playoff round and awaited the winner of the series between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto St. Pats.Although they had finished on top the Tigers were not tickled with their lot. Redvers (Red) Green, a Hamilton star, claimed the players were underpaid. When Green had originally signed his two-year contract the schedule called for 24 games. But now the league had extended it to 30 games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing more games for the same money,&rdquo; beefed Green. Tiger owner Percy Thompson was not inclined to renegotiate any contracts so Green, speaking for the Tigers, came up with a counter-offer. If management could cough up $200 per player for the playoff finals, the Tigers would be delighted to play; otherwise they were going on strike.Thompson was not interested in the proposal, nor was NHL President Frank Calder, who suspended the entire Hamilton team. After mulling over several possibilities, Calder announced that the winner of the Canadiens-St. Pats series would be the NHL champs and meet the Western League winner for the Stanley Cup.While the striking Hamilton skaters followed the Stanley Cup finals via the daily papers, Victoria defeated the Canadiens 3-1 for the Cup. If that wasn&rsquo;t bad enough, the Tigers opened their mail one day to discover that Calder had fined each of them $200.The strike had all the impact of a mosquito bite on the league but then, during the summer of 1925, the players got lucky. Thompson decided to get out of the hockey business and sold the Hamilton franchise to New York bootlegger William V. (Big Bill) Dwyer for $80,000.Suddenly Red Green, his brother, Shorty and the rest of the tempestuous Tigers had found a nifty lair on Broadway. Rechristened the New York Americans, the star-spangled skaters discovered that their suspensions were mysteriously lifted and the fines forgotten.The Amerks became overnight hits, spending as much time on the town as they did on the ice. New York was so enthralled with hockey that Madison Square Garden felt obliged to leap on the gravy train. A year later the Rangers were born, fathered by the Garden.Now, the postscript: Hamilton has never had another major league hockey team. The New York area has three and each of them figures to be rousing money-makers.Moral for the Players&rsquo; Association: Don&rsquo;t strike!<h2>Some Delicious Irony</h2>JIMMYING THE RED WINGS: The appointment of Jimmy Devellano as general manager of the Detroit Red Wings is a delicious bit of irony in view of an episode which occurred in The Motor City not long ago.Devellano, then chief intelligence officer of the New York Islanders, had been visitong Detroit on a scouting mission when his car was jimmied and rifled by thieves. Among the missing items were Devellano&rsquo;s confidential player evaluation papers.When Wayne Maxner, then Red Wings&rsquo; coach, learned about Devellano&rsquo;s predicament, he said: &ldquo;I only hope one of our scouts did it!&rdquo;Now the Wings no longer have to wish they could get their paws on Jimmy&rsquo;s papers. They&rsquo;ve got his brains and that&rsquo;s plenty. But it won&rsquo;t be enough to resurrect the Red Wings in one season, let alone two.The destruction perpetrated by former Detroit GM Ted Lindsay during his unrealistic regime is evident in the rubble that is the Red Wing club today. Detroit-Windsor fans have been unreasonably patient with the pollution that has been passed off as a hockey team. They will have to exercise that patience at least a while longer while Devellano attempts to prove that he is more than a super deputy. Is he top GM calibre? We&rsquo;ll have the answer to that in 1985. In the meantime, Jimmy, check your car locks, please! &#9632;

f0007-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The transition of power from Jake Milford to Harry Neale in the Canucks&rsquo; organization has been smooth. In fact, the team hardly missed a beat as Milford carried through with a couple of the projects he had been working on and Neale quickly got to his business as the new general manager.Milford&rsquo;s biggest contribution, of course, was the scouting, drafting and, most recently, signing of 20-year-old Patrick Sundstrom, one of the most promising young players in Sweden. A member of the Swedish national team at the recent world championships, Sundstrom has impressed just about every National Hockey League scout and general manager that has seen him play. At 6-0 and 185 pounds, he&rsquo;s big enough to take the heavy going and is expected to quickly adapt to playing in North America, with its smaller rinks and all the other inconveniences the Europeans find.Sundstrom was scouted as a junior two years ago by Milford and then drafted in the ninth round.In the two subsequent years, Sundstrom has improved greatly. His team, Bjorkloven made every effort to re-sign him and prevent him from joining the Canucks. Further, the Rangers, who drafted Patrick&rsquo;s brother Peter in the 1981 draft, have been trying to acquire his rights from Vancouver.&ldquo;They made a couple of offers and they weren&rsquo;t the only team,&rdquo; said Milford, who arranged the signing through agent Bjorn Wagnsson and his North American partner Norm Caplan. &ldquo;Everyone I&rsquo;ve talked to says he&rsquo;s going to be a good one and we&rsquo;re delighted to have him.&rdquo;With Sundstrom coming in and expected to see considerable action at right wing, the Canucks&rsquo; traditional trouble spot, they have gone a long way to making sure there is both quality and depth at the position. Accompanying Stan Smyl, Blair MacDonald, Jim Nill and Tony Currie is big Ron Delorme, the Saskatchewan native who was so important in the Canucks&rsquo; run to the Stanley Cup final.Delorme had been playing out his option or more accurately, had not been offered a contract when he was taken by the Canucks in the reverse draft last October.So, he went through the entire season and playoff not knowing what type of contract would be offered him. When the season finally ended, he was presented with a two-way contract, which didn&rsquo;t exactly thrill him. However, he finally decided to take it, feeling that, while other clubs were interested in his services, they didn&rsquo;t seem to want to offer a much better deal.With Delorme signed for another year, the Canucks have no one else to land. Defenseman Colin Campbell, a free agent without compensation, signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings, turning down an offer from the Canucks.Tony Gallagher is a hockey writer for the Vancouver Province. &#9632;

Sundstorm To Strengthen Canucks’ Right Flank

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.214 King St. West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>Don&rsquo;t Rattle Sabres</h2>AS THIS ISSUE went to press, the threat of a strike by the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association, although still a possibility, had subsided considerably. That was primarily because NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson, at a press conference in Toronto in mid-July, announced that the union would prefer several middle-of-the-road options to avert a player walkout or owner lockout on Sept. 15.Those alternatives included extending the terms of the current agreement through this season or coming up with a new, albeit short-term, patchwork contract that doesn&rsquo;t deal with the most contentious issue&mdash;free-agent compensation. These options, Eagleson said, would be favored over a strike, which the Eagle said was only a 10 to 20 per cent possibility.The union, not to mention Eagleson, whose eyes have been known to light up at the hint of a confrontation, should be commended for assuming what has to be considered a moderate stance. The last thing the NHL needs this fall is a strike. In fact, it may be suicidal, if not to the league as a whole, then to a number of individual clubs.In Canada, where hockey is part of the culture, fans would eventually recover from a strike, the same way baseball fans have returned to the parks after last summer&rsquo;s major-league walkout. But the timing is terrible. The economy has never been worse since the Great Depression. The dollar is threatening to drop out of sight and interest rates are going through the roof. It almost goes without saying that the average fans, many of whom already cannot afford to buy a ticket, aren&rsquo;t going to have any compassion at all for either the players or the owners.In the United States, the situation is even worse. The economy isn&rsquo;t quite so bad south of the border, but the finances of numerous U.S.-based NHL teams are, at best, shaky. And in the U.S., there isn&rsquo;t that broad base of fan support that will return after being turned off by another sports labor dispute. And how can the American sports fan help but be turned off? First, it was the baseball strike. Now, there is a militant air as owners and players battle for a collective agreement in the National Football League.If there is a walkout or lockout in hockey, it could end with a smaller NHL. It&rsquo;s possible a strike could either kill or substantially set back a handful of franchises including the Washington Capitals, who may be doomed anyway, the New Jersey Devils, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Hartford Whalers.As well, teams such as the Boston Bruins and Chicago Black Hawks, two clubs that had been experiencing attendance problems for a few seasons, bounced back quite well last season and their outlook for this campaign is promising. And what about Detroit, where Red Wing fans can at least get excited about a newly-arrived and competent management. A walkout or lockout would either kill or set back all these positive moves. As far as the issue of free-agent compensation is concerned, the union has come up with a relatively moderate formula, which is still light years away from the owners&rsquo; idea of how it should be administered. The owners have designed a system of compensation involving draft picks&mdash;higher and more than the union suggested&mdash;and players.As NHL president John Ziegler said, hockey players cannot compare their situation to that of baseball (free agency without compensation) because the financial composition of the two sports is worlds apart. But, by the same token, the players&rsquo; proposal is by no means outlandish.So when the two sides next meet, in Toronto on Aug. 4 and 5, the owners should realize a couple of things. First, the union has taken every step to show the public that they don&rsquo;t want a strike. Second, the ball is in the owners&rsquo; court so they had better be careful not to rattle any sabres and alienate the union with only a month or so until training camps open. And last, but certainly by no means least, something for both sides to keep in mind&mdash;this game cannot afford a walkout or lockout next month. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY SHERWOOD BASSIN</div>When one thinks of major upsets in hockey this past season, the first to come mind is likely the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; startling victory over the Edmonton Oilers in the preliminary round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. To be sure, it was a major upset. But in may respects, it does not compare to the other upset of the 1981-82 season&mdash;Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal winning performance at the world championships, which were held in Minnesota and Manitoba. It was Canada&rsquo;s first world championship since 1961, when the Trail Smoke Eaters struck gold, and it managed to restore some of Canada&rsquo;s pride in the tough forum of international hockey. This season, Canada will be out to defend its title. So THE HOCKEY NEWS asked Team Canada general manager Sherwood Bassin, who holds the same position with Oshawa Generals of the OHL, to give us an overview of the preparations. Here&rsquo;s his report.Our initial training and selection camp will be held at the University of Manitoba campus in Winnipeg from August 8 to 15. A press conference will be held on Aug. 6 to get things rolling.Basically, the camp is the same format as last year&rsquo;s. There will be 40 players&mdash;eight units of five players each&mdash;and four goalies attending the camp. Dave King, who led us to the gold medal last year, will be returning as head coach. His assistants will be Calgary Wrangler coach Doug Sauter and Sherbrooke Beaver coach Andre Boisvert.The players will participate in drills and workouts during the day. Each night, they&rsquo;ll divide into two-teams and have a full scrimmage. That gives us an excellent opportunity to evaluate the talent.When discussing the evaluation process, it should be noted that the final roster will not necessarily be picked solely from this group of players. For example, the day after our camp ends, there is a national 18-and-under camp starting and there could very well be some players in that group that merit consideration.Also, there is a possibility that some players were overlooked and not invited to the camp. Some of them could be chosen to play. The selection process is under the guidance of Jim Gregory (the head of the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau) and his staff, who I can&rsquo;t thank enough for their time and effort, and ourselves. An enormous part of our success last year is owed to Jim and his staff. They have seen all the Team Canada candidates play and that helped us enormously to evaluate players for invitations to this camp. And, the scouts can give us up-to-date reports on players in all three junior leagues as well as the colleges and universities. That way, we are kept abreast of what&rsquo;s going on. The selection process is difficult. For example, I can only really discuss Ontaro players and the other coaches are in the same boat. That&rsquo;s why Jim Gregory&rsquo;s help is so important.At any rate, once the team has been selected, we are scheduled to leave for Finland on Dec. 18. We will play a few exhibition games there to get over the jet lag and get accustomed to a new setting. Then the world championship tournament starts on Dec. 26 in Leningrad in the Soviet Union. The fact that it is in the Soviet Union can&rsquo;t be ignored in our preparations.For one thing, there&rsquo;s bound to be a culture shock. For another, it&rsquo;s right in the Soviet&rsquo;s backyard and you know what that means. Officiating is another concern and another factor is that we&rsquo;re going in as defending champions. When you win something the way we did last year, it&rsquo;s often hard to duplicate it.But I&rsquo;m optimistic we can. I think the big thing is that, besides having to have great talent, which is certainly the ingredient of any world championship team, we have to do an excellent job of melding character and personality on this team. We have to be sure to come up with the right blend of players, players who complement each other and have character, drive, dedication and a willingness to sacrifice personal glory for a team victory. There is no substitute for ability but, because we are defending champions and it&rsquo;s in their own backyard, we have to have that much more character and discipline. This is what we are striving for.That sums up just about everything except for maybe one thing. I think it is important that everyone realizes how hard so many people work to make this national team possible. The players and management all give their time willingly and they are all prepared to set aside their egos to accomplish the goal. And a lot of credit has to go to the men who own junior hockey teams in Canada. They allow some of their top players to miss more than five or six games in a crucial part of their season. It&rsquo;s like the Edmonton Oilers giving up Wayne Gretzky and Grant Fuhr for a half-dozen games in the middle of the season. It isn&rsquo;t an easy thing to do and it&rsquo;s appreciated very much.A list of the players invited to the August training camp can be found on Page 35. &#9632;

World Champ Juniors Gear Up For Title Defense

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SNOWDEN</div>Much has been written and said lately about the inequities of the tax system between Canada and the United States, particularly where professional athletes are involved. Some top-name players on Canadian based NHL teams have asked to be traded south of the border and the entire situation has caused numerous headaches for the clubs, the players and their agents. They had all hoped there would be some relief in the June (1982) federal budget, which was really an updated version or overhaul of the November (1981). But it has been proclaimed as no help at all. In this article, Dave Snowden, an accountant with Branada Sports Management of Toronto, takes a look at the current tax laws in Canada as they pertain to professional hockey players, which gives some detailed insight to why the players are unhappy and looking to move south.One of the proposals in the budgets was to repeal the general averaging provision of the tax act and eliminate the use of Income Averaging Annuity Contracts (IAAC). In their place, the Government introduced a new system called forward averaging, effective for 1982 and subsequent years.The new forward averaging provision will allow an athlete, if he so desires, to forward average any portion of his income. But, in order to do so, he must prepay the taxes on this income at the top marginal rates and then add the income to a forward averaging pool.The player can then, at his discretion, add portions of the pool to the income earned in some future year and calculate the taxes payable on this combined income. He will then receive a tax credit equal to this added income from the pool multiplied by the top marginal rate of tax at the time he draws from the pool.The only way that a player can benefit from this forward averaging is if his income drops drastically to well below the top marginal bracket.The major problem with this system is that the player is forced to prepay his taxes with the hope of eventually recovering some of them should his income drop. The Government, of course, has the use of these funds in the meantime.What about the loss of general averaging?The loss of general averaging has been overshadowed by the elimination of lAAC&rsquo;s, but I feel that this is a significant loss to the young Canadian players, whether they be signed by U.S. or Canadian teams.General averaging was a provision that allowed an individual to average his income back should it rise by more than a specified amount in one year. With this system, the tax department recognized that, with our graduated tax scale (the higher the income, the higher the percentage of tax you pay), an individual earning $100,000 in one year and zero in the previous four years would pay substantially more tax than an individual earning $20,000 a year for five years, even though they earned the same total income.The previous governments recognized the inequality of this situation and general averaging gave the individual some relief should the increase occur. This relief has been removed by our current government and replaced by forward averaging, which may never be of benefit to the player, at leasfnot in the near future.This latter situation, of course, occurs with the young players who sign their first NHL contracts. Even if the player does not make the NHL in his first year, the signing bonus he receives will increase his income substantially above the income he earned as a junior. As many of our clients say, &ldquo;it wouldn&rsquo;t take a very large signing bonus to substantially increase our income above that earned in junior.&rdquo;The players must now pay tax on this income at full rates with no relief from general averaging.Forward averaging will apply if they choose to pay tax at the top marginal rates and hope they can benefit some time in the future.And, there are very few players signing their first contracts who will have the cash available to prepay their taxes at the top rates. As a result, forward averaging will be of little benefit or no use at all to them.IAAC&rsquo;s have been sent as the great equalizer for athletes playing in Canada. The United States had the numerous tax write-offs, but we had the lAAC&rsquo;s.Before the November 12th budget, athletes could reduce their taxable income to certain prescribed levels by purchasing IAAC&rsquo;s from life insurance and trust companies. Taxes would then be paid when the payments were received from the IAAC&rsquo;s.The previous governments recognized that most athletes earn their high income over a very short period of time and then their income will drop once their playing days are over. Again, it is not fair to tax the players at the top rates when another in-dividual who earns the same amount over a longer period of time will pay at lower rates. Hence, the players were allowed to purchase IAAC&rsquo;s to spread out their income.The current government has replaced the IAAC&rsquo;s with the new forward averaging provision, which it feels accomplishes the same thing.There are however, some fundamental differences that greatly affect the players.First, the IAAC is a tax deferral scheme. Purchase the annuity and defer paying taxes on your income until the future. The forward averaging scheme forces the players to pay tax now and maybe recover the tax at some time in the futureIn effect, the government receives and uses the money rather than providing the funds to the insurance and trust companies who would, in turn, provide loans to individuals and corporations that may help to stimulate growth in our economy. Of course, the government must do womething to try to reduce its $19.6 billion deficit it has created.Second, with IAAC&rsquo;s, the players not only deferred taxes, but also earned substantial interest on the IAAC&rsquo;s. The government will partially offset this loss of interest by indexing the income pool, but based on recent IAAC interest rates, the players will loose four to five per-cent per year&mdash;assuming they eventually recover their prepaid taxes from forward averaging.Third, some players used the IAAC&rsquo;s to protect their families should they become disabled or die. Some IAAC&rsquo;s were guaranteed for certain periods of time even if the players were to die. In other cases, a life insurance policy was added to the annuity so that upon death, the annuity would continue to be paid to the wife for the remainder of her life.This cannot be done with forward averaging, although there may be some minor benefits received when filing the individuals last tax return in the year of his death.Finally, the use of IAAC&rsquo;s was a tremendous tax advantage to the player performing for a Canadian team who was traded to the United States later in his career. During his years in Canada, he would purchase IAAC&rsquo;s to defer tac, then become a U.S. resident and receive the IAAC payments in the U.S Under the current Canada-U.S. tax convention, annuity payments flowing out of Canada to residents of the United States are not subject to any Canadian tax. When the payments ae received in the U.S., only the interest portion of the annuity payment is subject to tax by the U.S. government. This means that the player would receive a deduction in Canada when the IAAC was purchased and never have to pay tax on this purchase price when the payments are received in the U.S., as a United States resident. The tax deferral on the IAAC becomes a tax savings.Under the new forward averaging rules, if the player becomes a nonresident of Canada, he cannot use forward averaging as it is only available to Canadian residents. Presumably, he can carry his income poll forward and use it if he ever returns to Canada.In conclusion, the latest federal budgets have widened the tax gap between athletes playing in Canada and those in the States. It is unfortunate, but the old adage, &ldquo;Go West Young Man&rdquo; could now be better said &ldquo;Go South Young Man.&rdquo; &#9632;

No News Is Bad News For Canadian Players

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011201/4737523-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Smith, who signed a seven-year, multi-million dollar contract to remain in Minnesota, says the team is committed to being a contender. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;For some National Hockey League teams, the summer of &lsquo;82 has been a tranquil one, with the players dispersed for some leisurely trips to hometowns or tours of local golf courses.Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; general manager Lou Nanne wishes his summer had been that uneventful.The pursuit and signing of Bobby Smith, the pursuit and pending-signing of Brian Bellows, worked in and around a vacation trip to Europe would be more than enough to keep even someone of Nanne&rsquo;s intensity busy.But it was all interrupted and tempered by a family tragedy in which his son Michael, 18, was critically injured and eventually lost a leg.While Nanne and his wife, Francine, were in Europe on holiday, the rest of the Nanne family had gathered at a summer cottage near Nanne&rsquo;s hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. While riding a motorcycle on a gravel road, Michael Nanne was struck head-on by a youth on another motorcycle.The other youth, who was killed instantly in the crash, was apparently passing another vehicle in the fading daylight near dusk. Michael Nanne, one of twin boys, suffered numerous injuries and was unconscious and in critical condition for several days after the accident. Because of an infection in his badly broken leg, doctors had to amputate it above the knee.The Nannes returned immediately from their trip and kept a close watch on their son, who was moved to a hospital in London, Ont. He was diagnosed as recovering as well as can be expected, and plans were being made in late July to transfer him to a hospital in Minnesota. That whole incident cast a pall on the rest of the summer activities for Nanne.The signing of Smith to a long-term contract produced considerable relief for the North Stars. It had been a summer of speculation, well into July, with Smith, a free agent, examining possiblities in Europe as well as with other NHL teams.&ldquo;I wanted to stay here all the time,&rdquo; Smith said, &ldquo;but I wasn&rsquo;t sure. For a while, nothing changed in the negotiations. So I had to condition myself to maybe going elsewhere.&rdquo;But the battle ended when Smith&rsquo;s agent, Norm Caplan, worked out all the angles of a seven-year contract that will escalate Smith&rsquo;s salary up from about $300,000 toward a total package worth about $2.6 million.When Nanne departed for Europe, Smith denied reports that he had settled for contract terms that would be announced later. He said, in fact, that he was investigating the possibility of playing in Switzerland.Smith&rsquo;s signing was announced with Nanne in Ontario, but before he came back to the Twin Cities. A subsequent report said that Smith admitted he had worked out the contract before Nanne left.Whether it was all a public relations smokescreen by Smith, or some final details were actually not worked out until the signing, mattered less than the fact the Stars retained Smith, who seems inspired for the coming season.&ldquo;I think our chances look great,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With the addition of Willi Plett and Brian Bellows, plus the guys we already have, I think we can be a contender for the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;We had some setbacks this year, and a major setback in the playoffs. The important thing now is what we learn from it. Last season, I don&rsquo;t think we were good enough to go all the way. I think we are now.&ldquo;Along with the new guys, you&rsquo;ve got to look at some of the top players we have: Craig Hartsburg isn&rsquo;t finished improving, Steve Payne has made a real commitment to having a good season, Neal Broten is going to get much better than he already is, Curt Giles just keeps getting better, and our goaltending is solid.&ldquo;The important thing is that so many of our key players are very young and will improve. A number of us from the team had a little party a while ago, and the feeling seemed to be that with so much time off, because we got eliminated so early, everybody is prepared to have a good season.&rdquo;Bellows remained unsigned, but Nanne and Alan Eagleson, the agent for the promising draftee, are good friends from their association with international hockey as well as their history together in the Players&rsquo; Association. Contract talks continued on an amiable basis and no roadblocks to the inevitable signing were evident. &#9632;

f0009-01

Summer Season Hectic For North Stars’ Nanne

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Upon his introduction as general manager of the Red Wings, Jimmy Devellano made but one promise.&ldquo;As long as I&rsquo;m general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, I will not trade a draft choice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Not a first-round, not a third-round, not a fifth-round, not a 10th round. You can write it down. That&rsquo;s a commitment.&rdquo;Mike Hitch, new owner of the Red Wings, chose Devellano to restructure the National Hockey League franchise and, just as Hitch&rsquo;s purchase was widely heralded as a positive step, so too was the hiring of Devellano, 39, formerly assistant general manager of the New York Islanders.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the one I wanted from the start,&rdquo; Hitch said. &ldquo;I felt comfortable with him. He had a plan and knew what he wanted to do. He has an idea of how a NHL franchise should be built. That impressed me.&ldquo;Jimmy&rsquo;s strength is that he&rsquo;s met a lot of people, has a lot of associations. He knows the players who have been around and might deserve a second chance because they&rsquo;ve matured.&rdquo;Devellano, who was given &ldquo;full authority&rdquo; over club operations, has other things going for him, too. He&rsquo;s astute and diligent.Devellano enjoyed enormous success at every level with the Islanders, from scout to head scout to minor league general manager and, finally, as Billy Torrey&rsquo;s assistant. He&rsquo;s credited with a good deal of the Islanders&rsquo; success in drafting and developing young players.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a worker,&rdquo; said Sid Abel. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll do a helluva job here.&rdquo;Devellano&rsquo;s priorities are simple and straightforward: Build through the draft.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t build a Stanley Cup team through trades. You do it through the draft,&rdquo; Devellano said.&ldquo;It would have been a heckuva lot nicer if we had had the first pick this year. I&rsquo;d love to be standing here with Brian Bellows.&rdquo;The fact that Bellows wasn&rsquo;t standing next to Devellano further illustrated the Wings&rsquo; woeful shortcomings in the area of the draft in the last decade, something Jimmy D. is determined to correct.Devellano&rsquo;s first task is to hire a head coach.&ldquo;The people I&rsquo;m interested in are with other teams now so I can&rsquo;t say anything,&rdquo; Devellano said.&ldquo;I believe in departmentalization. My job is to get players for the coach. I&rsquo;ll have some input, naturally, but basically the coach will run the hockey club. There will be no puppets. It will be someone who is strong and will word hard and know how to get the job done.&rdquo;Devellano&rsquo;s assessment of the Wings is that &ldquo;five or six solid hockey players&rdquo; are on a roster that needs tc be bolstered from the bottom. Still, the goal of making the playoffs next season is not unrealistic. He&rsquo;ll seek trades for immediate help but that won&rsquo;t be easy.&ldquo;Because everyone will want to trade for our draft choices,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s conceivable for us to make the playoffs next year. We&rsquo;ll play better hockey.&rdquo;Devellano already turned down one trade offer.&ldquo;When I told Bill Torrey I was taking this job, he immediately offered me four players for our first-round draft choice next year,&rdquo; Devellano said.The answer was no.WING WIRE&mdash;More from the new boss, Jimmy Devellano: &ldquo;The only untouchables are Mr. Hitch and myself. He&rsquo;s given me total authority but I don&rsquo;t want to abuse that privilege. I respect people as human beings&rdquo;&hellip;Jimmy D. already has a couple of slogans&mdash;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not easy anymore&rdquo; and &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll earn our Wings&rdquo;&hellip;Sources placed Devella-no&rsquo;s salary at between $75,000 and $100,000. &ldquo;I asked him what he wanted,&rdquo; said Hitch. &ldquo;He named a figure and I said okay. I want him to be happy. It (the contract) is less than five years and more than two but enough time to do the job.&rdquo; &#9632;

Devellano Vows To Build Wings Via The Draft

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02977/4737609-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="316" height="363"></div><h2>Commissioner Hammer</h2>&ldquo;WILL THE NEW commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League please come in and sit down?&rdquo;A tall gentleman, in his early 30s, enters cautiously, walks to the witness table and is seated.Talking over a tapping sound, the chairman says, &ldquo;Uh, sir, I&rsquo;m the only one in the room who is permitted to use a gavel.&rdquo;&ldquo;Pardon me,&rdquo; the gentleman replies, &ldquo;but this isn&rsquo;t a gavel. It&rsquo;s a hammer. 1 carry one wherever I go&rdquo;&ldquo;Oh, yes, I see. Uh, you look familiar. We assume you&rsquo;re like most league commissioners these days&mdash;law degree, adept at tap-dancing around controversial issues&hellip;&rdquo;&ldquo;Why, no. My only experience has been playing hockey, although I&rsquo;ve had practical experience at league disciplinary hearings. Brian O&rsquo;Neill and I are on a first-name basis.&rdquo;&ldquo;Wait a minute&mdash;you&rsquo;re Dave Schultz! Is this some joke, a hockey league naming the NHL&rsquo;s alltime penalty leader as its commissioner.&rdquo;Slightly embarrassed, Schultz replies, &ldquo;I know it looks funny, but didn&rsquo;t you know I&rsquo;ve gone straight? I&rsquo;ve campaigned against violence, I&rsquo;ve condemned the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; style, I&rsquo;ve condemned Bobby Clarke, I&rsquo;ve cleansed my soul by writing a book about my evil deeds as a player.&rdquo;His eyes glazing over, an angelic expression sweeps across Schultz&rsquo; face as he says, &ldquo;Maybe someday soon I&rsquo;ll even have my own TV gospel show. Then they can call me Rev. Schultz!&rdquo; Schultz begins leading everyone in singing spirituals until the exasperated chairman gavels for silence.<h2>Scene Was Fictitious</h2>OKAY, OKAY, THE above scene never happened. But surely reaction throughout hockey matched that of the incredulous fictional meeting chairman when Schultz, the &ldquo;Hammer&rdquo; who terrorized the NHL when he played on Philadelphia&rsquo;s Stanley Cup champions, was chosen commissioner of the Atlantic Coast League. Commissioner Schultz&hellip;think about it. People must be thinking, next we&rsquo;ll have his eminence, Prime Minister Tiger Williams or Ambassador Glen Cochrane.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll bet a few people were shaking their heads when they heard about it,&rdquo; the ever-honest Schultz said. &ldquo;Some people were probably laughing like crazy. The immediate reaction of some probably was, the league must be doing it for publicity. But I&rsquo;ve got a job to do. You can&rsquo;t build a league just for publicity. My first day on the job was from 10 in the morning until 3:30 in the morning. It was tough.&rdquo;Schultz, who finished his tumultuous NHL career with Buffalo, insists he wasn&rsquo;t seeking a job in hockey. He and his family are moving to South Jersey where Dave will work with his brother, Ray, a former minor-league hockey enforcer, in cable TV sales and installation. Dave is also connected with a diet nutrition business.Schultz says Rick Dudley, a former Buffalo teammate, is the one to blame or name for suggesting the ACHL job.&ldquo;Rick went down to Winston-Salem to help out a guy with their team,&rdquo; Schultz said. &ldquo;The guy didn&rsquo;t want the team any more and Rick took it over. Now he&rsquo;s helped build the league back up. Rick called me about playing in a golf tournament down there. About a week later, he called back and said &lsquo;how&rsquo;d you like to be commissioner?&rsquo; He recommended me and no one argued with him.&rdquo;<h2>Usually Mild-Mannered</h2>SCHULTZ ALSO INSISTS his disciplinary hearings will not be worth filming for &ldquo;Slapshot II&rdquo; with scenes like &ldquo;Gary Goon, I&rsquo;m fining you $1,000 and suspending you for a month for that disgusting display you put on in Erie the other night.&rdquo; G. Goon: &ldquo;Bull-&mdash;, you&rsquo;ve gone soft in the head, Schultz.&rdquo; Commissioner, ripping off his coat: &ldquo;Oh, yeah, I&rsquo;ll show you!&rdquo;&ldquo;I hope there&rsquo;s more to the job than just fines and suspensions,&rdquo; Schultz said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s up to the owners and governors to make it a strong league. The league has been struggling. They&rsquo;ve had some pretty good franchises, but the fact that it was the Eastern League, then the North American League, now the Atlantic Coast League shows there hasn&rsquo;t been a lot of stability.&rdquo;There wasn&rsquo;t much stability to Schultz when he played in his &ldquo;Raging Bull&rdquo; style. Off the ice, however, he was usually mild-mannered and good-humored. Yet, to most people Schultz is that penalty-king, &ldquo;Hammer.&rdquo;&ldquo;A lot of things were written that explained what I was really like,&rdquo; Schultz said. &ldquo;But people didn&rsquo;t want to believe it. People have a certain image of me. Most people can&rsquo;t believe how small (6-1,190) I am. I think some people expect me to start growling at them. It&rsquo;s amazing. I always tell people how I had everyone fooled that I was tough. The reason I was tough was I mentally prepared for it.&rdquo;Schultz is convinced that people categorize athletes by their skill levels.&ldquo;A player with my reputation right away isn&rsquo;t very intelligent. I&rsquo;m not saying I&rsquo;m a real bright guy, but I&rsquo;m not as dumb as most people would think I am because of the way I played. If you&rsquo;re talented, that means you&rsquo;re more intelligent, and that isn&rsquo;t necessarily true.&rdquo;Unlike many ex-athletes, Schultz seems to have quickly adjusted to civilian life. Now the question is, what kind of a commissioner will he be?&ldquo;There are certain things I&rsquo;m gonna take a stand on,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never used my stick as a player so those are the kind of things I&rsquo;m gonna be tough on. They tell me that last year in this league one guy stuck his finger in another guy&rsquo;s eye for about 20 seconds and the guy almost lost his eye. If they do that kind of stuff this year, they&rsquo;re gonna pay a helluva price.&rdquo;Keep the cameras rolling&hellip;Commissioner Schultz&rsquo; first year should be a helluva story. &#9632;

f0010-02

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;&ldquo;Hockey is not unlike football,&rdquo; Orval Tessier philosophized after the Black Hawks, aspiring to become latter day Monsters of the Midway, introduced him as their new coach. &ldquo;If you have the puck, they can&rsquo;t score.&rdquo;If Tessier turns out the way the Hawks&rsquo; high command envisions, his success story also will be not unlike that of football&rsquo;s Vince Lombardi. It wasn&rsquo;t until last August at the relatively advanced age of 48 that he signed his first contract as a professional coach with the New Brunswick farm team, then jointly operated by Chicago and Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;This is a happy day for me because I&rsquo;ve officially been informed by the Wirtz family (which owns the team) that I&rsquo;ve been fired as coach,&rdquo; said general manager Bob Pulford, who succeeded Keith Magnuson in February, snapped the Hawks out of their worst slump in six years, and led them to the Stanley Cup semi-finals.&ldquo;No, Orval is not proven on the professional level. But one thing keeps recurring on all levels. He&rsquo;s won (championships). I&rsquo;ve never won (a championship), and nobody is ever going to say I have any influence over the way he coaches. The days of saying &lsquo;That&rsquo;s Pulford&rsquo;s style&rsquo; are long gone.&rdquo;What is Tessier&rsquo;s style?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t believe in criss-crossing all over the place even though I think skating is the biggest part of the game,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;I play positional hockey and that demands checking. You&rsquo;re not penalizing a player by making him check. When you check, you control the puck.&ldquo;Anybody who tells you we were just a defensive team (when New Brunswick won the regular season and playoff championships) is all wrong. We led the league in goals-for and in power-play goals.&ldquo;When we have the puck, the idea is to get it out of our zone in a hurry and when we don&rsquo;t have it, we want to get it back in a hurry. I have four different systems to come out of our zone, depending on the opposition. There wasn&rsquo;t one single practice last year when we didn&rsquo;t work on one phase of getting it out of our zone.&ldquo;At the start it&rsquo;s going to be a little confusing. Last year we had a 7-6-2 record in November. The year before in Kitchener we were last (in the Ontario League) at Christmas but we went on to the finals of the Memorial Cup.Pulford said that Tessier&rsquo;s contract was &ldquo;for more than one year&rdquo; but wouldn&rsquo;t reveal details &ldquo;because that&rsquo;s our club policy.&rdquo;It also was disclosed that Cliff Koroll will return for his third season as assistant coach.The only players attending the press conference were Hawk defenseman Bob Murray, who played for Tessier when he coached Cornwall of the Quebec League, and Bob Janecyk, the goaltender from Chicago State who was an American League all-star last year with New Brunswick.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very fortunate,&rdquo; said Murray. &ldquo;This club needs a disciplinarian more than anything else and that&rsquo;s what Orval is. You play ball with him and he&rsquo;ll play ball with you. He has a good rapport&mdash;as long as you want to work. Last year there were a lot of nights when a lot of us didn&rsquo;t seem to want to work.&rdquo;Tessier called his promotion &ldquo;a dream come true.&rdquo;&ldquo;Ever since I started coaching 10 years ago, it was in my mind to someday do it in the NHL but as the years went by I never thought it would happen. I know there are going to be some difficult times ahead for me; you wish there wouldn&rsquo;t be but you know there will. I just want it to eventually be the way it was in Moncton (New Brunswick) after Christmas. Then, only once did we lose two games in a row, and when we did the players were highly insulted.&rdquo; &#9632;

Positional Hockey Is Tessier’s Style

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011242/4737578-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="598" height="923"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Flyers plan to give Brad McCrimmon responsibility and the chance to move the puck.</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Flyers&rsquo; needed off-season overhaul may consist of a guy who couldn&rsquo;t play for the Boston Bruins and a 31-year-old Czechoslovakian. It may not be much, but, Keith Allen concedes, it may be the best he can do.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s really not much else out there that I like,&rdquo; said the Flyers&rsquo; general manager. &ldquo;Now that (Rob) Ramage (traded from New Jersey to St. Louis) is off the board, how many good young defensemen are available?Maybe Montreal&rsquo;s Rod Langway, but Allen says Montreal general manager Irv Grundman is talking suspension, not trade, if the defenseman refuses to play in Montreal. Allen has a Ken Linseman to offer around, but it&rsquo;s fairly clear it will take someone of Langway&rsquo;s calibre to end the Rat&rsquo;s days in Philadelphia.So, love &lsquo;em or leave &lsquo;em, the 1982-83 Flyers may only be hemmed until the correct alterations come along. They will have two new defensemen, which, considering last year&rsquo;s crew, is not a bad idea, but neither is expected to spark a surge of season ticket renewals.With Brad McCrimmon, acquired from Boston for goaltender Pete Peeters, the Flyers only hope is that the Bruins mishandled a young talent. They remember one from McCrimmon&rsquo;s Brandon days and hope a change of scenery and some responsibility will give them one more badly-needed defenseman who can move the puck.With Gord Kluzak and Gary Nylund just out of their draft reach, they bypassed Kitchener&rsquo;s Scott Stevens for one more center, Ron Sutter, and put Plan B into effect. They made several efforts to get back the second-round pick they traded to Toronto in the Darryl Sittler deal, hoping to use it for Miroslav Dvorak. They failed, but Dvorak slipped through to them in the third round anyway.Dvorak, one of three veteran Czechs made available in this year&rsquo;s lend-lease program, relayed word through an intermediary that he was definitely interested in continuing his career in Philadelphia. The finalization of a contract was expected soon. If the Dvorak who shows up is the same one who has been a world-class defenseman for a decade, the Flyers may have made a nice, inexpensive move.&ldquo;I know the guy can play,&rdquo; said Allen. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;ll take some time to adjust, but there&rsquo;s no question about his skills. He&rsquo;s a very solid defenseman.&rdquo;&ldquo;It buys us some time,&rdquo; said coach Bob McCammon. &ldquo;We have some kids taken in past drafts who should help us in a couple of years. If we can get two or three good ones out of Dvorak, he can steady us in the meantime.&rdquo;Otherwise, the Flyers refuse to embrace the view that a complete overhaul of their defense is necessary. They expect Fred Arthur, who has already put on 13 pounds in an off-season program to get stronger. They hope Behn Wilson, who appeared to respond to Bob McCammon&rsquo;s needle after the late-season coaching change, will mature. They refuse to believe that the slow-footed Brad Marsh is a dinosaur in today&rsquo;s game, reasoning his enthusiasm and shot-blocking ability still has its place.So they project a five-man unit of Arthur, McCrimmon, Marsh, Wilson and Dvorak. That leaves two spots open between Jimmy Watson, Bob Dailey, Steve Smith, Glen Cochrane, Bob Hoffmeyer and Frank Bathe.Dailey, who obliterated an ankle early last season, will attempt a comeback, but the Flyers cannot hold their breath waiting for him. They offered Watson, who was not the same Jimmy coming off spinal fusion surgery, a one-year contract, but expect no miracles. If Jimmy can&rsquo;t make the team, he may fall into an assistant coaching role.The Flyers also want to take a good look at Steve Smith, their No. 1 draft choice in 1981, hoping he won&rsquo;t need another season in Sault Ste. Marie. If he doesn&rsquo;t, Smith could move out either Bathe, a professional survivor who was voted the Flyers&rsquo; best defenseman last season despite playing only 28 games (it was that kind of year), or Hoffmeyer, who did a steadier job than most of the Flyers&rsquo; defensemen last year.In the meantime, Allen will stuff one of his many centers back in the box, and leave it to McCammon to decide which ones will play the wing. McCammon had indicated at season&rsquo;s end that playing Tim Kerr and Darryl Sittler on the wing was counter-productive to their best efforts, and if Sutter makes the team, it only complicates things further. But the coach will just have to be patient until the right deal comes along.ICEBERGS&mdash;The Flyers in a costcutting mood after losing money for the first time in a decade last season, are reducing the size of their radio-TV team, and running a smaller training camp&hellip;Thomas Eriksson, who had indicated some interest in returning to the Flyers when Bobby Clarke and Bill Barber spoke to him at the World Tournament in April, appears to be changing his mind and will probably stay in Sweden. Eriksson, an excellent prospect, quit the team in October because he was homesick&hellip;Flyers introduced No. 1 pick Ron Sutter, No. 3 pick Bill Campbell and Andy Brickley, a No. 10 in 1980 at a press conference. Brickley, the last player taken in that year&rsquo;s draft, blossomed into a star at the University of New Hampshire and has an outside shot at cracking the Flyers&rsquo; lineup at left wing this season. &#9632;

f0010-01

Flyers Feel They’ve Improved Defense

<div class="byline">BY GARY MUELLER</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The games hockey players play when it isn&rsquo;t hockey season&hellip;There is, of course, the ever popular slo-pitch softball. Although the St. Louis Blues didn&rsquo;t have a team entered in the recent Molson tournament at Niagara Falls, Ont., that&rsquo;s not to say the Blues don&rsquo;t have a few softball players on their roster.A number of Blues players joined with some members of the National Football League&rsquo;s St. Louis Cardinals and played on a team known as Busch&rsquo;s Bisons.Blues&rsquo; center Blake Dunlop was seen playing center field between two hulking football linebackers, but denied there was any truth to the rumor that he was trying to draft them to serve as his wingers this winter.The Blues also formed a team of their own that played a number of charity games around the St. Louis area. Blues&rsquo; President, general manager and coach Emile Francis, once a better-than-average semi-pro shortstop, even took his turn playing on the team.Francis also served as manager of a media team that was to participate in an annual charity game in St. Louis. A crowd of more than 10,000 was expected to attend but the game was rained out.Other than softball, the most popular summer activity undoubtedly is golf, with a number of Blues players appearing in a variety of charity proam events around the St. Louis area.Perry Turnbull, only four days after having a cast removed from his right leg, not only was on the golf course, but registered a hole-in-one on the 160-yard No. 2 hole in a Cerebral Palsy tournament in Decatur, Ill.&ldquo;The leg feels just great,&rdquo; said Turnbull, who had undergone surgery to repair a tom tendon, suffered in a playoff game against the Chicago Black Hawks. &ldquo;The biggest scare I had was when I got the hole-in-one. The guys I was playing with got so excited they actually tackled me.&rdquo;Turnbull&rsquo;s only regret was that his ace came on the second hole, instead of the 10th.&ldquo;They were giving away a car to anyone who got a hole-in-one on the 10th hole,&rdquo; said Turnbull. &ldquo;By the time I got to No. 10, I was so pumped up that I hit my tee shot over the green.&rdquo;Ironically, the Blues&rsquo; Ralph Klassen narrowly missed claiming the car when his shot on the 10th hole stopped about four feet short of the flag.While the news of Turnbull&rsquo;s holein-one had everyone smiling, the fact that he had shed his cast nearly a month ahead of schedule was the really good news as far as the Blues were concerned.Turnbull&rsquo;s injury had been a potentially dangerous one, with the 35-stitch gash he suffered when he fell on the skate of teammate Ed Kea narrowly missing a nerve that controls the movement of the lower leg. There had been some question as to how complete Turnbull&rsquo;s recovery from surgery might be, especially after he had been expected to spend nearly four months wearing a cast.His recovery, however, was so speedy that the cast came off earlier than expected and he was not only out on the golf course, but walking without a noticeable limp.Meanwhile, Dunlop not only was playing softball, but also was busy on the tennis court. Once a high-ranking amateur in Canada, Dunlop and a neighbor in suburban St. Louis, George Shuert, advanced to the doubles quarter-finals of the Dwight Davis tennis tournament in St. Louis, a meet that annually attracts a field of more than 100, including the best tennis players in the St. Louis area.Last summer, Dunlop and teammate Bernie Federko won the NHL Players&rsquo; Association tennis tournament in Las Vegas, but the tourney wasn&rsquo;t held this year. &ldquo;I guess we were too good,&rdquo; said Dunlop, joking.Dunlop had courtside seats for the Davis Cup quarter-final series between the U.S. and Sweden, that was held at the Checkerdome in St. Louis.BLUENOTES&mdash;Denis Ball, the Blues&rsquo; assistant to the president, represented the team at Wayne Babych&rsquo;s July 4 wedding in Winnipeg. Wayne and brother David of the Winnipeg Jets married twin sisters in a double wedding&hellip;Blues defenseman Gerry Hart was slated to be married in New York in August. Francis said that Hart had indicated he would return to play another season with the Blues. There had been speculation that Hart, who missed nearly 50 games last season because of injuries, would retire&hellip;Newly acquired defenseman Rob Ramage was house hunting in St. Louis and was introduced to several of his new teammates at an informal luncheon given by Francis. Goaltender Mike Liut, who has at times been outspoken in criticism of the defensive help he has received, seemed happiest to welcome Ramage to the Blues&rsquo; fold.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011215/4737664-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="599" height="806"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Blues received an encouraging sign when Perry Turnbull shed his cast nearly a month early.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-01

Golf Ace Turnbull Brightens Blues’ Off-Season

<div class="byline">BY DICK BEDDOES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021034/4737695-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="316" height="330"></div><h2>Hall Of Famers</h2>THERE IS SCANT quarrel with the Hall of Fame selectors who voted Yvan Cournoyer, Norman Ullman and Rodrique Gilbert into that museum of used hockey muscle on the Toronto lakefront.Cournoyer was known as The Roadrunner when he played right wing for the Montreal Canadiens with the dash of a whippet.Ullman was the foremost forechecker of his time, which ended in the mid-seventies after distinguished service at center ice for Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.Ullman was also among the quietest mercenaries in a game where roistering is not unknown.He came out of Edmonton, where he played minor pro for a championship team coached by Bud Poile, and Poile had a metaphor to describe Ullman&rsquo;s balanced temperament.&ldquo;If Ullman is a troublemaker,&rdquo; Bud would say, &ldquo;Mahatma Ghandi was a member of the Mafia.&rdquo;The reference was to the Indian leader whose Jesus-like demeanor reflected the word peace on the Asian sub-continent.Rod Gilbert was a smooth, handsome forward for the New York Rangers, thrown back 40 years to the halcyon times when the Rangers were described as &ldquo;the Broadway Blueshirts, the classiest club in hockey.&rdquo;One must, however, enter one small cavil: &ldquo;If Cournoyer, Ullman and Gilbert merit election to the Hall of Fame, why not Bert Olmstead?<h2>Points Narrow Gauge</h2>COURNOYER, ULLMAN and Gilbert, it is true, accumulated more points than Olmstead. In 20 seasons, Ullman rolled up 1,229 points. Gilbert, in 18, tabulated 1,021. Cournoyer piled up 863 in 16.Olmstead, in 14 years with Chicago, Montreal and Toronto between 1949 and 1962, compiled 602 points.But point production is a narrow gauge on which to measure Hall of Fame credentials. Ullman and Gilbert are in the Hall of Fame even though they never played on a Stanley Cup champion.Olmstead was the combative core of five Stanley Cup winners, four in Montreal and one in Toronto, yet he is excluded from hockey&rsquo;s version of Valhalla.Combative is the first word that comes to mind when discussing the rangy farmer from Sceptre, Sask. It was the word used by Jacques Plante in summing up the Olmstead that Plante knew when they played for the all-conquering Canadiens.&ldquo;Olmstead couldn&rsquo;t skate,&rdquo; Plante once told me. &ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t stylish. All Bert could do was win.&rdquo;Plante meant the Olmstead of 25 years ago, a flaming pro whose personal bonfire ignited the Canadiens and, later, the Maple Leafs.Bert wanted to win, even if he had to cut ears and gouge eyeballs to do it. When he lost, he hated it. Losing made him suffer a mean-spirited myopia that shrank his world to the confines of a hockey rink and welcomed few outsiders.One night, Plante said, the Canadiens lost a close game in Detroit. Afterward, he and Olmstead consoled themselves over a couple of beers in a tavern.The chair next to Olmstead was vacant, and a stray came up and asked if they minded if he sat down.&ldquo;You can sit down,&rdquo; Olmstead said, &ldquo;but shut up!&rdquo;<h2>Remarkable Alliance</h2>OLMSTEAD JOINED THE Canadiens in 1951, to be employed as the left winger for Elmer Lach and Rocket Richard. When Lach retired, the Montreal power line became a remarkable alliance of Olmstead, Richard and Jean Beliveau.Richard was a baleful scorer with a Rocket&rsquo;s red glare that rarely waned. Beliveau had the elbowing elegance of the finest center who ever lived. Olmstead had the rough-hewn choppiness to barge into corners to grab the puck and feed Richard and Beliveau their lines.There was, to be sure, a streak of meaness in Olmstead. Crowds in New York called him Dirty Bertie. He was embroiled in a legal hassle in Vancouver in 1958 after assaulting a gambler in a hotel washroom.I hope the Hall of Fame selectors, who are only a handful, haven&rsquo;t blackballed Olmstead because of the Vancouver incident. They have, after all, installed others in the hall whose illegal indiscretions pale any Olmstead misdeed.Olmstead, it says here, deserves Hall of Fame admission for the strongest of Stanley Cup reasons. The dirtiest of four-letter words, to him, was l-o-s-e. &#9632;

f0012-02

BEDCLOTHES

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>TORONTO&mdash;Never one to rest when there&rsquo;s a chance to be in the news, Harold Ballard was in fine form. When informed that he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to shift his minor league operations to the city of St. Catharines, Ont. for the 1982-83 season because two American Hockey League governors&mdash;Seymour Knox of the Buffalo Sabres and Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ed Snider&mdash;had vetoed the idea and the Maple Leafs did not have the required three-quarters approval, the Maple Leafs&rsquo; owner vowed that he&rsquo;d sue the Sabres and the National Hockey League for $10 million each.Ballard was upset. Ballard was determined. Ballard was sure he was right and with the help of the citizens of St. Catharines he was insistent that the Leafs would establish their farm club there. And, as it turned out, Ballard was right.After falling two votes short at the American League meetings in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, of the nine required to allow for transfer of their minor league franchise from Moncton, New Brunswick to St. Catharines, the Leafs first set out to convince two clubs which had abstained from the vote&mdash;Baltimore, itself a transferred team from Erie and under the direc-torship of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Sherbrooke, also a transferred team, having moved from Tulsa of the Central League into the AHL under the command of the Winnipeg Jets&mdash;that they should vote in the Leafs&rsquo; favor. Also hinging upon the shift to St. Catharines of the Leafs&rsquo; farm club was the fate of the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; farm team. They had informed the Central League that they no longer wished to operate there and were willing to relocate in Moncton if the Leafs were moving from that territory.The AHL had planned to reopen talks in Boston when Knox, acting on behalf of the Rochester Americans, decided that the Americans and Moncton (the Leafs) should jointly sponsor a resolution to move the Moncton club to St. Catharines. The AHL quickly approved that and the Edmonton switch to Moncton the following day.According to Knox, &ldquo;based on the limited amount of information which we had at the time of the first vote, we felt it was in the best interests of the AHL to recess the meetings until these matters could be clarified.&rdquo;Knox also pointed out that &ldquo;the Sabres were never against the granting of a franchise to the city of St. Catharines. However, we did have certain problem areas about which we were concerned.&rdquo;That concern was said to have been involved in determining if the franchise, which is located less than 25 miles from Buffalo, would have intruded upon the Buffalo market area and cut into Sabres&rsquo; ticket sales.A number of St. Catharines fans visited the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and picketed the Sabres&rsquo; ticket offices, although Knox indicated that he wasn&rsquo;t bowing to public demand when he told Ballard that the Leafs could move to St. Catharines.Ballard, though, gave the credit for the resolution of the problem to the St. Catharines fans and added that the Sabres knew they would have been losing lots of support in the St. Catharines&rsquo; area if they had continued to roadblock the Leafs.The shift to St. Catharines will centralize the Leafs&rsquo; farm system once again, reversing the trend set in motion by Punch Imlach when he was general manager three years ago.Imlach sought to beef up the farm system, signing extra players and committing the Leafs to development teams in the American, Central and Eastern Hockey Leagues. But with the tendency towards signing younger and younger players and the fact that many of them are stepping directly into the NHL, the Leafs, and most of the other clubs have been cutting down on the numbers of minor leaguers.The Leafs also lost in the vicinity of one million dollars on the operation of their Cincinnati farm club in the Central League, so they made the decision to consolidate most of their farm prospects at the St. Catharines location. Last season the Leafs employed 20 players at Cincinnati and another eight or nine at Moncton.Even players such as Bruce Boudreau, a Central League all-star, will likely be allowed to finish out their contracts in the minors since the Leafs did not bring the veteran pros up last year, preferring to look at some of their teenagers instead.The only certainties for St. Catharines are director of hockey operations Rudy Pilous, who has enjoyed a successful past with St. Catharines teams, and coach Doug Carpenter, who is coming over after coaching the Cincinnati squad last season. &#9632;

Ballard Gets Farm Just As Planned

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>Tradition has been and still is an innate part of hockey. Traditional rivalries grew; traditional strategies evolved, but one area where the game has gradually moved away from tradition is the field of equipment, where a number of changes have emerged.Fifteen years ago, very few National Hockey League players wore helmets. Now, more than 80 percent of them do and the percentages for non-professionals playing hockey are well in excess of 95 percent. Only a few years back, players began using plastic skate blade holders because they were lighter and could be manufactured to hold an edge better. Now, the tube-style metal blade holder is nearly passe. Even the traditional two-piece hockey uniform with short pants and long stockings is in danger of being replaced by Cooperalls and CCM&rsquo;s Total Protection Package&mdash;the uniform of tomorrow is here today.So what&rsquo;s next?How about hockey sticks? Aluminum ones at that.Three major stick manufacturers&mdash;Christian, Canadien and Keho&mdash;have begun supplying dealers with aluminum hockey stick shafts into which replaceable wooden or fiberglass blades can be fitted. The idea is that the aluminum shaft will last far longer than a conventional stick shaft and that easily replaceable blades can be added to the shaft, blades which cost less than half the price of a one-piece stick.A Los Angeles engineer is credited with the invention of the aluminum stick. An amateur hockey player, he started developing his idea about the same time that aluminum baseball bats were introduced to the market. The idea was worked on for several years and then brought to Easton Aluminum of Jelinek Sports which approached stick manufacturers with the proposal. They are now the suppliers of the aluminum shafts for the hockey stick industry.When Easton Aluminum began making plans for producing the shafts, John Magadini got involved. &ldquo;We had to go through all of the approval processes,&rdquo; said Magadini, &ldquo;with the CAHA (Canadian Amateur Hockey Association), the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States, the NHL, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and the International Ice Hockey Federation. Getting all of the approvals really took a lot of time.&ldquo;The NHL, of course, was the real plum,&rdquo; Magadini said, &ldquo;because they had to change their rules to allow the stick to be used. They were very careful about that because, naturally, they were concerned about the safety of the players. Fortunately, we had done a study at Laval University where they torture-tested the aluminum stick along with the ash-handled sticks, fiberglass-reinforced sticks, graphite-reinforced sticks and laminated sticks.&ldquo;That research proved that the aluminum-shaft stick broke at about the same force necessary to break an ash-handled stick; less than the force necessary to break fiberglass or graphite, but more than it takes to break a laminated stick.&rdquo;Marc Ruel, sales manager for Canadien, picks up the story:&ldquo;Easton contacted a few companies and I guess we were the first one to jump on it; we thought it was a great idea.&ldquo;Canadien is sort of a leader in innovative ideas,&rdquo; Ruel related, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ve always had different ideas. We were the first to introduce fiberglass in 1973. We&rsquo;ve always had different things, we&rsquo;re oriented that way. Aluminium appealed to us a bit more than to the others.&ldquo;We felt that after having fiberglass for so many years, that nothing new was on the horizon. We thought this might be the time to make a major impact on the market and that&rsquo;s exactly what happened.&rdquo;The stick was introduced at some of trade markets last fall but this fall will mark the first real test in the marketplace as players get ready for the 1982-83 season. Although it&rsquo;s far too early to forecast the chances for success, the idea has merit.&ldquo;The concept, in my opinion, is pretty good,&rdquo; says Warren Amendola Sr. of Koho Sporting Goods. &ldquo;If the blade breaks, you can replace the blade for considerably less than if someone had to buy a new hockey stick.&ldquo;The replacement is not very difficult. You need something hot (a propane torch or hair dryer) to heat the end of the aluminum stick so that the opening allows the blade to slide in. There&rsquo;s glue on the stick and it&rsquo;s held in place by the shape (of the joint) and by the glue.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011157/4737757-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="999" height="1718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winnipeg Jet center Dave Christian experimented with an aluminium stick nearly two years ago and used one during NHL play in 1982.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve given sticks to some pros to get a feeling of what they thought about them,&rdquo; Amendola said. &ldquo;A couple of the Islanders, in fact, have said that they generate a little more speed in their shot. But the very newness of the product has them a bit leery. It&rsquo;s just like any new product that comes along. Until some super star uses it, the underlings aren&rsquo;t going to try it.&rdquo;Two of the stick companies received a boost in that direction when Brad Park of the Boston Bruins and Dave Christian of the Winnipeg Jets regularly used aluminum sticks during the course of the 1981-82 season. Park used a Canadien stick and Christian, of course, used a Christian stick, manufactured by his father&rsquo;s company.&ldquo;Overall, I liked it,&rdquo; said Christian, who had experimented with the stick the season before in practice and then employed it in games following Christmas last year. &ldquo;It takes a while to adjust to it, not a long time, but the shaft is a little more slippery than the wood. But I found by rubbing friction tape on the handle it made it a little more tacky.&ldquo;The big thing I think is the consistency of the handles, they&rsquo;re all the same, all the same weight and stiffness. What I look for in a stick is the stiffness and lightness of it and I was very happy with the aluminum.&ldquo;It handled the same as any other stick,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t any adjustment to make as far as stickhandling. I thought it helped the slapshot a little more. A wood stick flexes, but after awhile it doesn&rsquo;t return (to the same degree); you lose some of the flex. With the aluminum, it&rsquo;s always there and it always snaps back straight, so you&rsquo;re getting the full flex on a slapshot.&rdquo;Magadini on the stick&rsquo;s characteristics: &ldquo;Every stick has the same flexibility which differentiates it from a wood stick where you have to go through a dozen or so until you find the one you want. Every shaft is exactly the same weight&mdash;14&frac12; ounces&mdash;the only variable is the weight of the blade. They&rsquo;re light and well-balanced.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02877/4737750-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="997" height="1719"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Park of the Boston Bruins was the first NHL player to regularly use a Canadien aluminum stick. (Photo By Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The inhibitor is not that people won&rsquo;t like it,&rdquo; Magadini. said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the idea of paying 50 or 55 bucks for the initial shaft and (replacement) blades. Once somebody gets over that shock, we feel confident they&rsquo;ll like it and then they&rsquo;re in good shape because the replacement blade only costs $7 or $7.50.&rdquo;THE HOCKEY NEWS talked to representatives from each of the three stick companies involved in marketing the aluminum sticks to ascertain retail prices for the sticks including the original blade and two replacement blades. Each of them quoted a dealer price in the same neighborhood and said that retail markups would run between 33 and a-third percent up to as much as 70 percent. Christian said their sticks would retail from about $49.95 to $64.95 U.S. while Canadien and Koho listed retail prices as approximately $60-$70 U.S.Even at that price, the sticks appear to be selling well.&ldquo;The response to it (aluminum sticks) has been better than my expectations,&rdquo; said Hal Bakke of Christian Brothers Inc. &ldquo;Down here (Minnesota), the hockey players are so sophisticated. So just because a guy is a good hockey player, a professional player, doesn&rsquo;t mean that someone is necessarily going to use that same stick. Years ago it was.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re selling a lot of aluminum sticks to the dealers. We&rsquo;re probably selling more in Canada than in the United States because the Canadians are always more willing to try something new faster than they are down here. In the U.S., though, we have quite a few orders going to the colleges: Eastern colleges and those in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. They say they&rsquo;ll take five or six sticks and give them a try.&rdquo;Canadien&rsquo;s Ruel reports his company has also seen rapid sales among Canadian dealers.&ldquo;Our original idea was to convince each dealer to take from three to six sticks,&rdquo; Ruel said. &ldquo;We have thousands of dealers in North America&mdash;practically all dealers buy either our sticks or equipment&mdash;so we thought that would give us a pretty good volume.&ldquo;In western Canada, though, something is happening which we still can&rsquo;t explain too well. It (aluminum) has mushroomed. It has gone wild. Some dealers have bought as many as 24 dozen sticks and they have replaced half of their orders of fiberglass or wood sticks by aluminum after seeing one sample and not even testing that salesman&rsquo;s sample on the ice.&ldquo;We have even changed our marketing. Originally, we thought we should sell two blades with each completed stick. In other words, three blades and a stick. But it turned out differently. We found that a shaft will stand up a lot longer than will three blades. In some cases it might be a dozen blades and that could be a tremendous cost savings. Now, we&rsquo;ve changed and we&rsquo;re selling just the one stick by itself and dealers can buy as many replacement blades as they want.&rdquo;Naturally, the road to a share in the hockey stick market for aluminum shafts hasn&rsquo;t been without its problems. Christian&rsquo;s Bakke, for one, says it&rsquo;s too early to tell. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s successful, it&rsquo;s good for us,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t going to put the wood stick people out of business by any means. It&rsquo;s just another stick in your life. I would think that by the end of the 1982-83 season, we should know.&rdquo;Ruel also had some misgivings.&ldquo;We expected a few problems, as you would with any new product,&rdquo; Ruel admitted, &ldquo;but so far nothing has happened. My personal worry was that the player would say the heck with that. &lsquo;Why should I take out a broken piece of blade and replace it with a new one and it&rsquo;s a hassle and I have to buy a torch or something to heat it&rsquo;. I thought this would be a major problem, but it&rsquo;s nothing at all. I&rsquo;ve travelled most of the country and the feedback is good all over. The only feedback I get is &lsquo;When am I going to get my sticks?&rsquo; Some dealers have sold the sticks to consumers already without getting their shipments. This has never been seen before. Usually you have to put it on the floor before you sell it.&ldquo;Another of my worries was that we had problems with street hockey sticks where the blades came off,&rdquo; Ruel said. &ldquo;I was afraid this could happen, but we haven&rsquo;t had one example yet. There is a hot-melt glue on the blade so you warm that up to make it soft and sticky and you warm up the aluminum to expand it before you put the blade in. In a few seconds, the aluminum contracts as it cools and you have a permanent joint.&rdquo; (Tests show, according to Easton&rsquo;s Magadini, that a half-ton of pressure is needed to pull the blade away from the shaft).This coming season, Canadien expects to have about 20 NHL players, roughly one per team, using the aluminum handled sticks, adding to the exposure already started by North American dealers.&ldquo;It really follows the aluminum baseball bat type of situation,&rdquo; says Magadini, &ldquo;where nine or 10 years ago, a lot of organizations&mdash;Little Leagues, high schools&mdash;found bats were breaking and budgets were getting tighter so they went to aluminum, which is a far better bat. Not only were they saving money, they&rsquo;re getting a better product out of it.&ldquo;Hockey stick prices are getting out of hand,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;And in hockey in the U.S., the cost is one of the inhibiting factors in the growth of the game. It just costs so much for a kid to play that we don&rsquo;t see a lot of younger kids coming into hockey, except in the real hotbeds like Boston, Minnesota and Detroit. So, being able to buy a stick that&rsquo;s going to last and for half the price to be able to get a blade, seems to make a lot of sense.&rdquo;Canadien, evidently, feels the aluminum stick is going to be noticeable in hockey&rsquo;s near future.&ldquo;Next year, we plan to offer three degrees of stiffness on the shaft,&rdquo; Ruel said. &ldquo;Right now there&rsquo;s only one, which is the equivalent to the Canadien 6001, a fiberglass stick used in the NHL and by top junior players. But there is a need for an ultra-stiff shaft for a few NHL players and a softer shaft for smaller players.&ldquo;We are going to expand our line from one standard blade to at least three different patterns, three lefts and three rights. So we will be going from one stick to half a dozen blade patterns.&ldquo;We think it&rsquo;s going to become a big part of hockey. What market share it&rsquo;s going to take, though, no one knows. But for the first year, we are very, very encouraged.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

Aluminum Tries For Share Of The Stick Market

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011197/4737788-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The top of the line among Lange&rsquo;s professional competition hockey skates are represented by the Laser 5, left, and the Pro Comp models. Each features the Tuuk style Zytel blade holder with stainless steel blade and comes in sizes 6&frac12; to 12.</figcaption></div><h2>BAUER</h2>In 1982, Bauer will continue to offer the most complete stitched and molded skate range in the world, utilizing the latest technological advancements made in the industry. No other skate manufacturer has spent as much time and effort developing and merchandising a skate line to meet everyone&rsquo;s needs.Rapidly becoming one of the top skates in the world, for both professional and amateur players alike, the Custom Supreme 100 features Flolite&reg;, the patented flow material that encompasses the ankle and tendon area of the foot, to ensure instant and positive fit. New for 1982 is an improved interior material package that decreases the weight of the skate, makes it less water absorbent, and increases boot durability.For improved aesthetic appearance, the &lsquo;82 Supreme 100 will be easily recognizable from any distance by the distinctive built-in 100 &lsquo;istay&rsquo; in the rear heel area.Superfeet has taken another step forward in technology with Superfeet II&reg; for &lsquo;82. Similar to Superfeet I, the new patented Superfeet II&reg; features a higher heel flange for increased rear foot control, a patented &lsquo;slot&rsquo; underneath the foot for better fit adjustment, and a new two-density foam package that separates the comfort and performance requirements of the footbed.The demand for a boy&rsquo;s version of the Custom 100 has been answered in &lsquo;82 with the introduction of the new Supreme Custom Jr. 100. Encompassing many of the same Supreme features as the Sr. 100, the Jr. 100 will utilize the Flolite&reg; ankle padding, Superfeet II&reg;, the new Supreme &lsquo;backer&rsquo; package, and a full foam quarter padding.Goalkeepers will be elated in &lsquo;82 at the new Custom 50, the only top grade stitched-boot goalie skate in the world that offers so many features. The Custom 50 contains the complete Supreme package of Flolite&reg; and Superfeet II&reg; and is complimented by the introduction of the new ICM Zytel one-piece moulded-in goalie shell and blade concept.A new member to the Bauer family is the Professional 90. Similar in appearance to the Supreme 100, the 90 offers Supreme features at a mid-price value. The all leather black boot is complimented by the distinctive white ICM blade and further en-hanced by the inclusion of the Superfeet&reg; footbed system.The remainder of the Bauer stitched-boot range features different material changes intended to maintain the quality, durability and support in mid and low-end products, while keeping the costs at an affordable price.Quality is still a major concern at Bauer, and in 1982 Bauer will begin using a newly designed outsole developed to improve out-sole-to-boot adhesion by some 500%, eliminating delamination problems and nylon tears around toe caps and heel areas. Two years in development, this new outsole ensures a positive fit between the bottom of the Bauer boot, and the ICM blade.The &rsquo;82 molded skate range continues to focus around the Turbo hockey skate with a promising outlook towards the women&rsquo;s Eclipse figure skate and the colored Freestyle Recreational skates.The Turbo has been completely redesigned with a sleek new look and added bonus features not found on any other first price point moulded skates. Complimenting the Turbo is the boys&rsquo; Advantage developed to be the best fitting molded skate available.A major introduction for &lsquo;82 is the men&rsquo;s and boys&rsquo; Defender program, Bauer&rsquo;s newest entry into the molded goalie skate market. Replacing the traditional stitched 46 & 146 models, the Defender offers a low-end turbo shell with a durable, comfortable boot liner protected by the new ICM one-piece goalie shell and blade.<h2>CANPRO</h2>The production of the renowned Tuuk and ICM hockey blades has become the prime responsibility of Canpro Sport Inc., of St. Laurent, Que., and the company is now able to offer a full range of blades for both hockey and figure skating.New on the market this season will be the Tuuk &lsquo;Nylon&rsquo; blade, which is fashioned from injection moulded Bayer nylon, an extremely strong material. All blades are covered by a one-year warranty against manufacturing defects.Canpro also introduced the first goaltender&rsquo;s blade with a runner moulded directly into the cowling. Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; netminder Denis Herron is one of the greatest enthusiasts of this new ICL product, which affords goalies more foot protection.Every major skate company is now featuring the ICM or Tuuk blade including Bauer, Daoust, Micron, Lange, Jofa, Roos, Orbit, SK and Graf. In addition over 80% of all NHL, college and junior players are skating on Canpro&rsquo;s Tuuk or ICM blades. Both the Soviet and Czechoslovakian National teams also skate on Can-pro products.Because of the impact they&rsquo;ve made on the skate market, Canpro designers and engineers are constantly undergoing tests to gauge the impact resistance and flexibility of their blades. Quality control is a big factor with Canpro.<h2>CCM</h2>One step before the Super Tacks for the above average player who takes his game seriously are the new Custom Tacks available in men&rsquo;s full and half sizes from 5 to 11 in three widths.Built on the Tackaberry last for a natural slope fit these skates feature all of the famous CCM quality, durability and skate technology. Some of the features of the Custom Tacks are a tendon protector of topgrade brown side leather trim, rust resistant, positive lock eyelets and a molded surlyn outsole.The skate&rsquo;s ProFort toe is constructed of shock-resistant high density polyethylene covered with heavy gauge nylon while the heel counter also features hardwearing polyethylene for good shape retention and secure fit.Custom Tacks also have the advanced new heel lock system made up of strategically placed &ldquo;L&rdquo; pads to secure heel and ankle firmly in place with a lining of full grain leather. The newly designed tongue with three-eighths of an inch-thick felt back offers comfort and protection.The skates have CCM&rsquo;s exclusive Prolite II steel runner in a new &ldquo;white&rdquo; super tough Zytel ST holder.This skate joins the impressive CCM array of quality skates which also includes the Super Cushion Tacks, Junior Tacks, Youth Tacks, Mustang and Junior Mustang models, the Charger, the Pro Tack and Junior Tack Goal models and the Dynomax, a skate designed with the durability of a molded skate featuring a unique rear pivot attachment for flexibility.<h2>DAOUST</h2>With the National Hockey League&rsquo;s top two performers, Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy, wearing and endorsing Daoust skates, the Montreal-based company is riding high in the skate business.Daoust Lalonde Inc., employs 300 experienced bootmakers in its Montreal plant allowing for production of 3,000 pairs of hockey and figure skates per day.Daoust has many models but is most proud of the workmanship that goes into its 301 Men&rsquo;s, a brown grain leather boot that retails for $199. It&rsquo;s the top of the Daoust line and also comes in boy&rsquo;s sizes.The company is marketing both a Gretzky and Bossy skate line as well. There is men&rsquo;s, boys and youth models. The best Gretzky Super 99 for men costs $120. The Bossy Super 22 is $109.Daoust also has two molded skates, the Mac 7 and Futura, with the two and three-piece polyurethane boot with hinge rivets. They run from $129 for the Mach 7 to $189 for the Futura.In addition to two goaltender skate models, Daoust also has a colorful skate bag and adjustable skate guards available to complement its 1982-83 skate line.<h2>JOFA</h2>There is a growing awareness of the Jofa skate with the Volvo of America Corp., spreading its production and distribution across both Canada and the U.S.Jofa has four popular models on the market starting with the emphasis on the smooth, cut-resistant nylon look. The Custom Pro 520 heads the company line. It is all molded with the professional in mind and sells for $199.95. It has top quality uppers, &lsquo;J&rsquo; heel huggers for better fit, wide back strap, fiber insole, a top arch support and a three-piece felt tongue for com-fort and protection.The Advantage 500 and the 595 Pro Guard are Jofa&rsquo;s other two leading skate products. All fit a variety of blades, SLM, ICM and Prolite II. The 500 is for the intermediate player and costs $169.95. The 595 is a junior designed skate that runs $129.95 and has many of the features of the top Custom Pro skate.<h2>LANGE</h2>One of the world leaders in molded hockey skate boots, Lange continues to intensify its marketing magic with the introduction of two new models and a series of figure skates for the new season.The Flex 1000 is a light, strong skate designed for the intermediate skater. It comes equipped with an exclusive shock-absorbing hinge that reduces shock resulting from impact and also eliminates liner wear at the hinge points. It is easily affordable at $70. For younger skaters, Lange introduced the Laser 5 Junior, a scaled-down version of Lange&rsquo;s professional competition skate, the Laser 5 that the pros use. Fitted with a Tuuk stainless steel blade, it has the Laser 5 Pro Shell and black ballistic nylon outer lines.Lange&rsquo;s Laser 5 and TNT models, which earned the name the &lsquo;Incredible Ice Machines&rsquo; when launched in the past few years, continue to head up the company line. The Laser 5 sells for $150, has the black ballistic exterior with custom liners and side pouches for better protection. The TNT is a semi-pro model that is available for $110.Lange also has two goaltender skates out, the Elite and the Laser 5, which sell for $130 and $195 respectively.<h2>MICRON</h2>The 1982-83 season will be the beginning of year two for The Scotty, Micron&rsquo;s moulded skate for kids and designed by Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coach and general manager, Scotty Bowman.Micron reported a successful first year of production for The Scotty and expect it to do even better this season.The Scotty, one of eight models and two goaltender skates offered by Micron, is the darling of the company line. It has been acknowledged as one of the finest skates made for the younger set. Micron reports it is not just a junior model of an adult skate but rather a combination of many innovative features designed to protect and support a child&rsquo;s foot. A team of orthopedists aided Bowman in his design. It retails for $86.25.Other skates in the Micron line include the MX Senior, the first one-piece hinged shell skate featuring a cantilever system and the Mascot Senior, also a hinged-shell model. The MX is the top priced skate at $175.50. There are two goalie skates, the Ml Junior and the Master Pro, which is priced at $199.95. The MX Senior and the Pro Goalie are popular with the NHL pros.<h2>ORBIT</h2>To keep up with the demand for stitched hockey skates, Orbit Skates of Canada, has revamped its program to meet the supply. The new line will incorporate a distinct design and pattern, and an extra-hard water repellent counter as well as a new Pro-last. The Orbit Super Pro heads the line. All leather lined with a narrow heel for a better grip, the Super Pro is fashioned from 500 denier back-to-back nylon mesh uppers. There is greater instep support and a five-piece leather constructed tongue for even better comfort. It all packages for $125.Orbit also has the Pro model for the sophisticated player on the move for only $80 and the Senior molded model which is recommended for beginners or leisure skaters. It sells for $50.The Orbit skate can be fitted with a Tuuk stainless steel blade or the SLM high carbon steel blade. The company has also produced a molded figure skate as it continues to make great new strides in the industry.<h2>ROOS</h2>Hand-crafted rather than machine-made skates are a rarity in the hockey business today and Roos maintains such a standard in producing six top models, all of which have a full leather lining. Roos is one of the few manufacturers left still manufacturing an all-leather skate.Starting with their top-priced Custom Pro line, Roos has three leading skates, many of which can be seen on the feet of National Hockey League players. Former Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; star Gary Domhoefer, now a successful TV commentator, endorses Roos. Montreal defenseman Larry Robinson is a Roos skate wearer as well.Roos custom crafts its skates for comfort and support and all models are equipped with either ICM or Tuuk blades.Besides its three Custom Pro models, Roos also has the Custom Junior and Senior and the Super Hawk. The skates don&rsquo;t come cheap because of the fact they are hand crafted. Roos skates are available only in sporting goods stores across the country.<h2>SK LTD</h2>The quality goes in before the skates go out is pretty much the best way to describe SK Ltd&rsquo;s exclusive line that features a distinctive look of workmanship.The Toronto skate firm is distinguished for the care it puts into its products and the result is a finely finished and highly durable boot.SK has three models on the market, the LT II padded, the LT II and the LT. An indication of the high manufacturing quality of their skates lies in the fact the LT II pad retails for $195 a pair, the LT II and the LT for $170.All skates marketed by SK are composed of leather and nylon with a light, strong boot. Soft foam rubber heel huggers are built into the boot for snug support and comfort. They are also equipped with white Tuuk or ICM blades.A family operated, close-knit company, SK is diverse in that it turns out hockey, figure and speed skates, one of the few firms with a triple product market. SK skates have become popular with Europeans and many International teams, notably West Germany&rsquo;s National and Olympic teams, are wearing SKs. &#9632;

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EQUIPMENT SUPPLEMENT—Skates

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HOCKEY SKATE ANALYSIS

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<div class="byline">BY LOIS KALCHMAN</div>Because there has been an increase in broken necks and spinal cord injuries in minor hockey recently, the helmet and facemask unit have become the favorite whipping boy.The emotional, not to mention uneducated, reaction is to believe that the helmet and facemasks are the reason, at least part of it, why these serious injuries have become more prevalent.There&rsquo;s no doubt that fear has spread throughout minor hockey rinks since the Sunnybrook Medical Centre&rsquo;s Acute Spinal Cored Injury Unit&mdash;one of only two in Canada&mdash;reported treating six such hockey-related injuries in a 16-month period. Four of those victims are paralyzed.But Dr. Charles Tator, chief of neurosurgery at Sunnybrook and chairman of a committee set up to determine the severity and frequency of the injuries, made it clear that the helmets and facemasks are getting a bum rap.&ldquo;There is no evidence that helmets or facemasks have anything to do with the apparent increase in spinal injuries in hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We (doctors) feel strongly that helmets have reduced serious head injuries and facemasks have reduced facial injuries&mdash;most particularly eye injuries.&rdquo;Tator&rsquo;s committee sent out 1,000 questionnaires across Canada to physical medicine specialists, orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons. With a 35 percent response, Tator learned of 19 injuries sustained between July 1, 1980, and December 31, 1981.Of the 19 reported, 18 were males and one was female, with an age range of 11-32, with 12 from Ontario and one each from Quebec, the Yukon, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Alberta.Nine will recover, but of the other 10 with spinal cord injuries, nine will never walk again. Of the 19 victims, six wore facemasks, five did not and it is unknown whether the remaining eight wore any type of facial protection.Dr. Tom Pashby, a Toronto opthalmologist, chairman of the Canadian Standards Association and a member of Tator&rsquo;s committee, is well noted for his contribution to the development of the facemask. Pashby is keeping close watch on what is happening here, too. In fact, Pashby&rsquo;s figures indicate the facemasks have done a spectacular job since his first study in 1972-73 hockey season.In spite of the medical proof that helmets and facemasks are doing an excellent job, the manufacturers are still sensitive to the need for change in their models, to make them lighter and still meet the rigid CSA standards.Jofa manufactures two helmets&mdash;one for the European market to meet their lighter-weight standards and another for Canada in a slightly heavier weight for CSA prerequisites.CCM and Cooper Canada will be following the example of Canadien and Jofa by switching from polycarbonate to polyethlene plastic which is lighter and will not react to the decals, glues and paints that kids love to plaster on their helmets.But the most revolutionary unit is yet to come. Pashby has a dream of protection for the very youngest players age 5-10. It will eliminate the slipsliding helmet cage that looks as if it belongs on an older brother.Pashby noted that helmets manufactured in the United States weigh 910 grams whereas the average Canadian-made senior unit is 875 grams. The Swedish senior protector weighs 700 grams as does the Canadian junior model while the Swedish Junior headgear is only 650 grams.Pashby claims this is still too heavy and is working in co-operation with Cooper Canada on a new model for 5-10-year-olds. &#9632;

Helmets, Facemasks Not To Blame For Injuries

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HOCKEY STICK ANALYSIS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01538/4737967-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ben Brucker, left, the &ldquo;Glove Doctor&rdquo; hands over a refurbished glove to L.A. Kings&rsquo; general manager George Maguire. Brucker repalms gloves for the Kings and many other NHL teams.</figcaption></div><h2>BRUCKER</h2>Don&rsquo;t throw away those worn out hockey gloves. They can be salvaged. Instead of discarding them you would do well to consult the &ldquo;glove doctor,&rdquo; Ben Brucker, who specializes in restoring leather palms as well as other parts of your expensive hockey equipment.Brucker, who is a repair specialist for a half dozen National Hockey League teams, including the Los Angeles Kings, believes control of a player&rsquo;s hockey stick depends largely on the quality of the gloves he&rsquo;s wearing. Brucker, who operates out of Century City, a Los Angeles suburb, makes sure the Kings&rsquo; players perform with flawless gloves on their hands.Brucker is actually known far and wide as an orthopedic bootmaker, an expert at filling doctor&rsquo;s prescriptions for orthopedic shoes and repairing them. Then he met up with Pete Demers, the trainer of the Kings, who walked into Brucker&rsquo;s La Tijera Blvd., store in Los Angeles one day to have some hockey gloves repaired. It was the start of another career for Brucker, who has often redesigned gloves to provide the player with a better grip on his stick.Brucker wasn&rsquo;t content with just repairing hockey gloves. He decided to create his own glove palm design that was so different that both the Canadian and U.S. governments granted him patents.NHL teams don&rsquo;t discard worn out hockey gloves any longer. They take them to the &ldquo;glove doctor&rdquo; instead.<h2>CANADIAN SKATE CONTOURS</h2>Canadian Skate Contours and their American counterpart Custom Radius Corporation of Topsfield, MA, companies which feature Blademaster skate care supplies and assessories, will be the official suppliers to the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia and for all preOlympic events to be held in that city.In addition to Blademaster sharpeners, Canadian Skate Contours and Custom Radius are famous for their blade straight-ener, a valuable yet economical care service tool.The blade straightener is portable, can be fastened to a table or bench and can be set up quickly to take care of any unexpected problems.For further information, call Bill Walley at TSM at (416) 279-8514.<h2>CANADIEN</h2>A new dimension has been added to the Canadien line for the 1982-83 season. A full-length pant with girdle, similar to the ones already being manufactured by two other major companies, has made its appearance as Canadien continues to make a bold bid for a larger share of the hockey market.Canadien has introduced its new total protection system suit with pro girdle that features a superior protection with specially positioned pads covering all the vital parts. All pads include Velcro fasteners, which are exclusive to Canadien, to secure a player&rsquo;s equipment firmly in place. An elastic waist band and lace front allow for maximum comfort and a snug fit. All pads are also constructed of high density polyethylene-reinforced with foam aeration holes for maximum ventilation.While Canadien had made the big plunge into full-length hockey uniforms, the company continues to maintain its high level of hockey stick manufacturing, which has reached out across Europe as well as North American cities and teams. Canadien supplies more than 125 NHL players with specialized sticks each year.There is also diversity in Canadien&rsquo;s equipment. Their line ranges from two-piece adjustable helmets, certified by the Canadian Standards Association, to multi-colored, well-padded gloves, a wide variety of short heavy duty nylon pants, to top protective pads for shins, shoulders and elbows.<h2>CANPRO</h2>All Canpro blades are made from the finest quality high impact nylon and are strictly supervised to safeguard the blades&rsquo; chemical properties both before and after the molding process. Canpro features both the Tuuk and the ICM blade natural com-pliments to any of the leading skate manufacturers and the standard for such companies.Canpro combines the ultimate in engineering with the strictest standards of quality control. When they manufacture their product, it&rsquo;s done in pairs so the buyer gets a perfectly matched pair of blades.Their products regularly undergo tests to gauge their impact resistance and flexibility, tests which simulate playing conditions as closely as possible. Canpro products are the overwhelming choice of the pros in North America and Europe.<h2>CCM</h2>Setting the trend towards developing lightweight, yet durable equipment is one of the objectives which have helped keep CCM a leader in the sports equipment field. Many new products have been developed for the coming season and the company has broadened their range in providing quality equipment for all levels of participants.Two new products on the market are a pair of hotkey gloves designed for senior competitors. The Senior Nylon Glove and the Senior A Glove each have the 3-piece ProGard molded poly thumb, ventilated leather palm and finger gussets, well-padded cuff rolls and are 15&rdquo; in length.One of the biggest developments in recent years was CCM&rsquo;s ProPac system of protection, 30 percent more protective than conventional equipment, while being 20 percent lighter. Worn by the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL last season, the acceptance of the ProPac system has resulted in the development of a ProPac for the senior and intermediate player, for juniors and also for goaltenders.The new ProPac Senior Girdle is one-piece protection from the lower ribcage to just above the kneecap. Constructed of washable lycra, its armadillo design allows for maximum flexibility and fits under long or short pants.For boys aged eight to 12, CCM has developed a shoulder/body pad combination. This equipment provides added protection to the chest and stomach area plus a one-piece back for additional protection for shoulder blades and ribs. It has a nylon faced and bound shoulder and chest area, polyethylene shoulder caps and a foam padded poly and vinyl reinforced wraparound bicep.Shin pads are another piece of equipment where CCM has spent a great deal of time and research introducing innovative technology. The Custom Pro and Professional Shin Pads have a new design with large flare knee caps and leg guards of high density polyethylene. The knee cap is backed by a cotton covered knee cushion for extra protection. Pro Deluxe, Senior A and Senior models are also newcomers to the marketplace as well as a new Custom Pro Lightweight model.In the goaltenders&rsquo; gloves department, CCM has added two more new models to their line. Called the Claw Catch Glove and the Professional Catch Glove, the new models have an extended side trap. They are cowhide with nylon lacing throughout with foam added for greater shock resistance.<h2>COOPER</h2>The introduction of the revolutionary Cooperall hockey uniforms has projected Cooper into the equipment limelight both in Canada and the United States.The full-length Cooperall suits are showing, up more and more with whole leagues now adopting hockey&rsquo;s &lsquo;bold look.&rsquo; The Ontario Hockey League and the Western Hockey League have also adopted the new hockey suits as well. The OHL went all out for the uniforms while the WHL tested them the first year and last season, half the clubs decided to maintain them.Cooper also has the Cooperall Coupes, which affords all the freedom and protection of the fulllength Cooperall, with the conventional hockey pant look. The Coupe has the same stretch Lycra crotch and extra ventilation for cool, confident protection. They fit nicely over the perfected Cooperall girdles.The Cooperalls may be at the top of the company line, but Cooper has a wide range of equipment including nine stick models, three of which are for goalies. They also manufacture a high quality line of gloves and helmets, which are approved by the Canadian Standards Association and the American Hockey Association. In the U.S., Cooper gloves and helmets also come in a wide range of colors and their shinguards and shoulder pads are among the very best in the business.<h2>DAIGNAULT ROLLAND</h2>An expanded hockey product line is being marketed by Daignualt Rolland Company Ltd. of Montreal. Daignault Rolland has added to their considerable stock of hockey merchandise with new equipment offered in gloves, shin guards, shoulder pads, and especially among their goaltenders&rsquo; equipment.Along with the highly regarded LG 55 series of goaltenders pads, Daignault Rolland now has a line of pads for younger competitors. LG33 pads, the top of the line for young goaltenders are retailing at $337.30 for the 31&rdquo; pads and at $314.30 for the 29&rdquo; pads. A second series of pads, the LG320, ranges from the 29&rdquo; model at $260.00 to the 23&rdquo; set retailing at $205.00. Other new lines of goalie pads include the 3265, the 3260, the 328 and the 326, ranging in price from $170.00 to $96.60.There are a total of 12 different hockey gloves in the Daignault Rolland lineup besides the goaltenders&rsquo; mitts. The Grand Pro Nova 16 and 17 retail for $250 and $253 respectively, while the new 373 model retails at $32.50 down to the 345 model, an all vinyl model with reinforced cuff, thick padded back and finger rolls, which is listed at $25.60.Equipment in all price ranges can be found in the Daignault Rolland stock with products designed specifically for certain positions with added flexibility and protection built in where most needed.<h2>JOFA</h2>The most noticeable aspect of watching Wayne Gretzky on the ice, other than his goal-scoring heroics and his quick skating acceleration, is the equipment he&rsquo;s wearing. The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; superstar has been using Jofa hockey protective equipment since he was four years old and now that he&rsquo;s the talk of the NHL, it is only fitting that Jofa-Volvo Canada should adopt a complete Wayne Gretzky line aimed at the younger players.The &lsquo;Gretzky Collection&rsquo; as Jofa likes to call it, is comprised of helmet, gloves, elbow, shoulder and knee pads, pants and a colorful carry-all equipment bag.Gretzky has insisted on a high quality of workmanship in the equipment bearing his name and youngsters from six to 12 can be assured of top protection at an attractive price. The Jofa 311, 312 and 313 shoulder pad features a unique chest and shoulder blade protection fashioned from lightweight but rugged injected foam. The Gretzky model gloves and pants are extremely durable and reinforced for better support and protection.The Jofa equipment line extends all the way from helmets, gloves, sticks, skates, pants, shoulder, shin and elbow pads to excellent goaling equipment. The new Gretzky line has made Jofa extremely popular with the young set and given the company the inside track with the small fry hockey player.<h2>JONAH INDUSTRIES LTD.</h2>The DupliSkate blade sharpening system is now being carried in Canada by Jonah Industries Ltd. of Dorval, Que. This will enable Canadian consumers and those throughout the world to receive the benefits of a machine manufactured to metric specifications.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01494/4737960-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="1237" height="1684"><figcaption class="caption-body">Protection from head to toe is supplied by Cooper with its lightweight XL3 shoulder pads, elbow pads, Cooperall girdle and XL 2 shinguards.</figcaption></div>Several National Hockey League teams were using the DupliSkate system last year and at the recent summer NHL meetings, a proposal was introduced that recommended that the DupliSkate system become the standard for the entire league.Unlike conventional horizontal axis grinders, DupliSkate&rsquo;s vertical orientation allows the grinding system to be controlled by a hydraulic system and counterweight. This feature eliminates all errors caused by excess pressure on the blades.DupliSkate&rsquo;s hollow grind radii can also be varied from &frac14;&rdquo; to 1&rdquo;allowing for the widest variation in skate sharpening in today&rsquo;s market<h2>KOHO</h2>In keeping with their expansion plans for 1982-83 that will feature the new Silverfibre hockey stick, KOHO has also moved to expand the company&rsquo;s equipment line as well.Highlight of the new equipment look will be the introduction of a trend-setting hockey helmet, the KOHO 5000. In addition there will be three new models of hockey pants, three completely new size ranges of goaltender equipment, and a complete line of colorful new accessories.The 5000 helmet is a five-construction model that will provide unique fitting. Basically it will allow helmets to fit the head form not just the head size. It is the newest in design, comfort and engineering by KOHO.With many NHL players endorsing their equipment, KOHO has a full line in production in helmets, pants and protective pads. The Pro 900 is undoubtedly one of the stellar performers in the KOHO array of multi-colored gloves. It&rsquo;s extraflexibility and wear make it extremely popular with the pros, notably Islanders&rsquo; Bryan Trottier, who is a big KOHO user.The KOHO stick line, of course, is tremendous. The addition of the new Silverfibre model, a durable fibreglass reinforced hockey stick, gives the company another step ahead in the manufacturing of the wood stick. The goaltending line in both sticks and protective equipment has also been updated. &#9632;

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EQUIPMENT SUPPLEMENT—Products

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Hockey Equipment Product Analysis

While energy costs and the recession are a major concern to everyone these days, there are still a number of popular pastimes that can be enjoyed if the energy one is willing to expend is supplied from your own body.One such pursuit, employed by hockey players of all ages, is skating on pavement and asphalt by means of roller-type skates, an excellent means of conditioning throughout the summer months or whenever skating at an arena is not possible.Road hockey, long a popular sport, has now grown into indoor hockey with games on foot in nonflooded arenas as well as roller hockey. Players used to simply get a pair of roller skates, grab a stick and use a ball as a puck, but for some, the equipment has been greatly modified by the urethane plastic wheel and the introduction of roller hockey blades.These blades&mdash;sold by RLS Products and Super Street Skate Company among others&mdash;are the closest approximation to the ice skating motion yet developed. And because they are heavier than the skates used on ice, they are an excellent way of developing power in your stride as a conditioning tool.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01517/4738029-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="607" height="1050"><figcaption class="caption-body">Many of the same muscles used for ice skating are exercised when street skating.</figcaption></div>Depending upon the blade length of a skater, the number of wheels used on the roller blade can be adjusted from two up to as many as five wheels.Street blades have been probably most enthusiastically received by high school, junior and college players. Coaches have indicated that they feel the street skates are a great training device for hockey and their use has even extended to the professional level.Many find it an enjoyable way to work out during the summer months. The practically friction-free blades roll over the pavement swiftly and it&rsquo;s quite easy to skate 20,30 or even 50 miles at a time. And it&rsquo;s far less punishing on the body in terms of wear and tear, bouncing and pounding than deriving the same type of muscular and cardiovascular benefits from an alternative activity such as jogging.One inventive student, Leslie Hellman of the University of Massachusetts, is putting his street blades to good use this summer. Inspired by the late Terry Fox, a cancer victim who jogged more than 3,000 miles across Canada on one leg to help raise more than $25 million for cancer research before he was forced to stop because of the disease, Hellman is attempting to rollerskate from Eugene, Oregon to Boston to raise money for the American Cancer Society.Hellman began what he hopes will be a 3,600 mile journey on June 1. He expects to arrive in Boston by the middle of August. &#9632;

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Rolling Your Way To Off-Season Conditioning

Readers over the age of 25 who have lived in the north and eastern sections of the United States and most of Canada will know the feeling.You&rsquo;d be out on a winter&rsquo;s day&mdash;sliding, skating, shoveling snow&mdash;and by the end of the day you&rsquo;d be dead tired. Sure, it was partly from the exercise, but as you stripped off your soaked wool clothing, you knew it was also from lugging around that wool sweater or snow suit.Your second problem was evident the next day. Although you made sure that your clothes had been hung up to dry, they didn&rsquo;t&mdash;at least not as dry as you would have liked. And if they did, they probably shrank a few sizes. Athletes participating in indoor sports had the same problems, especially hockey players. In the old days, they&rsquo;d be playing in their wool jerseys, being weighed down as the game progressed and as the sweaters absorbed their sweat. The major mode of transportation then was by train but that still didn&rsquo;t guarantee the sweaters drying properly and when the players began to travel more and more by plane, it only increased the problems involved in washing and drying the sweaters.The search for other materials began.A nylon-durene type jersey was tried. They wouldn&rsquo;t shrink, they were very sturdy, but they were also incredibly heavy. Not good for speedy hockey players.The main objective became to find a wash-and-wear type material. Two have been discovered&mdash;a nylon mesh, which is one of the more popular materials in hockey sweaters today and polyester, the material used by Sport Maska Inc. in most of their hockey jerseys.According to Brian Urman, vice president of sales and marketing for Maska, the nylon mesh shirt offered the wash and wear qualities but presented a problem as far as the continuity of stripes. In other words, in order to put a stripe into the material, it would have to be cut-sewn which would make the jersey a little less strong than normal or it could be screened on, painting the stripes, which could be a problem because they often crack because of the weight of the jersey.The polyester jersey, on the other hand, was one piece of material all the way down because the stripes were knitted in. It also offered the strongest resistance: Throw it in the washing machine, then in the dryer and you&rsquo;re ready to go. It&rsquo;s also easy to sew and repair, a necessary prerequisite for athletic wear.So what&rsquo;s happening in the hockey sweater market these days? A few things, actually. First, sales to sports teams and leagues are holding steady. Hockey in the United States reached a peak in the late 60s and early 70s; then it had somewhat of a resurgence following the U.S. Olympic team&rsquo;s Gold medal in 1980. Hockey interest in Canada has been steady throughout the last decade and a half, although in the last couple of years, sales to the casual market, the non-playing public, have increased dramatically.&ldquo;We sell almost half our jerseys to females,&rdquo; said a spokesman for the Doug Laurie Sporting Goods Store in Toronto, located at Maple Leaf Gardens. &ldquo;Ever since they added the four (World Hockey Association) teams, the number of girls buying sweaters have increased because of the availability of (Wayne) Gretzky sweaters. The best seller we have is Edmonton, followed by Toronto, then Chicago.&rdquo;The New York teams sell the best at Gerry Cosby and Co. Inc. in New York City with the Rangers leading the Islanders and the new New Jersey Devils expected to come on strong to take over the no. 3 spot in the market.&ldquo;We have a unique situation being located at Madison Square Garden,&rdquo; said Michael Cosby, manager of the MSG store. &ldquo;We get a lot of people here from Europe and South America, tourists who love buying these jerseys and using them as fashion items. We get a lot of rock and roll stars who come in and buy them to wear during concert performances. They&rsquo;re very colorful, very comfortable.&rdquo;&ldquo;A lot of jerseys are being worn in stadiums,&rdquo; says Maska&rsquo;s Urman. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s common to see them in every walk of life. I&rsquo;ve seen kids going to school wearing a hockey jersey or in discotheques. It&rsquo;s an expression that is not confined to the hockey game.&rdquo;Hockey shops such as Cosby&rsquo;s and Laurie&rsquo;s are specialists in providing actual professional jerseys which may range upwards in price to as much as $150, but their fastest selling commodity is replica jerseys.&lsquo;&lsquo;We sell a pretty amazing volume of professional sweaters with particular players&rsquo; names and numbers on them,&rdquo; Cosby said. &ldquo;And people really want the authentic thing.&rdquo;&ldquo;Most people prefer the hockey cut to a form-fitting, tight shirt,&rdquo; said Urman. &ldquo;They want a hockey sweater that is loose and something with color and brightness. Polyester is the best material because it will not shrink, it will not fade and it&rsquo;s colors will be brilliant to reflect whatever team you&rsquo;re copying.&rdquo;According to the Doug Laurie spokesman, &ldquo;Girls (who buy the jerseys) seem not so much a fan of hockey, but a fan of the hockey player. They&rsquo;re here trying to get autographs and then buy their favorite players&rsquo; shirt.&rdquo;Urman sayd, the old analogy holds true: &ldquo;What&rsquo;s good for the pros, is good for the juniors and the little guys too.&rdquo;Girls, he might add, as well. &#9632;

Today’s Hockey Jersey Now Fashionable Item

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01424/4738084-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gregg Sheppard, 33, will try to catch on with another NHL team as a free agent after the Penguins put him on waivers without any takers. (Photo By Ian MacAlpine)</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Last year, the Penguins trimmed no fewer than five players&mdash;30 or older&mdash;from their roster during the off-season. The trend is continuing this year, and the first victim is 33-year-old center Gregg Sheppard.The Penguins placed the 10-year National Hockey League veteran on waivers and since no other club claimed him, Pittsburgh plans to buy out the option year of his contract.&ldquo;I was shocked,&rdquo; said Sheppard about the move. &ldquo;I saw Baz (general manager Baz Bastien) before they went to the draft and he said, &lsquo;We have to talk about your contract.&rsquo; I assumed they were either going to let me play out my option or sign me to a one-and-one (one season and an option year) contract.&rdquo;Sheppard learned the hard way what happens to a person who assumes incorrectly.The 5-8, 170-pounder was used mostly in penalty-killing situations or to shadow the opposition&rsquo;s top offensive center last season. Sheppard scored 11 goals and 10 assists in 58 games and missed the Penguins&rsquo; five playoff games with a knee injury for which he underwent surgery in April.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Sheppard scored 11 goals and 10 assists in 58 games, but missed playoffs with a knee injury</blockquote>&ldquo;I feel I can play another two or three years,&rdquo; Sheppard said. &ldquo;The knee is fine.&rdquo;Sheppard came to the Penguins in the fall of 1978 in a three-team trade that involved Dick Redmond going to Boston from Atlanta and Jean Pronovost moving from Pittsburgh to the Flames.The Penguins surrendered a consistent 40-goal scorer in Pronovost to acquire Sheppard. He quickly became a favorite of the Civic Arena boo-birds because he failed to match the goalscoring ability he had displayed in Boston where he registered three 30-goal seasons.Sheppard&rsquo;s best offensive season in Pittsburgh was his first when he scored 15 goals and 22 assists. In recent seasons, he concentrated on his defensive abilities.&ldquo;Realistically, Sheppard didn&rsquo;t figure as one of our top five centers, and I&rsquo;m only planning to carry four anyway,&rdquo; said Penguin coach Eddie Johnston, who was a Bruin teammate of Gregg&rsquo;s in his rookie season. &ldquo;I want to make room for more kids on the roster, too.&ldquo;Whenever I can open a spot for a younger player, I will. By doing this now, we&rsquo;ve given Sheppard a good shot at catching on with another team.&rdquo;A native of North Battleford, Sask., Sheppard owns a cattle ranch in the province.The Penguins have five other players on their roster 30-years-old or over&mdash;Pat Boutette, George Ferguson, Rick Kehoe, Ron Stackhouse and Gary Edwards, who is a free agent but expected to resign with Pittsburgh.PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Bastien has signed all of the club&rsquo;s 1981 entry draft choices not signed last year with the exception of right wing Geoff Wilson, who plans to go to college. Those signed include: defensemen Tom Thornbury, Norm Schmidt and Paul Edwards; center Mitch Lamoureux; and left winger Dean Defazio&hellip;The Penguins will hold their training camp in Johnstown, PA., about 66 miles east of Pittsburgh, beginning Sept. 13. Training camp last season was held in Erie, PA., where the Penguins had their American Hockey League farm club. The development team has been moved this season to Baltimore. Lou Angotti, who coached Erie last season, will coach the Skipjacks. Boston also will supply Baltimore with players, as they did in Erie&hellip;After a one-year absence, the Penguins will return to WPGH-TV for a minimum of 20 televised games this season after a season on WPTT-TV. The Penguin radio network will again be flagshipped by KQV in Pittsburgh. &#9632;

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Penguin Veteran Sheppard Victim Of Youth Movement

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOGAN</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Try, try as he may, Scotty Bowman can&rsquo;t seem to keep away from behind the Sabres&rsquo; bench.When the season opens this fall, Bowman will be head coach for the third time since joining the Sabres three years ago.When, he originally arrived in Buffalo, he said he would coach the team in addition to his duties as general manager and director of hockey operations. That season, he selected Roger Neilson as his assistant.In the 1980-81 season, Bowman turned the coaching reins over to Neilson and he concentrated on building a team to his liking and trading away many of the familiar faces from the Punch Imlach era.But then, when Buffalo lost to Minnesota North Stars in the quarter-final found of the 1981 Stanley Cup playoffs, Neilson and Bowman fell upon hard times, reached a &ldquo;mutual agreement&rdquo; and decided to part ways.Scotty was the head coach again, this time with Jim Roberts in the wings as his associate.Then came last season, when Bowman surrendered the coaching duties to Roberts only to take them away again just before the playoffs began. But not even Bowman&rsquo;s presence behind the bench could rejuvenate the Sabres as they were eliminated in the opening round by the Boston Bruins.Since then, there has been a great deal of speculation as to who Bowman would pick. But that all died after the National Hockey League meetings.&ldquo;We do not feel it is necessary to make any personnel changes in our coaching staff,&rdquo; Bowman said.In other words, Scotty will stay on as head coach while Roberts and Nick Polano will continue with their roles as assistant coaches.Bowman&rsquo;s stated preference not to coach on a full-time basis, however, indicates that Roberts and Polano will probably run the team&rsquo;s day-to-day on-ice operations during Bowman&rsquo;s absence, when he will be scouting talent in North America and Europe.Buffalo and Niagara area fans had a chance to see two of Buffalo&rsquo;s three first-round draft choices during the weekend of June 25 when the second Molson NHL softball tournament was held in Niagara Falls, Ont. Phil Housley (Buffalo&rsquo;s first pick and sixth overall) and Daye Andreychuk (the third pick, 16th overall) played for the Sabres&rsquo; team that was captained by Ric Seiling.In other news, former Sabre and Los Angeles King left winger Richard Martin announced that he had filed a lawsuit against the Sabres, Bowman, Peter A. Casagrande, the team&rsquo;s physician, and Buffalo General Hospital, seeking to recover for alleged injuries sustained after Martin suffered a knee injury in a collision with Washington Capitals goalie Mike Palmateer in a game in Buffalo on November 9,1980. Though no details of the litigation were announced, Martin would not deny that he was asking for damages in excess of $1 million.Martin, who was traded to Los Angeles along with Don Luce in the spring of 1981, maintains that Bowman pressured him into returning before his knee had a chance to heal properly, thus forcing him to retire prematurely last December. Martin talked at length with reporters after a game in Buffalo last January against the Kings and said that Bowman refused to believe him when he said he couldn&rsquo;t play on the knee. He said the knee would swell and have to be drained any time he played in a game, but that Bowman wanted him to play anyway. After the trade and a summer&rsquo;s rest, Martin said he tried to play with the Kings at the start of last season, but the knee still troubled him and he did not want to risk more serious and possibly permanent injury.The Sabres issued no comment about the lawsuit and said they had not been served with a summons or complaint in the action. &#9632;

Scotty To Stay Behind The Bench

<div class="byline">By BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;While most of Washington&rsquo;s sports-minded population contemplated vacations at the beach or awaited the opening of the football Redskins&rsquo; training camp, a bewildered few wondered whether hockey would continue to fill their winter months.A Save the Capitals Committee was organized, belatedly to be sure, when owner Abe Pollin let it be known that he could not continue to absorb financial losses of about $25 million in eight years of struggling to make the Capitals a success.The bewilderment came because Pollin, in November, had assured one and all that the team would be playing at Capital Centre at least until the Year 2000. Pollin had cited the requirements of his Capital Centre financing, a $20-million bond with the Equitable Life Assurance Society of America, that mandated a hockey team as atenant.However, it became apparent that the provision could be altered in one of two ways, by substituting an indoor soccer team and Georgetown University basketball for the hockey dates,. or by Pollin paying the annual hockey rental, believed to be about $560,000.The most likely conclusion to the scenario seemed to be a sale of the Capitals&rsquo; assets, primarily the players, to the New Jersey Devils. A merger with the transplanted Colorado franchise was rumored several months ago, but it apparently was too complicated to gain NHL approval in one step.Later, Pollin indicated that a decision would be made by August 20 whether the team would be sold, moved, merged or disbanded. To maintain the club in Landover, Pollin indicated that he had four prospective investors, but that they would expect four conditions to be met before they would supply the financial backing. They are:1) That 7,500 season tickets be sold within one month. Last season the Capitals had 4,200 season ticket holders. As of late July, 2,152 had renewed while 523 new subscribers had signed on,2) That enough tickets would be sold to ensure sellouts for the club&rsquo;s first 10 games of the 1982-83 schedule. Capacity at the Capital Centre is 18,130.3) The Capital Centre must lower the Capitals&rsquo; rent from 15 to 10 per cent of the net after taxes. Capital Centre bondholders would have to approve such a move.4) That Prince George County must reduce the amusement tax from 10 percent to one half of one percent for the next four years. Members of the county council did better than that, agreeing to eliminate the tax entirely for the next three years. Last year, the tax brought $268,000 into county coffers.A group organized by attorney Art Kaminsky was negotiating with Pollin, attempting to buy the team and continue play in Capital Centre. However, there reportedly were numerous hangups.Fans soliciting season-ticket pledges to keep the team in Washington basically were seeking one more chance from Pollin. The advantage for the owner was that, should he try it one more year and fail, he would likely have no problem shifting the team to Tacoma, Wash., for the 1983-84 season, with the 24,007-seat Tacoma Dome scheduled for completion in April.Time presented the greatest difficulty to the last-minute attempt to save the team. It was obvious that the situation had to be settled soon so that the other NHL clubs could announce their schedules.Why Pollin suddenly changed his mind about continuing was a subject of speculation that went unanswered, as Pollin and his legal counsel, Peter O&rsquo;Malley, turned silent.As best as it could be determined, Pollin was fooled by his own announced attendance figures, believing the Capitals were not doing too badly at the gate. Then, when the dollar figures on the recently completed season were in, he apparently learned what the media had known all along&mdash;the crowds were misleading because of freebies and discount plans, and the base of actual hockey fans was too small to sustain a franchise.The Capitals announced an average attendance of 11,378 per game. It is not known what an average full-price ticket would be at the Centre, since a spokesman said the number of tickets at each price was confidential information. However, $9 is believed to be in the ballpark. On that basis, the team should have grossed $4.1 million. Instead, it was learned that gross receipts were only $2.9 million, a mere $80,000 above the dying Rockies when they were in Colorado.When Pollin acquired the franchise in 1974, the break-even point was estimated at 12,000 fans per game. At that time, however, salaries were lower and defenseman Rod Seiling, acquired on waivers, was ordered traded by Pollin when it as discovered he was earning $150,000 a season.That salary would not be out of line today and, like everything else in the economy, other operating expenses have increased because of inflation.The Capitals&rsquo; ticket prices have not kept pace, primarily because the team&rsquo;s performance could not justify increases. The first season, 1974-75, tickets sold for $8.50, $6.50 and $4 In eight years, they were raised only $2.50 each&mdash;with few buyers.Pollin&rsquo;s present problems were increased by the scarcity of potential buyers for his team. O&rsquo;Malley said that &ldquo;if Abe Pollin was willing to see the Capitals move, he could sell the team tomorrow.&rdquo; But when the Capitals sought permission to move from the NHL at its meeting in Toronto June 21, they were turned down because they lacked either a purchaser or a destination. The Meadowlands merger seemed the only possibility, unless Kaminsky could produce investors willing to lose a bundle.It was about akin to wishing for a miracle, and those folks on the Save the Caps Committee could attest to the absence of miracles at Capital Centre in recent years. &#9632;

Washington’s Future In The NHL Looks Bleak

<div class="byline">BY GORDON EDES</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;So the Kings, who had one of the most porous defenses in the league, need another defenseman, right?Wrong, according to no less an authority than Marcel Dionne.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t think we need a defenseman,&rdquo; said Dionne, who listed a big center as a greater priority.The key to the Kings defense, he said, could be Mark Hardy.&ldquo;He is so good. He could be the leader of our team. He skates well, shoots well, he&rsquo;s strong and he can pass.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a much better defenseman than Paul Coffey (Edmonton). I just hope it&rsquo;s coming. He&rsquo;s the guy, if he would take charge. He can do it all.&ldquo;All the others complement each other. But you have to have the one guy.&ldquo;Mark will never have the exposure of a (Denis) Potvin or somebody like that. But he can be as good as anybody. If he only knew how close he is. He can carry the puck and go through the whole team and score. He&rsquo;s that close.&ldquo;And I believe Don (Perry) coaching next year from the start, you&rsquo;re going to see the results in Mark. I do believe we&rsquo;ve got to have that pivot on our team.&ldquo;Mark Hardy goes down to block shots. He just does everything. But I&rsquo;ll tell you, our defensemen are great. 1 don&rsquo;t think a defenseman is a great need. If they play with the poise they did in the playoffs, we&rsquo;ll be all right.&rdquo;The key in Dionne&rsquo;s optimism, of course, is the Kings&rsquo; showing in the playoffs. That and the arrival of coach Don Perry has caused Dionne, who had chosen a vow of silence rather than voice his despair over earlier proceedings, to open up again.After the season, he sat down with Dan McLean of the South Bay Daily Breeze for an expansive interview in which he discussed not only the Kings defense, but the following:&bull; Breaking up the Dionne line.&ldquo;I would say that for the better of the team, if we cannot get that big centerman, we&rsquo;ve got to break up my line&hellip;If nothing changes, if we go with exactly the same team, I would think they should put Bernie Nicholls between (Charlie) Simmer and (Dave) Taylor.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who it would be better to put me with. There are a lot of options. Remember, (Steve) Bozek was our best player in the playoffs and he was a center in college.&ldquo;At one time, I thought I was going to play wing in the playoffs. That&rsquo;s another possibility. They&rsquo;ve got to find more flexibility with me. If Dougie Smith is more comfortable at center than wing, leave him there and I&rsquo;ll play wing&mdash;either left or right&mdash;and teach him things.&ldquo;But there are all sorts of possibilities. Flexibility is the key. I can play with Jimmy Fox, if they give us a big guy on the line. Or they could split up Simmer and Taylor.&rdquo;&bull; The need for an enforcer.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of small players. You need a player who scares people. Rick Chartraw, Jerry Korab, Dave Lewis, Jay Wells and Hardy will mix it up. So will J.P. Kelly, Dean Hopkins and Taylor.&ldquo;But none of them is the guy who will go out and start something with a Tiger Williams.&rdquo;&bull; On Don Perry.&ldquo;He took a team that was really struggling and look what he did. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m so positive about next year&hellip;We didn&rsquo;t have the killer instinct the last few years and now we have it.&rdquo;&bull; On building around someone other than himself.&ldquo;The difference is, certain players on this team have gone as far as expected. They get their 40 goals, and that&rsquo;s great. But you have to set our line aside and work around what else you have.&ldquo;As you get older, they can&rsquo;t build around you anymore. You do that to a guy who is 21 or 22. Now we have a younger team. You&rsquo;ve got to build around the nucleus. They have to set me aside and Dave and Charlie aside and say, &ldquo;What do we have here?&rdquo;&ldquo;Bernie Nicholls is there. He&rsquo;s going to have a good shot at winning Rookie of the Year. I know he&rsquo;s got my vote.&rdquo; &#9632;

Optimistic Dionne Speaks Out On Kings’ Needs

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.&mdash;Banking, in part, on a core of familiar names and faces&mdash;with more possibly in the wings&mdash;the Jersey Devils set up shop in the Byrne Meadowlands Arena and embarked on a unique and inventive, as well as controversial, season-ticket plan.The familiar faces come from the Islanders&rsquo; family on a franchise that was called &lsquo;Islanders West&rsquo; when based in Denver: goalie Glenn Resch, center Steve Tambellini, defenseman Bob Lorimer, and first-round draft pick Rocky Trottier, brother of Islander all-star Bryan. Not to mention the front-office: coach Billy Macmillan, Bert Marshall and Jay Arbour.Two potential free-agents loomed on the horizon&mdash;former Islander Garry Howatt, if a compensation deal could be struck with the Hartford Whalers, and Steve Vickers, whose contract with the Rangers was settled and who would be available without compensation.For starters, those are the names who will be counted on to fill the 21,000 seats in the Meadowlands. And then came the announcement of a season-ticket plan that had heads shaking&mdash;mostly in amazement but in some cases rage.The Devils&rsquo; primary owner, John J. McMullen, arranged for two radically different season-ticket plans. Plan &ldquo;A&rdquo;, the choice of seats, would be renewable from year to year; Plan &ldquo;B&rdquo; would not. But the more expensive Plan &ldquo;A&rdquo; season tickets would be renewable thanks only to the purchase of a $2,000 Gold Circle Certificate, in addition to the cost of the seats&mdash;giving the holder rights to a particular seat in the arena&rsquo;s lower-tier year after year. After ten years, the ticket-holder would have his $2,000 refunded at the rate of $200 per year for the succeeding ten years.The idea behind the scheme, McMullen said, is to hold prices down for the Plan B fans by having Plan A ticket-holders&mdash;the majority of whom are expected to be corporate accounts&mdash;subsidize them. &ldquo;Without Plan A, it is estimated that the average ticket-price would have to be raised by $5, per ticket,&rdquo; wrote McMullen in a letter to the 12,000 prospective ticket-holders. Tickets will be priced at $17, $15, $12 and $10.&ldquo;The purpose of this ticket plan is to accomplish several important objectives,&rdquo; McMullen&rsquo;s letter added. &ldquo;First and foremost, the new franchise is dedicated to building the best management and playing personnel in the National Hockey League. The second purpose of the ticket plan is to assure that there will be a continuing opportunity for new fans to obtain tickets on an annual basis without the club being forced to exclude any hockey fan (which would happen if all season ticket holders had permanent renewal right). Thirdly, the plan permits maintaining reasonable price levels for the Plan B ticket holders. Everyone realizes that the total sum needed to purchase the transfer the franchise from Denver to the Meadowlands represented the highest price ever paid for a hockey franchise. However, there was no other way to have a team in New Jer-sey.&rdquo;McMullen also pledged not to take any dividends out of the company in the next decade. Funds generated by the Gold Circle certificates would instead be used to pay the transfer and indemnification costs in the team&rsquo;s $30-million price-tag, and would also be put back into the team.The novel plan was received cordially by most media here, with the notable exception of the New York Post, which headlined it &lsquo;Devils&rsquo; ticket plan looks like one helluva ripoff.&rsquo; Echoing points made in that article, one fan, an account executive for a Wall Street brokerage firm, made this point: &ldquo;Not only are they not paying interest on a long-term loan, they are not even keeping pace with inflation. Two thousand dollars ten years ago now will be worth a fraction of two thousand dollars today.&rdquo;However, according to McMullen&rsquo;s figures, without the Gold Circle plan the price-range of Meadowlands tickets now could have been $17 to $25. Now, Gold Circle members will pay $17 and others considerably less.And any reservations to the plan were not sufficient to prevent the cheques from pouring in. &ldquo;It has taken off real well,&rdquo; reported Devil director of Hockey Operations Max McNab less than a week after McMullen&rsquo;s letter went out. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been good response&mdash;more than 250 to Plan A and more than 1,000 to Plan B.&rdquo;As McNab spoke, the Devils were preparing to move into permanent office quarters at the arena. Also under construction was a res-taurant/club for fans. However, the pieces had yet to fall into place in the front office.Still to be hired were a public relations person, broadcasters, or an overseer of all operations&mdash;hockey and marketing. And, of course, there were still many question-marks on the ice for a team that was the doormat of the NHL last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01474/4738187-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="616" height="1230"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ghosts of Islanders&rsquo; past, including Steve Tambellini, will inhabit the Meadowlands. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Personnel,&rdquo; concluded McNab, &ldquo;is our top priority.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Devils Ask Fans To Pay Their Dues

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;Pressed for a name moments before the National Hockey League draft was to begin, Larry Pleau said, &ldquo;Lawless.&rdquo;And he didn&rsquo;t say anything more.When the Whalers&rsquo; first-round pick, the 14th overall selection, arrived, Paul Lawless of the Windsor Spitfires (OHL) was available.Pleau, the Whalers&rsquo; director of hockey operations, didn&rsquo;t hesitate.&ldquo;Everybody has different opinions,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;In some cases, there was a huge discrepancy between the ratings of our scouts and Central Scouting. Our scouts had Lawless rated 14th overall.&rdquo;Lawless, a 5-11, 180-pound left winger, turned 18 on July 2. He has never been to Hartford.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s in Connecticut, right?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m stunned, but really happy. I didn&rsquo;t know that anyone had me rated this high.&rdquo;Lawless said that he&rsquo;s &ldquo;better offensively&rdquo; and needs help on defense.&ldquo;Me and everybody else, I guess,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident in my scoring, but 1 know that I&rsquo;ve got to work hard defensively. I&rsquo;ll hit the weights this summer and do my running. All I can do is go to training camp and see what happens. I&rsquo;ll be in shape and I&rsquo;ll do my best.&rdquo;Pleau said that only Lawless, of the 11 draftees, possesses a &ldquo;reasonable&rdquo; chance of making the Whalers next season.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s be honest,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t know anything until the kids put on the skates. The way it looks, considering that almost all our picks are 18, Lawless is the only one with a reasonable shot at making our club. And part of the reason is our problems at left wing.&rdquo;The Whalers&rsquo; second pick was defenseman Mark Paterson from Ottawa of the OHL. Paterson is a 5-11, 178-pounder who has been to Buffalo and Rhode Island, the extent of his travels in the United States.The Whalers&rsquo; third choice was Kevin Dineen, son of head scout Bill, a former Whalers&rsquo; coach. Dineen is a 5-9, 177-pound defenseman who is projected as a winger. He will spend at least &ldquo;two more years&rdquo; at Denver University where he just completed his freshman year, according to his father.A Swede, Ulf Samuelson, a 6-1, 180-pound defenseman, was the club&rsquo;s fourth choice. In the 11th round, the Whalers picked another Swede, Martin Linse, a 20-year-old forward.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to pay to get them over here and you&rsquo;re probably better off dealing with two than one,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just going to sit and wait. Two years from now, maybe one will be ready.&rdquo;Included among the Whalers&rsquo; pick was Mickey Kramptovich, an 18-year-old centerman who has only completed his junior year in an American high school in Minnesota.&ldquo;Can you imagine drafting a junior in high school?&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;Is this game changing or what?&rdquo;WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Garry Howatt, selected co-MVP along with Blaine Stoughton by his teammates last year, has been declared, a free agent with compensation by the league. Pleau, who thought he had a deal worked out with Howatt and his agent, Gary Wichard, has been taken aback by the whole episode. Negotiations, Pleau said, changed dramatically once Colorado had made its move to New Jersey. Howatt owns property on Long Island and playing in New Jersey would help his business interests&hellip;Dave Keon quietly bid farewell, which was his style. Keon played 22 years, the last five-and-a-half with the Whalers. To say he was a credit to the game would be an understatement. He did nothing wrong, for 22 professional seasons. &#9632;

Lawless Has ‘Reasonable Shot’ With Whalers

NIAGARA FALLS&mdash;It looked to be a classic match-up between the powerladen defending champion and the hard-charging challenger from the pack. But the challenger had a secret weapon.Paced by the unhittable slants of pitcher Jerry (King Kong) Korab and a sound defense, the upstart Los Angeles Kings completely shut down defending champion Detroit Red Wings 9-0 to capture the Second Annual Molson&rsquo;s NHL Slo Pitch Tournament held June 25-27.An overflow crowd of between 5,000 and 6,000 at Niagara Falls&rsquo; Oakes Park watched Korab limit the Red Wings to four hits in the title showdown. Both the Kings and the Red Wings had moved through four games without a loss to gain the finals from the field of 14 National Hockey League teams plus a squad of NHL officials and one made up of retired NHL players. A team from Hockey Night in Canada also played two exhibition matches during the weekend.In addition to the exciting Slo Pitch games, there were luncheons, a big dance and several opportunities for fans to meet the largest congregation of NHL players ever assembled at one event.In the final, Korab completely baffled the strong Detroit attack in only the second shutout of the tournament. And just to rub it in, Korab, along with Marcel Dionne, were the batting stars for the Kings, each rapping out three hits.Niagara Falls&rsquo; promotion manager Bob Lavelle and the Molson&rsquo;s people were pleased by the enthusiastic crowds that attended the three-day event. Beer sales, the proceeds of which were presented to minor sports in the area, were said to be about three times the previous year.Activities of the final day were filmed by the CBC although plans for the telecast have not yet been announced.(See page 3S for photos on the Tournament.)TOURNAMENT SCORESFinalLos Angeles 9 Detroit 0SemifinalsLos Angeles 5, Winnipeg 2Detroit 10 Calgary 8ExhibitionHNIC 4 NHL All Stars 9 &#9632;

Kings Are Crowned Slo Pitch Champs

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyBOSTON&mdash;A week in Kiawah Island, S.C., wasn&rsquo;t enough to do it, but the American Hockey League board of governors were able to announce plans for a 13-team league for the 1982-83 season at a follow-up meeting late in July.A proposal by the Toronto Maple Leafs to shift their farm club from Moncton, N.B., to St. Catharines, Ont. was not accepted at the Kiawah Island meetings when the Rochester Americans (Buffalo&rsquo;s farm club) and the Maine Mariners (Philadelphia&rsquo;s minor-league representative) voted against the transfer while Baltimore (stocked by Pittsburgh), which just shifted from Erie, and Sherbrooke Jets, Winnipeg&rsquo;s farm team that just moved over from the Central League, abstained in the voting. That left Toronto with only seven votes when nine were needed to make up a three-quarters vote acceptance. It also left the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; farm club in limbo as they had announced their intentions of moving their Wichita Wind team from the Central League into Moncton when the Leafs vacated.Just before a special meeting called for Boston, the Americans reached an agreement with Leaf owner Harold Ballard, allowing the franchise shift to St. Catharines and confirming that the AHL would, in fact, expand to become a 13-member league for the coming season.Toronto had decided to terminate their relationship with the city of Moncton after winning the Calder Cup this past year. The Chicago Black Hawks, who also shared the responsibilities of placing players in Moncton, had already signed a new working agreement with Springfield.For the 1982-83 campaign, the American League will once again have a two division format. Edmonton&rsquo;s Moncton squad will line up in the Northern Division, which also includes Nova Scotia, Maine, Fredericton, Adirondack and newcomer Sher-brooke.The Northern Division will be comprised of Toronto&rsquo;s St. Catharines outfit, Rochester, Binghamton, Hershey, New Haven, Springfield and Baltimore, taking over from Erie.BINGHAMTON&mdash;The Whalers named the successor to the highly successful Larry Kish with the selection of John Cunniff.Cunniff is a former Olympian and professional hockey player who served as an assistant to Kish a year ago.The 37-year-old Boston native, who served as assistant with Team USA in the World Tournament, will try to continue building Binghamton to a Calder Cup champion after they lost in the finals last season.MAINE&mdash;The Mariners ended months of speculation when they announced that former NHL mentor Tom McVie would be their new coach.McVie had coached for six straight seasons in the NHL in Washington and Winnipeg before guiding the Oklahoma City Stars of the CHL last year.The 47-year-old Trail, B.C. native will succeed Bob McCammon, who is now the head coach of the parent Philadelphia Flyers.The Mariners are hoping that McVie could perform the same magic he accomplished with Dayton in 1975 and 1976 when he led the International League Gems to consecutive first-place finishes.The Mariners also signed a new five-year contract agreement with the county for the use of the Cumberland County Civic Center.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Besides waiting for the final outcome of the Moncton affair, the Voyageurs were heavily promoting season tickets and advertising.Four players from last year&rsquo;s team stayed on in Halifax and competed on the Voyageurs softball team which raised money for charity.HERSHEY&mdash;With his new contract all squared away, coach Gary Inness was looking forward to his first full year behind the bench in Hershey. The new player agreement with the Capitals will have him smiling since he will be guaranteed more players.Dennis Miller was selected as the new public relations director to replace longtime PR man Brent Hancock. Miller previously served with baseball&rsquo;s Philadelphia Phillies.SHERBROOKE&mdash;Interest was high in Sherbrooke with the city eagerly anticipating their first year in the American Hockey League.The parent Winnipeg Jets had yet to name a coach for their new minor league club.FREDERICTON&mdash;Fans were also excited about Fredericton&rsquo;s prospects for the new year as they will be armed with players from Vancouver as well as the parent Quebec Nordiques.The Express could easily be the most improved team in the AHL.ADIRONDACK&mdash;The coaching situation remained uncertain when this issue went to press as to whether Doug McKay would return.Jack Kelley, the new director the Glen Falls Civic Center, would be the Red Wings&rsquo; general manager under the old contract, but the new owners of the parent Detroit Red Wings were still contemplating management changes.The selection of a coach-general manager was another option not entirely out of the question in Glens Falls.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Everyone in New Haven breathed a sigh of relief after the city, Coliseum officials and the Nighthawks agreed to a new three-year contract. The new deal ended three years of negotiations.With the new contract the Nighthawks will now control their own box office and take over operation of the Coliseum Lounge.Chairman of the Board Joel Schiavone complimented mayor Biagio DiLieto for taking action on the long term problem. Also doing yeoman&rsquo;s work on the contract were New Haven president Roy Mlakar and Coliseum executive director Steve Lombardi.AHL president Jack Butterfield was on hand to help make the announcement and things are looking up in New Haven with a new long-term lease agreement and a solid working relationship with the Los Angeles Kings.For the first time ever, New Haven will also be selling advertising on its arena boards.BALTIMORE&mdash;The Skipjacks held a press conference to announce the shifting of the Erie Blades franchise to Baltimore. On hand for the gathering were Paul Martha, Baz Bastien and Lou Angotti from the Pittsburgh Penguins and vice-president Tom Johnston and coach Gerry Cheevers from the Boston Bruins.As they did a year ago, the Penguins and Bruins will both put players into the new franchise.The Skipjacks announced that Angotti will be back behind the bench after working last season in Erie. Walter &ldquo;Bud&rdquo; Freeman will be the new executive vice-president and Tim Donelli was named as vice-president of communications and announcer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01453/4738290-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="613" height="933"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tommy McVie moved into the Flyers&rsquo; organization by taking the Maine coaching position.</figcaption></div>Freeman comes to the Skipjacks from the Baltimore Orioles where he served for 14 years, while Donelli has been with the Skipjacks for three years in the EHL and ACHL.ROCHESTER&mdash;The Americans were making a summer push on season tickets and advertising.Mike Keenan was slated to be behnd Rochester&rsquo;s bench again for the 1982-83 campaign.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;The Indians were another AHL club without a coach after signing a new working agreement with the Black Hawks.Chicago solved their coaching problems by naming Orval Tessier to the post and the Black Hawks had yet to name a coach for the Indians when this issue went to press. &#9632;

f0032-01

13 Franchise Setup Gets AHL Approval

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Luc Bachand, a 19-year-old forward with the Sherbrooke Beavers, has been acquitted in Montreal municipal court of a charge of assault causing bodily injury.The charge stemmed from a game Nov. 25 between the Beavers and Montreal Juniors in wich Marc Chamard suffered a fractured hand after being struck by Bachand&rsquo;s stick.Bechand testified that he only intended to slow up Chamard, 18, by giving him a &ldquo;little tap&rdquo; as he broke into the Sherbrooke zone with the puck.In a written decision, Judge Roger Pigeon said the evidence in the case didn&rsquo;t establish that Bachand intentionally and maliciously struck Chamard with the sole intention of injuring him.The hand injury which kept Chamard, a rookie, out of action six weeks was &ldquo;regrettable,&rdquo; Judge Pigeon said, but &ldquo;those who play hockey can expect, to a certain extent, acts of hostility and certain risks.&rdquo;Bachand, obviously, was delighted with the verdict. Upon announcement, he vigorously shook the hand of his defense attorney, the feisty Rodrigue Lemoyne, former owner of the Verdun and Sorel Black Hawks.&ldquo;Fantastic. This is a great relief,&rdquo; Bachand sighed. Sherbrooke teammates Gord Donnelly and Michel Lanouette were also present in court to congratulate Bachand.Donnelly and Lanouette were among the teammates who jokingly started calling Bachand &ldquo;killer&rdquo; and &ldquo;convict&rdquo; after the charge had been laid.Lemoyne said Judge Pigeon&rsquo;s ruling was a significant one for the sport.&ldquo;Had Luc been convicted, in my view the sport of hockey would have become illegal here. Every case of slashing woud be a violation of the Criminal Code.&ldquo;The kid (Bachand) was just playing hockey. As a hockey man, I found what he did insignificant. I don&rsquo;t think it had any business coming before a court.&rdquo;Lanouette, 20, said he couldn&rsquo;t believe Bachand would be prosecuted.Ironically, Donnelly&rsquo;s wrist also was broken in the same game from a slash across the wrist. No charges were laid regarding that incident.In other news, Jean Lachapelle, coach of the year last season in the QMJHL, has quit the Hull Olympics to sell beer.The announcement by Lachapelle and the company that has made him regional director of promotions, caught the city-owned team&mdash;which placed second, only to make a quick exit from the double round-robin preliminary playoff round&mdash;by surprise, said general manager Yvon Sabourin.Lachapelle, 30, the league&rsquo;s youngest coach, still had one year remaining on the three-year contract he signed upon joining the club at the end of the 1979-80 season.Lachapelle was thought to have been the highest paid coach in the league, earning approximately $50,000 last season.Said Sabourin: &ldquo;I had gone to city council and had offered him another year on his contact. After hearing him saying at the Memorial Cup (played host to Hull) that he would be here at least another two years, I was sure he would be back.&ldquo;Then he came into my office (June 24) and I asked when we were leaving for the (coming) league meetings (in Chicoutimi). It was at that point he told me that he wasn&rsquo;t going.&rdquo;No replacement has yet been named. &#9632;

Beavers’ Bachand Acquitted; Lachapelle Surprises Hull

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>DETROIT&mdash;The International Hockey League, which ended its season for a second consecutive year with a shaky future, appears solid again as it looks forward to the 1982-83 campaign.Following a meeting here, the league is cautiously confident of an eight-team operation. That&rsquo;s one more than operated this past season. The one-team jump came about with the addition of Peoria, IL.At the close of the 1981-82 season, two franchises were shaky&mdash;Fort Wayne and Muskegon. Fort Wayne, the charter and senior member of the lodge which just completed its 30th season, was in danger last January of not making it through the season. But attendance picked up after the club&rsquo;s financial problems were made public and club officials decided to keep the ship afloat.But in June, business manager Colin Lister announced the club was closing its office and unless new financing became available, the chances of the team operating for a 31st season appeared slim. But Lister, following a triple-bypass heart operation, announced he would assume financial responsibility and keep the franchise alive even if additional investors were not found.Ken Ullyot, the second largest individual stockholder, will remain as a consultant but has given Lister voting rights to his percentage of stock. This puts Lister in full control.All clubs with the exception of Muskegon met their financial obligations to the league before or at the recent meeting here. Muskegon had asked for an additional two weeks, a condition that was granted. The feeling among the board of governors was optimistic. Said one league spokesman, &ldquo;I think Muskegon will go. They have a slight problem with the building (L.C. Walker Arena) but I think it can be worked out. I feel confident we&rsquo;ll have an eight-team league.&rdquo;With eight teams, the league will return to two divisions, East and West. But the schedule will be balanced, as much as an eight-team format permits. The league will play an 82-game season. Each team will have seven home games with six teams and six with the remaining teams.Fort Wayne, Toledo, Saginaw and Flint will comprise the East Division with Milwaukee, Muskegon, Kalamazoo and Peoria in the West. The season will open on Oct. 15 and end April 10. No discussion was held on a playoff format.The main item on the agenda, after solving the Fort Wayne and Muskegon situation, was the schedule. Dates were a lotted by seniority which means Fort Wayne had its pick. Peoria, as the newest member, had the last choice. Under the schedule format, each team comprised a list of 25 &ldquo;prime&rdquo; dates and a second list of 10. A final list of six dates completed the 41-home dates.The starting and finishing dates are a week later than in the previous years. The later start was put into effect so that clubs could open training camp with some National Hockey League cuts. In the past, teams started training camp before the NHL clubs made their first cuts. &#9632;

IHL Members’ Confidence Is Growing

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyPRINCE ALBERT&mdash;It may be the good, old summertime, but that certainly hasn&rsquo;t stopped the Western Hockey League and its 14 teams from grabbing their share of headlines.Most of the action took place here as the WHL held its annual meeting.For starters, the WHL has decided to undertake a feasibility study on whether or not to hold a midget-age player draft. In the end, geography could be the deciding factor.The way things now stand, WHL teams have 24 hours after a player&rsquo;s 15th birthday to add his name to their 60-man negotiation list. But, if more than one team selects a player that player and his parents have a certain period of time in which to choose the team they prefer. There have been times in the past where this has ended in a fierce bidding war amongst league teams.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve considered lowering the lists from 60 to 50 players and the age they may be added, say to 14,&rdquo; WHL president Ed Chynoweth said. &ldquo;Still, a lot of people are concerned about the geography of the league.&ldquo;There was a lot of discussion here and it has been tabled until I set up a committee to make a recommendation.&rdquo;In other business at the annual meeting, the WHL completed its 1982-83 schedule, but tabled discussion on the site and details of its annual all-star game.And, the board of governors approved the sale of Calgary Wranglers to Wilf Richard and Jim Kerr. The previous ownership was a partnership involving businessman Pat Shimbashi and the National League&rsquo;s Calgary Flames.At the same time, approval was granted for an expansion franchise in Kelowna, owned by Chris Parker of Penticton. Kelowna, under general manager Joe Arling and coach Marc Pezzin, will operate in the six-team Western Division, along with the Portland Winter Hawks, Seattle Breakers, Victoria Cougars, Kamloops Oilers and Nanaimo Islanders, formerly the Billings Bighorns.The Eastern Division remains at eight teams&mdash;Prince Albert Raiders, Winnipeg Warriors, Brandon Wheat Kings, Regina Pats, Saskatoon Blades, Calgary, Lethbridge Broncos and the Medicine Hat Tigers. &lsquo;The Kelowna franchise picked up 14 players in an expansion draft, including three with WHL experience. Defenseman Brent Dallyn spent last season with the Lethbridge Broncos, while center Greg Wilson had 33 goals and 71 points with the Seattle Breakers. And, defenseman Rob Heidt got into three games with the Wranglers.The WHL&rsquo;s 14 teams will again play a 72-game schedule, including a home-and-home series between Western and Eastern Division clubs. A total of 10 teams will make the playoffs, with the bottom two clubs in each division getting an early start on the golf season.The WHL also intends to propose to the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League that the Memorial Cup final return to a best-of-seven affair between the Eastern and Western Canadian champions.According to Chynoweth, the Quebec Major Junior League is in favor of that move, but the Ontario League is not sold on it.The WHL&rsquo;s governors also decided to experiment with a rule during the exhibition season that would assess an automatic game misconduct to any player picking up a fighting major.And, during the regular season, the coach of any team involved in a bench-clearing brawl, will receive an automatic five-game suspension. Coaches under suspension must be out of the building their team is playing in one hour before the game and cannot return until one hour after the game.Finally, the cities of Moose Jaw (Lome Humphries), Edmonton (Vic Moh) and New Westminster (Bill Burton) have applied for WHL franchises for the 1983-84 season.Here are other notes from around the league:BRANDON&mdash;The Wheat Kings signed 32-year-old Dave McDowall to a one-year contract as coach and Les Jackson, who was fired last season as coach, signed a two-year contract as general manager. McDowall, a native of Toronto who coached the Tulsa Oilers of the Central League last season, succeeds Dune McCallum, who announced following the 1981-82 season that he would not be returning. Jackson took over from Jack Brockest as the club&rsquo;s general manager. Brockets, who owns the Wheat Kings, remains as the team&rsquo;s governor. The Wheat Kings traded goaltender Todd Lumbard, 19, to the Regina Pats for three defensemen and a player to be named later. Joining the Wheat Kings are veterans Barry Trotz, 20, and Bruce Holloway, 19, and 17-year-old Grant Jennings, who played for the Notre Dame midget Hounds in Wilcox, Sask., last season.SASKATOON&mdash;The Blades dealt right winger Cam Douglas, a 17-year-old Winnipeg native, to the Warriors for Swaine Hutton, a 17-year-old winger from Calgary. Saskatoon then lost Hutton when Kelowna claimed him in the expansion draft. Later, Saskatoon acquired goaltender Al Larochelle, 18, and left winger Peter Derksen, 18, from Portland for defenseman Brad Duggan. Larochelle was the Winter Hawks&rsquo; backup netminder last season, while Derksen, who had 13 goals and 18 assists, was an eighth-round pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL&rsquo;s 1982 draft.WINNIPEG&mdash;Bruce Southern will be back behind the Warriors&rsquo; bench, finishing off a two-year agreement. The club has also entered into an agreement with the University of Manitoba which will provide facility use, academic consultation and perhaps financial assistance for Warrior players attending the U of M.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01441/4738400-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="606" height="918"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cam Douglas was traded to his hometown Winnipeg Warriors by Saskatoon.</figcaption></div>KAMLOOPS&mdash;General managercoach Bill LaForge was acquitted of assaulting a Lethbridge fan a trial judge described as &ldquo;obnoxious.&rdquo; LaForge, then coaching the Regina Pats, was charged after an incident involving Alfred Gurr during a playoff game between the Pats and the Broncos. Later, charges of assault and causing a disturbance against Gurr were withdrawn shortly before Gurr was to appear in Lethbridge Provincial Court. That decision was made when LaForge, the chief witness, failed to appear for the trial. &#9632;

f0035-01

WHL Ponders Midget Draft Situation; Kelowna Swells West Division Ranks

The Team Canada Juniors, out to defend their world championship title, take the first step towards the goal this month when they open a training and selection camp at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg (see page 8).A total of 44 players&mdash;four goalies and eight five-man units&mdash;will attend the camp. At press time, a few names still had to be added to the list. Also, some of the invitations issued were pending on whether certain U.S. colleges involved would permit their players to attend the camp and participate in the tournament, which is scheduled to begin Dec. 26 in Leningrad.Here, then, is a tentative list of the players invited so far:COLLEGES: DEFENSE&mdash;Michigan Tech&rsquo;s Dave Reierson and University of North Dakota&rsquo;s James Patrick; FORWARDS&mdash;University of Wisconsin&rsquo;s Pat Flatley, Dave Donnelly and Gord Sherwin, both from University of North Dakota.QUEBEC: GOAL&mdash;Shawinigan&rsquo;s Mario Gosselin; DEFENSE&mdash;Granby&rsquo;s Jocelyn Gauvreau, Quebec&rsquo;s Rene Badeau, Sherbrooke&rsquo;s Michel Petit and Montreal&rsquo;s Bill Campbell. FORWARDS&mdash;Trois Rivieres&rsquo; Claude Verret, Granby&rsquo;s Jacques Sylvestre, Shawinigan&rsquo;s Yves Lapointe, Sherbrooke&rsquo;s Gerard Gallant and Alain Gilbert, Laval&rsquo;s Yves Courteau and Chicoutimi&rsquo;s Alain Heroux.ONTARIO: GOAL&mdash;Sudbury&rsquo;s Mike Sands and Toronto&rsquo;s Dave Mez-saros. DEFENSE&mdash;Peterborough&rsquo;s Mike Posavad, Kitchener&rsquo;s Scott Stevens, Oshawa&rsquo;s Norm Schmidt, North Bay&rsquo;s Ron Meighan, Cornwall&rsquo;s Jim Kyte and London&rsquo;s Larry Trader. FORWARDS&mdash;Oshawa&rsquo;s Dave Andreychuk and Dave Gans and Windsor&rsquo;s Paul Lawless.WESTERN: GOAL&mdash;Mike Vernon of Calgary. DEFENSE&mdash;Brandon&rsquo;s Dean Kennedy, Calgary&rsquo;s Mike Heidt, Regina&rsquo;s Gary Leeman and Seattle&rsquo;s Ken Daneyko. FORWARDS&mdash;Victoria&rsquo;s Paul Cyr and Mark Morrison, Regina&rsquo;s Dale Derkatch, Lethbridge&rsquo;s Ron and Rich Sutter and Nanaimo&rsquo;s Rocky Trottier.It should be noted that other players, who aren&rsquo;t invited to this camp, may still be under consideration and could be selected to the final roster. &#9632;

Team Canada’s Camp Roster

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BROPHY</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyTORONTO&mdash;Remember the revolutionary scholarship program the Ontario Hockey League bragged so loudly about at its inception two years ago?Well, the program, which was, among others, designed to show that junior hockey operators do care about the education of their players has apparently bit the dust&mdash;at least, in its purest form.OHL commissioner David Branch was on vacation and, therefore, unable to comment, but Sherwood Bassin, general manager of the Oshawa Generals and a past chairman of the OHL board, confirmed that the guarantee of getting a scholarship is gone.&ldquo;The big problem was not in the cost of providing the scholarships,&rdquo; Bassin said. &ldquo;It was in the administering of the program. The amount of time spent working on that subject alone was just phenomenal. It was getting to the point where the league was going to have to think about hiring someone just to oversee the program. In these tough times, though, that is just about out of the question.&rdquo;Therefore, the OHL has lost an integral part of its selling program.But not all is gloom and doom, Bassin says. In fact, he said the end of the program on a league level only means the emphasis is shifting to the individual clubs.&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; Bassin said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s up to the player to work something out with the club he&rsquo;s going to play for. I honestly believe that most OHL teams will be willing to pay tuition and books for players who play for their team and don&rsquo;t sign a pro contract.&ldquo;A lot of them have been doing it all along. I know the teams assume education expenses for all players while they&rsquo;re with club. If some of them want to go on to school after they&rsquo;re finished in the OHL, I think the clubs can work out a deal with them to pay tuition. It might not be a complete, full ride but I don&rsquo;t think you can accuse any OHL team of not being concerned with the education of its players.But the bottom line on this entire situation is that the scholarship is no longer guaranteed by the league. The players have to make the best possible deal with the respective teams and that seems to be a far cry from what the original scholarship program was supposed to do.How do hockey players stay in shape during the summer?A few jog. Some lift weights. Others play baseball and softball.There are others, though, who put down their hockey sticks during the spring and immediately pick up lacrosse sticks. For years, many players in Ontario have played lacrosse, a fast paced and rugged sport, during the off-season.Players such as Doug Favell, Stan Jonathan and Rick Dudley enjoyed successful careers in both sports.Peterborough, more than any other city, has long been a site where athletes who make names for themselves in hockey also play lacrosse.Former Petes Len Powers, Paul Evans, J.J. Johnston and Bobby Wasson are just a few who excel in lacrosse each summer. Evans, who played with the Toronto Maple Leafs a few years ago, is the star of the senior Lakers and part of lacrosse&rsquo;s biggest family act.Paul, along with brothers Brian and Dave, play senior lacrosse while younger brothers Doug, Mark and Kevin are with the Junior A James Gang.Both Doug and Mark Evans also play hockey with the Petes during the winter.Goaltender Mark recently graduated from the OHL but has yet to line up a pro tryout. He may return to Junior as an over-age player.Doug, one of the most despised players in the OHL because of his nasty nature, still has one year of junior eligibility remaining.Both players are big guns on the junior lacrosse club. Doug led the team in scoring with 43 goals and 74 assists for 117 points in 19 games while Mark was fourth with 17 goals and 60 assists.Other hockey players in the Ontario Lacrosse Association include former Toronto Marlboro Wayne Crawford of the Adirondack Red Wings with Whitby; Colgate University star Steve Smith with Peterborough and Larry Floyd, who played with the Petes and most recently the Rochester Americans. Floyd has won national championships in both junior and senior lacrosse as well as a Memorial Cup with Peterborough in 1979.Even the influence of the Great Gretzky wasn&rsquo;t enough to lure 17-year-old Pat Lafontaine into the grasp of the Belleville Bulls.The Bulls took a chance and selected the former midget star with Detroit Compuware in the first round of the 1982 midget draft but it seems Lafontaine would rather report to Montreal of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.Gretzky is part owner of the Bulls and, during a recent golf tournament, had hoped to convince Lafontaine to play in Belleville. &#9632;

OHL Lets Teams Make Scholarship Decisions

<div class="byline">BY BILL HIGDON</div>ERIE&mdash;With the Nashville South Stars and a new commissioner, Dave Schultz, in the fold, and the possibility of adding another franchise in Niagara Falls, Ont., the Atlantic Coast Hockey League is fast taking shape in an expanded format.Nashville, which transferred from the Central League to join the ACHL in its second campaign, boosted the membership to six clubs, the minimum goal established by the league governors.Niagara Falls expressed much interest in gaining a berth during the July 8 meetings held in Utica and suburban New Hartford, N.Y., where the governors unanimously selected Schultz, the original &ldquo;Broad St. Bully&rdquo; of Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; championship seasons in the 70s, to direct operations.Schultz, who said he never used his stick illegally when he was the &ldquo;enforcer&rdquo; for the Flyers, promised to enforce the rules as commissioner. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t tolerate certain kinds of behavior,&rdquo; said the 33-year-old administrator.Schultz, a nine-year NHL veteran winger, set a league record with 2,706 penalty minutes in 535 games. He helped the Flyers to Stanley Cup titles in 1974 and 1975. Later, he played short stints for Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Buffalo before retiring two years ago.In his book, &ldquo;The Hammer: Confessions of a Hockey Enforcer,&rsquo;&rsquo; Schultz wrote that he had changed his mind about violence on ice. &ldquo;If I had it to do over again,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;I would never allow myself to get locked up in that role.&rdquo;Schultz replaced Jack Timmins, who wore the label of executive director in the first ACHL season. Timmins stepped down to devote more time to his duties in NHL Central Scouting.Jack Dame, the new ACHL president from Salem, said the league will conduct a draft of unprotected players plus the Baltimore Skipjacks players. The Skipjacks opted for a berth in the American League, replacing the Erie Blades who recently joined the ACHL along with a team from Hampton.The roster also includes the defending champion Mohawk Valley Stars of Utica, Salem Raiders and Winston-Salem Thunderbirds.The Stars have faced the problem of a closed Utica Memorial Auditorium, but there are indications the city or Oneida county officials will reopen the facility in time for the hockey season. Mohawk Valley was granted an extension to August 15 to submit the necessary funds to maintain league membership.The auditorium, which seats just over 4,000 spectators for ice hockey, was closed by Utica Mayor Steve Pawlinga in May.Board chairman of the Nashville South Stars is Larry Schmittou, who also is involved in the operations of five minor league baseball teams including the Nashville Sounds of the Class AA Southern League. The Sounds led the minors in attendance three of the past four seasons.The team&rsquo;s new general manager is Frank Crowell, owner of a real estate business for 17 years and public address announcer for the South Stars and other pro sports teams until he accepted the hockey general managership. &#9632;

ACHL Unveils New Franchises, Commissioner

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01431/4738531-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photos by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div><h2>A Nice Change</h2>Steve Kasper of the Boston Bruins is shown with the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s best defensive forward of 1981-82 after he ended a four-year hold on the award by Montreal&rsquo;s Bob Gainey. Kasper shadowed some of the league&rsquo;s top scorers last season and did a masterful job of holding Wayne Gretzky in check.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02340/4738524-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1825" height="1463"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo By Bernard Gluckstbin&mdash;Canon Optics)</figcaption></div><h2>Netting The Celebrities</h2>Molson&rsquo;s and Wayne Gretzky teamed up for a Celebrity Tennis Tournament in Brantford, Ont. on July 10 to raise funds for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Joining Gretzky were plenty of NHL players, plus stars from the entertainment world, including model Cheryl Tiegs, right. Montreal Canadiens duo of Guy Lafleur and Larry Robinson were the winners of the tournament, topping New York Rangers&rsquo; Ron Duguay and Ed Mio, 17-14, in the final.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03264/4738517-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="762" height="1893"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04198/4738510-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="1527" height="1379"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photos by Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div><h2>Kings O&pound; The Diamond</h2>The Los Angeles Kings showed their sports diversity by winning the 1982 Molson-NHL Slo-Pitch Tournament at Niagara Falls, Ont., on June 27. Shown grouped around championship trophy, above, are, from left to right, Marcel Dionne, Rick Chartraw, Mike Murphy and Jerry Korab, holding award. A total of 14 of the 21 NHL teams were represented in the three-day event. At left, members of the Calgary Flames, led by Jim Peplinski (without cap) stopped off to see the whales at Marineland. At right, Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; general manager John Ferguson takes a healthy cut at the ball during the tournament. The Kings defeated defending champion Detroit Red Wings 9-0 in final to take home the title.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05138/4738503-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="768" height="1901"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;Steve Kasper, the first player whose name is not Bob Gainey to win the Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the National Hockey League is about to take on new responsibilities for the Boston Bruins.The Bruins&rsquo; brass want him to score goals, too.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t believe that we have really taken full advantage of the potential offensive production of Steve Kasper,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden, analyzing a season in which his team scored a fairly healthy 323 goals.The problem for the Bruins is that 131 of them came off the sticks of Rick Middleton (51), Barry Pederson (44) and Peter McNab (36). Kasper had 20 while devoting most of his playing time to shadowing the big guns on the other teams, most notably Wayne Gretzky.&ldquo;In placing Steve in that role,&rdquo; said Sinden, &ldquo;we kind of forget about what offense he can generate. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s necessary for him just to be a shadow of the best player on the other team.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a good shot. He&rsquo;s got a good head. He&rsquo;s a fine forechecker. I think that we can really improve our offense if we improve that so-called checking line&rsquo;s offense.&rdquo;Kapser, whose linemates on that checking line were Keith Crowder (23 goals) and Wayne Cashman (12 goals), is capable of scoring. He had 57 goals in his last junior year with the Verdun-Sorel Black Hawks in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 1979-80.Kasper won the Selke Trophy largely on the strength of his success defensively against Gretzky. The Great One from Edmondon scored only one of his 92 goals and four of his 120 assists against the Bruins in their three games against each other.&ldquo;I hope the award is based on more than stopping Wayne Gretzky,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel I&rsquo;ve had success against other teams, too.&ldquo;I like to score goals. Everyone does. I&rsquo;ve never been happier than when I scored in Game One of the playoffs against Quebec. Against Edmonton, I say to myself, &lsquo;Stay with Gretzky,&rsquo; If I have a chance to go with the puck, fine.&ldquo;I know my role is to check and do my best against every team. Let&rsquo;s face it, the team with the best goal scorers and the best defense will win the most games.&rdquo;Kasper, who lives in Montreal, was on hand at the NHL meeting to pick up his trophy. So was Gretzky, who won a few hundred pounds of hardware including the Hart Trophy as MVP and the Ross Trophy as scoring champion.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny,&rdquo; said Kasper. &ldquo;Today was the first time I ever shook his hand. He said, &lsquo;Congratulations, Steve.&rsquo; I said &lsquo;Congratulations, Wayne.&rsquo; And that was about it.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;The Bruins, who shared a development team in the AHL with Pittsburgh at Erie, Pa., last season, will continue their association with the Penguins now that the team has been moved to Baltimore.The fact that the Bruins don&rsquo;t maintain a team all their own to develop young players has annoyed some of their critics.&ldquo;Well, if you want to lose $600,000 to $800,000, it&rsquo;s beter to have one by yourself,&rdquo; said Sinden. &lsquo;My people don&rsquo;t want to lose that.&ldquo;The advantages of having your own team are that you control who plays and who doesn&rsquo;t play and who coaches the team. The disadvantages are that you have 10 or 12 players on the team who will never play in the NHL anyway so you&rsquo;re creating a team for them to play on, which is a tremendous cost.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt in my mind that you can develop just as many prospects by having 10 players on the team as you can by having 20 because invariably 10 or 11 of those 20 are not prospects anyway.&rdquo;Jim Craig, the snake bit goaltender hero of the 1980 Olympics, told Will McDonough of the Boston Globe, &ldquo;There are times that I feel I would have been better of if it (the Olympics) had never happened. Really. All I want now is to have a decent job, make some money to live on and be happy. I never wanted to be a big deal, a celebrity&hellip;&rdquo;Craig, whose blighted career with the Bruins was reduced by injury to 13 games with Erie last season, pleaded innocent in Wareham, Mass., District Court on July 13 to a charge of vehicular homicide in the death of Margaret Curry, 29, of New Bedford in an auto accident May 29 on Cape Cod. Curry&rsquo;s sister, Ann Porter, who was in the auto at the time, filed a suit of $850,000 against Craig on July 14.As a celebrity, Craig has taken quite a battering in the local media.<h2>Crossword Solution</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01406/4738562-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="602" height="744"></div> &#9632;

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Bruins Ask Kasper To Expand Offensive Role

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;The. only visible signs of progress at the Forum are on the outside.On Ste. Catherine Street, city workers are busy ripping up the remnants of by-gone days&mdash;the steel tracks that once guided Montreal&rsquo;s streetcars.Inside the Forum offices, there is a little talking going on here and there. Some of the chats have been held in the offices of Managing Director Irving Grundman. Unfortunately, there are no visible signs of progress.Grundman still faces the same problems a month away from the opening of training camp that he faced two months earlier&mdash;some unsigned and unhappy hockey players.Anyone throwing a party and wishing to have some prominent sports and political figures on hand should keep this in mind. It would not be the most brilliant idea to invite Grundman and Canada&rsquo;s Finance Minister Allan MacEachen to the same get together.For it is MacEachen and his last two Canadian budgets that have given Grundman more difficulties with his players than he really needs at this time.Larry Robinson is a case in point. Robinson has been trying to renegotiate a deal with the Canadiens to boost his reported $190,000 a year salary. The 31-year-old leader of the Canadiens&rsquo; defense was roughly handled by the federal tax people in 1981.The failure of MacEachen to reinstitute the Income Averaging Annuity Contracts is not going to make playing and earning a hockey living here any easier.Robinson isn&rsquo;t the only veteran that wants a better deal. Guy Lafleur has dropped in on Grundman for a contract chat and again, no resolution was reached.Mario Tremblay is entering the option year of his contract. Right winger Tremblay is a popular man with the young Quebecois fans and would like to capitalize on that and his best-season ever.Tremblay strode into Grundman&rsquo;s office for a quick meeting. That&rsquo;s all it was. Presumably it laid the groundwork for future discussions, but they are expected to be tough talks.Grundman hasn&rsquo;t had much communication with Mark Napier or his agent Gus Badali. Badali explained after MacEachen&rsquo;s latest effort to upset the Canadian economy that, in his opinion, Napier would be better off going through with plans to play in the United States next season.A free agent since June 1, Napier has been cooling his heels hoping that the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and the owners could reach an accord on a more flexible free-agency movement as part of the collective bargaining agreement.Napier&rsquo;s neighbor, Rod Langway, is still waiting to meet with Grundman again. Langway, a U.S. citizen, feels his home country is the only place to play. He is waiting for the Canadiens to make a deal for him and could be gray and bald before they move.Grundman did sign the Canadiens&rsquo; first two picks in the 1982 entry draft&mdash;left winger Alain Heroux and defenseman Jocelyn Gauvreau. The signings caused a ripple of excitement in the local media. Unlike last season when the Canadiens called special news conferences to introduce Mark Hunter and Gilbert Delorme, the signing of Heroux and Gauvreau were handled in terse news releases.IN PASSING&mdash;Veteran center Doug Jarvis left the bachelor ranks last month in a ceremony in Brantford, Ont., attended by teammates Doug Risebrough, Larry Robinson, Bob Gainey, Denis Herron, and Napier&hellip;Canadiens&rsquo; efforts in the NHL slo pitch tournament were futile. Montreal finished 0-3 although the Canadiens didn&rsquo;t have their full roster on hand&hellip;CFCF Radio will broadcast all 80 Canadiens&rsquo; games for the first time ever. Last season, the English-language broadcast schedule featured mainly non-televised games. &#9632;

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August 19, 1982

The Hockey News

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Jets’ Broadcasting Rights Changing Hands

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