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.

January 20, 1984

The Hockey News January 20, 1984

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01437/6649592-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="268" height="199"></div>SAULT STE. MARIE&mdash;Wayne Groulx has already proven he&rsquo;s all-world in baseball. Now, if he can just be allQuebec in hockey.The 18-year-old with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, who was atop the Ontario Hockey League scoring this season with 77 points as of Jan. 2, was the all-star shortstop in the world junior baseball championships this past summer at Johnstown, PA, but leaves no doubt which sport he wants to play professionally&mdash;hockey.Specifically, the top Hound is sniffing on the doorstep of the Quebec Nordiques, who made him an eighth-round draft pick last June, after his 130-point season led the Sault Ste. Marie club in scoring. Groulx and the Nordiques have discussed contract, but recently suspended talks temporarily when the Nordiques said they wouldn&rsquo;t be signing any more draft picks until after the season.Despite a. 455 batting average and toumament-high 12 runs-batted-in, the all-star shortstop who led Canada to a third-place finish in the world toumey has his mind made up: From now on. the only home runs and double plays he turns will be on a pleasure-only basis.Groulx has rejected overtures the from Los Angeles Dodgers to go to a U.S. college after high school to develop his baseball skills, and from the Toronto Blue Jays, whose camps he attended for two seasons. Groulx made the career decision last summer after returning from the world junior toumey when he turned down an offer to join Canada&rsquo;s senior team for the Pan American Games later in the summer.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have had time fortraining (for Quebec&rsquo;s camp),&rdquo; Groulx said. &ldquo;Hockey&rsquo;s been my No. 1 choice since day one. I feel I&rsquo;d work twice as hard for a hockey career than one in baseball. I don&rsquo;t regret making the decision to stick to hockey. Baseball is fun. but hockey to me, is my life. It always will be.&ldquo;The Dodgers wanted me to go to school in the States but I never really thought about it much because I&rsquo;m always thinking hockey. The baseball opportunities were more of a flash in the pan but it&rsquo;s always something to fall back on if hockey fails.&ldquo;From now on, baseball is just a summer hobby.&rdquo;Groulx has been equally skilled at baseball and hockey going back to his junior days in his hometown of Welland. He played for the Welland Indians junior baseball club and the Welland Cougars junior B club, setting hitting and scoring records. As a 15-year-old with the junior B club, Groulx scored a league rookie record 45 goals, a statistic which didn&rsquo;t go unnoticed. Greyhound general manager Sam McMaster, who scouted Groulx, took him in the second round of the midget draft as a minor midget pick three seasons ago.In his first year with the Hounds, Groulx led the team in scoring with 67 points.Then last year, his 130 total was again tops on the team.This year his sights are set on the league title and playing on a line with Rick Tocchet and Steve Graves certainly is beneficial. As the Greyhounds entered the New Year in second place in the Emms Division, Groulx (31-46), Graves (27-34) and Tocchet (29-39) all ranked among the OHL&rsquo;s top 11 scorers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to win it,&rdquo; Groulx said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s not my main interest. I want that Memorial Cup. A scoring title is nice, but to me, it&rsquo;s second to the team.&ldquo;Those guys are good guys to play with, probably the two best I could play with. We complement each other. Steve probably is one of the fastest guys in the league and Rick&rsquo;s a real fine playmaker, one of the toughest players in the league and he&rsquo;s in all four comers.&rdquo;McMaster said there is no doubt Groulx has made the right choice.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a better future in hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been an outstanding hockey player since he was eight years old. He was in the same category all along as Stevie Yzerman, Danny Quinn and Brian Bradley. He happened to be around in the second round (of the midget draft). They all went in the first round.&ldquo;Nobody was going to draft him but us. They said he was too small.&rdquo;Greyhound coach Terry Crisp said Groulx is one of the best offensive threats in the league because of his shot.&ldquo;His shot is quick and accurate. He&rsquo;s very dangerous.&rdquo;If there has been a disapointment this season for Groulx, it&rsquo;s that he didn&rsquo;t get a chance to play in a second world junior tournament, this one in hockey.Organizers selecting players for Canada&rsquo;s world junior team which fared so well overseas in Sweden, did not invite Groulx to camp. He said it was a &ldquo;little bit of a disapointment&rdquo; but no big deal.Let&rsquo;s Make A Deal&mdash;Team Canada, the Guelph Platers and the OHL are still trying to make a deal concerning Kirk Muller&rsquo;s availability for the Olympic team. The latest agreement has Muller on a four-game trial with Team Canada. He appears certain to make the team, but negotiations are underway to determine if he&rsquo;ll stay in Guelph until Team Canada leaves for Europe in February. Plater owner Joe Holody said the move would not rest well with the Plater fans and would certainly hurt attendance&mdash;maybe even a shot at the playoffs&mdash;but he didn&rsquo;t want to stand in the way of patriotism.On record run&mdash;The Greyhounds are plugging Chris Felix, an all-star defenseman last season, who is on target to break the goal-scoring record of 38 in one season by a defenseman, set by Bobby Orr when he was with Oshawa and equalled last season by Kitchener&rsquo;s Allan MacInnis. Felix had 22 goals in the Hounds&rsquo; opening 39 games.Bulls bullish&mdash;Despite the loss of Danny Quinn to the Calgary Flames, the Bulls rebounded to win eight of 10 games and moved into fifth place in the Leyden Division.She ain&rsquo;t what she used to be&mdash;Windsor coach Wayne Maxner must have thought he got off the bus at the wrong arena when he walked out behind the bench at London Gardens to see about 1,600 fans. The last time he was in London, the building was rocking as the Spits and Knights were both winning and enjoying one of the best rivalries in the province. Those visits to London often attracted 4,000 or more. A big crowd in London this season, one of the better markets in the OHL, is 1,800.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02283/6649585-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="592" height="1275"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Groulx rejected Los Angeles Dodgers insistence that he play U.S. college ball.</figcaption></div>Ouch&mdash;Toronto Marlies&rsquo; leading scorer Gary Lacey suffered a cracked wrist while playing with Team Canada in the junior championships in Sweden. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Groulx To Forsake Baseball Career Because Hockey Takes Priority

<h2>JANUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05133/6649834-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="528" height="466"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-06108/6649827-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="528" height="494"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0797/6649820-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="538" height="496"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0885/6649813-1-eng-US/f0043-082.jpg" title="f0043-08" width="520" height="496"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0977/6649806-1-eng-US/f0043-092.jpg" title="f0043-09" width="524" height="484"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GAMES TO COME

<h2>Next Week</h2>Our next issue is full of stars&mdash;all-stars, that is. Not only will we announce whom the Professional Hockey Writers Association have chosen to play in the Jan. 31 All-Star game at New Jersey&rsquo;s Byrne Meadowlands Arena, we&rsquo;ll announce THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; People&rsquo;s Choice selections, the result of ballots sent in by our readers. We&rsquo;ll leave it to you compare the teams. We&rsquo;ll also have a cover story on Buffalo Sabre rookie goaltending sensation Tom Barrasso. And on top of all that, it&rsquo;s our annual Hockey Schools and Camps supplement. Don&rsquo;t miss it.<h2>Feb. 3</h2>A large part of this issue will be devoted to previewing the hockey event of the Winter Olympic Games at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia in February. Can Team USA defend its gold medal? Does Canada stand a chance? We&rsquo;ll answer these questions and we&rsquo;ll also have: noted author, former goaltender and ABC Olympic commentator Ken Dryden handicap the teams; an excerpt from One Goal, a newly-released book about the 1980 Miracle On Ice and a host of other features and statistics. Don&rsquo;t miss it. &#9632;

COMING SOON IN THN

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is fast closing in on the hat trick.The WCHA, which recently announced the agreement for an interlocking schedule beginning next season with members of the newly formed East Coast Super Seven League, pulled off another coup when it announced Jan. 5 that Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan have formally been admitted to the league, effective for the 1984-85 season.Michigan Tech was a charter member of the WCHA in 1959, but left the league in 1980, along with Notre Dame. Michigan State and Michigan. Northern Michigan was a charter member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.With the addition of Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan, the WCHA will be an eight-team league. Current league members are North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, Colordo College and Denver.Said George Schubert, chairman of the WCHA&rsquo;s executive committee: &ldquo;This has been a very fortunate year for the WCHA. We&rsquo;ve struggled as a six-team league for a few years. Now, we&rsquo;ve had some opportunities and we&rsquo;ve been able to capitalize on them. We&rsquo;ve made two very positive steps in recent weeks.&ldquo;We have always believed that the WCHA is the strongest college hockey league in the nation. With the addition of these two fine institutions, which have produced excellent intercollegiate hockey programs, we believe the WCHA is stronger than ever.&rdquo;The WCHA had been openly courting new blood ever since the four teams pulled out of the WCHA in 1980, citing the cost of travel as the major reason for leaving. Michigan Tech, however, found its travel costs in the CCHA just as much as they were in the WCHA. That, and a lack of fan interest when Tech hosted some CCHA members, prompted Tech to make the switch back over to the WCHA. Michigan Tech officials also acknowledged that the agreement for the interlocking schedule between the WCHA and the Super Seven was a big factor in its decision to rejoin the WCHA.Exact scheduling arrangements between the WCHA and the Super Seven, along with the addition of the two Michigan schools, have yet to be worked out. But it&rsquo;s likely the WCHA schools will be playing at least 34 league games next seasons, leaving little room for games against non-conference competition.Meanwhile, Minnesota-Duluth moved into the tie for second place in the WCHA by shocking Minnesota twice in Minneapolis, the first time in 12 years the Bulldogs have managed to sweep the Gophers in Minneapolis.Duluth posted 7-2 and 5-4 victories to match Minnesota&rsquo;s 9-4-1 league record and move to within three points of league-leading North Dakota.Wisconsin became the first collegiate team to beat Team USA when the Badgers won 4-2 in Madison, WI, avenging a 4-1 loss the previous night.North Dakota came away with a holiday tournament championship by winning the inaugural First Interstate Classic in Anchorage, Alaska. The Sioux won the eight-team tournament by beating host Alaska-Anchorage 3-2 when winger Steve Palmiscno popped in the winning goal with 2:50 left in regulation play to win it for the Sioux. The loss snapped a 29-game Alaska-Anchorage winning streak, which stretched over two seasons. The loss snapped the Seawolves&rsquo; win streak this season at 17 before a crowd of 6,500 in the new George M. Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. &#9632;

WCHA To Admit Two More Teams

&ldquo;There won&rsquo;t be any ice for us until we face the U.S. Olympic team at home Jan. 13. They (arena operators) have got a horse show and a Jehovah&rsquo;s Witnesses meeting scheduled during that time. &ldquo;&mdash;Tulsa Oiler coach Tom Webster, commenting on the hassles he&rsquo;s had getting ice time for his Central Hockey League team. Story on Page 36. &#9632;

Quote Of The Week

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011466/6647763-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="312" height="361"></div><h2>He Does Have A Heart</h2>THROUGH THE 1982-83 season, the feeling ran through the National Hockey League that Orval Tessier was an apprentice ogre or, at times, the holder of journey-man&rsquo;s papers in the craft.At 49 and with an assortment of championships in junior and minor pro hockey in his background, Tessier finally was granted an NHL shot by the Chicago Black Hawks. The Hawks&rsquo; performance, fourth overall during the season, caused wonder as to why Tessier&rsquo;s opportunity had not arrived much earlier.Tessier wasted little time establishing (a) that he wouldn&rsquo;t be intimidated by the job, the players or management and (b) that he didn&rsquo;t pussyfoot around in his assessment of situations.He stood his ground in training camp when the front office wanted him to use promising young center Ken Yaremchuk on the wing. Tessier maintained that Yarem-chuk was too good at center and when the Hawks didn&rsquo;t have a spot in which he could gain large amounts of &lsquo;82-83 ice time, then he should go back to junior hockey.A few Tessier statements didn&rsquo;t lure many people to his company for a charm fix. Several times after winning games, Tessier expressed dismay in strong terms at what he considered his club&rsquo;s weak play.His most famous line was delivered after the Hawks were wiped out in the first two games of a playoff series by the Edmonton Oilers. Tessier said he was going to take this players to the Mayo Cline for &ldquo;about 18 heart transplants.&rdquo;Tessier didn&rsquo;t spare himself. He was a high-scoring minor league player with fast hands but slow feet. When he was asked if Orval, the player, could have played for Tessier, the coach, he replied that the former was too lazy to keep the latter happy.<h2>A Downer Award</h2>THE 32-POINT IMPROVEMENT made by the Hawks last season earned Tessier coach-of-the-year honors and the Jack Adams Trophy. That award is starting to rank right up there with an Edsel or jungle mouth as things a coach would like to have.The Adams Trophy has been awarded 10 times and only two winners&mdash;Tessier and Al Arbour of New York Islanders&mdash;remain at the posts where they collected the award.Two other winners moved on to bigger things&mdash;Scotty Bowman from the Montreal Canadiens to general manager-coach of Buffalo Sabres and Bob Pulford from Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; coach to GM of the Black Hawks. The other winners&mdash;Fred Shero, Don Cherry, Bobby Kromm, Pat Quinn, Red Berenson and Tom Watt&mdash;all were sacked.Perhaps a good move by the NHL would be to present the Adams Trophy as soon as the season ends. The award is handed out at the Stanley Cup luncheon and all too often, the winner&rsquo;s team has been a playoff casualty, sometimes a disaster, when he hears the applause.When Arbour won in 1979, the award was presented after the Islanders had lost the semi-final to New York Rangers. At the luncheon to collect the award Arbour looked as if he wanted to be there about as badly as he wanted to hang around a batch of wingers who couldn&rsquo;t backcheck.Last spring, Tessier was honored in front of the Edmonton Oilers, the team that humiliated his Hawks in the previous series.<h2>A Tough Season</h2>THUS, TESSIER SHOULD not be surprised that this is a rough season for the Hawks, who have had a miserable time with injuries and suspensions. As many as seven regulars have been missing from the lineup at one time, including the entire front-line left wing of Al Secord, Curt Fraser and Darryl Sutter.Through it all, Tessier has remained remarkably calm. In fact, he&rsquo;s been downright generous in the praise of his players and while he has hinted that a winger transplant might not be a bad idea, he&rsquo;s had nothing but accolades for his workers&rsquo; hearts.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say enough about the way the players we have and how they&rsquo;ve dug down deep to try to get us through the bad injury time,&rdquo; Tessier said.&ldquo;Sure, I questioned some players last season when things were going good because I wanted them to be even better. Once in awhile when we won, we didn&rsquo;t really give a thorough effort.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve lost some games this season and the players have delivered a superb effort. I had a large amount of respect for the players we have and that has been increased this season.&rdquo; &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW </div><div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>The kids in the business and writing classes at Boston College last summer thought the young fellow at the desk across the aisle looked familiar but most of them dismissed the idea as just another coincidence.The alternative was scarcely believable.What would a big-league hockey player who is making 100 big ones a year be doing in a stuffy classroom when he could be out on the golf course or laying on a beach on the Cape or dipping a fly in a New Hampshire trout stream?Barry Pederson chuckled at the idea.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing what I&rsquo;ve wanted to do all my life right now and that&rsquo;s play hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to even think about the day I retire. But I guess it&rsquo;s never too early to get ready for the rest of your life.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen it happen. A guy&rsquo;s careerends and he winds up with nothing to show for it. I don&rsquo;t want that to happen to me.&rdquo;So, while his teammates on the Boston Bruins were hitting the golf courses and the softball tournaments and the personal appearance circuit, the 22-year-old Pederson enrolled at Boston College for six weeks of hitting the books in summer school.&ldquo;I was scared stiff when I began,&rdquo; he told Joe Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald. &ldquo;It was like standing on the first tee in a golf tournament with everybody watching you. They expect you to be pretty good just because you happen to be good at something else. I was all nervous inside.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the teachers knew who I was but a lot of the students did and their reaction seemed to be, &lsquo;What are you doing here? You don&rsquo;t have to go to school.&rsquo; I&rsquo;d tell them I was there for the same reason they were. I wanted to improve myself rather than standing still at this point in my life.&ldquo;It was rough at first. You gotta remember, it has been four years since I sat in a classroom. A couple of questions were asked and I was pretty sure of the answers but 1 didn&rsquo;t put my hand up because deep inside I was thinking, If I&rsquo;m wrong I&rsquo;m gonna look bad.&rsquo;&ldquo;Finally a question was asked that I was reasonably sure about so I raised by hand and I was right. I began to realize it didn&rsquo;t matter if I was right or wrong as long as I was participating.&ldquo;It was like hockey. At the start of classes I was a rookie again. I had to develop my confidence because that&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s all about, whether you&rsquo;re talking school or hockey.&rdquo;Pederson must have developed as much confidence in the classroom at Boston College as he has on the ice at Boston Garden, because he wound up with a B in his business course and an A-minus in writing.&ldquo;You should have heard my father when I called home to tell him my marks,&rdquo; said Pederson. &ldquo;He was pretty tickled. And so was I.&rdquo;Pederson has been getting some high marks on the ice, too, in his third full year in the National Hockey League, despite the Bruins having trouble grafting a left winger onto a line that is usually composed of Pederson, Rick Middleton and whoever is available.After 39 games, he was barrelling along with 18 goals and 33 assists for 51 points, just about matching his pace of a season ago when he finished with 46 goals and 61 assists for 107 points.Pederson and Middleton played most of last season with big Mike Krushelnyski (6-foot-2,200 pounds) on left wing. But this season, coach Gerry Cheevers started them out with rookie Nevin Markwart, the Bruins&rsquo; first-round draft choice. It didn&rsquo;t work. It was Markwart who asked out.&ldquo;I was just not prepared to make plays with them,&rdquo; said the rookie winger. &ldquo;They were a little too quick for me. I was trying to play a grinding game and they were playing a finesse game and it just didn&rsquo;t work out.&ldquo;I told Harry Sinden that. There is a lot of added pressure because in order for this team to do well there&rsquo;s no doubt that those two players have to be contributing a lot. If they&rsquo;re not in every game, this team is not going to do well.&rdquo;Krushelnyski replaced Markwart with Pederson and Middleton but only for a few games. He can also play center, so when injuries struck the Bruins he was moved to bolster another line and Dave Silk became the new left winger.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re two incredible hockey players,&rdquo; said Silk, who is something of a grinder and an opportunist around the goal. &ldquo;You always have to be ready for the puck. There are times out there when you don&rsquo;t really think you&rsquo;re gonna get the puck and then all of a sudden they put it through three or four guys and right on your stick. It&rsquo;s really something.&rdquo;Silk is shelved after suffering a shoulder separation on Dec. 20 and the old reliable, Krushelnyski, came back on the line only to be knocked out of the lineup 10 days later with a shoulder separation of his own.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011621/6647801-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="990" height="1485"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston&rsquo;s Barry Pederson, above, is the Bruins&rsquo; offensive leader and Ronnie Francis, below, fulfills the same role with the Hartford Whalers. (Photos by Diane Sobolewski)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021298/6647794-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="986" height="1491"></div>By the time Ronnie Francis turns 21 in March, he will have amassed more than 200 points in the National Hockey League, but points in his case are merely window dressing. He&rsquo;d be a positive factor if he never scored again.Francis has been blessed with a major-league head that tells him what to do and a major-league heart that provides enough courage to get it done.He&rsquo;s special. You can tell that just by watching him.From the day that he joined the Whalers in training camp in the fall of 1981, Francis has conducted himself as a professional in every way. Polite and conscientious, Francis is one of the Whalers&rsquo; leading ambassadors off the ice. On it, he&rsquo;s simply the team&rsquo;s best player.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve come a long way in three years,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;1 realize that we&rsquo;re not over the hump yet, but we&rsquo;re starting to earn some respect around the league. At least teams can expect an honest game from us now.&rdquo;Losing is difficult for anyone, but for a 20-year-old hero who hadn&rsquo;t lost much before, it can be overwhelming.&ldquo;At times it&rsquo;s been pretty embarrassing,&rdquo; Francis says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done a lot of struggling, especially in the first two years. It&rsquo;s been a lot more fun this year. You look forward going to the rink.&rdquo;Francis has maintained an equilibrium under the darkest of skies and has managed to play consistently well. Being the best player on a bad team is a dirty job, but Francis seems to relish it.&ldquo;I love Hartford,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The city is great, the fans are super and what 1 really like are the people in Hartford. They&rsquo;re friendly. Hartford&rsquo;s a big city, but it&rsquo;s not that big. It&rsquo;s got a great location. New York is only two hours away. The city is clean and the area is beautiful. It&rsquo;s a nice place to bring up a family.&rdquo;Francis&rsquo; affection for Hartford goes beyond geography and parenthood, however. His No. 1 priority is to lead the Whalers to the surface.&ldquo;I want to be here when we get there,&rdquo; he says and he means it.The Whalers&rsquo; 1983 all-star representative, Francis was the youngest player to participate and did it the right way, playing alongside Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier.&ldquo;Just look at the Islanders,&rdquo; Francis says. &ldquo;They had their tough times, but they stuck with it. Once we get through these rough times, we&rsquo;ll appreciate the good times even more.&rdquo;At 18, Francis did about everything except be Bobby Carpenter, the player the Whalers had originally hoped to get in the entry draft. He was returned to junior from that opening camp and stayed at Sault Ste. Marie, his hometown, for two months, where he was a team leader with the Soo Greyhounds.&ldquo;I picked up some confidence back in junior because I got off to a good start, but I&rsquo;d be lying if I said that I wasn&rsquo;t disappointed about not sticking,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I guess it all turned out for the best.&rdquo;In 59 games as a rookie, Francis scored 68 points, including 25 goals.At 19, he was the Whalers&rsquo; most valuable player as voted by his teammates.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the proudest moment I&rsquo;ve had as a pro,&rdquo; he says.In his second season, Francis scored 90 points in 79 games, including 31 goals.In his first 172 NHL games, he showed 197 points, including goals.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been scoring goals, but if you do your job, the chances will be there,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I know I can score more.&rdquo;Francis wants to improve on his 90-point season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not looking for 200 points,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;d like to get 95 or so. The idea is to improve each season.&rdquo;A bum knee has hampered Francis recently, but he refuses to use it as an alibi. Teammates, however, are quick to point out that Francis is playing hurt.&ldquo;Ronnie&rsquo;s a player,&rdquo; says linemate Blaine Stoughton. &ldquo;Players play hurt.&rdquo;Francis has been used in nearly every role. He&rsquo;s been double shifted at center, asked to play a point on the power play and even picked up an assist while playing wing.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t mind as long as I play,&rdquo; he says.The ride from Sault Ste. Marie has been rapid.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all happened so quick,&rdquo; says Francis, who three seasons ago was playing his first year of junior hockey.&ldquo;One day I was a junior, the next day 1 was a pro.&rdquo;Francis was drafted fourth overall in June of &lsquo;81. one pick behind Washington, which traded to draft ahead of Hartford and chose Carpenter.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know anything about that stuff,&rdquo; Francis says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got no regrets.&rdquo; &#9632;

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PEDERSON AND FRANCIS

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;The Islanders were conducting line rushes during a recent practice at Nassau Coliseum when coach Al Arbour became angry. Arbour, who was standing at center ice, tossed a stick to the side of the rink and raised his arms to the ceiling in a sign of disgust.Al Arbour was disgusted. He has been for some time&mdash;and for a good reason.The four-time Stanley Cup champions have been playing like chumps instead of champs in some recent games. They reached the halfway point in their Drive for Five season by losing 4-2 to the Bruins. Then the Islanders travelled to Hartford and lost to the Whalers by the same score.&ldquo;Is this a January slump?&rdquo; Bryan Trottier said in answering a question with a question.&rdquo; I wouldn&rsquo;t use the word. but it appears that way.&rdquo;Actually, the Islanders&rsquo; problems began before the end of the old year. They took a four-game road trip during the holidays and settled for a 2-2 record. They beat Los Angeles (in overtime) and Minnesota and lost to Washington and Winnipeg (in overtime).Four losses in six games. Can&rsquo;t anybody here play hockey? That&rsquo;s what Arbour was asking.&ldquo;Our defense is bad,&rdquo; he said after the loss at Hartford. &ldquo;Our coverage is very loose. We&rsquo;re being outmanned and we&rsquo;re letting two men roam in front all the time. We&rsquo;re not boxing out. We&rsquo;re scrambling all over the place.&rdquo;The Islanders finished the first half of the season with 54 points, nine more than they had at the same stage last season. This provided them with some comfort. However, there are some players who, like their coach, are not entirely satisfied with the way the season is progressing. Here are some sample comments:Trottier: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lack of concentration lately. We&rsquo;ve been getting away from our system. We&rsquo;ll have to buckle down during the second half.&rdquo;Billy Smith: &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been sharp in our own end and it&rsquo;s been costing us. Most of the games we&rsquo;ve lost lately, well, we caused the breakdowns. But we seem to do that every year. There&rsquo;s no panic&mdash;yet.&rdquo;Wayne Merrick: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a complete letdown in some games. We&rsquo;re not bearing down and it hurts us.&rdquo;Bob Boume: &ldquo;I look at some of the games we&rsquo;ve blown and it makes me wonder. We&rsquo;re playing too many bad games at home against weak teams.&rdquo;There was a time when the Islanders were almost invincible at Nassau Col iseum. but that has changed. Their record for the first 20 home games this season was 14-6-0; their road record was 12-6-2.Mike Bossy detected another possible shortcoming among the Islanders this season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re having problems coming from behind.&rdquo; the all-star right winger said. &ldquo;It might be a mental problem and that&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ll have to rectify. Maybe we&rsquo;re losing some confidence when we fall behind.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Kelly Hurdey remained one of the team&rsquo;s bright spots. The rookie goalie ran his record to 7-1-0 by turning back the Black Hawks 5-3. But the Islanders again looked sloppy the following night when they lost 5-4 to the Rangers, with Smith in goal.&ldquo;I feel brutal,&rdquo; Smith said after suffering his third straight loss. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not moving good. I&rsquo;m not sharp.&rdquo;Always a workhorse, Smith has objected to sharing the goalie load with Hrudey and Roland Melanson this season.&ldquo;Maybe the three-goalie system is finally catching up to us,&rdquo; Smith said.When that statement was relayed to Arbour, the coach barked: &ldquo;Excuses, excuses. I don&rsquo;t want to hear excuses.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE&mdash;Billy Carroll and Ken Morrow returned to the lineup against the Black Hawks and each scored a goal. It was Carroll&rsquo;s first goal of the season. He scored his lone goal last season in the next-to-last game. Morrow, who missed five games after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, became a father for the second time. His wife. Barbara, gave birth to a daughter, Brittany&hellip;John Tonelliis expected to be sidelined another week with a sprained knee&hellip;Mike Bossy extended his point-scoring streak to 16 consecutive games when he assisted on a goal by Greg Gilbert against the Rangers. It was Gilbert&rsquo;s ninth goal in nine games on the No. 1 line with Bossy and Bryan Trottier.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011638/6647832-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="586" height="1128"><figcaption class="caption-body">Islander coach Al Arbour showed his disgust for the team&rsquo;s awful play of late. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Islanders Look Like Chumps, Not Champs

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY Founded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineCONTROLLERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIBUTING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC, Cliff Kivell. 43 Madison Ave.,Toronto. Ontario M5R 2S2(416)961-5141SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPaula HeardNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTKathy NiklesRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom MoffatMary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER.Elaine WatkinsonADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Toronto. Ontario, CanadaM3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Third AvenueNew York, New York 10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTORDistributed nationally by Disticor101 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite L4Don Mills. Ont., M3B 1Z3(416) 449-6430THE HOCKEY NEWS. (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except monthly June through September by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 85 Scarsdale Road # 100. Toronto, Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. In U.S. c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York. N.Y. 10022.40 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $22.95 in the U.S.A. $22.95 in Canada. $39.95 in Foreign Countries. Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS, P.O. Box 13055, 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, 85 Scarsdale Road #100, Toronto. Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2. Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Road. #100, Toronto, Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2.LN THE UNITED STATES: Second class postage paid at New York. N.Y. and at additional mailing offices, U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo. N.Y. 14240.Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;More sad tidings for the Bad News Black Hawks.&bull; The New Year got off to a disastrous start when captain Darryl Sutter suffered injuries to his left eye and cheekbone during the 6-5 loss to the North Stars in Minnesota.&bull; Two days later, defenseman Jack O&rsquo;Callahan was suspended for eight games by National Hockey League executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill for high-sticking Dave Maloney of the New York Rangers in the 7-4 defeat Dec. 28 in Chicago Stadium.&bull; Three days later, Denis Savard, the Hawks&rsquo; leading scorer and resident superstar, suffered a broken nose when he was accidentally struck by Clark Gillies&rsquo; stick during the Hawks&rsquo; 5-3 loss to the Islanders on Long Island.Savard had surgery Jan. 10 and expects to be sidelined for two weeks.At this point there&rsquo;s no telling how long Sutter will be out. He was trying to get a foothold near the Minnesota net on a Chicago power play early in the first period when he was hit by a blast from Doug Wilson, one of the hardest shooters in the NHL, and it ricocheted off the stick of Minnesota&rsquo;s Al MacAdam before striking Sutter in the face.With blood streaming from his face, Sutter was taken to Methodist Hospital in nearby St. Louis Park, where he remained for four days.&ldquo;There are several fractures of the cheekbone and there&rsquo;s blood between the lens and the cornea of the eye,&rdquo; said Dr. Frank Sidell, one of the North Stars&rsquo; doctors.Another member of the North Star medical staff, Dr. Charles Kelly, said the cheekbone injury will take five or six weeks to heal following surgery (Jan. 9).O&rsquo;Callahan will be out of the lineup until Jan. 16. His attack on Maloney was a retaliatory act. Maloney spilled Steve Larmer from behind after the Hawk right winger scored a goal and raised his arms in exultation.&ldquo;When I went into him my stick was down,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Callahan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a dirty player. 1 didn&rsquo;t intend to hit him with my stick. No one feels worse than I do that Maloney was hurt (15 stiches). but no one feels better about coming to Stevie&rsquo;s defense.&rdquo;Maloney escaped without a penalty from referee Bob Myers but O&rsquo;Calla-han&rsquo;s response incited a 23-minute brawl.&ldquo;The reports of the game officials and close examination of the videotape shows the penalty was correctly assessed by the referee.&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Neill in announcing the decision. &ldquo;The deliberativeness of the action by the player was taken into account. Even though the player had no previous record of incidents of this nature, the use of a stick against an opponent can never be justified.&rdquo;Savard, Sutter and O&rsquo;Callahan are the latest members of Chicago&rsquo;s list of missing VIPs.Already on the disabled list are left wingers Al Secord and Curt Fraser, and defenseman Behn Wilson. In addition, center Tom Lysiak is serving a 20-game suspension (ending Jan. 14) for tripping linesman Ron Foyt. Troy Murray played for the first time Jan. 8 after straining left knee ligaments in Buffalo on Nov. 25.HAWK TALK&mdash;The loss in Minnesota left the defending Norris Division champions nine points behind the North Stars, who have taken over first place. &ldquo;The time has come for me to say, &lsquo;Nevermind where Minnesota is,&rsquo;&rdquo; conceded coach Orval Tessier. &ldquo;What we have to do now is nail down the playoff spot. I&rsquo;m prouder of our players today than I was at any time last season and I told them so. They emptied themselves out when they could have died like a wet rag after what happened to their captain. They worked harder than they did last year when we had a full cab and we were winning. For 60 minutes, they had the backbone to fight tooth-and-nail with a heck of a hockey club. They made mistakes but they were honest mistakes and that&rsquo;s part of hockey. I will not criticize anyone. I have nothing but praise for these men. &lsquo;&lsquo; &#9632;

Hawk Bad Luck Worsens By Day

<h2>OILER ECSTASY, AGONY</h2>EDMONTON&mdash;An injury to right winger Jari Kurri dampened what was an otherwise exciting display of offense by the Oilers in their 12-8 win over Minnesota North Stars on Jan. 5.Kurri, enjoying his best-ever season in the National Hockey League and second in scoring behind linemate Wayne Gretzky, suffered a groin pull and is expected to miss a few games. Kurri scored three goals in the game, giving him 38 in 41 games.Gretzky, who scored four goals and four assists in the game, extended his consecutive-games point record as well as his consecutive-games assist record.Mark Messier, who started off slowly but has been on a tear of late, tied the NHL record for assists in a period when he had a hand in four Oiler goals in the second period.As this issue went to press, Gretzky&rsquo;s scoring streak stood at 42 games and he used the 42nd game to notch his 50th goal of the season.<h2>HAWKS REALLY HURTING</h2>CHICAGO&mdash;The Black Hawks got a double-dose of bad news when defenseman Jack O&rsquo;Callahan was suspended for eight games and left winger Daryl Sutter was sidelined with a fractured left cheekbone and damage to his left eye.O&rsquo;Callahan, a member of the 1980 gold-medal U.S. Olympic team, received his sentence for crosschecking New York Ranger defenseman Dave Maloney in a game on Dec. 28. O&rsquo;Callahan was immediately assessed a match penalty which calls for a three-game suspension, but National Hockey League executive vicepresident Brian O&rsquo;Neill extended it to eight because O&rsquo;Callahan &ldquo;used his stick in deliberately attacking his opponent.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Callahan&rsquo;s penalty marked the third time this season that a player in the Black Hawk organization was suspended. Center Tom Lysiak was given a 20-game sentence for deliberately knocking down linesman Ron Foyt while minor-league goalie Warren Skorodenski was also given a 20-game sentence for physically abusing referee Dave Lynch.Meanwhile. Sutter, the Hawks&rsquo; captain, suffered his painful injury when he was hit by a puck fired by teammate Doug Wilson, whose slapshot is considered among the hardest in the league. It is expected Sutter will be lost to the injury-riddled Hawks for at least six weeks and as much as eight. With Sutter sidelined, the Hawks are now minus seven regulars, including the team&rsquo;s other two starting left wingers, Al Secord and Curt Fraser.<h2>SOVIETS WIN JUNIOR TOURNEY</h2>SWEDEN&mdash;The Soviet Union made it two victories in a row when they won the world junior tournament in Sweden.The Soviets, who won the host Izvestia tournament, swamped the host Sweden 8-2 in their final game to take the gold, while the Finns raised a few eyebrows enroute to the silver. Czechoslovakia finished third.The Canadians lost 6-4 to the Czechs in their final game to narrowly miss the final medal. Russ Courtnall, a center with the Victoria Cougars whose rights are owned by the Toronto Maple Leafs, was named Canada&rsquo;s outstanding player and was later picked up by the Canadian Olympic Team. &#9632;

SLAPSHOTS

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; The forerunners at the halfway point of the season for the National Hockey League trophies were Jean Beliveau (Hart), Jacques Laperriere (Calder), Ken Wharram (Lady Byng) and Pierre Pilote (Norris). In all-star balloting, the first-team had Glenn Hall (goal), Pilote and Tim Horton (defense), Beliveau (center), Wharram (right wing) and Bobby Hull (left wing).&bull; The New York Rangers, who&rsquo;d already had Jewish, Welsh, Irish and Chinese players in their history, said they were on the verge of signing their first-ever Black player, Alton White, a 19-year-old forward with Winnipeg of the Manitoba Junior League.&bull; Boston Bruins recalled 20-year-old Gary Domhoefer, who had 18 goals and 28 assists in 38 games with Minneapolis of the Central Pro League.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; A group of Buffalo sportsmen headed by Seymour Knox purchased the Oakland Seals and sought permission to move the team to Buffalo tor the &lsquo;69-70 season.&bull; The NHL announced a new format for the All-Star game in which the best of the Western Division would meet the top Eastern Division stars.&bull; Wayne Maxner became coach of the Halifax Canadiens of the Maritime Junior A League. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04459/6648004-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The low point in Fred Stanfield&rsquo;s career came in 1973 when he was traded from Boston to Minnesota.</figcaption></div>During his recent visit to Chicago, former National Hockey League player Fred Stanfield had a chance to visit with old friends from the Windy City.Most of the talk centered on former Chicago Black Hawk superstar Bobby Hull, who was being honored by having his uniform number retired.But for Stanfield, no matter whom he spoke to, inevitably talk of THE TRADE would come up.THE TRADE occurred in May of &lsquo;67 when the Black Hawks sent Stanfield, Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge to the Boston Bruins for Gilles Marotte, Pit Martin and minor-league goalie Jack Norris.&ldquo;No matter where I went or whom I talked to, those Chicago fans still talk about how that was the worst trade the Black Hawks ever made,&rdquo; said Stanfield, who played 14 seasons (196478) in the NHL with the Black Hawks, Bruins, Minnesota North Stars and Buffalo Sabres.The 39-year-old former center spoke of the trade and how it affected him.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t happy in Chicago because I wasn&rsquo;t getting the playing time.&rdquo; recalled Stanfield, a native of Toronto, Ont., who now lives in a suburb outside of Buffalo. &ldquo;For me, getting traded was a great opportunity.&rdquo;It was an opportunity that he and the rest of the players traded to Boston capitalized on.&ldquo;We worked as one big family in Boston,&rdquo; commented Stanfield. And we worked for one common goal, the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;I guess the one thing that sticks out in my mind more than anything about the team was its power play.&ldquo;For the most part we had Esposito, Hodge, (Wayne) Cashman and (John) Bucyk up front with myself and (Bobby) Orr at the points. And there were others.&ldquo;But the whole point of the power play was the fact that we had a lot of confidence in it. We knew each time we stepped on the ice with it, we could score. It was awesome.&rdquo;The low point for Stanfield came in May of &lsquo;73 when he was traded from Boston to Minnesota.&ldquo;The trade really hurt at first,&rdquo; said Stanfield, &ldquo;but then 1 realized that it happens to a lot of other players as well.&ldquo;But by the time I was traded an era had passed in Boston. The team had already started to break up when I was traded. Gerry Cheevers, Derek Sanderson and Johnny McKenzie had all jumped to the World Hockey Association and Eddie Westfall had been taken by the New York Islanders in the expansion draft in 1972.&rdquo;Today, Stanfield is owner and operator of Fred Stanfield&rsquo;s Budget Office furniture store in Williamsville, NY.&ldquo;I tried my hand at coaching in the minors and in junior A hockey, but it didn&rsquo;t give me the same thrill I got as a player,&rdquo; Stanfield said. &ldquo;I found that coaching is a tough job.&ldquo;I never had any free time to myself and I felt that I wanted to spend more time with my family.&ldquo;I reached the goals 1 wanted and that was to play on a winner and to win a Stanley Cup (two with Boston in 1970 and 1972).&ldquo;What more could I ask for?&rdquo;<h2>BEAVER TALES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011564/6647997-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="668" height="544"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021126/6647990-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="414" height="541"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03738/6647983-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="687" height="542"></div> &#9632;

f0005-04

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-05275/6648059-1-eng-US/f0005-052.jpg"></div>that the all-time top scoring European-born players (as of Dec. 25, 1983) are &#9632;

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Did You Know…

1. What player has played on the most Stanley-Cup winning teams?2. Which Norris Trophy-winning defenseman was a football linebacker at the University of New Hampshire?3. Who was the first captain of the Washington Capitals?4. Where was Minnesota North Star Willi Plett born?5. What two rookie goalies were both victorious in their first appearances this season?6. Who coached the Montreal Canadiens to a Stanley Cup win in 1971 and was replaced as coach before the next season began?7. Does the Penguin on Pittsburgh&rsquo;s, jersey shoot left or right?8. Who was the oldest rookie in NHL history?9. Who holds the record for playing with the most NHL teams in one season?10. Which two NHL players attended law school during their careers?<h2>Trivia Answers</h2>1 Henri Richard, with 11.2. Rod Langway.3. Doug Mohns.4. Paraguay.5. Toronto&rsquo;s Ken Wregget and Vancouver&rsquo;s Frank Caprice.6. Al MacNeil7. He shoots right.8. Connie Madigan was 38 years old when he debuted for St. Louis in 1972-73.9. Dennis O&rsquo;Brien played with four teams in 1977-78&mdash;Minnesota, Boston, Colorado and Cleveland.10. Ken Dryden and Myles Lane. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011738/6648090-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="306" height="358"></div><h2>And The Winner Is?</h2>THE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP is almost over.We&rsquo;re witnessing the next-to-last round and the underdog, Al Eagleson, is winning. By a lot.Folks, we&rsquo;re about to see lil, ol&rsquo; Al Eagleson whip big, old Time, Inc.For Eagleson, the most titled man in hockey history, to be an underdog takes a lot of doing but the way I figure it, anyone who goes up against the Time-Life publishing monarchy can never be the favorite.So, here&rsquo;s how the bout shaped up last year. In one comer was Time-Life&rsquo;s tough, sinewy nephew, Sports Illustrated, ready to crucify The Eagle. And in the other we had I&rsquo;ll-dazzle-&rsquo;em-with-my-footwork Eagleson.At a glance it appeared that The Eagle would be carted away in one round. The taxidermists were ready.The one-two punch was to be an article of considerable length and iceberg depth about Eagleson who, on an easy day, is boss of the players&rsquo; union, organizer of world tournaments, agent and politician. He also is, in the eyes of some, a benevolent despot or great dictator&mdash;take your pick.As such, Eagleson has more foes than Tiger Williams, Ken Linseman, Billy Smith and Glen Cochrane combined. This legion of foes licked their chops awaiting the great-great-come-and-get-it-day when someone with clout would at last take on Alan Almighty.That holy day finally arrived last spring when SI reporter John Papanek got on the blower and began phoning the Anti-Eagles. He was not seeking evidence that would nominate A.E. for the Nobel prize.You wouldn&rsquo;t believe the cast of characters who climbed out of the woodwork to de-feather The Eagle. Why even your&rsquo;s truly had to fight to get in line.As the SI researchers began closing in on A.E., there seemed no way that Alan could pull a Houdini and get out of the ring. The folks at Time-Life seemed bent on a quick TKO. Maybe too quick.Word filtered out that the magazine would try to nail Eagleson with the charge that he made a personal profit at the expense of non-profit international hockey, among other tasty morsels.It was a scheduled 15-round bout but it looked like The Eagle was going bye-bye in the opening round.&lsquo;&lsquo;They were talking expose at the beginning,&rdquo; says Eagleson, jolly-jaunty as ever in his Toronto chateau, &ldquo;but they made a mistake because they ran so fast. They went to everyone who might speak against me but the minute they found someone who was positive about Alan Eagleson they shut the door.&rdquo;Once The Eagle got wind of the magnitude and depth of the article, good lawyer that he is, he got himself a good lawyer. Between Eagleson and his attorney, they managed to obtain a writ here, and a summons there, a &ldquo;prior restraint&rdquo; order everywhere.As part of a court action, Eagleson sought a copy of the prospective manuscript, but SI refused to supply it.&ldquo;I would like to see the article first and point out where you are wrong,&rdquo; the Eagle told SI. &ldquo;I will direct you to the right answers and show you where to get the truth.&rdquo;To that, SI countered, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not the way we do business.&rdquo;Eagleson warned them, &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t tell the truth, 1 will consider your article malicious&hellip;I will consider it a libel action.&rdquo;By the time Round Two had begun, SI was backpedaling faster than Marvis Frazier. Nobody believed it was possible, but, lo and behold, indomitable SI was running scared. And do you know how you can tell? It didn&rsquo;t print the article when it said it would.&ldquo;Their facts were wrong,&rdquo; Eagleson insists. &ldquo;I told them they were obligated to seek out all the facts. What they had omitted were interviews with people like Sam Pollock (former boss of the Canadiens) and John Ziegler (who would endorse the Eagle.)&rdquo;Those who know a fight from a fandango realized that the bout had irrevocably tilted Eagleson&rsquo;s way when SIkept procrastinating publication of the piece from the fall to the winter.&ldquo;Actually,&rdquo; said one Eagle-watcher who has followed the saga, &ldquo;SI never could locate anyone with a smoking gun.&rdquo;Eagleson: &ldquo;We got them (SI) by the blankety-nuts. They thought they were up against a god-damn patsy. They were implying that I made a personal profit at the expense of the people in hockey. I let them know I&rsquo;d consider it a malicious story based on third-party information.&rdquo;The Eagle tells me he never tried to keep the story from being published-All he wanted was a two-sided view.&ldquo;They (SI) were put on straightforward notice of what we expect them to do if they write it,&rdquo; he emphasizes.Alas, 1983 disappeared and they never wrote it. At STs Rockefeller Center headquarters, assistant managing editor Mark Mulvoy insists that the article is not dead, &ldquo;not by any means.&rdquo;Technically speaking, he&rsquo;s right. I&rsquo;ve seen fighters&mdash;trailing 13 rounds to 1&mdash;come out of their comer for the 15th round expecting to win. They don&rsquo;t. SI won&rsquo;t.Not that the Eagle is crowing.&ldquo;Until they write me and say once and for all that the article won&rsquo;t be written it&rsquo;s like a bleepin&rsquo; sword of Damocles over my &ldquo;head,&rdquo; the Eagle said. &ldquo;But I can take it. It&rsquo;s part of my job to take it.&rdquo;He has taken it. He has taken Sports Illustrated to the cleaners.<h2>30-Second Third Degree</h2>TOM BARRASSO OF the Sabres, please take the stand:Q. Ten years from now, how many Americans&mdash;percentagewise&mdash;will be in the NHL?BARRASSO: It will never get as high as 50 per cent but there will be a high mix of Americans, Canadians and Europeans. It&rsquo;ll be about a third of each 10 years from now.Q. How do you feel about the media?BARRASSO: No problem. I think I handle the media as well as any veteran. I really appreciate it when a reporter comes up to me and says: &ldquo;Tom, do you have a couple of minutes. I&rsquo;d like to talk to you?&rdquo; But I think it&rsquo;s pushy for someone to come up and just start throwing questions as some do. Either way I&rsquo;m going to end up answering the questions.Q. How can you control the press?BARRASSO: The best way is to give them what they want all the time. You have to be as good to them as you can. They can really help you or they can really hurt you and it&rsquo;s up to you to make sure that they help you as much as they can.Q. It has been said you didn&rsquo;t get along with the Olympic players during your brief stint with them.BARRASSO: It&rsquo;s the kind of thing where if you&rsquo;re not happy, you can&rsquo;t pretend to be when you&rsquo;re not. I&rsquo;d call home and my mom and dad would say, &ldquo;Gee, how are you doing?&rdquo;I&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing OK.&rdquo;They&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;Well, are you having a good time?&rdquo;I&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m having a terrible time. I don&rsquo;t want to be here. I want to be playing with the Buffalo Sabres.&rdquo;They would say, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s only six months.&rdquo;I&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;Six months, geez, we are talking a lot of time here and I didn&rsquo;t want to wait that long. So, I went home for my sister&rsquo;s wedding and I told my parents even before I came home, I&rsquo;m not going back.&rdquo;They&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;Well, think about it when you come home.&rdquo;Isaid,&rdquo;No, Iwon&rsquo;t, Iamnotgoingback,&rdquo;and I came home.They said, &ldquo;Think about it for a few days.&rdquo;I said, &lsquo;&lsquo;OK, I will,&rdquo; and I never thought about it once. It was something I didn&rsquo;t want to do so I left and came here.<h2>Bruin Loving</h2>IS IT POSSIBLE for a pure hockey fan not to like the Boston Bruins?Impossible, I say. You gotta love &lsquo;em.I like the Bruins because they can be minus eight regulars on one night with more injured than the Mayo Clinic and still walk into any building thinking nothing but victory.&ldquo;I tell them,&rdquo; says Gerry Cheevers, the most underrated NHL coach, &ldquo;that injuries are a reason to win&mdash;never an excuse for losing.Think about that for a few seconds. I did when Cheevers mentioned it to me on a night when his team was so disabled a friend suggested that they mail in the two points instead of meeting the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.I wondered whether Cheevers had authored it himself or obtained the bit of genius from Bartlett&rsquo;s Familiar Quotations.Then, it dawned on me. Who the hell cares where he found the wisdom, can he make it work?Oh, boy, did he ever make it work!Without Steve Kasper, Keith Crowder, Dave Silk, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, Mike Krushelnyski, Guy Lapointe and, for all intents and purposes, Jim Schoenfeld, they played 60 minutes of nuts and bolts hockey and won 4-2.In a bean-and-cod town such as Boston, nuts and bolts hockey goes over very well.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve caught up to the Celtics,&rdquo; says Cheevers, whose team has won the uphill battle to match attendance with the popular pro basketball team in town.For that Cheevers can thank people such as Pete Peeters who had every right to beg off on that night against the Islanders. A note from the doctor would have told teacher that he had a bad case of the flu, had more aches than my grandmother on a sciatic night and should have been home sipping hot tea with honey.&ldquo;They pay me an enormous amount of money to play goal,&rdquo; explains Peeters. &ldquo;I owe &lsquo;em something.&rdquo;He says this after the Islanders pushed him around more than a Time Square turnstile. If he had aches at the beginning of the evening, he had 10 times as many pains at the end. Peeters has come through a traumatic injury to once again play a telling game in goal for Boston. Doing it all with a chipped vertebrae in his back. &#9632;

f0006-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;A year ago, the Washington Capitals seemed on their way toward the top echelon of the National Hockey League. Today, they appear once again to be mired in mediocrity, having lost ground on the scoreboard, in the standings and at the gate.The Capitals passed the midpoint of the season with an 18-19-3 record, far from the exalted 19-11-10 status of last year. They were fourth in the Patrick Division, 15 points behind the leading New York Islanders, in contrast to their second-place ranking, three points in back of Philadelphia, with which they entered the second half of 1982-83.With the team struggling on the ice, crowds fell by 47,839 from the first 20 home games of last season. With the Capitals unthreatened from below and apparently unlikely to rise in the standings, the lack of a race threatened to make things a lot worse.The absence of the Save the Caps urgency of 1982 and the grip on public attention by the Washington Redskins football team obviously had some effect on the drop in attendance. The Capitals&rsquo; defense-onented play also had to be a factor, with many home games lacking in excitement.After 40 games, Washington yielded 142 goals, the exact number at the same stage last year. But where the Capitals had shared 11 th place in NHL scoring with 156 goals, they slipped to 18th with only 135 in the net.Ironically, considering the 21-goal dropoff, departed center Dennis Maruk recorded exactly 21 goals at the halfway point of last season. Despite the goal gap created by Maruk&rsquo;s departure, general manager David Poile refused to second-guess himself about trading the center with noticeable defensive deficiencies.&ldquo;We know we need a goal scorer.&rdquo; Poile said, &ldquo;but we still think we&rsquo;re doing the right thing by emphasizing defense. You can&rsquo;t play offensively all season and then change for the playoffs.&rdquo;The nine forwards who were with the Capitals a year ago improved their first-half production from 90 to 96. But the three newcomers&mdash;Dave Christian (13 goals), Greg Adams (one) and Gary McAdam (one)&mdash;were a long way from the figures posted by Maruk (21), Ken Houston (15) and Milan Novy (11).Surprisingly, despite the big drop in goals scored, the Capitals had taken 11 more shots on goal over the 40 games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re certainly getting the chances,&rdquo; said coach Bryan Murray, &ldquo;but we don&rsquo;t seem to be able to take advantage of them. One obvious reason is the reluctance of people to shoot when they&rsquo;re on the power play. Everybody seems afraid to have a shot blocked and turned into a shorthanded goal.&rdquo;That was a very real fear, since the Capitals had given up 15 shorthanded scores while converting only 33 of 205 extra-man opportunities. That placed Washington 20th with a 16.1 per cent success rate.Surprisingly, while AIJensen was providing excellent work in the nets, his statistics&mdash;18-11-2 record, 3.06 goals-against average&mdash;actually were not as good as his halftime mark a year ago&mdash;11-3-4, 2.89.Of course, Jensen has been forced into far more frequent activity because backup Pat Riggin, 7-4-5 and 3.80 a year ago, was struggling at 0-8-1 and 4.70.Although the schedule seems lighter over the second half, it does not necessarily offer Washington chance for advancement. While five games against Pittsburgh and three against New Jersey provide opportunities to pad the point total, only one contest is left with the Rangers, a team Washington felt it could overhaul, and two of three against Philadelphia are on the road. &#9632;

Capitals Off Last Years Pace In Many Areas

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The Blues will still be licking their wounds for a few years because they missed the 1983 entry draft, but now it doesn&rsquo;t hurt quite so much.The Dec. 21 trade that brought Doug Wickenheiser, Greg Paslawski and Gilbert Delorme from the Montreal Canadiens for Perry Turnbull amounted to an investment that the Blues hope will pay off a few years down the road. Wickenheiser, a center, and Paslawski, a right winger, are 22; Delorme, a defenseman, is 21.In giving up the 24-year-old Turnbull, a proven 30-goal scorer, the Blues are gambling that the three young players will thrive in a new setting with a team that will give them every chance to develop.More than anything else, the Blues believe the trade will give them the depth they lacked.&ldquo;We were a little short of players and it helps the coach to be able to manipulate a little bit,&rdquo; said coach Jacques Demers. &ldquo;When guys don&rsquo;t play, they&rsquo;ll sit in the press box.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Everybody&rsquo;s referring to Wickenheiser as the top guy in the trade.&rsquo;</blockquote>Ron Caron, the Blues&rsquo; vice president and director of player personnel, said he was looking for both immediate and long-term help.&ldquo;I think all three can step in and help the team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was sorry to let Perry go, but we needed the balance.&ldquo;Everybody is referring to Wickenheiser as the top guy in the trade, but I&rsquo;m expecting a great contribution from the other two. All three have a great attitude.&rdquo;The newcomers have had plenty of ice time in the weeks since the trade. Delorme took a regular shift on defense with Jack Brownschidle and was a standout in his first two games. Wickenheiser centered a line with Jorgen Pettersson on left wing and Mark Reeds on the right. Paslawski was put on the top line with Bernie Federko and Brian Sutter for a couple of games before he was teamed with Doug Gilmour and Pat Hickey.Delorme was particularly impressive as a hitter and shooter in games at Winnipeg and Chicago.&ldquo;Delorme is going to be a hero here in St. Louis,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;He hits and hits to hurt. That&rsquo;s something they&rsquo;ll like. He&rsquo;s so young, there&rsquo;s room for improvement. He&rsquo;s going to get better. He&rsquo;s got fan appeal.&rdquo;Wickenheiser was immediately thrown on the power-play and penaltykilling units and was clearly unaccustomed to so much activity.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s probably more than I&rsquo;ve played the rest of the season combined,&rdquo; he said after making his debut in Winnipeg.Demers said his new players didn&rsquo;t play much in Montreal, so it will take them time to find their groove, but he added, &ldquo;they&rsquo;re coming along, getting better every period they play.&rdquo;The reunion of Caron and Wickenheiser is the most intriguing aspect of the trade. Caron was the Canadiens&rsquo; director of scouting and player personnel when Wickenheiser was the No. 1 choice overall in the 1980 draft. When Wickenheiser failed to live up to expectations, fingers were pointed at Caron. Now they&rsquo;re together again, hoping that everything&rsquo;s better the second time around.Caron never lost faith in Wickenheiser, even when just about everybody else did.&ldquo;They wanted him to explode right away,&rdquo; said Caron. &ldquo;I am convinced that in order for him to become a good or very good hockey player, he had to leave. There were too many bad memories there.&rdquo;By extricating him from Montreal, Caron said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re releasing the handcuffs.&rdquo;Wickenheiser, who had scored 89 goals in his final season with the Regina Pats of the Western League and was named the Canadian Major Junior player of the year, scored 49 goals in three-and-a-half seasons with the Canadiens. All three players said they were happy to be going to a team that wanted them, but Wickenheiser had to be the happiest.&ldquo;Because of all the things that have gone on the last couple of years, there&rsquo;s always been a monkey on my back,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In St. Louis, it&rsquo;ll be a lot different atmosphere.&ldquo;The fans there just want a good effort and there won&rsquo;t be the pressure there was in Montreal. Now I can go out, be myself and play relaxed and maybe play the way I did in junior. Now I won&rsquo;t have to worry about making a mistake every time I step on the ice.&rdquo;<h2>DEALERS AND COLLECTORS</h2>Bulk quantities of:1981/82 International Ice Hockey Guide1982/83 National Hockey League Official GuideThe New Professional Hockey Almanac1974/75 Professional Hockey Handbook1981 Canada Cup Program1980 The Hockey News Yearbook1982 The Hockey News Yearbook 1982/83 National Hockey League Record Book1981/82 National Hockey League Guide Book1981/82 National Hockey League Guide Book1981 Canada Cup Poster Available at drastically reduced prices:Contact:The Hockey News, Box DJH, 85 Scarsdale Road, Suite 100 Dnn Mills Ont M3B 2R2 &#9632;

Blues Bank On Hab Players For The Future

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Good Luck</h2>PUTTING TOGETHER AN Olympic hockey team in Canada is a little like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, but without ail the pieces. The trouble, as we all know, is that many of Canada&rsquo;s best prospects are playing in the National Hockey League and, therefore, are ineligible for the Olympics.Now that the calibre of talent in the United States has improved dramatically in the past few years, they are facing a similar situation, albeit on a lesser scale. Players such as Bobby Carpenter, Phil Housley, Brian Lawton, Tom Barrasso and Rod Langway, to name just a few, would obviously help Team USA&rsquo;s cause in the Winter Games.But then that is nothing new. It&rsquo;s a problem North Americans have always faced, given the predominance of professional sports on this continent.Given all this, it was rather surprising to learn of Hockey Canada&rsquo;s million-dollar scholarship plan, revealed in a Toronto Star story on Jan. 7, which is aimed at directing talented young Canadians into Canadian universities, where they would prepare for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.The meat of the program is as follows:&bull; Hockey Canada would provide an average of $ 10,000 to each of about 20 to 30 prospects per year who would combine academics and hockey at a Canadian university.&bull; Some of these prospects would start being scouted at age 15 or 16 and identified, even though they wouldn&rsquo;t attend university for another two or three years.&bull; The chosen players would play for their respective university teams until the Olympic year, when they would assemble as a unit and begin preparations for the Winter Games.The aim of the program would appear to be two-fold. First, Hockey Canada wants to keep Canadian talent in Canada, instead of seeing it end up with the University of Wisconsin or North Dakota or Bowling Green. Second, Hockey Canada wants a pool of quality talent to draw on for the 1988 Games.Keeping Canadian players within Canada is an honorable cause that may well come to be. But it&rsquo;s difficult to understand how the Olympic talent pool will be any greater in 1988 than it is right now.The assumption being made by Hockey Canada is that its scholarship program can compete with the NHL for young talent. Hockey Canada intimates that a young player, rather than sign with an NHL club when he&rsquo;s 18. would attend a Canadian university and wait for the Olympics before turning pro.That, it would seem, is wishful thinking.Think about it, using this year&rsquo;s Olympic team as an example. If the Hockey Canada scholarship program was in place, it would have attracted players such as James Patrick, Pat Flatley and the other Canadian Olympians who went to the United States on hockey scholarships. But why would we assume that it would attract any more players than those who have already decided to pursue academics and hockey?After all, it&rsquo;s not as if Hockey Canada is offering something that has never been available to young Canadians. It&rsquo;s just that, this time, it&rsquo;s to a Canadian school as opposed to an American one.Right or wrong, the NHL has a strong appeal to the majority of young hockey stars. There are, among other things, big dollars involved. And as we see it, Canada is always going to have a tough time assembling an Olympic team, given the heavy emphasis we place on pro sports.That doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean the Hockey Canada program is a waste of time and money. But Hockey Canada would be wise to spend some of both on making sure 1988 isn&rsquo;t a repeat of 1984.The 1984 Games are but a few weeks away and the Olympic team is still haggling with junior hockey officials over the terms and conditions for the services of Kirk Muller, an immensely-talented 17-year-old who plays for the Guelph Platers. You would think that, given the $1.3 million (a million from Labatt&rsquo;s and the remainder from Hockey Canada) being spent this year/on the Olympic team, squabbles between amateur factions in Canada would have been settled long ago.Maybe Hockey Canada should take care of those hassles before it tries to compete with the NHL for talent. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY JIM PROUDFOOT</div>Michel Petit, a 19-year-old from St. Malo, Que., is one of the most gifted young defensemen in North American hockey and, until recently, was an important component of the team preparing to represent Canada in the Olympics next month.But that scheme hit a snag recently when the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League decided they couldn&rsquo;t get along a minute longer without Petit on their rearguard. He&rsquo;s there to stay.And the entire situation can be regarded as a sad indication of what the amateur hockey folks are up against in trying to assemble a respectable, competitive Olympic entry. They&rsquo;re supposedly struggling to beat the mighty Soviets and the fired-up Yanks whereas, in fact, they can scarcely deal with formidable opposition right here at home.It&rsquo;s this simple: How do you overcome the loss of a first-stringer, scant weeks before your major competition? And the answer, of course, is that in this case you don&rsquo;t. You simply suffer.&ldquo;Actually, the Canucks intended to let us take Petit overseas. He was meant to be back with us by now,&rdquo; says Dave King, the Team Canada coach. &ldquo;But they disco-vered they couldn&rsquo;t return him to us if they hoped to use him after the Olympics&mdash;and they definitely had that in mind.&ldquo;The NHL has a rule which was put in to protect the junior clubs and us too, as it turns out, from being raided. It says you can&rsquo;t bring up a junior player after the first of January unless you have an emergency caused by an injury.&ldquo;In other words, the Canucks would have had to drop a regular to get Petit back following the Olympics. So, while they were very apologetic, they had no choice except to keep him. And we&rsquo;ve had to find a replacement somehow.&rdquo;The New York Islanders sought (without success) to amend the regulation because it covers Pat Lafontaine, the teenage star of the U.S. Olympic squad. He had been scheduled to join the Islanders, who drafted him last summer, for the closing weeks of the NHL schedule, and the Stanley Cup playoffs. Now it appears he can&rsquo;t go, unless the club is prepared to create an opening in its roster for him.Petit had been one of four Canadian Olympians selected on the first round of an NHL amateur draft. The others remain on King&rsquo;s roster&mdash;defenseman James Patrick (Rangers, 1981), right winger Pat Flatley (Islanders, 1983) and center Dave Gagner (Rangers, 1983), who recently played with Team Canada at the world junior championships.With Gagner is defenseman J.J. Daigneault, who&rsquo;ll be eligible for the 1984 draft, and is expected to be an early choice.Those were reinforcements King was sure of, as he got ready for a Dec. 4 game against the touring Soviet team. But he was hoping to mine more gems from the junior nationals, who finished fourth in the tournament in Sweden.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to look for some help,&rdquo; King said, &ldquo;because we need it and also because I think it&rsquo;s important that Canadian hockey have the best representation possible at the Olympics.&rdquo;King didn&rsquo;t identify the reinforcements he wants but it is understood both are centers&mdash;Russ Courtnall, a Maple Leaf prospect from Victoria, B.C., and Kirk Muller of Guelph.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll go through proper channels,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be speaking with the commissioners of the Western and Ontario Leagues and they will approach the clubs concerned on our behalf. I think we have a case. We just loaned them Gagner and Daigneault when we were asked for assistance. That gives us an i.o.u, doesn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;Muller was one of the athletes King had originally pencilled in on his proposed 1984 lineup. However, the Guelph club balked and the Olympians backed off.&ldquo;It was our policy to preserve harmonious relations with the junior leagues, if only because this program is geared toward the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. So we avoided confrontation,&rdquo; King explained. &ldquo;I can assure you that if we&rsquo;d gone to the mat in a few cases, we&rsquo;d be going to Yugoslavia with a much stronger team.&ldquo;We recognize that the junior clubs are business enterprises and that star players, for them, are assets. That&rsquo;s the way our system works. What can I say? A lot of people have to come with sacrifices in an Olympic year. Athletes do it as a matter of course.&ldquo;At one time, we were asking a team to give us a guy for maybe five or six months. Now we&rsquo;re talking six weeks. And I think it&rsquo;d be six weeks in which a kid could improve his skills and enhance his reputation but maybe everybody wouldn&rsquo;t agree.&rdquo;But what is definitely agreed, in any case, is that at what should be the critical stage in the rehearsal period, the Canucks are still scrambling desperately to improve their personnel.This column originally appeared in the Jan. 4 edition of the Toronto Star and both Courtnall and Muller joined the Olympic team, although the loan arrangement for Muller wasn&rsquo;t firmly in place as this issue went to press. &#9632;

Canada’s Olympic Team Caught In Tug Of War

<h2>OILERS A CLASSLESS ACT</h2>There aren&rsquo;t too many teams I don&rsquo;t like&mdash;as an Islander fan 1 even enjoy watching the Rangers, especially after their phenomenal start this year. And up until last year&rsquo;s finals there weren&rsquo;t any teams I didn&rsquo;t respect. Any team that needs to score four goals to win a game or has to resort to cheap, classless tricks (i.e., the slashing incidents blown out of proportion by Glen Sather and the Edmonton press or the decapitation attempts on the Swedes and Bill Smith) or kicks teams when they&rsquo;re already down to make themselves feel big does not belong in a league so full of class players and teams.The fans and press in Edmonton may need lessons in class, also. I&rsquo;m referring to the banner about the Sutter family (Viking loves the Oilers&mdash;Sutters move) and the articles about the Islanders during the finals last year. I feel bad for the Oiler players, fans and Edmonton writers who do not belong in the above categories, but they&rsquo;ll have to suffer as long as they&rsquo;re associated with such classless acts as Gretzky, Sather, Semenko, Lumley, and a few fans and writers in Alberta.Jeanne Fournier Bethpage, NY<h2>THE TIGER RAG</h2>The antics of Dave (Tiger) Williams are both violent and non-professional. I&rsquo;m referring to the Oct. 30 game where Williams literally did push-ups on Paul Baxters&rsquo; throat. Reggie Lemelin, who viewed the incident, said that Baxter was turning red and actually gasping for air. Williams did receive an 11-game suspension which should be applauded, but one wonders how much it helped. The next Flames-Canucks game was Dec. 16 and well into the third period Baxter laid a solid bodycheck on Gary Lupul of the Canucks. Lupul retaliated with an elbow and an infraction was called. All the way from the other side of the ice, nowhere near the play, Williams suddenly skated across and for no apparent reason jumped Baxter. With Tiger Williams still in the NHL, professional hockey seems a bit more amateur.Guy DeSantis Calgary. Alta.<h2>THANKS FOR MEMORIES</h2>I would like to make mention of Mike Kane&rsquo;s article in the salute to the American Hockey League.I was, to say the least, amazed, flattered, honored to see that it was my picture that was used. The picture was from 1948 when I was 21 years of age.It was published at the most opportune time for me as I am returning to hockey this year by being appointed coach of a high school in nearby Massachusetts.So I would like to say many thanks to THE HOCKEY NEWS as it sure brought back many memories for me from the good old years.Al Bentley Barrington, RI &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;A night after scoring his first goal in a Canadien uniform, Montreal left winger Perry Turnbull faced his first suspension.Turnbull, known for his combativeness while wearing the colors of the St. Louis Blues, was expected to be suspended for three games by the National Hockey League as the Canadiens prepared to play Toronto, the Islanders and the New Jersey Devils.Late in the second period at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, Turnbull left the Canadiens&rsquo; bench after some rather nasty dialogue with Buffalo defenseman Jerry Korab. Turnbull, who was known for his pugilistic ability while playing for the Blues, invited Korab to join him on the ice for a more physical exchange of views. The gloves were dropped, the two fought and both found themselves heading for their respective dressing rooms. It looked innocent enough. There were 90 seconds remaining in the period and both were obviously going to receive five-minute fighting majors from referee Bob Hall. What they didn&rsquo;t count on was Hall penalizing them under rule 66 which is in the book to prevent brawling.&ldquo;He handled it the right way,&rdquo; said Frank Udvari, who was supervising the work of the officials that evening.Under rule 66. section b, no player may leave the players bench or penalty bench at any time during an altercation or for the purpose of starting an altercation. A double minor is imposed on the player of the team who was first to leave the bench, but if both players leave the bench at the same time, then both players are assessed double minors and game misconducts and the team is given a $ 1,000 fine.Subsection c of the rule is also abundantly clear: any player penalized under subsection b is liable to an automatic three-game suspension, a fact which caught Tumbull and the Canadiens&rsquo; official by surprise.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be suspended, am I?&rdquo; Turnbull asked.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s likely,&rdquo; the reply came.The expected suspension comes at a bad time for Turnbull who was just beginning to get his act together with the Canadiens. His absence in the third period against the Sabres was noticeable as Montreal dropped a 4-3 decision, the fifth loss in as many games to Buffalo this year by the Habs.A night earlier, the Canadiens moved one game above the. 500 mark for the third time this season as they hammered Turnbull&rsquo;s former team 5-0, putting a damper on the return to Montreal by Doug Wickenheiser, Greg Paslawski and Gilbert Delorme. To be charitable, the three ex-Canadiens were almost invisible in the game while Tumbull scored his first goal in a Montreal uniform.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still learning to play with Ryan Walter and Bobby Smith,&rdquo; said Turnbull, who got a standing ovation when he popped his goal by ex-Canadien goaltender Michel (Bunny) Larocque. &ldquo;Things are going to get easier as you go along. Just hard work is all you can do. If you continue to work hard, things will come.Tumbull felt that the goal took a little of the pressure off him. He had admitted to be a streaky player, but seemed to be getting antsy as he did not score in his six games in a Montreal uniform.&ldquo;The pressure builds more and more each night as you don&rsquo;t score,&rdquo; Turnbull said. &ldquo;They got me here in a big trade and they want to see me score. I hope to be able to do what Montreal expects of me and that I can contribute to the team.&ldquo;It was nice to get one against my old team, but the biggest thing was 1 contributed to the victory by the team I&rsquo;m playing for now. It was a terrific ovation and I appreciated it. I know they have been expecting a lot more than what I have been giving them so far.&ldquo;The fans haven&rsquo;t put that much pressure on me and neither has the press and I appreciate that. Hopefully I can respond quickly.&rdquo;Turnbull was obviously not delighted to learn about the suspension, but learned a lesson from it, a bitter one at that.IN PASSING&mdash;Alfie Turcotte reported for duty and had an assist in the 5-1 victory over Detroit and a pair of assists in the triumph over St. Louis as he played for the most part with Mario Tremblay and Mats Naslund. Turcotte was flattened by a well-placed elbow thrown by John Barrett of the Red Wings in the second period, but returned to assist on Craig Ludwig&rsquo;s goal with 10 seconds to play in the middle session. Ludwig&rsquo;s goal was his third of the season and his career but only his first on Montreal ice., Rick Wamsley returned to the Canadiens&rsquo; net for the firt time since Dec. 10 and faced just 10 shots against the Red Wings before stopping 36 to earn his second shutout of the year against the Blues., Guy Carbonneau has scored 33 goals in a year and a half in the NHL and nine of them have been shorthanded efforts&hellip;With the arrival of Turcotte, John Chabot found himself back in a designated sitter role. Chabot should return to active status soon because managing director Serge Savard has indicated he will return Turcotte to the Portland Winter Hawks after his 10-game trial is over. &#9632;

Turnbull Fortune Goes From Sweet To Sour

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;The Rangers began the second half of their season in a fashion befitting their first 40 games&mdash;winning a cliffhanger that needn&rsquo;t have been that close.Game 41 was a 4-3 overtime victory at Madison Square Garden over the New Jersey Devils, a team that almost always gives the Rangers a hard time. It took a screen shot from Reijo Routsalainen after a savvy setup by Pierre Larouche to give the Rangers a victory with just 13 seconds remaining in overtime and ruin a fine performance by Devil goalie Glenn&ldquo;We&rsquo;re on target after the first 40,&rdquo; Ranger coach Herb Brooks said of his goal for the first half of the season. &ldquo;The second half will be more difficult because we&rsquo;re on the road more and the schedule of teams will be more difficult. This will be a real test for us.&ldquo;Despite a couple of soft spots in November and December, I&rsquo;m happy. We were way ahead in first, then we dropped to almost fourth and now we&rsquo;re only three points out of first place. That&rsquo;s a very encouraging sign.&ldquo;Hopefully, we can remain injury-free. Forty-nine points after 40 games is almost a 100-point season. I don&rsquo;t know the last time they had a 100-point season around here.&rdquo;For the record, the Rangers finished with 102 points in 1972-73, the third consecutive year they broke the 100-point barrier and that being in a 78-game season. They have not been over the top since.&ldquo;We got off to such a good start, we had a couple of slumps but we bounced back and that&rsquo;s got to be commended,&rdquo; Ranger captain Barry Beck said. &ldquo;We have tough games coming up (at Boston, at home against the Islanders, at Philadelphia and at the Islanders) and it would be great to be in first place at the end of next week.&rdquo;The Rangers regained second place with an impressive 6-3 victory over the Flyers at the Garden on Dec. 30.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to beat these team in the playoffs, so it will be a good test,&rdquo; Beck added. &ldquo;Our conditioning is going to have to have an effect.&rdquo;The Rangers will have to make do without the services of towering defenseman Willie Huber, who is sidelined indefinitely after arthroscopic surgery to repair medial ligaments in his right knee.Against the Devils, the Rangers were not exactly crisp but found they had the inner strength to hang on against the pesky Devils. Kent-Erik Andersson tied the score at 3-3 with his second goal of the game after Ron Greschner, a master at holding on to the puck, carried it from left to right behind the net and then brought it out to Resch&rsquo;s doorstep, setting up Andersson with the rebound.The Devils played a dump-and-run against the Rangers, baffling them at times, and repeatedly penetrating the defensive zone. Glen Hanlon, having seized the No. 1 goalie job and starting his ninth game in the last 10, was a calming presence and emerged unbeaten in his last seven starts (6-0-1).The Rangers&rsquo; biggest problem, as Brooks and countless players have pointed out, is getting the entire team to give a 60-minute effort. Against the Capitals in a 2-2 tie in their first game of 1984, they had a good first period and, once again, a terrible letdown in the second.Three players, all centers, have emerged as the team&rsquo;s scoring leaders (Larouche, Mike Rogers, who suffered a hip pointer when checked in the boards by Devil defenseman Bob Hoffmeyer, and Mark Pavelich), but the wingers are having their problems producing points. After the three centers, four of the next seven Rangers in point production are defensemen. Robbie Ftorek plays only occasionally, despite his two-goal effort in in the Rangers&rsquo; 3-2 victory over Buffalo on New Year&rsquo;s Eve.Reporters were infuriated by Routsalainen&rsquo;s refusal to submit to a post-game interview after his game winner against the Devils, though several did track him down elsewhere. The two excuses Routsalainen usually offers&mdash;shyness and a supposed lack of ease with the English language&mdash;ruined a chance to have him describe a pretty play.Just a few feet from the right post, Larouche was stopped on his first shot from Resch but grabbed the rebound. Then, instead of shooting again into a maze of bodies, he showed poise that few forwards possess by passing the puck across ice to Roustsalainen who had plenty of time to wind up for the winning goal.NOTES&mdash;Chris Kontos finally joined the Rangers&rsquo; farm team in Tulsa. Kontos, the Rangers&rsquo; 1982 first-round draft choice, retired to his native Toronto in September, rather than report to the Central Hockey League team because he concluded he did not fit into the Rangers&rsquo; plans at center. Kontos decided to report to the Oilers after a series of meetings in Toronto with Ranger general manager Craig Patrick during the New Year&rsquo;s weekend. &#9632;

Rangers Prepared For Difficult Second Half

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011619/6648289-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="306" height="352"></div><h2>Hockey In Texas?</h2>SHOULD TEXAS HAVE professional hockey? Why not? I asked myself on a recent trip to Houston. The Lone Star state has everything else&mdash;the Cowboys, Earl Campbell, Ralph Sampson, the Rangers (that&rsquo;s a baseball team, pardner), Gilley&rsquo;s and Victoria Principal.The problem is, ever since the World Hockey Association Houston Aeros packed away their Zamboni and the Central League abandoned Dallas and Fort Worth, the only contact Texans have with hockey is newspaper reports of the far-off National Hockey League, cable TV and weekly deliveries of THE HOCKEY NEWS.Why, you may be asking, is this guy worried about Texas not having hockey? Alabama, Georgia and Florida, to name three southern states, don&rsquo;t have hockey. Can&rsquo;t life go on without hockey? No, it can&rsquo;t&mdash;not if you&rsquo;ve grown to have an affection for the sport.One reason I wonder about Texas suffering withdrawal symptoms from hockey is, Dallas and Houston are two of the hot cities in the United States. When I say hot, I don&rsquo;t mean the weather, which is often warm enough to bum your buns even if you&rsquo;re not near an oven. What I mean is both cities are growing, which means there are gushers of money in the areaPermit a brief history lesson. As shocking as this may be to latecomers, Houston was a reasonably thriving hockey town in the &lsquo;60s when it was the top farm club for, of all teams, the Montreal Canadiens. Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard and Jacques Lemaire all polished their Texas drawls with the Central League Houston Apollos before being promoted to the Canadiens. Why Houston? The Canadiens&rsquo; officials must have wanted a warm place to visit during the winters.Anyway, when Gary Davidson waved his magic money belt and invented the WHA, the Aeros were formed and went on to win several Avco Cups, the WHA&rsquo;s version of the Stanley Cup. Pop Howe and the kids were integral members of those championship teams, as was John Tonelli, who&rsquo;s enjoyed similar success with the New York Islanders. Today, Mark Howe plays for the Philadelphia Flyers, but he occasionally thinks of the good days in Houston.&ldquo;We had a hard core of 7,500-8,000 fans in Houston,&rdquo; Howe said. &ldquo;We had first-place teams there and the Summit is a beautiful building.&rdquo;<h2>No Place To Practise</h2>WITH THE PROPER ownership. Howe thinks Houston could be a thriving NHL city. Howe is right about the Summit, which is now the home of Ralph Sampson and the National Basketball Association Rockets. But lack of practice facilities and mass transit are two problems detracting from NHL interest in Houston.&ldquo;The biggest problem in Texas and the southern states is lack of ice,&rdquo; said Bud Poile, the Central League president who worked out of Dallas for 21 years before his office was transferred to Indianapolis. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re put of Wichita, Oklhaoma City and Dallas. It&rsquo;s too bad, because we had built up some amateur programs in those cities.&rdquo;In the mall adjacent to my hotel in Houston was an attractive skating rink, but Poile indicated it might be the only rink left in Houston.&ldquo;When Dr. (John) McMullen bought the (NHL) Jersey club,&rdquo; said Poile, &ldquo;he wanted to put a farm club in Houston, in the Astroarena.&rdquo;According to sportswriters I talked with in Houston, Dr. McMullen would have been wasting his money. After the WHA Aeros left town, Houston had a minor-league team, but it couldn&rsquo;t draw cowboys, Indians or transplanted Canadians.&ldquo;Texans aren&rsquo;t prone to accept anything from the north,&rdquo; said Poile, the former Philadelphia and Vancouver general manager, of additional problems in Houston. &ldquo;Plus, football is big in New York and Philly, but it&rsquo;s a religion down there.&ldquo;Another thing is the lifestyle. You move there and you change your whole lifestyle. It&rsquo;s tennis, golf, barbecues&hellip;I even started liking it.&rdquo;Jan Popiei liked it so much, he stayed in Houston and started a home building business after he finished his career with the Aeros. Popiel agrees with Poile&rsquo;s views, adding that &ldquo;the Summit is a fantastic facility, but the only way to get there is by car.&rdquo;The Summit is within a slapshot of a Houston expressway, but despite five lanes in each direction, traffic can be incredibly congested, Popiel says. There is, however, continuing hockey interest in Houston and the south.<h2>A Texas-Leaguer</h2>&ldquo;MY BROTHER, PAUL, Jude Drouin, and Glen Irwin (all former pros) had organized a team and played in a tournament in New Orleans,&rdquo; Popiel said. &ldquo;One time when we were in New Orleans they had a college hockey tournament and they played pretty decent hockey. I&rsquo;d like to see a Texas League organized. Five teams, maybe 60 games. They could play in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Beaumont. Start it after football season&hellip;all the travel would be by bus. Maybe he (Poile) could recommend it as a junior-type league.&rdquo;Some hockey interest was stirred in Dallas last fall when an exhibition game between the Stanley Cup champion Islanders and the U.S. Olympic team was proposed.&ldquo;They wanted to play it in Reunion Arena (home of the NBA Dallas Mavericks),&rdquo; said Bruce Jolisch, a former PR director for the Los Angeles Lakers who now works for a large food corporation in the state. &ldquo;The Islanders were interested but it fell through.&rdquo;Jolisch said public transportation is no problem in Dallas. Where an NHL expansion team would stumble, Jolisch believes, is finding patient fans.&lsquo;&lsquo;They were patient with the Mavericks,&rdquo; Jolisch said, &ldquo;because they could see Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Doctor J (Julius Erving). I wonder if the man on the street here could name four hockey players?&rdquo;Poile said a rally was held in Fort Worth trying to stimulate support for another Central League team. And, if the St. Louis Blues had been moved, Poile said a Dallas group was interested in moving the club there.&ldquo;Jake Milford (ex-Vancouver GM) and I have always had a secret wish to run an NHL club in Dallas,&rdquo; Poile confessed.Unfortunately for the exiled hockey fans in Texas, Poile is very skeptical about the sport surfacing in the state.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t bet too much money on hockey returning to the south for a long time,&rdquo; Poile said.Perhaps one hope is the Toronto Sun&rsquo;s purchasing the Houston Post. If some of those Sun executives get restless for hockey, maybe they can call home and lean on the MacLean-Hunter people to bring a team to town. Then again, maybe these executives will be like these 800,000 Canadians in California that Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; erstwhile owner Jack Kent Cooke belatedly realized moved there because they hate hockey.Still, I think if Houston and Dallas had NHL teams, that rivalry would almost be enough sustain the clubs until they grew into winning clubs. &#9632;

f0010-01

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>&ldquo;There was so much build-up. people were expecting a 50-goal scorer, a real tough guy who slams people into the boards all the time. I&rsquo;m just human, lean only do so much. &ldquo;&mdash;Gary NylundTORONTO&mdash;In nine games this season. Gary Nylund has one goal, three assists. 16 minutes in penalties and a minus-six.If you&rsquo;re big on statistics, then it&rsquo;s obvious Nylund is not playing well; then again, when making a judgment on Nylund, you have to qualify it with a bold, black asterisk.First. Nylund is only 20; second, he&rsquo;s still a rookie; and last, he&rsquo;s got a left knee which is still mending after two knee operations and requires a brace to play hockey. Not that those three items are excuses on Nylund&rsquo;s behalf; they are just the facts.Had he been anybody else but the highly-touted first pick (third overall) by the Leafs in the &lsquo;82 entry draft and had he not suffered those knee injuries and had the Leafs not slumped to their present state&mdash;one win in their last six outings&mdash;Nylund would be allowed to play minus all the hype.Nylund, it seems, will not be allowed that luxury. In the 16 games sandwiched between his two knee operations last year, there were signs that he had the tools of a player who earns the label. The Franchise. He commanded presence and when the opposition roamed his way. they kept their heads up lest they end up on their derrieres.When he was rehabilitating his knee for the second time, he exemplified determination. grit and maturity. Through the countless inquisitions concerning his return to the roster. Nylund never wavered. His answer was always the same: &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t return until the knee is ready.&rdquo;Two days before Christmas in an away game at Detroit. Nylund returned to the lineup. Showing the effects of his long layoff, he appeared tentative, though he emerged with one of the Leafs&rsquo; two goals in their 9-2 loss. Three nights later in Toronto&mdash;the Leaf brass purposely avoided starting him at Maple Leaf Gardens&mdash;Nylund saw only red and white and hit anybody wearing a jersey with those colors. He slammed Eddie Johnstone so hard the Detroit player suffered a knee injury which sidelined him for the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011462/6648320-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="583" height="1057"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Nylund says no one player will lift the Leafs out of their slump.</figcaption></div>Nylund received the third star in that game and afterward the press was abuzz about his aggressive, albeit clean, behavior. They compared him to former Leaf hardrocks such as Bobby Baun and Brian Glennie, though noting that Nylund hit with more crunch.In his next seven games. Nylund, by his own admission, has had only one good outing. It occurred in a 4-2 loss to Quebec in which the Leafs, as a whole, played their best game of their present slump but fell victim to hard luck. The next night, in a 5-2 loss to St. Louis. Nylund had an off night and several times coughed up the puck.What does this say about Nylund? To use his word, he&rsquo;s &ldquo;human.&rdquo; He&rsquo;ll make mistakes, but some people expect him not to, possibly because he&rsquo;s 6-foot-4. 210 pounds and the Leafs have never had a behemoth like him. Take away that size and add the fact that he&rsquo;s played a total of 25 games in the National Hockey League and his knee is still not 100 per cent and what you have is a handicapped kid who&rsquo;s still learning.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s under 30 games I&rsquo;ve played in my pro career and, after two knee injuries. it&rsquo;s a tough grind getting back into it,&rdquo; Nylund says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to make excuses about it. but the brace is there and the knee is there and sometimes it&rsquo;s a little hard to get back.&ldquo;For the most part, people know what&rsquo;s going on. but I hear a lot of things (from the fans) like. &lsquo;Nylund do something out there,&rsquo; but I can only play my position and I can only do so much in my position. 1 don&rsquo;t score goals, that&rsquo;s it. I hardly ever score goals. I get assists, that&rsquo;s it. I&rsquo;ve never scored goals in my whole life.&ldquo;My job is to keep it (the puck) out of our end and I&rsquo;m trying. It&rsquo;s just that it&rsquo;s hard to break into the league and get things going every night.&rdquo;As for him being the answer to the Leafs&rsquo; woes. Nylund says. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no one guy that&rsquo;s going to pull a team out of the slump. Even a really good goal scorer like Rick Vaive, he&rsquo;s not going to pull us out of this. We haven&rsquo;t got enough talent that one or two guys are going to pull us out of the slump.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get everyone going and if we don&rsquo;t, we lose. That&rsquo;s how the Leafs are.&rdquo;Yes. Gary Nylund is a rookie, but it&rsquo;s easy to see why people expect so much more from him.LEAFLETS&mdash;The Leaf casualty list includes John Anderson (hand). Mike Palmateer (flu). Bill Stewart (broken toes) and Gary Leeman (broken finger). Jim Korn and Gaston Gingras are playing despite hand and back injuries, respectively. Walt Poddubny is expected to return to the lineup in a couple of weeks after breaking his ankle Nov. 11&hellip;Frank Nigro was demoted to St. Catharines&hellip;Alan Bester, who was called up from Brantford Alexanders to replace Palmateer, replaced Rick St. Croix midway through the second period of the loss to St. Louis and did not allow&rsquo; a goal. Bester, along with Ken Wregget. were the two goalies for Canada in the recent world junior tournament&hellip;Russ Courtnall. who was Canada&rsquo;s top player in that tournament, has joined the Canadian Olympic team. Courtnall was the Leafs&rsquo; No. I pick in last June&rsquo;s entry draft. &#9632;

f0011-01

Nylund Expected To Be More Than Human

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;The Flames, a team that has had 12 of its regulars out of the lineup at one time or another this season. have suffered their greatest loss to date.Paul Reinhart, the club&rsquo;s best defenseman, must have a disc removed from his spine&mdash;either through surgery or through injection&mdash;and is expected to miss the rest of the season.The earliest Reinhart could return would be eight weeks following whatever procedure he elects to undergo.Reinhart was injured in a Nov. 24 game with Winnipeg Jets&mdash;without taking a hit. Something in his back just gave. For a month, the Flames described the injury as back spasms, but when the spasms refused to go away, it became clear it was much more than that. Eventually, Reinhart was admitted to hospital for three days of tests and neurosurgeons found the problem.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not much reason for optimism.&rdquo; said Reinhart, &ldquo;but it could be worse. 1 won&rsquo;t need a (spinal) fusion. I&rsquo;m disappointed. I&rsquo;m awfully upset, actually.&rdquo;Of the alternatives facing Reinhart, the simplest procedure would be to have the disc dissolved by injections. Microsurgery. a second alternative, is similar to arthroscopic surgery in that a needle is inserted in the spine and pieces of the disc are removed. Major surgery would be the most serious of the three alternatives.&ldquo;Doctors say the operation is serious, but it can be successful,&rdquo; said Reinhart. &ldquo;How you respond is such a personal thing. For one guy, it takes six months. For another, six weeks.&rdquo;Reinhart is the second Flame player to go down for the season. Left-winger Dave Hindmarch, who tore ligaments in both his knees in a Dec. 16 game against Vancouver, had two knee operations over the holidays. Currently, he is in ankle-to-thigh casts and will be wheelchair-bound for the rest of the month.With Reinhart now definitely out. the onus will be on the remaining veterans on defense&mdash;Steve Konroyd, Paul Baxter and Kari Eloranta&mdash;to pick up the slack.In the week immediately after Reinhart was injured, coach Bob Johnson relied primarily on four defensemen and they responded to the challenge.Since then, their play has slipped badly. Only one combination&mdash;Baxter and Jamie Macoun&mdash;is playing effective hockey.&ldquo;As soon as we knew Paul was out. the defense buckled down and played that much harder.&rdquo; said Konroyd. &ldquo;Call it youthful enthusiasm if you want, but we played better. Maybe, in the last little while, we were getting into a rut waiting for Paul to get back.&ldquo;Now, as long as we know he&rsquo;s not coming back, we can get our heads screwed on straight and do what we did when he first got injured.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt though that it&rsquo;s going to be a big blow to the team.&rdquo;Center Jim Peplinski, Reinhart&rsquo;s closest friend on the team, echoed Kon-royd&rsquo;s comments&mdash;sympathy for Reinhart&rsquo;s plight, relief that the verdict is finally. known.&ldquo;He (Reinhart) means the difference in games a lot of times because he can play every situation.&rdquo; said Peplinski. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s in the lineup, there&rsquo;s only one hole to fill on defense in a game going down to the wire. It&rsquo;s Reinhart and somebody and that&rsquo;s not to take away anything from the rest of our defense.&ldquo;I feel sorry for him. but you&rsquo;ve got to face the facts: If time is what it needs, then time is what it should get.&rdquo;With Reinhart. Hindmarch and winger Jamie Hislop out indefinitely, the Flames have been averaging between seven and nine rookies in their regular lineup. None of the players they picked up in the offseason&mdash;Steve Bozek. Steve Tambellini. Mickey Volcan or Keith Hanson&mdash;have made the kind of contributions the team thought they could make. In fact, the Flames eventually sent Volcan to their farm team. He was replaced by defenseman Tony Stiles.Nor has the goaltending been up to par.&ldquo;Our defense is going make mistakes, that&rsquo;s a fact of life,&rdquo; said Johnson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011578/6648351-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="594" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body">Flame defenseman Paul Reinhart will consider three options to relieve his back ailment.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-01

Reinhart Finished For The Season

<div class="byline">BY DICK BEDDOES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021275/6648382-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="306" height="356"></div><h2>Hockey-Televese</h2>NOT SINCE Y&rsquo;R ob&rsquo;t servant was just a little guy on the farm, learning his verb roots at the knee of a kindly, old fourth-grade teacher, has he been so fuddled by a language as he is by hockey-televese.Hockey-televese is a new type of pidgin now spoken far and wide by the men who used to be hockey players and are now impersonating hockey broadcasters.THE HOCKEY NEWS readers, especially the sophisticated subscribers, don&rsquo;t have to be told about the history of North America.When the palefaces came here, they brought with them many fine tongues from the old world&mdash;chief among them. English.For generations, almost everybody in North America, except in certain backward sections of Quebec, spoke English in one form or another.In the early days of television, even, English of a sort persisted. It was the underlying foundation, you might say, of what was said on the air by actors and announcers. Even the static resembled English; it was kind of Angiostatic.But when static began to disappear, English went with it, especially on hockey telecasts. The fine old ancient blend was replaced by hockey-televese in the mouths of obsolete jocks who don&rsquo;t know an umlaut from a dipthong.I&rsquo;ve been watching hockey games in person for so many years now that 1 didn&rsquo;t know what was going on behind my back, over the airwaves.<h2>Bout Of Indisposition</h2>DURING A RECENT bout of indisposition, however, I had to take hockey through a tube and I was startled to find what these semi-pros have done to themselves and their games.Take Mickey Redmond, who used to play fairly good forward for the Detroit Red Wings. I always thought he was a nice, clean-spoken fellow. 1 would not have suspected that gobbledygook would get his tongue. But. hearing him over the air, you discover that Mr. Redmond now speaks hockey-televese.Discussing James Korn, a reasonably harmless Toronto defenseman, during a game in Minnesota, Redmond said: &ldquo;Korn is in a combatitive mood tonight.&rdquo;A few years ago, when he spoke English. Redmond&mdash;like any literate hockey player&mdash;would have said: &ldquo;Korn is in a combative mood tonight.&rdquo; Now that he speaks hockey-televese, Mickey feels impelled to insert an extra syllable, it&mdash;thus &ldquo;combatitive.&rdquo;It may have been Mr. Redmond on the same telecast, or his chatty sidekick Jim Hughson, who burbled during acrimonious action on the ice, &ldquo;Emotion gets the better of the moment!&rdquo;Huh? Who is Emotion? What team does he play for?In an earlier simpler time, Redmond or Hughson or both might have said. &ldquo;Emotion gets the better of Jim Korn.&rdquo; Or &ldquo;Korn&rsquo;s emotion gets the better of the moment.&rdquo; Or &ldquo;the bettor of the moments lays odds of 100 to 1 against Toronto winning the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;<h2>Green Fails Again</h2>ANOTHER EX-NHL FIGURE has also reached his level of incompetence in the television booths supervised by the Canadian Sports Network. 1 mean Gary Green, who failed, as a coach in Washington.Hockey-televese in Mr. Green&rsquo;s mouth is pure saccharine. His teeth are stuck on sugarplums, so that he can speak ill of no team, even when it is losing dreadfully. The Canadian Sports Network is so timorous, it is true, that it likes the truth masked at all times, but does Mr. Green always have to describe the skies as absolute blue when they are indeed sullen black?Sports writers are accused of having spawned playground cliques, but hockey-televese announcers are much more active carriers of the disease.Redmond described one player one night as being &ldquo;injury-prone.&rdquo; It is a tattered overworked cliche. Only a few years ago, he would have said, &ldquo;So-and-so gets hurt a lot.&rdquo; &ldquo;Injury-prone&rdquo; is pure hockey-televese.Pure infantile flatulence sometimes comes out of these boys, too. In a game where the North Stars ran up a 6-0 lead on the Leafs, Redmond said to James Hughson, or maybe it was vice-versa, &ldquo;Could it be that the floodgates are open?&rdquo;&ldquo;Could be,&rdquo; said the other, non-brightly.It was on the same amateur hour that Mr. Redmond felt impelled to wish a happy wedding anniversary to his parents, Ed and May Redmond, in the scenic Ontario town of Peterborough.Professional announcers, in the days before inarticulate ex-jocks cluttered press boxes, resisted such parochial bush comments. But 1 hope Ed and May had a nice day. &#9632;

f0012-02

BEDCLOTHES

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Most players are delighted to learn of their selection as one of the game&rsquo;s three stars, but Tim Young wasn&rsquo;t. The 28-year-old center was actually upset.He refused a radio interview as he stepped off the ice following a 6-3 win over St. Louis Blues. When other media members approached him. he refused to comment about his selection, dismissing it as something undeserving.One assist hardly made him a logical choice from a productive point of view. He hadn&rsquo;t even made a pass to Brian Mullen for the Jets&rsquo; third goal. The puck actually bounced off his shin pads as he dropped to block a shot while killing a penalty.But as far as Don (Bones) Raleigh was concerned, he was most deserving of a star.Raleigh is one of a dozen or so former hockey personalties who make the selections on a rotating basis.His credentials would seem to be sound. As a player. Raleigh was a leading scorer for the New York Rangers in the early &lsquo;50s. He won back-to-back games in the playoffs with goals in overtime one year. The Rangers and their fans thought so much of &lsquo;&lsquo;Bones,&rdquo; they retired his number (7), although they brought it back into service for Rod Gilbert, who has since had his No. 7 jersey, retired.Now a successful businessman who owns his own insurance company, Raleigh is a staunch supporter of the Jets. While he remains loyal to the Rangers, he follows his hometown team quite closely.If his selection of Young was a bad choice, the crowd certainly did not mind.&ldquo;I thought he carried the puck well,&rdquo; said Raleigh. &ldquo;His play was heads-up. His shooting was good and he won almost all of his faceoffs. I have to admit 1 was considering two or three others, too. 1 debated my final choice a long time. But those I consulted agreed with me. He warranted being chosen&rdquo;Three nights later, the lanky center was picked again. This time he felt the choice was deserving and personally rewarding. After all, he set up the Jets&rsquo; first three goals in a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota North Stars and it was the Stars who traded him away last summer.For Young, it was undoubtedly his best game in a Jet uniform. Used sparingly, if at all, for two months, he was responding as a leader in the absence of Laurie Boschman. felled by a dislocated shoulder during the Jets&rsquo; 27th game.Raleigh felt his choice looked better in the wake of the Minnesota game, but he wasn&rsquo;t so sure he would be so inclined to pick him the next time.BENCH BITS&mdash;Rookie Mike Lauen. called up from Sherbrooke after Doug Smail injured a knee, has been sent back. Left winger Tim Trimper who was promoted with Lauen on a standby basis is still with the parent club. Laurie Boschman. who injured his shoulder in a collision in a game in New Jersey on Dec. 7. has begun skating again and he should be back in the lineup in about two weeks. &#9632;

Stars Shining On Jets’ Young

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Amove to shut the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Toronto office is being pushed by a Campbell Conference owner who says the league should centralize its Canadian operations in Montreal. The budget-conscious ice boss also wants his fellow governors to ride herd on other free spenders in the administration. &ldquo;We have too many riding the gravy train,&rdquo; the owner tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;When we had the Florida meetings these guys treated themselves to oceanfront rooms while some of the owners were stuck in the back.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Charlie Huddy, winner of the Emery (plus-minus) Edge Award last year, is hardly an Edmonton untouchable. The Oilers offered him to St. Louis&mdash;with a goalie&mdash;for Perry Turnbull. The Flyers and Rangers also made a serious bid for Tumbul-1&hellip;USA Network biggies insist they&rsquo;re going to make an earnest bid to win another game-of-the-week contract from the NHL now that the current pact is running out. Industry sources note that USA is expanding into non-sports areas while reducing total dollars for sports. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; a USA source tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re trying to stay with the high visibility leagues and the NHL is one of them. Our intent is to bid aggressively for the hockey contract because the NHL is important to us.&rdquo; ESPN, which previously had the NHL contract, is expected to bid vigorously against USA. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more than that,&rdquo; NHL TV maven Joel Nixon adds. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s the possible involvement of additional pay and cable TV outfits, zeroing in on special events such as the All-Star game and playoffs.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Most likely realignment for next season will have Pittsburgh in the Norris Division and Toronto moving into the Adams.Now that the NHL kayoed the Vince Abbey anti-trust suit in Seattle federal court, the U.S. northwest emerges as a potential franchise site. &ldquo;We need somebody with big dollars,&rdquo; says an NHL governor. &ldquo;Maybe we should have romanced Weyerhauser (lumber conglomerate which is supporting Tacoma&rsquo;s indoor soccer club).&rdquo; The NHL&rsquo;s legal fees on the Abbey case are placed at $1,000.000 by a reliable league insider. Seattle sources say the NHL offered $2,000,000 as a settlement but Abbey demanded $4,600,000. Implications of the NHL victory are many. &ldquo;The main significance,&rdquo; says one league boss, &ldquo;is that we didn&rsquo;t violate the anti-trust law. That&rsquo;s what Ralston-Purina and the Canadians were banking on (in their suits).&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Longtime hockey exec Munson Campbell moves to Minneapolis to become chief executive officer of Griggs Beer Distributors Inc. Campbell (51 percent) and Black Hawk boss Bill Wirtz (49 per cent) are partners in the Coors distributorship&hellip;Anheuser-Busch &ldquo;Sports Time TV&rdquo; outlet will be a boon for the Blues. Currently, the club realizes only $150,000 from television&hellip;The Devils brass debated until recently whether to exploit the Wayne Gretzky &ldquo;Mickey Mouse&rdquo; routine for the Oilers&rsquo; Jan. 15th visit to Byrne-Meadowlands Arena. &ldquo;If our club was playing well we would have done something with it,&rdquo; a Devil official tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;but the way things have been going we didn&rsquo;t want to embarrass our players.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;NHL delays in gaining entry to the Maple Leaf dressing for Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Bill Houston puzzle union chief Al Eagleson. &ldquo;1 sent a letter (supporting Houston) to (NHL prexy) John Ziegler,&rdquo; Eagleson tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;and still haven&rsquo;t heard from him. I don&rsquo;t know why Ziegler doesn&rsquo;t flex his muscles.&rdquo; To that Ziegler tells BLUELINES: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still working on the case.&rdquo;One of the most pleasing aspects of the half-season to the league has been Detroit&rsquo;s renaissance at the gate. &ldquo;Detroit fans need a hero,&rdquo; says Ziegler. &ldquo;At first I didn&rsquo;t think Ron Duguay would respond but he certainly has.&rdquo;&hellip;In the dressing room following a game in which he was bashed in the head by Dave Hutchison&rsquo;s stick. Gary Rissiing was asked why Hutchison received only a five-minute penalty instead of 10 for the attack. &ldquo;If he would have cut me it would have hurt me,&rdquo; says Rissiing, &ldquo;but, as you can see, I&rsquo;m all scar tissue. That doesn&rsquo;t cut as easily as fresh skin!&rdquo;&hellip;Vancouver teammates Harold Snepsts and Stan Smyl are also rivals. Snepsts and Smyl are part-owners of the junior Portland Winter Hawks and New Westminster Bruins, respectively&hellip;Ranger prexy Jack Krumpe is tickled with his Christmas present: a radio headset. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; says Krumpe, &ldquo;1 can listen to one game while I watch another.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Although the Olympics haven&rsquo;t begun, the U.S. team already is cashing in on commercials. Players such as Mark Fusco, Bob Brooke. Phil Verchota, Kurt Kleinendorst, David H. Jensen and Steve Griffith filmed a coffee commercial with assistant coach Tim Taylor&hellip;Devil GM Max McNab says his rival, Craig Patrick, should be named general manager of the year. &ldquo;He rates it,&rdquo; McNab explains, &ldquo;for the Pierre Larouche deal alone.&rdquo;&hellip;Anti-referee sentiment continues boiling. Orval Tessier on Bob Meyers: &ldquo;1 only wish that when he&rsquo;s assigned to us they dispatch a supervisor so he (Meyers) can be sanctioned the way he sanctions the players.&rdquo; Asked whether he believes refs single out particular teams for more punishment than others. Gerry Cheevers tells BLUELINES he thinks not but, like others, is not pleased with the zebras&hellip;Carol Vadnais says it&rsquo;s time the NHL struck a trophy for defensive defensemen. &ldquo;They give one for defensive forwards,&rdquo; reasons Vad, &ldquo;so why not for defensive defensemen.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Pete Peeters says he&rsquo;d like to sit down with Bill Smith sometime &ldquo;just to talk goaltending.&rdquo; Pete adds: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned a lot from Smith just by observing him.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Neil Belland has been back and forth across the North American continent so often, he could be on a first-name basis with the airlines people.He has been the man the Vancouver Canucks called on when they had an injury to their defense. He never had to be waived through the league because initially he hadn&rsquo;t been a pro long enough to face waivers. Then the club started to bring him up under emergency conditions, which again kept him away from other teams.But this year when Belland was shipped out from training camp, a victim of the numbers game, he did what he always does, even though you couldn&rsquo;t have blamed him for going into a prolonged sulk. He didn&rsquo;t pout, he just put his head down and waited for somebody to either mess up&mdash;which there has been a fair amount of&mdash;or an injury. The latter eventually brought him up under emergency conditions, but when those conditions disappeared, Belland had already secured a spot on the club.In his better games during the month of December, he was named one of the game&rsquo;s three stars, once being the first star. The rap on him is that he has never been physical enough, but whether or not he has improved that ability&mdash;and it appears he has&mdash;he does so many other things well to compensate.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I think it&rsquo;s easier for me to play in this league than in the American League. I know that sounds a little strange, but there is less hitting.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;I actually think it&rsquo;s easier for me to play in this league than in the American League,&rdquo; says the 22-year-old native of Kingston. &ldquo;I know that sounds a little strange, but there is a little less hitting and the players don&rsquo;t run around as much. They are not so eager to be doing things to get noticed and they play their positions a little better. It&rsquo;s easier to move the puck ahead to a winger up here because you know where he is going to be.&rdquo;Moving the puck is what Belland does best, as his passing is noticeably the best among the Vancouver rearguards.&ldquo;I was getting a little discouraged down there because 1 am playing out my option and it didn&rsquo;t look like I was going to get another chance with this club,&rdquo; said Belland. &ldquo;But the break came and so far things have gone pretty well.&rdquo;You couldn&rsquo;t blame Belland for being a little less than enthusiastic about his longevity with the team, save one factor. This time they can no longer protect him from waivers if they desire sending him down, which it appears they won&rsquo;t.With veterans Doug Halward and Jiri Bubla both out with foot and ankle injuries, respectively, Belland, Andy Schliebener and Michel Petit have had an opportunity to play regularly in every game. And the way veterans Kevin McCarthy and Harold Snepsts have been laboring, it appears they have slightly more security than the veterans.The young defensemen are going to make mistakes and Belland knows that as well as coach Roger Neilson and general manager Harry Neale, but at least they are learning and should improve with experience at the position. In fact, when Halward and Bubla return shortly, there will be some difficult decisions to make, although injuries often solve those dilemmas. But further complicating matters will be the inclusion of Doug Lidster from Team Canada at the end of the Olympic Games and the possible return to form of Garth Butcher in Fredericton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011564/6648461-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="592" height="916"><figcaption class="caption-body">Neil Belland was one ofthe better Vancouver players in the month of December.</figcaption></div>If all things work for the best, Neale will again find himself in the position of trying to move people, although that&rsquo;s a position he&rsquo;s been in, on and off, for two years. &#9632;

f0014-01

Belland Waves Good-Bye To Mr. Emergency Role

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;When Kevin McClelland received the reprieve call early last month, he wasn&rsquo;t altogether certain how to react.Thus, the 21-year-old decided he had better sleep on it.Just in case&hellip;&ldquo;Probably when I went to sleep the night I was told I was traded, I still didn&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; McClelland said of the Dec. 5 trade that brought him from the Penguins to the Oilers for Tom Roulston. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it really sunk in until I woke up the following morning.&rdquo;The Oilers will also receive a &ldquo;medium range&rdquo; draft choice in the barter between the National Hockey League teams.McClelland could hardly be blamed for his initial reaction of disbelief to the swap. After all, at the time he had been performing for Pittsburgh&rsquo;s American League farm team, Baltimore Skipjacks. Upon receiving the news from Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston, he confessed the thought of joining the Oilers&rsquo; No. 1 affiliate in Moncton seemed more realistic than reporting to the parent club.Yet here is where he&rsquo;s been ever since. Which wasn&rsquo;t a bad step up in class&mdash;from the farm side of a team that could very well miss the playoffs to the outfit that has been atop the overall NHL standings since the outset of 1983-84.Immediately upon arrival in Edmonton, McClelland was informed he would center the checking line with Dave Hunter and Pat Hughes as his flankers. The 6-foot-l, 195-pounder hadn&rsquo;t played center for two and a half years, but listed the middle as his preferred position over right wing, where the Penguins utilized his services.&ldquo;Definitely, I&rsquo;ll play wherever I&rsquo;m told and I&rsquo;ll do whatever I&rsquo;m called upon to do,&rdquo; said the Oshawa, Ont., native who scored a couple of goals and was involved in four fights during his first nine games with the Oilers.A rugged individual, McClelland inherited the position left vacant last March when Laurie Boschman was traded.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Bosch had a difficult time coming off the bench when he wasn&rsquo;t getting ice time.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;Bosch didn&rsquo;t do what we wanted,&rdquo; explained the Oilers&rsquo; assistant coach John Muckier. &ldquo;He had a difficult time coming off the bench when he wasn&rsquo;t getting much ice time. With this club, the third-line center has got to come off the bench and skate like he&rsquo;s never missed a shift.&rdquo;To this point, the Oilers haven&rsquo;t complained about McClelland&rsquo;s contributions&mdash;least of all Hunter and Hughes.&ldquo;Hunts and I have played with a lot of centers over the past couple of years&mdash;Boschman, Roulston, (Marc) Habs-cheid, Pat Conacher and probably a few more&mdash;but Kevin seems to complement both our styles,&rdquo; said Hughes, endorsing the presence of McClelland who was originally Hartford Whalers&rsquo; fourth pick in the 1980 amateur draft.&ldquo;He is exactly what this team needed&mdash;a tough, physical center,&rdquo; added Hughes. &ldquo;He pursues the puck very well and if he has to go through somebody to get it, he&rsquo;s certainly not against doing that. If he keeps playing like he has been, he&rsquo;s here to stay.&rdquo;The Oilers are also hoping McClelland, a self-confessed &ldquo;grinder,&rdquo; can fulfill his role in a percentage-points fashion of his idol&mdash;Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Bobby Clarke.&ldquo;I can remember, as a little guy, watching Bobby Clarke,&rdquo; McClelland said, &ldquo;he was always my favorite player. He never quit working. Always working, always hustling. That&rsquo;s the way 1 like to play&mdash;working hard in the comers and hitting people.&rdquo;Even at his tender age, McClelland has the scars to prove it. On four occasions he&rsquo;s injured his right shoulder. He finally dislocated the limb in a fight with Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; ruffian Paul Higgins, who&rsquo;s now in the Atlantic Coast League.Surgery was required as McClelland missed half of the 1982-83 season. He&rsquo;s also had a permanent pin placed in his shoulder, but he stressed that it&rsquo;s &ldquo;fine&rdquo; now.With the Oilers, the only scars he&rsquo;s picked up have come on the knuckles of his left hand. Included was a six-stitch gash, courtesy of a flurry of left jabs to the helmet of Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; rookie Gord Donnelly.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad,&rdquo; grinned McClelland, &ldquo;that it&rsquo;s my hand, not my face.&rdquo;Not a bad attitude to take.IN THE CREASE&mdash;Veteran Oiler right-winger Dave Lumley will probably be out until late January with strained knee ligaments suffered on Long Island on Dec. 13&hellip;Kari Jalonen, the former Calgary Flame, was cut following a three-game trial. Jalonen, as was the case in Calgary, refused demotion to the minors. &ldquo;He has ability, no doubt of that, but was badly out of condition,&rdquo; reasoned general manager-coach Glen Sather of the Finnish product. &#9632;

McClelland Will Wherever Wanted

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011350/6648516-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="275" height="200"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Should any old acquaintance between Bill Barber and the all-star left winger of years past be forgotten?Maybe not yet. The Flyers rang in the new by outscoring Pittsburgh and Winnipeg and Barber, who had played 1983 like Father Time, looked like the New Year&rsquo;s Baby.Back in the lineup after missing five games with a sprained knee, the 31-year-old winger scored four goals, including a hat trick against the Jets, and two assists, in the two games. He also provided everything the Flyers need from him if this year is to have a happier ending.Coach Bob McCammon has placed Barber with Ilkka Sinisalo and Darryl Sittler. Though this threesome ran up a spurt of points during a January stretch a year ago, it stayed together only briefly. So when the two vets and the young Finn figured in on 10 of the 14 Flyer goals in the two victories, it wasn&rsquo;t exactly an Auld Lang Syne. It was more a coach&rsquo;s hope than an Old Line can again be Fine.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the best Bill Barber played in two years,&rdquo; McCammon said.The coach was guilty of slight overstatement, perhaps, but not sarcasm. McCammon needs Barber too much to alienate him as he did with his public criticism of a year ago. And Barber appears to have made a few New. Year&rsquo;s resolutions of his own.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a new start for me,&rdquo; Barber said. &ldquo;How should I put this? I&rsquo;m going to roar in &lsquo;84.&rdquo;He has promised to be a good boy and wear his knee brace. He is determined to just laugh at anything that could be interpreted as a McCammon sling. And he&rsquo;s going to make up for lost time.The goal against Pittsburgh was his first since Nov. 20. But it&rsquo;s more than the points that had been missing.&ldquo;Nobody, with the exception of Tim Kerr and Brian Propp, is having a great year, points-wise,&rdquo; Barber said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re winning with balance and that&rsquo;s the way it should be. The points don&rsquo;t really concern me all that much.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t playing that well, but I wasn&rsquo;t feeling that well, either. But that&rsquo;s not an excuse. I&rsquo;ve got to make sure I&rsquo;m ready to roll. It&rsquo;s a confidence thing, you have to build it up and tonight definitely helps, not just scoring, but getting out there in the third period once we got the lead and doing the checking job. He (McCammon) has doubleshifted me some and used me on the power play a little.&ldquo;Your wind isn&rsquo;t what it should be after being out and I kept the shifts short. But the harder it is for the first couple of games, the faster you can catch up.&rdquo;The knee could use major surgery to correct the problem once and for all, but at this stage of the game Barber doesn&rsquo;t feel the cost of a six-or-seven month inactivity is worth it. The knee might go again or it might not, but in the meantime a bad back, which forced Barber out of two games before the same knee which troubled him last year kicked in again, was not helping, either.ICEBERGS&mdash;The Flyers, despite another disappointing loss to the Rangers (their seventh straight, including playoffs, in two years) stayed within reach of the Patrick Division lead. After beating Winnipeg 7-6 on Ilkka Sinisalo&rsquo;s overtime goal and winning 8-4 in Detroit two nights later, they were 6-1-1 in their last eight and 11-3-4 in their last 17&hellip;Ross Fitzpatrick, recalled from Springfield for a look on left wing, scored his first NHL goal in the victory at Pittsburgh&hellip;The Flyers accepted only cash as compensation from St. Louis for goalie Bunny Larocque. They had been seeking a middle to late-round draft choice, but the Blues refused to budge. &ldquo;You have to be a human being once in awhile,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;The guy sat out almost a full year and we had to be fair. We got him to back up Pelle Lindbergh and everything would have been perfect. Then Pelle goes down in the Russian game and Froese comes in and doesn&rsquo;t lose in 14 games and what are you going to do?&rdquo; Larocque, acquired last Jan. 12 from Toronto for Rick St. Croix, played in exactly two Flyer games, a 4-4 tie with Chicago and a 4-1 loss to Washington. &#9632;

f0016-01

Barber Returns To Lineup In Fine Form

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The Minnesota North Stars opened 1984 like a goodnews, bad-news joke from years gone by. The worst news from an individual standpoint was that Craig Hartsburg went out after a brief return and this time had major knee surgery that will keep him off skates until next fall.The good news, from a team standpoint, was that the Stars were leading the Norris Division after 41 games. And what can be wrong with first place?Well, several things.For one, the Stars had only a meagre 44 points at that stage and not much of a lead over St. Louis, which was three games below. 500, but substantially ahead of faltering injury-riddled Chicago. Even Toronto and Detroit are in the chase, with the last-place Wings only 10 points off Minnesota&rsquo;s pace.Those 44 points&mdash;accumulated mostly against inner-division games&mdash;would place the Stars only one point above fourth place in the Patrick and two points above fourth in the Adams.As for bad news, however, there was much more. While posting only a 19-174 record at the 40-game midpoint, the Stars had scored 184 goals&mdash;not bad, in these inflated times. Fifth best, overall, in fact.But they had given up 187 goals, an incredibly bad figure for a team that dedicated its season to tightening up its defensive play. The only teams more charitable at the halfway point were Toronto, Winnipeg and Los Angeles.Over the holidays, the Stars had little reason to be jolly. Among bleak spots were a 5-1 loss to Winnipeg in which Tom McCarthy was absent because of a back injury and missed a total of four four games. McCarthy was also fined by general manager Lou Nanne for not clearing his absence from the trip to Winnipeg.An 8-6 victory over Toronto, in which they acted like they didn&rsquo;t really want a big lead, was one of only two Stars&rsquo; victories in a seven-game (2-5) stretch.Worse yet was a 12-8 record shelling in Edmonton in which Wayne Gretzky frolicked to a career-equalling eight points on four goals and four assists. And Gretzky didn&rsquo;t even bother gtting a point in the third period.One day later, in Calgary, Nanne gave the team his opinion of the defensive effort in Edmonton. He also convinced goaltender Don Beaupre to take a trip to Salt Lake City.Beaupre had beaten Chicago 6-5 but gave up five goals in 12 shots in one period at Edmonton. His goals-against mark of 5.61 reflects his confidence level and he agreed to go to the minors to try to adjust both.However, the Stars&rsquo; response to Nan-ne&rsquo;s discussion about tight defense was a 5-4 loss at Calgary, in which the Flames outshot Minnesota 54-27. Gilles Meloche was both hero and victim in goal and Hartsburg went out with his recurring knee problem.Hartsburg, who was operated on to remove a bone spur Oct. 10, came back after five weeks. But the problem goes back to when Hartsburg played junior hockey and damaged his knee ligaments. Because no corrective surgery was done at that time, doctors said the chance of a complete recovery from the stretched ligaments is less now.Major reconstruction of the knee, including ligament transfer and a tightening of the inner knee, were called for and the Star captain, only 24, realizes the surgery could threaten his career.&ldquo;I have to look at anything that will help the knee and prolong my career,&rdquo; Hartsburg said.Just when things looked bleak, though, the North Stars came home to face Vancouver, a team they had lost a 10-9 marathon to early in the season.In one of the least-expected developments, Meloche stoned the Canucks and the Stars won 2-0. It took the shutout for the team to hit the 20-win mark.STARS NOTES&mdash;Coach Bill Mahoney juggled lines during the holidays, breaking up the Neal Broten-Tom McCarthy-Dino Ciccarelli unit. Keith Acton wound up centering Brian Bel-lows and Mark Napier. Broten was with McCarthy and Willi Plett. Dennis Maruk centered Brent Ashton and Cic-carelli. George Ferguson was with Steve Payne and Al MacAdam Brian Lawton was in and out, not feeling fully recovered from his shoulder injury. &#9632;

End Of Hartsburg’s Season Is No Joke

f0017-01

EQUIPMENT SNEAK PREVIEW

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01908/6648728-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We can lose if we want to&hellip;We&rsquo;ll get next year&rsquo;s first-round choice&hellip;So we&rsquo;ll laugh and flirt and lose our shirts&hellip;We&rsquo;re the worst team on the ice&hellip;&rdquo;&mdash;Men Without Hat TricksEAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;The uncomplimentary parody of the pop hit. The Safety Dance, is not the kind of music Devil coach Tommy McVie likes to wake up to in the morning.Not only does McVie question the musical value of the song, which was recorded by a couple of WHTZ radio disc jockeys in New Jersey, he disagrees with anybody who looks at the competition between New Jersey and Pittsburgh as a race (backward) to see who gets the opportunity to draft 18-year-old scoring sensation Mario Lemieux.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t give a damn if this team gets Mario Lemieux in the draft,&rdquo; the painfully candid McVie said recently, &ldquo;unless I&rsquo;m still here to coach him. Coaches are not signed to contracts to improve a team&rsquo;s position in the draft.&rdquo;The Devils&rsquo; chances of finishing 21st overall were beginning to appear questionable when they went 5-3-2 over a 10-game stretch under McVie but the surge was short-lived.When the Devils dropped a frustrating 3-2 verdict to Washington at home on New Year&rsquo;s Eve, they found themselves finishing the old year in the same old way&hellip;with a six-game losing streak.McVie. who had been highly critical of his team in previous games, tried a little praise to bring them out of their slump after the loss to Washington, which came on a Mike Gartner goal with just 46 seconds to play in regulation time.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t blame anyone for losing this hockey game,&rdquo; McVie told Rich Chere of The Newark Star-Ledger. &ldquo;We did everything it takes to win the hockey game&hellip;except on the winning goal.&ldquo;When the score is 2-2 late in the game, winning teams win those games. But that is as well as we&rsquo;ve played since I came here.&rdquo;For the calendar year of 1983, the Devils were burned for a 16-53-8 record, which made McVie&rsquo;s brief coaching mark of 5-11-2 look a little better.Through the early part of the Devils&rsquo; return to abnormal. McVie became very annoyed at the slightest suggestion that they were returning to their proper level.&ldquo;No way this team will ever be like that,&rdquo; he said after the Devils dropped a 6-5 decision to Pittsburgh. He was referring to the 2-18 team which he took over on Nov. 22 when Billy MacMillan was fired as general manager-coach.&ldquo;I know they say a team gets a temporary lift when a new coach is brought in.&rdquo; he told Ray DeGraw of The New York Daily News, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t believe that. We were winning because we were doing the things we were supposed to do.&rdquo;A few games later, McVie wasn&rsquo;t quite as sure. Following a poorly-played 6-1 loss to Detroit, the coach questioned the resolve of some of his players.&ldquo;I think 1 can teach this hockey club a lot of tilings,&rdquo; McVie stated, &ldquo;but I do not know how to teach hustle. I don&rsquo;t know how to take a team to the rink and practise how to hustle. That&rsquo;s got to come from the heart.&rdquo;Devil GM Max McNab, meanwhile, let it be known that a few changes may be made.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re never going to trade yourself into first place.&rdquo; NcNab conceded. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never believe that. But you can trade yourself to respectability.&rdquo;McNab complained that the reason he has not been active so far is that the Devils&rsquo; poor record has de-valued many of their players.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll talk to anybody but what do they want?&rdquo; McNab asked. &ldquo;The Cirellas. the Ludvigs, the Verbeeks and your first-round draft choice. What other teams will give you is snow in the middle of winter.&ldquo;We have no intention at this moment.&rdquo; McNab stressed, &ldquo;ofmoving our top young players or our draft choices. And we&rsquo;re not discussing Chico Resch with anybody at this time.&rdquo;<h2>Player Of The Week</h2>This probably won&rsquo;t come as a great shock to you, but Wayne Gretzky is THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Player of the Week for the week ending Jan. 8.We could try to come up with some new superlatives to describe the Edmonton Oiler star&rsquo;s efforts, but his accomplishments speak for themselves.In three games played, Gretzky had eight goals and seven assists, including one four-goal and one three-goal performance. After 42 games, he reached the 50-goal plateau with 78 assists. On top of all that, he has scored a point in every game this season and each time he does so. he sets a record. &#9632;

f0024-01

This Song Won’t Make McVie’s Hit Parade

So you&rsquo;ve got a great idea, eh? You&rsquo;re going to buy T-shirts and put NHL team logos on them and sell them. It&rsquo;s the start of something big and you expect to cash in handsomely.Well, wait a minute. Before you start totalling up your bank balance, you&rsquo;ve forgotten one important thing. If you plan on selling anything that has an NHL team logo or name on it, you&rsquo;ve got to get it licensed first.Specifically, you have to pay for the right to use names and trademarks associated with the National Hockey League. The NHL has two agencies looking out for its best interests in this field.In Canada, it&rsquo;s Sports Representatives Ltd., 594 Mount Pleasant Rd., Toronto. Ont., M4S 2M8, (416) 4854189. and in the U.S. it is the Licensing Corporation of America. 75 Rockefeller Plaza. New York, New York. 10019. (212) 484-8807. George Gross, Jr., is the contact at Sports Rep-resenatives Ltd. and Bob Bell is the LCA contact.These two firms do everything from policing the marketplace, looking out for piracy, to ensuring the products are of good quality and displayed prominently in a variety of outlets.The concept of licensing is twofold. First, it generates revenue for the NHL. Second, it allows the NHL to make sure licensed products are quality goods. Since the NHL name is on them, it has a vested interest.On Page 29 of this issue, a number of manufacturers (these are not retailers unless otherwise indicated), known as licensees, have paid to display their products. This small group of paid advertisers is not a complete list of all licensees, nor is it a complete list of all the licensed products available.Rather, it is a collection of licensees who have chosen to advertise their wares in this special section. &#9632;

NHL LICENSING

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01771/6648867-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="435" height="301"></div>Starter Sportswear Inc.360 James St.New Haven, Conn.06513U.S. license. Authentic NHL jacket made for all 21 NHL teams. One-piece construction made with Starter satin twill. 100 per cent stretch nylon, knit collar, cuff and band with team stripes and symbols. Fully washable. Deep bartacked pockets. Suggested retail price: $64.95 (U.S.).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02496/6648860-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="516" height="625"></div>Te-Ri Products Ltd.2420 Lawrence Ave. East Scarborough, Ont.M1P 2R5(416) 751-3201Candian license only. Hockey doll for each Canadian team. Self-standing on plastic skates holding plastic hockey stick. Uniform of felt in home team colors. Hair and moustache of genuine reindeer fur. Measures about 18 inches high. Suggested retail price: $44.95<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03317/6648853-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="522" height="496"></div>Funmate Canada Ltd.6934 Greenwood St.Burnaby. B.C.V5A 1X8(604) 420-6505Canadian and U.S. license. The entire series of NHL team logos are now available in the form of vinyl puffy stickers. Four individual packages make up the complete set&mdash;each package contains the teams in any one division. Suggested retail price: $1.29 per package. Available at retail outlets across the country.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04224/6648846-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="528" height="556"></div>Canadien (Division of Amer Sport International Inc.)77 Richelieu St.St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que.J3B 6X2(514) 866-1290Canadian and U.S. license. Canadien 9001 Aluminum sticks are approved for use in the NHL. The 9001 is a light and strong precision-made stick featuring interchangeable blades. Blades are easily changed and by doing so. the player can save money compared to purchasing conventional sticks. The Canadien 9001 comes in black, blue or silver with a choice of four patterns. Suggested retail price: $50 to $60.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05196/6648839-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="545" height="460"></div>Lynkar Watch Co. (1980) Ltd.260 Richmond St. WestToronto. Ont.(416) 598-4377Canadian and U.S. license. Quartz LCD hockey puck watch. All NHL team logos enclosed. Select the team of your choice. Youths&rsquo; wrist watches also available in mechanical and quartz LCD with NHL Canadian team logos only. Suggested retail price: $19.95. Minimum Quantities: 12 nieces.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06160/6648832-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="529" height="689"></div>Edisport2088 Harvest DriveMississauga, Ont.L4Y 1T6Canadian license only. Edijersey, now available. Miniature replica of basic hockey uniform with original team designs. Complete with display hanger and suction cup. your favorite NHL team can now be viewed anywhere. Dealer inquiries invited. Suggested retail price: $8.95 (Cdn.).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-07134/6648825-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="538" height="639"></div>Ted Fletcher Sports Equip.1975 RemembranceLachine. Que.H8S 1X1(514) 637-6751Canadian license only. High quality NHL caps. All 21 teams available in the official team colors with Swiss embroidered logos. Suggested retail price: $8.95.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-08116/6648818-1-eng-US/f0029-082.jpg" title="f0029-08" width="545" height="580"></div>Mark 1 Marketing Corp.P.O. Box 1265Station BWeston, Ont.M9G 2R9(416) 224-2664Canadian and U.S. license. NHL Hockey Cook Book. Directed to aspiring athletes 8 to 16 years old. This is a nutritional book, portraying in four colors through the 132 pages, the necessary foods, the visual warning signs and with 105 endorsed recipes by the players on the 21 NHL teams. Suggested retail price: $9.95 plus $1.50 postage and handling.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-09108/6648811-1-eng-US/f0029-092.jpg" title="f0029-09" width="548" height="494"></div>Klaxon Enterprises and Sales Ltd.4615 FairwayLachine, Que.H8T 1B7(514) 637-3619Canadian license. Professional wristbands and sweatbands, wristlockers, neckwarmers. Wristbands are worn today in hockey to prevent excess body sweat from running into the gloves. Worn by Wayne Gretzky and other Edmonton Oilers. A product which is new this year is our wristlocker, a wristband with a zipper in it so you can carry i.d. etc. Suggested retail price: Wristbands&mdash;$4.50. Sweatbands&mdash;$3.00. Neckwarmers&mdash;$5.00 and Wristlockers&mdash;$6.00.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1099/6648804-1-eng-US/f0029-102.jpg" title="f0029-10" width="529" height="402"></div>Christian BrothersWarroad. Minn.USA56763(218) 386-1111Canadian and U.S license. The Christian Aluminum stick is approved for play in the NHL. AHAUS. CAHA. NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations. Each Christian Aluminum handle is exactly the same weight and flex and matched with a quality balanced Christian blade made from tough, stringy, solid rock elm coupled with a shaft of select northern white ash. Simple directions are enclosed with each stick showing how to change the blade. Available in manycolor combinations, including the famous Team USA red. white and blue. Suggested retail price: $50 to $60.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1192/6648797-1-eng-US/f0029-112.jpg" title="f0029-11" width="536" height="639"></div>Distinctive Lighter Products6182 Collingwood PlaceVancouver, B.C.V6N 1V1Canadian and U.S. license. Printed-carded-shrink wrapped lighters available in 48 Pre-pack counter display or 144 stand display. Teams include Vancouver, Calgary. Edmonton, Winnipeg. Toronto. Montreal. Quebec. New York Islanders. Suggested retail price: $1.98-$2.49. Minimum quantities: prepaid on orders of $750.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1281/6648790-1-eng-US/f0029-122.jpg" title="f0029-12" width="542" height="737"></div>Sport Maska Inc.15855 Hubert St.St. Hyacinthe. Que.J2T 4C9(514) 773-5041Canadian and U.S license. Authentic replica hockey jerseys of the NHL teams.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1368/6648783-1-eng-US/f0029-132.jpg" title="f0029-13" width="488" height="572"></div>Flagship Innovations Inc.1085 Stacey CourtMissassauga, Ont.L4W 2X7(416) 625-0224Canadian license. OUCH-AIDS&mdash;sterile bandages with a difference. The newest collectable. OUCH-AIDS are printed with many different designs, and have now introduced a series representing the NHL. Each individual team featured in its own colorful display box. 12 bandages per box. Suggested retail price: $1.99. Minimum Quantities: 70 pieces.Sports-O-PhoneP.O. Box 367Brantford, Ont.N3T 5N3Canadian and U.S. license. A 7.5 inch plastic injected molded white megaphone with NHL logos. Canadian orders only please. Collector inquiries welcomed. Custom-made logos and megaphones also available on request for tournaments etc. Suggested retail price: $3 each. Minimum Quantities: 300.Trans Converters Ltd.9010 Park AvenueMontreal, Que.H2N 1Y8(514) 381-869&frac12;Canadian license only. Men&rsquo;s, boys&rsquo; pullovers. V-neck replica of original jersey. 100 per cent acrylic double-knit casual wear. All teams&rsquo; crests are &ldquo;chenille embroidered&rdquo; direct on the garments. Sizes XXS. XS. S. M. L. XL We are not retailers. Suggested retail price: $40 each.Shain of Canada31 Penn Dr.Weston. Ont.M9L 2A6(416) 746-7120Canadian license only. Men&rsquo;s and boys&rsquo; nylon summer and winter jackets. Men&rsquo;s and boys&rsquo; satin summer and winter jackets. Men&rsquo;s only corduroy winter jackets. Men&rsquo;s and boys&rsquo; nylon shell jackets. Men&rsquo;s and boys&rsquo; fleece bench warmers, spring and fall jackets. &#9632;

f0029-01

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;The streaky Red Wings are at it again&mdash;winning four straight and then ending the streak in a big way.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know&hellip;I can&rsquo;t explain it,&rdquo; coach Nick Polano said prior to the 5-1 loss against Montreal on Dec. 5 which snapped the streak. &ldquo;Everyone is saying we&rsquo;re streaky and the record indicates that we are, but I can&rsquo;t tell you why.&rdquo;A couple of victories can catapult a team up a couple of rungs in the Norris Division and the Wings are an excellent example of it. They win a few and move up. then lose a few and move down.Victory No. 4 in the latest streak was a 7-1 decision over the Hartford Whalers at Joe Louis Arena. John Ogrodnick, who is as hot as anybody in the league these days with the exception of You Know Who, added his 27th and 28th goals of the season.That stretched Ogrodnick&rsquo;s consecutive games point-scoring streak to 13 games, but his string, like his team&rsquo;s, stopped against Montreal. Still, in the six games leading up to Montreal, he had nine goals, including three gamewinners, and six assists for 15 points.Rookie Steve Yzerman hasn&rsquo;t been far behind. The 18-year-old center has blossomed into a top player, scoring 10 goals in December to run his total to 25 with more than half the season remaining and earning rookie of the month honors. It would seem Mike Bossy&rsquo;s rookie record of 53 goals is an unrealistic goal for the young Red Wing.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a kind of team that needs 20 players working together,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;We have no superstars, although right now Ogrodnick and Yzerman are close to being that.&rdquo;The Wings exploded out of an 11-game winless streak with a 9-2 triumph over the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Ogrodnick and Yzerman each scoring three goals. Ogrodnick added a pair of assists to complete a five-point night. Detroit lost the rematch in Toronto before winning a pair on the road&mdash;at Washington and New Jersey&mdash;to start the streak.Ogrodnick, who set up the first two goals, scored the winning goal in overtime as the Wings knocked off Washington 3-2.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very, very good feeling to score in overtime,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said, &ldquo;especially since I would have broken it up with a couple of chances earlier, before it went into overtime.&rdquo;Rookie Claude Loiselle made the pass to set up Ogrodnick at the goalmouth.&ldquo;I was along the left boards and Johnny O. gave me a good pass,&rdquo; Loiselle said. &ldquo;I saw it was a three on two. I kind of waited. Doogie (Ron Duguay) was the trailer and I knew I could make the usual pass to him. But Johnny darted past the defenseman and was in along, so I threw it to him.&rdquo;&ldquo;I was so happy to see John get it,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;He had so many chances, chances he created with a lot of hard work.&rdquo;Ogrodnick, typically, was unconcerned about his scoring spree.&ldquo;Those things (goals and assists) are the result of the team playing well and I think we have been playing better lately,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said. &ldquo;What you do depends on how others are playing. Like on my goal, Claude make a heckuva play. His pass was right there. All I had to do was put the stick down and it went up over his (goalie Al Jensen) shoulder.&rdquo;The Wings have been alternating goalies and the results have been the same regardless of whether Ed Mio or Greg Stefan has been in goal&mdash;very steady, very dependable and often even spectacular.Mio was spectacular against the Capitals.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; said Scott Stevens, who scored both Washington goals. &ldquo;There were a couple in the third period I thought were sure goals.&rdquo;The Wings beat the Devils 6-1. Ogrodnick added two more goals and Yzerman had his ninth goal in six games as the vastly-improved Detroit power play made good on three of five chances.&ldquo;Those two games we lost to New Jersey were on everyone&rsquo;s mind,&rdquo; said veteran defenseman Colin Campbell. &ldquo;And Nick reminded us of it very specifically. That was an embarrassment, to lose our home opener, and then to lose here like we did (6-0). This was our last opportunity to redeem ourselves.&ldquo;Maybe that&rsquo;s why it was achippy. or call it inspired, game. We weren&rsquo;t going to let them run roughshod over us like the last time.&rdquo; &#9632;

Streakincg Winds Even Have Polano Baffled

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;A lot of people considered Andy Brickley a throw-in in the trade that brought Ron Flockhart and Mark Taylor to the Penguins from Philadelphia for Rich Sutter and an exchange of draft choices, but the Penguin management wasn&rsquo;t among them.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an exceptionally good minorleague player, but he&rsquo;s a better majorleague player,&rdquo; said coach Lou Angotti, who led Pittsburgh&rsquo;s American Hockey League farm club in Baltimore last season. &ldquo;I saw him play last year in Maine and we were very high on him when we made this deal. The games we played against Maine last year, he was such a dominant force. For us to get him in the trade, it was fortunate.&rdquo;Brickley, 22, was Philadelphia&rsquo;s 10th-round draft choice in 1980 from the University of New Hampshire, where he was selected to the National Collegiate Athletic Association all-America team at left wing two seasons later. In his first professional season last year, he tied for the Maine scoring lead with 29 goals and 54 assists and was on the AHL&rsquo;s second all-star squad.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so hard for me to compare anything to Philadelphia because I only played three games there,&rdquo; said Brickley, who had one goal and one assist for the Flyers last season. &ldquo;They gave me two excellent shots in training camp. For some reason&mdash;I can think of a lot of reasons or excuses&mdash;I just don&rsquo;t enjoy playing hockey in September. And I don&rsquo;t get motivated to play hockey at training camp.&ldquo;When you don&rsquo;t have a job, you&rsquo;ve got to go in and prove yourself and you&rsquo;ve got to go in and play your best possible hockey during training camp. They gave me a really good shot. They considered me a prospect, I thought.&ldquo;It seemed like the two years when I went down to camp I was the last guy sent down and if you go down and work hard they&rsquo;ll bring you back up. This year they signed a few guys&mdash;Ricky MacLeish. Randy Holt and a guy came over from Europe&mdash;so there were a few numbers there. And they made some decisions to go with the older guys.&rdquo;Philadelphia sent Brickley to their new AHL farm team in Springfield, but the Penguins swung the big deal with the Flyers on Oct. 23 and brought Brickley up to Pittsburgh.&ldquo;They made a great break for me by trading me,&rdquo; said the Melrose, MA, native&rdquo; I&rsquo;m very happy. It&rsquo;s a great opportunity for me to be in on the ground floor of something. I think that&rsquo;s going to take off in the next couple of years.&ldquo;Pittsburgh&rsquo;s been struggling the last year or so that I&rsquo;ve followed them. They&rsquo;re looking for some good young players to get some people back in the building and turn their program around and I&rsquo;m glad to be part of it.&rdquo;Brickley scored four goals and three know that I can do my share to help on offense. That doesn&rsquo;t mean that I have to do end-to-end rushes. It means getting the puck out of our zone, hitting the lead man and helping our forwards to get going.&rdquo;Because of his young age. Moller has a bright future. That means he&rsquo;ll have many more opportunities to pad his offensive stats and numerous occasions to face the Canadiens.&ldquo;You know a player has to be ready for every game and always gets a little nervous,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I get even more nervous for a Montreal game. I feel it two days before the start. I know that I just want to win even more, if that is possible, when we play Montreal.&rdquo; &#9632;

Brickley In On The Ground Floor

<div class="byline">BY DAVE KING</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01868/6648967-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="612" height="534"></div>We have now played eight games against a good Soviet all-star team and our record is 1-1-6. Four of the losses have been by one goal and we feel this has been an excellent evaluation process for us.The attendance has been better than we anticipated with over 73,000 seeing our first eight games. We had sellouts in Ottawa, Kitchener and Halifax and the players played very well in those three cities. No doubt the full house inspired them.We are looking forward to playing in Montreal and Quebec City.Our roster has undergone some changes with the addition of Russ Courtnall and Kirk Muller. Courtnall is the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; No. 1 draft pick of 1983 and Muller is rated to be one of the top draft picks for 1984. Both players are excellent game players and the coaching staff feels that they will add a lot to the offensive play.We have also added Mike Ridley and Vaughn Karpan from the University of Manitoba. Bruce Keller from the University of Saskatchewan and Serge Trepanier from the University of Chicoutimi.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02600/6648960-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="301" height="366"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave King&rsquo;s Coach&rsquo;s Diary</figcaption></div>The down side of our roster is that Joe Grant, the veteran from the 1980 team, broke his collarbone and is lost indefinitely. George Servinis broke his thumb and Gord Sherven injured a knee and are in the doubtful category for the Olympic Games. Robin Bartel broke his finger but should be available in 10 days. Kevin Dineen has also been having problems with a chronic shoulder problem.Our medical staff, Dr. Gord Matheson in the West, and Dr. Derek Mackesy in the East, have been working overtime along with our physiotherapist Craig Gattinger. Braces have been made for Sherven&rsquo;s knee and Dineen&rsquo;s shoulder and we hope that they may be available for Olympic competition.Not to forget our equipment man, Bill (Bubbles) Stefaniuk, who has been busy keeping the right names on the right jerseys with all our roster changes. Craig and Bill have had a very hectic schedule with the team playing 10 games in 15 days across the country.I should also comment on the other two coaches on our staff. Jean Perron, from the University of Moncton, has done an excellent job. He along with Dr. Howie Wegner have coordinated our fitness program. Jean&rsquo;s enthusiasm and patience are very important to our staff and team.Coach George Kingston is our eye-in-the-sky, relaying information to coach Perron on the bench. George and Jean have a good insight into the game and analyze very well. I&rsquo;ve learned a great deal from Jean and George.The Soviet all-star team that we are playing is the same as many other Soviet clubs&mdash;excellent goaltending, mobile defensemen and freewheeling forwards. In eight games played so far, twins Igor and Alexander Orlov have 21 points between them (Igor has 11) and have been a constant problem to our defense.Goaltender Victor Doroschenko has stolen at least one game from us and has played well in six games. One thing about this Russian team, in every city we go to, the fans still remember their coaches, Boris Kulagin and Alexander Yakushev. Yakushev, you may remember, played in the famous 1972 series.We look forward to returning to Calgary where we will begin our tapering process prior to going to Sarajevo. The next two weeks are extremely important to our players&rsquo; physical and mental preparation for the Olympics.In every city, the media asked, &ldquo;Is your goal to win a medal?&rdquo; My response to that is that our goals are simple: improve each week and hope we improve to the point where we are a competitive team in international competition.The players and coaches are aware of the challenge we face at Sarajevo, &lsquo;but as we get closer 1 get a very good feeling about this team. They are working and hustling on the ice at all times.In this particular 10-game series against the Soviets, they have been in a position to win or tie in the last five minutes of the game. With a little luck, we could have won at least three more games. We feel you can&rsquo;t get anymore competitive than to play a Soviet team even in seven of eight games.<h2>USSR vs TEAM CANADA (Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03418/6648953-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="542" height="118"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>USSR 4, Team Canada 3USSR 4, Team Canada 2USSR 4, Team Canada 3USSR 7, Team Canada 2USSR 7, Team Canada 5Team Canada 5, USSR 2Team Canada 6, USSR 6USSR 6, Team Canada 5<h2>WORLD JR. TOURNAMENT (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04290/6648946-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="542" height="261"></div>Mon. Jan. 2Canada 3, USSR 3USA 10, W. Germany 2Finland 12, Switzerland 4Czechoslovakia 5, Sweden 2Tue. Jan. 3Czechoslovakia 6, Canada 4USSR 8, Sweden 2USA 12, Switzerland 3Finland 8, W. Germany 2(End of tournament) &#9632;

f0032-01

Attendance Has Been Better Than Expected

<div class="byline">BY LOU VAIRO</div>After three days of practice following our return from our holiday break, we travelled to northern Minnesota for a traditional contest against the Warroad Lakers seniors. Every U.S. Olympic team since 1956, except the 1976 team, has played in the city known as Hockey Town USA. Mr. Stan Hubbard, a great supporter of hockey in Minnesota, made his private plane available to us for the afternoon flight to the game.In the building was a standing room-only crowd, their biggest crowd ever. It was filled with young hockey players, something that was very gratifying. The temperature inside was only-4 (F). which was much milder than it was last year when the National Team visited. Before the game. 15 exOlympic and National Team players were introduced, including the Christian brothers, Roger and Ed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05216/6649012-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="305" height="365"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lou Vairo&rsquo;s Coach&rsquo;s Corner</figcaption></div>There are two main reasons for Team USA&rsquo;s playing any game&mdash;to prepare the team for the Olympic Games and to generate funds for our program. But it is also important for us to remember the years when we did not have an opportunity to play NHL, minor pro and international competition on the road to the Olympics. It was senior amateur teams like the Warroad Lakers that helped prepare our country&rsquo;s representatives. In appreciation of those past contributions, it would be insensitive of our program to not play people such as Warroad.The evening served as a spiritual uplifting for our team in the sense that it was a pure hockey atmosphere. After the game (a 9-4 win) we were treated to a great meal by Cal Marvin, the Lakers and the nice people of Warroad. It was an outstanding evening of camaraderie and hockey pride.Since the Olympic hockey victory in 1980, Team USA has become &ldquo;America&rsquo;s Team.&rdquo; We wear the &lsquo;USA&rsquo; on our jerseys and we truly represent the United States, the small towns, such as Warroad, as well as the large cities.Our next game was against the Ft. Wayne Komets of the International League where we again were greeted by a standing room-only crowd of 8,300. The Komets played a good, hard game, but while our intensity level was not what it should have been, we won 5-3.We returned home to Minnesota where we practised while having a chance to watch some excellent hockey at the Met Center. We watched a good high school tournament and saw the North Stars play the Islanders and Chicago. I was really impressed with the Isles, the Stars played well against them but they showed why they are the champs. It was fun to be a spectator and watch other coaches pacing the bench for a change.In between all of that hockey was our home game against the U of Minnesota Gophers (a 9-2 win). It was our sharpest performance since the break. We showed excellent puck control and team speed. It was nice to see the Kurt Kleinendorst-Paul Guay-Rich Costello line play its best game of the season.Injuries and illness can be a determining factor in our final player selection process. Corey Millen (mononucleosis) is a question mark for the Olympics. as is John Harrington (broken wrist). Early in the Gopher game David H. Jensen broke his thumb, but is able to handle his stick.We hope to stay healthy these last few weeks.<h2>TEAM USA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06180/6649005-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="506" height="672"></div><h2>GOALTENDING RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-07153/6648998-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="564" height="94"></div> &#9632;

f0032-05

Tradition Continues In Game With Warroad

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Frustrated and confused by his failure to produce the kind of product he envisioned when he purchased the Kings five years ago. Jerry Buss has considered &ldquo;firing myself&rdquo; and bringing in an experienced hockey man to run the operation.The low point came in mid-December, when the Kings matched a club record by losing eight straight games during an embarrassing 0-9-1 skid that dropped them to the bottom of the Smythe Division standings.The Kings have since reversed themselves, winning five of six on the road and capturing six of eight overall in escaping the cellar, but it is this kind of erratic behavior which has left Buss dazed and confused.His team began the season with a six-game winless streak, then won four straight during a five-game unbeaten streak before going into its Jekyll and Hyde routine once again.&ldquo;It puzzles me. that&rsquo;s the problem.&rdquo; Buss said. &ldquo;One minute I think. &lsquo;Maybe all the critics are right.&rsquo; And then 1 see us play teams like Philadelphia, Montreal, Edmonton and the Islanders and our guys have played so well against them. I just don&rsquo;t know why we&rsquo;re so inconsistent.&rdquo;This is not a particularly virtuous attribute for a fellow who has been consistently successful in all of his other endeavors and. coupled with last season&rsquo;s disastrous conclusion&mdash;missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in a decade&mdash;Buss has been questioning his own ability to &ldquo;right something that has gone wrong&rdquo; more seriously than ever.Maybe, he has been saying, it is time to discontinue his role as an active owner and hire what he would call a &ldquo;director of hockey operations&rdquo; to run the Kings as he sees fit.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re going to run the fortunes of a professional athletic team, you try to hire the best people you can for advice, then listen to their advice and try and judge them,&rdquo; Buss said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done this.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had what I consider the very best talent gatherer there is,&rdquo; he said, referring to general manager George Maguire, &ldquo;and I personally feel Don Perry is a good coach. So if the record of the team isn&rsquo;t good, any thinking person has to say, &lsquo;Maybe I don&rsquo;t know what I&rsquo;m doing.&rsquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tough conclusion to come to, but at least it&rsquo;s an honest attempt at assessing one&rsquo;s performance. That&rsquo;s essential. And that&rsquo;s why I was so down after we lost so many games in a row.&ldquo;When the team&rsquo;s record is so poor, you begin to question your own ability to run it. What irritates me is that I have come to the conclusion I would have to be the first one fired in the hockey hierarchy. It&rsquo;s my direct responsibility because I hired the people who direct the club. I cannot get around that&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the coach and I don&rsquo;t draft players, but I do hire them and I have to have faith in those people. The buck stops here, or in my case, the puck.&ldquo;So I was thinking (during the 10-game slump) that maybe I should fire myself. That&rsquo;s very tough, especially with the hockey team because I worked my ass off for 25 years to get into a position where I could buy one.&rdquo;So what does Buss do now? How will his team have to perform in order for him to hire his director of hockey operations?&ldquo;Wins and losses have weight, but I wouldn&rsquo;t want to say a specific number because that puts undue pressure on the team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Certainly I feel we have some very good hockey players, some of the brightest young stars in the National Hockey League, both on offense and defense. If my assessment is wrong, then it&rsquo;s time forme to hang it up. It&rsquo;s that simple.&rdquo;Buss stressed that Maguire and Perry will be around at least as long as he is.&ldquo;No question about that. If I&rsquo;m here at the end of the season, they will be, too,&rdquo; he said.Buss was asked, in case he decides to step aside, if he has anyone in mind&mdash;either from within or outside the organization&mdash;to run the show. Because of tampering rules, he declined naming specific candidates, but he did say:&ldquo;I would want somebody with a lot of hockey experience, with a lot of integrity. I haven&rsquo;t done too much on that because if you&rsquo;re looking at names under contract you can get into trouble. I guess there&rsquo;s no penalty for thinking, &lsquo;Wow, would I like to grab that guy!&rsquo; There&rsquo;s no penalty for thinking in silence.&rdquo;Despite all the problems he has encountered along the way. Buss still dreams of bringing the Stanley Cup to the West Coast. He&rsquo;s already planned the celebration.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to see dancing and partying like you&rsquo;ve never seen before in your life,&rdquo; he said with a wide grin. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s possible. I&rsquo;ll put it in its own big case, with a spotlight on it. We&rsquo;ll get a 24-piece orchestra to play. I&rsquo;ll even learn to skate so I can take it around the rink myself&mdash;at every game. It would be happiness.&rdquo;But is it a realistic goal?&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve sure thought so for five years,&rdquo; Buss said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had very strong faith: Obviously, my faith has a few cracks in it right now.&rdquo;KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;Right winger Ken Houston (sprained knee) missed 14 straight games while defenseman Jay Wells (sprained ankle) missed six in a row. &#9632;

Buss Could Get Pink Slip—From Himself

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;The Nordiques-Canadiens rivalry came to a head in three matchups in a 10-day span between the end of December and the new year.As usual, defense played a key role in the Quebec-Montreal games and young Randy Moller used these encounters to perhaps show once and for all that he has come of age in the National Hockey League.Moller was a regular with Quebec throughout the 1982-83 season and coach Michel Bergeron has used him just as much this season. He scored his first goal of the year a few weeks ago and has been playing better than ever.&ldquo;He is playing steady hockey now,&rdquo; Bergeron said of the 20-year-old Moller. &lsquo;He uses his body well and one thing that I especially like about Randy is that he seldom makes the same mistake twice. He is aggressive and he is always ready to play&rdquo;Moller had 20 goals in his final season in Lethbridge of the Western League, but then scored only twice in his first season. One consolation was that his two goals came against arch-rival Montreal. There was some fear around Quebec a few months back that Moller had already peaked and would never be more than an average defensive defenseman. He changed many minds with his play in December, clearing the zone well, playing the man and even carrying the puck a little more.&ldquo;The only thing I really care about is that we play well as a team.&rdquo; Moller said. &ldquo;The puck has been bouncing well for me recently and I can&rsquo;t complain. I know that I cannot be primarily an offensive defenseman with Quebec, but I also assists in his first 11 games before missing 13 contests with a sprained ankle. He registered his first National Hockey League hat trick against the New York Rangers upon his return.One of two Americans on the Penguins (Tom O&rsquo;Regan of Cambridge, MA, is the other), Brickley admits his attitude wasn&rsquo;t very good when the Flyers demoted him.&ldquo;I had played seven games at Springfield,&rdquo; he recalled. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t thrilled to be there. I felt I had proved myself in the American League last year playing with Maine. I figured I&rsquo;d be in Philadelphia this year. So my motivation was down again.&ldquo;The trade really changed my attitude around. When I came here (general manager) Eddie Johnston. Lou Angotti and (assistant general manager) Ken Schinkel came right up and told me, &lsquo;You weren&rsquo;t a throw-in in the deal. We&rsquo;re glad to have you. We think we made a good deal in getting you. Find a place to live, you&rsquo;re going to be here.&rsquo; With that kind of support and confidence in you, your attitude has to be nothing but the best. &#9632;

Nords’ Moller Comes Of Age

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;While the first half of the 1983-84 season wasn&rsquo;t too happy for Real (Buddy) Cloutier, there was one night which gave him some comfort, a night on which the Sabres played his former team, the Quebec Nordiques.Cloutier, acquired by Buffalo from Quebec during the National Hockey League meetings in June, has been one of the Sabres&rsquo; three top scorers since the beginning of the campaign.But he has been in and out of the lineup. He was playing mostly on the power play during December and for two games before the Nordiques came to town, Cloutier&mdash;who once scored 75 goals in a season for Quebec in the World Hockey Association&mdash;didn&rsquo;t even dress.He watched from the stands while the Sabres&rsquo; youngsters, many of whom were playing peewee when Cloutier turned pro with the Nordiques, were on the ice in important Adams Division confrontations with Boston and Montreal.When Quebec came to Memorial Auditorium, however, Cloutier was back in the lineup, taking a regular shift on a line with Gil Perreault and Gilles Hamel, as he had early in the season.Tony McKegney and Andre Savard, two players the Sabres dealt to Buffalo as part of the Cloutier deal, teamed up for the first goal of the game, and the Nordiques led 2-0 in the first period. The Sabres turned the game around in their favor with five goals in the second and it was Cloutier who made a big difference with three goals, two in a span of 33 seconds.Going into the game, he hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal since Dec. 2, going goalless for nine games, two more if you count the games for which he didn&rsquo;t dress.The Sabres won the game 8-5, which gave them victories over two division foes by a margin of 15-8. They had beaten Montreal 7-3 two nights before, after starting the week with a hard-fought 2-1 loss to the division-leader Boston.In the second period of the Quebec game, Cloutier played four minutes, 15 seconds, took four shots and scored three goals. His goals turned the game around.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Cloutier&rsquo;s had the most chances of anybody on the team. This might have taken some of the pressure off him.&rsquo;</blockquote>After the game, coach Scotty Bowman said, of Cloutier, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s had the most scoring chances of anybody on the team. This might have taken some of the pressure off him. He&rsquo;s had some pretty tough luck around the net.&rdquo;Asked why he had benched Cloutier for two games, the general managercoach replied, &ldquo;We wanted to look at Adam Creighton, and we had two young right wingers, Mike Moller and Sean McKenna, we didn&rsquo;t want to sit down because it might destroy their confidence.&rdquo;Creighton, a center, had been called up from junior hockey a few games before.Cloutier, who had asked the Nordiques to trade him because he wasn&rsquo;t getting enough ice time, refused to complain, after getting his sixth NHL hat trick, about sitting out with the Sabres.&ldquo;Yeah, it upset me to sit out,&rdquo; said Cloutier, &ldquo;but I was in a long slump. Some games I got six or seven shots on the net but they would hit the post or the goalie would make a good save.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t put the puck into the net.&ldquo;But one shot goes in and your confidence comes back. Sure, it made me feel good to score again and against my old team, but it was better because this was a big game for us.&rdquo;Bowman acquired Cloutier to beef up the Sabres&rsquo; power play and that has happened. In a big win over the Philadelphia Flyers earlier in the month, only Buffalo&rsquo;s third in the Spectrum in 14 NHL seasons, Cloutier was on the ice twice and each time set up a Buffalo goal.Eighteen of Cloutier&rsquo;s 38 points in the first half of the season came on the power play&mdash;five goals and 13 assists.While Gil Perreault and Housley were the only Sabres ahead of him in scoring for the first 40 games, Cloutier had the lowest plus-minus rating on the club going into the game in which he scored the hat trick.Two games later Cloutier had another! hat trick as the Sabres defeated the Winnipeg Jets 9-4. &#9632;

Cloutier And Buddies Going For The Goals

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01835/6649115-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="278" height="208"></div>SHERBROOKE&mdash;Like a youngster does in the days before Christmas, Warren Skorodenski has been keeping an eye on the calendar and counting the days until Jan. 14.That&rsquo;s the day the Jets&rsquo; young goaltender will have completed his 20-game suspension and be eligible to return to action. Not surprisingly, he&rsquo;s anxious to get started again and put the matter behind him.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just tried to get my mind off the whole thing,&rdquo; Skorodenski said. &ldquo;There is nothing I could have done to change it and you may as well bang your head against the wall.&ldquo;It will be 55 days since I last played and that&rsquo;s a long time not to be in action. It&rsquo;s just going to be like a whole new season for me, starting on the 14th. I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m going to play that game (against Adirondack at Glens Falls) or not. It&rsquo;s just going to be like starting the season all over again.&rdquo;Skorodenski was suspended for 20 games&mdash;believed to be the longest suspension in league history&mdash;by AHL president Jack Butterfield for his part in an incident with referee Dave Lynch in a game at Sherbrooke on Nov. 20. Following a 7-6 overtime loss to New Haven, Skorodenski became physically involved with Lynch while protesting a penalty called against him in the overtime.Skorodenski remembered the incident as little more than a shove, but Lynch, supervisor of officials John Ashley and the two linesmen who worked the game with Lynch said it was more than that. Butterfield did not see videotapes of the confrontation and was forced to make his decision based on the information he gathered during a week-long investigation. He ruled Skorodenski had to sit out 20 games.When the penalty was announced, Skorodenski said it was too harsh. He hasn&rsquo;t changed his mind.&ldquo;I think it was too many games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think 20 was way too severe for what I did. I still think I should have gotten five to 10 games. I still think that. I don&rsquo;t think under any circumstances I should have gotten any more than 10 games.&rdquo;Once he got over the initial shock of being suspended in the middle of a season, Skorodenski went to work preparing himself for his return to the game. As the end of the suspension nears, he&rsquo;s begun to work even harder to get back into shape.Sherbrooke coach Ron Racette feels that Skorodenski has handled the suspension well and that he won&rsquo;t have to wait long to get back into a game.Although Racette could not say whether Skorodenski would start on the 14th, he emphasized that Skorodenski would get back into the rotation in a hurry. The Jets have had just one goalie, Paul Pageau, in recent weeks and can use some help. Before he was suspended, Skorodenski had played in nine games and had a 4.86 goals-against average and a 4-4 record. Earlier in the season, he was named the AHL player of the week.AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Maine continued its drive to pump some life into its offense by signing free agent Yvan Joly, who had been playing in Europe. In a little over a month, the Mariners have added Bud Stefanski, Al Hill. Paul Mercier and Joly. Maine fashioned a 46-4 record in December that included a nine-game (0-5-4) winless steak, the longest in the franchise history&hellip;Fredericton won five consecutive games and moved past slumping Nova Scotia into first place in the division. Grant Martin and Mark Kirton were sent down from Vancouver, while three players, Jean-Marc Gaulin. Paul Gillis and goalie Clint Malarchuk were recalled by Quebec to fill in for injured players. Defenseman Richard Tunnel was reassisgned to Milwaukee of the International League&hellip;Goalie Marco Baron, on loan to Moncton from the Boston Bruins, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings for New Haven forward Bob Laforest. Baron had played an important role in the Alpines&rsquo; surge in December and will be missed. Moncton&rsquo;s goaltending duties will be handled by Mike Zanier and Chris Smith. Defenseman Lowell Love-day is ready to return from the injured list., Adirondack snapped a six-game winless streak with a 7-3 win over Moncton on New Year&rsquo;s Eve and moved into a tie for first. The Wings, who have been shorthanded since the first week of November, finished December with a 64-5 record and reached the midpoint of the season with a 19-14-7 mark. During the 29 consecutive games the Wings played with fewer than 20 players, they compiled an 11-11-7 record. Detroit sent defenseman Barry Melrose to Adirondack&hellip;Nova Scotia&rsquo;s troubles continued with a 6-3 loss at home to New Haven that dropped the Vees&rsquo; record to 18-18-7. Since Dec. 11, the Vees have posted a 2-10-1 record and have fallen out of first into third place behind Fredericton and Adirondack. A lack of scoring has been the team&rsquo;s biggest problem during the slide. Forward Brian Skrudland. who had been one of club&rsquo;s more productive scorers before breaking his ankle in November, is about ready to return. Goalie Greg Moffett returned to the lineup after missing 28 games with an injury. &#9632;

f0035-01

Skorodenski Has Starting Over Feeling

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>ROCHESTER&mdash;His 20-game consecutive point-scoring streak may have been erased, but the mark Rochester rookie center Claude Verret has made on the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Southern Division is still intact.Verret, 20, surged to the top of the rookie scoring charts and into fifth place among the league&rsquo;s leaders by bunching 17 goals and 23 assists in his streak, the longest of the AHL season.The Binghamton Whalers stopped Verret during their 2-1 victory over the Amerks on New Year&rsquo;s Day before a standing room only crowd of 7,205 at the Rochester War Memorial. Ironically, Bob Sullivan of the Whalers set the AHL record two seasons ago by scoring in 28 straight. The streak is over, but the Lachine, Que., native has just begun.&ldquo;The amazing thing about the kid is that he&rsquo;s a rookie,&rdquo; said Amerk coach Joe Crozier. &ldquo;We knew he was going to be good, but it&rsquo;s incredible the way he&rsquo;s come along as a player. Rookies, they usually go in spells. Verret&rsquo;s been doing this since early in the season. Scoring with the best of them.&rdquo;The best of them includes Verret&rsquo;s right winger, Mal Davis. The veteran&mdash;buoyed by Verret&rsquo;s skein&mdash;surged into the AHL scoring lead.&ldquo;He surprised a lot of people,&rdquo; Davis said of Verret, a 5-foot-10, 165-pounder. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a big kid, but he gets in there and takes the body. I just let him go into the comers and pick up the puck. Sometimes I feel a little bad that he&rsquo;s in the comer. I say to myself, &lsquo;that should be my job.&rsquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a great attitude as far as the team aspect is concerned. It&rsquo;s just a matter of time before he&rsquo;s in the NHL. &ldquo;The defending Calder Cup champions have seven rookies on their roster, including Normand Lacombe, one of the parent Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; three 1983 first-round draft picks, but Verret has clearly become Rochester&rsquo;s freshman valedictorian.Verret has always been able to score. As a rookie for Trois Rivieres in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, he notched 112 points and was named rookie of the year. The next season, he led the league with 162 points and was chosen a first-team all-star.Then 19, the Sabres drafted him on the eighth round of the 1982 draft, the 163rd pick overall. Verret proved 1982 was no fluke by finishing second in QMJHL scoring last season, behind Verdun&rsquo;s Pat LaFontaine, with 188 points.Why was he such a late pick?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said Buffalo general manager-coach Scotty Bowman, &ldquo;possibly his size. But he&rsquo;s surprised us. He&rsquo;s had a great start and we&rsquo;re very happy with him. He&rsquo;s been effective in the AHL. He&rsquo;s a very smart player. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s (his lack of size) bothering him at all.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been building himself up,&rdquo; Crozier said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been working on the weights. I&rsquo;ve been high on him since training camp. He&rsquo;s so quick with the release of the puck. He doesn&rsquo;t telegraph his shot, he tools you. And he&rsquo;s got great acceleration from a standstill.&rdquo;AROUND THE SOUTH&mdash;The Amerks, who lost Geordie Robertson and Chris Langevin with knee injuries the week before, added Randy Cunneyworth to their growing sick list. The utility forward will be out 12 weeks after suffering a severely broken thumb when he slipped on an icy street. The loss to Binghamton snapped the Amerks&rsquo; five-game winning streak, which had moved them to within seven points of first-place Baltimore. Phil Myre leads goalies with a 2.85 goals-against average. On the day Claude Verret&rsquo;s streak ended, Mal Davis saw his five-game, power-play goal-scoring streak end.Baltimore defenseman Greg Tebbutt. indefinitely suspended by the Skipjacks on Dec. 28, returned to the lineup with a goal and an assist in the division leaders&rsquo; key 6-3 victory over the second-place Amerks, a win which reopened a seven-point gap between the clubs. Tebbutt, who missed four games after telling Ubriaco he was quitting the team, said during his suspension. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just something to work out between me and management. Hope they know I want to stay in Baltimore. This is the only place I want to play.&rdquo; Tebbutt, 26, the 1982-83 winner of the Eddie Shore Plaque as the league&rsquo;s premier defenseman, was reinstated after agreeing to go for counselling for personal problems the team would not elaborate on. The &lsquo;Jacks have used to 36 players this season. Only Fredericton (39) has used more.After losing at Maine on New Year&rsquo;s Eve and in Fredericton on New Year&rsquo;s Day, New Haven swept two games in the Maritimes to climb into third place. Daryl Evans and Dean Jenkins each scored twice in a 6-3 win at Nova Scotia. The next night. Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer scored twice in the second period to key a 7-5 triumph at Fredericton. The Nighthawks lost defenseman Mark Morrison for the season after he suffered ligament damage and a severe separation of the shoulder in a game against Maine and required immediate surgery. New Haven lost forward Bob Laforest, who was traded by parent Los Angeles to Boston for goalie Marco Baron. Laforest was assigned by the Bruins to Hershey, but Baron remains with the Kings.Hershey won two straight at Nova Scotia and Baltimore&mdash;before losing to Rochester&mdash;to avoid falling into last place. Dave Parro stopped 20 shots in a 3-0 win over the Vees and 39 shots to beat the Skipjacks 5-2. With Mike Moffat on emergency recall to Boston, the Washington-owned Parro has started 10 straight games. Co-parent Boston, which has had injuries to seven regulars, recalled Luc Dufour on emergency conditions.Binghamton, which has not been out of last since Oct. 11, put the pressure on Hershey by winning three straight, all behind goalie Rollie Boutin and all in the third period. The Whalers rallied from a 3-1 deficit to nip Baltimore 4-3, scored two third-period goals to edge Rochester 2-1 and snapped a 3-3 tie in the third period to win 6-3 at St. Catharines. Ross Yates, the player of the week, scored the tying goal at the St. Catharines and the winner at Rochester. Yates has points in 14 straight games. Linemate Don Gillen has scored in 12 straight. Dan Bourbonnais, the left winger on that line, was recalled by Hartford along with defenseman Reid Bailey.Injuries in Chicago and Philadelphia have decimated the fourth-place Springfield Indians. Coach Doug Sauter lost left winger Ross Fitzpatrick to the Flyers and forwards Perry Pelensky, Tom McMurchy and defenseman Don Dietrich to the Black Hawks. Center Len Hachborn, who spent a chunk of the season in Philadelphia, has an astounding 56 points in 26 games, the best points-per-game average in the league.St. Catharines fell from third to fifth after going 1-3-2. Included were two home-ice losses to the Whalers, who have won five straight in Garden City Arena and are 5-1 lifetime. &#9632;

Scoring Streak Stopped, But Verret’s Just Begun

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01785/6649170-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="274" height="210"></div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Central Hockey League president Bud Poile looked back on &ldquo;a couple of crises in 1983&rdquo; and said he &ldquo;would like to have a season with no problems&rdquo; in 1984. Further, he hopes the semi-annual meeting of the CHL&rsquo;s board of governors Jan. 12 is the basis of a successful future.Poile admitted the league started 1984 with the Tulsa franchise out on a limb.&ldquo;Tulsa has been a problem&mdash;for the league and for themselves,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now D-Day has arrived and they&rsquo;ve got to fish or cut bait. It&rsquo;s up to (owner) Steve Schulneger and the (parent New York) Rangers to get together and straighten things out.&rdquo;If Poile can keep things patched up this season, things look brighter for the fall of 1984.&ldquo;Omaha wants to come back into the league.&rdquo; he noted.The former Knights of the CHL were associated with Montreal in 1963-63 and 1964-65, with the Rangers for five seasons beginning in 1966 and with the Atlanta Flames for two seasons ending in 1975.&ldquo;Louisville also is ready to come into the league,&rdquo; continued Poile. who hasn&rsquo;t had the same league lineup in 10 years. In fact, in the 21-year history of the CHL. there never has been a season with the same lineup two years in a row.Getting the OK for Omaha and Louisville to join the fold is one of the things Poile hopes to take care of at the semiannual meeting in Denver.&ldquo;I hope our board will take some positive action right now,&rdquo; he stated. &ldquo;For once, we&rsquo;ve got to get next year planned at this meeting. We&rsquo;ve always waited until the summer meetings. But that&rsquo;s when we should be concerned only with putting the schedule together.&rdquo;The crises for Poile began July 4 last year, when New Jersey withdrew its support from Larry Gordon in Wichita, who was moving his team to Billings, MT.&ldquo;We were able to get St. Louis to make a bit of a commitment in there (Billings),&rdquo; Poile said, &ldquo;but we wrestled until September with that problem before deciding to go with five teams.&rdquo;Although the Montana Magic weren&rsquo;t drawing well at year&rsquo;s end, Poile said attendance in Billings historically goes up after the first of the year. He bases that on records of junior and amateur hockey in that city.&ldquo;They haven&rsquo;t been able to generate any kind of winning streak in Billings,&rdquo; Poile noted. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re doing better lately and if attendance picks up they won&rsquo;t do badly.&rdquo;Three clubs are doing well as the season nears the midpoint, he pointed out. As of Dec. 20, Indianapolis has an increase of 5,700 fans, Colorado is plus 4,500. While Salt Lake is down a bit in attendance, Poile admitted it&rsquo;s &ldquo;up in dollars.&rdquo;Except for Montana, the league has played pretty tightly in the early going. As 1983 bowed out, Colorado, Tulsa and Indianapolis were separated by only four points; Salt Lake was another three points back. Colorado won back-to-back overtime contests to stretch its advantage as 1984 made its bow.Once Montana got things going, Poile thought his problems for 1983 were solved. Then came the Tulsa situation. First, there was no ice, which forced cancellation of five games and the rescheduling of seven. At this point, Tulsa again is without ice and that fact has been apparent in their last few outings.The Oilers ended the old year with four straight losses and faced 12 days without a practice surface. Coach Tom Webster pointed out, &ldquo;There won&rsquo;t be any ice for us until we face the U.S. Olympic team at home Jan. 13. They&rsquo;ve got a horse show and a Jehovah&rsquo;s Witnesses meeting scheduled during that time.&rdquo;So it&rsquo;s back to downtown Williams Arena (no sticks, no pucks) or bus to Oklahoma City (where&rsquo;s the money coming from?) for practice.&ldquo;From one day to the next the players are asked to make adjustments,&rdquo; Webster lamented. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re asked to work out on their own at racquetball or something. We&rsquo;ve lost four in a row because we weren&rsquo;t finishing off our plays. We&rsquo;ve got to have ice to practise that.&rdquo;In spite of what Webster termed &ldquo;cash overflow&rdquo; problems with the local Tulsa ownership, he said the Oilers would &ldquo;finish the season in Tulsa.&rdquo; Schulneger, he said, was going to have to convene with his league partners and get some help.Poile, however, says: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve exhausted that source. The problem is strictly between Tulsa and the Rangers. The league partners have done all they can.&rdquo;Poile himself had to bail out the Oilers on a recent road trip. &ldquo;The puck stops there,&rdquo; he avowed of the Tulsa-Rangers situation. In addition, Poile wasn&rsquo;t certain Tulsa would be able to show up at Billings for games Jan. 6 and 7. It wasn&rsquo;t the rosiest way for him to approach the new year.&ldquo;For 1983 the hockey play has been excellent,&rdquo; he observed. &ldquo;You can see the young players getting started and watch their progress. Colorado&rsquo;s kids are developing like crazy. Some of the Sall Lake kids are coming along a litte slower and Montana is an older club.&ldquo;But youngsters like Todd Lumbard (Indianapolis goalie) are improving with each game,&rdquo; he continued.&lsquo;&lsquo;There are about six games I&rsquo;d like to throw out, but that&rsquo;s not bad considering 96 games have been completed. Those six weren&rsquo;t CHL calibre.&rdquo;Two of the games he referred to involved Indianapolis. In one, Montana acted like a bunch of goons in a loss to the Checkers, shattering five sticks in one period along with slashes. In another game in Indy, referee Tom Monahan had to end the second with about a minute and a half to go, as fights and major slashing and spearing penalties to Tulsa marred the contest.Though Poile may find himself with but four teams before 1984 is too far along, things are looking up. He would like to interest Vancouver in going into Billings next season (&ldquo;it&rsquo;s only an hour away from them&rdquo;) and thinks St. Louis might open a farm team in Louisville.Interested parties in Louisville won&rsquo;t put ice-making equipment into their building at the Fairgrounds, though, until the CHL governors give them the green light for a franchise.CHL CHAT&mdash;A new group of persons interested in hockey met Jan. 4 at Tulsa with Oiler owner Steve Schulneger and Craig Patrick, general manager of the New York Rangers to discuss a change of ownership for the Rangers franchise in Tulsa&hellip;First-year defenseman Ken Leiter from the Indianapolis Checkers was named the CHL&rsquo;s player of the week for the last week of 1983. He scored three goals and was on the ice for nine of 11 Checkers goals in a pair of wins over Tulsa. The Checkers&rsquo; Scott Howson upped his league-leading goals total to 22 in that series, but the Oilers&rsquo; Gary Bums had a hat trick and trails Howson by a goal&hellip;Center Alain Lemieux and defenseman Rik Wilson have been assigned to Montana by the St. Louis Blues. &#9632;

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Poile Aiming For A Trouble-Free Season

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>FORT WAYNE&mdash;The International Hockey League all-star, team which will be competing against the U.S. Olympic team on Jan. 17 in Kalamazoo, will be comprised principally of players from Milwaukee, Fort Wayne and Toledo.The first team has Lome Molleken of Toledo in goal, Kevin Willison of Milwaukee and Toledo&rsquo;s Brian Tutt on defense. Dale Yakiwchuk of Milwaukee at center, flanked by Wally Schreiber of Fort Wayne on the left wing and Dan Lecours of Milwaukee on the left side. On the second team, Georges Gagnon of Kalamazoo is the goalie with Vic Morin and Mike Boland, both of Fort Wayne on defense. Ron Leef of the Komets is the center, with Bill Joyce of Toledo on right wing and Jim MacRae of Kalamazoo on the left side. Eight players will be added by the respective all-star team coaches before the game.Meanwhile, an exhibition game between Fort Wayne and the Olympians attracted a standing-room only crowd of 8,323 to the Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 29 and both teams provided an entertaining performance.Though the Komets lost 5-3, they played well.Komet general manager-coach Ron Ullyot was pleased with the game, praising both the Olympians and his own squad.&ldquo;They can really fly, can&rsquo;t they?&rdquo; Ullyot said of Team USA. &ldquo;But I thought we played very well. We had more chances than we capitalized on, especially early. It was an excellent game. I&rsquo;m sure the fans enjoyed it. 1 sure did.&rdquo;Sandwiched around the loss to the Olympians were a pair of victories over Flint, including the K&rsquo;s first shutout (2-0) of the season by Darren Jensen. The K&rsquo;s followed that with an 8-3 romp over the Generals in Fort Wayne with Ron Leef getting the hat trick. The two teams met a third straight time back in Hint and this time the Generals prevailed 5-4 in overtime.MILWAUKEE&mdash;The new year has started just like the old for the leagueleading Admirals, who increased their lead over second-place Toledo by winning three of four, including a 7-2 whipping over the Goaldiggers. Milwaukee broke open a tight 2-1 hockey game, by scoring four goals in a seven-minute span in the second period.One of the victories was a 6-2 conquering of the Prancers in Peoria. The Admirals split with Muskegon, winning 8-3 at home and losing 6-2 on the road.TOLEDO&mdash;The Diggers are starting 1984 similar to 1983&mdash;poorly. Toledo dropped three straight during the week, all on the road. The week started with a 4-3 loss to Kalamazoo, followed by 7-2 and 6-3 defeats in Milwaukee and Flint, respectively.PEORIA&mdash;The Prancers started off the new year very well, winning three and tying another in four starts. One of the victories and the tie came on the road. The Prancers won 8-5 at Muskegon and tied 3-3 in Kalamazoo. At home, the Prancers beat Muskegon 6-4 and Kalamazoo 8-6.FLINT&mdash;The Generals broke even, winning a pair and dropping a pair. The highlight was a 6-3 win over second-place Toledo as the Generals scored three goals in the first nine minutes and never looked back. The low point was a 2-0 loss to Fort Wayne at home. In the other games, Hint beat the Komets 5-4 in over-time and lost 8-3 in Fort Wayne.KALAMAZOO&mdash;The K-Wings started well, nipping Toledo 4-3 in a thrilling home win. It was downhill after that. The best Kalamazoo could muster was a 3-3 tie at home against Peoria: The Wings then lost 6-5 to Milwaukee at home and 8-6 in Peoria.MUSKEGON&mdash;The Mohawks split a pair of home games and dropped two on the road as they failed to improve their last-place position. The lone victory was encouraging as they beat Milwaukee 6-2. In other games, Muskegon lost 8-5 to Peoria at home, 6-4 at Peoria and 8-3 in Milwaukee. &#9632;

Ads, Komets, Diggers Top All-Stars

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;No sooner had the Christmas holidays ended than the ECAC Division One playoff rush began in earnest. Eleven league games, interspersed with eight post-Christmas tournaments involving Eastern teams, got the New Year off with a bang. The bunched pack is slowly starting to separate, although it&rsquo;s still a long way to go before talking playoff shoo-ins and also-rans.New Hampshire is still unbeaten in league play, but that&rsquo;s probably because the Wildcats haven&rsquo;t played a league game since Dec. 4. Their ECAC slate reads 3-0 versus an overall mark of 7-61. UNH took the Auld Lang Syne tournament at Dartmouth with wins of 4-1 over Vermont and 5-4 over Maine. Center Ralph Robinson, UNH&rsquo;s best player to date, damaged his knee in the final of that tourney and is out for at least a month.The big newsmakers in ECAC play during the stretch were RPI, Clarkson, Boston College, Boston University and Cornell. All four teams solidified their current positions near the top of their respective Eastern subdivisions. In nonconference play, Colgate won the three overtime games in which it played and took championships in the Syracuse Invitational and the Phoenix Mutual tournaments.RPI threw 50 shots at Dartmouth goalie Jeff Bower and skated away from Hanover with a 9-1 decision. John Carter, who was chosen most valuable player of the RPI Invitational tourney the previous week, scored three times while Marty Dallman and Eric Magnuson each had a pair of goals.The Greenies got off to the worst start ever, losing eight straight contests before topping Maine 5-2 in a league game. Five different Greenies scored in the win, helping the team avoid tying the longest losing streak ever by a Dartmouth club. The string had been 10 defeats, dating back to last season.RPI built its season record to 15-2 overall with tourney wins of 5-4 over Yale and 6-4 over Lowell, then with a 12-3 crunching of Lowell in Billerica. Carter had a hat trick against Yale, three assists in the first Lowell game and three goals and three assists in the second Lowell tilt.Colgate&rsquo;s Jim Wallace is bidding to displace Mel (Sudden Death) Hill in hockey lore. Wallace had Colgate&rsquo;s game-winning tally in an 8-7 overtime victory over Vermont in Burlington a few days before Christmas. At Syracuse, the Raiders trailed Princeton 6-1 in the second period, but in a virtual carbon copy of their UVM win, they rallied for a 7-6 overtime win with Wallace getting the winner.In the final of the Syracuse affair against a North Dakota team that had beaten St. Lawrence 5-2, Colgate came from behind in the second period with Wallace and Mike Walsh scoring. After the Sioux tied the game, Wallace decided to avoid overtime by scoring the game winner with 1:44 to play.At Hartford, Colgate easily disposed of Toronto 7-2 in the first round, then once again defeated Vermont in overtime by a score of 5-4.Boston College took three games in Duluth to win the Jeno&rsquo;s tournament&mdash;9-6 over Ferris State and 6-4 over Lake Superior and Minnesota-Duluth. The tournament MVP, oddly, was Ferris&rsquo; Paul Couture even though Ferris lost twice and tied once for a fourth-place finish.The Eagles returned East briefly to down Harvard 3-1 in Cambridge. Neil Shea had the game winner with 38 seconds to play when he tucked a loose puck by Grant Blair after Blair had made a breakaway save.Bowling Green came East to win the Key Bank tourney in Lake Placid, downing Cornell 6-4 and Clarkson 2-0, the first time in four years that Clarkson has been blanked. Cornell lost junior center Gary Cullen for at least three weeks with a knee injury in the toumey, but they returned to Ithaca to fashion a pair of wins and raise their ECAC record to 5-3 without him.Against Princeton, goals by Pete Nayshak and Dave Hunter in the first two minutes of play set the tone. Geoff Der-vin had a pair of scores on the night as the Red took a 6-4 decision. Then Cornell upset Providence 6-5 as freshmen Mark Major and Peter Marcov teamed up for a shorthanded tally with 9:05 to play, making the score 6-4.Cornell thus became the only Ivy Division team to bring a winning league record into the second week of January.Harvard dropped a pair of games in the rugged North Country, extending its loss streak to seven games. At St. Lawrence, the Larries held a 3-1 led late in the game and appeared to be coasting when Rob Wheeler and Pete Chiarelli scored within a 20-second span for Harvard with less than three minutes to play. Scott Nickerson beat Grant Blair for the game winner at 1:17 of overtime.The next night, Clarkson held the Crimson to 16 shots on goal and took a 4-1 win. Gord Sharpe and Al Hill each scored twice for the Knights, who were improving their league slate to 5-3. Earlier in the week, Clarkson coach Bill O&rsquo; Flaherty gained his 100th career win in Princeton as his team prevailed 5-2. &#9632;

EC AC Playoff Pack Begins To Separate

<h2>Player of the week</h2>Since the RPI Engineers won their own holiday tournament, it was only fitting that a RPI player win the most-valuable-player award. Engineer right winger John Carter, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound right winger from Woburn, MA, picked up eight goals and eight assists in four games to earn that honor as well as HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; college player of the week.The sophomore had two goals in a 5-4 over Yale; three goals and three assists in a 12-3 win over Lowell; three goals and two assists in a 9-1 rout of Dartmouth and three assists in the championship final, a 6-4 win over Lowell.Carter tried out for the U.S. Olympic team this past summer and made the final 40 before being released.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01707/6649273-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="570" height="666"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN CARTER RPI</figcaption></div>At the end of the season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Bauer College Player of the Year. &#9632;

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Bauer

<h2>CCHA CONFERENCE (Standings on Fri. Jan. 13)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01773/6649395-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="550" height="349"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Bowling Green 8, W. Michigan 3Bowling Green 5, W. Michigan 2Denver 9, Ill-Chicago 7Denver 7, Ill-Chicago 3Miami 3, Minnesota 3Minnesota 8, Miami 2Wisconsin 2, N. Michigan 1Wisconsin 5, N. Michigan 4Miami 6, Minn-Duluth 2Bowling Green 8, Michigan 2Michigan 6, Bowling Green 5Ferris State 4, W. Michigan 4Ferris State 7, W. Michigan 3Ill-Chicago 6, Mich Tech 1Mich Tech 6, Ill-Chicago 4Mich State 9, Miami 1Mich State 9, Miami 3Ohio State 8, Lake Superior 2Ohio State 5, Lake Superior 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02569/6649388-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="554" height="350"></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE (Standings on Fri. Feb. 13)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03459/6649381-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="548" height="202"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Minnesota 8, U.S. Inti 3Minnesota 4, U.S. Inti 2Colorado College 6, Wisconsin 5Colorado College 4, Wisconsin 3Wisconsin 4, U.S. Inti 2Wisconsin 9, U.S. Inti 4Denver 9, Ill-Chicago 7Denver 7, Ill-Chicago 3Minnesota 3, Miami 3Minnesota 8, Miami 2Colorado College 9, U.S. Inti 2Team USA 9, Minnesota 2Wisconsin 2, N. Michigan 1Wisconsin 5, N. Michigan 4Min-Duluth 7, Minnesota 2Min-Duluth 5, Minnesota 4Denver 5, U.S. Inti 2Denver 7, U.S. Inti 2Team USA 4, Wisconsin 1Wisconsin 4, Team USA 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04359/6649374-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="539" height="149"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05273/6649367-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="543" height="90"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE (Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06230/6649360-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="546" height="203"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07210/6649353-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="548" height="178"></div><h3>IVY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08178/6649346-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="545" height="203"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Boston College 5, Maine 4Vermont 7, Brown 2Harvard 4, Northeastern 2Boston University 7, Yale 3Providence 7, Princeton 4St. Lawrence 7, Cornell 4Northeastern 9, Boston College 4Colgate 7, Brown 2RPI 5, Clarkson 2Cornell 6, Harvard 5Princeton 9, Yale 2Boston University 3, Maine 2Providence 2, Boston College 1Cornell 6, Princeton 4Maine 5, Harvard 4Boston College 6, Princeton 5Providence 5, Yale 1Boston Univ. 6, No. Arizona 5Colgate 7, Union 4Cornell 6, Princeton 4Dartmouth 5, Maine 2Boston Coll. 3, Harvard 1RPI 12, Lowell 3St. Lawrence 7, Vermont 1Mo. Arizona 6, New Hampshire 4Clarkson, Princeton 2Lowell 4, No. Arizona 3St. Lawrence 4, Harvard 3Clarkson 4, Harvard 1Cornell 6, Providence 5RPI 9, Dartmouth 2Boston Univ. 5, Princeton 2<h3>TOURNAMENT RESULTS</h3>JENO&rsquo;S HOLIDAY CLASSICLake Superior 4, Min-Duluth 3Boston College 9, Ferris State 6Boston College 6, Lake Superior 4Min-Duluth 7, Ferris State 2Lake Superior 5, Ferris State 5Boston College 6, Min-Duluth 4(Boston College won tournament)<h3>GREAT LAKES INVITATIONAL</h3>Mich State 5, N. Michigan 1Mich Tech 5, Michigan 4ConsolationN. Michigan 5, Michigan 3ChampionshipMich State 6, Mich Tech 2(Mich State wins tournament)<h3>FIRST INTER-STATE CLASSIC</h3>Northeastern 5, UBC 2North Dakota 4, Boston College 3Anchorage-Alaska 8, Colo. College 3Dalhousie 13, Japan Selects 1Boston College 4, UBC 3Colo. College 10, Japan Selects 2UBC 6, Japan Selects 2Boston College 4, Colo. College 3Dalhousie 7, Northeastern 4Semi-finalsNorth Dakota 8, Northeastern 5Anchorage-Alaska 5, Dalhousie 2<h3>Finals</h3>North Dakota 3, Anchorage-Alaska 2(North Dakota wins tournament)<h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE (Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-09162/6649339-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="552" height="409"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Toronto 3, Laurentian 3Ryerson 6, McMaster 4Windsor 12, RMC 5Western 9, Laurentian 6Brock 12, Ryerson 2Laurentian 6, Western 2RMC 5, Windsor 3<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-10144/6649332-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="546" height="181"></div><h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-11133/6649325-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="547" height="292"></div><h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-12124/6649318-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="550" height="148"></div><h2>GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-13114/6649311-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="548" height="177"></div><h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES (Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-14105/6649304-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="555" height="230"></div> &#9632;

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HOW THEY STAND

<h2>ECAC</h2><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1599/6649468-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg" title="f0038-15" width="584" height="1156"></div><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1692/6649461-1-eng-US/f0038-162.jpg" title="f0038-16" width="590" height="930"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1784/6649454-1-eng-US/f0038-172.jpg" title="f0038-17" width="586" height="104"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1878/6649447-1-eng-US/f0038-182.jpg" title="f0038-18" width="574" height="650"></div><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1973/6649440-1-eng-US/f0038-192.jpg" title="f0038-19" width="558" height="716"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2064/6649433-1-eng-US/f0038-202.jpg" title="f0038-20" width="558" height="358"></div><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2158/6649426-1-eng-US/f0038-212.jpg" title="f0038-21" width="562" height="572"></div> &#9632;

f0038-15

GAMES TO COME

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>ANN ARBOR&mdash;Michigan junior goalie Mark Chiamp made 46 saves and senior co-captain Jim McCauley scored at 5:18 of overtime to provide the Wolverines with a 6-5 upset win over top-ranked Bowling Green to highlight Central Collegiate Hockey Association play.Bowling Green took the opener of the series 8-2 to extend its winning streak to 17 games. Dan Kane, John Samanski and Mike Pikul all scored two goals apiece for the Falcons in the opener as Bowling Green held an 8-0 lead before Michigan freshman Bruce Macnab scored at 13:51 of the third period to spoil the bid for back-to-back shutouts by freshman netminder Gary Kruzich.Kruzich blanked Clarkson 2-0 in the championship game of the Lake Placid Tournament prior to the Michigan series. Eddie Powers replaced Kruzich following Macnab&rsquo;s goal and Michigan&rsquo;s Ray Dries scored a goal on the lone Wolverines&rsquo; shot the rest of the game.Samanski scored two goals in the second game for a four-goal weekend as BG grabbed the lead three times in the second game and never trailed in the series until McCauley&rsquo;s winning goal in overtime.BG used a pair of quick goals to take two-goal leads twice in the game with Dave Ellett and Nick Bandescu scoring just 15 seconds apart for a 3-1 lead in the second period, while George Roll and Samanski scored goals just eight seconds apart to snap a 3-3 tie.Michigan bounced back with goals from Macnab and Pat Goff to send the game into overtime with junior Paul Kobylarz assisting on both goals. Dries set up McCauley&rsquo;s winner.In other CCHA play. Ohio State and Michigan State each gained a series sweep to gain ground on Bowling Green.Ohio State swept two games at Lake Superior, 8-2 and 5-4, behind the play of senior center Paul Pooley. Pooley, the leading scorer in the nation with 62 points in 22 games, earned CCHA player of the week honors for the third time this season as he scored four goals and added four assists to account for eight of OSU&rsquo;s 13 goals in the series. A top candidate for Hobey Baker Award honors as the top collegiate player in the country, Pooley is Ohio State&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer with 236 points.Michigan State blasted Miami 9-1 and 9-4 as the Spartans unloaded for 18 goals, the most for MSU in a series since the 1972-73 season. Michigan State coach Ron Mason collected his 100th win as Spartan coach during the series as MSU has a five-game winning streak that includes winning the 19th annual Great Lakes Invitational tournament in Detroit.Ferris State collected a tie and a win in a home-and-home series with Western Michigan. The opener in Kalamazoo ended in a 4-4 tie with the host Bulldogs collecting a 7-4 win in Big Rapids in the rematch.Illinois-Chicago snapped its 14-game losing streak with a 6-1 victory in the series opener at Michigan Tech and the Huskies gained a split winning the second game 6-4.Earlier in the week. Northern Michigan dropped a pair of games at Wisconsin (2-1 and 5-4 in overtime) in non-league action, while Miami beat Michigan-Dearborn 6-2.Ohio State skated to a 6-1 lead in the opener at Lake Superior and Pooley closed out the scoring with a shorthanded goal and a power-play marker in the third period for his hat trick. In the second game, the host Lakers led 3-1. but Pooley&rsquo;s power-play tally at 4:53 started the OSU attack and Andy Browne scored the winner at 19:42 of the third period to snap a 4-4 tie.Michigan State used solid goaltending from freshmen Bob Essensa and Norm Foster to sweep the series from Miami and it was offense three goals supplied from freshmen Jeff Parker and four assists by Mitch Messier that sparked the scoring. Freshman defenseman Don McSween had two goals and three assists in the series for MSU.Ferris State freshman Paul Lowden scored four goals, two each night, to pace the Bulldogs against Western Michigan. He scored twice in the second period of the opener in Kalamazoo and Paul Couture scored the only goal of the third period to give FSC the tie as Norm Young made 36 saves the WMU&rsquo;s Glenn Healy made 32 saves.Tony Byers scored the winner for FSC in the second game, while Troy Thrun and Dan Dorion each scored a goal in both games for the Broncos.Illinois-Chicago scored two goals in each period of the opener at Michigan Tech with Mike Rucinski pacing the Flames with three assists and goalie John Whelan making 31 saves.The Huskies gained the split on the strength of a four-goal first period in the rematch with freshman Don Porter scoring his first two goals of the season. Senior captain Bill Terry scored the winner at 1:52 of the second period.CCHA NOTES&mdash;Michigan State defenseman Dan McFall earned most valuable player honors in the Great Lakes Invitational in Detroit, while Bowling Green&rsquo;s Dan Kane took MVP honors at the Lake Placid Tournament and Ferris State&rsquo;s Paul Couture earned similar honors at the Holiday Classic in Duluth, MN. &#9632;

Wolverines, Falcons Split CCHA Series

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Marco Baron, G, recalled from Moncton of AHL and traded to Los Angeles for Bob Laforest, RW. Bruins sent Laforest to Hershey of AHL. Luc Dufour, LW, recalled from Hershey. Mike Krushelnyski, LW, sidelined for 6 weeks with shoulder separation. Keith Crowder, RW, out of action for 6 weeks with sprained knee. Steve Kasper, C, expected to return to lineup, now out indefinitely following shoulder surgery. Doug Keans, G, back from injury list. Mike Moffat, G, returned to Hershey. Lyndon Byers, RW, recalled from Regina of WHL.BUFFALO&mdash;Jim Wiemer, D, back from injury list. Adam Creighton, C, returned to Ottawa of OHL.CALGARY&mdash;Rejean Lemelin, G, out indefinitely with groin pull. Mike Vernon, G, recalled from Colorado as replacement. Keith Hanson, D, assigned to Colorado. Jeff Lastiwka, G, recalled from Peoria of IHL and sent to Colorado as Vernon&rsquo;s replacement.CHICAGO&mdash;Don Dietrich, D, Perry Pelensky, RW, and Tom McMurchy, LW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Darryl Sutter, LW, sidelined indefinitely with broken cheekbone and eye injury sustained when he was hit in the face by a puck. Jack O&rsquo;Callahan, D, out with 8-game suspension imposed by the NHL. Behn Wilson, D, and Randy Boyd, D, both on injury list.DETROIT&mdash;Barry Melrose, D, assigned to Adirondack of AHL. Kelly Kisio, C, back from injury list. Corrado Micalef, G, recalled from Adirondack of AHL.EDMONTON&mdash;Dean Clark, D, recalled from Kamloops of WHL. Steve Graves, C, recalled from S.S. Marie of OHL. Ray Cote, C, and Tom Gorence, RW, both recalled from Moncton of AHL. Jari Kurri, RW, sidelined for 10 days with groin pull. Dave Semenko, LW, out indefinitely with knee injury.HARTFORD&mdash;Reid Bailey, D, and Dan Bour-bonnais, LW, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Paul Lawless, RW, returned to Windsor of OHL. Gerry McDonald, D, returned to Binghamton and Marty Howe, D, returned from injury list.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Gary Laskoski, G, assigned to New Haven of AHL. Paul Lohnes, D, and Craig Hurley, D, both released outright.MINNESOTA&mdash;Don Beaupre, G, sent to Salt Lake of CHL. Jim Craig, G, recalled from Salt Lake as replacement. Tom McCarthy, RW, back from injury list. Craig Hartsburg, D, out for rest of season after knee surgery.MONTREAL&mdash;Alfie Turcotte, C, recalled from Portland of WHL.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Mike Antonovich, C, back from injury list.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Paul Boutilier, D, returned to Indianapolis of CHL. John Tonelli, LW, sidelined for two weeks with knee injury.NY RANGERS&mdash;Willie Huber, D, out of action for 6 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Chris Kontos, C, reinstated after being suspended since October for failing to report to Tulsa of CHL. Kontos has now joined Tulsa. Pierre Larouche, C, out indefinitely with a knee injury.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Michel Larocque, G, sold to St. Louis for undisclosed amount of cash. Ross Fitzpatrick, LW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Dave Poulin, C, back from injury list. Mark Howe, D, sidelined indefinitely with shoulder injury. Miro Dvorak, D, out indefinitely with pulled rib muscles.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Ron Flockhart, C, back in lineup after missing two weeks of play with skin rash. Rocky Saganiuk, C, and Troy Loney, LW, returned to Baltimore of AHL. Steve Carlson, C, signed as free agent and sent to Baltimore.QUEBEC&mdash;Tony McKegney, LW, sidelined indefinitely with knee injury. Jean-Marc Gaulin, RW, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. J.F. Sauve, C, assigned to Fredericton.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Rik Wilson, D, and Alain Lemieux, C, sent to Montana of CHL.TORONTO&mdash;Alan Bester, G, recalled from Brantford of OHL as standby for Mike Pal-mateer, G, who is ailing with pneumonia. Ken Wregget, G, returned to Lethbridge of WHL. Bruce Dowie, G, recalled from Muskegon of IHL and later returned. Jim Korn, D, out with broken hand. John Anderson, LW, sidelined with injured arm. Gary Leeman, D, out with broken finger. Miroslav Frycer, RW, back from injury list. Frank Nigro, RW, demoted to St. Catharines.VANCOUVER&mdash;Mark Kirton, C, and Grant Martin, LW, sent to Fredericton of AHL. Lars Molin, RW, back from injury list.WASHINGTON&mdash;Darren Veitch, D, recalled from Hershey of AHL. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01738/6649554-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="341" height="442"></div><h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2>FREE. OUR ALL new 1984 collector&rsquo;s cata&not;log. Baseball & hockey sets, souvenirs & collectibles. Send your name & address (print clearly) to: Phil&rsquo;s Sports Collections, P.O. Box 27, Cheltenham, PA, 19012.WHA-NNl-ANMHL-MINOR HOCKBY65 page priceHst of pnotos media guides, cards, yearbooks, programs, pennants, pucks.. game used jerseys, equipment and much more Send cheque or m/o for $5 50 with this ad to:CANADA U.S., SPORTS RNTIRPRISIS99 utherine Rd. Downsview. Ont Canada MSK 1J5* Free gift valued at $5 00 with this adAHL HOCKEY CARDS: Springfield Indians, 25-card set, $3.50 ppd. Card Collectors Closet, Box 983, Springfield, MA, 01101.<h3>DEFUNCT SPORTS PRICELISTS</h3>35 pages of media guides, yearbooks photos, programs, pennants decals, cards game jerseys ano more includes WHA (World Hockey Association), WFL (world FootoaH League), ABA (American Basketoail). Ni (National lacrosse) and more Send cheque or m/o for $4.99 to: EMPIRE SPORTS. 1947 Avenue Road.Suit. 201. Toronto. Ont M5M *A2 NCCA Oonlo-4 Free flit. end $2 SO credit on first order<h2>FILMS/PICTURES</h2>THE GREAT GRETZKY by LeRoy Neiman Limited edition. Serigraph $6,300 or best offer Call (519) 735-4811.<h2>AUDIO</h2>USA DEFEATS RUSSIA Previously unre leased play-by-play oi greatest Olympic thrill ever. Entire game 60-minute audio cassettes. $16 99 + $1.00 handling each. Order now. Olympic Gold, 186 E. 75th St., New York, NY 10021.<h2>NOVELTIES</h2>ENAMEL TRADING PINS-Baseball caps, banners, buttons, and many other products customized for teams-tournaments, momentos, etc. Catalogue available. Promotional Marketing Services, Box 1124, Fort Erie, Ontario, L2A 5N9. In USA, 81 Mill St., Buffalo, NY 14221.<h2>PUBLICATIONS</h2>COLLEGE HOCKEY REPORT: Comprehen&not;sive NCAA coverage. One year $22 95 (U.S.) Send check, name, address, to: P.O. Box 115-Z, LeRoy, NY, 14482.<h2>BOOKS</h2>GOALTENDING BY PROGRESSIONS as taught by Canadian Professional Hockey Schools. Send $5.00to Box 487, Winnipeg, Man, R3C 2J3.<h2>TOURNAMENTS</h2>JOIN US FOR for our 8th annual Santa Bar&not;bara Memorial Day senior hockey tourna&not;ment. For information contact: Fank Schepper, P.O. Box 246, Santa Barbara, CA. 93102.ELKS CENTRAL CANADA 20th annual pee wee hockey tournament. Feb. 23 to Feb. 26, 1984. A&rsquo; Event-Major Pee Wee AA teams &lsquo;B&rsquo; Event-Pee Wee A&rsquo; teams. &lsquo;C&rsquo; Event-Minor Pee Wee teams. Write: Elks Hockey Tournament, P.O. Dox 366, Ttunder Bay, Ont. P7C 4V9. (807) 623-3200.<h2>MERCHANDISEKEEP HOLD OF The Gold shirts $8.00</h2>Sarajevo souvenirs. Slapshot Sports 205 N. Hamilton, Saginaw, Ml, 46602 517) 790-5794.<h3>SPORTS JERSEYS UNLIMITED</h3>Complete 16 paoe pricelist of name worn jerseys LeaQues include Baseoan. CFl-Nfl-WFl-NHl-WHANASL-NBA and more. Over 1500 satisfied customers for complete list send cheque or m/o for $5.00 pava&le to.fMPlRt SPORTS 1M7 A.wuaSult* 201. Toronto Ont M5M 4A2 MCCA Dealer* Free g4t aoc $2 50 credit on first order<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02499/6649547-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="1842" height="1128"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

The Classified

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03203/6649637-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="512" height="520"><figcaption class="caption-body">PETER ZEZEL Toronto</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The Toronto Marlboros have risen to the top of the Ontario Hockey League this season and much of the credit is due to new found production from players such as Peter Zezel.The 18-year-old draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1983 has already collected 75 scoring points this season. Last year it took him 66 games to reach his 1983-84 output. Zezel tallied five goals and nine assists for 14 points in three games to win the nod as the OHL player of the week.Zezel leads the Marlboros with 34 goals and ranks in the top three league scorers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04162/6649630-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="402" height="516"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROCKY TROTTIER Medicine Hat</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>Following in the footsteps of a famous hockey brother isn&rsquo;t an easy task but Rocky Trottier of Medicine Hat is handling it nicely.Drafted by the New Jersey Devils in 1982, Trottier returned to the Western Hockey League this season to gain the experience he needs to compete against his brilliant brother, Bryan, the No. 1 center of the New York Islanders. Rocky was selected as the WHL player of the week after garnering 12 points in five games as the Tigers went on a rampage and won four of the games.Trottier has 33 scoring points despite missing six games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05139/6649623-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="522" height="520"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE PEPIN Drummondville</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Steve Pepin was among the Quebec Major Hockey League&rsquo;s leading 25 scorers last season and there are indications he&rsquo;ll be there again this year, possibly higher.Pepin scored four goals for Drummondville despite losing 8-6 to Laval, but that league-leading single performance won him the QHL&rsquo;s player of the week honor.The 18-year-old center, who was drafted by Chicago in 1983, hopes to make it to the NHL like his father, Bobby Pepin, who played briefly for the Montreal Canadiens. A sharpshooter like his dad, Steve has 30 goals. &#9632;

f0040-03

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01364/6649668-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="278" height="204"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;They&rsquo;ve been called Warriors, Monarchs, Clubs and Jets. At the end of this Western Hockey League season they&rsquo;ll be called defunct&mdash;again.Winnipeg Warriors, struggling both at the gate and in the standings, have become the league&rsquo;s latest casualty. Last season it was the Nanaimo Islanders who moved to New Westminster to resurface as the Bruins. Next season the Warrriors will call Moose Jaw, Sask., their new home.Announcement of the franchise switch at a Dec. 21 press conference came as a surprise to some but not those close to the Warriors.Winnipeg averaged 1,878 fans for its first 16 home games, down from an average of 2,806 last season, but that wasn&rsquo;t the only factor. There are other struggling WHL franchises who can&rsquo;t even match the 1,878 average this season&mdash;and they aren&rsquo;t moving.At the time of the press conference, the Warriors were last in the eight-team Eastern Division with a 7-24 record. Add competition for the hockey dollar from the National Hockey League Jets and it&rsquo;s easy to see why general manager Tom Thompson saw the writing on the wall.&ldquo;In Winnipeg the Jets and Blue Bombers are suffering, too, it&rsquo;s a tough town for spectator sports,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t speak for other teams in the league but certainly our travelling expenses and arena rent far exceed any other team.&rdquo;The Warriors have yet to make a cent in Winnipeg. The prospect of dwindling crowds and mounting expenses made finding a way out the logical move.A 25-man Moose Jaw consortium, named Moose Jaw Tier One Inc., and headed by hotel owner Lome Humphries, will operate the franchise. Plans call for the club to play out of the city&rsquo;s 2,700-seat arena in the Saskatchewan city, located 64 kilometers west of Regina.&ldquo;With the state of the ownership here there was no problem in completing the season in Winnipeg,&rdquo; said Thompson.&ldquo;What happened was the Moose Jaw group was interested in acquiring a franchise and had applied last year and the year before that. In November, when it came to a head at a league meeting that there wouldn&rsquo;t be any expansion, the Moose Jaw group made advances to purchase the club.&ldquo;The feeling was the opportunity was there even though it (December) wasn&rsquo;t the best time to make the move.&rdquo;Apart from lower operating costs, Humphries said an important fact to consider is Moose Jaw&rsquo;s craving for a better hockey product.&ldquo;We feel Moose Jaw hasn&rsquo;t had a good model for its citizens&mdash;a team to shout about,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We feel the community has rejected what has taken place in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (tier two) and questions where it&rsquo;s going in the next five or six years.&rdquo;Projected operating costs in Moose Jaw will be $450,000, a lot less than they would have been in Winnipeg.&ldquo;In Moose Jaw, with the decrease in travel and other factors, you can save at least $100,000 a season,&rdquo; said Thompson. &ldquo;What it works out to is you can draw 600 people less a game there than in Winnipeg to make ends meet.&rdquo;The Warriors returned to the WHL in the 1981-82 season after a four-year absence. The franchise was known as the Junior Jets when it entered the league in 1967. The club&rsquo;s name was changed to Clubs and then Monarchs until the 197677 season.Success stories are few and far between in Winnipeg. Getting above the. 500 mark has always been a big hurdle for various franchises which have ended up in the Manitoba city.The best effort was last season when the veteran-laden Warriors got off to a fast start and placed fourth with a 42-30 mark after spending much of the season in second place.However, the first round of postseason play signalled trouble ahead for Winnipeg. The club was defeated in three straight games by the Lethbridge Broncos in a best-of-five matchup. Things haven&rsquo;t been the same since.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gone from the oldest to the youngest club in the league,&rdquo; said Thompson. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t like to cry but we&rsquo;ve already missed more total games than all last year through injuries.&rdquo;WHL WEEK&mdash;With five WHL players involved with the Canadian and American national junior teams at the world championships in Sweden, the race for scoring supremacy tightened as regular-season play entered the new year.Canadian team members Dan Hodgson of Prince Albert, Dale Derkatch of Regina, Kamloops&rsquo; Dean Evason and Victoria&rsquo;s Russ Courtnall lost some ground. Alfie Turcotte, of the Memorial Cup champion Portland Winter Hawks, also lost some ground, as he was a member of the United States national team.As of Jan. 2, Hodgson led the way with 99 points while Brandon&rsquo;s Ray Ferraro had 95, including a league-leading 57 goals. Taylor Hall of Regina had 84 points while Derkatch had 74 and Evason 71. Ken Quinney of Calgary was in sixth spot with 66 points while Cam Plante of Brandon had 65, Courtnall 64, and both Turcotte and Dave Pasin of Prince Albert 63 points.Dino Vulpitta of Seattle and Troy Vollhoffer of Winnipeg were handed two and one-game suspensions, respectively. Vulpitta got his for gouging while Vollhoffer&rsquo;s was assessed for hair pulling. &#9632;

f0041-01

Warriors To Shuffle Off To Saskatchewan

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>MONTREAL&mdash;The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League&rsquo;s all-star game didn&rsquo;t turn into the Mario Lemieux Show, as might have been expected.Lemieux let some of his Laval Voisins&rsquo; teammates dominate play as the Robert LeBel Division, coached by Longueuil Chevaliers&rsquo; Mario Bazinet, swamped the Frank Dilio Division, directed by Quebec Remparts&rsquo; Guy Charron 9-3 at the Forum.A crowd of 4,366 braved bad weather and left the bowl games behind to take in the contest.Lemieux, the 6-foot-3, 191-pound center touted as a top candidate to go first in June&rsquo;s National Hockey League entry draft, is on the verge of crashing through his first QMJHL scoring barrier.He has scored 75 goals and 87 assists for 162 points in 43 games, an average of almost four points a night, and has tied U.S. Olympian and former Verdun Juniors&rsquo; Pat Lafontaine&rsquo;s record point-scoring run set last season with at least an assist in all 43 games.However, Lemieux was held to one goal and one assist in the all-star contest after going to court to win the right to play in the showcase and two league matches.The Laval contingent accounted for five goals and three assists. Left winger Francois Sills, voted the game&rsquo;s most valuable player, struck twice and added one assist while center Michel Mongeau had a goal and an assist and right winger Jacques Goyette contributed a goal.&ldquo;We were pleased with the result of the court judgment, I can&rsquo;t wait to read it,&rdquo; said Laval owner Claude Foumel, referring to a recent decision by Quebec Superior Court Judge Frazer Martin to grant Lemieux a permanent injunction against a league suspension for not reporting to the junior national team.&ldquo;He scored four points in each of those games and now he can concentrate on the rest of the season.&rdquo;One scout who doesn&rsquo;t figure the controversy hurt Lemieux&rsquo;s chances in the draft is former NHL goaltending great Gump Worsley.&ldquo;Why should they (QMJHL) be able to dictate to him?&rdquo; said Worsley, now scouting for the Minnesota North Stars. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s under contract to play for Laval and if he doesn&rsquo;t want to play for the national team, that&rsquo;s his business.&rdquo;&ldquo;You have to respect his side of it, too,&rdquo; said Boston Bruins&rsquo; scout Jim Morrison, former general manager-coach of the Ontario Hockey League&rsquo;s Kingston Canadians for eight years. &ldquo;He has a chance to break these records and if he does, his may stand forever.&rdquo;Worsley did question the composition of the all-star squads.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to know who picked the all-star teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They should show off more of the players who haven&rsquo;t already been drafted.&ldquo;If some of these kids are all-stars, I can play again.&rdquo;Hull Olympiques&rsquo; goaltender Stephane Fortin. 19, was selected the best of the four netminders in the contest. The 5-foot-8, 158-pounder came in midway through the game with the score 5-1 and was outstanding for the winners, giving up his second goal with 45 seconds remaining.He took over from St. Jean Beavers&rsquo; Michel Campeau and they faced 29 shots while Quebec Remparts&rsquo; Luc Guenette and Trois-Rivieres Draveurs&rsquo; Alain Raymond had 41 shots directed at them.Luc Robitaille, the Olympiques&rsquo; No. 1 draft pick, scored one for the victors while Robert Lebrun (St. Jean), Claude Lemieux (Verdun) and Francis Lapointe (Granby) completed their scoring.Sergio Momesso (Shawinigan), Michel Couvrette (Drum-mondville) and Claude Lefebvre (Quebec) replied for the Dilio Division, which trailed 2-1 and 6-2 at the period breaks.NHL scouts, coaches and general managers abounded at the contest, as usual, and there was no clear consensus on how the draft may go.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a situation where Dale Hawerchuk is No. 1, who&rsquo;s No. 2?&rdquo; said Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; scout Tom Savage. &ldquo;Kirk Muller (OHL&rsquo;s Guelph Platers) may be a bit better skater, but Mario Lemieux is a better scorer.&rdquo;&ldquo;Lemieux can&rsquo;t get off the mark in a hurry,&rdquo; Worsley said. &ldquo;But he can pass and he can shoot and he puts them in every building, like Lafontaine did last year.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to have to learn how to take a hit without retaliating, though. That&rsquo;s been getting him into trouble lately.&rdquo;Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; general manager-coach Scotty Bowman said: &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t overly impressed with anybody in particular.&rdquo; &#9632;

Quebec League Classic Showcases Laval Players

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01373/6649744-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div><h2>GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01390/6649737-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="584" height="2385"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS GOALS AGAINST AVERAGE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02273/6649730-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="554" height="244"></div><h2>MOST WINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03227/6649723-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="536" height="236"></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04152/6649775-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0043-04

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1233/6650281-1-eng-US/f0044-122.jpg" title="f0044-12" width="542" height="374"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1331/6650274-1-eng-US/f0044-132.jpg" title="f0044-13" width="542" height="351"></div> &#9632;

f0044-12

Top Rookies In The NHL

BOSTON&mdash;Reid 1, Gillis 2, 3, Dufour 4, Pederson 18, O&rsquo;Connell 8, 9, Fergus 18, 19, McNab 11, Middleton 24, Bourque 13. Winning goals-Dufour, Fergus.BUFFALO&mdash;McKenna 10, 11, Cloutier 15, 16,17, Perreault 19, 20, 21, Seiling 9, Housley 15, 16, 17, Foligno 14, 15, Wiemer 5, Andreychuk 16, Peterson 7. Winning goals-Housley, Andreychuk, Perreault.CALGARY&mdash;Jackson 3, Peplinski 6, McDonald 17, 18, Quinn 4, Maclnnis 2, 3, Beers 20, 21, Tambellini 4, Nilsson 16, Baxter 4. Winning goals-Beers.CHICAGO&mdash;Gardner 10, Savard 23, 24, Preston 6, 7, Larmer 20,21,22,23, Ludzik 6,7, Cyr 7, 8, B. Murray 6, McMurchy 1. Winning goals-Savard, Cyr.DETROIT&mdash;Duguay 15, Boldirev 13, 14, 15, Ogrodnick 27, 28, 29, Kisio 11, Paterson 2, Lambert 6, 7, Ladouceur 2. Winning goals-Boldirev.EDMONTON&mdash;Hunter 13, 14, Gregg 9, 10, Gretzky 43.44, 45,46,47,48,49,50, Linseman 11, Messier 14, 15, Coffey 19, 20, 21, Hughes 2, Kurri 35,36,37,38, Anderson 25, Lindstrom 13, Pouzar 9. Winning goals-Messier, Lindstrom, Gretzky.HARTFORD&mdash;Turgeon 19, 20, Crawford 15, 16, Francis 10, Robertson 2, Stoughton 20, Quenneville 2, 3, Malone 9, Sulliman 2. Winning goals-Robertson.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Jarvis 8, Simmer 25, 26, MacLellan 18, Hakansson 7, 8, Dionne 23, 24, 25,26, Smith 8, Hardy 3, Nicholls 24. Winning goals-Hakansson.MINNESOTA&mdash;Napier 5,6, Ciccarelli 22,23, 24, 25, Roberts 3, Acton 9, 10, 11, 12, Maruk 10, Maxwell 12, Payne 11, Bellows 21, 22, Hartsburg 7, McCarthy 21,22, Ashton 6. Winning goals-Napier, Acton.MONTREAL&mdash;Chabot 6, Carbonneau 12, 13, 14, 15, Naslund 14, 15, Gainey 7, 8, Mon-dou 10, 11, Tremblay 9,10, Walter 14, Ludwig 3, Shutt 9, 10, Turnbull 15. Winning goals-Gainey, Shutt.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Meagher 8, 9, Bridgman 6, 7, Gagne 6, MacMillan 8,9,10,11, Cameron 7, Broten 10, Verbeek 10, Cirella 8. Winning goals-MacMillan, Verbeek.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Gilbert 12,13,14, Bourne 10, Bossy 31,32, Langevin 2, Morrow 3, Kallur 5, Carroll 1, B. Sutter 21, D. Sutter 10, Jonsson 6. Winning goals-Carroll.NY RANGERS&mdash;Larouche 27, Osborne 10, 11,12, Andersson 3,4, Ruotsalainen 9,10,11, Beck 7, Hedberg 17,18, Don Maloney 15. Winning goals-Don Maloney.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Propp 20, 21, 22, Sittier 10, 11, Fitzpatrick 1, Barber 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, Kerr 27, 28, 29, Sinisalo 15,16,17, Ron Sutter 12, Holmgren 7, Poulin 9, 10, 11, Cochrane 3. Winning goals-Kerr 2, Sinisalo 1.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Bullard 25, 26, Taylor 13, 14, Maxwell 2, 3, Brickley 8, 9, Shedden 5, O&rsquo;Regan 2. Winning goals-none.QUEBEC&mdash;Marois 3, Moller 2, 3, Goulet 27, 28, Hunter 18, 19, Cote 9, Price 2, M. Stastny 15,16,17, Savard 14,15, Berglund 10, Wesley 2, P. Stastny 20, 21, A. Stastny 19, Gillis 2, Paiement 23. Winning goals-Price, M. Stastny, P. Stastny.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Mullen 16, 17, Chouinard 8, Sutter 14,15,16,17, Federko 24,25, Schofield 4, Pettersson 13, 14, 15, Carlson 5. Winning goals-Sutter, Pettersson.TORONTO&mdash;Vaive 33, 34. Nigro 2, Derlago 16, Leeman 2, Frycer 8, Ihnacak 7, Benning 8. Winning goals-none.VANCOUVER&mdash;Petit 2, Gradin 6, Sund-strom 18, Neely 5, Belland 5, Schliebener 2, Lemay 2. Winning goals-Neely.WASHINGTON&mdash; Carpenter 11, 12, Laughlin 10, Murphy 8, Gartner 20, Gustafsson 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, Currie 7, Langway 4, Haworth 11, Christian 14, Jarvis 8. Winning goals-Gartner, Gustafsson.WINNIPEG&mdash;Mullen 13, 14, Arniel 13, 14, 15, McBain 6, Lukowich 14, 15, Young 7, 8, 9, MacLean 17, Hawerchuk 19, Babych 13. Winning goals-Babych.Five-goal games&mdash;Gustafsson (Was).Four-goal games&mdash;Gretzky (Edm).Hat tricks&mdash;Cloutier (Buf), Kurri (Edm), Barber (Pha), Gretzky (Edm), MacMillan (NJ), 1 each.Overtime winners&mdash;Ruotsalainen (NYR), Sinisalo (Pha), 1 each. &#9632;

NHL SCORERS THIS WEEK

<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1430/6650357-1-eng-US/f0044-142.jpg" title="f0044-14" width="539" height="170"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1530/6650350-1-eng-US/f0044-152.jpg" title="f0044-15" width="540" height="177"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1628/6650343-1-eng-US/f0044-162.jpg" title="f0044-16" width="536" height="174"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1727/6650336-1-eng-US/f0044-172.jpg" title="f0044-17" width="540" height="205"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 2Chicago 5 at Minnesota 6NY Rangers 2 at Washington 2 (OT)Tue. Jan. 3Edmonton 9 at Calgary 6Hartford 1 at Detroit 7Vancouver 4 at Los Angeles 3Boston 4 at NY Rangers 2Philadelphia 7 at Pittsburgh 5Montreal 5 at Quebec 9Toronto 3 at St. Louis 8Wed. Jan. 4Winnipeg 4 at Buffalo 9Toronto 1 at Chicago 5Minnesota 8 at Edmonton 12Vancouver 3 at Los Angeles 3 (OT)New Jersey 3 at NY Rangers 4 (OT)Thu. Jan. 5Quebec 8 at Boston 3Minnesota 4 at Calgary 5NY Islander 2 at Hartford 4Detroit 1 at Montreal 5Winnipeg 6 at Philadelphia 7 (OT)St. Louis 1 at Washington 5Fri. Jan. 6Pittsburgh 1 at New Jersey 3Sat. Jan. 7NY Rangers 2 at Boston 5Philadelphia 8 at Detroit 4Hartford 3 at Edmonton 5Calgary 1 at Los Angeles 5Vancouver 0 at Minnesota 2St. Louis 0 at Montreal 5Chicago 3 at NY Islanders 5New Jersey 7 at Pittsburgh 4Toronto 2 at Quebec 4Buffalo 4 at Washington 2Sun. Jan. 8Montreal 3 at Buffalo 4Vancouver 0 at Chicago 2NY Islanders 4 at NY Rangers 5Washington 7 at Philadelphia 1St. Louis 5 at Toronto 2Hartford 3 at Winnipeg 4 &#9632;

f0044-14

THE NHL SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1825/6650402-1-eng-US/f0044-182.jpg" title="f0044-18" width="542" height="673"></div><h2>POINTS RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1922/6650395-1-eng-US/f0044-192.jpg" title="f0044-19" width="551" height="638"></div><h2>WHAT THEY DID IN LAST 10 GAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-2020/6650388-1-eng-US/f0044-202.jpg" title="f0044-20" width="1103" height="178"></div> &#9632;

f0044-18

HOW NHL TEAMS RATE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02174/6650236-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="562" height="1137"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01294/6650243-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="197" height="191"></div><h2>Mon. Jan. 2 CHICAGO 5, MINNESOTA 6</h2><h2>RANGERS 2, WASHINGTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03121/6650229-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="570" height="439"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0490/6650222-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="585" height="383"></div><h2>EDMONTON 9, CALGARY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0576/6650215-1-eng-US/f0044-052.jpg" title="f0044-05" width="592" height="722"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0667/6650208-1-eng-US/f0044-062.jpg" title="f0044-06" width="601" height="439"></div><h2>HARTFORD 1, DETROIT 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0762/6650201-1-eng-US/f0044-072.jpg" title="f0044-07" width="595" height="699"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 4, LOS ANGELES 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0850/6650194-1-eng-US/f0044-082.jpg" title="f0044-08" width="586" height="758"></div><h2>BOSTON 4, ISLANDERS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0946/6650187-1-eng-US/f0044-092.jpg" title="f0044-09" width="589" height="725"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 7, PITTSBURGH 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1041/6650180-1-eng-US/f0044-102.jpg" title="f0044-10" width="582" height="1084"></div><h2>MONTREAL 5, QUEBEC 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1135/6650173-1-eng-US/f0044-112.jpg" title="f0044-11" width="585" height="1050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01239/6650166-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="534" height="267"></div><h2>TORONTO 3, ST. LOUIS 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02139/6650159-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="530" height="657"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-03100/6650152-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="567" height="91"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0476/6650145-1-eng-US/f0045-042.jpg" title="f0045-04" width="596" height="94"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0563/6650138-1-eng-US/f0045-052.jpg" title="f0045-05" width="596" height="93"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0656/6650131-1-eng-US/f0045-062.jpg" title="f0045-06" width="565" height="62"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1318/6650124-1-eng-US/f0046-132.jpg" title="f0046-13" width="560" height="182"></div><h2>Wed. Jan. 4 WINNIPEG 4, BUFFALO 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1416/6650117-1-eng-US/f0046-142.jpg" title="f0046-14" width="556" height="1022"></div><h2>TORONTO 1, CHICAGO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1516/6650110-1-eng-US/f0046-152.jpg" title="f0046-15" width="562" height="474"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1616/6650103-1-eng-US/f0046-162.jpg" title="f0046-16" width="598" height="234"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 8, EDMONTON 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1716/6650096-1-eng-US/f0046-172.jpg" title="f0046-17" width="588" height="1449"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 3, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1816/6650089-1-eng-US/f0046-182.jpg" title="f0046-18" width="590" height="88"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1916/6650082-1-eng-US/f0046-192.jpg" title="f0046-19" width="586" height="818"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 3, L. ANGELES 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-2015/6650075-1-eng-US/f0046-202.jpg" title="f0046-20" width="584" height="816"></div><h2>Thu. Jan. 5 QUEBEC 8, BOSTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-2113/6650068-1-eng-US/f0046-212.jpg" title="f0046-21" width="590" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-2211/6650061-1-eng-US/f0046-222.jpg" title="f0046-22" width="602" height="820"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 4, CALGARY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-2311/6650054-1-eng-US/f0046-232.jpg" title="f0046-23" width="588" height="818"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 2, HARTFORD 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-248/6650047-1-eng-US/f0046-242.jpg" title="f0046-24" width="586" height="122"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-257/6650040-1-eng-US/f0046-252.jpg" title="f0046-25" width="560" height="624"></div><h2>DETROIT 1, MONTREAL 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-267/6650033-1-eng-US/f0046-262.jpg" title="f0046-26" width="548" height="708"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 6, PHILADELPHIA 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-276/6650026-1-eng-US/f0046-272.jpg" title="f0046-27" width="556" height="356"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01265/6650019-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="554" height="760"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 1, WASHINGTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02185/6650012-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="556" height="788"></div><h2>Fri. Jan. 6 PITTSBURGH 1, NEW JERSEY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03145/6650005-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="564" height="758"></div><h2>Sat. Jan. 7 RANGERS 2, BOSTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-04100/6649998-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="558" height="210"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0574/6649991-1-eng-US/f0047-052.jpg" title="f0047-05" width="590" height="582"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 8, DETROIT 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0659/6649984-1-eng-US/f0047-062.jpg" title="f0047-06" width="584" height="1112"></div><h2>HARTFORD 3, EDMONTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0751/6649977-1-eng-US/f0047-072.jpg" title="f0047-07" width="584" height="848"></div><h2>CALGARY 1, LOS ANGELES 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0837/6649970-1-eng-US/f0047-082.jpg" title="f0047-08" width="588" height="96"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0929/6649963-1-eng-US/f0047-092.jpg" title="f0047-09" width="586" height="648"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 0, MINNESOTA 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1021/6649956-1-eng-US/f0047-102.jpg" title="f0047-10" width="590" height="668"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 0, MONTREAL 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1120/6649949-1-eng-US/f0047-112.jpg" title="f0047-11" width="596" height="668"></div><h2>CHICAGO 3, ISLANDERS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1219/6649942-1-eng-US/f0047-122.jpg" title="f0047-12" width="588" height="722"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 7, PITTSBURGH 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1318/6649935-1-eng-US/f0047-132.jpg" title="f0047-13" width="594" height="666"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1418/6649928-1-eng-US/f0047-142.jpg" title="f0047-14" width="584" height="210"></div><h2>TORONTO 2, QUEBEC 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1517/6649921-1-eng-US/f0047-152.jpg" title="f0047-15" width="588" height="760"></div><h2>BUFFALO 4, WASHINGTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1615/6649914-1-eng-US/f0047-162.jpg" title="f0047-16" width="586" height="702"></div><h2>Sun. Jan. 8 MONTREAL 3, BUFFALO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1715/6649907-1-eng-US/f0047-172.jpg" title="f0047-17" width="586" height="786"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 0, CHICAGO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1814/6649900-1-eng-US/f0047-182.jpg" title="f0047-18" width="578" height="638"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 4, RANGERS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-1914/6649893-1-eng-US/f0047-192.jpg" title="f0047-19" width="578" height="210"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-2014/6649886-1-eng-US/f0047-202.jpg" title="f0047-20" width="554" height="778"></div><h2>WASH. 7, PHILADELPHIA 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-2114/6649879-1-eng-US/f0047-212.jpg" title="f0047-21" width="556" height="1048"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 5, TORONTO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-2213/6649872-1-eng-US/f0047-222.jpg" title="f0047-22" width="564" height="902"></div><h2>HARTFORD 3, WINNIPEG 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-2312/6649865-1-eng-US/f0047-232.jpg" title="f0047-23" width="544" height="728"></div> &#9632;

f0044-02

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

The Montreal Canadiens are in what can best be described as a rebuilding era and rookie defenseman Kent Carlson is expected to be one of the young players to eventually lead the way.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0750/6650433-1-eng-US/f0045-072.jpg" title="f0045-07" width="554" height="1117"></div>Carlson, a 22-year-old from Concord, New Hampshire, was the Habs&rsquo; third choice (32nd overall) in the 1982 entry draft and, after two seasons starring for the St. Lawrence University Saints, he was enticed to turn pro with the Canadiens this season.The 6-foot-3, 200-pound defenseman has the physical requirements to shore up Montreal&rsquo;s decimated defense and once he gains some more game experience in the NHL, he&rsquo;s expected to be a solid backliner. &#9632;

f0045-07

Chrysler Rookie Award

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE (Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)</h2><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01234/6650548-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="548" height="205"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02158/6650541-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="548" height="235"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 3Hershey 5 at Baltimore 2Binghamton 6 at St. Catharines 3Wed. Jan. 4Maine 3 at Adirondack 6Rochester 7 at Hershey 4New Haven 6 at Nova Scotia 3Thu. Jan. 5Rochester 3 at Baltimore 6New Haven 7 at Fredericton 5Nova Scotia 1 at Moncton 2Fri. Jan. 6Hershey 7 at Binghamton 5Sherbrooke 3 at Springfield 5Sat. Jan. 7Sherbrooke 4 at Adirondack 9Rochester 2 at Baltimore 4St. Catharines 5 at Hershey 3Fredericton 5 at Maine 3New Haven 6 at Moncton 3Binghamton 1 at Springfield 5Sun. Jan. 8St. Catharines 4 at Baltimore 2New Haven 3 at Nova Scotia 6Binghamton 3 at Rochester 6Maine 1 at Sherbrooke 9<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE (Standings on Wed. Jan. 11)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-03107/6650534-1-eng-US/f0046-032.jpg" title="f0046-03" width="554" height="175"></div><h3>OLYMPIC TEAMS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0487/6650527-1-eng-US/f0046-042.jpg" title="f0046-04" width="542" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thu. Jan. 5Colorado 4 at Indianapolis 1Montana 6 at Salt Lake 7Fri. Jan. 6Tulsa 2 at Montana 1Colorado 6 at Indianapolis 2Sat. Jan. 7Tulsa 4 at Montana 0Colorado 1 at Salt Lake 8<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE (Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0566/6650520-1-eng-US/f0046-052.jpg" title="f0046-05" width="542" height="263"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Jan. 4Fort Wayne 4 at Flint 5Muskegon 3 at Milwaukee 8Kalamazoo 6 at Peoria 8Thu. Jan. 5Toledo 2 at Muskegon 9Fri. Jan. 6Milwaukee 3 at Flint 6Fort Wayne 7 at Kalamazoo 6Peoria 4 at Toledo 6Sat. Jan. 7Milwaukee 2 at Fort Wayne 8Flint 3 at Toledo 6Muskegon 7 at Peoria 2Sun. Jan. 8Kalamazoo 6 at Flint 5Muskegon 4 at Peoria 6<h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE (Standings on Sun. Jan. 8)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0658/6650513-1-eng-US/f0046-062.jpg" title="f0046-06" width="547" height="205"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 3Virginia 3 at Pine Bridge 9Wed. Jan. 4Mohawk Valley 1 at Erie 5Thu. Jan. 5Erie 5 at Mohawk Valley 6Pine Bridge 2 at Virginia 9Fri. Jan. 6Carolina 6 at Pine Bridge 3Virginia 4 at Mohawk Valley 6Sat. Jan. 7Pine Bridge 5 at Carolina 8Virginia 5 at Erie 8<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE (Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)</h2><h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0750/6650506-1-eng-US/f0046-072.jpg" title="f0046-07" width="548" height="203"></div><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0836/6650499-1-eng-US/f0046-082.jpg" title="f0046-08" width="541" height="176"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 3Label All Stars 9, Dilio All Stars 3Wed. Jan. 4Quebec 2 at Granby 1Longueuil 7 at Hull 5Drummondville 6 at Laval 8Shawinigan 7 at St. Jean 8Verdun 0 at T-Rivieres 3Fri. Jan. 6Laval 2 at Chicoutimi 6St. Jean 2 at Drummondville 3T-Rivieres 3 at Quebec 3Hull 2 at Shawinigan 10Granby 10 at Verdun 4Sun. Jan. 8St. Jean 3 at Granby 4Laval 10 at Hull 1Chicoutimi 5 at Longueuil 4Quebec 5 at T-Rivieres 4Drummondville 3 at Verdun 7<h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE (Standings on Tue. Jan. 10)</h2><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-0934/6650492-1-eng-US/f0046-092.jpg" title="f0046-09" width="548" height="236"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1027/6650485-1-eng-US/f0046-102.jpg" title="f0046-10" width="556" height="266"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 3Toronto 5 at Oshawa 4Wed. Jan. 4Windsor 1 at S.S. Marie 11Thu. Jan. 5Windsor 6 at North Bay 2Belleville 2 at Peterborough 7Cornwall 7 at Brantford 2Kitchener 3 at Guelph 4Fri. Jan. 6Windsor 5 at Sudbury 3Guelph 4 at S.S. Marie 5Cornwall 5 at Kitchener 9Toronto 3 at London 5Oshawa 5 at Kingston 6Peterborough 3 at Ottawa 5Sat. Jan. 7London 4 at Toronto 5Ottawa 5 at Belleville 4Sun. Jan. 8London 5 at Kingston 10Guelph 8 at Sudbury 7Kitchener 2 at North Bay 6Belleville at Toronto (ppd)Ottawa 7 at Oshawa 3Peterborough 3 at Cornwall 4Windsor 5 at Brantford 2<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE (Standings on Tue. Jan. 10)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1126/6650478-1-eng-US/f0046-112.jpg" title="f0046-11" width="550" height="266"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-1222/6650471-1-eng-US/f0046-122.jpg" title="f0046-12" width="536" height="204"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Jan. 2Calgary 3 at Lethbridge 5Saskatoon 7 at New Westminster 4Tue. Jan 3Winnipeg 0 at Medicine Hat 8Saskatoon 7 at Victoria 6Kelowna 5 at Kamloops 10New Westminster 6 at Seattle 7Wed. Jan. 4Winnipeg 6 at Lethbridge 5Saskatoon 3 at Portland 9Prince Albert 3 at Regina 6Thu. Jan. 5Prince Albert 4 at Brandon 15Fri. Jan. 6Portland 4 at New Westminster 7Saskatoon 9 at Seattle 7Winnipeg 3 at Regina 9Kamloops 4 at Kelowna 2Brandon 5 at Calgary 8Sat. Jan. 7Brandon 2 at Medicine Hat 8Seattle 3 at Portland 7Saskatoon 6 at Kelowna 5New Westminster 1 at Victoria 5Prince Albert 8 at Winnipeg 3Sun. Jan. 8Medicine Hat 2 at Calgary 7Brandon 2 at Lethbridge 4Saskatoon 2 at Kamloops 7Victoria 3 at New Westminster 4<h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 9)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-2412/6650464-1-eng-US/f0047-242.jpg" title="f0047-24" width="536" height="350"></div>Petrolia 6, Barrie 5Dundas 8, Cambridge 4Flamboro 14, Woodstock 2Chatham 6, Barrie 1Collingwood 9, Cambridge 4 &#9632;

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January 20, 1984

Groulx To Forsake Baseball Career Because Hockey Takes Priority

NHL GAMES TO COME

COMING SOON IN THN

WCHA To Admit Two More Teams