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.

July 15, 1984

The Hockey News July 15, 1984

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01820/5268009-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY CLARKE MOVIN&rsquo; ON UP (Photos by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>Complete Final Stats For All Pro, Junior PlayersHockey Mourns Loss Of Clarence Campbell&mdash;Page 11Gretzky: He&rsquo;s Our Player Of The Year&mdash;Again&mdash;Page 30What&rsquo;s The Future Of Junior And Minor Pro Hockey?&mdash;Page 6 &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

The Hockey News $1.50 64522 THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY JULY 15, 1984 Vol. 37, No. 36

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011247/5266499-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="289" height="345"></div><h2>Campbell, Here</h2>BACK IN THE early 1970s, Clarence Campbell confessed in a national magazine article that he slept in the raw. In fact, the president of the National Hockey League for 31 years said he hadn&rsquo;t owned pajamas since he stopped travelling by train.Of course, the gagsters used his admission frequently and when Campbell emerged from his final meeting of the NHL board of governors back in 1977, just before he turned the reins over to&rsquo;John Ziegler, the matter was mentioned.&ldquo;I trust,&rdquo; Campbell sighed, &ldquo;that I&rsquo;ll be remembered for a little more than that.&rdquo;Clarence Campbell died recently in his 78th year and, indeed, he&rsquo;s remembered for a multitude of things. You see, Campbell was an original. Pro sport never had an administrator like him, in style or longevity.His leaving the NHL was much more than a retirement; it was even more than the end of an era. It finished an age in hockey.In the theory that a measure of a man&rsquo;s worth is how difficult it is to replace him. Campbell was a giant. In 1972. he informed the NHL that he was ready to retire. Five years later, Ziegler was named to the job when the governors expanded the powers, a clout Campbell never sought.&ldquo;I never wanted commissioner&rsquo;s powers as president,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The guys who pay the bills&mdash;the owners&mdash;have the final say, anyway. But in the later years of my time in office, it would have saved time if I could have ruled as a dictator. We had problems reaching unanimity on many matters.&rdquo;The very remarkable life of this unpretentious, accessible man undoubtedly is chronicled elsewhere in these pages. Perhaps a few personal recollections will fill in the holes.<h2>Just A Boarder</h2>FROM THE TIME he became NHL president in 1946 until 1955, when he married his secretary. Phyllis King, he never had living quarters of his own. He simply boarded with a family on Mount Royal.&ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t really need an apartment until I was married, he said. &ldquo;I always seemed to be at the office.&rdquo;His working day started at 9 a.m. and finished, well, when it finished. Callers to the NHL office in the late evening often were surprised when the phone was answered with the familiar &ldquo;Campbell here.&rdquo;&ldquo;I suppose I&rsquo;ve settled more beer-hall arguments and bets about hockey than any man alive,&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;But from the day 1 came to this office, I tried to be as accessible as possible. I&rsquo;m a little proud of that&mdash;that I could be reached at all times.&rdquo;His outspoken approach, especially in dealing with the media, irked some owners, notably the new briefcase breed who have little love for the game they control and see it only through balance sheets.During the early days of merger discussion with the World Hockey Association, a move Campbell never favored, the governors gave him a two paragraph statement to read to reporters and told him to say no more. But it just wasn&rsquo;t part of him to dodge questions and he filled in all the blanks.Maybe it was a flaw but Campbell seemed to like the game better back in the six-team days. He detested all the talk about violence and the abolition of fighting and the 1970s&rsquo; outbreak of litigation.&ldquo;Of course, it was more fun back in the six-team days and a helluva lot more simple,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The owners fought hard among themselves but always settled things by picking what was right for the game.&ldquo;In the 1970s, there was nothing but lawsuits because of that damnable WHA, a pack of pirates who stole from us. I was strongly against joining that league that caused us nothing but grief and expense.&rdquo;<h2>Prided Pension Plan</h2>CAMPBELL TOOK THE most pride from the pension plan which he designed for NHL players.&ldquo;The pension plan gave hockey credibility to the parents young athletes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I take great pride in that.&rdquo;Clarence Campbell could have taken great pride in the credibility he gave to the game.<h2>Quote Of The Week</h2>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a disaster. I&rsquo;ve got two players with excellent minor league credentials and several years&rsquo; experience and there&rsquo;s just no interest in them whatsoever.&rdquo;&mdash;Boston lawyer and agent Brian Burke, discussing the minor-league employment squeeze which will see more than 100 pro players lose their jobs this year. Story on Page 34. &#9632;

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FRANK ORR’S HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Brian O&rsquo;Neill, the executive vice-president of the National Hockey League, was given his start in hockey by the late Clarence Campbell in 1966.They worked side-by-side for 11 years while Campbell was league president, and O&rsquo;Neill, for one, has been deeply affected by the death of his former boss.&ldquo;It was a shock to me even though I knew he was a very ill man for a long time,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m extremely saddened because I was with him for such a long time. He meant a great deal to me. He gave me my start in hockey.&rdquo;While no longer with the NHL, Ron Andrews worked 14 years in the Campbell administration as the league&rsquo;s statistician and information director. Andrews, now a radio commentator in Ottawa, called his former employer &ldquo;the best person I have ever worked for.&rdquo;&ldquo;He was the type who allowed his staff to do their jobs without interference,&rdquo; Andrews said. &ldquo;He knew his staff. He knew what they were capable of doing.&ldquo;My first day in the office, he called me in. He told me that in my position, there would be a lot of confidential information I would see but couldn&rsquo;t divulge. There would be a lot of newsmen coming to me for information and he didn&rsquo;t want them led down the garden path.&ldquo;He told me that under no condition did he want me to say. &lsquo;No, you&rsquo;re wrong&rsquo; if a reporter was right. While I couldn&rsquo;t give out the information, Mr. Campbell told me to steer the reporters to the people who could.&rdquo;People in this city will well remember the decision the former president made in 1955, suspending Maurice (Rocket) Richard for the final three games of the regular season and the playoffs. Richard had swung his stick at Boston&rsquo;s Hal Laycoe and then punched linesman Cliff Thompson.On March 17, just after the suspension had been announced, Mr. Camp-bell went to the Forum for a game between Detroit and Montreal and took his seat despite threats on his life. During the first period, he was showered with debris, and at the end of the first period someone threw a smoke bomb.Richard still feels that his suspension was unjust and said he has never changed his mind on the matter.&ldquo;I never accepted it and I never will,&rdquo; Richard admitted. &ldquo;I have always felt that Campbell was not the only one to make this decision. I am sure he was influenced by the other owners.&rdquo;Richard admitted that he had seldom spoken to Campbell even though they had crossed each other&rsquo;s paths several times since the incident.Red Storey, who quit the NHL officiating staff in 1959 after being criticized for his handling of a Montreal-Chicago playoff game, harbors no bitterness for his former employer although it took some time for them to patch up their differences.&ldquo;I went into the Hall of Fame unanimously and he had one of the votes,&rdquo; added Storey, who did not speak to the president for some years after his resignation.&ldquo;We had our differences of opinion as the hockey world knows. I think inside, we had a lot of respect for what the other had contributed to the game. I don&rsquo;t know of anybody who worked harder for the NHL than Clarence Campbell or of anyone who would have had the patience to put up with the six owners.&rdquo;Danny Gallivan. the long-time voice of the Canadiens on Hockey Night in Canada, said Campbell was &ldquo;respected. a man of integrity.&rdquo;&ldquo;He took his job very seriously and did it with a high degree of proficiency.&rdquo;Campbell was actively involved with the founding and fund-raising for the Lakeshore General Hospital on Montreal&rsquo;s west island. Three years ago, he was appointed honorary chairman of the foundation.&ldquo;He did so much for so many areas,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Neill. &ldquo;He gave of himself tirelessly to community efforts. Everything he did was for other people.&rdquo;Most of Montreal&rsquo;s hockey personalities attended a memorial service for the late president in a downtown church, including Jean Beliveau, the majestic Canadiens&rsquo; captain during the 1960s and early &lsquo;70s.&ldquo;He was president for 31 years and he wasn&rsquo;t there because he was doing a bad job,&rdquo; Beliveau said. &ldquo;Just the fact that he was there for 31 years shows how dedicated he was to the game.&ldquo;I got to know him pretty well and I had great relations with him. For the past three years. I have been on the Hail of Fame selection committee which he chaired. This year, he didn&rsquo;t come, but he always was there before when we had our meetings in June.&ldquo;His actions were always for the best of the game, to keep it as good as it was and make it better, if possible. When the situation called for him to be there, he was.&rdquo; &#9632;

Campbell Meant A Lot To Many People

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03625/5266733-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"></div>that the following players did well during the past NHL season, despite never having been selected in the NHL entry draft: &#9632;

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Did You Know…

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>There&rsquo;s been no indication that the new general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers has bitten off more than he can chew, but that&rsquo;s part of the problem&mdash;the chew, that is.Nobody&rsquo;s calling a little pinch between the cheek managing form, but they are remodeling Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s office this summer, and carpets and Red Man just don&rsquo;t mix. It was fine in the locker room, and was always worth a laugh or two on the sportswriters&rsquo; shoes, but though some of Lou Nanne&rsquo;s trade offers assuredly belong in the spittoon, it&rsquo;s a long time between pinches when you&rsquo;re talking six straight hours with eight different teams trying to acquire a left winger.Otherwise, Bobby Clarke is adjusting to being a GM just fine. Now that he&rsquo;s a member of the general populace, an hour in the gym and a couple miles on the roads can be taken care of between 7 and 9 a.m., before a full day at the office. He wears a jacket and tie. Figuring that being a figurehead is now part of the territory, Clarke no longer has to be tortured to make appearances and speeches. And the paperwork. Kind bureaucracy, well, it&rsquo;s a little intimidating, but vice-president Keith Allen and assistant GM Gary Darling are there to help.&ldquo;The thing that scares me the most is all the deadlines,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;I have this list on my desk of about nine of them&hellip;when lists have to be filed, contracts have to be offered, stuff like that.You miss one, you can turn the whole team into free agents.&rdquo;He is, unquestionably, green. But at the same time, there&rsquo;s no question that Clarke is bringing the same high energy level he displayed on the ice into the front office.&ldquo;One thirty in the morning in Montreal and I&rsquo;m nodding off.&rdquo; said the Flyers&rsquo; head scout, Jerry Melnyk. &ldquo;Bobby wants to get back on the phone to see if so-and-so&rsquo;s available.&rdquo;Clearly, the Flyers didn&rsquo;t prop up his well-known face into the job just for public relations purposes. Clarke, determined to learn it all, has thrown himself into every aspect of general managing, and stayed busy enough to leave himself no second thoughts about whether he made the right decision. Inevitably, they will come in September (will anybody be able to give Clarke rone good reason why there can&rsquo;t be such a thing as a playing-general manager?), but once he gets past the first year, he should be fine.&ldquo;Greater minds than mine determined 1 could this job,&rdquo; he said when given the position on May 15. Team president Jay Snider bluntly laid out the options when he made the offer 12 days before: Take it now, or it might not be there in a year or two.Like everyone else who knew him, Snider had his doubts whether Clarke was really ready to retire as a player. But deep down he had more questions about his ability to continue than he was letting on.&ldquo;I was becoming frustrated with my contributions as a player,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel I was doing the job I thought I should do. Obviously, I wasn&rsquo;t capable of doing it anymore. It was sort of a relief for me. I was very happy to get the offer.&rdquo;The first clue that he really was going to accept came in a conversation with Flyer aide John Brogan.&ldquo;You know,&rdquo; Clarke said to Brogan after long talks with both Snider and Allen, &ldquo;it would be a really easy decision if I didn&rsquo;t like playing so much.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011311/5266537-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="721" height="1301"><figcaption class="caption-body">In his early days, above, Bobby Clarke epitomized the intensity of the Flyers and gave his all right up until the end of last season, right, when he decided to retire to become Philadelphia&rsquo;s general manager.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Brogan. &ldquo;You have to weigh one year against the next 10 or 20.&rdquo;&ldquo;I expected him to get all bleeped off when 1 said &lsquo;one year.&rsquo;&rdquo; Brogan said. &ldquo;When he didn&rsquo;t, I knew we had him. Jay was asking me, &lsquo;What do you think he&rsquo;s going todo?&rsquo; I said. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry about it, it&rsquo;s done.&rdquo;Allen, in charge of the search committee, came up with 10 names, including Darling and Providence College athletic director Lou Lamoriello. but his recommendation to Snider was to offer the job to Clarke first.And while surely many long-time NHL administrative and scouting types blanched at the notion of a player with no apparent training moving directly into the most important job in the organization, the move made perfect sense for a lot of reasons:&bull; One was Clarke&rsquo;s obvious intelligence. In the latter years of his playing career, he had become increasingly captivated with player personnel and was doing some mental homework. A lot of NHL teams have found out the hard way that success on the ice doesn&rsquo;t necessarily translate to front office or coaching skills, but Clarke, always the thinking-man&rsquo;s player, was a safer bet than most.&bull; Making Clarke the GM removed a cloud that was already hovering over the entire organization. Knowing the way owner Ed Snider had always felt about Clarke, everyone, including Bob McCammon, Clarke&rsquo;s predecessor, felt it was only a matter of time before Bobby was running the show.&bull; It was a smooth, clean break for Clarke from his playing career. The team had turned over some good young talent in the last few years and, although Clarke could still contribute, his energies were no longer holding up for enough of the 80 games to enable him to continue to be the big wheel.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021069/5266530-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1495" height="2004"></div>The Flyers have three young centers&mdash;Ron Sutter, Dave Poulin and Len Hachbom&mdash;and Clarke had finished up what turned out to be his final season playing left wing. After McCammon forced him to take a six-game vacation in March, Clarke came back fresh and was probably the Flyers&rsquo; best player in their three-game sweep by Washington. If used wisely, he had a year or two left as a second or third-line left winger and spot center, but his desire to hang on was nearing the awkward stage. If he moved upstairs, the Flyers, a team that was both too old and too young to do any damage in the playoffs last year, could start fresh and notarize their youth movement for their increasingly skeptical fans.Lastly, the public relations value of putting Clarke in charge could not be ignored. McCammon. while only a fair coach, was a good talent evaluator and very promising GM. History will show that he was caught between a rock and a hard place, starting a transition that was essential to keep the Flyers winning. But he was not accepted by the fans from the day he replaced Fred Shero.Ed Snider and Allen compounded McCammon&rsquo;s image problem by firing him halfway through his first season and then bringing him back. And the coup de grace was Jay Snider, upon his ascension to the presidency in April 1983, nudging Keith Allen upstairs and giving McCammon the GM job. Coming soon after the Flyers had blown a 106-point season into a desultory three-straight, first-round loss to the Rangers, it appeared that Snider was not only rewarding McCammon for failure, but that McCammon had used the offer of the GM-coach position in Pittsburgh to power Allen aside.Snider, wanting his own, younger man as GM, was going to do it whether the Penguins were courting McCammon or not, but McCammon unfairly came off as the heavy. When another first-round sweep this year followed a respectable 98-point season, the fans turned on McCammon again. Snider wanted McCammon to step up strictly into the GM&rsquo;s seat. He refused and they parted company.He left a team that is probably two players away from serious Cup contention, but a young one of some promise. Expectations, with Clarke retired and Bill Barber&rsquo;s career in serious jeopardy following major reconstructive surgery on his knee, can now return to a reasonable level. And Clarke, being Clarke, will get a nice honeymoon period as the Flyers attempt to catch up to the Islanders, Rangers and Capitals.His long-term success, as with any GM, will depend upon his patience, but the preliminary vibes from his first month on the job were good ones. The groundwork of the search for a new coach was laid by Allen, Snider and Darling before Clarke became GM. but Bobby&rsquo;s handling of the selection and wooing process that culminated in the hiring of Mike Keenan was impressive.When word that Keenan was coming to Philadelphia for a second interview leaked out. Clarke changed plans and instead met the candidate in Toronto to keep the session out of the media glare.&ldquo;If reporters met Mike at the airport and waited outside while we met, it would have put a deadline pressure on us that we didn&rsquo;t need,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;This way, if it fell through, we could start fresh.&rdquo;What Clarke lacks in experience he should be able to make up for in good old common sense. He&rsquo;s had, it should be remembered, political experience&mdash;of the hockey variety&mdash;in various stages of his career to be ready for front-office martial arts. He has always been a thoughtful spokesman, and anyone who ever played against or watched him can testify to a ruthless side that will stand him in good stead in the lion&rsquo;s den of GMs.The downside is that he will never play again. Clarke will unquestionably be remembered as one of the 10 best ever to play this game because nothing was more important to him than his next shift.He was extraordinary from 1973-75. unquestionably the dominant player in the NHL. And only marvelous both before and after. Ultimately, it was the way he played, not the way he won, that should be rememberd.How did he do it? His body gave no clues. His devotion to it was nothing short of fanatical, but hour after hour of pumped iron produced little definition and modest lumps for biceps.This contributed to the legend, of course, but it was at the expense of his skills becoming underrated. They never should have been. Clarke was hardly&hellip;fast, but he did get a better jump than most players and was exceptionally strong on his skates. His comer and faceoff work was a primer in body leverage.There was the distinct absence of a shot, but nobody before Wayne Gretzky ever passed the puck in a more exacting way or had a better sense for the other 11 players on the ice. And there has simply never been a better defensive forward in the game&rsquo;s history.With a little help from his friends, he drove a run-of-the-mill expansion team to a Stanley Cup in five years and kept the Flyers competitive for 10 more, including a second Stanley Cup season. He handled his equally deservd praise and Villification evenly, was ever gracious and accessible, and both a thoughtful critic and defender of his sport and his team.Every cent ever spent watching Bobby Clarke play earned the buyer interest. The blessings of that experience will grow through the years. Heroes such as Bobby Clarke don come cheap.He was fearless. He was indomitable. He was Clarkie. They make one like him about once every 15 years.Unfortunately, our time is up. &#9632;

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THE BOBBY CLARKE ERA ENDS

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>TORONTO&mdash;Now that Bill LaForge, the new coach of the Vancouver Canucks, has arrived at where he wants to be&mdash;the National Hockey League&mdash;he can look back at his sometimes notorious four-year major junior coaching career with mixed emotions.On one hand, he&rsquo;s irked at the reputation he earned after coaching bruising, intimidating teams in Oshawa and Regina in the 1980-81 and 1982-83 seasons, respectively.But on the other hand, LaForge is cognizant of the fact that his notoriety has helped him more than it&rsquo;s hurt him.&ldquo;There aren&rsquo;t many coaches who have spent only four years in major junior hockey and made the jump to the National Hockey League as a head coach,&rdquo; said LaForge, the 32-year-old Edmonton native who spent the past two seasons with the Kamloops Junior Oilers of the Western Hockey League.&ldquo;All in all, the reputation has helped me more than it&rsquo;s hurt me. It got my name known, it got people checking into who I was.&rdquo;LaForge arrived in Oshawa to coach the Generals as an unknown quantity in 1980-81. His only coaching experience was with western Canadian intermediate and junior B teams. By the time the Ontario Hockey League season had ended. though, his notoriety had spread across the nation.One incident, in particular, catapulted him into the spotlight.It was March of 1981 and the Generals were playing host to the arch-rival Peterborough Petes in a deciding playoff game. The Generals were the OHL&rsquo;s most penalized team and one which attempted to master the art of intimidation.In the pre-game warm-up. a brawl broke out between the two teams. Since the officials weren&rsquo;t even dressed, a coupie of local police slid onto the ice to try and break up the numerous fights, but without much success.Peterborough coach Dave Dryden, the ex-pro goalie and brother of Hall of Famer. Ken. emerged from the dressing room to find the two teams battling. He saw one of his best players fighting with one of the Generals&rsquo; designated tough guys.Dryden ventured onto the ice and tried to break up the fight. As he was doing so, LaForge arrived on the scene and saw the Petes&rsquo; coach with his arms around an Oshawa player.LaForge entered the fray, vigorously grabbing Dryden by his sports coat&mdash;ripping it in the process&mdash;and pulling him away from the players. Dryden, his glasses knocked off his head, fell to the ice.Order was restored soon after that, but the fireworks weren&rsquo;t over yet. As LaForge left the ice, through the same exit as the Petes, Peterborough player Doug Evans, a mini-Bobby Clarke, club-bed LaForge over the head with his stick, cutting the coach&rsquo;s skull. LaForge turned and threw the player to the ground, where the scuffle was broken up.Oshawa went on to win the game and eliminate&rdquo; the Petes, but it was the last game LaForge ever coached the Generals. Ontario Hockey League commissioner David Branch suspended him for 50 games.The day the decision was announced. LaForge answered his phone with the greeting, &ldquo;Oshawa Jail.&rdquo;&ldquo;It was obvious that they wanted me out of the league,&rdquo; LaForge said. &ldquo;I got the suspension because of the Evans thing. I just reacted to him cutting me. But I never threw a punch. I just threw him to the ground.&rdquo;LaForge doesn&rsquo;t bear a grudge. &ldquo;Hey, that Evans was a helluva hockey player.&rdquo;He does, however, wish that the facts had been reported correctly at the time of the incident. An over-zealous reporter in Oshawa described the LaForge-Dryden confrontation as standing toe-to-toe, trading blows, which simply wasn&rsquo;t the case. The story was picked up by the wire service and the LaForge reputation as a bad boy was born.&ldquo;I guess I was a good story,&rdquo; LaForge said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really have any regrets, although I&rsquo;ve thought a lot about the Dryden thing. I&rsquo;m really sorry that it happened because he&rsquo;s a nice guy and it just didn&rsquo;t happen the way so many people think it did.&rdquo;Which is not to say LaForge didn&rsquo;t do other things to acquire his reputation. Both the Generals and Regina Pats played a similar style of play. If you took on one General or Pat, you took on all of them. His teams in Oshawa and Regina were throwbacks to the Broad Street Bully era and LaForge makes no apologies for that.&ldquo;I did what I had to do to win,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In Oshawa, we had very little experience and that was the only way we could be successful. In Regina, I stepped into a team that was already big. tough and talented, but inexperienced. The management wanted a tough team that would put people in the stands. I gave it to them. I wouldn&rsquo;t change any of my past&mdash;except maybe the Dryden thing.&rdquo;The Oshawa-Regina years are only one-side of LaForge. If you think he&rsquo;s one dimensional, your typical goon coach, you&rsquo;d be making a grave error in judgment.When the Edmonton Oilers hired LaForge to be coach and GM at Kam-loops, Oiler boss Glen Sather told LaForge he wanted a skilled, exciting and winning team built.&ldquo;Slats didn&rsquo;t want the rough house thing,&rdquo; LaForge said. &ldquo;I took a team that was 10-62 before I got there and in my first season, we were 47-25. In my second year, we were 50-22, finished first in the Western League, won the playoff championship and went to the Memorial Cup. And we didn&rsquo;t cause any trouble at all.&rdquo;LaForge is a coach who inspires in-credible devotion from his players. He eschews the philosophy that says a coach has to be aloof from his players. During this past spring&rsquo;s WHL playoffs in Regina, he took his entire team&mdash;including trainers and stick boy&mdash;to church on Sunday morning.&ldquo;How many junior coaches do you know who would do that?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I thought it was important for us to be together and have an hour or so of meditation.&rdquo;Because his players have shown such allegiance to him, some critics have accused LaForge of being a &ldquo;cult leader.&rdquo;&ldquo;I take that as a compliment,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Look up cult in the dictionary, it says a group of people who believe in one common thing. What&rsquo;s wrong with that? Isn&rsquo;t that what a hockey team is supposed to be?&rdquo;Now. LaForge faces his biggest challenge of all with the Vancouver Canucks, a team which is seen by many to be underachieving. At least that was the reason given when Roger Neilson was fired last season.&ldquo;It certainly is a big challenge,&rdquo; LaForge said. &ldquo;My motto is that I&rsquo;ll do whatever it takes to win. In Vancouver, looking over the player personnel. I&rsquo;d say we have to instill some excitement, a burning desire to win and be successful.&ldquo;Part of that will be developing team toughness. I want the Canucks to be one big happy family, 20 guys believing in one common goal. I believe in PHD&mdash;pride, hustle and the desire to be successful.&rdquo;But the jump from junior hockey to the NHL, like the jump from college football to the NFL. isn&rsquo;t always an easy one. What worked in the emotional rah-rah atmosphere of amateur sports doesn&rsquo;t always work with the hardened pro.LaForge is aware of it and said he&rsquo;s ready for the adjustment.&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;let me put it this way. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll be taking the Vancouver Canucks to church. I don&rsquo;t think that would be a good idea.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m still the same guy I was in Oshawa. Regina and Kamloops. I haven&rsquo;t changed because I&rsquo;ll do whatever it takes to win.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011334/5266568-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="547" height="595"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill LaForge refuses to apologize for the way he coached his teams in Oshawa and Regina.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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LaForge Rides Tough-Guy Image To NHL

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineCONTROLLERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIB UTING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrDIRECTOR ADVERTISING SALESDanny LewickiADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC, Cliff Kivell, 287 MacPherson AveToronto. Ontario M4V 1A4(416) 928-2909SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPaula HeardNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTJudy HanmanRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom Moffat Mary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERHughes MarketingHockey News Bookshelf(416) 499-8227ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFEICES85 Scarsdale Rd.. Suite 100Toronto. Ontario. CanadaM3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Third AvenueNew York. New York10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTOR Distributed nationally by Disticor 101 Duncan Mill Rd.. Suite L4 Don Mills. Ont.. M3B 1Z3 (416) 449-6430THE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except monthly June and bimonthly July and August 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. 10022.4A ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $22.95 in the U.S.A. $22.95 in Canada. $49.95 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 post age paid at New York. N.Y and al 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

<h2>August 1</h2>Remember The Power to the People Reader Opinion poll, which so many of you filled out in one of our May issues? Well, the results have been tabulated and this issue will carry them as we let the hockey world know how you feel about the important issues affecting our game today.And this issue also marks the beginning of our Canada Cup cover-age. We&rsquo;ll have a feature on the history of the Canada Cup, Team Canada and Team USA updates as well as interviews with Glen Sather and Lou Nanne, the respective general managers of both teams.There&rsquo;s no such thing as an off-season anymore so be sure not to miss this exciting issue.<h2>August 31</h2>As the interest in the Canada Cup tournament heightens, so, too, will our coverage of the great event. We&rsquo;ll profile all six teams in detail, including thumbnail sketches of each participating player. We&rsquo;ll let you know all the details concerning radio and television coverage, plus much, much more, including flashbacks and statistics from previous Canada Cup tournaments. &#9632;

COMING SOON IN THN

<h2>EAGLESON HAS SUITS FULL</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Alan Eagleson is already being sued; now he&rsquo;s considering launching a separate lawsuit of his own.Eagleson, who along with his company, Sports Management Ltd., is being sued by former National Hockey League player, Vaclav Nedo-mansky. for negligence and breach of contract, may sue Sports Illustrated magazine for an article it published on him in its July 2 edition which suggests he reaped benefits for both himself and his friends through his many roles in hockey.Eagleson is the chief negotiator in international hockey matters for Canada and the NHL and also executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association.John Sopinka. the lawyer for Eagleson, told the Toronto Globe and Mail that his client would consider suing in Canada.&ldquo;If we bring an action (against the magazine), it will be done here (in Canada),&rdquo; Sopinka said. &ldquo;The law is more favorable in Canada. In the United States, a public figure must prove malice or malicious intent.&ldquo;Here, we would have only to prove that the statement is defamatory and the defendant would have to prove that it is true.Meanwhile, Eagleson has to contend with the lawsuit launched by Nedomansky, who is seeking more than $1-million in damages for negligence and breach of contract in the handling of the 1979 negotiations that would have given Nedomansky a 15-year, $2-million guaranteed deal with Detroit Red Wings.The agreement, negotiated by former Sports Management Ltd. vice-president Bill Watters and then Detroit general manager, Ted Lindsay, on June 29, 1979, was never signed. Nedomansky finally accepted a five-year, $1.4-million contract with the club on Sept. 8, 1980. He was bought out of the contract the following year.After a recess of a few weeks, the trial has continued and, the court was recently told that Eagleson did not seek arbitration on the contract dispute five years ago between Nedomansky and the Detroit Red Wings, despite indications from NHL president John Ziegler that the case would be won.Eagleson testified that he was certain if Nedomansky succeeded in the action, the club would initiate a long court battle that might prevent Nedomansky from continuing his hockey career.Eagleson also admitted he was responsible for the wording of a June 29 Telex to Detroit confirming the deal. The wording of the Telex message later became a matter of dispute between the two parties.<h2>BILL LIBBY DIES</h2>VENICE, Calif&mdash;Former Hockey News columnist Bill Libby died June 16 after a lengthy illness. He was 56.Libby, who is survived by a wife and two children, first wrote for THE HOCKEY NEWS as a correspondent of the old Western League in 1964. He later became a columnist for 18 years.Libby, who wrote 65 books, graduated from Indiana University and then joined the New York Post, before moving to Los Angeles in 1962.Meanwhile, Dick Johnston, another veteran correspondent for THE HOCKEY NEWS, has retired from the newspaper business at the age of 62.Johnston, who is a native of Buffalo, NY, spent his entire 43-year career as a member of the sports staff of the Buffalo News and covered the Sabres for THE HOCKEY NEWS since 1972.Johnston plans to retire in Naples, FL, and his place in THE HOCKEY NEWS will be taken by Randy Schultz.<h2>SERGE SIGNS SVOBODA</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;Canadien managing director Serge Savard is making sure his prize pick in the recent draft will be ready for life in the NHL.Savard recently signed Petr Svoboda, the 18-year-old Czechoslovakian defector and fifth pick overall in the June entry draft, to a contract, as well as the Habs&rsquo; second pick in the first round (eighth overall), Shayne Corson of Brantford.But it is Svoboda, in particular, that Savard is most concerned with, so concerned that he&rsquo;s keeping the young Czech as a boarder at his home in suburban St-Bruno.&ldquo;The most important thing for a kid his age is that you can&rsquo;t just leave him by himself,&rdquo; Savard said of Svoboda. &ldquo;Since the draft, he&rsquo;s been taking three hours of language classes each day, and I think, by training camp, he&rsquo;ll have no problem communicating.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Toronto Maple Leafs recently signed captain Rick Vaive and center Bill Derlago to new three-year pacts.Vaive&rsquo;s status had been a source of concern towards the end of the regular season after Leaf owner Harold Ballard made some uncomplimentary remarks about his captain, who&rsquo;s produced three successive 50-plus goal seasons.Ballard said Vaive would only be an Ordinary player in the old six-team league.However, both sides agreed on a new contract, with an important provision being the success of the Leafs making the playoffs. &#9632;

SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011214/5266678-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>Several years ago. during a National Hockey League game between Minnesota and Buffalo at War Memorial Auditorium, a group of loyal Sabre fans decided it was time to verbally let North Star goalie Cesare Maniago know what they thought of him.&ldquo;Hey Cesare, how&rsquo;s your salad?&rdquo; they shouted with delight.Maniago, standing in the Stars&rsquo; goal, simply waved his glove hand in response.Maniago, a veteran of 15 seasons (1960-75) in the National Hockey League with Toronto, Montreal, New York, Minnesota and Vancouver, recalled one of his lighter moments in his pro career.&ldquo;When those Sabres&rsquo; fans re-sponded to me with those statements, that brought back some fond memories of my days with the old Buffalo Bisons in the American Hockey League,&rdquo; Maniago said. &ldquo;I can remember having this real love for eating Ceasar salads.&ldquo;But I never could find the Romaine lettuce that went in it. Bison trainer (and still the Sabres trainer). Frank Christie found out about this and called a friend of his who was in the produce business.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t too long after this that this produce person came into the Buffalo dressing room after a practice with a large box full of Romaine lettuce.&ldquo;He told me that as long as I was in Buffalo I could have all the Romaine I wanted for nothing. I couldn&rsquo;t have asked for a better deal.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02894/5266671-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="559" height="671"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cesare Maniago never had to worry about where his next salad came from in Buffalo.</figcaption></div>Maniago spent several seasons playing in the minor leagues and as a backup netminder with the Maple Leafs, Canadiens and Rangers, but it wasn&rsquo;t until the 1967-68 that he earned a starting shot with Minnesota.&ldquo;It was a very frustrating time for me serving as a backup to guys like Jacques Plante and Ed Giacomin,&rdquo; said Maniago. &ldquo;But when I heard that the NHL was going to expand, I knew this would be my big chance.&rdquo;Maniago got that big chance when he was drafted by Minnesota.&ldquo;I felt very relaxed and confident playing with Minnesota,&rdquo; Maniago said. &ldquo;That first year was very special because we did so well together as a team.&ldquo;We were a bunch of unknowns that had been thrown together to play hockey. And play we did.&ldquo;We had a great playoff against St. Louis before losing to them.&ldquo;I felt that I had an excellent year as well. After all that time I had spent in the minors and in the NHL I finally had the chance to get to know myself a lot better as a player and what I could do as a player for a full season in the NHL.&rdquo;Today, Maniago owns and operates his own wholesale sporting goods business in Burnaby, B.C., not too far from his native hometown of Trail.Although he is not actively involved with hockey at the NHL level, he still follows the sport very closely.&ldquo;One of my major concerns is that I feel that goaltending coaches are needed at the NHL level,&rdquo; said the 45-year-old Maniago. &ldquo;I think that one thing pro hockey is still behind in is having specialty coaches on a team. They need them.&ldquo;I can remember when Gump Worsley came to Minnesota to play when I was there. I happened to be going through a rough period of time as a player and was not doing too well.&ldquo;I finally went to Gump for help and he was a big help. In a matter of a few minutes he showed me what I was doing wrong.&ldquo;And if he needed help, he would come to me. It was a great system. It was almost like having two extra coaches on the team.&rdquo; &#9632;

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

1. Name the Milwaukee Admiral player who was a draft pick of the Atlanta Flames in 1973?2. Prior to Wayne Gretzky, name the last player to win the Ross, Hart and Stanley Cup in the same season?3. Name the last goaltender selected first overall in the entry draft?4. Who was the first draft choice of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1969?5. What recently-hired NHL coach has won titles in the AHL and the CIAU, respectively?6. What Pittsburgh Penguin forward lost a leg in a car accident?7. Name the player who was selected recently in the NHL entry draft and the baseball entry draft?8. Are NHLers Doug and Wes Jarvis brothers?9. The Chicago Black Hawks selected the son of one of their former captains. Name the son.10. What two members of the U.S. Olympic team in 1960 played in the NHL?<h2>Trivia Answers</h2>1. John Flesch.2. Guy Lafleur (1977-78).3. Michel Plasse (Montreal).4. Ernie Moser.5. Mike Keenan (Rochester and University of Toronto, respectively).6. Stan Gilbertson.7. Thomas Glavine (Los Angeles and Atlanta).8. Mike Stapleton.9. No, they are cousins.10. Tom Williams and Jack McCartan. &#9632;

TRIVIA

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NEWSMAKERS’ ROUNDTABLE

The Interhational Hockey WeeklyFounded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Clarence Campbell 1905-1984</h2>CLARENCE CAMPBELL, the head of the National Hockey League for 31 years who died on June 24 in a Montreal hospital after a lengthy illness, was a lot of things to a lot of people. Throughout these pages you will find touching tributes and recol-lections of a warm, caring, devoted man who gave of himself tirelessly to a sport he loved.Of course, he will be missed greatly by us all and hockey is poorer without him. But while we mourn his passing, it also affords us an opportunity to reflect on what his life and death symbolize to the hockey community.Clarence Campbell, to many of us, was symbolic of simpler times, an era when good, old fashioned common sense took precedence over legalese; when the National Hockey League was a little six-team league, a family of sorts.Oh, sure, members of the family didn&rsquo;t always get along. There were feuds, to be sure, and it would be a mistake to think the good, old days were without their share of controversies and unpleasant events.But those involved were hockey men, guys who were committed to a great game, and their efforts, even if they were misguided at times, were based on that love affair with hockey.More than anything else, Clarence Campbell was of this breed. He made many great contributions to the game, far too plentiful to list here. Not all his decisions as president of the NHL were popular. But like the men of his era, his judgments came from the heart and were aimed at bettering Canada&rsquo;s national pastime.It was no wonder that when the World Hockey Association burst onto the scene, forever changing the way the game would be practised and played, Clarence Campbell was distraught.The WHA years resulted in a tangled web of legal wranglings, absurd salary escalations and expectations and, as a sport, hockey seemed a little out of control, franchises shot scattergun-style across the continent.But our game picked up the pieces and today, more than any other time since 1967 when the NHL doubled from the cozy six-team league to 12, it&rsquo;s on solid ground.Still, it&rsquo;s not quite the same as in Clarence Campbell&rsquo;s years as president. Some would say it&rsquo;s better; others would say it&rsquo;s worse. The only certainty is that the 1980s are a lot more complex than the heart of the Campbell years ever was.We in the media will particularly miss Clarence Campbell. He was open and accessible, two traits which are fast becoming extinct among executives in professional sports. He never dodged a question and always spoke his mind, even if it got him in trouble, which it often did.Here at THE HOCKEY NEWS, we have selfish reasons for mourning Campbell&rsquo;s death. When Ken McKenzie, then an NHL employee working for Campbell, started this publication in 1947, Clarence was there to assist and advise, believing that an all-hockey publication would be good for the game.THN Editorial Director Charlie Halpin recollects that Ken McKenzie first wanted to publish an all-sport publication, along the same lines as The Sporting News. It was Campbell, Halpin says, who told McKenzie that if he was going to start a paper, limit it to hockey and it would be successful.It was intuitive advice and only one more example of the great feel Clarence Campbell had for this game.He&rsquo;s gone now, taking with him the ways of a simpler, more settled era, but his contributions and memories will live on forever.<h2>The Unemployment Line</h2>IF THE BIRTH of the World Hockey Association and NHL expansion opened the door for many athletes seeking a professional hockey career, then the death of the Central League has shut it.Not since the days of the six-team league has it been harder for hockey players to find employment. With the majority of NHL teams sharing farm teams in the American League, more than 100 players, many of them solid journeyman who otherwise would have had many more years left in them, will be out of hockey.The death of the CHL was a black day for our game. Not only did it take away a hockey presence from a number of U.S. cities, it will also put more than 100 players in the unemployment line. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div><h2>The Hockey Stick Helped Me To Hold On</h2>May 14, 1984 came and passed for many people, but for me, it proved to be the longest day of my life. Early that morning, my sister, Robyn, died of leukemia. She was only 22.Never having experienced the loss of a close relative&mdash;or being old enough to appreciate it&mdash;I couldn&rsquo;t immediately understand my sister&rsquo;s death. With each day, however, I am slowly adjusting to her absence, though it becomes very painful when I realize that absence is permanent.Not only has time allowed me to reflect on what my sister meant to me, it has also given a chance to look back on my youth and fondly recall some special moments, one of which occurred when I was too young to realize it.My father once gave my brother and I a stick auto-graphed by the Toronto Maple Leafs. I recently did some research and discovered the stick is 20 years old, a veritable collector&rsquo;s item.Because I was only five years old then, I really can&rsquo;t remember my father giving it to us, but I can clearly recall how important that stick became in later years.First, let me describe the character of the stick as I remember it then.The butt was wrapped with milky white tape, and just underneath it on one side was a blue 21, Bobby Baun&rsquo;s number. The autographs (Frank Mahovlich, Dave Keon, Andy Bathgate, Allen Stanley, to name a few), written with what appeared to be the same pen. ran down one side of the shaft. The blade, which was straight even though there was a letter &ldquo;R&rdquo; (for right) on the shaft, was wrapped with dull black tape.Many times I took the stick and pretended to be one of the Leafs&mdash;my Leafs: Brad Selwood, Ricky Ley, Jim Dorey, Dave Keon, Norm Ullman, Paul Henderson and my personal favorite, Jim Harrison.But never did I actually play with the stick. Many times I wanted to&mdash;and how grand it would have been to have scored a goal with Bobby Baun&rsquo;s stick&mdash;but I never did. Something inside me said, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t ruin it.&rdquo;So, in my basement or living room, when no one else was-around, I held the stick tightly in my hands and leaned forward, just like the Leafs did in the pictures sold at Maple Leaf Gardens for 25 cents apiece.In my formative years, the stick may have been put aside, but never did it leave me completely. It was always there when I wanted to remember what it was like to be young and naive, when I had no understanding of the word death, let alone cancer.When Robyn first learned of her disease, she was frightened. I clearly remember her telling me about her illness&rsquo;. She asked my parents to leave the room&mdash;they had already known&mdash;because she wanted to talk to me in private.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got leukemia,&rdquo; she said, as her voice broke with emotion.&ldquo;Man,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;leukemia, geez&hellip;&rdquo;&ldquo;Is that all you can say?&rdquo; she said with a combination of anger and fear in her voice.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what else to say,&rdquo; I said.Indeed, I was speechless. I knew she had been tired and sluggish, but I figured she had mononucleois. How fool-ish and stupid I felt when I learned what was really wrong with her.This all happened in April of&rsquo;83. Around that time, the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom I had closely followed through my work with THE HOCKEY NEWS, had just been eliminated in four tough games by Minnesota in the first round of the Norris Division playoffs. While I sat up in the press box and watched the games, I was never totally concentrating. I was always distracted by the thought of my sister lying in a hospital bed with a sickness I couldn&rsquo;t understand. I needed desperately to connect the two, and one thing helped to do it&mdash;a hockey stick auto-graphed by the Leafs.The Leafs, I knew, had always given away sticks to ailing people, so I asked Stan Obodiac, the publicist for Maple Leaf Gardens. But since I didn&rsquo;t know Stan too well, and because I didn&rsquo;t want to publicize my sister&rsquo;s illness, I merely said it was for a friend.A day later, at the final media reception for the Leafs, Stan gave me a stick. But apart from the fact the blade was straight, this stick had a distinctively different personality than the one my father gave my brother and I. This one had no tape on the handle, no number, the names looked as if they were signed with a cheap blue marker, and there was no tape on the blade. This stick was naked.&ldquo;I&rsquo;msorry, most of the players have gone away,&rdquo; Stan said, explaining why there was only about a dozen signatures on the stick.It was raining that day, and as I walked to the hospital, I remember shielding the stick so the signatures wouldn&rsquo;t run and recalling how the original stick had been shellacked by my father so the names wouldn&rsquo;t fade.When I gave the stick to my sister, she appreciated it, but I think it meant more to me. The room had been filled with flowers and cards, and even though I had given Robyn both of these things, I wanted to give her something more; something that would really matter.The original stick had meant so much to me as a young boy. If other kids had a blanket for security, I had a stick. Only a stick could have given me the kind of security I needed at that very awkward time.Six days after my sister&rsquo;s death, I gave the second stick to my sister&rsquo;s friend. Sherri.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure Robyn would want you to have it,&rdquo; I said, knowing that Sherri was a true hockey fan.She held it as if it was a precious gem, the same way I held the original stick when I was young.A few days later, I looked for the original stick and was amazed when I found it. Although the tape had become unfastened on the blade, the stick had maintained its original shape. The shellac had kept the names as brilliant as ever.Maybe time had moved on and people had changed, but the stick had stayed the same.Perry Lefko is the assistant editor of THE HOCKEY NEWS. &#9632;

SOME OTHER VIEWS

<h2>STAINED COFFEY&rsquo;S SEASON</h2>When Paul Coffey lost the Norris Trophy to Rod Lang-way, I could understand how the Professional Hockey Writers Association could make such a mistake. Two defenseman with such contrasting styles are hard to compare, though the fact the trophy is for &ldquo;greatest all-around ability&rdquo; should have buried Rod. But when Coffey lost out in the all-star voting to Ray Bourque, I couldn&rsquo;t believe it.Here are two comparable defensemen and it is obvious that Bourque couldn&rsquo;t lace Paul&rsquo;s skates this year. Bourque had a great year with 96 points, but Coffey had a spectacular year. His 100 assists this season, including playoffs, totalled more than Bourque&rsquo;s points in the same span. His 48 goals this year, including playoffs, totalled more than any defenseman ever, including the great Bobby Orr.With such credentials, Coffey was obviously the league&rsquo;s top defenseman in 1983-84. To be named to the second all-star team is ridiculous.Mark McCourt Edmonton, Alta.<h2>GIVE SATHER CREDIT</h2>I have been a die-hard Islander fan for 10 years, so obviously I am not much of an Oiler fan, but I can&rsquo;t understand why Glen Sather gets so little respect.The Oilers have had the league&rsquo;s best record for two years running now. Sather had to have a little to do with that.There are those who say anyone could win with that kind of talent. Maybe so, but if that&rsquo;s the case, then he&rsquo;s got to be a great executive for acquiring that talent.I&rsquo;m not saying he&rsquo;s the best coach or the best executive, but he should at least get some mention. Neither you nor anyone else sees fit to do that.I just don&rsquo;t understand it. He&rsquo;s got to be either a fine coach or a fine executive and I think he&rsquo;s both.Rick Palmer Auburn, WA &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;For a busy-body moonlighter such as Glen Sather, time is of the essence.Even in route to vacation.On his way to Switzerland for a deserved holiday, the president, general manager and coach of the Oilers stopped off in a couple of eastern ports of call to tidy up some unfinished business.First off, there was the matter of officially accepting an offer from Alan Eagleson, Hockey Canada&rsquo;s chief international negotiator, to manage and coach the Canadian entry in the Canada Cup tournament in September. The announcement was made at a press conference June 19 in Montreal.Two days later, Sather attended a National Hockey League Board of Governors meeting in Teaneck, NJ, where he completed a one-for-one deal with Boston Bruin general manager Harry Sinden. In exchange for economy-sized left winger Mike Krushelnyski, the Oilers gave up spunkly little center Ken Linseman.In his job as head of the Canadian team, which will be trying to improve greatly on the the &lsquo;81 entry&rsquo;s humiliating 8-1 loss to the Soviets, Sather will be assisted by Oiler coaches John Muckier and Ted Green.Former NHL coach Tom Watt, now working at the University of Toronto, will be breaking down films and doing some European scouting.Sather also announced that following the first week of training camp in Montreal Aug. 6, the Canadian team will adjourn to the mountains in Banff for five days of practise, before launching a pre-tournamenmt exhibition series.Why Banff?It happens to be Sather&rsquo;s off-season home.The trade has to be considered surprising from Linseman&rsquo;s standpoint, but Krushelnyski&rsquo;s name had been mentioned in several trade talks by Sinden.&ldquo;I was shocked when I first heard it, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; Linseman confessed from his off-season home in Philadelphia. &ldquo;But business in business. I&rsquo;m a business man, I understand.&rdquo;At the time of the deal, Krushelnyski, a Montreal native, was honeymooning somewhere in the Bahamas following his marriage in upstate New York the previous weekend.There&rsquo;s little question that Sather had been seeking the services of the 6-foot-2. 200 pounder for quite some time.In a rare moment of weakness midway through the 1982-83 NHL campaign, Sather confessed to missing a chance to sign&mdash;for virtually nothing&mdash;the free-agent prospect who had been plying his wares in the American League.But by the time he had acquired Krushelnyski. the price had shot up drastically.&ldquo;I was reluctant to allow a player of Kenny&rsquo;s talent to go, but to get quality, you have to give up quality,&rdquo; said Sather in a prepared statement before boarding an overseas flight for Europe. &ldquo;Krushelnyski should be a valuable addition who combines strong skating and scoring ability and an aggressive style of play.&rdquo;Krushelnyski, 24, is coming off a season in which he produced 25 goals and 20 assists in 66 games with the Bruins. He also comes in considerably cheaper than Linseman, who is entering the option year of a contract valued at $180,000 (U.S. funds) annually. Krushelnyski, a free agent as of July I, has been seeking a healthy raise from the Bruins on his pact that is said to be in the $80,000 range.&ldquo;It was strictly a matter of economics,&rdquo; Linseman reasoned. &ldquo;That, and the fact with Mark (Messier) at center, the Oilers need some wingers.&rdquo;It would be difficult to assess Lines-man&rsquo;s contribution to the Oilers&rsquo; drive to the Stanley Cup. Following a so-so regular season (18 goals, 66 points in 72 games), the 25-year-old emerged with 10 goals in the playoffs, four game-winners, including the eventual clincher in the fifth game with the New York Islanders.Perhaps the most memorable moment, however, was Linseman&rsquo;s goal against Reggie Lemelin to snap a 4-4 tie in Edmonton&rsquo;s 7-4 comeback during the critical seventh game of the Smythe Division final against the upstart Calgary Flames. The determination displayed on that particular goal underlined the quality required for a championship that was to be realized less than a month later.&ldquo;I guess they don&rsquo;t think they need them,&rdquo; Linseman said of his playoff offense with a trace of his bitterness in his voice. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a pretty powerful team that could be a dynasty. And I guess if I miss out on being part of that dynasty, I wouldn&rsquo;t like that for my hockey career. But, if they don&rsquo;t want me, they don&rsquo;t want me&hellip;I&rsquo;m glad somebody else does.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m going to miss anything, it&rsquo;s that group of guys. That&rsquo;s the best bunch I&rsquo;ve ever been involved with&hellip;and I&rsquo;m talking about every single guy on the team. Sure, I was closer to some than others, but we all got along, and I&rsquo;m a loner&hellip;there&rsquo;s no question of that.&ldquo;The two years I spent in Edmonton were two of the best in my life. I always enjoyed going to the rink. It was never boring. It was a lot of fun.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011300/5266930-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="567" height="753"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glen Sather has been appointed to head up the Canadian entry in the Canada Cup.</figcaption></div><h2>Canada Cup Schedule</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02964/5266923-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="1234" height="1527"></div> &#9632;

f0009-01

Oilers’ Boss Has His Cup Full Once Again

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011249/5266961-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">NHL president Clarence Campbell is shown here accepting a silver tray celebrating his 25th anniversary as the head of the league. Campbell died on June 24 in Montreal.</figcaption></div>There are those who knew him as a Rhodes scholar. Others knew him as a soldier. Some knew him as a lawyer, some a hockey referee. But when you look at the legacy of Clarence Sutherland Campbell, who died of pneumonia on June 24 in a Montreal hospital after a lengthy illess, it is clear what we all knew him as&mdash;the well respected president of the National Hockey League for 31 years.Hockey was his life and you can be sure that there won&rsquo;t be another like him, not just in hockey but in any sport. His tenure as head of the NHL is unrivalled in any professional sport.And his contributions to the game&mdash;the NHL pension plan, the flourishing of the Hockey Hall of Fame, to name just two&mdash;surpass those of any other individual.Campbell gave up his position as president of the league to John Ziegler in 1977, but he continued to work out of the league office as an adviser until his health prohibited.Campbell was bom on July 9, 1905 in Fleming, a tiny Saskatchewan town. As a youngster, he was never considered a great athlete, though he excelled at the administrative side of sports.But books, not pucks, were his main interest as a youth.At the age of 20, Campbell graduated from the University of Alberta with degrees in law and arts. A year later, in 1926, he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship and went to England&rsquo;s Oxford University.Aside from studying, he joined Oxford&rsquo;s hockey team. After a game in Switzerland, Campbell was asked to referee another game and it was then he got his start in a job that would ultimately lead him to the National Hockey League.After obtaining two more degrees at Oxford, he returned to Canada at the height of the depression and took a job in a law office. At night, he refereed amateur hockey games.By 1936, Campbell began refereeing in the NHL.That was interrupted by the Second World War and Campbell went overseas as a private. He returned as a lieutenant-colonel and in 1945, he used his legal training as prosecution lawyer for the Canadian War Crimes Unit during the trial of German general Kurt Meyer.During the war, Campbell earned membership in the Order of the British Empire.In 1946, NHL president Mervyn (Red) Dutton contacted Campbell and asked him if he&rsquo;d like to be his assistant. In September of that year, they met and were on their way to attend an NHL meeting, when Dutton told Campbell he was resigning and he wanted Clarence to take over as president.&ldquo;I was president by noon that day,&rdquo; said Campbell.His 31-year tenure was stormy at times. Though he was polite and relatively mild-mannered, he was firm and stubborn, too.His most famous moment came after he suspended Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; scoring ace Maurice (Rocket) Richard for the remainder of the season and the playoffs in 1955.Defying death threats and an unruly crowd, Campbell and his fiance, Phyllis King, (whom he married later that year) attended the game.By the end of the first period, he was forced to leave as the fans went crazy, hurling debris and tear gas at him. It later escalated into a full-scale riot. Even after that, Campbell had no second thoughts about the suspension or his presence at the game.&ldquo;This was the only time I felt my personal authority and that of the NHL challenged,&rdquo; Campbell had said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t fearful about my decision. It never was an issue in my mind. It was so much of a routine decision&hellip;&rdquo;He considered his institution of a pension plan his finest contribution to the game, though he was fiercely proud when, in 1967, the National Hockey League expanded from six teams to 12.The league continued to expand, up to 18 teams while Campbell was still in office.Campbell never forgave the World Hockey Association, born in 1974 and the cause of escalating salaries and much courtroom litigation, and vehemently opposed all attempts at a merger.In August of 1977. at the age of 72, Campbell stepped down, passing the league leadership to Ziegler, the Detroit lawyer who had worked for the Red Wings.While in office, Campbell was healthy and a veritable workhorse. After his retirement, which he found very difficult to adjust to, he was admitted to hospital with several bouts of coronary and respiratory ailments. He underwent major abdo-minal surgery in 1979 and never completely recovered from it.Another factor in his declining health and perhaps the only black mark on his illustrious career came in 1980 when Campbell was found guilty of conspiracy in selling the shares in a Montreal airport duty free shop to Senator Louis Guigere, who in turn sold them at a profit.Campbell was sentenced $25,000 and sentenced to one day in prison. Those close to him said the lengthy legal proceedings contributed to his ailing health.But too much of his life was spent helping others and the game he loved for the Sky Shops Affair to tarnish Campbell&rsquo;s image. Reporters loved him because he was so accessible and never ducked a question, even if the answer got him in trouble and it often did.He was famous for answering the phone, &ldquo;Campbell, here&rdquo; and hockey writer Rex Mac-Leod of the Toronto Star said he always wanted to be remembered as a soldier.&ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s why they (NHL owners) approved of me as president,&rdquo; he once said. &ldquo;They knew I was a soldier and could take orders, regardless of my personal feelings.&rdquo;Sorry, Clarence Sutherland Campbell, but we remember you best as a great hockey man.&ldquo;When you think of hockey, you think of the NHL&mdash;and Mr. Campbell,&rdquo; said Ziegler after hearing of Campbell&rsquo;s death. &ldquo;He had such great dimension and did so much for so many people involved in the game. And he was a great citizen. He loved his country. He loved his community. He loved his wife. He had great dignity.&ldquo;You try to think back to what the league&mdash;and the sport of hockey&mdash;was when he took over. Then you look at what it is today and you realize he was the guy responsible for bringing us where we are.&rdquo;Campbell is survived by his wife, Phyllis, and three sisters.A memorial service, attended by a who&rsquo;s who of hockey, including Rocket Richard, was held on June 28 at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal.See the columns by Frank Orr, Stan Fischler and Dick Beddoes for more tributes and recollections of Clarence Campbell. &#9632;

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CLARENCE SUTHERLAND CAMPBELL

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011344/5267016-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="280" height="336"></div><h2>The Campbell Years</h2>THE MOMENT I learned that Clarence Campbell died, I looked up to a bookshelf in our hallway. Sitting in the back, as dust-laden as an old hockey trophy, rests a scrapbook I had put together in the early 1950s. Its prize possession is a letter dispatched to me by Campbell when he was the National Hockey League president.I was vice-president of the New York Rangers Fan Club at the time and a dreadful thing happened&mdash;the Montreal Canadiens were playing the Rangers at Madison Square on Dec. 20, 1953. It was a mean game to start with, and got nastier from there. During one collision along the boards, Ron Murphy, a Ranger rookie, checked Bernie (Boom Boom) Geoffrion, the bombastic Montreal hotshot.The Boomer lost his stick in the scuffle while Murphy continued to massage Geoffrion&rsquo;s cheek with his elbow. Suddenly, Boom Boom literally went berserk. He searched frantically for his stick, found it. chased Murphy to center ice. and took a baseball swing at the Rangers&rsquo; head. He missed on the first cut while Murphy stood frozen at center ice, seemingly locked in fright. Geoffrion swung again, his stick connecting directly with Murphy&rsquo;s head. His jaw broken. Murphy slumped to the ice, looking very dead&mdash;which he wasn&rsquo;t.To this day it remains the most frightening assault I have seen at a hockey rink. At the time I believed that Campbell should have suspended Geoffrion for life As it happened, Clarence punished both players. Murphy drew a five-game suspension; Geoffrion was barred from playing in any games against the Rangers for the rest of the season.I wrote a withering letter to Campbell denouncing his decision. It was coated with Rangerisms. but lucid nonetheless. The question I raised was simple: How could a player who nearly killed&mdash;maimed at the very least&mdash;another escape with such a puny sentence.<h2>Spelled It Out Clearly</h2>TO MY ASTONISHMENT, I received a return letter from Campbell within a week. He eloquently spelled out his reasons and then tersely concluded that that was his decision as president and if I didn&rsquo;t like it, well, too bad. In its own solid way that letter symbolized Campbell, who led the NHL for three decades and one year.Although he played the part of the Rhodes scholar (which he was, incidentally), Campbell had the heart of a street fighter. Challenge him, as many of us did from time to time, and he&rsquo;d stick his chin out while swinging with a left and a right.In that regard my favorite Campbell story is about the legendary suspension of Maurice (Rocket) Richard in March. 1955. The Rocket was the equivalent then of God to hockey fans in the province of Quebec, much more so than Wayne Gretzky is to Albertans today.The Rocket had trod on Campbell&rsquo;s carpet several times but the longest walk took place after a game in Boston when Richard fought with defenseman Hal Laycoe of the Bruins and then knocked around linesman Cliff Thompson, a former Bruin who had. in Richard&rsquo;s eyes, been overly aggressive in separating him from Laycoe. There was only a week left in the season, the Canadiens were neck-and-neck with Detroit for first place, and Richard, leading the pack, seemed about to win his first scoring championship.A couple of days later, Campbell suspended Richard for all the remaining regular-season games&mdash;which killed his chances of winning his first scoring championship&mdash;and for the entire Stanley Cup playoffs.A man had to be either crazy or supremely confident in his mastery of jurisprudence to do what Campbell did. One opinion was rendered by Montreal general manager, Frank Selke, Jr., who, looking back, said: &ldquo;Campbell was a capable lawyer and a just man. He gave us to understand that hockey has to remain above reproach.&rdquo;<h2>A Gutsy Call</h2>RIGHT OR WRONG, Campbell delivered a gutsy call and then committed the most dangerous act of his life. A day after the suspension was made public, the city of Montreal went totally bananas; fans were enraged over Campbell&rsquo;s decision beyond belief. On Mar. 17, 1955, the Canadiens were to play the Red Wings at The Forum. Clarence normally attended home games in Montreal but this was something else.Several fans phoned to threaten Campbell&rsquo;s life and warned him to stay away from The Forum. Undaunted by the challenge, Campbell had made up his mind to attend, although there was mounting evidence that violent protests would be staged on Ste. Catherine Street West outside the arena. By early evening, placard-carrying fans marched along the sidewalk calling for Campbell&rsquo;s dismissal, if not execution.Long after the episode, I asked Campbell what prompted him to face an audience of 14.000 extremely hostile fans when he had every right to stay home.&ldquo;I had, as league president and as a spectator, every right to be in the building,&rdquo; he replied, and he meant every syllable of it.Campbell went to the game and nearly got himself killed. First he was taunted, then the target of an assault of garbage (one assailant managed to crush a rather large tomato on Campbell&rsquo;s head), then punched. The mood of the crowd was so surly that it appeared police would have difficulty preventing an attempt on his life. Campbell escaped through the rear of the Forum after first finding a sanctuary in the first-aid room. Meanwhile, a full-scale riot started outside and continued well into the night.To this day, Campbell&rsquo;s decision to attend the game is debated. Richard, in his autobiography, called it a mistake.&ldquo;To my mind, that was as irresponsible an act as any that occurred,&rdquo; Richard said. &ldquo;What Campbell did was no more sensible than waving a red flag in front of an angry bull.&rdquo;<h2>Job On The Line</h2>IN RETROSPECT, I believe Clarence did the right and courageous&mdash;albeit dangerous&mdash;thing. He put the presidency on the firing line and demonstrated that he would not be intimidated by one or 14,000 fans. It was one helluva move, although I wasn&rsquo;t so sure about it at the time.Camille DesRoches, who was the Canadiens publicist at the time, remembers the episode well.&ldquo;If he hadn&rsquo;t gone,&rdquo; says DesRoches, &ldquo;people would have said he was a coward.&rdquo;Campbell was an effective president in many ways and not without flaws. If I were to single out his most egregious mistake, it would be a slip of the tongue that resulted in the resignation of the league&rsquo;s best referee, Red Storey.The Canadiens were playing the Black Hawks at Chicago Stadium in an especially bitter Stanley Cup round. Storey was the ref, and Campbell was watching as supervisor of the series. At one point, Ed Litzenberger of the Hawks went down but no penalty was called. Storey saw it as a dive, and the Canadiens scored on the counterattack. A few minutes later, Bobby Hull was bodychecked by Junior Langlois of Montreal, and Hull fell to the ice. Again, no penalty.&ldquo;Bobby took the greatest dive I&rsquo;ve ever seen,&rdquo; said Storey. On the return rush, the Canadiens scored and won the game. Campbell was furious with Storey&rsquo;s performance. In the company of an Ottawa journalist with whom he had had a long acquaintanceship, Clarence launched a severe critique of his top referee. The president had mistakenly assumed that his comments were off the record.Although Campbell had been speaking in confidence, grating anti-Storey articles appeared from coast-to-coast. When the referee arrived in Boston he picked up a paper and read the headline, Red Storey Chokes&mdash;Campbell.&rdquo;In fact. Campbell had tried to intercept Storey when the president realized that his off-the-cuff remarks would be made public, but it was too late. Storey resigned in the middle of the playoffs and never officiated another NHL game.<h2>Always Available</h2>THOSE OF US who followed Clarence through his seemingly endless reign enjoyed him for his availability. Whether he liked you or not&mdash;and I can guarantee that he loathed me a lot&mdash;Campbell would never duck a phone call. When you called him. the trademark opener was a rather British, &ldquo;Campbell, here,&rdquo; followed by a patient discussion of any hockey topic you cared to pursue.Clarence was more intelligent than most of those with whom he dealt, but he never apologized for his brains. I&rsquo;ll always remember Clarence for teaching me the word &ldquo;indigenous.&rdquo; That was one of his favorites.As league president, he was more pragmatic than powerful. He had no pretenses about his stewardship. He worked for the governors. Period. Conn Smythe, the most powerful NHL boss when Campbell was hired in 1946. wrote in his autobiography: &ldquo;Campbell was doing well&mdash;because he would do what he was told.&rdquo;This was not a put-down; it was a fact of life.For the first 20 years of Campbell&rsquo;s stewardship, he (like most owners) opposed expansion. But when the lords of hockey decided that it was time to spread the NHL gospel to Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Oakland, among other places, Clarence delivered a muted &ldquo;Hallelujah!&rdquo; and did his best under the often trying circumstances.I know many hockey people who sincerely believe that whatever success the NHL now enjoys is due. more than anything, to Campbell&rsquo;s stewardship.He was a good guy&mdash;a lot warmer than some may have imagined&mdash;and one who could enjoy a laugh, even at his own expense. One, in particular, stands out. Clarence loved to wind down a press conference with a glass of vodka and orange juice, otherwise known as a screwdriver.One such conference had just ended and Clarence, obviously fatigued, beckoned a hotel employee over and asked if he would be kind enough to bring him a screwdriver.The man obliged. It was a screwdriver that drives screws into walls.Clarence thought that was immensely funny. &#9632;

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ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>Question: What does a referee do following 18 years of duty in the National Hockey League? In Bruce Hood&rsquo;s case, the answer is go Hollywood.Well, actually, it&rsquo;s not really Hollywood. but the next best thing, television.Hood, 48, is looking at television commentating as a means of keeping his ties with the NHL, following a career which began Feb. 9, 1966 and concluded recently with his retirement. In all, Hood appeared in 1,033 games, the most of any other referee.But what could possibly make a guy who is used to being judged want to stand in judgment of others on TV?&ldquo;I want to put something back in the game and I feel I have something to offer,&rdquo; Hood said. &ldquo;I have the gift of the gab.&rdquo;Hood said he&rsquo;s talked to four or five people in radio and TV, and though &ldquo;nothing concrete&rdquo; has resulted as a result of his conversations, he has a &ldquo;couple of real good feelers.&rdquo;Hood said that working behind a mike might be pressure-filled, but having worked in an arena such as Madison Square Garden in New York, where it seems as though the fans haven&rsquo;t been fed in a few days, he thinks he can make the adjustment.Not that he won&rsquo;t experience the shakes.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not (nervous), I don&rsquo;t want to do it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like doing a hockey game, you have to be nervous. Gordie Howe once said, when you stop having butterflies before the game, it&rsquo;s time to pack it in. I feel the same way.&rdquo;Reflecting on his career. Hood said the championship final in 1970 between Boston and St. Louis stands out as the most special. That was the game in which Bobby Orr created one of the most famous shots in sports when he tripped over defenseman Noel Picard&rsquo;s stick and horizontally flew through the crease, his arms raised in the air.&ldquo;Officials and players have a good rapport,&rdquo; Hood said. &ldquo;They have a job to do and we have a job to do. The big thing is respectability.&rdquo;Hood had actually planned to add one more season to his distinguinshed career, but the NHL hierarchy advised him that they wanted to bring in some fresh blood, and gave him a &ldquo;nice severance allowance&rdquo; to convince him to retire.&ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Hey, that beats working.&rsquo;&rdquo; he said.Hood recently watched a tape of a game he worked, and he admitted to ex-periencing an unusual feeling when he realized that he wouldn&rsquo;t be refeering again.&ldquo;I had a real different feeling, like hey, that&rsquo;s over, and I can&rsquo;t describe the feeling I had,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That had been my life for 25 years and consequently, you don&rsquo;t just walk away front it&hellip;but I realize that it&rsquo;s just a part of life and I have to move on.&ldquo;I have a million fond memories and hopefully I&rsquo;ll be able to share them.&rdquo; &#9632;

Hood Wants To Share Experiences On TV

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011267/5267106-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"></div><h2>Final Scoring And Penalty Records For All Major And Minor League Players</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011320/5267099-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="3106" height="3845"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011238/5267092-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="3131" height="2741"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011116/5267085-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="3093" height="3827"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01980/5267078-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="3106" height="3846"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011015/5267071-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="3092" height="2509"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY NEWS STATISTICS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02891/5267137-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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The NHL’s Leading Shooters For 1983-84

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02766/5267175-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02704/5267168-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="3158" height="1270"></div> &#9632;

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Atlantic Coast Hockey League

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01945/5267206-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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Final Goaltending Statistics

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01805/5267237-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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EMERY PLUS-MINUS STATISTICS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01599/5267275-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div><h2>TOP Scorers In Minor League Hockey</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02337/5267268-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="3131" height="382"></div> &#9632;

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International Hockey League

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01693/5267327-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div><h2>Ontario Hockey League</h2><h2>Quebec Hockey League</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01675/5267320-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="3032" height="1789"></div><h2>Western Hockey League</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01626/5267313-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="3088" height="3786"></div><h2>Top Juniors In Country</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02474/5267306-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="529" height="961"></div> &#9632;

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<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03325/5267372-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="274" height="368"></div><h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2>PLAYERS WANTED PORT-AUX-BASQUES Mariners of the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League require for the 1984/85 season, a player-coach plus other players. We are looking for players with junior, senior or pro experience. Please forward resume and qualifications to: Jack Evans, Box 50 Isle-Aux-Morts, Nfld., A0M 1J0, or call (709) 698-3776.HOCKEY PLAYERS WANTED Cranbrook Royals Sr. Hockey Club of the Western International Hockey League. P.O. Box 580 Cranbrook B.C., V1C 4J1. Phone (604) 426-4771 or (604) 426-2956.Employment and scholarships available.JOB OPENING:Market Developer with the National Novice Hockey League. Management, communication, sales and marketing experience required. Position requires relocation to So. California plus temporary travel. Salary: 18-22K plus benefits. Send resume to: NNHL-Personnel, P.O. Box 563, Chatsworth, CA, 91311.TOURNAMENTS2ND ANNUAL YANKEE CUP Tournament August 28-September 2, Danvers Twin Rinks. Danvers, MA. For information call Torre Lapiana (617) 438-1017.AUDIO1980 USA Olympic hockey VHS videotapes (2 tapes, all games). Available for trade for other international hockey cassettes. Barry A. Winiker, 403 8th St., Brooklyn, NY, 11215.MERCHANDISESAMURAI GOALTENDER T-SHIRT. Samurai warrior in goaler pads, leaping into the air, goal stick raised to strike. Red and black on white 50/50 ringer tee. S, M, L, XL $7.95. Lee&rsquo;s Tees, P.O. Box 8546, Reading, PA, 19603-8546.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04202/5267365-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="169" height="307"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05151/5267358-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="1759" height="1091"></div> &#9632;

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The Classified

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Pittsburgh may be hanging its season ticket sales on the shoulders of Mario Lemieux, but some other NHL honchos are tickled that the Pens got him&mdash;or, as some say, are stuck with him. One confidential scouting report on him says: &ldquo;Lemieux is a dog. He hasn&rsquo;t one spark in him. It&rsquo;shard to see how he&rsquo;ll pick up a team. Hedogs it. In junior he didn&rsquo;t have to hustle. He doesn&rsquo;thaveabig heart.&rdquo; At least two Norris Division teams placed Lemieux below Kirk Muller on their selection list. &ldquo;The Devils came out the best,&rdquo; a Norris Division scout tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;Muller is a good hockey player and a good character guy.&rdquo;&hellip;Mike Hitch&rsquo;s bid to have the 1985 NHL draft switched from its traditional home in Montreal to Detroit was rebuffed by the NHL governors, although seven moguls supported the Red Wing bid. The only affirmative Canadian vote on the proposed transfer was delivered by Toronto&rsquo;s Harold Ballard. The Wings offered to foot the bill to move any necessary league gear to Detroit if they could play host to the draft. The Canucks also made a bid to have it moved to Vancouver in 1986 to coincide with the city&rsquo;s centennial&hellip;Bill Wirtz was re-elected chairman of the Board of Governors.Word from Philly has the Flyers displeased with the NHL&rsquo;s deal with the Licensing Corporation of America. Rumbles about it were heard at the governors&rsquo; meeting in New Jersey. The conference originally was slated for a Manhattan hotel but was switched to Teaneck, NJ, when Devil boss John McMullen offered to pick up the tab. Despite considerable talk about the NHL changing its playoff format&mdash;the Flyers requested a reversion to the system where the first-place team opens against the 16th&mdash;it will remain the same. The league also will retain the same sudden-death overtime format for regular-season games. McMullen has made a strong pitch to his colleagues for drastic changes in the roles so that the lower echelon clubs can obtain parity. In adetailed submission to the governors, McMullen urged that major concessions be made to weak clubs. Under his plan, they would receive bonus selections in the draft. Another suggestion I is that the draft be held in December so that clubs may have more time to evaluate the 18-year-olds. According to a well-placed Jersey source, McMullen is dead serious about his proposal which also includes a reduction of each team&rsquo;s protected list to 13 and fixed rosters of 24 during the season. It will be considered at the league&rsquo;s July meeting in Toronto&hellip;ESPN&rsquo;s pitch for the NHL&rsquo;s Game of the Week telecast in the United States turned more serious than some imagined. Earlier it had appeared that the USA Network had won renewal of the contract&hellip;The NHL has come up with a standard puck to be manufactured by the General Tire and RubberCompany&hellip;Craig Redmond, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings after sending a letter in advance to the Maple Leafs stating his refusal to play for them, had informed several teams of his interest in playing for them. According to one source, the Kings were not one of them&hellip;Boston defenseman Randy Hillier has asked to be traded. He figures he&rsquo;ll never be a regular on the Bruins. Hillier told friends that by playoff time, the three key Bruins, Rick Middleton, Barry Pederson and Ray Bourque, were so tired they could hardly walk&hellip;Several scouts have expressed surprise at the Maple Leafs&rsquo; top two draft choices&mdash;defensemen Al lafrate and Todd Gill&mdash;neither of whom is rated good enough to make the big club this fall. &ldquo;A team that missed the playoffs figures to want to draft one or two guys who can jump right into the NHL,&rdquo; one scout tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;Neither of these two is close to being ready.&rdquo;A spate of Oiler &ldquo;Stanley Cup champion&rdquo; T-shirts are in circulation with Edmonton misspelled &ldquo;Edmondton.&rdquo;&hellip;The league&rsquo;s running battle over whether a second competing network (Carling-O&rsquo;Keefe) tv show can operate in Canada remains unsettled. Now, however, it appears that a compromise may be hammered out&hellip;Reports heard during the season that Howard Baldwin would play a diminished role with the Hartford Whalers are erroneous, if his participation at league meetings is any barometer. Baldwin occupied the governor&rsquo;s chair at the most recent NHL confab and appears as much a force as ever&hellip;One owner&rsquo;s comment about Wayne Gretzky: &ldquo;The Kid is the equivalent of five 20-game winners on a baseball team.&rdquo;&hellip;Former Islander defenseman Bert Marshall was seen at Kennedy Airport with a big smile on his face and a wink indicating he&rsquo;ll be back working for an NHL team next season&hellip;The subject of revenue sharing continues to be pursued by some league moguls&hellip;Ranger defenseman Dave Maloney kept a personal diary during the playoffs and will have it published in the summer issue of New York Sports magazine. One of J Maloney&rsquo;s revelations was that he dramatically changed his attitude toward teammate Pierre Larouche, from revulsion at first to, at the very least, understanding at season&rsquo;s end. Maloney says he originally saw Larouche as being selfish, cocky and lazy; now he sees him as being sensitive and intelligent. Maloney also X-rays his benching and his buddy, Mike Rogers, during the playoff round against the Islanders. He says Rogers&rsquo; problem is that he lost &ldquo;the killer instinct&rdquo; and that this problem was more mental than physical. As for his own embarrassing benching, Maloney&rsquo;s explanation is that coach Herb Brooks wanted a defensive lineup and inserted Steve Richmond instead. Although rumors continue to circulate the Maloney is finished in New York, he says he hopes to be back on Broadway. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01590/5267427-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Berry (right), pictured with his former boss, Serge Savard (left), doesn&rsquo;t plan on doing anything radically different with the Penguins.</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;His friends think he may have gone senile or spent too much time in the sun to become coach of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s worst team, but Bob Berry is happy to be with the Penguins.&ldquo;I realize the situation here represents a tremendous challenge,&rdquo; Berry understated, &ldquo;and I can honestly say that I&rsquo;m very eager to roll up my sleeves and go to work right here in Pittsburgh.&ldquo;A lot of my friends in Montreal, when the rumors were surfacing, would phone me and ask me if maybe I had gone senile my last three years in Montreal, or whether I had my brain baked in Los Angeles over the summer to come to a situation as we have here in Pittsburgh.&rdquo;Berry replaces Lou Angotti, who coached Pittsburgh for one season. The Penguins were 16-58-6 this past season, the worst record in the franchise&rsquo;s 17 year history and last in the overall NHL standings for the second season in a row.&ldquo;It was not easy to attract Bob Berry to Pittsburgh,&rdquo; said Penguin vice-president Paul Martha. &ldquo;There were three or four other teams that were after his services. A lot of the credit certainly has to go to Eddie Johnston, our general manager, who stayed after Bob.&ldquo;He is the most experienced and the most successful hockey coach that we have ever had with this franchise. With a coach like Bob Berry, we are very satisfied. We think that he can pick up this ship and put it on its right course.&rdquo;The 40-year-old Berry played seven seasons in the NHL with Montreal and Los Angeles. He coached three years with the Kings and two-and-a-half seasons with the Canadiens before he was fired in February. His overall NHL coaching record is 223-165-75.&ldquo;We are very fortunate to get Bob Berry,&rdquo; said Johnston. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question the clubs that were after him were Philly, Vancouver, L.A., Toronto, Jersey. There wasn&rsquo;t any hidden fact.&ldquo;We felt that we would go after the best coach that was available. His track record is tremendous. He&rsquo;s very, very strong in the discipline. This is something that we want to continue, especially with our three first-round kids (Mario Lemieux; Doug Bodger and Roger Belanger).&rdquo;One thing which Berry was criticized for in Montreal was relying too much on his veterans and not using younger players. But the Penguins are thin in terms of veteran content.&ldquo;I am very excited about working with what I think is a fine nucleus of young players here in the Pittsburgh organization,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;I believe the Pitt; sburgh franchise has suffered from a lack of draft choices. This year, the fact that we had three picks in the first round, is a giant, giant stride in the right direction.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t believe that draft choices guarantee overnight success, but if you look at the track record of the Islanders, Minnesota, Boston, Buffalo, Edmonton&mdash;some of the teams that have been successful in the past while&mdash;you&rsquo;ll find that path is strewn with not only their draft choices, but draft choices that they have accumulated from other franchises.&rdquo;Berry says his coaching philosophy is straightforward.&ldquo;I believe in fundamentals, I believe in hard work, I believe in discipline, and I believe in mental preparation,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My coaching philosophy is basically very, very simple. I don&rsquo;t really think a coach and his team can guarantee a victory every night. But there should be no way&mdash;there should be no way at all&mdash;that a coach and his players can&rsquo;t guarantee effort, hard work and discipline. From that, a lot can, and should, be accomplished.&rdquo;Berry is optimistic, but he also is realistic. The Penguins finished 55 points out of a playoff spot last season in the Patrick Division.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re 21st in the league, there&rsquo;s only one piece to go&mdash;and I mean that very sincerely,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very difficult situation here. You could improve conceivably by 50 points and. in the division we&rsquo;re in right now, still not be termed a success.&ldquo;During the summer I&rsquo;m going to set some goals for the team. Whether it&rsquo;s a 10 per cent, 20 per cent, 40 per cent increase, we&rsquo;re going to set a goal for ourselves at the beginning of the year and go after it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0025-01

Berry Has Simple Ideas On Turning Around Pens

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01626/5267465-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="931" height="269"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02434/5267458-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="2221" height="919"></div>Triskate, a revolutionary new three-wheel skate from England, is now being introduced for sale in the United States and Canada.The Triskate consists of three curved wheels positioned in a straight line assembly. The center wheel is positioned slightly lower than the front and back wheels to enable the skater to perform movements that have until now, been restricted to ice skating.This new product has similarities to ice skating and performs with the grace, speed and skill associated with that sport. Triskates can be used indoors for hockey, figure skating, speed races, dancing or just plain fun.In Europe, where more than 1,000 retail stores sell Triskates, leagues and tournaments have helped spur the craze. Twenty Triskate hockey teams have been formed in Germany and another 12 are operating in England. The first international hockey match between these two countries took place in Hanover, Germany, in the summer of 1983.But while Triskate hockey seems to be gaining in popularity, the company says the skates shouldn&rsquo;t be limited to use in that sport. Roller rinks throughout the country will offer Triskates for rental and the American sales campaign will be bolstered by a series of special events and competitions planned by the company to introduce the new sport.SEND ALL DEALER INQUIRES TO: NORTHWIN 271 EAST ORVIS STREET MASSENA, N.Y. 13662 TELEPHONE: (315) 769-9966<h2>LIST OF TRISKATE DEALERS IN THE UNITED STATES:</h2><h3>CALIFORNIA</h3>Art Guiney&rsquo;s Sport ShopCulver City<h3>CONNECTICUT</h3>Hockey Swap & ShopEnfield<h3>ILLINOIS</h3>Gunzo&rsquo;sRiver Forest<h3>INDIANA</h3>Screaming Wheels Roller RinkGary<h3>KENTUCKY</h3>Erika AmundesonLouisville<h3>MAINE</h3>The Good SportBrunswick<h3>MASSACHUETTS</h3>A.A. SportsS. WeymouthButler&rsquo;s Sporting GoodsHyannisCohasset Winter GardenCohassetHolovak & CoughlinArlingtonLocker Room Sports East BostonLull & HartfordLowellTabbs Sport CenterSpringfield<h3>MICHIGAN</h3>Cascade Sports ArenaGrand RapidsHockey WholesaleWaterfordJohnsons Sport CenterMarquetteMontreal SportWaterfordRadke&rsquo;sSt. Clair ShoresSuburban Sport CenterSouthfieldWeber&rsquo;s Sporting GoodsHoughton<h3>MINNESOTA</h3>Casey&rsquo;sAuroraCunninghams Hockey ShopSouth St. PaulD & E SportsRoseauDeal On Wheels FaganFitzharra&rsquo;s AthleticSt. CloudFour Season SportsInternational FallsJ. Thomas AthleticSt. PaulLetterman Sports BlaineNorthern Lights SportsVirginiaOutdoor StoreRodesingParish Inc.VirginiaPeterson HockeyDeep HavenPhalen Park & SportSt. PaulPlaza HardwareVirginiaRay&rsquo;s Sport & CycleGrand RapidsR & R SportAlbert LeaRiedell SkateRed WingTeam Work SportsExcelsionWestonka SportsMoundWestwood Skate & BikeBloomington<h3>NEW JERSEY</h3>C & L Skate ShopEast HanoverHockey DenCherry HillO&rsquo;Shea AthleticWestwood<h3>NEW YORK</h3>Crow&rsquo;s Sport ShopMassenaCRS SportsGarnervilleKemp&rsquo;sLathamMike De Rossi SportAlbany<h3>NORTH DAKOTA</h3>GerrellsGrand ForksHome of EconomyGrand ForksMinot ScheelsMinotSportsworldGrafton<h3>OHIO</h3>Cleveland Sporting GoodsSouth EuclidFritsche&rsquo;sParnaHara&rsquo;s Pro ShopDaytonJim Myer SportsFairview ParkOhio State Pro ShopColumbusSports AtticShaker HeightsTam O&rsquo;Shanter SportsSylvania<h3>PENNSYLVANIA</h3>Maderia EnterpriseDevanSlap Shot AlleyPhiladelphia<h3>RHODE ISLAND</h3>Arena Hockey ShopWoonsocket<h3>VERMONT</h3>Jay Bern SportsBarre<h3>UTAH</h3>Hockey HavenSalt Lake CitySkate & ScoreSalt Lake City<h3>WISCONSIN</h3>Belanger&rsquo;s SportsGreen BayCampus Cycle & SportStevens PointHallie Hockey ShopChippewa FallsMiddleton Cycle ShopMiddletonMid-City SportingMilwaukeeMoonshadow MountaineeringGreen BayMonona Village PeddlerMononaNorthwest Outlet Inc.SuperiorNorthwoods SportsRhinelanderSport AboutBeloitSuter&rsquo;s Gold Medal SportsMadison &#9632;

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TRISKATE®

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;How&rsquo;s this for irony?The bitter loser in the affair. Bryan Murray, was the first to crack the big time, with Washington in 1981-82, and was recently named the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Coach of the Year.The man blamed four years ago for the sordid spectacle, Mike Keenan, secured a multi-year contract in May to coach the Philadelphia Flyers, whose rebuilt staff includes rookie general manager Bobby Clarke.Doug Carpenter, who enjoyed the last laugh in the 1980 Memorial Cup when his Cornwall Royals surprised Keenan&rsquo;s Peterborough Petes in the championship game, 3-2, on Robert Savard&rsquo;s overtime goal, was signed recently to just a one-year contract and handed the unenviable task of performing an exorcism on last season&rsquo;s 17-56-7 New Jersey Devils.So four years after three men buried the memory of the controversial 1980 Memorial Cup in Regina, Sask., their careers meet again in the cut-throat Patrick Division.&ldquo;It is ironic and quite humorous,&rdquo; Keenan said, &ldquo;that three of us had success at the junior level at the same time and now end up in the Patrick Division.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a coincidence,&rdquo; said Carpenter, when asked if his and Keenan&rsquo;s ascensions carried a trace of irony. &ldquo;We both served the same type of apprenticeships.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think, realistically, that we could have thought it would happen,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;But certainly we were all capable people. We all had ambitions. If you wait your turn, it does happen to you. And we&rsquo;ve all become good friends.&rdquo;The &lsquo;80 Memorial Cup earned the reputation as one of the most ornery in major junior history. After four days of the tournament&mdash;pitting Keenan&rsquo;s Ontario Hockey League champion Peterborough Petes, Carpenter&rsquo;s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Cornwall Royals, and Murray&rsquo;s Western Hockey League winning Regina Pats&mdash;Peterborough was 3-0, Cornwall 1-1, Regina 0-3.The following night, however, the Doug Wickenheiser-led Pats romped over the Dale Hawerchuk-led Royals, 11-2. That meant the last game of the round-robin. Cornwall vs. Peterborough, would determine whether the Pats or the Royals would meet the Petes in the final. Because Regina was 1-3 and had outscored Cornwall in total goals, Cornwall needed a win to advance.And the Royals won, rallying from a 4-1 deficit for a 5-4 win in the Agridome. That&rsquo;s when the trouble began.The Saskatchewan fans, sensing that Peterborough allowed Cornwall to win because the Petes preferred playing the Royals in the championship game, responded angrily to their team being ousted from the final. They began pelting Keenan&rsquo;s Petes with debris. That contemptible behavior continued in the title game, and had an obvious effect on Peterborough&rsquo;s players.&ldquo;The feeling was that (Peterborough) didn&rsquo;t try to win (against Cornwall),&rdquo; Murray recalled. &ldquo;They scored early in the game, but didn&rsquo;t score late. That was the creation of the controversy. But Carpenter had Cornwall going very good. Maybe we were all wrong; maybe they were the better club.&rdquo;&ldquo;It was certainly a hometown reaction,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;Cornwall had an excellent hockey club.&rdquo;Their careers remained entwined for 1980-81 in the American Hockey League. Murray coached Washington&rsquo;s. J farm club in Hershey. Keenan was to coach the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; affiliate Rochester and Carpenter was hired Toronto to coach New Brunswick.But by the middle of next season, Murray was in Washington and Carpenter was in Cincinnati of the Central League. Carpenter returned to the AHL to coach J two seasons in St. Catharines. After winning the Calder Cup in 1983. Keenan leftRochester to become coach of the University of Toronto.Before hiring Carpenter, Devil generalmanager Max McNab contacted Keenan. 34, about the vacated coaching post. But when Clarke and the Flyers beckoned, Keenan motored 100 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike.New Jersey&rsquo;s search ended with a man who had been released by the Maple Leafs&rsquo; organization. Carpenter&rsquo;s one-year contract was hardly a show of support by Devil chairman John J. McMullen, especially when you consider who was hired as Carpenter&rsquo;s assistant: Lou Vairo, the 1984 U.S. Olympic coach.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no strange situation here,&rdquo; said the 41-year-old Carpenter. &ldquo;I guess if you weren&rsquo;t able to do the job, you don&rsquo;t deserve a second year. One way of looking at it is that the people who want the long-range contracts are the ones who are established. The one year doesn&rsquo;t concern me.&ldquo;What does it do in terms of security? If they&rsquo;re going to get rid of you, they&rsquo;ll get rid of you anyway. Oh, they&rsquo;ll pay you if you have the years left, but there&rsquo;s no security in terms of employment.&rdquo;Security? Not when you&rsquo;re talking hockey coaches. Four years after their major flap, Murray, the guy who was left out, is firmly entrenched behind the bench of one of hockey&rsquo;s strongest clubs. Keenan, the guy who should have won but didn&rsquo;t, has an opportunity he couldn&rsquo;t pass up.And Carpenter, whose 1980 team stunned junior hockey, again has the toughest task of all. &#9632;

Keenan, Carpenter Go Back A Long Way

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01597/5267520-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="274" height="329"></div><h2>Pat Quinn&rsquo;s Approach</h2>WITH PAT QUINN moving in as the new head coach of the Los Angeles Kings and Mike Murphy continuing as the assistant coach, the temptation is to say, at least the Kings will have the luck of the Irish on their side.But Quinn, one of the proudest Irishmen of our time, is smart enough to know it will take more than luck to revive the Kings. After consecutive last-place finishes, the Kings need drastically improved goaltending, better team defense and. perhaps most of all, a more positive attitude.As a former NHL defenseman and then coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, Quinn knows you can&rsquo;t just ask players to change their attitudes. Players on losing teams must see that management is leading them in the right direction. With George Maguire finally ousted from the Kings&rsquo; general manager&rsquo;s chair and Rogie Vachon in charge, Quinn thinks the Kings are making the right moves.&ldquo;There has to be an attitude change out there more than anything,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to ask Marcel Dionne to bowl someone over to try and get the puck back. But there are some definite responsibilities that relate to being physical. Physical to me can mean two things. Paul Holmgren is physical and a Brian Propp is physical, but he&rsquo;s not gonna dominate you with his muscle like Holmgren. I expect that, even with the players we have who wouldn&rsquo;t be termed Holmgren-style physical, they can do that other job.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have many of the physical-type players, but I think we can ask players to do some mucking. You don&rsquo;t have to be a guy who crashes over people to be effective in getting the puck back. A Propp isn&rsquo;t a very big man, but he mucks, gets his body in the way, and he&rsquo;s effective because of it.&rdquo;Before anyone in Los Angeles recoils in horror thinking Quinn is hauling in the Broad Street Bullies, they should know they are getting a reasonable, progressive, caring man as coach of their beloved Kings. Quinn can be tough and stubborn, but what good coach isn&rsquo;t?<h2>Set Sports Record</h2>DESPITE WHAT HAPPENED in Philadelphia, Quinn is a good coach and presumably has learned from his mistakes. Remember, he was the Flyers&rsquo; coach when they set an NHL&mdash;and professional sports&mdash;35-game unbeaten record. Quinn was also the coach when the Flyers reached the 1980 Stanley Cup finals.It will be awhile before the Kings reach the Stanley Cup finals, but having Quinn behind the bench is a step in the right direction. That Quinn decided to return to coaching wasn&rsquo;t the easiest decision he ever had to make. He is 41 and has two years in at Delaware Law School. Contacts with some Philadelphia area law firms indicate he wouldn&rsquo;t be standing in the unemployment line waving his law degree. In addition, he and his family like living in the Philadelphia area.&ldquo;While the challenge of coaching is very rewarding,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you wonder, even when you think you do a pretty good job, whether someone will wake up some day and say, &lsquo;This guy&rsquo;s no good for our team anymore&mdash;let&rsquo;s boot him out.&rsquo;&ldquo;If I hadn&rsquo;t proceeded in that law thing and was selling cars or doing some other job that I didn&rsquo;t like, it would have been an easier decision.&rdquo;Quinn and his wife, Sandra, had just returned from house-hunting in the Los Angeles area. The trip was almost as depressing as the Kings&rsquo; recent record. Quinn hopes to locate near the famed Mission Viejo swim club because his daughters are talented swimmers.&ldquo;But for what we think we can spend, what they showed us is like moving into an apartment,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve negotiated a fair contract, but it appears our lifestyle will go down from the economic standpoint.&rdquo;Quinn isn&rsquo;t looking for sympathy&mdash;the shock of California real estate is simply a fact many other easterners have discovered when they consider moving to California.The history of the Kings was also a factor in Quinn&rsquo;s decision.<h2>Players Disappointed</h2>&ldquo;THE TEAM HAS not achieved very highly,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;And its own players have expressed a great deal of disappointment. Their star player, Marcel, is at a point where he would consider being moved out of there because nothing was happening for him. When you see players making those comments, you wonder if there are some real problems that just can&rsquo;t be fixed.&rdquo;Eventually, however, Quinn&rsquo;s desire to return to a job he enjoyed overcame the negatives. He&rsquo;ll start the job with enthusiasm as he works toward improving the Kings. He&rsquo;ll also be working toward bolstering the position of all coaches.&ldquo;The coach is the one job that is defenseless when other parts of the management team aren&rsquo;t working together,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost an attitude that pervades in the game, that everybody knows that&rsquo;s the job that&rsquo;s gonna catch the fire.&rdquo;Quinn believes the coach should be involved in player selection, at least as far as players fitting into the team concept.&ldquo;Yet, scouts will often say, &lsquo;What&rsquo;she want to sit in on these meetings for? He&rsquo;s only the coach.&rsquo; The coach gets isolated. I&rsquo;ve read Freddie Shero say that the coach gets isolated by the management team. They want him to be management, but they won&rsquo;t treat him like management. That&rsquo;s why he becomes a players&rsquo; coach. It&rsquo;s a defense mechanism against the backward thinking that goes on.&ldquo;Three or four years ago at the league meeting, every other job description had meetings to discuss how they could-improve their situation and become better in their jobs. When we (coaches) tried to put meetings together, there was general alarm and shock at the thought.&ldquo;Some teams are in the bottom six all the time, others are in the middle, and the same six or seven teams are always at the top because those teams at the top have management teams that work well together.&rdquo;Quinn expects the new Kings&rsquo; front-office team to work well together. He thinks acquiring Bob Janecyk from Chicago will strengthen L.A.&rsquo;s goaltending. Now, if only Quinn can get to meet Kings&rsquo; owner Jerry Buss some time&hellip; &#9632;

f0028-01

BILL FLEISCHMAN’S HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01512/5267551-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

The Hockey News BookShelf

<div class="byline">Wayne Gretzky</div>Wayne Gretzky is a magnet when it comes to awards, so it&rsquo;s really no surprise that he walked away with THE HOCKEY NEWS/Bridgestone Tire 1983-84 Player of the Year Award.Maybe the only surprise is that Gretzky, who has won the THN Player of the Year Award an unprecedented five consecutive times, didn&rsquo;t accept the honor on crutches. After all, it&rsquo;s only been a short time since The Great One underwent minor surgery to correct a circulation problem in his ankle.However, Gretzky, who attended THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; First Annual Awards Luncheon in Toronto on June 27. appears to be making a good recovery.Washington Capitals&rsquo; outstanding defenseman, Rod Langway, was runner-up to Gretzky in the balloting conducted by THN writers and columnists.Gretzky is expected to be fit enough to participate in the Canada Cup in September.Last season, Gretzky not only won his fourth straight Art Ross Trophy as the top scorer in the league with 87 goals and 118 assists, he also won his fifth straight Hart Trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the league.But even Gretzky admits that of all his achievements, winning the Stanley Cup tops the list. Gretzky played a major role in the Edmonton Oilers dethroning the four-time Cup champion New York Islanders.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01587/5267582-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="655" height="1251"><figcaption class="caption-body">Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky, who is recuperating from minor ankle surgery, is expected to be ready for Team Canada&rsquo;s training camp.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

NHL Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">Scott Bowman</div>The kids are alright in Buffalo, but the credit must go the man who molded them together&mdash;William Scott Bowman.Bowman has used unparalleled hockey acumen to build the Sabres into a competitive team, since taking over as coach, general manager and director of hockey operations in 1979.His biggest coup was getting a total of six first-round picks in two successive entry drafts (&lsquo;82 and &lsquo;83). allowing him to build a good, young nucleus for the Sabres.Bowman&rsquo;s work with the Sabres was rewarded this past season with THE HOCKEY NEWS Executive of the Year Award.Washington Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile was a runner-up to Bowman in the balloting.Bowman is a shrewd and tough man, one who is sometimes considered an enigma. But there is nothing puzzling about his ability to take a team and make it successful. He did it in St. Louis, followed it up in Montreal, and now is doing a masterful job in Buffalo.The fact Bowman is both coach and general manager, makes his award that much more outstanding. Few executives are assuming the dual portfolio because of the amount of work involved, but Bowman seems to enjoy doing both&mdash;and it&rsquo;s obvious he does them well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03294/5267613-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="657" height="1250"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo Sabre general manager and coach Scott Bowman, who has constructed an exciting young team, won Executive-of-the-Year honors.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-03

NHL Executive Of The Year

<div class="byline">Bryan Murray</div>Bryan Murray is a firm believer in the work ethic. His belief is so strong, in fact, that his Washington Capital players worked their way out of an early season slump and gave the New York Islanders a running battle all season for first place in the Patrick Division.While the Capitals lost out in the end to the four-time Stanley Cup champions, Murray&rsquo;s effort did not go unnoticed. He was chosen THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Coach of the Year, as selected by THN&rsquo;s writers and columnists.Al Arbour of the Islanders was runner-up to Murray in the balloting.Murray&rsquo;s rise to the ranks as one of the best in his field is a testimony to his hard work. It goes back to his days a Tier Two coach in Rockland, Ont., where he won a national championship. Four years ago in Regina, he guided the Pats to the Western Hockey League title. A year later, he won THE HOCKEY NEWS Minor Coach of the Year Award with the Hershey Bears.From that point on, he used his work ethic to win a job in the big leagues. Two years ago, he guided the Caps to their first-ever playoff appearance and this year they almost won the division, posting the best defensive record in the National Hockey League.Although his Caps were eliminated in the division final by the Islanders, Washington is finally a team to be reckoned with in the NHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02427/5267644-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="653" height="1245"><figcaption class="caption-body">Washington coach Bryan Murray, whose disciplined system resulted in the Caps posting the best defensive record, was Coach of the Year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-02

NHL Coach Of The Year

<div class="byline">Tom Barrasso</div>When they talk about young stars in the National Hockey League, one name which is sure to crop up in the conversation is Tom Barrasso.Barrasso is only 19, but sometimes it&rsquo;s hard to believe when you consider what he did in his rookie season last year. Making the jump directly from high school in Massachusetts, Barrasso shared the goaltending duties in Buffalo and recorded 26 wins and three ties in 41 games with the Sabres, and compiled an impressive 2.84 goals-against average.And when it was over, that&rsquo;s when the awards started coming his way. He garnered the Vezina Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top goaltender and Calder Trophy as the best rookie, only the third individual in history to accomplish that.Most recently, he was chosen THE HOCKEY NEWS/Chrysler Rookie of the Year in a poll of THN&rsquo;s columnists and writers.Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman finished second in the balloting.Barrasso doesn&rsquo;t know how he can follow up on his rookie year, but he&rsquo;ll get his first chance in September when he will be one of the goaltenders on Team USA, competing in the Canada Cup. A good performance in the Cup and Barrasso will be able to keep his impressive string going and hopefully keep the Sabres on line for another Cup&mdash;the Stanley Cup.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04200/5267675-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="658" height="1253"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo Sabre goaltender Tom Barrasso, who made the jump from U.S. high school hockey to the NHL, was selected Rookie of the Year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL Rookie Of The Year

<div class="byline">John Vanbiesbrouck</div>If Tom Webster thought he had it tough as coach of the Oilers, the team that finished with no first name, you can truly appreciate the effort of John Vanbiesbrouck.It is said that the goalie is the last line of defense, and on a team which was sometimes forced to practise with no sticks and using a ball instead of a puck, it is something right out of Ripley&rsquo;s Believe It Or Not that Vanbiesbrouck finished with the kind of figures he had.In 37 games with the Adams Cup Oilers of the Central League, Vanbiesbrouck posted a 3.46 goals-against average and three shut-outs&mdash;an amazing effort for a team which had to play its final 27 games on the road.In recognition of his achievement, Vanbiesbrouck was selected as THE HOCKEY NEWS Minor League Player of the Year.Mal Davis of the Rochester Amerks of the American League was the runner-up in the balloting.But Vanbiesbrouck, a native of Detroit who played his junior hockey with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League and was the New York Rangers&rsquo; fifth choice in the 1981 entry draft, has a big challenge staring him in the face. He&rsquo;ll be trying to win the No. 3 goaltending spot with the U.S. team competing in the Canada Cup.His experience last season should prove to be an invaluable tool.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01535/5267706-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="671" height="1267"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tulsa Oiler John Vanbiesbrouck, one of four goalies invited to Team USA&rsquo;s training camp this August, was chosen Minor Pro Player of the Year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Minor Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">Mario Lemieux</div>In an era when the name Wayne needs no surname for identification purposes, the name Mario is quickly joining the ranks.Mario Lemieux, the young scoring machine from Montreal, has quickly adopted a following in his home province of Quebecown&mdash;and it&rsquo;s sure to expand next season.Lemieux, the No. 1 pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1984 NHL entry draft, will attempt to prove to Penguin fans that his hefty scoring stats were not a fluke.Lemieux broke Canadian Major Junior Hockey League records last season by totalling 133 goals and 149 assists for 282 points. And he did it in only 70 games.Lemeiux&rsquo;s offense led the Laval Voisins to first place in the Quebec League and Mario, in turn, garnered numerous laurels, including the award as THE HOCKEY NEWS/Micron Junior Player of the Year. Lemieux, however, was the only award winner not in attendance at the awards&rsquo; luncheon.Ray Ferraro of the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western League finished behind Lemieux in the balloting.All that remains now for Mario to do is convince everyone he&rsquo;s really as good as his advanced billing suggests. It&rsquo;s a tall order, but at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, Lemieux would seem to have no problem standing up to it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02373/5267737-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="675" height="1263"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux, the No. 1 player chosen at the NHL draft, didn&rsquo;t attend the awards banquet. Micron&rsquo;s Kevin Huckle accepted Lemieux&rsquo;s award.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Junior Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">Tom Webster</div>In what has to be classified as one of the most amazing stories in the history of hockey&mdash;maybe even in sports&mdash;the Oilers, a team that began in Tulsa and ended up as a travelling road show with no first name&mdash;won&rsquo;t soon be forgotten.Having to go to all extremes to practice, and sometimes not even having a rink in which to do so, it would have been all too easy for the Oilers to just fold and fall into oblivion.Tom Webster made sure they didn&rsquo;t. He believed in his team and they, in turn, kept their hopes up. And when it was over, the Oilers amazingly won the Central Hockey League Adams Cup.Webster was rewarded for his efforts with the THE HOCKEY NEWS Minor League Coach of the Year Award.Gene Ubriaco of the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American League finished behind Webster in the balloting.Webster played 102 games in the NHL and then completed his career in the World Hockey Association.Later, he moved from playing to coaching, though he never could have expected a season as incredible as last year.One can only hope that some hockey organization will appreciate Webster&rsquo;s work last season because he&rsquo;s currently looking for employment.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03273/5267768-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="679" height="1272"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Webster suffered a lot of trials and tribulations with the Tulsa Oilers but was rewarded with selection as Minor Pro Coach of the Year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Minor Coach Of The Year

<div class="byline">Paul Pooley</div>Paul Pooley is wise&mdash;both in academics and hockey.Pooley, a native of Exeter, Ont., graduated in high honor at Ohio State University, placing on the Dean&rsquo;s list for seven quarters. But he proved to be proficient at hockey, too. He led the nation in scoring last season with 32 goals and 64 assists and was selected as the Most Valuable Player in 1984 East-West Senior All-Star game. On top of that, he was selected as the Central Collegiate Hockey Association&rsquo;s Player of the Year.Pooley&rsquo;s hockey achievements were well recognized as he received the THE HOCKEY NEWS/Bauer College Player of the Year.Jon Casey of North Dakota was the runner-up in the balloting.Pooley will now attempt to make it the pro ranks, as the Winnipeg Jets signed him as a free agent. In addition, the Jets signed Paul&rsquo;s twin brother. Perry, which should be a bonus in training camp.If the two Pooley&rsquo;s are successful in cracking the Jets&rsquo; lineup, they would be the third set of twin brothers to currently play in the NHL (Peter and Patrik Sundstrom and Ron and Rich Sutter are the others).Paul is an exception because he played both major junior hockey in Canada and U.S. college hockey. An NCAA ruling makes it impossible to do so now.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04204/5267799-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="673" height="1269"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ohio State grad Paul Pooley, who led all of U.S. college hockey in scoring, was selected as the U.S. College Player of the Year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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College Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">BY DICK BEDDOES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01565/5267830-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="277" height="335"></div><h2>Salty Side Of Campbell</h2>HE ALWAYS ANSWERED, when you reached him by telephone. &ldquo;Campbell, here.&rdquo;Those were the words a reporter recalled when he heard in midsummer that Clarence Campbell, old and weary at 78, was dead.There will be no more Campbell there in the head office of the National Hockey League in downtown Montreal.More&rsquo;s the pity. There no longer, in any major sport in North America, a commissioner to match Campbell&rsquo;s stature.Pete Rozelle, Bowie Kuhn, Douglas Mitchell, John Ziegler&mdash;none of them could carry Mr. Campbell&rsquo;s brief-case.It was a briefcase bulging with all the pertinent documents and secrets of 31 tempestuous seasons in the NHL, from 1946 to 1977.That was Campbell&rsquo;s span as NHL president, the years they were remembering when he was buried June 28 in Montreal.He was squeaky clean, the NHL apologists said. Lofty, full of integrity, resolute.What must be added is that Mr. Campbell was also salty, quotable, starchy and, like all of us, fallible. Some of his judgments fell short of the wisdom of holy writ.There was one night in 1938. when Campbell servedin the NHL as a referee.He supervised untidy combat between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Maroons, a team long extinct.It was a night when rangy Dit Clapper of the Bruins hung a blue forget-me-not under Campbell&rsquo;s eye.Pugnacity was not a Clapper quality, but he grew annoyed when Dave Trottier of the Maroons thrust the butt end of a stick into Clapper&rsquo;s face.<h2>A Dirty S.O.B.</h2>THE INFRACTION WAS not detected by referee Campbell; Clapper, retaliating, knocked Trottier down and piled on him.Campbell skated to the struggling pair, whistle skirling.&ldquo;Clapper,&rdquo; Campbell announced, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re a dirty son of a bitch.&rdquo;Clapper was amazed to hear such coarse language from a Rhodes scholar. He demanded, &ldquo;What did you say?&rdquo;Campbell reiterated his estimate of Clapper. &ldquo;I said you&rsquo;re a dirty son of a bitch!&rdquo;Clapper did not give Campbell a chance to say it a third time. He punched the referee&rsquo;s startled expression, knocking him back into the delighted players grouped behind them.Clapper was banished from the game and subsequently fined $100, a trivial rebuke for striking an NHL official.Campbell saved Clapper from stiffer retribution in a report to Frank Calder, then president of the NHL.&ldquo;I was talking loudly,&rdquo; Campbell admitted to Calder, &ldquo;when I should have been throwing them in the penalty box.&rdquo;Years later, as the game&rsquo;s czar, Campbell was similarly fair.He enlisted in the Canadian army early in the Second Great War. up from private to command the headquarters of the 4th Canadian Armored Division.When peace broke out. he was a lieutenant-colonel acting as a counsel in the Nurcmburg trial of General Kurt Meyer.Meyer was a brutal Nazi convicted of ordering the executions of Canadian prisoners of war.Campbell always claimed that the NHL owners picked him for president because &ldquo;as a soldier, I knew how to take orders.&rdquo;<h2>Took Conn&rsquo;s Orders</h2>HE DID INDEED seem submissive in the early years of his presidency. He took orders from the irascible Conn Smythe of the Toronto Maple Leafs and imposing Jim Norris, a rich man&rsquo;s wilful son who controlled NHL teams and rinks in Detroit Chicago, New York and Boston.Campbell had been in office two years when Don Gallinger and Billy Taylor, playing for Boston, were banned from the NHL for life for gambling. They bet against their own team, maybe six times. Gallinger said.Chances are that Campbell, acting on his own. might have reinstated the guilty after a decent length of time.He did not. He bowed to Smythe, who remained inflexible on the ban against Taylor and Gallinger until 1970.Then, with his own son facing a prison term for fraud, Smythe relented. He instructed Campbell to remove the ban on Taylor and Gallinger.Taylor now scouts for the Pittsburgh Penguins; Gallinger sells shirts in southern Ontario.Campbell never, however, forgave journalists who argued for compassion for the fallen. Scott Young made a. literate plea for their reinstatement in the Toronto Globe and Mail in 1963.Young&rsquo;s reasoned arguments prompted a blowing of Campbell&rsquo;s celebrated cool.&ldquo;If Young was on fire,&rdquo; Campbell told me, &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t spit on him!&rdquo;He was, finally, flawed. The man who wouldn&rsquo;t relent on Gallinger and Taylor was found guilty of conspiring to fix a Canadian senator, in exchange for extending the lease of a duty-free shop which Campbell and two partners owned in a Montreal airport. He was sentenced to one day in jail and fined $25,000.On balance, though. Mr. Campbell likely will be admitted to that great Puck Luck Place in the sky.Rex MacLeod mused in the Toronto Star that his password at the pearly gates will be, &ldquo;Campbell, here.&rdquo; &#9632;

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BEDCLOTHES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02412/5267861-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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Hockey News All-Stars

THE HOCKEY NEWS and Labatt&rsquo;s would like to thank all those readers who entered the contest to select their own versions of the Team Canada and Team USA lineups which will compete in the Canada Cup. The response was overwhelming.The official lineups and winners of the contest will be announced in the special Canada Cup section in the Aug. 31, 1984 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03275/5267892-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="492" height="478"></div> &#9632;

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A Message To Our Readers

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01503/5267923-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill McLean, right, of Bauer, presents Ohio State University grad Paul Pooley with the College Player-of-the-Year award.Moe Closs, left, president of Chrysler Canada, presents Sabre goalie Tom Barrasso with the Rookie-of-the-Year award.Herb Stein, left, president of Bridgestone Tires, presents Oiler Wayne Gretzky with the NHL Player-of-the-Year award.Micron&rsquo;s Kevin Huckle accepts award for Mario Lemieux, who was absent.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Bauer BRIDGESTONE CHRYSLER MICRON

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;The long-expected death of the Central Hockey League has has had a significant impact on the American Hockey League, cutting deeply into the number of jobs, and providing National Hockey League managers with a buyer&rsquo;s market.It&rsquo;s a dramatic turnaround from the situation of a decade ago when the birth of the World Hockey Association produced a runaway inflation in salaries, heavily diluted the talent level throughout the professional leagues and forced the AHL to turn its focus toward becoming more of a developmental circuit.The AHL retains that developmental label to this day, but the influx of NHL teams&rsquo; sponsorship from the CHL has greatly increased the number of partnerships in AHL cities and further accentuated and streamlined the system. It&rsquo;s made the task of finding a job in minor league hockey&mdash;especially for the older, established player&mdash;difficult, if not impossible.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a disaster.&rdquo; Boston-based player agent Brian Burke said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got two players with excellent minor league credentials and several years&rsquo; experience and there&rsquo;s just no interest in them whatsoever.&ldquo;Assuming that Moncton stays out (Calgary Flames are considering setting up their minor-league franchise there), you&rsquo;ve got six teams gone, and if you figure that most teams carry just over the limit, that&rsquo;s 130 jobs out the window. That&rsquo;s a lot of players. To put it graphically. you take a team like the New York Islanders that went from 20 spots in Indy to 10 in Springfield. Bill Torrey told me that they hoped to sign, and this includes from previous drafts that they sent back to junior, four to five draft picks. If they sign five kids, that&rsquo;s just five jobs left. That&rsquo;s only five roster spots.&ldquo;In any given year, a team should produce four or five kids out of the draft anyway. That&rsquo;s about nine, including the previous year. So the mathematics are that from now on a kid is going to get two years to make it and then he&rsquo;s going to go home.&rdquo;As Burke pointed out, the people who are feeling the squeeze this summer are the players who&rsquo;ve proven they can play at the minor-league level but have been unable to stick in the National League. Those players, such as Mark Lofthouse. Bob Mongrain. Ross Yates and Mike Kaszycki, face two alternatives: go to Europe or retire. The days of the 10 and 12-year minor league pro came to and end a decade or so ago, and with six of the AHL&rsquo;s 12 teams now under dual sponsorship, the four- and five-year veteran is facing extinction, too.&ldquo;Obviously, in that sense, it&rsquo;s a negative. You&rsquo;re losing those kinds of players.&rdquo; Norm Caplan, a Montreal-based agent, said. &ldquo;On the other side, it means that one out of every three jobs on the minor pro level is lost, so you&rsquo;re going to get a concentration of the better players, the better young players in one league. The American League will become a much younger league immediately. And there&rsquo;s less of a dilution factor. You won&rsquo;t have the better young players split between the American and Central Leagues and you&rsquo;re going to see players having a far shorter period of time to make it.&rdquo;Caplan and Burke agree that two years will be the average length of minor league career and that the pressure to perform will increase dramatically. Hershey general manager Frank Mathers, a veteran of some 30 AHL seasons as a player, coach and executive, said that the trend started a few years ago, but is quickly gaining speed. He predicts that in the near future, each of the AHL clubs will have two sponsors.&ldquo;I think it has been a real, real young league for several years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;m one of the old-timers, but I can recall when, and I was just looking at this the other day, in 1978 we owned 14 of our own hockey players, and most of them were the veteran-type players. Since then, it has gotten much younger. As far as Hershey is concerned, we can&rsquo;t get much younger than we were last year. Overall, if you think last year was sort of a middle ground between the ages, this year will certainly be younger than it was last year.&rdquo;Although some of the changes were brought about by the demise of the Central League, the ball had been rolling in its current direction for a few years. The advent of the underage draft, the rise in quality of college-trained players, and the increasing awareness of the European product have combined to shift the emphasis away from the minor leagues as a training ground for future major league players. NHL clubs are now heavily drafting college players, who cost nothing to develop and whose rights can be retained for up to five years.&ldquo;The reality is that most hockey people are going to tell you that much of your good hockey talent is incubating in Europe, in colleges and in junior.&rdquo; Caplan said. &ldquo;If you look at a team&rsquo;s list, other than the players in the NHL, most of them will have seven or eight of their best prospects still playing junior, college or in Europe. I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll find one general manager who will tell you that he has 10 prospects playing at the minor pro level. So when they operate a full team there is no way that anybody beyond the first 10, and most people would say beyond the first five, six or seven, are serious NHL prospects. So why should they go to the expense of employing 10 to 15 extra people at an average cost of $25, (XX) to $30,000 a year if the chance of getting a serious NHL player is almost nil? It&rsquo;s just economically not logical.&rdquo;One of the potential problems that has been raised with the dual sponsorship is how can a team be assured that its top prospects will receive adequate work on a minor league team it does not own. Such a situation occurred two seasons ago when Vancouver&rsquo;s Frank Caprice sat on the bench at Fredericton while both Clint Malarchuk and Brian Ford, Quebec-owned players, got the bulk of the playing time. Last year, when Caprice was given a chance to play, he performed superbly and was promoted.&ldquo;I think that some of the teams are not going to be happy at all with the setup,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to feel that they&rsquo;re not developing players quickly enough. The most key position is going to be goaltenders. Whose goaltender plays in a split situation? Each team wants to develop a young goaltender and the only alternative is to send one of them to the International League and that&rsquo;s not the same calibre of play. I think there&rsquo;s going to be some friction there and I think there is going to be some unhappiness.&rdquo;The bottom line is that, more than at any time since the National League expanded in the late 1960s. the competition for jobs has become intense. General managers are finding that out every day and you have to believe that they are enjoying the way that affects how they do business and spend money.&ldquo;I was talking to David Poile (Washington Capitals&rsquo; GM), and in one morning alone he received 30 letters from kids, players.&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;Pros, college kids, junior kids looking for just a tryout. In one day, 30 letters, so you&rsquo;ve got an idea it&rsquo;s tough. GMs are just getting deluged with calls from people like me and there&rsquo;s just too many quality players and not enough jobs.&rdquo;Mathers said he enjoyed the way things were done in the past, but admits it probably won&rsquo;t every be revived. However, he does have a few ideas on assembling a team.&ldquo;My philosophy is to get 20 players owned by Hershey and pay them a fair salary and bonus the hell out of them,&rdquo; Mathers said. &ldquo;If they have a good year, they make it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01578/5267954-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="549" height="767"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran Ross Yates could become a victim of the American League&rsquo;s squeeze play.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Older Players Will Be Out Of Jobs As American League Favors Youth

BOSTON&mdash;Mike Krushelnyski, LW, traded to Edmonton for Ken Linseman, C.MINNESOTA&mdash;Al MacAdam, RW, traded to Vancouver for Harold Snepsts, D.MONTREAL&mdash;Peter Svoboda, D, 1st draft pick in 1984 from Czechoslovakian National Team, Shayne Corson, C, 2nd draft pick in 1984 from Brantford of OHL, and Todd Francis, RW, 4th draft pick in 1983 from Brantford of OHL, all signed to multi-year contracts.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Greg Adams, C, signed as free agent to multi-year contract from Northern Arizona University.QUEBEC&mdash;Acquired NHL rights to Dan Wood, RW, Richard Zem-lak, C, and Roger Hagglund, D, from St. Louis Blues.TORONTO&mdash;Rick Vaive, RW, and Bill Derlago, C, signed to new multi-year contracts.WINNIPEG&mdash;David Babych, D, signed to new multi-year contract.TEAM USA&mdash;Bob Johnson of Calgary named coach for Canada Cup series. Lou Vairo of New Jersey appointed assistant to Johnson. &#9632;

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July 15, 1984

The Hockey News $1.50 64522 THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY JULY 15, 1984 Vol. 37, No. 36

FRANK ORR’S HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

Campbell Meant A Lot To Many People

Did You Know…