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

August 1, 1984

The Hockey News August 1, 1984

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011335/5269108-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="286" height="341"></div><h2>A Little Gung-Ho</h2>THE SPEAKER WAS a fine National Hockey League forward, one of the best four or five at his position in big-league hockey, and the subject was the Canada Cup international tournament.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not named to Team Canada, I think I&rsquo;ll lock myself in my room and cry like a baby,&rdquo; the man said. &ldquo;Some guys might complain about the obligation they feel to play in the Canada Cup and how they can&rsquo;t think of a neat way to get out of it. But every player worth his salt wants to be part of it.&rdquo;The third Canada Cup tournament will be staged in September and a few complaints are heard that the event makes the season, which is long enough now, even longer for those who are involved, that the risk of injury is high and it really proves nothing anyway.However, such bleats are so much bull cookies. While a few players felt they needed to weigh a decision to participate very carefully, the big majority of NHL workers couldn&rsquo;t wait to get started.&ldquo;Geez, I almost wish our camp was opening now and we could get rolling,&rdquo; Rod Langway said at the NHL awards&rsquo; presentation in June when he collected his second consecutive Norris Trophy as the best defenseman. Langway will be a mainstay of Team USA, just as he was in 1981 when most folks who viewed the Canada Cup picked him and Viacheslav Fetisov of the USSR as the tournament&rsquo;s all-star defenders.&ldquo;It helps the enthusiasm when you know that your team is going to be strong, and the U.S. squad has a legitimate chance to win the Canada Cup this time,&rdquo; Lang way said.&ldquo;Are a lot of players against it and hope they won&rsquo;t be asked? Are you serious? Every guy I talked with during the season was almost praying that he would be invited to camp.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t want to experience the jolt you get when you&rsquo;re wearing a sweater with your country on it and hear the anthem, well, maybe you&rsquo;re dead, anyway.&rdquo;<h2>Company Line</h2>INTERVIEWED AT THE Winter Olympic Games in Yugoslavia, two stars of European hockey-&mdash;Erich Kuehnhackl, scoring king of West Germany, and superb defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov of the Soviet Union&mdash;took the expected approach. Fetisov pumped out the company line, Kuenhackl was cautiously enthusiastic.&ldquo;Being in the Canada Cup for the first time gives us a chance to show that we play very good hockey for West Germany and we want to prove it against the best in the world,&rdquo; Kuehnhackl said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played against some NHL players in the world tournament, but this is our first time to meet their very best. We expect to learn a great deal in the Canada Cup. &ldquo;Fetisov spewed out the USSR bullshoi about the Canada Cup and its importance.&ldquo;The Canada Cup is a very interesting tournament, but our big hockey events are the world championships and the Olympic Games,&rdquo; Fetisov said. &ldquo;It is always an interesting challenge to play against the very best players in the National Hockey League, because I think both sides learn from such interesting matches. Coming at a time early in the hockey season, the Canada Cup is very good training and preparation for the year ahead.&rdquo;<h2>No. 99 Again</h2>GRETZKY FEELS THAT a Canada Cup triumph would dovetail into a nice parlay with the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Stanley Cup win. Gretzky claims that each Cup is unique in its own way and, thus, very difficult to compare.&ldquo;I doubt if I&rsquo;ll ever have the thrill I had on the night the Oilers won the Cup,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;Most of us had been together for four or five years, and improving to the point that we could be champs was a great satisfaction. Because you spend nine months together as a team, the Stanley Cup is very special.&ldquo;But the Canada Cup is the chance to be the best in the world and to play with and against the best. That&rsquo;s really special, too.&ldquo;What happened in &lsquo;81 (8-1 loss to the USSR in the Canada Cup final) is something that has stuck with us pretty good since then.&rdquo; &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

FRANK ORR’S HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011345/5269666-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021120/5269659-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="1097" height="361"></div> &#9632;

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Canada Cup Schedule

1. Name the last player to play on back-to-back Stanley Cup winners with two different clubs?2. Where did the New York Rangers play their home games during the 1950 Stanley Cup finals?3. When was the last season that the NHL had a two-game, total-goals series in the first round of the playoffs?4. Name the goaltender for the 1924 U.S. Olympic team who replaced George Vezina in the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goal in 1925?5. What player played in his first Stanley Cup final in 1906 and his last in 1928?6. What team ended Philadelphia&rsquo;s 35-game unbeaten streak in 1979-80?7. What current NHL general manager played for Canada at the 1960 Olympics?8. How many games did Gordie Howe play during his final NHL season?9. Name the three brothers who led Canada to the Olympic gold in 1928?10. Who was the first player to be awarded a penalty shot?<h2>Trivia Answers</h2>1. Eddie Litzenberger, Chicago, 1960-61; Toronto, 1961-62.2. Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.3. 1935-36.4. Alphonse Lacroix.5. Lester Patrick.6. Minnesota North Stars.7. Harry Sinden.8. 80.9. Herbert, Hugh and Roger Plaxton.10. Armand Mondou, Montreal Canadiens. He did not score. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01981/5270059-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Park will be back to anchor the defense, and young Larry Trader (inset) could be ready to start for the Wings.</figcaption></div>DETROIT&mdash;It&rsquo;s a coach&rsquo;s delight: competition in training camp.For the Detroit Red Wings, that&rsquo;s something that hasn&rsquo;t happened in a lot of Septembers.But when the Wings reconvene for the 1984-85 National Hockey League season, coach Nick Polano will need both hands to count his defensemen. And that&rsquo;s no joke.Not long ago, it was possible to count the players this franchise could rely on with one hand. Now, there will be at least 10 defensemen who have a legitimate chance to make the hockey club.Let&rsquo;s start with the returning regulars: Reed Larson, Brad Park, John Barrett, Colin Campbell, Randy Ladouceur and Greg Smith. Barrett signed a four-year contract during the summer; Campbell agreed on a new two-year pact.Then there&rsquo;s Barry Melrose, a free agent signed in the summer of 1983 who was the seventh defenseman on the squad down the stretch and in the playoffs after returning from a stint in the American Hockey League.Now the newcomers. Larry Trader, the best prospect in Detroit&rsquo;s minor league system according to general manager Jimmy Devellano, and Rick Zombo also recently signed contracts. Zombo gave up his final year of collegiate eligibility at North Dakota to turn pro with the Wings.Devellano is extremely high on both young defensemen. Certainly, Trader, with one full professional season under his belt at 21, will be given every chance to step up to the NHL. The 6-foot-l, 178-pounder from Barry&rsquo;s Bay, Ont., was Detroit&rsquo;s third pick, 86th overall, in the 1981 entry draft. That&rsquo;s the same year Zombo was drafted (149th overall). It&rsquo;s likely that Zombo will end up in Adirondack, with the AHL team, but that&rsquo;s entirely up to him. The Wings will have no qualms about moving him directly into the NHL if he earns a job in camp.Incidentally, that 1981 entry draft has shaped up as a terrific success for the Wings. They picked Claude Loiselle first (23rd overall) and he&rsquo;s shown signs of making a key contribution down the road. They also corralled goaltenders Corrado Micalef and Greg Stefan, both now in the NHL. Left winger Gerard Gallant is a top prospect.That&rsquo;s six probable big-leaguers out of one draft, and there isn&rsquo;t a general manager in the league who wouldn&rsquo;t like that percentage.The Wings also signed two former members of the Czechoslovak national team, both of whom rate good chances at full-time employment with Detroit this season. Defenseman Milan Chalupa, 31, was a third-round pick of the Wings in the &rsquo;84 draft, while Frantisen Cemik, a 31-year-old left winger who captained the national team, was purchased from the Quebec Nordiques, who initially signed him to an NHL contract in 1980.Doug Houda, a defenseman whom the Wings picked in the second round of the &rsquo;84 draft, could be on the team by the 1985-86 season, according to Devellano.If there&rsquo;s a darkhorse candidate on defense, it might be David Korol, the former Winnipeg junior who was drafted in 1983 and finished last season with Adirondack. He&rsquo;s still got a year of junior eligibility left but the Wings&mdash;again&mdash;like everything about the young man.Among other Red Wings to sign contracts were center Kelly Kisio, who finished fourth among rookie scorers last season, and left winger Bob Manno, the converted defenseman. Both were originally signed as free agents.Devellano has relied extensively on free agents to reshape the Wings, and when this year&rsquo;s list came out on July 1, a Sunday, he was waiting by the telex in the Red Wing office.&ldquo;In my opinion, the best free agent available, without compensation, is Doug Keans, the goaltender from Boston,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;If I needed a goaltender. I&rsquo;d have had him signed. He&rsquo;s a regular goaltender for a top team.&ldquo;But my situation is this: Keans is an NHL goaltender but I already have three in Greg Stefan, Corrado Micalef and Eddie Mio. I can&rsquo;t go signing a fourth NHL goalie.&rdquo;Devellano continues to keep his distance from the free agents who require compensation, although he admits there &ldquo;are a lot of good guys.&rdquo;&ldquo;But you go ahead and sign Paul Coffey and it&rsquo;s going to cost you two first-round draft choices,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Let me put it this way: If you were a good hockey club, close to the Stanley Cup to begin with, you might be very tempted to give up two first-round picks for a guy like Coffey, who could put you over the top. He could make you a championship team.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know where we&rsquo;re going to draft next year, probably anywhere from fifth to 10th, but I certainly hope not fifth. You know what I&rsquo;m saying? In that range, you&rsquo;re still lotiking, hoping to get a young star-type player in the draft.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Wings Will Be Crowded On Defense In September

<div class="image-hero"><img title="cover" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover37/5270875-1-eng-US/cover2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Illustration by Ted Michener)</figcaption></div>Can Canada Or The U.S. Beat The Soviets? &#9632;

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CANADA CUP QUEST BEGINS

<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t going to be another Danny Gallivan. it just won&rsquo;t happen. There isn&rsquo;t anyone out there who can dream up cannonating shots or pucks caught up in the paraphanelia. The chapter is closed. It&rsquo;s been great for a lot of people, particularly for the fans. Whether you liked him or not, you certainly knew his style.&rdquo; &mdash;Canadian Sports Network executive vice-president, Frank Selke, Jr., commenting of the recent retirement of his onetime colleague, Danny Gallivan.</blockquote> &#9632;

Quote Of The Week

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011248/5269005-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"></div>Meet Joe Fan, not to be confused with John Doe. John Doe, we know nothing about. Joe Fan, that&rsquo;s another story. Thanks to The Power to the People Reader Opinion Poll, which originally appeared in the May 11, 1984 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we figure to have a pretty good handle on what Joe Fan thinks about the game he calls his own.First, Joe Fan has a number of opinions and he isn&rsquo;t hesitant to express them. This we know because about 4,000 Power to the People ballots were returned and along with the ballots were hundreds of letters and notes from voters who weren&rsquo;t satisfied with merely answering a multiple-choice question. They felt they had to say more.Second, there&rsquo;s a difference between Joe Fan in Canada and his cousin south of the border in the United States. It&rsquo;s not so much that they disagree on the issues&mdash;the difference in views was negligible on all but a few questions&mdash;but that Joe Fan in the U.S. seems more willing to take the trouble to be heard. Of the 4,000 ballots received, 2,500 came from the U.S. with the other 1,500 originating in Canada.So who is Joe Fan and what does he think?If we were putting together a composite sketch, you could start off by saying he loves overtime&mdash;91 per cent, the highest response to any question, said so&mdash;and would like to see it increased to 10 minutes. But don&rsquo;t think for a moment that he&rsquo;d like to see it go a step further and introduce a shootout to decide games. Joe Fan doesn&rsquo;t go for carnival endings to serious sports events.Joe Fan thinks too many teams make the playoffs, but has mixed emotions about a playoff format that sees teams proceed from division to conference to final in an unbalanced format. The 80-game schedule is apparently just the right length, though Joe Fan perceives the regular season as lacking the proper degree of significance.Joe Fan doesn&rsquo;t mind the rough stuff. Most of the time, he thinks fighting is part of the game and while admitting that there is a certain degree of violence in hockey, he says it&rsquo;s usually within an acceptable limit.Joe Fan says the Stanley Cup means much, much more to him than any other hockey competition on earth. Despite the criticism aimed at the NHL all-star game, he doesn&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s too bad and there&rsquo;s no question that he believes we should continue to play hockey against the Soviet Union, saying, in effect, that hockey and politics should not be bedfellows.Joe Fan has no sympathy for the NHL&rsquo;s weak sisters and opposes any league legislation aimed at giving the have-nots something for nothing. And he&rsquo;s got no use for team owners who try to move a franchise without league permission.He has serious doubts that junior hockey can survive with the underage draft in effect, but firmly suggests that the NHL&rsquo;s lack of restraint in the use of underage players is as much to blame as anything else.He has mixed emotions on a multitude of topics, including the state of officiating, the value of NHL players in terms of annual salaries, the NHL&rsquo;s drug and television policies and the mandatory use of helmets.But he seems confident that hockey is better now than it was 10 years ago.In the following space, we&rsquo;ll take a look at each question asked on the poll and how the fans responded to it. It is, however, interesting to note that the poll results after the tabulation of 2,000 ballots were almost identical to the final tally after 4,000. That tells us we&rsquo;ve got a good, representative poll of how hockey fans really feel about the issues in 1984.We told our readers that we&rsquo;d let the movers and shakers in the hockey world know how they feel. That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re doing now. After that, though, it&rsquo;s up to the decision makers to decide if Joe Fan is someone who has something to contribute to the game.We think he does.1. Too many teams make the Stanley Cup playoffs. That&rsquo;s what 72.5 per cent of those polled said. A total of 26.5 per cent said 16 teams in the playoffs is just right and one percent said it was too few. The difference between fans in Canada and the U.S. was less than one per cent.2. The current playoff format&mdash;unbalanced as opposed to a first vs. last set-up&mdash;is bad. That&rsquo;s how 55 per cent felt (59 in Canada and 51 in the U.S).3. The 80-game schedule is just the right length. Sixty-six per cent (62 in Canada, 70 in the U.S.) felt this way, while 31 per cent (36 in Canada, 26 in the U.S) said 80 games is too long. Three per cent (two in Canada, four in the U.S) said 80 games isn&rsquo;t enough.4. The regular season format&mdash;unbalanced with emphasis on geographic rivalries&mdash;should stay the same. This one was close. Forty-one per cent (34 in Canada, 48 in the U.S, the largest spread between the two sectors) were in favor of maintaining the status quo. Thirty-nine percent (41 in Canada, 37 in the U.S) said it should be more balanced and 20 per cent said it should be more unbalanced.5. If the regular season was shortened, fans wouldn&rsquo;t pay more for a ticket to maintain the club&rsquo;s total revenue. Seventy-two per cent (69 in Canada, 75 in the U. S.) said they wouldn&rsquo;t dish out the cash.6. The NHL regular season doesn&rsquo;t have enough significance. Seventy-two per cent (74 in Canada, 70 in the U.S.) said this is the case.7. Players would perform better during the regular season if there were big cash incentives for finishing higher in the standings. A total of 63.5 per cent (63 in Canada, 64 in the U.S) supported this argument.8. Compared to 10 years ago, when the Philadelphia Flyers were winning Stanley Cups with intimidation and aggressiveness, hockey is better today. A total of 71 per cent (68 in Canada, 74 in the U.S.) took this stance with 18.5 per cent (21 in Canada, 16 in the U.S.) saying it&rsquo;s no different. The balance of 10.5 per cent said today&rsquo;s hockey is worse.9. The level of violence in hockey is acceptable. A total of 67 per cent (same in Canada and the U.S) said it was; 33 per cent said it wasn&rsquo;t.10. Fighting should not be banned in the NHL. So said a total of 62.5 per cent (65 in Canada, 60 in the U.S.). The remainder said fighting should be banned.11. NHL players should not be forced to wear helmets. That was the opinion of 54.5 per cent (52 in Canada, 57 in the U.S.) of the respondents, while 45.5 per cent said they should.12. NHL players should not be forced to wear facemasks. That was the opinion of 88.5 per cent (90 in Canada, 87 in the U.S.) while the minority of 11.5 per cent said the players should be forced to wear them.13. The traditional short-pant uniform is preferred to the new &ldquo;long-pant&rdquo; look. Seventy-one per cent (67 in Canada, 75 in the U.S) voted for tradition while 29 per cent opted for the new look.14. The introduction of a five-minute suddendeath overtime period last season was good. The 91 per cent (same in Canada and U.S.) response was the highest of any question asked.15. Overtime should be increased from five minutes to 10 minutes. Sixty-three per cent (64 in Canada, 62 in the U.S.) support this view. Thirtyseven per cent favor the status quo.16. A post-overtime period shootout should not be used to decide a game. A total of 84.5 per cent (84 in Canada, 85 in the U.S.) are opposed to shootouts. The balance of 15.5 per cent favor the shootout concept.17. The losing team in overtime should not get one point in the standings. It was fairly close, but 59.5 per cent (59 in Canada, 60 in the U.S.) said the loser should walk away empty-handed. The balance of 40.5 were more charitable.18. The officiating in the 1983-84 season was average. A total of 54.5 (58 in Canada, 51 in the U.S.) per cent supported this view, but almost as telling was that 40 per cent (36 in Canada, 44 in the U.S.) said it was below average while only 5.5 per cent (six in Canada, five in the U.S.) said it was above average.19. NHL officials should not use videotape replays to decide on crucial close calls. A total of 59.5 per cent (56 in Canada, 63 in the U.S) are opposed to electronic officiating aids. The balance said they support the concept.20. The sport of hockey respects its referees. Fifty-three per cent (51 in Canada, 55 in the U.S.) said it does, with the balance maintaining the referees don&rsquo;t get enough respect.21. There is not parity in the NHL. Sixty-six per cent (68 in Canada, 64 in the U.S.) supported this statement while the balance of 34 per cent said there&rsquo;s parity in the NHL.22. It is not the NHL&rsquo;s responsibility to impose legislation&mdash;such as restricting the trading of No. 1 draft picks&mdash;to protect weak teams from hurting themselves or assist them in becoming more competitive. A total of 74.5 per cent (73 in Canada, 76 in the U.S.) supported this view. The balance of 25.5 per cent supported some sort of mercy rule.23. Team owners should not be able to move their franchise without permission of the league. A total of 75.5 percent (75 in Canada, 76 in the U.S.) felt this way, while the balance were on the owner&rsquo;s side.24. Junior hockey in Canada cannot survive with the 18-year-old draft as an unavoidable reality. It was close but 52.5 per cent (60 in Canada, 45 in the U.S.) took the doom and gloom view. The balance of 47.5 said junior hockey could survive the draft.25. Junior hockey&rsquo;s biggest problem is the NHL&rsquo;s lack of restraint in the calling up of junior stars. A total of 73.5 per cent (82 in Canada, 65 in the U.S.) agree with this contention. The balance of 26.5 disagree.26. Direct NHL sponsorship of an 18-to-22-year-old development league could effectively replace today&rsquo;s junior hockey set-up. So said 53.5 per cent (53 in Canada, 54 in the U.S.). The remaining 46.5 per cent disagreed.27. NHL players, in general, are paid just right. The majority of respondents, 50 per cent (44 in Canada, 56 in the U.S.) said salaries aren&rsquo;t out of line. However, 38.5 per cent (51 in Canada, 26 in the U.S., which, incidentally, is the largest spread between Canadian and American fans) thought NHL players are paid too much. The balance of 11.5 per cent (five per cent in Canada, 18 in the U.S.) said NHL players aren&rsquo;t paid enough.28. The NHL could not cope with total free agency. This was how 83.5 percent (84 in Canada, 83 in the U.S.) felt.29. There is just the right amount of international hockey being played. Fourty-two per cent (44 in Canada, 40 in the U.S.) agree with that statement. But 41 per cent (37 in Canada, 45 in the U.S.) would like to see more. The balance of 17 per cent said there is too much international hockey.30. NHL players and North American amateurs should continue to play against the Soviet Union. This was the opinion held by 74.5 per cent (75 in Canada, 74 in the U.S.). The balance of 25.5 per cent is against continuing playing the Soviets.31. The Stanley Cup means more than any other hockey competition. Eighty-five per cent (80 in Canada, 90 in the U.S.) supported this view. The Canada Cup, with eight per cent (13 in Canada, three in the U.S.) was the second most meaningful; the Olympics, with 5.5 percent (five in Canada, six in the U. S.) was third and the world championships, with 1.5 percent (two in Canada, one in the U. S.) was fourth.32. The current NHL All-Star format, Wales Conference vs. Campbell Conference, is good. A total of 67.5 percent (65 in Canada, 70 in the U.S.) supported this view with the remainder opposing it.33. The concept of having American-born all-stars vs. Canadian-born all-stars is not good. That&rsquo;s how 74.5 per cent (71 in Canada, 78 in the U.S.) responded. The balance of 25.5 thought the concept had merit.34. There should be two NHL awards for defensemen, one for the best offensive defenseman and one for the best defensive defenseman. The fans voted 73.5 percent (75 in Canada, 72 in the U.S.) in favor of two trophies. The remaining 26.5 per cent voted for the status quo (one trophy).35. The NHL&rsquo;s television policy in the U.S., which is geared to cable and is almost exclusive, benefits the fans. This question, with the U.S.-only results, was extremely close. Fifty-one per cent said the NHL policy was a benefit to them, 49 said it wasn&rsquo;t.36. The NHL&rsquo;s drug policy, which has been described as relatively hard line, is just right. A total of 52.5 per cent (52 in Canada, 53 in the U.S.) supported this view, but 39 per cent (38 in Canada, 40 in the U.S.) said the policy isn&rsquo;t tough enough. The remaining 8.5 per cent (10 in Canada, seven in the U.S.) said it was too tough.37. Hockey fans are well served by local media outlets with regards to hockey coverage. A total of 58.5 per cent(67 in Canada, 50 in the U.S.)said that is indeed the case, while 41.5 per cent (33 in Canada, 50 in the U.S.) said they weren&rsquo;t receiving adequate coverage from local media outlets.And that ends the Power to the People Reader Opinion Poll. Add it all up and what do you get?A guy named Joe Fan who cares about his game.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011312/5268998-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="1221" height="2781"><figcaption class="caption-body">The majority I of hockey fans polled 4 said fighting shouldn&rsquo;t be banned.Most fans do not like the new &ldquo;longpant&rdquo; look compared to the traditional outfit.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021070/5268991-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1497" height="2017"></div> &#9632;

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POWER TO THE PEOPLE

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY Founded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineCONTROLLERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIBUTING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrDIRECTOR ADVERTISING SALESDanny LewickiADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC, Cliff Kivell, 287 MacPherson Ave.Toronto. Ontario M4V 1A4(416) 928-2909SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPatricia BackNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTJudy HartmanRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom MoffatMary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERHughes Marketing Hockey News Bookshelf(416) 499-8227ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Toronto. Ontario. CanadaM3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Third AvenueNew York. New York10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTORDistributed nationally by Disticor 101Duncan Mill Rd., Suite L4Don 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. 10022.40 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 postage paid at New York. N.Y and at additional mailing offices. U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News. P.O. Box 904. Buffalo, N.Y. 14240.Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<h2>August 31</h2>In our next issue, which will be available in about a month, we&rsquo;ll have a special in-depth Canada Cup preview, which will include feature profiles on all six teams and biographical sketches of each player in the tournament. We&rsquo;ll also have features on the radio-TV coverage of the event; how the officials are selected and a history of the Canada Cup, not to mention statistics, schedules and complete rosters for all six teams. With the hockey season starting more than a month earlier this year, this is one issue you don&rsquo;t want to miss.<h2>September 14</h2>This issue will take a look at the last-minute Canada Cup preparations, including update features on Team Canada and Team USA. We&rsquo;ll also have a story on the economic impact of the tournament.Aside from our continuous Canada Cup coverage, we&rsquo;ll begin with out first of three Equipment Buyers&rsquo; Guide. This one will focus on skates. We&rsquo;ll tell you how to fit your skates properly and give you a complete rundown of the wide variety of products available in today&rsquo;s marketplace. Don&rsquo;t miss it. &#9632;

COMING SOON IN THN

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Although the New York Islanders no longer own the Stanley Cup, life is never dull in the windowless offices in the basement of Nassau Coliseum. Other teams may yawn their way through mid-summer doldrums, but not the Islanders.In a span of two weeks, the dethroned champions produced several newsworthy items. Examples:&bull; Al Arbour, after much hemming and hawing, decided to return for his 12th season as head coach.&bull; Brian Kilrea, who directed the Ottawa 67s to the Memorial Cup championship, abandoned the junior ranks to become Arbour&rsquo;s assistant coach.&bull; Lome Henning, an original Islander, who had served as Arbour&rsquo;s aide for the past four years, was named head coach of the Isles&rsquo; new Springfield (MA) farm club in the American League.&bull; Bryan Trottier turned his back on Team Canada and said he would join Team USA for the Canada Cup tournament.Kilrea called his own press conference in Ottawa to announce that he had agreed to join the Islanders as Arbour&rsquo;s assistant.&ldquo;Al will be staying for at least a year and I will be going as his assistant,&rdquo; the 49-year-old Kilrea said.This caused considerable consternation among the Islanders&rsquo; hierarchy because the team had not acknowledged that Arbour had changed his mind about retiring, and general manager Bill Torrey would have preferred making his own announcement.Torrey instructed publicity director Les Wagner to call a press conference for the following day, at which time Torrey confirmed Kilrea&rsquo;s premature announcements.Torrey hailed Kilrea as &ldquo;a very basic coach, like Al. Their philosophy is the same., There are things in Kilrea&rsquo;s manner and method that we liked. I like success, and he has been successful. He&rsquo;s a winner.&rdquo;And where does this leave Henning? Presumably in a race with Kilrea for the Isles&rsquo; head coaching job&mdash;whenever Arbour retires.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to Springfield to do the best job I can,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good move for me. Now I can control my own destiny. Al gave me a lot of authority as his assistant, but now I&rsquo;ll be in a position where I can make my own decisions.&rdquo;Henning pointed out that the North Stars also will provide players for the Springfield team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be going to their training camp to evaluate the kids,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And the Islanders have some good kids coming out of the juniors. I&rsquo;m very excited about that.&rdquo;He then ticked off the names of Islanderdraftees who will probably wind up in Springfield&mdash;Gord Paddock, Alan Kerr, Vern Smith, Garry Lacey, Roger Kort-ko. Bill Dowd, Mark Hamway and Dale Henry.The tug-of-war for Trottier&rsquo;s services heightened when his name wound up on the Team Canada and Team USA preliminary rosters. The combative center said he preferred playing for Team USA &ldquo;because this country has been good to me and my family.&rdquo;Though born and raised in Saskatchewan, Trottier carries a North American Indian card that he claims allows him &ldquo;to work and live as a citizen of North America.&rdquo; Thus, he said he should be allowed to play for Team USA.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a unique situation&hellip;I have two choices,&rdquo; Trottier said. &ldquo;I should be allowed to exercise my choice.&rdquo;However, Alan Eagleson, the executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association who is helping to organize the Canada Cup tournament, disagrees. He insisted that Trottier needed a U.S. passport to play for Team USA.&ldquo;If Brian can get one, well, I wish him good luck,&rdquo; Eagleson said.That did not stop Trottier. He now is pushing for a U.S. passport and friends confide he might eventually apply for U.S. citizenship.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ready to go to the Team USA training camp,&rdquo; he said.Mike Bossy, Bob Boume, Denis Potvin and John Tonelli also were invited to the Team Canada training camp. Ken, due to injuries, turned down an invitation from Team USA, leaving Pat LaFontaine as the lone Islander representative on that squad.&ldquo;It would be too tough physically and mentally for me to start training in August,&rdquo; said Morrow, who has had recurrent knee problems.ON THE ISLE&mdash;The Isles had several other personnel changes. Veteran center Wayne Merrick accepted a buyout on the final year of his contract, head trainer Ron Waske resigned, and former defenseman Bert Marshall rejoined the team as a special scout&hellip;Denis Potvin, who married the former Valerie Cates in a June wedding, is close to signing a new contract&hellip;The bachelors&rsquo; club lost two other members when Greg Gilbert and Kelly Hrudey married high school sweethearts&hellip;Duane Sutter became a father for the first time when his wife, Cindy, gave birth to a daughter. &#9632;

All’s Not Quiet On Isles’ Front

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011215/5269163-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div><h2>GALLIVAN HANGS UP MIKE</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;The man who gave North American hockey fans such descriptions as &ldquo;negotiated contact with the puck,&rdquo; &ldquo;kernel of conversation,&rdquo; &ldquo;cannonating shots,&rdquo; and, of course, &ldquo;enormous save&rdquo; has to decided to retire from the broadcasting business.Danny Gallivan, who&rsquo;s been doing the play-by-play of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; games since 1952, announced his official retirement recently, though it had been known to his close friends for some time.Gallivan, a native of Sydney, N.S., could not be reached for comment, but in a press release issued by Canadian Sports Network, the production company which televises the Canadiens&rsquo; games on Hockey Night In Canada, Gallivan was qouted as saying, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to miss it all, but I know this is the time to go, and I do so in good knowledge that there&rsquo;s still much to enjoy for all of us. I&rsquo;ll be listening, watching and interested&hellip;I can hardly wait for the new season to start.&rdquo;In addition to watching the game, the 67-year-old Gallivan will be keeping his ties with hockey as the chairman of the selection committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame.Gallivan&rsquo;s start in the business was not your classic story of the kid who stood in front of a mirror doing broadcast imitations, though he was known to have done that in later years as he diligently aimed to do the job with care and skill. Gallivan, a student of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., in the &lsquo;40s, landed a job at the local university radio to help pay for the cost of his schooling. He did both baseball and hockey broadcasting before joining the Canadian Army in 1943. Following his overseas duty, Gallivan worked at a new radio station in Halifax and covered the full spectrum of sports. He gained national prominence in 1947 when he journeyed to Montreal with the Halifax St. Mary&rsquo;s juniors, who were competing in the Memorial Cup.His big break, however, came three years later, thanks to Walter Downs, the Montreal producer of Hockey Night in Canada who had been familiar with Gallivan&rsquo;s work. Downs allowed Gallivan to fill in for the Canadiens&rsquo; play-by-play man, Doug Smith, who had suffered a mild heart attack. Gallivan did such a good job that two years later he was broadcasting the Canadiens full-time.And the rest, as they say, is history. But, to coin a Gallivanism, what a &ldquo;glorious&rdquo; history it was.He gave a certain lustre and erudition to the broadcasting industry, which was previously unheard of&mdash;not only in hockey play-by-play but in all sports broadcasting.&ldquo;Much of his success, much of his appreciation, much of his entertainment value was that he was unique,&rdquo; said Frank Selke, Jr., now executive vice-president of Canadian Sports Network but once a close colleague of Gallivan&rsquo;s on the Canadiens&rsquo; games.Indeed, he was. Some of his expressions became almost predicable, but each time he said one, particularly when he did so with his unabashed enthusiasm, it was still exciting. He even had his own co-workers enjoying his work.&ldquo;I was very aware of his style, I used to say, &lsquo;Did he use the word plethora?&rdquo;&rsquo; said Dick Irvin, who replaced Selke as the intermission host. &ldquo;It was funny, especially with the three-man crews. We would look at each other and laugh at his Dannyisms during a break in the show.&rdquo;Many people know Gallivan as the person who coined the expression, &ldquo;Savardian Spinarama,&rdquo; to describe Serge Savard&rsquo;s turnaround when he was a defenseman with the Canadiens. But Gallivan had several in his repetoire, and Selke said Gallivan often invented nicknames, such as Diesel for Doug Mohns, for which he often wasn&rsquo;t given credit.The big question is now that Gallivan is gone, will there be another one broadcaster similar to him? Already you can scan through the various sports and find some who are unique, because of their eccentricty in manner or dress, but there&rsquo;s every reason to believe few will be able to duplicate Gallivan&rsquo;s eloquence and style.&ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t going to be another Danny Gallivan, it just won&rsquo;t happen,&rdquo; Selke said. &ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t anyone out there who can dream up cannonating shots or pucks caught up in the paraphanelia. The chapter is closed. It&rsquo;s been great for a lot of people, particularly for the fans. Whether you liked him or not, you certainly knew his style.&rdquo;<h2>ELEVEN SWEDES CONFIRMED</h2>SWEDEN&mdash;Kent Nilsson of the Calgary Flames is one of 11 National Hockey League players who have agreed to play for Sweden in the Canada Cup tournament in September.Joining Nilsson is fellow Flame, Hakan Loob, who was on the NHL Rookie team last season.Other players include: Mats Naslund, Montreal; Bengt Gustaffson and Peter Andersson. Washington; Thomas Eriksson, Philadelphia; Anders Hakansson, Los Angeles; Thomas Gradin and Patrik Sundstrom, New York Rangers; Thomas Steen, Winnipeg Jets.<h2>FRIENDS GOLF FOR WYLIE</h2>CAMBRIDGE, Ont&mdash;Friends of former hockey player Bill (Wiggie) Wylie had a $100-a-player charity golf tournament in Cambridge July 11 with proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society. Wylie, 55, died last fall after a sudden illness.Wylie played junior A for the Galt Red Wings in the &lsquo;40s and for several years in minor pro with Cincinnati, Quebec and Vancouver.<h2>BEAVER TALES &#9632;</h2>

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SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>A story is told that after the second game of the 1949 Stanley Cup finals between Detroit and Toronto, Red Wing superstar Gordie Howe asked a reporter: &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s Sid Smith?&rdquo;Smith, you see, scored all the Maple Leaf goals, leading his team to a 3-1 victory over Detroit and an eventual four-game sweep.For Smith, who had played in only one game for Toronto during that regular season after spending most of the season with their minor league team in Pittsburgh, it was his way of announcing his arrival in the National Hockey League.&ldquo;Up to that point in my career I had spent only parts of three seasons with the Leafs and had not yet become a regular,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;But after scoring those three goals against the Red Wings, that solidified my standing with the club.&ldquo;It was just my way of letting the Leafs and the rest of the NHL know that I wanted to play and stay in the NHL.&rdquo;And stay he did, playing for Toronto regularly through the end of the 1958 season. Although he would play on only one Stanley Cup winner&mdash;1951&mdash;during that period, Smith captured some hardware of his own, winning the Lady Byng Trophy (for gentlemanly play) in &lsquo;52 and &lsquo;55.&ldquo;I played the game as it Was played at that time, when checking was an important part,&rdquo; said Smith, a left winger. &ldquo;I knew I had a job to do out on the ice.&ldquo;There was a lot of intimidation going on out there just like today. So I just went into the comers, didn&rsquo;t back away and did my job of digging out pucks.&ldquo;There were a lot of tough guys out there but not any real goons. And I didn&rsquo;t let them bother me all that much. And I figured that I was more valuable to my team on the ice than off it in the penalty box.&rdquo;Smith recalled the great rivalries during his era of hockey. He remembered one period when the Wings travelled on the same train as the Montreal Canadiens.&ldquo;We had played them the night before in Toronto,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had the duty of playing against the great (Maurice) Rocket Richard and shutting him out for the game.&ldquo;The two teams happened to be traveling together on a train back to Montreal for another game. The next morning as I was eating my breakfast, Richard walked by my table, bumping into it and rattling my bowl or cereal.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if he did it on purpose or not. But I knew he was around, even if he didn&rsquo;t say a word to me.&rdquo;Today, Smith, 59, is a sales representative for a photography company in Mississauga, just west of Toronto, where he was bom. It&rsquo;s a job he has had for over a year. Prior to that he was a salesman for a paper company for 21 years.&ldquo;Toronto has always been my home and I love the area,&rdquo; said Smith, who resides north of Toronto in Newmarket. &ldquo;I consider myself quite lucky being able to play my entire career in the NHL in Toronto (1941-1958).&ldquo;I also felt honored to be captain of the team for one season (1955-56). I feel like I was a bridge, filling the gap between the Teeder Kennedy era that was ending and the George Armstrong era that was just about to begin.&rdquo; &bull;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02895/5269194-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="564" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sid Smith scored all three goals in the second game of the 1949 Stanley Cup finals.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03626/5269249-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"></div>that the following are the best rookie seasons by a player selected No. 1 overall in the NHL entry draft: &#9632;

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Did You. Know…

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011397/5269280-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="281" height="335"></div><h2>Tubby McAuley Day</h2>AS CHAIRMAN OF The Department of Hockey Holidays Rarely Celebrated, I am hereby proclaiming Jan. 7, 1985 as, Tubby McAuley Day.Now don&rsquo;t tell me you haven&rsquo;t heard of Tubby McAuley. I will not have that; not if you claim to be a real hockey fan. Tubby is a very important man in NHL history and it isn&rsquo;t his fault that hockey historians have managed to forget him.Well, this historian plans to remember, and I&rsquo;m going to make sure the rest of the ice world does as well. You see, Tubby (otherwise known as Ken) is a very important man in NHL annals for three very important reasons:1) Tubby McAuley averted an NHL scandal: That is correct as it stands. Tubby had a chance to dump a game on Jan. 7, 1945, the day the New York Rangers were scheduled to play the Chicago Black Hawks at Madison Square Garden. McAuley was the Ranger goalie, playing for one of the worst teams this side of the Donner Pass. The Rangers were 11-31-8 in McAuley&rsquo;s first year (1943-44), and poor McAuley, who played in all 50 of his team&rsquo;s games, allowed a record 310 goals for a 6.20 goals-against average.&ldquo;Kenny should have won the Croix de Guerre and the Victoria Cross,&rdquo; said Ranger coach Frank Boucher.Tubby didn&rsquo;t, but proud he was, and when the gangsters approached him about going into the tank on Jan. 7, 1945, McAuley was indignant.&ldquo;They offered me quite a sum of money,&rdquo; recalls Tubby, now a salesman for a car dealership in Edmonton.McAuley said thanks-but-no-thanks and headed straight for the Ranger office, where he sought out the Old Silver Fox, manager, Lester Patrick. He told Patrick that he had just been offered a pile to take a dive against the Black Hawks that night.&ldquo;I figured that Lester would keep me out of the game,&rdquo; says McAuley. &ldquo;We had a kid named Doug Stevenson who also played for our minor league team, the (New York) Rovers, and he was available. If he put Stevenson in then there was no chance anyone could say I deliberately let in any goals.&rdquo;When Tubby entered the dressing room early in the evening he was told by Patrick that he, not Stevenson, was going into the nets. This was not good. The Black Hawks that season boasted some of the game&rsquo;s biggest guns, including Bill Mosienko and Clint Smith. They figured to bomb McAuley all the way to Broadway.For 59 minutes, McAuley turned all the potential explosives to duds. The game was winding down to a 0-0 deadlock with less than a minute to go.&ldquo;What I remember,&rdquo; says McAuley almost 40 years later, &ldquo;is that there was about ten seconds left when Clint Smith broke past our defense and came in on me, one-on-one. Here 1 am, with the bribe on my mind, with the chance for my first-ever NHL shutout, and their second-leading scorer right on top of me.&rdquo;Then, a pause: &ldquo;And I stopped him cold.&rdquo;And you can look it up: Jan. 7, 1945, Tubby McAuley beat the gangsters and blanked the Black Hawks. But that&rsquo;s only reason No. 1 for Tubby McAuley Day.2) Tubby McAuley holds the record for most saves in a game and nobody knows it: Up until this moment, everyone has believed that the record for most saves in a game belongs to Sam LoPresti, who stopped 83 shots for Chicago against the Boston Bruins on Mar. 4, 1941.With all deference to LoPresti, McAuley was eight saves better, and you can look it up. On Feb. 19, 1944, Tubby was between the pipes, facing the Montreal Canadiens for the most furious offensive attack in NHL annals. Here is what the Associated Press dispatch out of Montreal that night says: &ldquo;The Rangers put up a good fight all the way through, but their most sensational man was their rookie netminder, young Ken McAuley, who handled 91 shots.&rdquo; Tubby stopped 86 of those shots and lost the game, 5-2.3) Tubby McAuley was the victim of the NHL&rsquo;s most one-sided game: The score was 15-0 against McAuley&rsquo;s Rangers, victims of a merciless Detroit Red Wing assault at Olympia Stadium, Jan. 23, 1944. Coach Boucher missed the game to attend his brother&rsquo;s funeral and manager Patrick went behind the bench.&ldquo;We had lots of injuries,&rdquo; Tubby remembers, &ldquo;so the club brought up eight guys from the Rovers. One of those Rover kids had five breakaways from the red line in, but (Detroit defenseman) Bill Quackenbush caught him before he hit the blue line on all five attempts. Just think, if he had connected the score would have been 15-5, instead of 15-0.To this day folks still kid Tubby about that 15-0 game and he invariably grins and good-naturedly adds: &ldquo;You know, they never had to flood the other end of the ice.&rdquo;<h2>Putrid Relations</h2>IN MOST PRECINCTS the term p.r. is equated with public relations, but in the NHL I often get the feeling that putrid relations would be more like it. Unlike baseball and football, which have ready-made audiences in the United States, hockey needs all the help it can get when it comes to obtaining media attention. And yet, despite this obvious fact of life. John Ziegler and his well-paid corps of marketing manipulators seem acutely unaware of ways and means of developing positive public relations.Never was this more apparent than during the Stanley Cup finals. To obtain media attention it always is helpful to have a New York team involved, and that was the case last spring when the Islanders reached the finals. Immediately the NHL had a plus in its pocket.A second desirable event would be to have Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s team in the finals as well since The Kid is hockey&rsquo;s most visible and saleable product. And, sure enough, the Oilers were there, Gretzky in the flesh. Now the NHL had a pair of plusses in its pocket.Better still, the Oilers had long since finished their semi-final round with the Minnesota North Stars and had loads of days and nights on their hands. They had ample time to arrive in New York on Sunday, after the Isles had disposed of the Canadiens, and thereby make themselves available to the media.Since the finals weren&rsquo;t scheduled to begin until the following Thursday, there were no less than four full days for the press to confront Gretzky and Co. Never was there a more delicious opportunity for hockey to reap a bonanza in positive publicity.But, of course, this never happened. Instead, the Oilers stole into town virtually unnoticed on the eve of the opener, their arrival the best kept secret in hockey.If one didn&rsquo;t know better one would have surmised that the Oilers desperately wanted to avoid coverage. Whatever the motives, the results were awful.There figured to be columns by such New York media heavyweights as Dave Anderson (Times), Mike Lupica (News) and Dick Young (Post) and, instead, the NHL got zilch. Sure, the regular NHL beat writers covered the series but that, as they say in the business, is a &ldquo;given.&rdquo; What the NHL desperately could have used was a column by Anderson (which is syndicated across the continent) and similar coverage from the other top scribes.It didn&rsquo;t happen because the NHL didn&rsquo;t make it happen or, perhaps, because the NHL doesn&rsquo;t know how to make it happen.What, you ask, should the NHL have done? The answer is supplied by an NHL publicist team who requests anonymity.&ldquo;The NHL should have done what the National Football League does for the Super Bowl&mdash;make a production out of it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The NHL orders its teams to the Super Bowl well in advance of the event and makes damn sure the players are available to the press.&ldquo;If the NHL was smart it would have brought Gretzky in a few days earlier and set him up with the Good Morning, America show and some of the other big network programs. Imagine what a boost it would have been for hockey if Gretzky and Mike Bossy were on together.&ldquo;The trouble is the NHL lets the teams dictate to the league on matters like these instead of it being the reverse, the way it is in pro football.&rdquo;A major difficulty is the attitude of many Canadian teams. They don&rsquo;t give a damn about the American market and couldn&rsquo;t care less about selling hockey in the States.In a one-horse town such as Edmonton, the Oilers don&rsquo;t have any competitive fears. There is no big-league baseball team to worry about; no big-league basketball team; no NFL football team; no indoor soccer club. The financial gravy is there to slurp so why worry about the outside world?My impression is that NHL president John Ziegler&rsquo;s legal mind is not fine-tuned to the nuances of hard-nosed publicity where push comes to shove and shove comes to yank. Like it or not, that&rsquo;s the name of the publicity game in this competitive sports world where a United States Football League emerges to grab fans on one side and a Major Indoor Soccer League sprouts to take fans on the other.What better proof of the NHL&rsquo;s old-line thinking than its insistence on holding the annual draft, year after year, decade after decade, in Montreal.&ldquo;Why Montreal?&rdquo; asks Red Wing general manager Jimmy Devellano. &ldquo;Do they have to promote hockey in Montreal? Of course not. But we do have to promote it in the States.&rdquo;Devellano&rsquo;s proposal makes all the sense in the world (except in Montreal). Have the draft rotated, similar to the All-Star game, from city to city. Imagine the attention it would receive if it was held in Madison Square Garden or Joe Louis Arena?Imagine what a boost it would be for the NHL as a whole? Unfortunately, the league, as John Ziegler must know by now, is dominated by its parts&mdash;and the whole continues to suffer. &#9632;

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ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;The opportunity has once again popped up to refute a paraphrased theory: That Real men won&rsquo;t play for Kish.With the Edmonton Oilers having relocated their No. 1 farm team in Halifax, the job of guiding the American Hockey League franchise has fallen upon the shoulders of former Hartford Whaler coach Larry Kish.Kish, 42, had been handling special assignments for the Oilers since joining the Stanley Cup champions&rsquo; organization in July, 1983 after he was fired by the Whalers.&ldquo;Kish had a couple of offers, including an assistant coaching position in Chicago,&rdquo; explained Oiler assistant general manager Bruce MacGregor in the absence of vacationing GM and coach Glen Sather. &ldquo;He made the decision that he wanted to stay in our organization.&rdquo;After being named AHL Coach of the Year in 1981-82, when he led Binghamton to the league final, Kish had stints with both the AHL&rsquo;s Springfield Indians and the Whalers in 1982-83.He replaces Doug Messier as the man in charge of the Oilers&rsquo; No. 1 farm. Messier, father of Conn Smythe Trophy winner and NHL second-team all-star left winger Mark Messier, was replaced after the Moncton Alpines finished with a 3240-8 record.Ironically, Moncton lost a 4-3 decision to the Nova Scotia Voyageurs on the final day of the AHL schedule to miss the playoffs for the second year in succession. The fact he didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs both seasons in Moncton, coupled with the Alpines&rsquo; poor attendance (average of 2,300 per game), were listed as the reasons for the elder Messier&rsquo;s dismissal.&ldquo;We figured it was risky to bring someone over (to Halifax) from close by after missing the playoffs for two years,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;After Moncton, we decided to start fresh. There were problems in Moncton, many of which were created by the atmosphere left over by Toronto (Maple Leafs&rsquo; departure two years ago). Besides, we can&rsquo;t afford to lose money again like we did two years in Moncton.&rdquo;Messier, who had a brief meeting with Sather at the NHL draft meetings in June, admitted he was still disappointed about the decision.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how things happen in this game,&rdquo; said Messier, who was offered a job in the Oilers&rsquo; organization scouting U.S. colleges.Messier is familiar with the American university ranks, a fact that dates back to his days operating the tier two St. Albert Saints. There&rsquo;s a continual flow across the border south on a scholarship basis from outfits such as the Saints.With the Alpines, Messier guided the second-best defensive team in the AHL. But, unlike the Oilers&mdash;the most prolific scoring side the NHL has ever seen&mdash;Moncton possessed the most sporadic offense in the AHL.&ldquo;We lacked that extra bit of talent,&rdquo; explained Messier, who is pondering, and will likely accept, the scouting offer from the Oilers. &ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t have a proven goalscorer. We could have made a trade that would have gotten us a couple of 50-goalscorers, but they probably weren&rsquo;t future Oilers.&rdquo;The job now goes to Kish.IN THE CREASE&mdash;The Oilers will open the 1984-85 season Oct. 11 in Los Angeles with their home opener the following night against the St. Louis Blues. Their first meeting with the Stanley Cup finalist New York Islanders will be at the Northlands Coliseum Dec. 5. The rematch will be here Jan. 16 as the Oilers don&rsquo;t visit Long Island until March 26&hellip;Second-team all-star Paul Coffey, along with Glenn Anderson and newcomer Mike Krushelnyski, are among seven Oilers, plus farmhand Ken Berry, who became free agents as of July 1. &#9632;

Messier Given Kish Of Death In Halifax

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The Cheery World Of U.S. College Hockey

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Trottier&rsquo;s Decision</h2>SO WHAT&rsquo;S ALL this fuss about New York Islander center Bryan Trottier wanting to play for Team USA?Judging by the reaction in Canada, you would think that some high-level diplomat absconded with a stack of national secrets and boarded the first Aeroflot flight to Moscow.On second thought, not even that would cause as big a ripple as Trottier, who is considered by some hockey people to be the best all-round player in the game today, deciding he wants to play for the United States instead of Canada. And that, more than anything else, tells you just where international hockey ranks in the Canadian psyche.Emotional outbursts aside, let&rsquo;s examine the facts:&bull; Trottier was bom July 17, 1956 in Val Marie, Sask.&bull; Trottier&rsquo;s mother is, as he says, &ldquo;pure Irish,&rdquo; but his father is a North American Indian, &ldquo;part Cree and part Chippewa with a tad of French thrown in.&rdquo;&bull; Trottier currently possesses a North American Indian card, which, by virtue of the more than 100-year-old Jay Treaty, allows him to travel freely between Canada and the U.S. It also permits him to be employed in either country.&bull; Nine years ago, Trottier moved to Long Island to play for the Islanders. Since then, he has married an American and begun raising a family, all of whom were bom in the U.S.&bull; Trottier, who has represented Canada in international hockey in the past, currently holds a Canadian passport, which is the determining criteria on participation in the Canada Cup.&bull; Trottier has indicated that he&rsquo;d like to express his gratitude to the country which has given him a happy home and that gratitude translates as the Isles&rsquo; all-star playing for Team USA.&bull; Team USA general manager Lou Nanne says Trottier&rsquo;s U.S. passport, which he claims can be obtained with a North American Indian card, will be in hand long before the Canada Cup tournament starts in September.To his credit, Canada Cup tournament chairman Alan Eagleson has handled the situation well, simply stating that if Trottier can obtain a U.S. passport by Sept. 1, he&rsquo;ll be eligible for Team USA.However, the same cannot be said for Canadian hockey zealots who perceive Trottier&rsquo;s desire as a slap in the face to Canada and are prepared to brand him as something of a traitor.As Trottier so aptly put it, &ldquo;this isn&rsquo;t a war, it&rsquo;s a Canada Cup hockey tournament.&rdquo; He also points out that it isn&rsquo;t that he doesn&rsquo;t want to play for Canada, it&rsquo;s that he wants to play for the U.S. On top of all that, it&rsquo;s a good bet that Trottier, long after his hockey career ends, will remain in the U.S. It&rsquo;s his home now. There is even talk that he may go all the way and apply for U.S. citizenship in the near future.Fine. He won&rsquo;t be the first Canadian-bom individual to do so. And this case, you could argue that, in fact, he never really was a Canadian citizen because of his special status as a North American Indian.Though the circumstances are completely different, Trottier&rsquo;s desire to play for the U.S. provides the same end result as Peter Stastny, the Czechsolovak defector who recently became a Canadian citizen, playing for Team Canada.Stastny, in appreciation of the life afforded him in Canada, has become a Canadian citizen and wants to represent his new country. That doesn&rsquo;t mean he has forgotten his heritage or that Czechsolovak hockey fans should be offended.And Canadian hockey fans shouldn&rsquo;t be offended by Trottier&rsquo;s desire to play for the U.S. Sure, it&rsquo;s tough to see one of the very best players in the world decide he wants to play for another country, but look on the bright side of things.Having Trottier in the Team USA lineup and Stastny in the Team Canada lineup will likely produce one of the most heated battles in the entire Canada Cup. Both are consummate professionals with a burning desire to win&mdash;they showed that against each other two years ago in the playoffs when the Islanders and Nordiques met in the Stanley Cup semi-finals&mdash;and they&rsquo;ll be aiming to do their best for their new countries.And how can you can criticize anybody for that? &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011330/5269439-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="312" height="356"></div>That&rsquo;s bad news,&rdquo; said Rob Blackmore, upon learning that the odds of Bryan Trottier suiting up with Team USA aren&rsquo;t that remote. &ldquo;Oh my, that&rsquo;s bad news, indeed. I daresay that&rsquo;s probably the worse news I&rsquo;ve heard in some time. In fact, it&rsquo;s just terrible.&rdquo;&ldquo;Why does it bother you so much?&rdquo; said the voice on the other end of the phone line.&ldquo;Well, I just think Trottier is the best all-round player in the world,&rdquo; Blackmore said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ll have a very tough time filling his spot in the lineup.&rdquo;&ldquo;What do you mean when you say &lsquo;we&rsquo;?&rdquo; the voice asked.&ldquo;When it comes to hockey,&rdquo; Blackmore said emphatically, &ldquo;I think of myself as a Canadian.&rdquo;Indeed he does. Blackmore is a mild-mannered 33-year-old badminton coach in the small village of Chislehurst, which is just southeast of London.London, England, not Ontario, that is.&ldquo;I just love hockey,&rdquo; said Blackmore, a subscriber to THE HOCKEY NEWS for 12 years who backs up his claim with two or three trans-Atlantic phone calls per year to the Toronto office of THN just to get an immediate update on something he may have read in his paper.Such was the case on July 11, the day that Team Canada announced its training camp roster in Toronto and the day that Rob Blackmore received his air-mailed July 15 issue of THN.&ldquo;I just finished reading the Newsmakers&rsquo; Roundtable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Fascinating stuff, that is. But what I was really wondering is what&rsquo;s happening with the Bryan Trottier situation. Will he be able to play for Team USA?&rdquo;To say that Blackmore was crushed to hear that Trottier may well line up for the Americans in the Canada Cup would be an understatement. But he made a quick recovery. It was, after all, his dime.&ldquo;Since I wasn&rsquo;t eligible for the Canada Cup poll you ran in the paper,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;perhaps I could, just for the sport of it, give you my version of Team Canada?&rdquo;&ldquo;Go right ahead,&rdquo; the listener said.&ldquo;Well, Grant Fuhr and Pete Peeters in net. Denis Potvin, Raymond Bourque, Paul Coffey, Doug Wilson&hellip;&rdquo;Moments later, Blackmore had done an outstanding job of picking a 20-man nucleus for Team Canada. One mistake was not realizing the status of injured defensemen Paul Reinhart, Craig Hartsburg and Barry Beck and including them on his team.&ldquo;Are you sure you weren&rsquo;t at that press conference this morning?&rdquo; the listener said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s pretty accurate for someone who hasn&rsquo;t seen a hockey game before.&rdquo;&ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;ve seen games before,&rdquo; said Blackmore, who then complained that the BBC carried only 10 minutes of highlights from the Stanley Cup finals between Edmonton and the Islanders, but ran 90 minutes &ldquo;of that American football.&rdquo;&ldquo;I went to Montreal in 1977. Let me tell you, it was without question the thrill of a lifetime. I saw Wayne Gretzky and many other young stars in the world junior tournament at the Forum.&ldquo;He (Gretzky) scored the most fantastic goal I&rsquo;ve ever seen. It was in a 9-3 win over Czechoslovakia. Then I saw Guy Lafleur and Mike Bossy at their best. It is something 1&rsquo;11 always remember. Maybe one of these days, I&rsquo;ll come over for a Canada Cup. Now that would be the thrill of a lifetime.&rdquo;Blackmore was first turned onto hockey by his father. They used to go and watch teams such as the Wembley Lions and Brighton Tigers, when the game experienced something of a boom in the post-wartime era. Now, he still attends games whenever he can, but expresses some frustration.&ldquo;The Canadian players that play here score more than 100 goals a season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re quite good here, but the overall calibre of play probably wouldn&rsquo;t be much better than your Jr. C or Jr. B. Still, it&rsquo;s better than nothing.&rdquo;Blackmore, who has never played hockey but owns the best pair of skates money can buy (&ldquo;I got them while I was in Canada&rdquo;) and goes skating whenever possible, is a die-hard Montreal Canadien fan. He&rsquo;s a big booster of international hockey and there&rsquo;s no question that he&rsquo;s a raving Canuck in the body of an Englishman.&ldquo;What I&rsquo;ve always wanted to see is Canada&rsquo;s best players against the Soviet&rsquo;s best players for one whole season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know we&rsquo;re the best, I know it and under those conditions we&rsquo;d prove it.&rdquo;He does, however, have some very grave concerns about the direction the NHL is heading.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d really like to see the number of non-Canadians in the NHL cut down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Specifically, the number of Europeans. I can&rsquo;t see how letting that many Europeans and, for that matter, Americans, into the NHL is going to do anything good for Canadian hockey.&ldquo;I look at Montreal and they&rsquo;ve just signed this Czech youngster (Petr Svoboda). Now, they have five guys on defense who aren&rsquo;t Canadian. For a team such as the Montreal Canadiens, which, to me, is the epitome of what Canadian hockey is all about, I think that&rsquo;s kind of sad. I really do.&rdquo;But as sad as he may be about that, Blackmore, like any fanatical Canadian hockey fan, is selective and a little mercenary when push comes to shove.One omission on Blackmore&rsquo;s Team Canada list was Peter Stastny. the Czechoslovak defector who is now a Canadian citizen, and, therefore a member of Team Canada. He was told of his error.&ldquo;How can that be?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;How can Peter Stastny play for Canada?&rdquo;&ldquo;Because he&rsquo;s a Canadian citizen now,&rdquo; the other voice on the phone said.&ldquo;Well, isn&rsquo;t that wonderful,&rdquo; Blackmore exclaimed. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just great. I feel much better now. Stastny can take Trottier&rsquo;s place.&rdquo;&ldquo;But how is Peter Stastny playing for Team Canada any different than Trottier playing for Team USA, which upset you so much?&rdquo; he was asked.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s just say I&rsquo;m pro-Canadian,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never claimed to be objective.&rdquo;A Canadian hockey fan, indeed. &#9632;

f0008-01

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

<h2>NO COMPARISON, STAN</h2>After reading Stan Fischler&rsquo;s Islander obituary in the June issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, I could not help but wonder if Stan learned his trade while working in the Pravda editorial room. Come on, Stan! How can you possibly call the 1980-83 Isles better than the 1956-60 Canadiens?First of all, there were only six teams in the NHL in those days, not 21. Granted, there is a bigger talent pool today, but is it really three-and-a-half times bigger? Don&rsquo;t you realize that more than half of today&rsquo;s NHL players would be playing in the minor leagues if they had been bom 25 years earlier?Putting it another way, how good would the Isles be if, say, 12 teams in the NHL folded and the Oilers could add Rod Langway, Ray Bourque, Marcel Dionne, Dino Cic-carelli and a couple of Stastnys to their roster?How many of the 1980-83 Islanders will make it to the Hall of Fame? Certainly, Bossy, Potvin, Trottier and Smith would have to be considered good candidates, but there&rsquo;s really no one else on those teams with much of a chance. How many of the 1956-60 Habs are in the Hall? Four? Five? Six? How about nine&mdash;Beliveau, two Richards, Harvey, Johnson, Moore, Bouchard, Geof-frion and Plante. That&rsquo;s half of the team, Stanley!Your argument about the number of playoff series won is poor because even though the Habs played fewer play-off series, they were all against good teams, ones that played them many times during the season and therefore had ample opportunity to develop and test strategy. Each and every series was a war; the Canadiens&rsquo; semi-final matches were a lot more like Stanley Cup finals than the Islanders&rsquo; final-round games against teams such as Minnesota (35--28-17) and Vancouver (30-33-17).And, Mr. Hockey Maven, how about the 1976-1979 Cup winners from Montreal? They played in the same league that the Islanders do, and they set regular-season records with 132, 129 and 127 points. In three consecutive seasons, they had a record of 177 wins with only 29 losses. How can anyone even compare the Islanders to this team?Daniel V. O&rsquo;Neill Bel Air, MD &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;Shortly before the historic New York Ranger-Islander playoff controntation, I was approached by Stephen Hanks, the former editor of Goal maagazine, who now edits the bimonthly New York Sports, to collaborate with a Ranger on a daily playoff diary.It was clear that veteran defenseman Dave Maloney would be an excellent subject, a former captain who had been a Ranger longer than any member of the team (with the exception of fellow back-liner Ron Greschner). Maloney, a very articulate man, would bring emotion and insight to the story and make it work.The original plan was to have Maloney interviewed&mdash;either in person or via telephone&mdash;every day. But Maloney volunteered to put pen to paper himself, and in the following two weeks he produced 15 typewritten and 15 handwritten pages of manuscript.What made the story all the more poignant was that until the final game of the series, Maloney was in exile, a member of the Ranger non-playing taxi squad, The Black Aces. He dressed for the final game, and wore the captain&rsquo;s C only after Barry Beck was sidelined in Game Four with a shoulder injury.Game Five at Nassau Coliseum was a night of indelible memories&mdash;Ken Morrow scoring the overtime goal that gave the Islanders the series, a funereal Ranger dressing room, and Maloney bursting into tears when a television reporter asked him whether he thought he&rsquo;d just played his last game as a Ranger.That moment, that watershed of emotion, was a turning point in terms of the writing of the diary and perhaps for Maloney himself. It crystalized and surfaced many of the vulnerabilities a professional athlete feels. These became the threads linking the diary together, both on its pages and between the lines. The mortality of his job, fame&rsquo;s fleeting quality, and the desire to be perceived as a winner and go out as one, which is difficult to do on a team that has not won the Stanley Cup since 1940.Maloney&rsquo;s benching led to previously-unanswered parameters, putting the lid on things he might have been willing to say had he been a participant rather than an unwilling, frustrated fan.&ldquo;My gut feeling is that I won&rsquo;t play in the series at all,&rdquo; he wrote after the Rangers&rsquo; first-game loss. &ldquo;And it is difficult to accept the fact that I won&rsquo;t be given the chance to help the team.&rdquo;While he was willing to discuss some of the pain of not playing, he drew a rigid, unyielding line at any comment beyond basic strategy on his coach, Herb Brooks, and Brooks&rsquo; philosophies and game-by-game decisions.The obvious reason was the trade talk that surrounded Maloney, not to mention a good half-dozen of his teammates, since mid-season.At this point, fulfilling the commitment to doing the diary became a case of coming up with a product that would be satisfactory to all three parties, Maloney, Hariks and myself. Not an easy thing to do, because by definition, the three parties&rsquo; interests are never the same.Hanks was looking for insight, emotion. a story that put the reader there, a spiritual flavor and as honest an evaluation as the athlete was willing to summon of the most pivotal period of his life.My intention was to communicate a combination of my own impartial observations and Maloney&rsquo;s impressions; this would enable the reader to understand the entire scope of such a playoff series and its effect on the team as a whole, and Maloney himself, and all that he was going through.Maloney wanted to both come to terms with what he gone through (&ldquo;There was a good deal of pain, but I&rsquo;m not bitter,&rdquo; he insisted) and avoid burning his bridges at the same time.The ultimate veto power, in an autobiographical work, be it a book- or magazine-length article, rests with the author. In this case, Maloney himself.What came into play were all the fears, insecurites and the worry about the future that Dave Maloney obviously feels.These fears clashed head-on with the reader&rsquo;s desire to know as much as can possibly be known about the situation at hand, an expectation that has been reinforced over the years by this country&rsquo;s fierce pride in freedom of the press and all but total disclosure.There was a lot happening here, and what the reader received was as much as could possibly be expected with the story being fair to the reader, the editor and myself.Ultimately, what all the parties were dealing with was a man who does not control his own destiny&mdash;outside of cosmetic improvements, such as building up his upper body&mdash;and this fact scared Maloney.&ldquo;Although my fate is obviously not in my hands,&rdquo; concluded Maloney, who believes the team is close to being a contender. &ldquo;I honestly want to remain a New York Ranger.&rdquo;The reader was better served by being able to comprehend the significance of what Maloney was willing to commit to paper, than he would have been if an inflexible &ldquo;come clean or tell nothing&rdquo; posture would have been taken.<h2>PLAYERS WANTED</h2>Experienced American hockey players needed for semi-pro team located in Midwest. Call (217)793-0500. Or send detailed resume or letter outlining hockey and work experience to:Springfield Kings, c/o Doug Israel,2700 West Lawrence, Springfield, IL 62707 &#9632;

The Other Side Of Dave Maloney’s Diary

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>When Team Canada &lsquo;84 gets together for its team picture, the photo should be accompanied with this message: &ldquo;Any resemblance between this national team and the Edmonton Oilers is purely intentional.&rdquo;You might even say that only the names have been changed, but then that&rsquo;s not completely true.Because not only is a large block of the team made up of Oilers&mdash;eight of the 31 invitees come from the defending Stanley Cup champions&mdash;but it&rsquo;s expected that the squad will play the same style of play as Wayne Gretzky and Co.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played five years for Glen Sather and I think I know him pretty well,&rdquo; said Edmonton defenseman and Team Canada invitee Kevin Lowe of the man they call Slats, the general manager-coach of the Oilers who has been entrusted with the same portfolio with Team Canada.&ldquo;And I can tell you one thing for sure. Slats is going to pattern this team after the Edmonton Oilers. It will be a carbon copy in terms of style, I&rsquo;m sure of that.&rdquo;All of which means Team Canada &lsquo;84 will rely on youth, speed and confidence to try and win back the Canada Cup, which the Soviet Union won in 1981 with an 8-1 drubbing of the Canucks in the final game.Sather and 20 of the invited players were parachuted into Toronto in mid-July for a press conference to announce the training camp roster. The most immediate observation of the personnel was that it&rsquo;s young, the new wave, if you will, of the National Hockey League.Only 10 players who were invited to try out for Team Canada in 1981 are back for another kick at the Soviets, Swedes, Czechoslovaks, Americans and West Germans, who have taken the place of the Finns. And of those 10, only six&mdash;Raymond Bourque, Denis Potvin, Larry Robinson, Wayne Gretzky, Rick Middleton and Bryan Trottier&mdash;actually played in the &lsquo;81 tournament.So the accent is certainly on youth, despite the fact that the average age of the 31 1984 invitees is only fractionally less (25.25 years old) than the 36 1981 invitees.The difference is that many of the players who will be expected to carry the load this time are of the new wave generation.&ldquo;We are not unlike the Soviet Union in that way,&rdquo; said tournament chairman Alan Eagleson, the man who makes the whole thing go. &ldquo;When Valery Vasiliev retired, along came Viacheslav Fetisov. When Valery Kharlamov was killed in a car accident, along comes a guy named Sergei Makarov. We&rsquo;re no different. As the Marcel Dionnes, Darryl Sittlers, Bobby Clarkes and Gilbert Perreaults start to fade, the Mark Messiers, Barry Pedersons, Denis Savards, Glenn Andersons and Brian Bellows begin to shine.&rdquo;The majority of Team Canada&rsquo;s experience will be on defense, where New York Islander Denis Potvin, Montreal Canadien Larry Robinson and Chicago Black Hawk Doug Wilson are the veteran stalwarts. Joining them on the blueline crew are Bourque of the Boston Bruins; Edmonton&rsquo;s Paul Coffey, Randy Gregg, Charlie Huddy and Lowe; New York Ranger and Canadian Olympic alumnus James Patrick and Washington Capital Scott Stevens.Edmonton&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr, Boston&rsquo;s Pete Peeters and Calgary&rsquo;s Rejean Lemelin will contend for two goaltending positions.Up front, Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky leads a strong group of centers that includes his teammate, Mark Messier, Quebec&rsquo;s Peter Stastny, the Czechoslovak defector who is now a Canadian citizen, Boston&rsquo;s Barry Pederson, Chicago&rsquo;s Denis Savard and New York Islander Bryan Trottier, although he&rsquo;s expected to suit up with Team USA if he can clear eligibility hurdles (see story on next page).The right side contingent includes: Edmonton&rsquo;s Glenn Anderson; Minnesota&rsquo;s Brian Bellows; Islander Mike Bossy; Washington&rsquo;s Mike Gartner; Boston&rsquo;s Rick Middleton and Toronto&rsquo;s Rick Vaive.The left wingers include: Islander Bob Boum-e; Quebec&rsquo;s Michel Goulet; Chicago&rsquo;s Al Secord; St. Louis&rsquo; Brian Sutter; Islander John Tonelli and Hartford&rsquo;s Sylvain Turgeon, the youngest player (19) invited.Sather, the coach and general manager, will be assisted by his Edmonton assistant coaches, John Muckier and Ted Green. Sather received input on the personnel selections from Eagleson, former Montreal Canadian GM and Hockey Canada executive Sam Pollock plus a seven-man committee of NHL GMs led by Montreal&rsquo;s Serge Savard, though Sather made all final decisions.Team Canada training camp opens Aug. 5 in Montreal, shifts to Banff on Aug. 11 and and returns to Montreal on Aug. 17. Team Canada will play a seven-game exhibition series in August with four games against Team USA, two against the Czechoslovaks and one against the Soviet Union.By the time the tournament&mdash;which is a roundrobin affair with a best-of-three final that could end as late as Sept. 20&mdash;gets underway on Sept. 1, each team must be down to 20 skaters and two goalies.&ldquo;Everyone we&rsquo;ve invited to the training camp is a member of the team,&rdquo; Sather said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s pretty obvious we have some decisions to make. I wish all the players could make it but they can&rsquo;t. There&rsquo;s no timetable on when we&rsquo;ll make the decisions, except to say that they&rsquo;ll all be made by the day the tournament starts.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011371/5269518-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="723" height="1188"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glenn Anderson is one of eight Oilers named to Team Canada, which will use the same system as Edmonton.</figcaption></div>Since Team Canada was beaten so badly in the &lsquo;81 final, they&rsquo;ll be entering this year&rsquo;s tournament as something of an underdog. But that, said Larry Robinson, is a little misleading.&ldquo;Everyone seems to forget that we had a great tournament in 1981,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We lost one game and unfortunately it was the one that counted and we lost it big. But we&rsquo;re confident. This edition of the team has a good mix of veterans and young guys. I think we&rsquo;re faster now than in &lsquo;81 and we have a little more offensive punch.&rdquo;Lowe, who had an outstanding Stanley Cup playoff, noted some differences between the &lsquo;84 and &lsquo;81 editions of Team Canada.&ldquo;Not to take anything away from the &lsquo;81 team,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but they seemed to be more of an all-star collection than a team. You could see when they got down that everyone wanted to do it all by himself.&ldquo;On this team, we&rsquo;re all going to have definite responsibilities and jobs. I know mine. I&rsquo;m not here to score goals, that&rsquo;s for sure. I&rsquo;m here for my defensive capabilities.&rdquo;Sather plans on instituting a puck control game with an emphasis on speed.&ldquo;If you look at the guys we&rsquo;ve invited,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the common denominator is speed, although we&rsquo;ve got a good mix of guys who can play it any way. If you&rsquo;re fast and you control the puck, you&rsquo;re going to win, it&rsquo;s that simple.&rdquo;Another Oiler trait which is sure to manifest itself in Team Canada is the five-man attack. &ldquo;Slats really likes to get the defensemen involved in the movement up the ice,&rdquo; Lowe said. &ldquo;I imagine that we (the Oilers) will be helping to show the other guys how Glen wants it done.&rdquo;To be successful, Team Canada needs one of its three goaltenders to come up with a hot hand and the defense must be able to withstand the extreme pressure applied by strong and fast forwards from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Up front. Team Canada has few worries about scoring prowess and has plenty of muscle and determination.And if the hockey world believes that the Soviet&rsquo;s Big Red Machine is invincible, that the North American system of all-star teams and poorly-time competitions cripples any serious effort of dethroning the Russians, then someone had better tell Sather, Lowe and the rest of the squad.&ldquo;I certainly don&rsquo;t feel inferior to the Russians,&rdquo; Lowe said. &ldquo;In fact, if anything I think w&rsquo;e&rsquo;re superior to them. If you don&rsquo;t like the sound of the word, &lsquo;superior,&rsquo; then use &lsquo;better.&rsquo; We (the Oilers) beat their national team. In the world championships three years ago, we (Team Canada) lost two games to them by one goal.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, they&rsquo;re great. But there isn&rsquo;t any reason why I should feel like they&rsquo;re better than us. Having Vladislav Tretiak in net saved them a few times. Now that he&rsquo;s retired, they may have to change their game and be a little more cautious. But I&rsquo;m just as concerned with the other teams, especially Team USA and the Czechs. You can&rsquo;t forget those teams.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going into this tournament to win every game,&rdquo;-Sather said. &ldquo;The way I see it, winning is fun and we want to have a lot of fun. But it&rsquo;ll take a lot of hard work. I want this to be a team in the truest sense of the word. Looking at the players we&rsquo;ve selected, I think that&rsquo;s exactly what we&rsquo;ll have. These guys are enthusiastic, you can just feel the electricity in the air around them.&rdquo;Even Stastny, the Czechoslovak expatriate, understands the significance of what the uniformed might consider just another hockey tournament.&ldquo;When I grew up in Czechoslovakia, it was every boy&rsquo;s dream to play for the national team,&rdquo; Stastny said. &ldquo;I achieved that dream and it meant a lot because I know how much it means to other people in the country.&ldquo;Now I have a new country. I am a Canadian now and having played in the NHL, I understand what hockey means to people in Canada. It means a lot to them and to the players on this team. It is a thrill of a lifetime.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

Sather To Pattern Team Canada After Oilers

<div class="byline">BY ROD BEATON</div>The Soviet Union is defending the Canada Cup.Canada is obsessed with getting it back.Everyone fears the Czechoslovaks.So where does that leave the USA?Team USA was fourth in the last Canada Cup in 1981 with a 2-3-1 mark, left behind after one game of the playoffs.Its roster was &ldquo;loaded&rdquo; with marginal NHL players such as Tom Younghans, Bill Baker, Bobby Miller, Tom Gorence, Warren Miller and Dean Talafous. The rest of the team was a bunch of 1980 Olympic heroes who were barely cutting their teeth in professional competition.USA&mdash;You&rsquo;ve come a long way, maybe.When general manager Lou Nanne and coach Bob (Badger) Johnson survey the 32-man roster invited to Team USA&rsquo;s training camp, which starts Aug. 5 in Colorado Springs, CO, they will be looking at:&bull; The best defenseman in the NHL&mdash;Rod Langway, the Norris Trophy winner.&bull; The best goaltender in the NHL&mdash;Vezina Trophy winner, Tom Barrasso.&bull; Mobility (Phil Housley, Gordie Roberts and Mark Howe, if he can play), balanced with poise and defensive prowess (Langway and Mike Ramsey) on the blueline.&bull; Proven playmakers at center, enough for several to spill over onto the flanks, where the talent is thinner.&bull; Several immensely talented&mdash;much of it not yet realized&mdash;first- and second-year pros. Four of them, Pat LaFontaine, Brian Lawton, Barrasso and Ed Olczyk were selected within the first five picks in the last two entry drafts.In short, Nanne and Johnson and even objective outside observers see depth.At the very least, that depth guarantees spirited competition for the 26-man roster Johnson wants to keep and the 22-man lineup permitted to dress for each game. It probably means a team that must be regarded as a legitimate contender that is perhaps&mdash;just perhaps&mdash;good enough to win the Canada Cup.After the disappointing Olympic showing by the U.S. team in Sarajevo, the American pros have to state the case for American hockey. Last time they had to live up to the Olympians; this time they have to make up for the Olympians.What a difference three years make.They have certainly made a difference in the American lineup&mdash;and confidence level.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be quite competitive,&rdquo; said Nanne. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a little weak on the wings, compared to the Russians and Canada, but we&rsquo;re going to be good in the middle, on defense and in goal.&rdquo;Johnson spotted the difference.&ldquo;This time we have five players who were on the team in &lsquo;81 but weren&rsquo;t established yet in the NHL. Now they&rsquo;re top players.&rdquo;He reeled off the names: Langway, Christian, Neal Broten, Ken Morrow and Johnson&rsquo;s son, Mark.Then there are two others who weren&rsquo;t considered good enough for the &lsquo;81 team. Since that rejection, they have become good enough to be the best defenders on top NHL teams.&ldquo;Mike Ramsey (Buffalo) was cut in &lsquo;81,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a real good player now. Gordie Roberts (Minnesota) was cut in &lsquo;81, too. He&rsquo;s also really good.&rdquo;Both are defensemen. At the very least, Team USA&rsquo;s defense must rank with Canada&rsquo;s, especially since the Canadians will not be able to use Craig Hartsburg, Paul Reinhart and Barry Beck because they are recovering from injuries.Johnson said that if Mark Howe can play&mdash;he is bothered by a rotator cuff (shoulder) injury&mdash;it will be on defense. He won&rsquo;t be moved to left wing as he was in &lsquo;81.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a world class player&mdash;as a defenseman,&rdquo; stressed Johnson.Housley will also be used exclusively at center.&ldquo;I talked to Scott Bowman and he said he plays much better there (defense),&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;He jumps into holes better from defense and is more valuable.&rdquo;In &rsquo;81, moving Howe was mandated by the utter lack of goal-scoring punch on the wings. That is still a problem. American hockey development programs have yet to develop a truly outstanding goal-scoring winger, although David A. Jensen and Ed Olczyk might end the drought. But the problem is not as pronounced as it was three years ago. The Mullen brothers, Brian of the Winnipeg Jets and particularly high-scoring Joey of the St. Louis Blues, are part of the reason.Certainly they will be more productive than Rob McClanahan, Talafous, Warren Miller, Younghans, Gorence and Paul Holmgren (who was injured during the tournament). Those were the six &ldquo;natural&rdquo; wingers on the &rsquo;81 squad. Add Olczyk and Jensen, two of five players from the Olympic team (the others are defensemen Chris Chelios and Tom Hirsch and goaltender Marc Behrcnd) and the wingers have considerably more punch, even before it&rsquo;s fortified by the transplanted centers.&ldquo;Our problem in &rsquo;81 was goalscoring,&rdquo; admitted Johnson.The figures back him. Team USA scored 18 goals in six games, but had only 12 in five if you discount a 6-2 runaway against Czechoslovakia.&ldquo;We played very well,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;A few more goals and we&rsquo;d have had some upsets.&rdquo;Jonnson will do some fiddling to get the goals.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have much better production if some of our centers adjust to the wing,&rdquo; he said.Johnson will play Mike Eaves on right wing. He&rsquo;ll play Mark Johnson, Bob Carpenter and Brian Lawton on left wing. Dave Christian, he said, &ldquo;can play anywhere.&rdquo;One center he will not fool with is Bryan Trottier.Trottier?The Islanders&rsquo; rugged, two-way pivot, certainly the hardest-hitting and best checking center who can score, is determined to play for the USA.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m married to an American and I want to pay back the country that lets me live and work here,&rdquo; he said.A North American Indian, his special status might just give him that opportunity. If he does play for the team, the Americans will be able to ice the superstar forward they did not have last time.&ldquo;Overall, we are a little stronger&mdash;on paper&mdash;than we were last time,&rdquo; said Eaves. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just a matter of people maturing, it&rsquo;s depth, too. There are more of us.&rdquo;But Neal Broten said the big thing is that the Americans are coming into their own this time. Last Canada Cup, they were a novelty manufactured in Lake Placid. They were the cute, cuddly Americans. Wasn&rsquo;t it nice what they did to the Soviets? But this tournament was for pros, so the Yanks were harmless.Maybe not this time.&ldquo;We were a little immature,&rdquo; said Broten. &ldquo;It was a new experience to play in the Canada Cup.&rdquo;For many of them it will be a new experience this time. But they will have Langway, Broten and others&mdash;not quite grizzled veterans but veterans nonetheless&mdash;to guide them. &#9632;

Team USA’s Inferiority Complex Is Long Gone

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>A couple of days before the National Hockey League entry draft in Montreal, a handful of reporters ventured into a fancy French restaurant and stumbled across none other than Lou Nanne, the general manager of the Minnesota North Stars and Team USA.Realizing he had a captive audience, Nanne regaled the newsmen with a plethora of stories, most of them dealing with the entry draft. Not in the habit of having NHL general managers deliver tidbits of information and gossip to their dinner table, the hockey writers were delighted.But when Nanne, smiling a devilish grin and his eyes dancing, told his attentive audience that Bryan Trottier would be suiting up for Team Canada in the Canada Cup this fall, the scribes chuckled, exchanged uncertain glances and concluded that Nanne would do just about anything to bug Alan Eagleson.&ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; Nanne asked the skeptics. &ldquo;Trottier is a North American Indian. He can travel back and forth between the two countries. He can work in the U.S. He&rsquo;s married to a U.S. girl.&ldquo;Mark my words. Bryan Trottier will be playing for Team USA in the Canada Cup.&rdquo; And with that, Nanne made his exit.Even after he left, the skepticism remained.&ldquo;Do you think he&rsquo;s serious?&rdquo; one scribe asked another.&ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied the other.&ldquo;Well, are you going to write the story?&rdquo; asked the first.&ldquo;Of course I am,&rdquo; said the other. &ldquo;It may never happen, but it&rsquo;s a helluva story.&rdquo;A &ldquo;helluva story,&rdquo; indeed, and now, less than two weeks before the opening of the Team Canada and Team USA training camps, the possibility of Trottier, the New York Islander center who is considered by some to be the best all-round player in the NHL, suiting up for Team USA isn&rsquo;t so remote.In fact, it&rsquo;s a good bet Trottier will be wearing stars and stripes in the Canada Cup. And if he&rsquo;s not, he won&rsquo;t be playing at all, even though he is currently the on the training camp rosters of both Team Canada and Team USA.&ldquo;Nothing against Canada, but I&rsquo;d like to play for the U.S. and do something for the country that has been good to me,&rdquo; Trottier told Rod Beaton of USA Today.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m married to an American. I live and work here. It&rsquo;s not like a war between the U.S. and Canada. It&rsquo;s the Canada Cup, a tournament, and this is a chance for me to show my gratitude. I feel the U.S. has a really good chance of winning.&rdquo;Alan Eagleson, who, among other things, is the Canada Cup tournament czar, said Trottier is only eligibile for Team Canada&mdash;unless the all-star center procures a U.S. passport.&ldquo;Hey, that&rsquo;s no problem,&rdquo; said Nanne, who added that he expects Trottier&rsquo;s U.S. passport to arrive in early August. &ldquo;You see, I wasn&rsquo;t kidding about having Trottier in our lineup. Once he gets the passport, that&rsquo;s it. He&rsquo;s in.&rdquo;But will Trottier&rsquo;s Indian card, which grants him a number of privileges (unrestricted North American travel and employment in either Canada or the U.S.) be enough to get him a U.S. passport, especially since he was bom in Saskatchewan and has represented Canada in earlier international play?Team USA coach Bob Johnson doesn&rsquo;t see why not and has the case history to back it up.&ldquo;I remember a guy named Guy Smith,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;He was an Indian who was bom in Canada but he wanted to play for Team USA in a tournament. We had no trouble getting him a passport.&rdquo;Smith, who happens to be a nephew of Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto on the Lone Ranger television series, was bom in Ottawa and played 39 games between 1972 and 1974 for the New England entry in the old World Hockey Association. He, like Trottier, had a North American Indian card and used it to qualify for a U. S. passport and played for Team USA in 1974.&ldquo;If they can play (Peter) Stastny (the Czechoslovak defector who is now a Canadian citizen), we can play Trottier,&rdquo; says Johnson. &ldquo;Why are they making such a big deal about Trottier anyway?&rdquo;Team Canada general manager and coach Glen Sather said he&rsquo;d love to have Trottier in the lineup&mdash;&rsquo; &lsquo;I think he could make our team,&rdquo; Sather said facetiously&mdash;but wouldn&rsquo;t be shattered if the player qualified for Team USA.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like we&rsquo;re going to fold our tent over one player, even if it is Bryan Trottier,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll do the best we can with what we&rsquo;ve got, which isn&rsquo;t too bad when you consider we&rsquo;ve got Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Peter Stastny, Denis Savard and Barry Pederson at center. But until I hear otherwise. I&rsquo;m assuming that Trottier is only eligible for Team Canada and he&rsquo;ll be coming to our training camp.&rdquo;A day after Sather made that statement, Trottier announced that he would play for Team USA or not at all.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s Bryan&rsquo;s decision,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;If he gets the passport before the tournament starts, then he&rsquo;s eligible to play for Team USA. Naturally, I&rsquo;d like to see him play for Canada but as chairman of the tournament, my only real duty is to make sure that as many members of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association as possible participate in the tournament, whether it&rsquo;s for Team Canada, Team USA or Team Sweden.&rdquo; &#9632;

Team USA Figures Trottier Will Be Eligible

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011250/5269597-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="355" height="510"></div>When the Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup last spring, it eliminated any doubt that they lacked what it takes to win the big games. And it catapulted general manager-coach Glen Sather into the spotlight. Now, Sather, as a reward for leading the Oilers to victory, will try to mold Team Canada to become champions of the 1984 Canada Cup tournament. THE HOCKEY NEWS interviewed Sather when he was in Toronto to announce the lineup for the squad.THN: Do you think you&rsquo;d be here today announcing your player selections if you had lost the Stanley Cup?SATHER: I doubt it. Someone asked me if Larry Robinson hadn&rsquo;t had such a great playoff last spring, would he be here today. There are lots of questions like that, I guess.THN: But doesn&rsquo;t winning the Stanley Cup open up a lot of doors for you personally? Isn&rsquo;t this your chance to help establish yourself in the same class as, say, Scott Bowman?SATHER: I haven&rsquo;t really thought too much about that. I don&rsquo;t think of things on an individual basis. A lot of these things you get involved with are because of the team concept. As far as coaching is concerned, you&rsquo;re not nearly as successful if you don&rsquo;t have the players like Coffey, Messier, Anderson and Gretzky. One hand washes the other. There was an awful lot involved in the last five years for me to get here. But more than anything else, it&rsquo;s a team thing, not personal. I&rsquo;m sure my players feel the same way. We&rsquo;ve worked together to be successful. I can&rsquo;t take all the credit. Neither can any one individual. And that&rsquo;s exactly the type of atmosphere we&rsquo;ve got to create for Team Canada. We have to get the players thinking we can win it all. We have to get the people of Canada believing we can win it all. We want their support. We want them behind us.THN: Isn&rsquo;t it difficult to get that team concept when you have to shape an all-star lineup in a short period of time?SATHER: That was one of the things I talked to the players about this morning (20 of the invitees attended the Toronto press conference). I told them that is going to be a team. It&rsquo;s not a group of guys who are all-stars. It&rsquo;s going to be a hockey team. We&rsquo;re going to think like a team, act like a team, we&rsquo;re going to win like a team. In order to win a tournament like this one, everyone has to believe in each other. During training camp, we&rsquo;ll go to Banff for four days, have a little fun. The players will have their wives there, do a little golfing, relax and get to know each other, become teammates and friends. And, of course, we&rsquo;ll have two practices a day.THN: This edition of Team Canada appears to be younger than ever before. In making your player selections, do you feel you&rsquo;ve done anything differently than those who did it before you?SATHER: It has taken a lot of hard thinking to try and come up with a group of fellows we think can do the job. A lot of time was spent analyzing the situation and what we felt would be necessary to win. I think it&rsquo;s a little bit different combination than in the past.The enthusiasm is definitely there. A number of the guys have played with each other before. We&rsquo;ve got aggression, skating, puckhandling, but the main thing, I think, is enthusiasm, because that&rsquo;s absolutely necessary to win the Canda Cup.We&rsquo;ve got a lot of very successful duos. You look at the great lines in hockey and it&rsquo;s usually two stars who play with a variety of other players. Look at Trottier and Bossy, Gretzky and Kurri, Savard and Secord, Pederson and Middleton, Stastny and Goulet&hellip;They usually come in pairs and when we selected the team, we were aware of that. We&rsquo;ve got a number of two-men nucleus that we can work from. And that will help us to become a team more quickly.In my opinion, this is the most enthusiastic and young team we&rsquo;ve ever iced. A lot of these young players have never been invited to something like this before. That alone is going to add a lot to the team. But we&rsquo;ve still got a good mix. There are veterans who can supply leadership and young guys with enthusiasm.THN: Did you make all the selections yourself?SATHER: Well, the selection process started with me and the entire Edmonton Oiler staff. We worked with a seven-man committee of NHL general managers, who gave us their input. We talked to Mr. (Alan) Eagleson and Mr. (Sam) Pollock. But the overall end result was that I picked the players, I made the final decisions, but with input and help from a lot of other people.THN: Did anyone turn down the offer to participate?SATHER: No one turned me down, but then I never asked anyone. Mr. Eagleson did the asking and as far as I know, no one rejected us.THN: Didn&rsquo;t John Ogrodnick and Billy Smith?SATHER. I don&rsquo;t know about Ogrodnick, but as far as Billy is concerned, knowing the history of the thing with him and how he feels, I never put him in the position of having to make the decision. I didn&rsquo;t want it to become a whole embarrassing situation so we just left Billy alone.There were other players that were never asked because we knew they were coming off injuries. Paul Reinhart, Craig Hartsburg and Barry Beck all would have warranted consideration but because they&rsquo;re still hurt, we knew they weren&rsquo;t going to be available.THN: Did the Edmonton Oiler victory over the Soviet Union have a lot to do with you formulating your game plan for the Canada Cup?SATHER: Yes, definitely. The Oilers beat the Soviets with a skating game. A skating game, that&rsquo;s the kind of game I want to play. If you look at our personnel, you&rsquo;ll see that the common denominator is Speed. Speed and puck control win hockey games. I don&rsquo;t like to give up the puck and that&rsquo;s something else we&rsquo;ll be stressing in training camp. Everyone knows that your chances of winning are better if you&rsquo;re controlling the puck.THN: Is there a danger of hyping the Canada Cup as a Canada-Russia confrontation and forgetting that there are other contenders?SATHER: There are more than the Russians to worry about in this tournament. The Russians are not the team that I&rsquo;d be solely concerned about. I&rsquo;d be concerned about the Americans first. And the Czechs beat the Russians 7-2 in the Sweden Cup this year, so you know they&rsquo;re going to be strong, too.THN: Do you think the Soviets will be any more vulnerable because Vladislav Tretiak has retired?SATHER: Someone told me that Tretiak is back training. Until the first game of the tournament starts and Vladislav Tretiak isn&rsquo;t in uniform, I don&rsquo;t consider him retired.THN: Winning a Stanley Cup and a Canada Cup in the same year would be quite an achievement, wouldn&rsquo;t it?SATHER: If I didn&rsquo;t say I was excited about it (managing and coaching Team Canada) when Alan first talked to me, I&rsquo;d be lying. It&rsquo;s exciting to get a chance to do something for your country. If we can pull this off, it would do a great deal for Canadian unity, a helluva lot more than an election would. Really, hockey is the only thing that can bring this whole country together. I can remember the other Canada Cups or international games involving Canada. Whenever I hear the national anthem, I get a tingle up my back. It pulls us all together and we don&rsquo;t have enough things in this country to pull us together. &#9632;

f0011-01

With Team Canada’s Glen Sather

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02943/5269628-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="355" height="506"></div>Lou Nanne, the fast-talking general manager of the Minnesota North Stars, has been involved with international hockey in the United States for many years, first as a player on the national team and more recently as an executive. He&rsquo;s seen it come a long way in a relatively short time and, as general manager of this year&rsquo;s Team USA entry in the Canada Cup, he&rsquo;s excited about his team&rsquo;s prospects in the prestigious six-nation tournament. THE HOCKEY NEWS caught up with Nanne in Colorado Springs and the result is this brief interview:THN: Is it conceivable that Team USA can win the Canada Cup?NANNE: Yes. But I think we have to have some breaks go our way, get some excellent goaltending, but that&rsquo;s quite possible.THN: Is there any one spot you&rsquo;re aiming for, a team goal?NANNE: Any time you compete, your aim should be to win. That&rsquo;s the aim. We hope things break right and that we can win. We&rsquo;re no more underdogs than the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.THN: Come on, aren&rsquo;t you selling your team short? The 1980 U.S. Olympic team was a heavy underdog. You&rsquo;re not that big a long shot.NANNE: Yeah, I guess that&rsquo;s right.THN: Well, can you look at your team on paper and compare it to Team Canada and say they&rsquo;re both in the same competitive range?NANNE: Well, you can&rsquo;t say we&rsquo;re on par with Team Canada. If you, for example, look at scoring statistics, you&rsquo;ll notice a vast difference. I&rsquo;m not so naive to think we&rsquo;re on par with them, but we&rsquo;re close enough to them that with some superb efforts by some key people on our team and breaks going our way, anything could happen in a one-game deal such as this one.THN: As general manager of the team, you must notice a marked difference in the quality and quantity of players available to you this time around.NANNE: No question about that. If we didn&rsquo;t have any injuries, it&rsquo;d be even better. We might lose (Mark) Howe (shoulder injury) and (Ken) Morrow (knee injury). We&rsquo;ve already lost (Dave) Langevin. Mike O&rsquo;Connell has another commitment (his hockey school) and can&rsquo;t play. Mark Pavelich is another one who won&rsquo;t be there. We&rsquo;re hurt a little by that, but we still have a lot more talent and depth than in 1981. We&rsquo;ve got a very competitive squad.THN: We hear that Pavelich turned you down because he wants to take the time off to hunt and fish. Is that right?NANNE: Yeah, I guess so.THN: What&rsquo;s your team&rsquo;s basic strength?NANNE: Goaltending, defense and up the middle, we&rsquo;re solid there with proven pros with a good track record. We&rsquo;re light on the wings and that&rsquo;s where we&rsquo;re vulnerable.THN: Has there been much interest in Team USA in the United States or will it be toiling in virtually anonymity?NANNE: It&rsquo;s hard to gauge at this time. We haven&rsquo;t really had a lot of publicity. Once we get into training camp, I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;ll be a lot more interest. Once the Olympics are over, it&rsquo;ll be easier to generate interest.THN: When you first mentioned the idea of getting Bryan Trottier to play for Team USA, were you serious about it or was it a little publicity stunt?NANNE: Oh, there&rsquo;s no question in my mind that Bryan Trottier will be playing for Team USA in the Canada Cup. It was never a joke. He&rsquo;s expected to get his passport within a month (by mid-August). If he gets that, he&rsquo;ll be playing for us. He&rsquo;s told everyone he wants to play for us. We want him. Alan Eagleson said as long as he gets a U.S. passport, he can play for us.THN: Are you sure Alan Eagleson doesn&rsquo;t have any friends in the U.S. passport office?NANNE: Why, if he did do you think he&rsquo;d help Trottier get the U.S. passport?THN: Of course not. Maybe he&rsquo;d help him not get it.NANNE:&nbsp;(laughs) He (Trottier) will get it.THN: What is it that makes hockey players want to give up vacation time for a high-pressure tournament that adds an extra six or seven weeks onto their season?NANNE: I think the first and foremost thing is that anytime you&rsquo;re playing at a professional athlete and you get the type of competition that pits the best in your country agains the best in other countries, it&rsquo;s not only challenging but interesting and exciting to participate in that kind of hockey. There&rsquo;s a lot of romanticism tied to a tournament like this. It&rsquo;s national pride.THN: Do you think the day will come when Team USA enters a tournament such as this one with better than even odds to win it all?NANNE: Oh sure, that&rsquo;s a realistic goal. Just look at the strides we&rsquo;ve made in three or four years. If we get another four years with that kind of development, we&rsquo;re going to be that much closer. The day could come a lot sooner than some people realize, although I don&rsquo;t think anyone is going to be taking us lightly this year. &#9632;

f0011-02

With Team USA’s Lou Nanne

<h2>1976 FINAL STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03753/5269725-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="531" height="211"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Canada 11, Finland 2Sweden 5, United States 2Czechoslovakia 5, Soviet Union 3Sweden 3, Soviet Union 3Czechoslovakia 8, Finland 0Canada 4, United States 2Soviet Union 11, Finland 3Czechs 4, United States 4Canada 4, Sweden 0Finland 8, Sweden 6Soviet Union 5, United States 0Czechoslovakia 1, Canada 0United States 6, Finland 3Sweden 2, Czechoslovakia 1Canada 3, Soviet Union 1<h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>Canada 6, Czechoslovakia 0Canada 5, Czechoslovakia 4(Canada wins best-of-three series 2-0 and Canada Cup tournament)<h2>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04456/5269718-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="535" height="239"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-05330/5269711-1-eng-US/f0012-052.jpg" title="f0012-05" width="535" height="561"></div><h2>1981 FINAL STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-06274/5269704-1-eng-US/f0012-062.jpg" title="f0012-06" width="539" height="207"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Canada 7, Soviet Union 3United States 4, Finland 4Czechoslovakia 7, Sweden 1Canada 4, Sweden 3United States 6, Czechs 2Soviet Union 6, Finland 1Canada 4, Czechoslovakia 4Soviets 4, United States 1Sweden 5, Finland 0Canada 8, United States 3Soviet Union 6, Sweden 3Czechoslovakia 7, Finland 1Canada 9, Finland 0United States 3, Sweden 1Soviet Union 1, Czechs 1<h3>PLAYOFFS SEMI-FINALS</h3>Canada 4, United States 1Soviet Union 4, Czechs 1 FINALSSoviet Union 8, Canada 1(Soviet Union wins championship and Canada Cup tournament)<h2>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-07238/5269697-1-eng-US/f0012-072.jpg" title="f0012-07" width="541" height="763"></div> &#9632;

f0012-03

’76 And ’81 Canada Cup Scores, Statistics

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>Team Canada will have a tough time winning the Canada Cup because of the change in format from the last tournament three years ago, says former National Hockey League goalie, Ken Dryden.Dryden, the brilliant netminder with the Montreal Canadiens in the &rsquo;70s who recently became a star in literary circles with his book. The Game, says Team Canada faces a tough task because this tournament, unlike in 1981, has a best-of-three championship final instead of a one-game showdown. The Canadians beat the Soviets in the preliminaries in the &rsquo;81 competition, but were soundly beaten, 8-1, in the finals.&ldquo;In a three-game set, it&rsquo;s harder for the underdog to win twice,&rdquo; says Dryden, who was part of a panel discussing the question, Can The Soviets Be Beaten?, at a recent hockey seminar in Toronto.&ldquo;My glass is half full,&rdquo; said George Kingston, an assistant coach with the 1984 Canadian Olympic team. &ldquo;A (three-game) series is quite a bit different than one game.&rdquo;Dryden says Team Canada must take a different approach for the &rsquo;84 series, particularly in attitude. Too many players in past international competitions, he says, have seen themselves as &ldquo;volunteers.&rdquo; In order to win, he adds, the players should look at the Canada Cup as the &ldquo;Stanley Cup and more.&rdquo;He is emphatic that the &ldquo;team concept&rdquo; must be stressed, with particular emphasis on the role of the coach.&ldquo;There is one voice, the coach,&rdquo; Dryden says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s in charge&hellip;at all times, for all activities, hockey or non-hockey.&rdquo;He also says there should be a change in the selection of players. In the past, there&rsquo;s been a tendency to pick the best players, but Dryden believes a &ldquo;real&rdquo; team is a blend of good offensive and defensive players.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to get a lead, it&rsquo;s another thing to keep it.&rdquo;The consensus among the panel was that the Soviets have the upper hand in international hockey because their system is designed to excel in the short winner-take-all competition. For example, while both the U.S. and Canadian teams have just announced their training camp rosters, the Soviets have maintained the same nucleus of players for several years.&ldquo;Their whole system works for one team,&rdquo; says Alpo Suhonen, coach of the Finnish Olympic team. &ldquo;Most of the players live in the same area and play on the same team.&rdquo;&ldquo;They have an ideal system, with a full-time coach who isn&rsquo;t getting fired for the wrong reasons,&rdquo; said Tim Taylor, an assistant with the 1984 U.S. Olympic team.Taylor says neither the Canadians nor the Americans will be able to beat the Soviets consistently in international competitions unless the team is comprised of top-notch players on a continuous basis.And that, says Toronto Star columnist Jim Proudfoot, isn&rsquo;t about to happen.&ldquo;The Russians have the edge,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It goes to the roots of our system, and I can&rsquo;t see that changing.&rdquo;Suhonen says there needs to be a &ldquo;total change of thinking&rdquo; in the North American approach to international hockey.&ldquo;Here in North America, also in Finland and Sweden, the system works for the business, not the country,&rdquo; Suhonen says. &ldquo;I think only the Czechoslovaks can beat the Soviets on a consistent basis.&rdquo;Dryden, however, believes that the Soviets are not infallible, and uses the success of the gold-medal winning Canadian team at world junior tournament in 1981 as an example.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite wrong to throw up our hands, which is sometimes what we do.&rdquo;And Dryden emphasizes that the Soviets will be operating without their veteran goalie, Vladislav Tretiak, who starred for the Russians for four Olympics before recently retiring to become a coach. With Tretiak as a form of &ldquo;security,&rdquo; the Soviets had a greater opportunity to create chances, Dryden says. &#9632;

Panel Views Cup Format As Soviet Edge

<div class="byline">BY DENNIS GIBBONS</div>If ever you required an example of how the North American approach to preparing for international competition differs from that of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, it was there bright as the sun in mid-July when 20 Team Canada players gathered in Toronto for a press conference.As soon as the players had fulfilled their obligation to the media, a number of them collected their golf bags and headed off to a suburban course just north of the city.While the boys were out on the links, prospects for the Soviet and Czechoslovak national teams were in the midst of dry-land training. In fact, the prospective players from those two nations had less than a month off from the time league play in April ended until dryland training for the Canada Cup began in mid-May.Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov invited 30 players to the initial Soviet training camp at Novogorsk, near Moscow, while the Czechoslovaks, buoyed by their success in the Sweden Cup where they upset the Soviets, 7-2, opened workouts with 31 hopefuls under the tutelage of coach Ludek Bukac.After losing 2-0 to the Soviets in the gold-medal game of the Winter Olympics in February, Bukac brought in eight new faces, including Buffalo Sabre draftee Jiri Dudacek and 19-year-old goalie Dominik Hasek, to Sweden in April.With younger legs in the lineup, the Czechs outplayed the mighty Soviets, who have rarely been beaten, let alone by five goals. Still, Tikhonov is a long way from pushing the panic button.Finnish coach Alpo Suhonen, whose team lost, 8-2, to the Soviets and, 9-3, to the Czechs, said that Tikhonov may have given his players a lot of slack during the Swedish trip, almost as if they were on holidays.&ldquo;All teams have to lose sometime,&rdquo; said Suhonen, on a recent visit to Canada. &ldquo;It could be the Soviets think it&rsquo;s better to lose in the Sweden Cup than the Canada Cup.&rdquo;In a recent interview with the Soviet daily, Sovietsky Sport, Tikhonov admitted that the biggest stumbling block between the Big Red Machine and a second straight Canada Cup victory is finding a replacement for star goalie Vladislav Tretiak, who announced his retirement in May.Vladimir Myshkin, second-string goalie on the national team since 1979, and Aleksander Tyzhnyk, Tretiak&rsquo;s understudy on the Moscow Army club team, are the most likely candidates to succeed Tretiak. Evgeny Belosheikin, the 18-year-old star of this year&rsquo;s world junior championships, was also invited to the Soviet&rsquo;s May training camp, but 26-year-old Sergei Mylnykov from the Traktor Chelyabinsk club is generally considered third in the line of succession.Cross-country running and minisoccer games, with five-man units playing against each other, are important parts of the Soviet off-season training. Traditionally, national team players spend at least a couple of weeks with their club teams as well. Army players, for example, started their preparation for the Olympics last summer at Arkhangelsk, a Soviet army base near the Arctic Circle.Both the Soviets and Czechoslovaks started on-ice workouts in July and will play exhibition games in Sweden before coming to Canada. The Czechs take on the Swedish nationals in Stockholm, Aug. 16 and in Gavle, Aug. 17. The Soviets have warm-up matches scheduled with the Swedes in Stockholm, Aug. 19 and Gotheburg, Aug. 21.Most of the Soviet national team and at least half the Czechoslovak squad will be into full competition as early as Aug. 9, when the European Cup championship for club teams is held in Italy. Moscow&rsquo;s Central Red Army, Dukla Jihlava of Czechoslovakia, Djurgarden of Sweden and Dynamo Berlin of East Germany are this year&rsquo;s finalist.NOTES: Nikolai Drozdetsky, a powerful winger who starred in the 1984 Winter Olympics, has been named the outstanding player in Soviet hockey for the 1983-84 season.Drozdetsky, a player with the Moscow Army team in the Soviet Elite League, scored 10 goals in seven Olympic matches for the gold-medal team and totalled 31 goals and 21 assists in 44 league games to finish third in individual scoring.Goalie Vladislav Tretiak placed second in the balloting by sportswriters and sportscasters in the Soviet Union, while defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov was third.In Czechoslovakia, winger Igor Liba of Dukla Jihlava was named outstanding player of the year, edging Vladimir Ruzicka of Litvinov in a poll of coaches.Milan Chalupa of Dukla Jihlava, who was recently signed by Detroit, was selected best defenseman, while Jaromir Sindel of the same Dukla club won the honors as top goalie. &#9632;

Different Strokes For Different Hockey Folks

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011268/5269818-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02927/5269811-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="565" height="563"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Stastny (top) is on Canada, while Bryan Trottier (bottom) eyes the U.S.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03744/5269804-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="565" height="551"></div> &#9632;

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TEAM CANADA

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04647/5269849-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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TEAM U.S.A.

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Edmonton&rsquo;s Stanley Cup triumph has had little impact on Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s money machine. The Kid&rsquo;s financial guru, Michael Barnett, says that Gretzky &ldquo;is very content with the companies with whom he now works&rdquo; and did not attempt to cash in on the victory by obtaining more. What Wayne really wants this summer is some peace and quiet. Time is Wayne&rsquo;s biggest enemy. However, The Great One expects to launch a Gretzky Hockey Academy at select North American resorts in the summer of 1985 and several are being examined as potential sites&hellip;Philadelphia&rsquo;s front office still betrays some paranoia when it comes to former badman Dave (The Hammer) Schultz. Television researcher, Steve Salvatore, has been trying to reach Schultz, who lives in a Philadelphia suburb. Salvatore says that when he calls The Spectrum, the Flyer person seems uptight. Yet Schultz is a member of the Flyers Alumni Association and his number is on file with them. The documentary, produced by Home Box Office, on which Schultz is slated to appear, is called The Lighter Moments of Sports. It will air later this year and feature such characters as zany fans, media goofs and, as in the Hammer&rsquo;s case, reputed bad-boys. Salvatore says Schultz was the only hockey player considered by the show.Bob Clarke&mdash;the &ldquo;Bobby&rdquo; went out when he retired&mdash;is already being given advice by his new (and veteran) general manager colleagues. &ldquo;Get into the insurance business,&rdquo; is the suggestion from Devil GM Max McNab. On a serious note, McNab warns Clarke: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t make locker room judgments.&rdquo; Minnesota GM Lou Nanne delivers this advice to Clarke: &ldquo;Put emotion aside when dealing with players you played with and look at the situation as a business matter.&rdquo;&hellip;NHL governors are mulling over the idea of fining a team up to $50,000 for blackballing the media as the Maple Leafs did last year against the Toronto Globe and Mail. &ldquo;The fine has not been determined,&rdquo; an NHL spokesman tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;but it definitely will be discussed at the Board of Governors level. Hopefully, it will be set by the start of the season.&rdquo;&hellip;Larry Rosoff replaces Scott Carmichael as Los Angeles&rsquo; new p.r. man. Carmichael is now working with the NBA Clippers&hellip;The NHL will test the Northwest (Seattle-Tacoma) market again in September when the Oilers and Blues play an exhibition at the Tacoma Dome&hellip;Now that Mike Nykoiuk and Lou Angotti are no longer coaching, the lowest-paid bench boss, according to Sport magazine, is Barry Long of Winnipeg at $65,000 a year, although there are rumblings that Doug Carpenter is being paid less than that in New Jersey.Phil Esposito and Al Eagleson will be among the hockey reps at LLoyd&rsquo;s of London&rsquo;s 1984 Sports Management Seminar at the New York Athletic Club, July 26-27. One of the subjects on the agenda is, Why the NHL Has Never Had a Strike. Another item to be discussed is GM-agent relationships. Craig Patrick says that one problem managers face in contract talks is that the players always have their attorneys with them from the very start of negotiations but a GM doesn&rsquo;t have the use of a lawyer until late in the dealings&hellip;The long-awaited Sports Illustrated feature on Al Eagleson was finally published and, although the Eagle made noise about a Canadian libel suit, he&rsquo;s secretly delighted that the SI piece was as mild as it was. A close friend of The Eagle figures Al will just forget the whole thing and let it die a quick death without drawing any more attention to it&hellip;Some managers believe the Black Hawks may be starting a new trend, having moved their minor league affiliate out of the American League and into the International League (Milwaukee)., The new standard NHL puck, being manufactured by General Tire, produced problems in early experiments. The General puck was sent to all GMs for their approval. &ldquo;We had some trouble at first,&rdquo; says Craig Patrick. &ldquo;When it bounced off something it came off lopsided&mdash;like a knuckleball. But the second group is a lot better.&rdquo;&hellip;Insiders whisper that the North Stars are interested in Chico Resch&hellip;A major league hockey arena will be part of a sportsplex being considered for New York City. One potential site is the Coney Island area. The thinking is that Madison Square Garden will remain open until such a new arena is erected (not likely before 1990) and then MSG will be razed for an office tower. Asked about it, Ranger prexy Jack Krumpe delivers a &ldquo;no comment.&rdquo;Devil owner John McMullen&rsquo;s parity plan&mdash;giving the have-not teams bonus draft picks and other breaks&mdash;has received the thumbs-down treatment from some of the hockey lords. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been through that (help the poor) a hundred times before,&rdquo; says one NHL insider, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s been turned down. The theory in the NHL is that the good people develop quality teams. If McMullen has good people, he will turn his franchise around. Our feeling is that he should look within before he looks without-.&rdquo;&hellip;The manner in which the NHL conducts itself financially remains a concern to some owners. A Canadian-based official tells BLUELINES he conducted an informal survey comparing the NHL operation with the National Football League. He reports that NFL revenues come to an estimated $85 million annually compared with $25 million for the NHL. He adds that the NFL runs its office for $14 million while he estimates the NHL offices (New York, Toronto, Montreal) total $11 million to operate&hellip;Don Cherry says he has not received any coaching offers this year but he no longer frets about it. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Ed Olczyk, the U.S. Olympic star from suburban Chicago, was the Black Hawks&rsquo; 20-carat acquisition in the entry draft. But the Hawk honchos also believe there are some diamonds in the rough among their other 12 draft choices.Jack Davison, Chicago&rsquo;s assistant general manager whose input weighed heaviest in the selection process, is sky-high on third-round pick Trent Yawney, a defenseman from Saskatoon of the Western League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really delighted that Yawney was available in the third round,&rdquo; Davison said. &ldquo;Central Scouting had him 17th, and a couple of scouts, including myself, had him in the top 10. He&rsquo;s an excellent skater and passer and he can carry the puck.&rdquo;The Hawks didn&rsquo;t have a second-round pick because of the 1983 trade with the Philadelphia in which they also gave up Doug Crossman for Behn Wilson.Here&rsquo;s the lowdown on the other Chicago draftees:&bull; Round Four&mdash;Tommy Eriksson, center from MoDoAlK of Sweden. &ldquo;Leading center on the Swedish national junior team,&rdquo; according to Central Scouting. &ldquo;Good skills&hellip;very good skater&hellip;moves quickly with the puck-&hellip;solid passer&hellip;good stickhandler&hellip;good shot selection&hellip;creates scoring chances wih speed.&rdquo;&bull; Round Five&mdash;Timo Lehkonen, goalie from Jokerit Junior A in Finland. &ldquo;I saw him play three times last season with Finland&rsquo;s world junior team and one night he beat the Russians 3-2,&rdquo; recalled Davison. &ldquo;This winter he&rsquo;s coming to North America and he will play for the Toronto Marlboros in the Ontario League. If he keeps developing, he will be a dandy.&rdquo;Darin Sceviour, right winger from Lethbridge of the Western League, is another fifth-round pick. In the opinion of Central Scouting, he has excellent skating ability, a good scoring touch, is always working, and won&rsquo;t back down.&bull; Round Six&mdash;Chris Clifford, goalie from Kingston of the Ontario League. He&rsquo;s tiny, a 136-pounder who stands 5-foot-8. But Central Scouting said he has excellent reflexes, plays the angles well from a crouch, knows the game very well, and showed steady improvement.&bull; Round Seven&mdash;Mike Stapleton, center from Cornwall of the Ontario League. He&rsquo;s the son of Pat Stapleton, an All-Star defenseman for the Hawks in the late &rsquo;60s and early &rsquo;70s. &ldquo;Considering last season was his first out of midget, we&rsquo;re very high on him,&rdquo; said Davison. &ldquo;He had 24 goals, 45 assists, and 94 penalty minutes, and he just turned 18 in May.&rdquo;&bull; Round Eight&mdash;Glen Greenough, right winger from Sudbury of the Ontario League. Central Scouting gives him &ldquo;good&rdquo; grades for his skating, passing, checking and positional play and characterizes his desire and attitude as &ldquo;excellent.&rdquo;&bull; Round Nine&mdash;Ralph DiFiore, defenseman from Shawinigan of the Quebec League. Central Scouting described him as &ldquo;an offensive-minded defenseman&rdquo; with a &ldquo;good slapshot&rdquo; and a &ldquo;fair wristshot.&rdquo; His checking needs to improve.&bull; Round 10&mdash;Joakim Persson, left wing from S/G Gavle, Division One in Sweden. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s on the small side but he has great passing, shooting, checking, and finishing skills,&rdquo; Davison said. &ldquo;This year in the draft we accentuated speed, and if he fills out he&rsquo;s going to be a good NHL player.&rdquo;&bull; Round 11&mdash;Bill Brown, center from Simley (MN) High School. He made the All-Twin Cities Team chosen by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The newspaper said: &ldquo;He has a sixth sense about where a loose puck is headed, and he has an uncanny ability to find whatever part of the net is unprotected.&rdquo;Dave Mackey, left winger from Victoria of the Western League, is another 11th-round pick. Central Scouting called him a &ldquo;strong skater, accurate passer, fair scorer and fair stickhandler. &ldquo;&bull; Round 12&mdash;Dan Williams, defenseman for the Chicago Jets. He was recommended by Jim Pappin, the former Hawk star who now scouts for the team. He&rsquo;s big (6-foot-2 and 180 pounds), and in 43 games he had 28 goals and 38 assists.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011321/5269887-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="553" height="851"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021036/5269880-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="553" height="851"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jack Davison (left) is raving about Trent Yawney (right), a good skating defenseman whom the Hawks drafted in the third round.</figcaption></div>HAWK TALK&mdash;The New Jersey Devils were compensated by the Hawks for passing on Ed Olczyk when they chose second overall in the draft. New Jersey&rsquo;s compensation was veteran winger Rich Preston and rookie defenseman Don Dietrich, whom they acquired for veteran winger Bob MacMillan. Hawk general manager Bob Pulford believes MacMillan will turn out to be an asset. &ldquo;He gives us a little more goalscoring than Rich, he has experience and he can kill penalties,&rdquo; said Pulford. &ldquo;Also, Bob is ecstatic about the trade, and a person who has that kind of attitude can be a big asset to your hockey team.&rdquo;&hellip;Lloyd Pettit, who once was the voice of the Hawks and made &ldquo;A shot and a goal!&rdquo; part of Chicago hockey lore, is now an integral part of their future. The Milwaukee Admirals of the International League, owned and operated by Pettit for the last eight years, are the Hawks&rsquo; new farm team. Cliff Koroll, an assistant in Chicago for the past four years, will embark on his head coaching career in Milwaukee. &#9632;

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Hawks High On Yawney In List Of ’84 Draft Picks

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;It should have been a peaceful and quiet summer for Bill Mahoney, with the Minnesota North Stars finishing strong and losing only to eventual champion Edmonton in the playoffs.&ldquo;The winter,&rdquo; said Mahoney, &ldquo;did not help my golf game.&rdquo;But it is not the hitch in his golf swing that provided all the unsettling news to Mahoney. The insistent departure of Al MacAdam, and the disgruntled feelings of Curt Giles, who has played out his option, plus the noisy complaints from Dino Ciccarelli about being traded, all worked to disrupt the calm that should have prevailed over a team that had seemed to unify in the playoffs.MacAdam, who was determined to retire if he was not traded, finally was swapped to Vancouver for defenseman Harold Snapsts. The acquisition of Snepsts seemed to indicate that general manager Lou Nanne expected to trade or lose Giles, who was the team&rsquo;s best defenseman in many games, because the Stars have a wealth of defensemen.The unsettling thing about it all, however, was that Giles and MacAdam are&mdash;and were&mdash;two of the most-dedicated team players in the organization. Then there was the Ciccarelli deal.A Twin Cities columnist wrote that Ciccarelli had demanded to be traded, similar to MacAdam. In fact, however, Ciccarelli had not spoken to Nanne, and he backed off to say he wanted more ice time and was upset at the way he was handled.&ldquo;Dino wants as much ice time as he can get,&rdquo; said Mahoney, before heading to Grand Bend, Ont., for a month of vacation time. &ldquo;All players do. He&rsquo;s concerned about scoring, and that&rsquo;s an important part of his career. As coach, I just want to make sure that Dino has the team priorities ahead of his personal priorities.&ldquo;As for the communication, I will say that I really did spend a lot of time communicating with players I considered to be potential problems. And, I did not spend much time with players who weren&rsquo;t. Part of that was that in coming into the organization, I had to learn everything about it, day by day, during the season.&ldquo;A player like MacAdam represents the epitomy of hard work at both ends of the rink, and he does that easily and confidently.&rdquo;Mahoney had said several times that MacAdam was the prototype of what he wanted out of his forwards, dedicated work at both ends of the rink and complete team orientation. However, that wasn&rsquo;t conveyed to MacAdam, and he felt it was another in a continuing trend of being taken for grant. Other players who would be classified as workers and team players felt the same way.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to do more and go in some new directions next year,&rdquo; Mahoney said. &ldquo;Hopefully, that sort of thing will be laid to rest.&rdquo;Without question, players such as Dennis Maruk and Ciccarelli typified the former North Star style of being offensively motivated and not defensively dedicated. Mahoney confided several times during the season that he had various objectives for the team, but had been repeatedly forced to back off until all the players got on the same level of total team play.&ldquo;I think we did accomplish that,&rdquo; Mahoney said. &ldquo;By the playoffs, Dennis Maruk was a major factor and Dino was playing both ends of the rink. And a player like Willi Plett got his total game together.&rdquo;So, if the team can satisfy Giles by keeping him, and the players can brace themselves for Mahoney&rsquo;s objectives in training camp, the coach can take a vacation and worry only about his golf game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011239/5269942-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="539" height="827"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coach Bill Mahoney has been affected by the discontent that has surrounded his team.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0015-01

Disunity Puts Hitch In Mahoney’s Swing

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;In an effort to keep the Blues in St. Louis last year, National Hockey League officials offered a prospective buyer an expansion franchise in Saskatoon if he would operate the team here for two years, according to depositions filed recently in federal court.The offer to Peter Batoni and Pat Bow-len came several weeks after an NHL advisory committee report said that professional hockey would not be profitable in Saskatoon.The depositions were taken from officials of the NHL and Ralston Purina Co. of St. Louis as the two sides prepare to wage legal battle over attempts by Ralston to sell the team to Canadian interests. The information in the documents was made public in a story in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.Ralston Purina, owner of the Blues from 1977-83, filed a $60-million suit against the NHL on May 24. 1983 after the league&rsquo;s board of governors voted 15-3 to reject the proposed sale of the Blues to a group headed by Bill Hunter that would have moved the team to Saskatoon. The company alleged that the governors&rsquo; meeting was &ldquo;conducted in an unfair and improper manner.&rdquo;The NHL filed a $78-million countersuit on June 9, 1983 accusing Ralston of &ldquo;a breach of faith with the citizens of St. Louis.&rdquo;The case has been assigned to a U.S. district judge in St. Louis, but no trial date has been set.The Blues eventually were sold to Harry Ornest, the team&rsquo;s current owner, shortly after an offer of a Saskatoon expansion franchise was made to Batoni and Bowlen. Batoni had been partners with Hunter in the original bid to bring the Blues to Saskatoon, but after the league&rsquo;s rejection he teamed with Bowlen, an oil man from Edmonton who now owns the Denver Broncos of the National Football League.NHL vice-president Gilbert Stein testifed that he met with Batoni and Bowlen in a New York hotel in late June and made the following proposal: Batoni and Bowlen would buy the Blues for $11.5 million&mdash;$4 million in cash and the rest in notes. After two years, a new buyer would take over the team and Batoni and Bowlen would get the Saskatoon expansion team. Two years was expected to be enough time to build an arena in Saskatoon and sell advance tickets. If no buyer had been found for the Blues, the league would buy back the club for $4 million and assume the notes.The league also would cover $1million of any losses incurred during the two years in St. Louis.Stein said that Batoni and Bowlen liked the offer. Bowlen &ldquo;seemed very excited&rdquo; about it, Stein said.NHL president John Ziegler testified that he approved of the offer, but he said no further discussions were held with Batoni and Bowlen aside from a letter dated July 14. The sale to Ornest, for $3-million in cash and $9-million in notes, was completed July 27.Ziegler also testified that he wanted to keep the Blues in St. Louis, and he suggested that Ralston&rsquo;s financial losses estimated by the company at close to $20-million were largely the result of an unusually high overhead, with an expensive minor-league operation and too many player contracts.BLUENOTES&mdash;Six players agreed to terms on new contracts: forwards Perry Anderson and Dave Barr; defensemen Terry Johnson, Rik Wilson, Dwight Schofield and Jim Pavese., Harry Ornest, commenting on whether the Blues are a nickle-and-dime operation, as charged by Steve Simmons in an earlier edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS: &ldquo;If retaining the nucleus of our team, if going first-class, if being current, if removing fat in the unproductive and consolidating while increasing our revenues and producing on the ice and gaining credibility in our great city and improving our team from a year ago&mdash;if all those things are nickle-and-dime, then we are.&rdquo; &#9632;

NHL Made Deal On Blues According To Deposition

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>TORONTO&mdash;Hair color and dress code aside, the Toronto Maple Leafs appear to have found the perfect assistant for new coach Dan Maloney.John Brophy, a veteran minor-league defenseman who coached in the World Hockey Association with Birmingham Bulls and most recently with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American League, has been hired to assist Maloney.Leaf general manager Gerry McNamara listed an assistant for Maloney as one of his chief concerns, just before the National Hockey League draft in June. He wanted someone who had experience playing defense, and Brophy certainly fills that bill. McNamara made several inquiries about Brophy&rsquo;s qualifications and, after being satisfied with what he heard, gave him a one-year contract.&ldquo;People know him, he&rsquo;s been through the wars, and has done an excellent job in Halifax,&rdquo; McNamara said.Last season, he led the Vees into the playoffs with an overtime win in the final game of the season. From there, the Vees surprisingly beat the Northern divisionchampion Fredericton Express, before losing to Maine in the division final. When asked about it, Brophy placed last season at the &ldquo;top of the list&rdquo; of his coaching accomplishments.Brophy, 48, will be easy to spot behind the Leaf bench because his shock of white hair and a penchant for dressing sharp. A native of Antigonish, N.S., Brophy didn&rsquo;t seem too concerned about moving from his home province&mdash;where he&rsquo;s quite a celebrity with his his outstanding work with the Vees.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be nice to get off the buses,&rdquo; said Brophy, who rode them same buses as a minor-league player, too, where he became infamous as one of the toughest, meanest players to ever play the game.While Brophy&rsquo;s appearance may make him uniquely different from the 33-year-old Maloney, his philosophy is much the same. They&rsquo;re both disciplinarians who value the work ethic and attention to the defensive side of the game.&ldquo;We all want to win and we&rsquo;re going to work hard to accomplish that,&rdquo; Brophy said. &ldquo;If you can get the puck out of your zone and cut down on goals against, you&rsquo;ll win some games.&rdquo;Clearing the puck and cutting down on goals against were both problem spots for the Leafs last season. While it was clearly the fault of the team as a whole, it became obvious that the young defense was in need of some guidance.McNamara said Brophy has worked with young players throughout his coaching career and doesn&rsquo;t see Brophy&rsquo;s age as a factor, despite the trend toward younger coaches.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re in this business, you have to have faith in some things,&rdquo; McNamara said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re looking for the perfect person, you&rsquo;ll be looking forever. He (Brophy) has a proven track record.&rdquo;Brophy admitted to having a special liking for young players.&ldquo;I enjoy working with the young players, who don&rsquo;t get disappointed if they lose one night and are willing to come back and win the next. They want to learn,&rdquo; Brophy said. &ldquo;With the real great players, you don&rsquo;t have to do much. I was very fortunate in the World Hockey Association to have five or six young players who went on to become stars in the National Hockey League. I also had other players who had to work their hearts out and they&rsquo;ve also made it to the NHL.&rdquo;Rick Vaive and Gaston Gingras were two of the really good young players Brophy coached in Birmingham. Vaive and Gingras abandoned their junior careers to turn pros, and those two, along with four other 18-year-olds, Pat Riggin, Rob Ramage, Craig Hartsburg and Michel Goulet, formed the &ldquo;Baby Bulls.&rdquo; But while the team may have been young, it played with an aggressive streak characteristic of Brophy.Brophy still is still a no-nonsense guy, McNamara said, and his attitude coupled with Maloney&rsquo;s should feature one big change in the Leafs this season.&ldquo;There will be no nonsense in our dressing room,&rdquo; said McNamara. &ldquo;With Danny Maloney and John Brophy, it should be an interesting year.&rdquo;LEAFLETS&mdash;New assistant coach John Brophy coached Dan Daoust when the two were with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs in 1981&hellip;The Leafs&rsquo; first-round pick in the &rsquo;84 entry draft, Al lafrate, was injured in a car accident recently and suffered four cracked ribs and a six-inch cut to his head. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re very fortunate he didn&rsquo;t get seriously hurt,&rdquo; said general manager Gerry McNamara, who found out about the accident from a Toronto Star reporter. lafrete&rsquo;s agent. Bill Watters of Toronto, said lafrate and his passenger, Mike Velucci, a Belleville Bell teammate and Hartford Whaler draft pick, were fortunate they weren&rsquo;t killed, lafrete&rsquo;s 1984 Mustang was totally destroyed and the Livonia, Mich., native was charged with careless driving. He apparently fell asleep at the wheel while travelling home from Belleville on Highway 401 near Brighton on July 7. Velucci was hospitalized for several days with compressed verterbrae&hellip;The Leafs have released minor-leaguers Ernie Godden. Fred Boimistruck, Bob Parent. Nick Ricci and Lee Norwood.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011117/5269997-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="555" height="945"><figcaption class="caption-body">New assistant coach John Bro phy will be recognizable with his shock of white hair.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0016-01

Brophy Has No-Nonsense Attitude

<div class="byline">BY JOE FALLS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02889/5270028-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="284" height="337"></div><h2>Serene Summer Dreams</h2>IF YOU CAN&rsquo;T dream in the summer, when can you dream?This column is being written in the brown house in Clarkston, MI, which is situated in the woods 45 miles north of Detroit. John Ziegler lives up the road, about 10 miles away in Ortonville, though he doesn&rsquo;t spend much time there anymore as the demands of his job keep him close to his office in New York City.As I look out of the window of my den, I see pine trees, a few maples, some oaks, a stone wall, moss, grass and two chipmunks who are having a terrific time racing around the lawn.I find myself thinking of Phil Esposito and all the joy he gave me in his playing days, and how pleased I am that he is staying around the edges of hockey, because he&rsquo;s always fun to see. He can be a blow-hard, but I can be a bore&mdash;especially if I don&rsquo;t get my own way&mdash;and I figure when Espo is spouting off, he is merely being himself, and I love the fact he is an individual who isn&rsquo;t afraid to show his emotions.Even now, as he sits at a bar and sips a glass of golden liquid, he has a charm about him that just draws you in, and I&rsquo;m glad he got all those goals because I know they were important to him.<h2>Glad For Gretzky</h2>I LOOK OUT the window and I think of Wayne Gretzky and how glad I am for him that he wound up having such a fine series against the Islanders in the Stanley Cup finals&hellip;because what a terrible thing it would have been for him to carry around the criticism that he couldn&rsquo;t handle the big pressure.They were saying that, you know, as the series went from Long Island, where The Great One was struggling, to his hometown of Edmonton, where he and the Oilers came alive and changed the minds of hockey fans in two countries.When I think of this young man, I think of his struggle, but I also think of his decency&hellip;of game No. 2 in the Nassau Coliseum&hellip;how all of the Oilers hid in the trainer&rsquo;s room after they&rsquo;d been routed by the Islanders&hellip;and how Gretzky came out, by himself, and sat there and answered all of our questions and answered them patiently, with a show of concern that was beautiful to behold.His teammates can hang their heads in shame for the way they hid out that night, and they could learn something from the style of this young man. He was a champion on and off the ice; they were merely frontrunners who spoke only when they won.<h2>Big On Berry</h2>I LOOK OUT my window and I think of Bob Berry and I don&rsquo;t even know Bob Berry. I think of what a good man he seems like and what he must have gone through to try to make something out of the Montreal Canadiens. where there isn&rsquo;t much there at all, in spite of their surprising showing in the playoffs.From what I&rsquo;ve read of this man, I would have him as the coach of my hockey team in a moment&rsquo;s notice, and the hope is that he does well in his new job at Pittsburgh.I think, too, of Guy Lafleur and what he must be thinking these summer days. He surely must know the end is near and I&rsquo;m not sure if I even want to see him try it again. You may say he got those 30 goals and he can still show flashes of his old form, but this is an artist we&rsquo;re talking about&mdash;a Picasso&mdash;and it is unsettling to see him at the easle with unsteady hands.But, please, don&rsquo;t trade him. Don&rsquo;t play him, but don&rsquo;t trade him. He lived in the colors of the Canadiens, and that&rsquo;s how he should die. He should never be anything but Guy Lafleur of the bleu, blanc, rouge. He is going into the Hall of Fame and it should be as a Canadicn.Don&rsquo;t send him to Philadelphia, Los Angeles or even Detroit. Don&rsquo;t spoil my summer. &#9632;

f0016-02

HOCKEY CORNER

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/f0017-02782/5270090-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="564" height="498"></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

A Message To Our Readers

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011016/5270121-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="545" height="849"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kirk Muller hasn&rsquo;t felt any pressure yet but expects that may change in training camp.</figcaption></div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;With his dashing good looks, bachelor lifestyle and flare on the ice. Bobby MacMillan was a favorite with the Meadowlands Arena fans. Chico Resch may be the most popular Devil, but MacMillan was the team&rsquo;s matinee idol.So it was natural that just as MacMillan was packing his bags following the June 19 trade to the Chicago Black Hawks, a new matinee idol arrived in New Jersey to meet the press and begin contract negotiations. Kirk Muller, the Devils&rsquo; No. 1 draft choice, may find himself filling a dual role of &ldquo;new hope&rdquo; on the ice and poster boy off it.But Muller, 18, insists the pressure which awaits him is nothing compared to the pressure Mario Lemieux faces in Pittsburgh. Lemieux scored 282 points in 70 games for Laval of the Quebec League while Muller tallied 94 points (31-63-94) in 49 games for Guelph of the Ontario League.&ldquo;The kind of year Mario had, he deserved the media attention he got,&rdquo; said Muller after weighing in with New Jersey&rsquo;s new recruits at the club&rsquo;s facility at Ice World in Totowa. &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t bother me. This way he has a little more pressure on him. I haven&rsquo;t felt any yet.&ldquo;Maybe when I hit camp (Sept. 11) I&rsquo;ll feel the pressure, but if I come in and work hard and things are going okay the pressure won&rsquo;t be there. If I go into camp and struggle it&rsquo;ll all be in my head. Being the Pittsburgh franchise. Mario has a lot of pressure. Not only personal pressure. You hear all the talk that if the Penguins don&rsquo;t do well the franchise will move to Hamilton, Ont. It&rsquo;s almost like people will watch to see if he can save the franchise.&rdquo;Muller doesn&rsquo;t feel he has to save the Devils&rsquo; franchise (some people think differently), but he fully expects to make a smooth transition into the National Hockey League.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all up to myself if I want to work for it,&rdquo; he reasoned. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got the chance. It&rsquo;s not like they&rsquo;re loaded with centers. The opportunity is there.&rdquo;The opportunity was there for MacMillan, who could&rsquo;ve been the Devils&rsquo; glamour boy had he put more numbers on the board (36-52-88 in two seasons in New Jersey). But his career with the franchise came to an end when Devil general manager Max McNab ironed out the details of the June 9 transaction with Chicago in which the Devils passed over Ed Olczyk in the entry draft in exchange for a sweet deal.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;The kind of year Mario had, he deserved the media attention he got. It didn&rsquo;t bother me.&rsquo;</blockquote>The Devils received 32-year-old right wingr Rich Preston (10-18-28 in 75 games last season), 23-year-old defenseman Don Dietrich (ruled ineligible for Team Canada in the Olympics but a solid NHL prospect) along with a swap of second- and fifth-round 1985 draft choices in New Jersey&rsquo;s favor. MacMillan obviously still had market value.&ldquo;I think if I had spent another year with the Devils my career would have been pretty well finished,&rdquo; said MacMillan, who at 31 had his lowest offensive totals (17-23-40 in 71 games) in his 10-season NHL career. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have whatever it takes to play for a team that is struggling. You have to be an eternal optimist.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited. This is an opportunity for me. I&rsquo;ll find out if I still have it. If I do. I&rsquo;ll get my chance in Chicago.&rdquo;MacMillan became a Colorado Rockie along with Don Lever in the Lanny McDonald trade on Nov. 25, 1981. He never put it together last season, scoring in spurts. When brother Billy MacMillan was fired as GM and coach in November, it was clear that Bobby&rsquo;s days in New Jersey were numbered.&ldquo;Bobby hasn&rsquo;t been satisfied with his own production the last few years, but he&rsquo;s a real pro,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;Chicago&rsquo;s got some good centers, which will help Bobby.&rdquo;The Devils, of course, feel they have a pretty good young center themselves.HOT STUFF&mdash;Left winger Doug, Sulliman, a free agent without compensation, signed a multi-year contract with Devils July 11. Sulliman, 25, was the New York Rangers&rsquo; first-round selection in 1979 before being dealt to Hartford prior to the 1981-82 season in the Mike Rogers trade&hellip;Greg Adams, the 1983-84 U.S. collegiate scoring champion at Northern Arizona University, signed a multi-year contract with the Devils June 15. Adams, 20, is a 6-foot-2, 185-pound center and native of Nelson, B.C. He had been offered contracts by the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers but chose the Devils. He scored 44 goals and 26 assists in 26 games last season at Northern Arizona&hellip;Assistant coach Lou Vairo, who celebrated the birth of a son recently, is the assistant coach on the U.S. team competing in the Canada Cup&hellip;After three seasons with the Rockies and Devils, trainer Craig Smith was dismissed and replaced by Chris Ipson. Ipson, 28, has been trainer at Montana. Wichita and Ft. Worth the last three seasons&hellip;Craig Billington, the Devils&rsquo; No. 2 draft pick via Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League, said his first task in training camp is to get Chico Resch&rsquo;s autograph&hellip;Kirk Muller and the Devils&rsquo; 1983 No. 1 pick, John MacLean, played on the same line in the recent world junior tournament in Sweden. &#9632;

f0018-01

Muller May Be Devils’ Newest Idol

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02767/5270152-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="275" height="329"></div><h2>Random Ramblings&hellip;</h2>THE MORE MOVES Serge Savard makes, the better he looks. His recent trade, acquiring Lucien DeBlois for Perry Turnbull, is almost laughable. Savard was wise enough to know that his original deal for Turnbull didn&rsquo;t work out and smart enough to know he still had som. market value. Deblois is an everydayer, an honest player who can help any club. Turnbull is one of those players general managers lose their jobs over. They wait and wait and wait for him to develop and he doesn&rsquo;t. One suggestion to John Ferguson, the loser in the deal: Why not mirror the boards in Winnipeg. That way Turnbull can watch himself play. Then he might realize something is wrong.&bull; I can&rsquo;t help but wonder if Pat Quinn was consulted about the deal Rogie Vachon made with Chicago Black Hawks on draft day. Bob \ for a swap of firsts? Still doesn&rsquo;t make sense. If Quinn agreed to the trade, one can&rsquo;t help but think that he has his eyes on Vachon&rsquo;s general manager&rsquo;s job in the future and is looking out for No. 1 first and foremost. That&rsquo;s another of these summer hard-to-believe trades.&bull; The reason Doug Carpenter is the new coach of the New Jersey Devils is simple. Carpenter accepted a one-year deal and came cheap (sources say $40,000-a-year). Devil owner John McMullen, from his baseball background, is a strong believer in one-year contracts. The reason Tommy McVie isn&rsquo;t coaching the Devils is simple, too. McVie, if you can believe it, got a better deal with more security for coaching in the American League.<h2>Don&rsquo;t Forget Crozier</h2>THE BETTER WASHINGTON Capitals get, the more forgotten Roger Crozier becomes. It was Crozier who drafted Scott Stevens and Crozier who traded for all-star goalie Pat Riggin. Crozier, at last look, was out of hockey.&bull; I&rsquo;ve never met Jimmy Devellano. That may not seem like such a big deal to you. but he&rsquo;s the only NHL general manager I&rsquo;ve never met. Maybe this season, Jimmy.&bull; I&rsquo;ve met Glen Sather. There are times I wish I hadn&rsquo;t.&bull; Someone asked me who was the toughest guy during the Stanley Cup finals? My answer: Joe Falls of HOCKEY NEWS and Detroit News Fame. The reason: No one asked tougher questions than Joe did during the finals.&bull; There are those who believe that Tom Watt&rsquo;s stubbornness is the reason he is no longer coaching in the NHL. Watt&rsquo;s my-way-or-the-highway approach inevitably landed him on the highway.&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t Roger Neilson be the perfect choice to assist Dave King as coach of Team Canada for 1988?&bull; With all the talk of Mario Lemieux, little has been said about the contract Petr Svobida signed with Montreal. According to sources, the total of Svoboda&rsquo;s package is better than $1 million. That coming from an organization which isn&rsquo;t known for paying overly large salaries.&bull; New Jersey Devils may be in for something of a surprise if they believe they drafted a scorer in Kirk Muller. What they wound up with is a large, talented, gutsy forward with tons of heart and better than average skills. He&rsquo;s not, however, a natural goalscorer.<h2>Checkbooks And Czechs</h2>MIKE KRUSHELNYSKI, WHO wanted more money from Boston Bruins, will find out that Edmonton Oilers aren&rsquo;t famous for opening up the checkbook either. Stay tuned.&bull; Isn&rsquo;t the NHL biting the hand that feeds them when they draft Czechoslovakians and Soviets who will never play in North America instead of gambling on junior players? One player NHL teams missed the boat on is a B.C. junior named Terry Jones. My spies tell me he&rsquo;s a good one that went unnoticed.&bull; My favorite column of the hockey season was Al Strachan&rsquo;s critique of Mario Lemieux in the Toronto Globe and Mail. I wish I had written it.&bull; Tony Esposito probably lost any chance he had at future employment with the Black Hawks with his childish behavior the final months of the NHL season. It&rsquo;s sad when an athlete doesn&rsquo;t know when to quit. Those who said Tony O would have been a great GM in the future have changed their minds.&bull; Hank Bassen, the old Detroit goaltender, is back in hockey as general manager of the Calgary Wranglers of the Western League.&bull; You have to feel sorry for the hockey fans of Salt Lake City. When the Central League folded, so did their Golden Eagles. Salt Lake has always been a good hockey town and it hoped one day to get an NHL franchise. Now, without a league to play in&mdash;and geographically too far out for the 1HL or AHL&mdash;hockey will likely die in Utah. That&rsquo;s a shame.&bull; Harold Snepsts always seemed to be one of those players you figured would never be traded. Seeing him in a uniform other than the Vancouver Canucks will be strange. Snepsts appeared to be bom to be a Canuck and vice versa.&bull; With Tiger Williams, Darcy Rota and Al Mac Adam all on one team, interviewing the Canucks this season won&rsquo;t be any problem. Unless you run into moody goaltender, Richard Brodeur, that is. &#9632;

f0018-02

THE WESTERN WORD

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Around the month of May, Mark Holden and Greg Moffett were wondering what lay ahead for them in the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; organization.Holden was in the last stages of his option year on his contract and Moffett&rsquo;s was to enter his option year in 1984-85.Now, all of a sudden, Moffett and Holden are front and center in the Canadiens&rsquo; goaltending plans for the 1984-85 season. One of them, possibly both, will be joining Steve Penney on the varsity roster next fall.The reason for all of this is the sudden departures of Rick Wamsley, who will be plying his trade next season with the St. Louis Blues, and Richard Sevigny, who has joined the Quebec Nordiques.Either Sevigny or Wamsley was expected to go following the 1983-84 season, and judging by the playoffs, where Wamsley suited up just once, most expected he would be dealt.Sevigny was in his option year and became a free agent July 1. It had been believed that he would be offered a contract by the Canadiens and would stay put as the No. 2 man to Penney. The Canadiens verbally offered him one year plus an option year, but Sevigny was seeking three years plus an option.The Canadiens&rsquo; offer was only verbal, not written, and thus, on July 1, Richard Sevigny was a free agent without compensation. Three days later, he was in the bosom of the archrival Nordiques.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t give a four-year contract to a goaltender who had never won the No. 1 job,&rdquo; said managing director Serge Savard, who was in South Carolina attending an American Hockey League meeting when the Sevigny signing was announced. &ldquo;Sevigny never won the No. 1 job here and neither did Rick Wamsley.&ldquo;The people in our organization feel that Moffett and Holden are just as good as Sevigny. We made a choice.&rdquo;Last season, Holden played in 47 games with the Voyageurs and was rated the No. 1 goaltender ahead of Penney. Holden played part of a game for the Canadiens, starting against the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 11. He was banged up in a goal-mouth collision with 8:17 remaining in the period and that was the last Montreal fans saw of Holden.Moffett started the season with the Canadiens because the Voyageurs had a crowd in goal. When Holden was injured early in the year, Moffett went back to Halifax, but ran into some injury problems of his own.&ldquo;I hope they are over now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I hope to be in good shape as far as things go.&rdquo;Moffett impressed goaltender coach Jacques Plante at training camp last fall which was a reason he was kept around. Unfortunately for the one-time University of New Hampshire star, he did not get a chance to play a regular-season NHL game. He didn&rsquo;t play in that many AHL games during the regular season as a hamstring pull and a dislocated shoulder kept him on the outside looking in.Moffett, who was elected to the executive committee of the AHL Players&rsquo; Association, found out the same day Savard did that Sevigny had flown the Montreal coop.&ldquo;I first talked to Mr. (Ronald) Corey (the Canadiens&rsquo; president) and he told me that Sevigny had gone to Quebec and that I&rsquo;d better get into shape.&rdquo; Moffett said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s interesting and surprising. I hope it works out in my favor. All I can do is my best.&rdquo;While play ing in only 10 games during the regular season. Moffett appeared in five post-season games and posted a 3.63 goals-against average compared with Holden&rsquo;s4.49 mark in 10 playoff games.The bottom line is that the Canadiens are lacking in experience in a crucial position. Penney has appeared in 21 NHL games, 15 of them in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs, while Holden&rsquo;s NHL experience is all of two full games and a part of another. Moffett has no official NHL experience, although he did appear in some pre-season activity last fall.Savard, who has shown the willingness to take a risk every now and then in his 13-month tenure as the Canadiens&rsquo; managing director, said the club would not deal for another goaltender, and added that if the Canadiens were desperate for netminding help in the fall, there would be about 20 goaltenders available in the waiver draft.IN PASSING&mdash;The Canadiens gave rookies Petr Svoboda, Shayne Corson and Stephane Richer long-term (three years, plus an option) deals just before the announcement of Sevigny&rsquo;s departure., The Canadiens open their regularseason schedule in Buffalo on Oct. 11 with the first game at the Forum set for two nights later against Pittsburgh. Eight of the Canadiens&rsquo; first 11 games will be at home&hellip;Lucien DeBlois, acquired in the deal which sent Perry Turnbull to Winnipeg, has signed a two-year contract while Guy Carbonneau has agreed to a three-year deal. &#9632;

Moffett. Holden Suddenly Back In Picture…

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01946/5270231-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"></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.WANTED PART TIME: Ontario Junior Hockey League requires part-time publicist and public relations representative. Reply in writing to: Bill Ruddock, 222 Sloane Ave., Toronto, Ont., M4A 2C7.LOOKING FOR COACHING JOB 10 years experience. Level 3 cert. Dryland, weightlifting, circuit training knowledge, organize hockey school and power skating. Box 334, High River, Alta., TOL 1B0.<h2>AUDIO-VIDEO</h2>ALL 1980 USA Olympic Hockey games and NHL hockey fights on VHS tapes. Andy Boemer, 48 N. Miss R. Blvd., St. Paul, MN, 55104.<h2>PUBLICATIONS</h2>IN A HOCKEY POOL? 70 pages of computer generated statistics, Trivia quizes and more. Only $5.00. Hockey Pool Handbook, 6740 Gibbons Drive, Richmond, B.C., V7C 2E1.<h2>SCHOOLS</h2>TO SKATE LIKE A SKATER AND PLAY LIKE A PLAYER. THE ONLY WAY IS SMUSHKIN&rsquo;S WAY. DR. YASHA SMUSHKIN PRESENTS:INNOVATIVE, INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE SKATING AND SUPER HOCKEY TECHNIQUESFOR MINOR HOCKEY PLAYERS&bull; WEEKLY ON ICE TRAINING&bull; CHRISTMAS HOCKEY CUNIC&bull; MARCH BREAK HOCKEY CLINIC&bull; SUMMER HOCKEY TRAINING CAMPFOR MIDGET AND JUNIOR HOCKEY PLAYERS&bull; PRIVATE AND SEMI-PRIVATE, ON AND OFF ICE LESSONS BY APPOINTMENTFOR TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONS&bull; ON ICE LESSONS OR CLINICSFOR BROCHURE CALL OR WRITE: SMUSHKIN&rsquo;S PRIVATE SKATING AND HOCKEY SCHOOL 4000 CHESSWOOD DRIVE, DOWNSVIEW, ONT. M3J 2B914161636-8361<h2>NOVELTIES &#9632;</h2>

f0019-01

The Classified

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;Weeks after the fact, it was still not clear why the Quebec Nordiques signed free agent Richard Sevigny and gave him a long-term pact.The Nordiques already have three goalies in Clint Malarchuk, Mario Gosselin and Dan Bouchard, so it seems a little baffling to add one more to the group. One theory is that the Nordiques used Sevigny to irk their archrivals, the Montreal Canadiens, who drafted Sevigny in 1977 and whom he&rsquo;s been playing with since the 1979-80 season.But Nordique general manager Maurice Filion dismissed that thought.&ldquo;I would never sign a player just to hurt another organization,&rdquo; said Filion. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t waste any time when I saw that Sevigny was free without compensation because he is an experienced goaltender. I can still remember a few years back when we had so many problems in goal here in Quebec. You can never have too much depth at that position as far as I am concerned.&rdquo;&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s just say that getting Richard was an insurance policy for us,&rdquo; added coach Michel Bergeron. &ldquo;He has good experience in the NHL. Dan Bouchard will be 34 in December. Gosselin and Malarchuk have limited NHL experience and have yet to prove they can do the job regularly. If we have some problems, we now have Richard to fall back on.&rdquo;Bergeron said he will wait and see what happens in training camp and take it from there. This differs slightly from what he has said in recent years, when he has always made Bouchard the No. 1 goalie. Now it seems that he is waiting to see what the competition will produce in September.The Nordiques got Sevigny as a free agent without compensation simply because Montreal did not make the veteran netminder a written offer by June 30. Negotiations with Quebec lasted only one day. There were nibbles from at least two American-based teams, Sevigny said. A two-year deal by Montreal led him to jump on the Nordique offer, believed to be three years plus an option. The fact he is a Montreal native and wanted to remain in the province of Quebec was an added consideration.&ldquo;When I found myself a free agent I decided to quickly go for the best deal I could find,&rdquo; said Sevigny at a press conference following his signing. &ldquo;When I played out my option year in 1983-84. it was because I was ready to leave Montreal. I was ticketed only as a No. 2 goaltender there and I couldn&rsquo;t change their minds.&rdquo;Sevigny has played 141 games in his five-year NHL career, posting a respectable 3.10 goals-against average. He shared the Vezina Trophy for the best goals-against average with teammates Denis Herron and Michel Larocque in &rsquo;81, participating in 33 games.The signing of Sevigny opens up the possibility for a trade, but Bouchard isn&rsquo;t fazed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried about it,&rdquo; Bouchard said from his summer home in Atlanta. &ldquo;I still have a contract for the next two years. I certainly would like to end my career with the Nordiques, but you have to expect anything in this league.&ldquo;The team made a good move in signing Sevigny, especially since it didn&rsquo;t cost anything in compensation. Once again the Nordiques are seeking improvement at every position on the team and I like that. You can&rsquo;t hurt a team by adding an experienced goaltender.&rdquo;NORDIC NOTES&mdash;Jacques Richard, the first player to score more than 50 goals in one season for Quebec in the NHL (52 goals in &rsquo;81-82), has called it quits after one year in Europe&hellip;Michel Bergeron says Montreal will be the team to beat next year in the Adams Division, because of draft choices and performance in the playoffs&hellip;Guy Lapointe is being counted upon to improve the Quebec defense next season, and he is anxious to get to work at it in his new role as assistant coach. &#9632;

…While Sevigny Creates Crowd

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;The day Randy Carlyle was acquired by the Winnipeg Jets marked the beginning of the finishing of a bonafide, major league defense.With Carlyle on his roster, general manager John Ferguson had a quality veteran who could complement younger defensemen such as Dave Babych, Tim Watters, Wade Campbell and Jim Kyte.But the 28-year-old Carlyle was not particularly excited by the trade that sent him from Pittsburgh to Winnipeg. He had other places in mind, most notably Boston.Now, as Carlyle is about to enter the option year of his contract, Ferguson is making a determined pitch to keep him. Negotiations began in earnest two weeks ago, and his signing is imminent.Coach Barry Long thinks Carlyle, healthy and hearty, is the edge the Jets need to lift themselves one rung in the Smythe Division standings next season.&ldquo;People around Winnipeg have yet to see this guy at his best,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;He suits us perfectly. With him and Babych in the same lineup, we have the defense to go places. One of them will be on the ice at all times.&rdquo; Carlyle was acquired by the Jets only hours before the trading deadline last March. Out of shape and hobbled by a knee he had injured on two occasions in the previous month, he was thrust into the Winnipeg lineup and performed admirably.&ldquo;The fans in Winnipeg had a chance to see Carlyle play only two-and-a-half games,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;And then it was at a time when he wasn&rsquo;t in the best shape.&rdquo;Bounced into the boards by Peter Stastny of the Quebec Nordiques, the stalky Carlyle injured his good leg, suffering a tear above the knee. Ferguson wants Carlyle signed for at least three more seasons before training camp begins.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important that he&rsquo;s signed before the season begins so there are no distractions,&rdquo; said Ferguson, who considers his presence essential.&ldquo;I really believe with Carlyle back there, Babych will become a better hockey player. Dave Ellett will develop more quickly and Robert Picard, Tim Watters, Jim Kyte and big Wade Campbell will benefit too.&rdquo;Once Carlyle is signed Ferguson will turn his attentions to Perry Turnbull, the team&rsquo;s newest left winger, acquired from the Montreal Canadiens for captain Lucien DeBlois. Turnbull is entering the option year of his contract.In Turnbull, the Jets have landed a player who has boggled their minds for years. Given their choice of all the forwards in the league, he would have topped their list on left wing. As a member of the St. Louis Blues, he scared them more than Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Mike Liut or Rob Ramage.Ferguson is satisfied Turnbull is the player he always was, despite 40 disappointing games as a member of the Canadiens.In giving up DeBlois, he sacrificed a player he holds in high esteem. But, to him, Turnbull is a cut above in overall talents.Signing Turnbull shouldn&rsquo;t be a major problem for Ferguson. All the circumstances seem right for an amiable association.Most importantly, the Jets now have a robust left winger on a side of the ice that has been toured by light speedsters such as Morris Lukowich, Scott Arniel, Doug Smail and Brian Mullen.Still, the trade of DeBlois has been met by some skepticism in Winnipeg. The burly right winger was popular as a player and as a person. Always fair-minded, even-tempered and accommodating, he represented a touch of class.BENCH BITS&mdash;Tim Watters, Doug Smail, Jordy Douglas, Laurie Boschman, Dale Hawerchuk. Wade Campbell, Ron Wilson and assistant coach Bill Sutherland endeared themselves to the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association by spending an hour in the dunk tank on behalf of Big Sisters of Manitoba during the Red River Exhibition. The project raised almost $10,000. &#9632;

Jets Determined To Sign Carlyle, Turnbull

VANCOUVER&mdash;Call it the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; contribution to the national cause.When Team Canada begins its quest for the 1984 Canada Cup, they&rsquo;ll be doing it in style, riding on the wings of Air Canuck, the Vancouver hockey club&rsquo;s private jet.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve worked out an arrangement with Alan Eagleson and Hockey Canada so that Team Canada can use our plane,&rdquo; says Canuck assistant to the chairman Arthur Griffiths.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll be able to use it for most of their exhibition schedule and all of the actual tournament.&rdquo;Griffiths readily admits that the Canucks aren&rsquo;t giving away the services of their plane to Team Canada. He does, however, point out that the hourly rate being charged Team Canada for the plane&rsquo;s operation is less than what it costs the Canucks to operate the jet, a Boeing 727 which was purchased last year.&ldquo;There are some operating costs that we wouldn&rsquo;t expect Team Canada to pick up,&rdquo; he said, refusing to elaborate any further on the financial details. &ldquo;Actually, it&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;re quite happy to do. If it can in any way help Team Canada win the Canada Cup and return the trophy to where it belongs&mdash;in Canada&mdash;then we&rsquo;re all for it.&rdquo;The jet, which can make a non-stop cross-country flight from Vancouver to New York, contains only 50 seats spread out over an area that normally has more than 100 seats. Forty of the 50 seats are wide, sleeper types, not unlike those in the first class section of a traditional commercial jet. The other 10 are regular &ldquo;economy-type&rdquo; seats, Griffiths says.&ldquo;I understand the players are almost as excited about getting the plane as they are about the tournament,&rdquo; says Griffiths. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t really surprise me since I know how favorable our players reacted to it last season.&rdquo;The Team Canada schedule is a rather hectic one since games are being played in Edmonton, Minneapolis, Montreal, Detroit, Halifax, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, all in the period of one month. The beauty of the plane, Griffiths says, is that it allows you to proceed directly to a destination after a game.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t waste a night in the hotel and then spend the next day travelling,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The players get to where they&rsquo;re going, get a good sleep there and they can practice the next day.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s also tufned out to be a pretty good investment,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;We purchased it a year ago for $2.3 million (Canadian). Its value has already appreciated 30 per cent.&rdquo;Griffiths refuses to say what Air Canuck&rsquo;s operating expenses were for last season.&ldquo;Let it suffice to say that we feel it&rsquo;s worth it to us,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I think it showed some positive results, although it&rsquo;s really difficult to measure its exact impact. To us, if it means the players are a little more rested and better able to compete on an equal level, without the added pressure of being fatigued, then it&rsquo;s a good deal. I&rsquo;m sure that is Team Canada&rsquo;s thinking, too.&rdquo;Griffiths has one more deal up his sleeve, but he doesn&rsquo;t think that Eagleson will go for it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to see if it&rsquo;s possible that when the plane is returned to us, Team Canada might just leave No. 99 (Wayne Gretzky) strapped in one of the seats.&ldquo;Actually, Eagleson might go for that but I&rsquo;m not too sure (Oiler owner) Peter Pocklington would. Maybe we could just keep Gretzky and give the plane to Peter and the Oilers.&rdquo; &bull;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03381/5270324-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="548" height="837"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Canucks would love nothing more than to keep Wayne Gretzky aboard their jet.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-03

Team Canada Taking Ride On Air Canuck

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01806/5270269-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="277" height="205"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02546/5270262-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="551" height="885"><figcaption class="caption-body">Reggie Lemelin was the big hero after the fifth game of the playoffs with Edmonton.</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;To put Reggie Lemelin&rsquo;s popularity into perspective, consider the following incident:It is less than two hours after the Calgary Flames have upset the Edmonton Oilers in Game Five of their Stanley Cup playoff quarter-final, sending the series and the team home for a sixth game.Inside Calgary International Airport, a low nimble&mdash;sounding suspiciously like &ldquo;Reg-gie, Reg-gie, Reg-gie&rdquo;&mdash;can be heard the moment the team steps into the terminal.All the players must walk a gauntlet of picture-taking fans, but when Lemelin emerges, two supporters lift him onto their shoulders and carry him through the airport. The roar becomes deafening.Lemelin was the story on that night&mdash;his personal showdown with Wayne Gretzky made the difference in the game&mdash;and he was the story many nights last season.His statistics&mdash;a 21-12-9 record, a 3.50 goals-against average&mdash;do not begin to tell how well he played for the Flames. As many goaltenders&mdash;Bill Smith of the Islanders. Don Beaupre of the Minnesota North Stars, to name two&mdash;learned through the playoffs, playing eight games a year against the Oilers can do drastic things to your goals-against average.If any goaltender carried the Flames through the rocky stages of the season, it was Lemelin. He set the tone for the year in his first start when he blocked 47 of 48 shots and let the Flames steal a 1-1 tie from the Jets in Winnipeg.In his last start, a 7-4 loss to Edmonton in the seventh game of the Smythe Division final, Lemelin&rsquo;s brilliance kept the Flames in a game in which they were outplayed from the start. That the Flames were actually leading halfway through the game&mdash;and had a chance to bump the Oilers to the sidelines&mdash;was a direct result of the way Lemelin played.That&rsquo;s been Lemelin&rsquo;s way in Calgary. His rags-to-riches success story caught the public&rsquo;s fancy. His status as the perennial underdog started a long-lasting love affair. His stellar goaltending kept the relationship strong.In his first year, he didn&rsquo;t make the team in training camp, but arrived in November and did not lose a home game all year. In his third year, the team put him on waivers and could have lost him for $10,000. No team claimed him. This past year, he posted a 19-game undefeated string, the longest in the NHL.The fact that he played away from the spotlight, in all probability cost him the Vezina Trophy. He finished second to Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; Tom Barrasso in the vote of NHL general managers. It also, in all probability, cost him an all-star berth. He finished third behind Barrasso and Pat Riggin of the Washington Capitals.However, now he&rsquo;s being compensated for his work last season. He was given a new four-year contract by the Flames and an added bonus with an invitation to the training camp of the Team Canada, which will compete in the Canada Cup.&ldquo;The way the NHL is going, a (longterm) contract gives a player more security and allows the club, from a management standpoint, some long-term planning,&rdquo; said general manager Cliff Fletcher, explaining the team&rsquo;s signing of Lemelin. &ldquo;Reggie has had two very good seasons and he should be compensated for what he accomplished.&rdquo;Fletcher, commenting on the decision&rdquo; to leave Lemelin unprotected in the 1982 waiver draft, suggested with a smile: &ldquo;Part of Reggie&rsquo;s new contract requires that we not put him on waivers in the fall.&rdquo;In discussing his new megabuck deal, Lemelin said: &ldquo;The way I see it, it&rsquo;s just a different kind of pressure. It used to be the pressure of getting ahead and getting a contract like this.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s now the pressure of answering the bell. But I feel very confident be-, cause, let&rsquo;s face it, I&rsquo;ve been going through 10 years of pro hockey now and it seems like every year, it gets better. I don&rsquo;t see why (the development) would stop. I can certainly overcome difficult periods, I believe, because I&rsquo;ve showed in the past I can bounce back. It might be one of my biggest assets.&rdquo;Lemelin is optimistic about the Flames&rsquo; future. A normal summer here usually starts with Fletcher dissembling the club and rebuilding it in a new image. This is turning into a summer free from the uncertainty of past years.&ldquo;We now have a good young club and we&rsquo;ve made a big step forward,&rdquo; said Lemelin. &ldquo;Some of these guys have personal, playoff experience and they&rsquo;re only 19 or 20. Everybody worked for the other guy. That&rsquo;s what winning is all about. This is a good base to build on.&rdquo;IN BRIEF&mdash;Bob Murdoch, after a springtime of indecision, agreed to stay on as Bob Johnson&rsquo;s assistant coach. The 37-year-old Murdoch was offered a new contract in May when Johnson received a two-year extension. &#9632;

f0020-01

Lemelin Gets Security Plus Added Bonus

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01600/5270355-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darren Veitch received a new contract, but eight other players weren&rsquo;t so lucky, as they were bought out by the team.</figcaption></div>LANDOVER&mdash;The Washington Capitals said goodbye to some familiar figures when National Hockey League termination contracts became effective June 30. Among the eight players released by Washington were goaltender Dave Par-ro, forward Chris Valentine and defensemen Paul MacKinnon and Greg Theberge. In the not-too-distant past, all were regulars with the Capitals.Dismissed at the same time were defensemen Tony Camazzolla and Jay Johnston and forwards Wayne Prestage and Dan Miele. They were prominent members of the Hershey Bears for several seasons and it was appropriate that they should be dropped now, after Hershey declined to renew its seven-year relationship and forced the Capitals to take their depleted farm crop to Binghamton.Four players whose contracts were expiring received new pacts. They are defensemen Timo Blomqvist and Darren Veitch and wingers Greg Adams and Lou Franceschetti. Poile also signed Marc Chomey, a defenseman dropped by Los Angeles.Parro, blessed with a superb glove hand, was the Capitals&rsquo; No. 1 netminder until a dislocated shoulder reduced his efficiency. He played a total of 77 games for Washington, posting a 21-36-10 record and 4.09 goals-against average.Parro, 27, had a tough time in Hershey last season, with figures of 12-21-5 and 5.01. With the signing of Bob Mason and the brilliant play of Al Jensen and Pat Riggin, there was no further need for Parro.&ldquo;Sharing farm teams the way everyone is now, teams have positions for only three goaltenders, two with the big team and one on the farm,&rdquo; said general manager David Poile. &ldquo;There is no room for Dave Parro. Right now, Bob Mason is our No. 3 man and one we consider an excellent prospect.&rdquo;Valentine. 22, who will play in Germany next winter, scored 30 goals in his rookie season after being drafted in the 10th round in 1981. However, there was no place for him in coach Bryan Murray&rsquo;s defensive setup and he languished in Hershey most of the last two seasons.MacKinnon, 25, was an important cog in Winnipeg&rsquo;s defense as it captured the last World Hockey Association championship. He was a solid player for Washington the following year, but after he suffered severe facial injuries in a game at Minnesota in 1980, he never regained his former effectiveness.Theberge, 24, was used primarily as a power-play specialist by the Capitals. The acquisition of Larry Murphy doomed him to the minor leagues. However, Theberge has signed to play in Switzerland next year.Camazzola, 21, an outstanding junior at Brandon, was plagued by injuries during his two pro seasons. The Capitals, when they saw that he could not crack their defense, tried him on the wing, but the experiment was unsuccessful. He dressed for only three games in Washington.Johnston, 26, spent five years in Hershey and captained the Bears last winter. Known for his aggressiveness, Johnston saw only eight games of NHL service.Miele, 22, was a second-round pick out of Providence College in 1980. He scored only 41 goals in three full seasons at Hershey and never was called up by Washington.Prestage, 22, was a 50-goal scorer in his last junior campaign at Seattle. However, he netted only 33 in two years with Hershey. He, too, never wore a Washington uniform.&ldquo;These cuts are the culmination of what I started when I took over,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;I think that ends the turnover.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0021-01

Poile Puts Finishing Touches On Turnover

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01694/5270386-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Kerr is entering his option year and wants a new contract, but his dollar demand is a little too rich for the Flyers.</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Though Tim Kerr and the Flyers are more than a few dollars from living happily ever after, the Flyers&rsquo; 54-goal right winger is not going anywhere yet.Despite Kerr&rsquo;s recent bold public request to be traded, the club has more cards to play at this point than he does. He has an option year left on his contract, and at the rate Kerr is seeking&mdash;more than $200,000 a year&mdash;if he does become a free agent next summer, the Flyers will be entitled to hefty compensation.So when Frank Milne, Kerr&rsquo;s agent, said that it didn&rsquo;t appear his client would be playing this year in Philadelphia, he was being more than a little presumptuous.&ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t think we have a big problem,&rdquo; general manager Bob Clarke said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re still talking. I&rsquo;m still talking to Milne, and Timmy came down to the office the other day after the story appeared in the paper. I think he feels a little bad about it.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve made another offer. It&rsquo;s hard to tell when you talk to Frank whether he&rsquo;s negotiating or just making demands. But I think we&rsquo;ll get it settled.&rdquo;Thus, Clarke, who is spending the summer learning his new job. appears to have already grasped the first lessons of his mentor, vice-president and former general manager, Keith Allen. He won&rsquo;t panic. He&rsquo;ll negotiate.The Flyers&rsquo; first offer was probably in the $150,000-$175,000range, with Kerr reportedly asking for $250,000. He won&rsquo;t get that much&mdash;the Flyers aren&rsquo;t going to go crazy over a 24-year-old with only one outstanding year behind him. But there&rsquo;s plenty of room for give and take.Kerr&rsquo;s name has popped up in several discussions&mdash;the Bruins&rsquo; asked about him for Mike Krushelnyski before consummating the Ken Linseman deal&mdash;but the Flyers are going to have to be offered a superstar before they move a player of Kerr&rsquo;s value. If Kerr goes the limit to free agency, the Flyers would be entitled to two No. 1 draft picks or one No. 1 and the signing of the team&rsquo;s best fifth-best player, so they obviously aren&rsquo;t going to take less right now just because negotiations are off to a rocky start.In the meantime, Clarke continues to explore the market for his team&rsquo;s most immediate need, a left winger. He has a right winger and maybe a defenseman to give, but so far he hasn&rsquo;t been able to make connections. The Winnipeg Jets asked about right winger Ray Allison, who is probably available for the right deal, but Clarke says John Ferguson&rsquo;s offer didn&rsquo;t excite him.&ldquo;We could use a left winger but I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re desperate for one,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;Darryl Sittler can play left wing, Glen Cochrane may end up back there and we still have the option of playing Mark Howe up there, too.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re also counting on Lindsay Carson (whose 1983-84 season was ruined by an injury suffered in October) being healthy this year. Lindsay isn&rsquo;t a big goalscorer, but he&rsquo;s big and strong, works the comers well, and can do a lot of things.&rdquo;On another front, the Flyers&rsquo; representation in this fall&rsquo;s Canada Cup will be slight. Neither Kerr nor Brian Propp was invited to Canada&rsquo;s training camp and Howe has all but decided not to play for Team USA.Howe&rsquo;s chronic shoulder problem may need surgical attention. It was put off while he and his wife, Ginger, took a three-week tour of China and Hing Kong.&ldquo;Dr. (John) Gregg told me to come in and see him when I got back,&rdquo; Howe said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s really not getting any better. It&rsquo;s not that major a surgery, he says he&rsquo;ll probably just have to take a ligament out and there&rsquo;ll be no problem with being ready for the Flyers&rsquo; training camp.&ldquo;I played hurt in the last Canada Cup and didn&rsquo;t play very well and got a lot of criticism. The time before that (1976) I was hurt, too, and turned it down and got criticism for that. You&rsquo;re sort of damned if you do or damned if you don&rsquo;t. But the Flyers have to be the priority.&rdquo;Since goalie Pelle Lindbergh turned down Team Sweden&rsquo;s invitation, the Flyers&rsquo; representation in the Eaglefest will likely be limited to Swedish defenseman Thomas Eriksson.&ldquo;Pelle wasn&rsquo;t that keen on their (Sweden&rsquo;s) coach and he also said he wants to be ready to have a good camp for us,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;He feels like Bob Froese moved past him last year and he wants to come back strong.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;Flyer assistant coach Ted Sator has been named to assist coach Bob Johnson with Team USA. &#9632;

f0022-01

Flyers Have Upper Hand In Bargaining With Kerr

BUFFALO&mdash;Geordie Robertson, C, signed to new contract. Ron Fischer, D, left Sabres to play in West Germany.DETROIT&mdash;Doug Houda, D, No. 2 draft pick in 1984 from Calgary of WHL, signed to NHL contract. Milan Chalupa, D, 3rd draft pick in 1984 from Czechoslovakian National Team, signed to NHL contract along with Frantisen Cernik, LW, also from Czech Nationals. Wings secured Cernik&rsquo;s NHL rights from Quebec in cash deal. Rick Zombo, D, passed up final year of college eligibility at North Dakota Univ, to sign pro contract with Wings. Bob Manno, LW, and Kelly Kisio, C, both signed to new contracts, Kisio for next three years.HARTFORD&mdash;Ed Hospodar, D, Jeff Brownschidle, D, Randy Cameron, D, Bill Maguire, D, Kevin Skilliter, D, Doug Sulliman, RW, Don Gillen, RW, Michel Galarneau, C, and Larry Power, C, all released as free agents. Randy Pierce, RW, Ray Neufeld, RW, Tony Currie, RW, and Joel Quenneville, D, all signed to new contracts. Ulf Samuelsson, D, 4th draft pick in 1982 from Sweden, signed to multiyear contract.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Marco Baron, G, Markus Mattsson, G, Fred Barrett, D, Marc Chorney, D, Mike McEwen, D, Mark Morris, D, Billy Harris, RW, Archie Henderson, RW, Dean Jenkins, RW, Brock Tredway, RW, Warren Holmes, C, Don Nachbaur, C, and Wes Jarvis, C, all released as free agents.MINNESOTA&mdash;Lome Molleken, G, signed as free agent from NY Islanders.MONTREAL&mdash;Guy Carbonneau, C, and Lucien DeBlois, RW, both signed to new contracts.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Doug Sulliman, RW, signed as free agent from Hartford. Marc Chorney, D, signed as free from Los Angeles. Greg Adams, C, signed as free agent from No. Arizona University. Steve Tsujiura, C, Bud Stefanski, C, and Mitch Wilson, RW, all signed as free agents.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Wayne Merrick, C, released as free agent after Islanders bought out his contract.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Doug Bodger, D, 2nd draft pick in 1984 from Kamloops of WHL and Roger Belanger, C, 3rd draft pick in 1984 from Kingston of OHL, both signed to NHL contracts.QUEBEC&mdash;Richard Sevigny, G, signed as free agent from Montreal.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Rik Wilson, D, Terry Johnson, D, Dwight Schofield, D, Jim Pavese, D, Perry Anderson, LW, and Dave Barr, RW, all signed to new contracts.TORONTO&mdash;Bob Parent, G, Nick Ricci, G, Fred Boimistruck, D, Lee Norwood, D, and Ernie Godden, C, all released as free agents.WASHINGTON&mdash;Timo Blomqvist, D, Darren Veitch, D, Greg Adams, C, and Lou Fran-ceschetti, LW, all signed to new contracts. Dave Parro, G. Paul MacKinnon, D, Greg Theberge, D, Tony Camazzola, D, Jay Johnston, D, Wayne Prestage, C, Chris Valentine, RW, and Dan Miele, LW, all released as free agents. Valentine and Theberge have signed with teams in West Germany.<h2>COACHING CHANGES</h2>NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Brian Kilrea of Ottawa 67s of OHL named assistant coach.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Ed McGuire of Waterloo University named assistant coach.TORONTO&mdash;John Brophy of Nova Scotia of AHL named assistant coach.<h2>FREE AGENTS</h2>Following is a list of NHL free agents released by the league:<h2>WITH COMPENSATION:</h2>BOSTON-Brad Palmer, LWEDMONTON&mdash;Glenn Anderson, RW, Ken Berry, RW, Paul Coffey, D, Pat Hughes, RW, Don Jackson, D, Mike Krushelnyski, C, Larry Melnyk, D.MINNESOTA&mdash;Brent Ashton, LW, Curt Giles, D, Lars Lindgren, D.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Butch Goring C.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Moe Mantha, D.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Alain Lemieux, C, Alain Vigneault, D.TORONTO&mdash;Norm Aubin, C, Stewart Gavin, LW, Bob McGill, D, Craig Muni, D, Greg Terrion, C.VANCOUVER&mdash;Neil Belland, D.<h2>WITHOUT COMPENSATION:</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Mike Moffat, G, Jim Schoenfeld, D.BUFFALO&mdash;Clint Fehr, LW, Don Keller, LW, Rick Knickle, G, Jerry Korab, D, Phil Myre, G.CALGARY&mdash;Tim Bernhardt, G, Dan Bolduc, LW, Jeff Brubaker, LW, Tony Curtale, D, Greg Meredith, RW, Pat Ribble, D, Pekka Rautakallio, D.CHICAGO&mdash;Denis Cyr, RW, Tony Esposito, G, Peter Marsh, RW, Rod Willard, LW.DETROIT&mdash;Rory Cava, D, Mike Corrigan, RW, Wayne Crawford, C, Blake Dunlop, C, Jody Gage, RW, Brian Johnson, RW, Rick MacLeish, C, Ted Nolan, C, Dennis Polonich, RW.EDMONTON&mdash;Serge Boisvert, RW, Rick Chartraw, D, Peter Dineen, D, Pat Conacher, C, Tom Gorence, RW, Lowell Loveday, D, Joe McDonnell, D, Lindsay Middlebrook, G, Paul Miller, C, Jaroslav Pouzar, LW, Bart Yachimec, RW.HARTFORD&mdash;Reid Bailey, D, Rollie Boutin, G, Sean Coady, D, Normand Dupont, LW, Ed Hospodar, D, Mike Martin, LW, Gerry McDonald, D, Mike McDougal, LW, Darren McKay, D, Stuart Smith, D, Ross Yates, C.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Marco Baron, G, Fred Barrett, D, Marc Chorney, D, Bill Harris, RW, Warren Holmes, C, Ken Houston, RW, Wes Jarvis, C, Dean Jenkins, RW, Markus Mattsson, G, Mike McEwen, D, Mark Morris, D, Don Nachbaur, C, Brock Tredway, RW.MINNESOTA&mdash;Bob Bergloff, D, Jim Craig, G, Jiri Crha, G, Richie Hansen, C, Tim Harrer, RW, Glenn Hicks, LW, Craig Homola, C, Walt McKechnie, C, Jali Wahlsten, C.MONTREAL&mdash;Dan Bonar, C, Mark Holden, G, Bill Kitchen, D, Richard Sevigny, G.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Ed Cooper, LW, Garry Howatt. LW, Brad Knelson, D, Rick LaFerriere, G, Hector Marini, RW, John Paddock, RW, Joe Ward, C, Yvon Vautour, RW, Dave Cameron, C, Glenn Merkosky, C.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Bruce Affleck, D, Kevin Devine, LW, Rob Holland, G, Don Laurence, C, Tim Lockridge, D, Garth MacGuigan, C, Lome Molleken, G, Darcy Regier, D.NY RANGERS&mdash;Kent-Erik Andersson, RW, Bill Baker, D, Doug Baran, D, Gary Burns, LW, Steve Hakala, LW, Meikko Leinonen, C, Graeme Nicolson, D, Bob Scurfield, C.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Mark Botell, D, John Evans, C, Jay Fraser, LW, Randy Holt, D, Bob O&rsquo;Brien, RW, Steve Tsijiura, C, Gord Williams, RW.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Tony Feltrin, D, Paul Gardner, C, Rocky Saganiuk, RW, Bobby Simpson, LW, Vince Tremblay, G.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Jock Callander, C, Jack Carlson, C, Michel Larocque, G, John Markell, LW, Blaine Peerless, D, Paul Skidmore, G, John Smyth, D.TORONTO&mdash;Russ Adam, C, Fred Boimistruck, D, Ernie Godden, C, Dave Hutchison, D, Martin Maglay, G, Dale McCourt, C, Frank Nigro, C, Lee Norwood, D, Bob Parent, G, Nick Ricci, G, Bill Stewart, D, Ron Zanussi, D.VANCOUVER&mdash;Ken Ellacott, G, Ivan Hlinka, C, Gerry Minor, C, Lars Molin, LW.WASHINGTON&mdash;Tony Camazzola, D, Jay Johnston, D, Paul MacKinnon, D, Dan Miele, RW, Dave Parro, G, Wayne Prestage, C, Greg Theberge, D, Chris Valentine, C.WINNIPEG&mdash;Dave Chartier, C, Ron Loustel,&rsquo; G, Bob O&rsquo;Connor, G. Bill Whelton, D. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02492/5270417-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="538" height="748"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Hospodar is a free agent and Toronto has shown an interest in signing him.</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Doug Sulliman, a regular for three years, and Ed Hospodar, a regular for two, won&rsquo;t be skating with the Hartford Whalers come September.Sulliman, a useful winger who once was considered an integral part of the team&rsquo;s young nucleus, and Hospodar, an ask-no-quarter defenseman, were among nine players released by the Whalers. Others included center Michel Galar-neau, defenseman Jeff Brownschidle, right winger Don Gillen, center Larry Power and defenseman Randy Cameron, Kevin Skilliter and Bill Maguire.Sulliman, who scored 29, 22 and six goals, respectively for Hartford, has been signed by the New Jersey Devils. Last September, Sulliman signed a four-year contract with Hartford.&ldquo;Dougie is a high-class person, there&rsquo;s no question about that,&rdquo; said Emile Francis, the Whalers&rsquo; general manager and &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s really very simple. I didn&rsquo;t think that we were getting value for the dollar.&rdquo;The Whalers exercised their buyout clause to save money, Francis said. Players 26 and over who are bought out receive two-thirds pay. Those under 26 can be bought out for one-third.Sulliman, who is 25, had reached a crossroads of sorts, according to Francis.&ldquo;While Dougie did an adequate job defensively, he didn&rsquo;t provide the kind of offense we had hoped he would,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;He played next to Ronnie Francis, so you can&rsquo;t say that we didn&rsquo;t give him a chance.&rdquo;By signing with New Jersey, Sulliman, who originally was drafted by the New York Rangers and came over to Hartford in the highly publicized Mike Rogers trade, has landed on his feet. His fiancee lives in New York, and Sulliman has business connections there.Hospodar&rsquo;s case is slightly different. Because the Whalers could not sign him to a contract, Hospodar is a free agent without compensation.&ldquo;It was a business decision, Mr. Francis said,&rdquo; Hospodar related. &ldquo;He was good about it. I&rsquo;ve heard a lot of positive things since, but nothing&rsquo;s definite yet.&rdquo;Asked if he expected to play in the NHL next season, Hospodar said, &ldquo;Absolutely.&rdquo;Toronto has shown the most interest in signing Hospodar, who underwent anthroscopic surgery on his left knee shortly after the season had ended.&ldquo;Physically, I&rsquo;m fine,&rdquo; he said.The Whalers, rather quietly, have picked up a bevy of defensemen, including 20-year-old Ulf Samuelsson, a member of the Swedish National Team who was the club&rsquo;s fourth-round choice (67th overall) in the 1982 draft.&ldquo;Ulf is a big, strong young man who can play left or right defense,&rdquo; Francis said of the 6-foot-l, 195-pound Swede. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to say that he&rsquo;s a very serious contender to win a job with the Whalers.&rdquo;Risto Siltanen, Chris Kotsopoulos and Joel Quenneville are definites on the blueline, but after those three, the picture grows fuzzy. Top draft pick Sylvain Cote, youngsters Mark Paterson and Scot Kleinendorst, and Samuelsson can expect competition from the likes of Marty Howe, last year&rsquo;s Emery Edge winner. Jack Brownschidle and Richie Dunn.&ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be a battle for jobs, I can tell you that,&rdquo; Francis said.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Joel Quenneville, Ray Neufeld, Randy Pierce and Tony Currie all have signed contracts&hellip;Former Binghamton coach, John Cunniff, has been retained by the Whalers as a special assignment scout&hellip;Former Whaler coach Larry Kish has signed to coach Nova Scotia of the AHL. He joins two other former Whaler head coaches in that league&mdash;Larry Pleau in Binghamton and Bill Dineen in Adirondack. &#9632;

f0022-02

Whalers Make Numerous Changes

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The selling of Mario Lemieux has begun.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve already started using him on a brochure, the title of which is, The Class of &rsquo;84. I think that kind of sums up what Mario Lemieux is,&rdquo; said Penguin director of marketing Paul Steigerwald.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s a class player and a class person.&rdquo;The brochure, which is aimed at potential season-ticket buyers, contains quotes from National Hockey League officials and statistics heralding Lemieux. The Penguins sold only about 2,300 full season-tickets last season, and finished last in the league in attendance with an average of 6,872.&ldquo;What we want to do is sell him as a great hockey player, a player who&rsquo;s being mentioned in the same breath as Wayne Gretzky, as a young player whose career really is just starting and is not really going to blossom for a couple of years,&rdquo; Steigerwald said. &ldquo;1 really think that we have to realize that in a couple years that he&rsquo;s going to blossom, and right now it&rsquo;s just going to be an attraction to watch the kid become a great hockey player from the time he&rsquo;s 18 years old and just watch him from there.&rdquo;The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Lemieux had 133 goals and 149 assists in 70 games last season for Laval of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He was named the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League Player of the Year and broke at least five league scoring records.Lemieux&rsquo;s junior scoring statistics have been compared to Gretzky&rsquo;s NHL stats. Lemieux&rsquo;s uniform number with the Penguins will be 66, Gretzky&rsquo;s inverted 99.&ldquo;Of course there&rsquo;s a lot of pressure,&rdquo; said Lemieux about attempts to compare him to Gretzky and be the savior of the Penguin franchise. &ldquo;Hockey players have to have pressure on their shoulders to improve their play, and I think it&rsquo;s part of the game.&rdquo;The Penguins drafted Lemieux first overall in the June 9 entry draft. After tough contract negotiations, the two parties came to an agreement, with Lemieux signing for two years plus an option for about $700,000.&ldquo;I think if the fans of Pittsburgh give us maybe two or three years, that we will be successful in a couple of years,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;To start with, Pittsburgh is a big challenge. We&rsquo;re trying to build a team in Pittsburgh. I like that, and I&rsquo;m happy to be here.&rdquo;The QMJHL has been knocked for being all offensive-minded, and Lemieux&rsquo;s defensive abilities are suspect.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Pittsburgh wants me to play defense,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;They want me to score goals. I think they will put a guy beside me who can play defensively and take care of my defensive play. What I think what they want me to do is score goals and give a lot of points to the team.&rdquo;Penguin officials call the signing of Lemieux the biggest thing in the franchise&rsquo;s 17-year lacklustre history.&ldquo;The addition of Mario is the greatest thing that&rsquo;s happened to this franchise since it&rsquo;s inception,&rdquo; said Edward DeBartolo Jr., son of the team owner. &ldquo;We can assure you that this franchise, as of this day, is turned around and headed in the direction that all the media and the fans and the people who care in Pittsburgh want it to go.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re extremely blessed to have a fellow like Mario Lemieux in our organization,&rdquo; added general manager Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a rebirth of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I think you&rsquo;ll see Mario for a long, long time in this city.&rdquo;Lemieux knows he is being counted on to put fans in the empty Civic Arena seats.&ldquo;All hockey fans want the team to win, and if the team doesn&rsquo;t, they get angry,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like that anywhere. I&rsquo;m coming here, with the other players, to help the team to be competitive in the future. I really believe in this team, and I hope the fans will be on our side.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;The team will broadcast a minimum of 65 nontelevised games on 50,000-watt KDKA radio the next two seasons&hellip;Western scout Clare Rothermal retired following the entry draft. Rothermal had been with the Penguins since their inception in 1967. &#9632;

Lemieux Stands Atop Pens’ Class Of ’84

We Stock:&bull; Complete sets and single cards of O-Pee-Chee&mdash;Topps-Fleer-Donruss.&bull; Pennants & Buttons for: NHL, MLB, NFL, CFL, USFL, NASL, NBA.&bull; MLB Helmet Banks, Replica Ball Hats, Uniform Tops. Mini Bats, Bobbing Head Dolls, Price Guides.&bull; NHL Souvenir Spoons. Stick Pins, Mini Hockey Sticks, Price Guide.&bull; CFL, NHL Tote Bags, Card Albums, Sports Card Lockers, and much more.We Buy, Sell & Trade all CardsScotts Sports NovelitesP.O. Box 422,22464 Lougheed Highway, Maple Ridge, B.C. CanadaV2X 8K9Phone: (604) 467-5313Send. 50* and self addressed stamped envelope for our price list.&ldquo;VISIT OUR NEW STORE&rdquo; &#9632;

Souvenirs • Collectibles Memorabilia

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01676/5270527-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"></div>BOSTON&mdash;&rdquo;I had plenty of opportunities to make a trade I didn&rsquo;t like,&rdquo; said Boston Bruin general manager Harry Sinden. &ldquo;This one I like.&rdquo;The trade that Sinden &ldquo;likes&rdquo; sent center-left winger Mike Krushelnyski to the Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Ken Linseman, who had inexplicably slipped to the No. 4 center on the Oilers even while scoring 10 goals in the playoffs, including the Cup-winner against the Islanders.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a prolific scorer but he can make things happen so a lot of other people do score,&rdquo; said Sinden, who has been shopping the marketplace aggressively since his Boston Bruins were eliminated in three straight games&mdash;with only two goals for&mdash;by the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round of the playoffs.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said before, it&rsquo;s not neccessary that we get a player who scores, but it&rsquo;s important that we get somone to establish a second line that has some comparable offense to Barry Pederson and Rick Middleton,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think Ken Linseman can be that player.&rdquo;The first name that came to the minds of many Bruin fans when the trade was announced was Johnny McKenzie. It was a happy thought.Similar to McKenzie, who was a solid performer on Bruin teams that won Stanley Cups in 1970 and 1972, Linseman is what hockey people call a pain in the neck, a guy who stirs things up on the ice. His hockey nickname is The Rat. They called McKenzie by similar names, many of them unprintable.And McKenzie, all 5-foot-9, 175 pounds of him, was an important cog in the second line that made the Bruins winners. In fact, there are those who feel that McKenzie, Fred Stanfield and Johnny Bucyk were a better all-around line than Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Wayne Cashman, who got all the ink a dozen years ago.Linseman, 5-foot-ll, 175 pounds, who turns 26 on Aug. 11. has been in the National Hockey League for the better part of six seasons, four with the Philadelphia Flyers and two with the Oilers. He also played a season as an underage 19-year-old for the Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association.His NHL stats are 119 goals and 385 points in 384 games, a point a game or 80 points a season. His scoring dropped off last season, only 18 goals and 67 points, but that was because he was a third- and fourth-line center, behind Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier (a transplanted left winger) and Kevin McClelland, who was acquired in a trade.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited by the trade,&rdquo; said Linseman, who grew up in Kingston, Ont., and now calls Philadelphia his home. &ldquo;1 like everything about Boston&mdash;the team, the fans, the rink, the atmosphere. Maybe I can take some of the offensive pressure off Pederson. I think I can create a lot of offensive chances.&ldquo;I was surprised by the trade at first but then I could understand why Edmonton made the deal. They had moved Messier to center and they picked up McClelland in a trade, and then there was the financial part with me wanting something comparable to U.S. funds for my salary.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard leaving a possible dynasty in the Oilers. They&rsquo;re a great bunch of guys and I&rsquo;ll miss them. But I&rsquo;m excited about coming to Boston. It&rsquo;s an opportunity to be with another good young contending team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to be going to the Garden and very happy to be back in the States. I&rsquo;m paid in American dollars but the tax breaks are so much better in the States than in Canada. That will help me financially.&rdquo;The usual guesses have been made as to Linseman&rsquo;s salary, anywhere from $180,000 to$250,000annually. He&rsquo;sentering the option year on his contract and he said he&rsquo;d like to sign a new one for three years plus an option. Sinden said he expects to have him signed to a new contract by the end of the summer.&ldquo;I guess speed is one of the things I can add to the Bruins.&rdquo; said Linseman. &ldquo;Most people think a guy with speed needs a big rink to be at his best. I think the other way. On a small rink like the Garden, speed and quickness are great assets.&rdquo;The Bruins are already putting together second lines in their minds.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be up to Gerry Chee vers, of course,&rdquo; said Sinden, &ldquo;but. off the top of my head, Keith Crowder would have to at least be given a shot at right wing with Linseman. I think we&rsquo;re a little in the dark about left wing.&rdquo;And Linseman is ready to make the shift.&ldquo;Hopefully,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the Oilers won&rsquo;t miss me at all, at least until the finals&mdash;against us, when we beat them.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02475/5270520-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="1148" height="938"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Linseman (left) has been known as The Rat throughout his pro career, because he stirs things up on the ice. But fans in Boston will appreciate it, as former Bruin John McKenzie (right) played with a similar kind of annoyance.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0024-01

Linseman Has The Qualities Of McKenzie

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>BUFFALO&mdash;As a player, Gerry Meehan proved his leadership qualities to the Buffalo Sabres when he was named captain of the team.Today, more than a decade later, Meehan has the opportunity to again show his leadership capabilities&mdash;this time from the front office&mdash;as the Sabres&rsquo; new assistant general manager.Meehan will assist Scott Bowman, the Sabres&rsquo; GM and director of hockey operations. He is the first former Buffalo player to move into the team&rsquo;s front office.&ldquo;Gerry and I had talked about this position with the club some time ago,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;I told him that if a position ever opened up I would like him to work for us.&ldquo;We never really ever looked for anyone else to fill the position. Gerry is the man we wanted right from the start.&rdquo;Meehan is no stranger to the Sabres&rsquo; front office. Over the past two years he has been involved in some of the Sabres&rsquo; legal work, while at the same time working as a lawyer for a local law firm.&ldquo;Gerry has certainly been a big help to me over the past two years and I like his work,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;As far as his duties with the team now, he will be helping me with the paperwork I have.&ldquo;Plus, the will be able to fill in for me while I&rsquo;m out of town coaching or scouting.&ldquo;And he will still help us with contract negotiations with players, among other things.&rdquo;For Meehan it is a chance to return in an active capacity with professional hockey.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going into this with a very open mind,&rdquo; said the 37-year-old who spent 10 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Sabres, Toronto, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Atlanta and Washington. &ldquo;I know I will learn a lot.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t think of a better organization or man to work for. Scotty is a verry, very bright man who always seems to be several steps ahead of everyone else. He&rsquo;s very intelligent and successful.&ldquo;All of my duties have not been spelled out to me as yet. I know I will be getting involved again with player contracts.&ldquo;I will be helping Scotty, taking some of the extra duties from him to relieve and free him up for other things. I&rsquo;m just going to assist him in any way I can.&ldquo;This is all new to me. If it&rsquo;s not what I think it&rsquo;s going to be, I will always have my legal background to fall back on.&rdquo;SABRE NOTES&mdash;A note of sympathy goes out to the family of J. Michael Duffett, administrative director of scouting for the Sabres, who died after a lengthy illness at the age of 41. He is survived by his wife and two children&hellip;Buffalo will be host to one of the Canada Cup games on Sept. 8, with Team USA playing against the Czechs&hellip;Three members of the Sabres, Tom Barrasso, Phil Housley and Mike Ramsey, have been invited to the tryout camp for Team USA&hellip;Veterans Jerry Korab and Phil Myre are among the Sabres listed by the NHL as free agents. Korab played for the Sabres last season while Myre has spent most of his Sabre career with their minor-league teams in Rochester of the American Hockey League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01591/5270558-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="533" height="721"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Sabre captain Gerry Meehan returns to the team as assistant general manager.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0025-01

Meehan Rejoins Sabres As Assistant GM

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Center Doug Smith sounded like a fellow who hoped his days as a King will have ended before training camp opens in September&mdash;though he wouldn&rsquo;t come out and say it.He did express&mdash;for the umpteenth time&mdash;unhappiness over the amount of playing time he&rsquo;s received since being drafted second overall back in 1981, when he became the highest pick in club history and the youngest King (18) ever.&ldquo;All I heard in training camp last year was how well I was playing, and where did it get me?&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I sat on the bench the first half of the season. I heard I was the best player in camp and then-&hellip;dot, dot, dot.&rdquo;Dot, dot, dot, Doug?&ldquo;Whatever you see, I guess,&rdquo; he said, smiling. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not my position to say.&rdquo;Smith played in 72 games a year ago, collecting career-highs in goals (16), assists (20) and points (36), but these numbers weren&rsquo;t close to the ones he posted during his final year of junior hockey, when he put together a 101-point season in 54 games with the Ottawa 67s.That was the year former King director of player personnel Wren Blair likened him to Bobby Clarke.Shuttled between center&mdash;his natural position and the one he wants to play&mdash;left wing, right wing and the bench, the 21-year-old says he just wants a decent amount of playing time to develop his skills before they completely erode.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to play a regular shift&hellip;one of these years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For three years now I haven&rsquo;t been able to say, &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;ll be playing with these two guys next week.&rsquo;&ldquo;I just can&rsquo;t figure it out. I played regularly for a month and a half (late in the season when centers Marcel Dionne and Wes Jarvis were injured) and I thought I was playing pretty well.&ldquo;My dad (Wayne) watches all our games on a satellite dish (from Ottawa) and he seemed to think I was playing well. He&rsquo;s someone I respect; he&rsquo;s honest with me, no matter how I&rsquo;m playing. I watched myself on isolation tapes when I was playing that month and a half and I thought things were beginning to come around.&ldquo;Then, bang, again I&rsquo;m not playing.&rdquo;Smith returned to his seat on the bench almost immediately after Roger Neilson replaced Don Perry as coach&mdash;Smith had asked to be traded earlier in the season&mdash;but says he and Neilson had a good relationship.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you what&rsquo;s funny, though,&rdquo; said Smith, who wasn&rsquo;t laughing. &ldquo;I was very surprised when Roger quit or was fired for the reasons he said he was (not becoming general manager within a year). I mean, he was always telling me I should be patient, that in time it will come.&ldquo;Then he turned around and wanted everything all at once. That came down about a week later.&rdquo;Smith was asked if perhaps too much was expected of him too soon, if the pressure of being picked so high in the draft has had an effect on his play.This time he did laugh, saying, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no pressure sitting on the bench. All that does is mess the person up. At first it was all right. I&rsquo;d talk to my parents and they&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;Just give it time, just give it time.&rsquo;&ldquo;Well, three years is a lot of time. I&rsquo;m ready to start playing now. I want my team to play well and I want to contribute. that&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;The contracts belonging to 13 players will not be renewed, making all of them free agents without compensation. The list includes goaltenders Marco Baron and Markus Mattsson; defensemen Fred Barrett, Marc Chomey (who&rsquo;s since signed with Washington), Mike McEwen and Mark Morris; right wingers Billy Harris, Archie Henderson, Dean Jenkins and Brock Tredway; centers Warren Holmes, Don Nachbaur and Wes Jarvis&hellip;The Kings will share their American League affiliate in New Haven (owner Jerry Buss purchased pie franchise last summer) with the New York Rangers. Nick Beverley will remain head coach.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02387/5270589-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="557" height="587"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Smith is tired of not being given a chance at regular duty with the Kings.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0025-02

Smith Yearns For More Time With Kings

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01586/5270627-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="277" height="211"></div>MONCTON&mdash;Government joined hands with private business interests to form a unique partnership that has kept pro hockey alive in Moncton and returned the American Hockey League lineup to 13 teams.In an 11th-hour deal, the City of Moncton and six Moncton businessmen, headed by Gary O&rsquo;Neill, formulated an arrangement acceptable to both sides, successfully negotiated a working agreement with the Calgary Flames, and purchased a new franchise from the AHL. The Moncton-Calgary business provided a spark to what was a rather routine business agenda at the AHL&rsquo;s Annual Meeting held at Hilton Head, SC, during the first week of July.In other matters, AHL president Jack Butterfield was named the winner of the league&rsquo;s James C. Hendy Memorial Award as the outstanding executive. Butterfield, who won the award in 1970-71, is the first man to be honored twice. Gene Ubriaco, who guided the Baltimore Skipjacks to the Southern Division title, won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award, which is presented annually to the league&rsquo;s top coach.Ubriaco, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has won four coaching awards in four different leagues in the last 10 years, and has accepted three of those trophies in the last five summers. He earned his first from the United States Hockey League after the 1973-74 season, the second from the Eastern Hockey League in 1980, and a third from the Central Hockey League in 1983. Ubriaco&rsquo;s Skipjacks finished with a league-high record of 46-24-10.After twice seeing teams leave the cityin the past three years, Moncton officials took the steps they felt were necessary to assure that a team would remain. In order to do that, the city formed a partnership with O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s group and obtained the franchise from the AHL at an estimated cost of $235,000. Though the city is the majority partner with 51 per cent of the franchise, the minority owners will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the club. To make the deal even more interesting, Don Canning, the city&rsquo;s general manager for marketing and promotions, said the corporate sponsorship would pay for the city&rsquo;s portion of the franchise fee.&ldquo;Our problem was, and I guess it&rsquo;s a problem in every city that has a an NHL team with a franchise for a minor league team there, that they control the franchise,&rdquo; Canning said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gota7,000-seat building here, which is a hell of an article to have, but twice now we&rsquo;ve woken up to find that our team has flown the coop.&ldquo;The city said if we&rsquo;re going to stay in this business, and we have to keep this building busy, that professional sports are a very important part of our year-round activity. So they said, &lsquo;We should get involved with a franchise, like 51 per cent, so we&rsquo;ll be able to protect the citizens and protect the Coliseum.&rsquo; &lsquo;Moncton first came into the AHL in 1978 when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks joined forces to sponsor a team. That partnership dissolved in 1982, but the Edmonton Oilers stepped into the void and operated the Moncton Alpines for the past two seasons. Neither was an artistic or boxoffice success, and the Oilers announced in June that they were leaving Moncton for Halifax, which had been vacated by the Montreal Canadiens.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We&rsquo;re sold on professional hockey and the people are sold on professional hockey and the American League.&rsquo;</blockquote>Canning, under the direction of mayor George Rideout and the city council, initiated the dealings which culminated in the alliance of business and government and produced the Moncton Golden Flames, which will be coached by Pierre Page. Calgary was in need of a minor league site because of the demise of the Central League.On the eve of the press conference to announce the working arrangements and to introduce Page, Canning was optimistic that the community would support the new team.&ldquo;We have the fans here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were seventh out of 13 teams in the league last year in average attendance and it was for a fifth-place team. Our fans are a pretty solid bunch, but you&rsquo;ve got to have production.&rdquo;Canning also said that by obtaining a franchise, the city has taken care of one problem and put itself in an enviable situation.&ldquo;You can either live with it (a problem), or you can do something to try and make it better,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re sold on professional hockey and the people are sold on professional hockey and the American League. Maybe it&rsquo;s odd to people on the outside, but as far as we&rsquo;re concerned, our council is very keen on control and we have to be masters of our own fate. It puts us in a better position because the deal we can offer a team is much better because we have the franchise.&rdquo;The return of Moncton forced the league to scrap its proposed East-West alignment and return to the Northern and Southern Divisions used for the past two seasons. In that format, Nova Scotia, Moncton, Fredericton, Sherbrooke, Maine and Adirondack will comprise the Northern Division, while the Southern Division will be composed of the remaining seven teams&mdash;Baltimore, Binghamton, Springfield, New Haven, Rochester, St. Catharines and Hershey.The scheduling sectors were changed somewhat to move Sherbrooke into Sector A with the three Maritime teams. Adirondack and Maine are in Sector B, while Sector C also has just two teams, Springfield and New Haven. The Sector D lineup has the five remaining Southern Division teams.Under the sector scheduling plan used the last few seasons in the AHL, geographic rivals play more often in the unbalanced schedule. Adirondack and Maine, for example, will meet 12 times this season, and Hershey and Baltimore may have 14 games in their season series. However, Adirondack, the Southernmost team in the North Division, meets Binghamton just four times, even though the two cities&mdash;Glens Falls and Binghamton&mdash;are less than 200 miles apart.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02379/5270620-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="549" height="790"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Page is the coach of the Moncton franchise, now known as the Golden Flames.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Moncton Makes It Back To Pros With Last-Minute Financial Relief

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;The annual coaching shuffle in the American Hockey League has been completed.The Springfield Indians&rsquo; hiring of New York Islander assistant coach, Lome Henning, means all 13 AHL teams have named coaches for the coming season.Six other positions have been filled since the Maine Mariners snatched the Calder Cup away from the Rochester Americans in May. In a rather expected move, the New Jersey Devils sent Tom McVie back to Maine&mdash;from where he was beckoned in November&mdash;and gave him the top job with the Mariners again. John Paddock, who replaced McVie and led the Mariners to the title, was named the assistant.Larry Kish, the popular and well-respected former Springfield and Binghamton coach, returns to the AHL as the coach and general manager of the Nova Scotia Oilers, while Larry Pleau, Kish&rsquo;s former boss with the Hartford Whalers, will be wearing both the coach and GM hats at Binghamton.A pair of Pierres, Page and Creamer, and a Claire, former Maple Leaf player Claire Alexander, are the other new-comers to the league coaching fraternity. Page, who has guided the Calgary Flames&rsquo; Central League farm team at Denver the past two seasons, will coach the Moncton Golden Flames, admitted to the league in early July. Creamer, a highly-successful coach in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, was appointed head coach of the Sherbrooke Canadiens by Montreal GM Serge Savard. Alexander takes over at St. Catharines for Doug Carpenter, the Devils&rsquo; new coach.Kish joined the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; organization last summer as a roving scout a few months after being let go as the coach of the Hartford Whalers. He joined Edmonton&rsquo;s farm team at Moncton late in the season to assist coach and GM Doug Messier. Kish took over the coaching duties and helped orchestrate a run toward the final playoff berth that fell short on the final day of the season.Kish was given the two jobs at Halifax in June when the Oilers switched their club from Moncton to the Nova Scotia city.&ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t think something was going to open up this year with the Oilers, but, nonetheless, it did, and I think the most important thing is the people you are working for,&rdquo; Kish said. &ldquo;I feel very good about the Edmonton Oilers organization and it will be a severe challenge because we&rsquo;re trying to make a go of it financially as well as develop hockey players. From that standpoint, it will be a terrific challenge.&ldquo;The second aspect making it demanding is that we are going to be all alone when a good part of the league will be with dual affiliations. The challenge to be competitive on the ice will be severe.&rdquo;Kish, 42, is a 1964 graduate of Providence College. He has coaching experience on the high school level and over a decade in professional leagues.Creamer is stepping up to the AHL after a successful stint in the Quebec League with the Verdun Juniors. Verdun reached the league playoffs in each of the past four seasons, including the 1982-83 season when the Juniors won the title and reached the Memorial Cup tournament.Pleau, 37, succeeds former Whaler teammate John Cunniff as the head coach at Binghamton. Pleau, a native of Lynn, MA, was the first player signed by the then New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association and has been a part of that organization&mdash;in a variety of roles&mdash;ever since. He spent seven years as a player, served as an assistant coach, head coach and was the club&rsquo;s director of hockey operations.Alexander, 39, played with Toronto and Vancouver in the mid-70s, and closed out his career with the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association in 1978-79. Alexander was known as The Milkman when he was with the Leafs because they signed him from the Orillia Terriers of the Senior League, where he played part-time in addition to his full-time job as a milkman. Alexander received notoriety last December when he refused to play in an NHL Oldtimers game against the Soviets, because of the downing of a Korean jet airliner by a Soviet fighter.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;The six coaches retained for another season are: Joe Crozier, Rochester; Nick Beverly, New Haven; Gary Inness, Hershey; Bill Dineen, Adirondack; Earl Jessiman, Fredericton&hellip;The Baltimore Skipjacks have hired former Baltimore Colt director of public relations, Walt Gulkowski, to replace Tim Don-nelli, who also handled the Skipjacks&rsquo; radio broadcasts the past two seasons., The New Jersey Devils have signed free agents Steve Tsujiura, Bud Stefanski and Mitch Wilson. Tsujiura played for the Maine Mariners in 1982-83 and for the Springfield Indians last season. Stefanski, 29, a veteran center, signed with the Mariners last fall and spent the remainder of the season with the AHL team. He helped lead the Mariners to the Calder Cup title and was named the first winner of the Jack Butterfield Trophy as the playoff Most Valuable Player. Wilson, a two-year veteran, scored nine points in 17 playoff games for the Mariners&hellip;High-scoring center Geordie Robertson, who has helped the Rochester Americans to the Calder Cup finals each of the last two seasons, has signed another contract with the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; organization. Two of Robertson&rsquo;s teammates, Bob Mongrain and Ron Fischer, won&rsquo;t be back, though. Both have signed to play this season in West Germany. The Americans, who drew a club-record 291,000 fans during the season and playoffs, have already sold 2,400 season tickets to easily eclipse the team standard of 2,000 set last year&hellip;Adirondack continues to announce the resigning of veterans, who played at Glens Falls last season. Already scheduled to attend the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; training camp are: forwards Andre St. Laruent, Dennis Polonich and Brad Smith; defensemen Greg Joly, Ted Huesing. John Beukeboom and goalie Ken Holland. Defensemen Rejean Cloutier and Larry Trader, both of whom played for Adirondack last year, were already under contract&hellip;Adirondack broadcaster Dave Strader was named the winner of the AHL&rsquo;s Ken McKenzie Award as the league&rsquo;s top publicist.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03246/5270658-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="528" height="1025"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lome Henning becomes head coach at Springfield after assisting New York Islanders.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Henning Signing Ends Coaching Turnovers

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01598/5270696-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="273" height="205"></div>KALAMAZOO&mdash;The International Hockey League has decided to accept a new member to the lodge and has also given commissioner Bud Poile a one-year extension.Concerning the first matter, the IHL has given a charter to Salt Lake Golden Eagles, formerly of the now-defunct Central League, but only after being offered a package too good to reject.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be paying a complete travel subsidy that includes airfare, hotel and per diem,&rdquo; said Mark Amione, the marketing director of the Golden Eagles.The Salt Lake franchise gives the IHL teams eight teams for this season. The others are: Flint, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Toledo, Fort Wayne, Peoria and Milwaukee.<blockquote class="pullQuote">It&rsquo;s just a matter of geography. Just look at the map. It&rsquo;s just a phenomenal cost to the team.&rsquo;</blockquote>Both Denver and Indianapolis, two other CHL teams, have expressed an interest in obtaining an IHL franchise. It&rsquo;s uncertain, however, what will become of the bids. If Indy gains acceptance, it will be a return for it, as it was part of the league in the &rsquo;60s.Al Savill, a former Indianapolis businessman who now lives in Florida, is behind an Indianapolis group which would like to keep hockey alive in the Hoosier Capital. Savill has previously operated IHL franchises in Columbus, Dayton and Grand Rapids.Ken Ullyot, the Fort Wayne Komets&rsquo; representative on the IHL board of governors, expressed uncertainty with the Golden Eagle bid. Originally, he was the lone member of the board to reject it. He later changed his mind to make it unanimous, but he still has his reservations.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of geography,&rdquo; Ullyot said. &ldquo;Just look at the map. It&rsquo;s just a phenomenal cost to the team.&rdquo;In other business matters, the league has retained Poile as commissioner. Last season, Poile had the dual portfolio of commissioner of the IHL and CHL, but resigned June 15 following the demise of the CHL. The IHL board of directors, however, gave him a one-year extension.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02420/5270689-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="550" height="811"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Ullyot expressed dismay with the Golden Eagle bid because of the cost to the team.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Salt Lake Will Pay Freight Costs For International League Charter

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>HAEGERSTOWN, Md&mdash;Commissioner Ray Miron feels a new plan adopted by the owners could mean the salvation of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League.In a meeting held at Haegerstown, the owners scrapped their old format and elected to become a genuine producer of talent for the National Hockey League by featuring American-born players.The new system for the coming season will feature 15-man rosters with 10 of those players on each squad being American-bom. The remaining five spots will be filled by veteran players, those who have competed in the loop before or those assigned by NHL clubs.About 100 American rookies, players who have not played pro or those who have competed in the U.S. junior leagues, will be invited to a training camp in September where ACHL coaches will view the talent before selecting the 10 players for their squads. The site of the camp has not yet been determined.&ldquo;This concept may mean the salvation of the league,&rdquo; stated Miron. &ldquo;The idea is to go with more American players. I&rsquo;ve talked with (Minnesota North Star general manager) Lou Nanne and he thinks it&rsquo;s a great idea and other GMs I&rsquo;ve talked to also feel the same way.&rdquo;Miron is hopeful that the league may be able to help the U.S. Olympic hockey team in the long run.&ldquo;Our games this year will have more speed and excitement with the addition of the rookies,&rdquo; explained the ACHL boss. &ldquo;The biggest difference I&rsquo;ve noticed between our league and the higher leagues is the skating, so this should make a big improvement in that area for us this season.&rdquo;The league has also instituted a new pay scale for this season, plus reducing the number of games from 72 to 64. Rookies will be paid the same base salary and then get bonuses for each game they win while the veterans will collect the same bonus, but will be paid more depending on the deal they can reach with their respective teams.The same five teams are set for the coming season: Carolina Thunderbirds, Erie Golden Blades, Mohawk Valley Stars, Pine Bridge Bucks and Virginia Lancers. Miron is still investigating interest in both Syracuse and Johnstown and is expected to have the lineup straight by August in order to work up an early schedule.Going with five teams doesn&rsquo;t bother the second-year commissioner, especially if the new plan works out.&ldquo;If this new program works out I think we will spur interest in the ACHL and will then attract other franchises,&rdquo; said Miron. &ldquo;This is going to take a lot of work, it won&rsquo;t be easy.&rdquo;Thunderbird general manager Rick Dudley was very enthusiastic about the new approach.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a great idea,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;In the past the league was filled with many guys just putting in time looking to pick up a paycheck, but this year there will be no comparison in the intensity with all the young players, plus the addition of the best of last year&rsquo;s veterans.&rdquo;The ACHL is attempting to change its image and has made sweeping changes this summer. Among them is the new overtime format the league will go with this season which will eliminate all ties.A 10-minute overtime will follow the conclusion of any game tied at the end of regulation. If the tie is still unbroken after 10 minutes, each coach will choose five players to take part in a shootout. Whichever team has the most goals after five tries wins, though the loser will still be awarded one point.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to generate more interest and more excitement with this idea,&rdquo; noted Miron. &ldquo;They have a shootout for tie games in Finland and I&rsquo;ve been told it&rsquo;s exciting as hell.&rdquo; &#9632;

Atlantic Coast To Fly U.S. Colors

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>HULL&mdash;Pat Bums isn&rsquo;t shooting for Coach-of-the-Year honors&mdash;he&rsquo;ll settle for being coach for a year.The revolving door at the Hull Olympiques&rsquo; office spun for the 12th time in 11 years, ushering the 32-year-old Gatineau detective inside with a one-year mandate.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be an aggressive and very disciplined type of team,&rdquo; said Bums, who served as assistant coach with the club for the past two years and scout for four years. &ldquo;The problem with the Quebec League is that it is too freewheeling. It&rsquo;s Spaghetti-city out there.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very hard on discipline, both on and off the ice,&rdquo; added the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder with 14 years of service on the Gatineau police force. He coached Gatineau bantam and midget teams to double-A provincial championships and had 12 players drafted from his midget squad.Bums replaces Michel Morin, who coached Hull last season and now is the team&rsquo;s business manager. Morin also guided Chicoutimi Sagueneens for more than two years and was an assistant coach with the junior national team.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an Ontario-style coach,&rdquo; Morin said. &ldquo;He talks about defense and keeps it simple. He&rsquo;s a serious, team man. He knows what has been done and can take what was good from last year.&rdquo;The Olympiques finished out of the playoffs in 10th place and suffered one of their worst seasons at the gate, averaging about 1,300 fans a night. The club&rsquo;s accounting procedures are probably stricter than most because it is the only city-owned team in major junior hockey, but its losses for the season were reported to be $161,000.Bums knows he faces a difficult task but said he feels he is prepared for it.&ldquo;I know the players and coaches in the league and I did a lot of the drafting for our team, too,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;Pat is perfectly bilingual and his discipline was a major factor,&rdquo; said Jacques Langevin, chairman of the five-member administrative board which operates the team.&rsquo; &lsquo;We wanted somebody who knows the region, the league and the organization.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a tough coach, easy to understand, all of the players respect him,&rdquo; said left winger Luc Robitaille, the only Hull player selected in June&rsquo;s National Hockey League entry draft (Los Angeles Kings in the ninth round). &ldquo;When it&rsquo;s tough, you win, and when you win. it&rsquo;s fun.&rdquo;Among those considered for the job was Wayne Maxner, who coached Hull in 1974-75 and had three stints with Windsor Spitfires.But the final decision came down to Bums and Mario Bazinet, who directed Longueuil Chevaliers to the league final against Laval Voisins. Bazinet has reached the championship round three of the past four years wirth Longueuil and Trois-Rivieres Draveurs and has moved behind the Chicoutimi bench.The annual QMJHL coaching shuffle continued with former Granby Bison coach, Roger Picard, taking over from Bazinet in Longueuil. Chicoutimi coach, Michel Parizeau, a center with the World Hockey Association Quebec Nordiques, has returned to Drummondville where he played junior hockey under Nordique general manager, Maurice Filion. He replaces former WHL marksman. Ron Ward, with the Voltigeurs.Ron Harris, an eight-year NHL veteran with Detroit, Oakland, Atlanta and New York Rangers, has signed on with St. Jean Beavers, and former coach Yvan Gingras will return from a sabbatical to his post as elite program director with the Quebec Ice Hockey Federation.Harris scouted the QMJHL for the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau last season.Denis Methot, owner of the all-American Plattsburg Pioneers expansion team, has indicated he will direct the club himself.Verdun Junior coach, Pierre Creamer, the brother-in-law and junior coach of Mike Bossy, has graduated to the American Hockey League, where he will coach the Montreal-Winnipeg affiliate in Sherbrooke.Verdun is the only team without a coach. Among the names mentioned as Creamer&rsquo;s possible successor are former goaltender Phil Myre, a 15-year pro veteran, and Leo Bedard, coach of midget triple-A powerhouse Lac St. Louis Lions.Jean Begin, Ron Lapointe, Claude St. Sauveur, 12-year NHL veteran Guy Charron, and 14-year NHLer Andre (Moose) Dupont are expected to remain with Laval, Shawinigan Cataractes, Granby, Quebec Remparts, and Trois-Rivieres, respectively. &#9632;

New Olympique Coach Will Enforce Discipline

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03295/5270813-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE CANADA CUP 1984

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01588/5270758-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="271" height="205"></div>OTTAWA&mdash;Ottawa 67s will have an easy time finding a coach to replace Brian Kilrea. But finding a replacement for Brian Kilrea, well, that will be a most difficult chore.Sound confusing? The difference in the two is that Brian Kilrea was more than just a coach.Kilrea coached the 67s the past 10 seasons to five first-place finishes&mdash;capped off with the Memorial Cup in May&mdash;before deciding early in July to join the New York Islanders as an assistant to Al Arbour.&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t be difficult to replace Brian as coach,&rdquo; said Earl Montagano, the president and governor of the 67s. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not difficult to get a coach. But Brian was over and above that. The rapport Brian had with the players, the league, the parents&hellip;that will be hard to replace.&rdquo;Some of the candidates in line to succeed Kilrea include Walt McKechnie. Tom Webster and Wayne Maxner.While Kilrea was moving out of the OHL, Floyd Crawford was moving in.Crawford, whose three sons Marc, Bobby and Louis all played in the OHL, has taken over as coach of the Cornwall Royals, replacing Josh Guevremont, who was fired late in the season. Crawford, captain of the Belleville McFarlands club which won the Allan-Cup in 1958 and the world amateur championship in 1959 in Prague, coached Belleville Bobcats junior B club the past four seasons to a pair of division titles and two second-place finishes.But more on that later.Kilrea&rsquo;s departure ended weeks of speculation that the league&rsquo;s senior coach was finally going to turn pro. The 49-year-old Ottawa native had consistently answered speculation he would move by saying he thought it would be impossible to find the same employment situation he enjoyed in Ottawa.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like owning my own hockey club and they (Darwin and Montagano) pay the bills,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t interfere in the areas that are their&rsquo;s and they&rsquo;ve always respected my judgment on the players. So it&rsquo;s easy.&rdquo;He said the Inlanders&rsquo; offer &ldquo;intrigued me and obviously they like some of the things I do.&rdquo;Although Kilrea&rsquo;s name had been linked to many jobs over the past few seasons, it wasn&rsquo;t until the 67s won the Memorial Cup in Kitchener that the speculation increased. He had rejected an offer to join long-time friend Orval Tessier in Chicago. Minnesota, Vancouver and Toronto were also reported interested over the past couple of seasons.Kilrea was in New York for discussions with Islander general manager Bill Torrey and coach Al Arbour before making the decision to leave Ottawa.He announced his decision at an emotional press conference in Ottawa.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably the toughest decision I&rsquo;ll ever have to make,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But the Islanders&rsquo; situation is very much like the one I&rsquo;ve had here. It&rsquo;s a class organization with people who are very astute. They&rsquo;ve got a closeknit family, similar to the Ottawa situation.&rdquo;Kilrea said he will remain with the 67s during training camp to help the new coach get orientated with the 67s&rsquo; club and to help the players settle into boarding homes and schools.&ldquo;That way there won&rsquo;t be a problem for whoever follows me,&rdquo; he said.McKechnie, a player-coach with Minnesota&rsquo;s farm team in Salt Lake City last year, gained a lot of respect for the job he did and could be in line to succeed Kilrea.Tom Webster, 35, is another. He guided the homeless Oilers of the Central League to the championship after owners of the franchise closed up shop in Tulsa late in the season and the league took over operation.Webster is back home in Niagara Falls out of a job.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll continue to study the game of hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If nothing comes up in the way of a job, I&rsquo;ll take what amounts to a year&rsquo;s sabbatical,&rdquo; he said after being named THE HOCKEY NEWS minor league Coach of the Year.One of the best candidates could be Wayne Maxner, who reached a financial settlement with former Windsor Spitfire owner John McHale, when that franchise was sold to the Detroit Compuware group. Maxner has closely followed the OHL and scouted the midgets for last May&rsquo;s draft, before the change in ownership cost him his job. Maxner&rsquo;s knowledge of the league and the players is an obvious advantage.Montagano insists that no one has a &ldquo;front seat&rdquo; position for the job.Before Kilrea made his decision to leave, Howard Darwin, Montagano&rsquo;s partner in ownership of the 67s, hinted that he felt sure of its inevitability after years of speculation and rumor.&ldquo;They made him some offers. If he&rsquo;s going to go, now is the time,&rdquo; Darwin said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not getting any younger and his family is grown up now. He&rsquo;s done an excellent job for us. Naturally, if he goes, it would be a big pair of shoes to fill, but we&rsquo;ve been very fortunate to have had Brian this long.&rdquo;Ottawa was beginning to search for someone to occupy the coaching seat as Crawford was settling into his in Cornwall.While most of the coaches were taking time off after the schedule meetings, a promotional seminar and the midget and NHL drafts, Crawford was studying tapes of the Royals&rsquo; play last season at his office. Crawford said one of his priorities is to establish some confidence in the players he will coach after last season&rsquo;s collapse late in the schedule and a quick playoff exit.&ldquo;What I see on the tapes is there&rsquo;s some great natural talent,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m strict, firm but fair. Coaching junior kids is like maturing a fine wine: one mistake and you can mess up the batch. You&rsquo;ve got to be careful handling young boys.&rdquo;One player who stands out in the tapes has been Mike Stapleton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02428/5270751-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="544" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Webster could in line to take overthe vacated coaching post in Ottawa.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He has fantastic potential,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited about coaching him. I don&rsquo;t like to single out some of the players but Dave Shellington is another. It&rsquo;s his last year coming up and from what I understand, he hasn&rsquo;t reached his potential. That would be nice from a coach standpoint to bring him along.&rdquo;Crawford said he&rsquo;d simply like to turn the club around and make improvement over last year while giving Cornwall fans &ldquo;something they&rsquo;re going to be happy with&hellip;a good, competitive club.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know much about the returning personnel but hopefully 1&rsquo;11 get a book on the kids at least to familiarize myself for camp,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;They finished two points out of last so obviously we&rsquo;ve got a lot of planning to do. Let&rsquo;s hope we can improve on that.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Ottawa Laments Loss Of Kilrea While Crawford Has A Royal Task

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01536/5270844-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="271" height="205"></div>CALGARY&mdash;The Palliser Hotel may not measure up to the Las Vegas Hilton in terms of grandeur, but it proved the perfect place to stage the annual Western Hockey League summer meetings.Las Vegas was to be the site of the June pilgrimage, but the expected headknocking session was delayed to June 24-27 and moved to Calgary when the National Basketball Association meetings conflicted with original date of the WHL gathering. That put the Portland Winter Hawks, who share the Portland Coliseum with the Trailblazers, in a scheduling bind. The Trailblazers have &gt; priority in booking the Coliseum and any dates secured by the Winter Hawks would have been in jeopardy of being bumped by the NBA club.Judging from the lack of gambling on trades, it was just as well the WHL&rsquo;s 14 teams met in the Alberta city instead of the Nevada gambling mecca. Nobody came away a big winner or loser in Calgary because, quite frankly, nobody was willing to do much wheeling and dealing.&ldquo;It was very quiet,&rdquo; admitted WHL executive assistant Richard Doerksen. &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t think there was anything earthshattering. The meetings are usually just a house-cleaning session. I think most of the teams are waiting for training camp before they start trading.&rdquo;While general managers and coaches weren&rsquo;t eager to exchange talent, they were more than willing to exchange opinions on league matters.The first was applications by Swift Current, Sask., and Edmonton interests to acquire expansions franchises. The Swift Current group, headed by former WHL general manager and coach Paddy Ginnell, wanted to secure a franchise for this season while Vic Mah, an Edmonton restauranteur, applied for a franchise for the 1985-86 season. The vote was nearly unanimous in favor of putting the applications on the back burner.Watering down the product was the bottom line.&ldquo;We just don&rsquo;t have enough talent available,&rdquo; said Doerksen, adding that governors were also concerned about financing new teams. &ldquo;What Swift Current wanted to do was pay a lump sum to get into the league and then something like $3-5,000 per player. The governors couldn&rsquo;t see giving up a player to Swift Current and deleting their own rosters.&rdquo;Swift Current had earlier made an offer of $360,000 to purchase the Kamloops Oilers, who were put up for sale May 7 by the parent Edmonton Oilers. That transaction fell through when Kamloops shareholders, acting on first right of refusal, matched the Swift Current offer within a 30-day time limit to keep the league champions in the British Columbia city.Swift Current interests will keep their money in the bank, and should an existing franchise run into financial trouble and wish to move, Ginnell will be back knocking on the league&rsquo;s doer.Governors also gave a collective thumbs-down to a bantam draft.While some thought it a good idea to go after graduating 14-year-old bantams via a draft in order to strengthen weaker clubs, the consensus was that it&rsquo;s a better idea to let every team have a crack at listing players.Under the present procedure, the first team to file for a player is given his playing rights. If two teams file on the same day, the lower team in the standings is given priority.Some argue when it comes to choosing between two cities, players often go to a first-place or promiment franchise rather than taking a chance with a struggling club.&ldquo;The present system is just superior,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;This way, every team has a shot at every player. All you have to do is look at a team like Kelowna (last place in Western Division). They had four players drafted this year and have a good list. They could finish third or fourth next season&mdash;the present system seems the best.&rdquo;The Eastern Division playoff format, which seems to undergo a yearly facelift, has been revamped again.Six of the division&rsquo;s eight teams will advance to post-season play. Top two finishers will receive first-round byes while third plays sixth and fourth takes on fifth in best-of-five series. The semifinals and division final wil be best-of-seven affairs. The Western Division playoff format, in which four of six teams advance and then pair up in best-of-nine semi-finals and division final, remains intact.In the best-of-seven WHL final, instead of the overall points leader being granted the extra home game, the club sporting the best record against the other division will earn the extra date.Also approved was the sale of Kamloops Oilers to local interests, Winnipeg Warriors&rsquo; move to Moose Jaw, Sask., and Calgary Wranglers&rsquo; purchase by Calgary oil man Brian Eckstrom, who will keep one of the league&rsquo;s cornerstone franchises in the Alberta city.The league also ratified proposals in the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League&rsquo;s agreement with the National Hockey League on player movements. These proposals still have to be ratified by the NHL board of governors.First, all first- and second-round picks who are unsigned must be returned to their respective WHL clubs one day prior to the first NHL regular-season game. All picks later than the third round who are unsigned must be returned by Oct. 1.Second, only goaltenders may be recalled anytime of the year on an emergency basis. Other players can only be returned to the NHL on a third-recall basis. If an NHL club loses two defensemen for example, it must first take two players from the minors to fill the voids before dipping into the junior ranks for a signed player.The governors also elected Portland GM Brian Shaw to a new one-year term as league chairman. &#9632;

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August 1, 1984

FRANK ORR’S HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

Canada Cup Schedule

TRIVIA

Wings Will Be Crowded On Defense In September