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.

October 12, 1984

The Hockey News October 12, 1984

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The Penguins have shelled out $200,000 for their marketing cam-paign with Mario Lemieux as its centerpiece. The ad campaign, which began on radio and TV Sept. 25, will be followed by full-length features on Mario The Magnificent in Sports Illustrated, Inside Sports and Sport magazines. What Pittsburghers are hailing as the &ldquo;Lemieux debut&rdquo; is Oct. 17, when the Penguins open their home season against Vancouver. Penguin marketing director Paul Steigerwald tells BLUELINES that the club&rsquo;s season-ticket sales are up by over 1,000 from last season. &ldquo;On the one hand we haven&rsquo;t set the world on fire, ticketwise,&rdquo; says Steigerwald, &ldquo;but on the other there&rsquo;s never been this much excitement for a Pittsburgh hockey player.&rdquo; Steigerwald says the bottom line will be the Pens&rsquo; performance. &ldquo;Pittsburgh hockey fans have been promised things before,&rdquo; Steigerwald points out, &ldquo;and the club hasn&rsquo;t delivered. If we put the good product on the ice, they&rsquo;ll come back.&rdquo; An asset will be radio station KDKA-AM. which will broadcast games over its 50,000-watt frequency, better than the smaller station used last year&hellip;A Boston rumor has the Bruins offering their first- and third-round draft picks for Charlie Simmer and the Kings&rsquo; second-round pick. Another reason why Charlie Simmer is not a Bruin is the Kings&rsquo; demand for Tom Fergus and Randy Hillier in return. In Detroit, &lsquo;tis said the Red Wings made a pitch for Simmer but Rogie Vachon demanded Ron Duguay. The Wings nixed that. Detroit countered with a goali&mdash;reportedly either Ed Mio or Corrado Micalef&mdash;but the Kings want Greg Stefan or Duguay&hellip;Philly talk show host Howard Eskin had Flyer general manager Bob Clarke on the air and said: &ldquo;I hope you don&rsquo;t get rid of all the goons; a lot of us like to see a brawl or two. I hope you find a spot for the Dave Browns and Glen Cochranes.&rdquo; Clarke did not sound unsympathetic.Ron Duguay confides that he&rsquo;s considering American citizenship and playing for Team USA in the Canada Cup next time around. Doogie has charmed the Detroit media. &ldquo;He goes out of his way to be helpful,&rdquo; says Vartan Kupelian of the Detroit News&hellip;Wall Street rumblings about the future of Madison Square Garden are contradictory now that MSG&rsquo;s parent. Gulf and Western, has agreed to buy the land under MSG from Penn Central as well as the long-term lease between the two organizations. One theory is that G and W plans to redevelop the current MSG into a more profitable entertainment and sports complex. Others speculate that G and W plans to sell the Garden, a $2 million-a-year money-loser&hellip;The Golden Hockey League, which plans to sign retired NHL Hall of Earners, has changed its name to the Canadian Professional League and is scheduled to open next season. CPL spokesman Kevin Hood tells BLUELINES the NHL has no reason to be upset about the new venture. &ldquo;The CPL is the greatest thing that&rsquo;s happened for retired players. Before, when they left the NHL, they didn&rsquo;t have anything. Now they have a league to come to.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Winnipeg Free Press sports editor Hal Sigurdson says the Jets&rsquo; problems can be traced to club boss Barry Shenkarow. &ldquo;What he must do is resign,&rdquo; says Sigurdson.Craig MacTavish lectures to Boston-area groups on problems of drinking and driving. &ldquo;Maybe by looking at me they can learn from my experience,&rdquo; MacTavish told Joe Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald. Craig is serving a year at Lawrence (MA) Correctional Alternative Center for a drunk driving episode that resulted in the death of a girl. &ldquo;If I can accomplish something good by telling kids to learn from my mistakes I&rsquo;ll be able to look back some day and tell myself it wasn&rsquo;t a year that I wasted,&rdquo; adds MacTavish&hellip;The New York media has made a big deal over the fact that Devil rookie coach Doug Carpenter was signed to only a one-year contract. But a source close to owner John McMullen whispers that the Devil boss inked prexy Bob Butera and GM Max McNab to only one-year pacts as well&hellip;Bob (The Count) Daily, the hulking former backliner with the Canucks and Flyers, is now entrepreneur of Bob Dailey&rsquo;s Sweater Mill and soon will be marketing designer suits in the Philly area&hellip;Gus Badali, Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s agent, was on Pittsburgh radio saying he has no doubt that Mario The Magnificent could score 120 points this year. Penguin GM Ed Johnston adds that a 75-100 point year for Lemieux-the-rookie would be &ldquo;special.&rdquo; EJ adds: &ldquo;If he gets 120 points I think our building would be sold out every night.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Canuck GM Harry Neale, talking about his top draft pick J. J. Daigneault: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got great anticipation. He&rsquo;s got eyes all ever his head. Trouble is, most of them he can&rsquo;t use!&rdquo;&hellip;Pat Quinn tells BLUELINES his concern with the Kings is learning about them in time for the new season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m at a disadvantage,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;because, unlike other coaches, I first have to evaluate the personnel. I don&rsquo;t want to get behind the eight-ball.&rdquo; Quinn&rsquo;s 16-year-old daughter, Kalli, has her long-range sights on the Olympics. She&rsquo;s currently a &ldquo;national&rdquo; class swimmer racing for the Natadors in Mission Viejo, CA.Some U.S. club owners, looking long-term, see more expansion down the road, including the Bay Area (with games in Oakland and the Cow Palace in San Francisco). Seattle. Kansas City and Dallas. With the basketball Kings gone, Kansas City is once again viewed as a potential NHL site despite its previous disaster with the Scouts. There&rsquo;s even boardroom talk of four four-team divisions, comprising the 16 potential American teams. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

BLUELINES

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01626/5532410-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="521" height="818"></div><h2>DECEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02457/5532403-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="509" height="556"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03307/5532396-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="505" height="418"></div><h2>JANUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04192/5532389-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="507" height="703"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05132/5532382-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="502" height="298"></div><h2>FEBRUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06102/5532375-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="515" height="818"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0786/5532368-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="524" height="246"></div><h2>MARCH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0874/5532361-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="537" height="851"></div> &#9632;

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Atlantic Coast League Schedule

<div class="byline">Joe Falls</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011404/5531400-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="396" height="448"></div>With the 1984-85 season upon us, it is time to update our list of Purely Personal Prejudices, otherwise known as PPP. This column has nothing to do with logic, reason, fairness, perception, depth or under-standing. You don&rsquo;t even have to know what the red line means. If you&rsquo;re looking for any of these qualities, please go back and re-read Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column and write to him, not me, and thank you for your time and patience and I don&rsquo;t care what anybody says but nobody could ever stickhandle the puck like Bill Cowley.TOP TEN NICKNAMES: 1. Rivervale Skeeters. 2. Brooklyn Armed Torpedoes. 3. Moose Jaw Millers. 4. Sands Point Tigers. 5. Toronto Marlboros (sometimes called the Marlies by people who would like to put together their own Top Ten list of stuff they like about hockey). 6. Windsor Spitfires. 7. Les Canajens. 8. Edmonton Oilers. 9. New York Rovers. 10. The Soviets (sometimes known as The Little Red Machine).TOP TEN ARENAS: 1. Olympia Stadium (especially when the hot dogs are on the grills and you can smell them coming through the front door). 2. Old Madison Square Garden. 3. Boston Garden. 4. Montreal Forum. 5. Maple Leaf Gardens. 6. Chicago Stadium. 7. Demonstration Hall on the Michigan State campus (where only 2,000 people could get in and everybody had to stand up, and Friday nights were the best because the students brought their dates and everybody pushed up against everybody else and it was a very friendly way to watch a hockey game). 8. Checkerdome. 9. The Spectrum. 10. Olympia Stadium, again (which is more romantic than Joe Louis Arena will ever be even though it&rsquo;s been shut down for years and part of the inside has been gutted by a fire. I loved the red and white linoleum in the lobby&mdash;and don&rsquo;t ask how a grown man can be in love with red and white linoleum. I am also in love with the emblem on the front of the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; jerseys, and how dare they change them).TOP TEN STYLISTS: 1. Phil Esposito. 2. Doug Harvey. 3. Guy Lafleur. 4. Max Bentley. 5. Bobby Orr. 6. Wayne Gretzky. 7. Syl Apps. 8. Milt Schmidt. 9. Bryan Trottier. 10. Joan Collins.TOP TEN PEOPLE TO BE IN A FOX HOLE WITH WHEN THE BOMBING STARTS: 1. Joan Collins. 2. Bryan Trottier. 3. Ted Lindsay. 4. Bobby Clarke. 5. Eddie Shore. 6. Ching Johnson. 7. Mortson and Thompson. 8. Stewart and Orlando. 9. Rod Langway. 10. Johnny Bucyk.TOP TEN PEOPLE I LIKE AND DON&rsquo;T CARE IF ANYBODY ELSE LIKES THEM: 1. Earl Siebert. 2. Bob Nystrom. 3. Harold Ballard. 4. Jimmie Franks. 5. Marty Pavelich. 6. Pierre Guite 7. Snuffy Smith. 8. Herbie Cain. 9. Frank Mahovlich. 10. The one they call Balderis.TOP TEN GUYS I&rsquo;D LIKE TO KNOW AS FRIENDS: 1. Larry Robinson. 2. Bill Cowley. 3. Bucko McDonald. 4. Pat Stapleton. 5. Wayne Gretzky. 6. Flash Hollett. 7. Joe Benoit. 8. Brad Park. 9. Sugar Jim Henry. 10. Al Arbour.TOP TEN BROADCASTERS I COULD CLOSE MY EYES ON AND SEE EVERYTHING THAT WAS HAPPENING: 1. Foster Hewitt. 2. Danny Galli van. 3. Bert Lee and Ward Wilson. 4. Dick Irvin. 5. Bruce Martyn and Sid Abel. 6. Fred Cusick. 7. Bob Cole. 8. Dan Kelly. 9. Mickey Redmond. 10. Murray Westgate.TOP TEN PEOPLE I MISS MOST AROUND THE RINKS: 1. Bryan Hextall. 2. Ron Andrews. 3. Clarence Campbell. 4. Jack Adams. 5. Knobby Warwick. 6. Dickie Moore. 7. Elmer Ferguson. 8. Elmer Lach. 9. The Coast Guard Cutters. 10. Hooley Smith.TOP TEN THINGS TO DO WITH A HOCKEY PUCK WHEN THEY&rsquo;RE NOT USING IT TO TURN ON RED LIGHTS: 1. Try it on white bread instead of tuna salad. 2. Put it in the bottom of your fish tank and see if the fish sit on it. 3. See if the fish are off-side. 4. Use it in place of pepperoni. 5. Use it as a spare tire for your Tinker Toys. 6. Roll it down the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York because nobody in New York will even notice you. 7. Read the label on it to check the cholestrol content. 8. Ask Kenny Linseman if he can swallow it in one gulp. 9. Drop it from the top of the CN tower and see if it&rsquo;ll bounce to Buffalo. 10. When it reaches Hamilton, tell Dick Beddoes to keep it under his hat. &#9632;

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Joan Collins Goes On My Hockey List

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011304/5531338-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"></div>When Jacques Lemaire accepted his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, his speech was precise and concise. To those who know him, it came as no surprise.In his address, Lemaire took the straightforward, businesslike approach that has characterized his entire hockey career. With no fuss or bother, he covered all the bases and tied up all the loose ends. That&rsquo;s how he played for a dozen years with the Montreal Canadiens; that&rsquo;s how he operates now as the team&rsquo;s head coach.A large amount of chatter is something Lemaire treats about the same way he regarded an errant pass. He claims the toughest part of coaching for him is media relations, the assortment of interviews that any National Hockey League coach must face, especially on a high-profile team such as the Canadiens.Consistency at a high level was the ingredient that earned Lemaire entry to the hall. His whole career was remarkable with few peaks and valleys. He averaged close to a point a gam&mdash;366 goals and 469 assists for 835 points in 853 season games, a 61-78-139 total in 145 Stanley Cup playoff games.In those 12 seasons, Lemaire played on eight Cup champions and his complete skills&mdash;it&rsquo;s easy to forget that he was one of the best defensive forwards ever to play the gam&mdash;made him a major asset to those winning teams.That consistency in his work makes memories of Lemaire come in seasons or series or entire playoffs, rather than &ldquo;big-game&rdquo; efforts, although he did have a few of those. For instance, in that wonderful New Year&rsquo;s Eve game, 1975 between the Canadiens and Central Red Army of the USSR, Lemaire was the best man on the ice.In the 1971 playoffs, the Canadiens were given no chance of upsetting the powerhouse Boston Bruins in the first round but they did and continued on to the Stanley Cup. Lemaire had 19 points in 20 games and in the seventh game at Boston Garden in that memorable series, he shut down Phil Esposito and scored a goal.In the &lsquo;76 playoff final when the Canadiens met the Philadelphia Flyers, the Broad Street Bullies seeking their third consecutive Cup, the Habs won the first two games at home and Lemaire excelled. A couple of Flyer roughnecks suggested that &ldquo;you won&rsquo;t be able to find Lemaire in The Spectrum.&rdquo; They didn&rsquo;t have to look far there because he had the puck all the time or was preventing the Flyer who had it from doing anything constructive with it.In the 1979 playoffs, when the Canadiens struggled to their fourth consecutive crown, Lemaire made a magnificent exit from the NHL. He was the leading scorer with an 11-1223 point total in 16 games. Many thought he should have won the playoff most valuable player award but it went to Canadiens&rsquo; Bob Gainey.Lemaire played with what seemed to be supreme confidence and obvious complete knowledge of his own ability and limitations but, surprisingly, off the ice he was a shy, quiet man who questioned his own ability non-stop and reacted adversely to any criticism.His growth as a player was a long, often painful evolution. Even in his later years with the team, his Canadien mates said any discouraging words affected him deeply.&ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t have to criticize or correct him very often,&rdquo; said Scotty Bowman, Lemaire&rsquo;s coach in junior hockey and with the Canadiens. &ldquo;He was a perfectionist of incredible proportions. He policed himself and his performances intensely.&rdquo;Lemaire once talked of how difficult it was for him to be a Canadien and the pressures he felt, some self-induced. When he joined the team as a high-scoring junior in 1967, the Canadiens were rebuilding, the great center Jean Beliveau was aging and Lemaire was immediately tagged as the next monarch of the red, white and blue dynasty.&ldquo;It never has been easy playing for the Canadiens, although many people think it is because of all the championships the team has won and all the great players the team has had,&rdquo; Lemaire said.&ldquo;But it isn&rsquo;t easy because of the great tradition and the very high standards the team has. When you&rsquo;re a Canadien, more is expected of you than perhaps in any other organization in hockey. It can be a very heavy load.&rdquo;Lemaire scored 22, 29 and 32 goals in his first three seasons, splendid by any standards except the ones which Canadiens&rsquo; supporters establish for their heroes.&ldquo;I guess the people just expected more of me,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;I was to be the man who would score big numbers of goals and it took the fans quite a few years to recognize that I could contribute to the team in other ways. When they did realize that I could help by being an all-round player, it was much better. I could relax and enjoy life.&ldquo;The strength of the Canadiens always has been many players who can play both ways.&rdquo;Lemaire was a player-coach in Switzerland for two years, followed by seasons in college and junior hockey. He moved from assistant to head coach with the Canadiens late last season and engineered the big playoff turnaround.As one Canadien veteran said it: &ldquo;Jacques really keeps his expectations for his players at a realistic level. After all, he knows what it&rsquo;s like when they&rsquo;re unrealistic.&rdquo; &#9632;

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JACQUES LEMAIRE

In our next issue, we&rsquo;ll have two previews that you won&rsquo;t want to miss.The first is our annual U.S. College Preview. It&rsquo;s going to be an exciting year, what with the advent of Hockey East and an interlocking schedule with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. We&rsquo;ll have four individual forecasts, one each for the four major leagu&mdash;Hockey East, ECAC, CCHA and WCHA.The second is our annual American Hockey League Preview. This, too, will be an exciting year for minor pro hockey, what with new affi-liations and a consolidation since the death of the Central League.On top of all that, we&rsquo;ll have an excerpt from Dave (Tiger) Williams just-released book, TIGER, A Hockey Story. The Tiger never pulls any punches on the ice and he&rsquo;s no different as an author.Don&rsquo;t miss it!<h2>QUOTE OF THE WEEK</h2>&ldquo;The other thing to remember is that no kid, no matter how good he is in minor hockey, can say for sure that he&rsquo;s going to make the NHL.&rdquo; &mdash;Edmonton Oiler superstar Wayne Gretzky. See Page 7 for an excerpt from the latest Gretzky book. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011375/5530763-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div>Every June, John Ziegler, Brian O&rsquo;Neill and the boys from 21 National Hockey League clubs get together in Montreal to engage in the annual entry draft, a day-long affair that&rsquo;s preceded by a week of more hype than pro hockey is accustomed to getting.But as complex and integral as the NHL draft is, it pales in comparison to the vastness, significance and excitement of the draft(s) that will be taking place this month. Yes, it&rsquo;s time for the annual hockey pool, a not-so-new phenomenom that has escalated in recent years to the point where it can be legitimately called a craze.In fact, if you&rsquo;re a hockey fan or if you hold down a job of any description, then chances are that you&rsquo;re either in a pool or know someone who is.They come in all shapes and sizes. Some involve big bucks. Others are just for fun. Some are simple, some are more complex than a Herb Brooks practice. Nearly all of them have one thing in common: No. 99 (Wayne Gretzky) is ineligible.They have the ability to turn a casual hockey observer into a raving fanatic who stays up half the night calling newspaper offices or radio stations in search of who got the assist on Mike Bossy&rsquo;s third-period goal.If you doubt any of this, you haven&rsquo;t met Bruce Perrin and Gord Cutler, two young fellows who, by day, are editorial assistants at The Sports Network in Toronto. On their own time, though, they are novice authors, having had their first book published.It is, if you haven&rsquo;t already guessed, on hockey pools. So they qualify as fanatics.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing them ever since high school,&rdquo; says Perrin, a 24-year-old from Toronto. &ldquo;That, I guess, is where the idea for the book started. We&rsquo;d all be sitting around with a hundred different sources of information. You had clippings, books and newspapers all over the place.&ldquo;I thought it would be a good idea if all the information you needed was in one book. Of course, nothing like that existed. So we decided to do it.&rdquo;The book, which is sold primarily through mail order advertisements, actually started last spring when they introduced the first Hockey Pool Prophet, a 40-odd page stapled booklet they put together themselves. It cost three dollars and they sold 230, not bad considering they had little promotion.&ldquo;We like to think of this book, which is a lot more sophisticated than the one last spring, as a racing form type of publication,&rdquo; says Gord Cutler, 23. &ldquo;Before we published the book, we checked with a lawyer on the legality of it and we cleared the necessary hurdles.&ldquo;We did a survey which indicated that the average amount of money a pool player will invest is $70. Of course, we know there are pools out there that involve much more money.&ldquo;We really never went into this expecting to make much money. We were both unemployed at the time and we thought it might be the kind of thing we needed to break into the sports business at some level. Hey, we thought it looked good on a resume.&rdquo;The book contains a plethora of information&mdash;drafting strategies, a mock draft rating the players available, reams of statistics dating back several seasons and breaking down points into per game averages as well as capsule reports on the majority of draftable players.While THE HOCKEY NEWS isn&rsquo;t about to get into the business of providing a draft-day counselling bureau, there are some basic strategies which one should be aware of if he/she is going into a hockey pool.For example, it&rsquo;s well known to most hockey pool veterans that it&rsquo;s won or lost in the middle and late rounds. It&rsquo;s usually easy in the first couple of rounds because there are plenty of guys who can score 100 or more points.Nine times out of ten, the winner of the draft will be somebody who got 80,90 or more points out of a middle or late-round pick. (i.e. Whomever snagged players such as Steve Larmer, Tony Tanti and Bernie Nicholls in recent years, probably had a banner draft as they were all rather unheralded players who came up big.)Having said all that, the next step is to do a little homework. Those pool players who arrive with an NHL roster and little else, usually aren&rsquo;t a factor in their races.Plus, when someone else takes a player they wanted immediately before their pick, they take all night to pick another and that really rubs pool players the wrong way. (Perhaps hockey pool etiquette will be the next subject of a book).It isn&rsquo;t always necessary to rate your top 200 players&mdash;if you&rsquo;ve got the time or inclination it&rsquo;s not a bad idea, though&mdash;but you should do some advance preparation. Line up a list of the players you can reasonably expect to get in a particular round. If you&rsquo;ve got some sort of seeding system in advance, you&rsquo;ll ensure your selections run smoothly and you won&rsquo;t be scrambling, forced to take a player you don&rsquo;t really want or know little about.&ldquo;One of the biggest mistakes made in a hockey pool is drafting a big name or star who is on the downside of his career,&rdquo; says Perrin. &ldquo;Some people insist on taking Bob Gainey, Bill Barber, Clark Gillies year after year. These are guys who are recognizable but aren&rsquo;t going to get you a lot of regular season points.&ldquo;People who make those choices are the same ones who, in a later round, will take Pat Hickey instead of going for a promising rookie or European, who may end up with a lot of points. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s important to see who the juniors and minor pro players are that may score big if they make it.&rdquo;Of course, the European Factor. The rule of thumb, though it is subject to change in some individual cases, is that first-year Europeans are not good high-round investments. They need a year to adjust to the new lifestyle and the smaller NHL rinks. Sophomore Europeans are a good bet, though, since they&rsquo;ve got splendid offensive skills once they&rsquo;ve gotten used to their new surroundings.Then there is the Defenseman Factor. &ldquo;A lot of people underestimate the power of offensive defenseman,&rdquo; Cutler says. &ldquo;There are more and more of them around that can pick up 50-85 points a season, which is a lot better than most journeymen forwards.&rdquo;Don&rsquo;t forget the Canada Cup Factor. Generally speaking, players who competed in the Canada Cup get off to quick starts. Rick Middleton is a good example of a normally slow starter who should get off the mark a little quicker this year.Combine the Canada Cup Factor and European Factor and who knows what will happen. Team Sweden performed well in the Canada Cup and their offensive stars will be starting the NHL season in fine form, which should make them popular on draft days across the continent.As for the different types of pools, they are limitless. Some count only goals. Some count only assists. Some factor in plus-minus and a specific breakdown of positions.But this is where one must draw the line on hockey pool advice.&ldquo;Our lawyer told us it was okay to provide raw data on the players and trends,&rdquo; says Perrin, &ldquo;but as soon as you start counselling people on how to set one up, how much to charge and how to go about the whole process, then you&rsquo;re stepping over the line. It&rsquo;s illegal.&rdquo;&bull; NHL ROSTERS ON PAGE 36. &#9632;

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Time For The October Hockey Pool Craze

<div class="byline">BY HOWARD BERGER</div>Our everyday legal codes of conduct insist that we, as human beings, must not murder, steal, make left turns on a red light or organize hockey pools in October. Just ask any cop in the know. He&rsquo;ll tell you.True, the severity of these crimes differ in terms of punishment. Choosing Wayne Gretzky in your hockey pool is not quite as indictable as going out and wasting your next-door neighbour. In each instant, however, should you be caught, you&rsquo;ll find your backside in court pretty quickly.&ldquo;If you kill somebody, you&rsquo;ll probably get yourself into a little more hot water than if you conduct a hockey pool,&rdquo; concedes staff sergeant Peter Benge of the Metro Toronto Police Department&rsquo;s Morality unit. &ldquo;But, the bottom line is: both are illegal and you will be charged criminally in each case.&rdquo;Benge admits there is little his men, or any other police department, can do to prevent the obvious wide-spread operation of hockey pools prior to each season. No P.D. in North America has enough manpower to bust into every home in its locality the Sunday before the NHL schedule begins. So, Benge says his unit must rely on tips.&ldquo;We go on beefs,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;Someone will call up and complain there is an unusual amount of cars parked on his street. So, we&rsquo;ll investigate. At other times, people who know the pool is taking place will call us and report it&mdash;either because they don&rsquo;t like someone who&rsquo;s involved or they don&rsquo;t like gambling, period, and they want to do their piece for society.&rdquo;The laws against gambling in this fashion are spelled out rather clearly in the Criminal Code of Canada manual. Under Section 186 of the Betting, Pool Selling and Bookmaking subsection, it says the law will be forced upon:&ldquo;Anyone who commits an offense who:a) uses or knowingly allows a place under his control to be used tor the purpose of recording or registering bets or selling a pool.c) has under his control any money or other property relating to a transaction;f) prints, provides or offers to print or provide information intended for use in connection with betting, bookmaking or pool selling;i) sends, transmits, delivers or receives any message by radio, telegraph, telephone, mail or express that conveys any information relating to betting, bookmaking or pool selling;j) aids or assists in any manner to anything that is an offense under this section.&rdquo;Should you be charged for any of these crimes, Benge says your ultimate penalty will involve fines.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unlikely you&rsquo;d be sent to jail for conducting a hockey pool,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;But you and your associates could be fined rather heavily, depending on the amount of money that was circulated in your pool.&rdquo;Benge says you will have very little trouble recognizing when you have been fingered by the law for pool-selling.&ldquo;A policeman or two will show up at your door and usually knock,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re polite in these situations. We&rsquo;ll halt the proceedings by siezing all the evidence and a judge will deal with you at a later date.&rdquo;Benge goes so far as to admit there is a very slim chance you will be caught with your finger in the cookie jar&hellip;or, in this case, the draw hat. But, like any other crime, he won&rsquo;t go around condoning it.&ldquo;I have enough gambling investigations going on that I obviously can&rsquo;t worry about everyone who is thinking of conducting hockey pool,&rdquo; Benge says. &ldquo;I guess the only way people will think twice is if they&rsquo;re caught. There are a lot of folks taking that chance nowadays.&rdquo;Oh yeah, before we go, has Benge ever taken part in an NHL pool?&ldquo;Nope. I hate hockey!&rdquo; &#9632;

Best Advice For Pools: Don’t Get Caught

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011394/5530842-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="388" height="446"></div>PHIL ESPOSITO&rsquo;S SUGGESTION on how the National Hockey League should integrate the Soviet Union hockey teams into their program is simple: Ignore them.Esposito is not the only man in the NHL sphere who holds that view. More than a few viewpoints claim that the Soviets are nothing more than a nuisance and playing games against them isn&rsquo;t worth the bother.Quite a few others tend to think that hockey games such as the one produced in Calgary this September by Team Canada and the national team of the USSR definitely are worth the bother. But while he was pleased with the outcome of that match (a 3-2 Canadian win), Esposito thinks future meetings should consist of a showdown between the Stanley Cup champions and the winners of the USSR major league and nothing else.&ldquo;But even then, you can be certain that their league champs will be the strongest all-star team that country can get together,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;They wouldn&rsquo;t play any other way.&rdquo;Phil is correct on that one but there&rsquo;s nothing Soviet-sneaky about it. The Central Red Army team is perennial champion squad and its roster contains at least 15 members of the national team.Esposito was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year and even if he hadn&rsquo;t scored a few million goals in the NHL, what he did on behalf of Team Canada in the first confrontation with the comrades in 1972 was sufficient to place him in the hall. Has anyone ever played the game better than he did in that series?However, his view is that the NHL and Canada should have quit playing the Soviets after that series and he shoots down the theories that the lessons learned from the USSR hockey program in 1972 inspired uplifting changes in the North American game.&ldquo;Okay, maybe it was a stick in the back to our hockey that we had allowed the teaching of basic skills to slip a little,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;But in my view, the only thing we&rsquo;ve learned from the Russians and the other Europeans is how to make sure that players are finished by the time they&rsquo;re 30 years old.&rdquo;Esposito&rsquo;s outlook&mdash;and it&rsquo;s one an assortment of physical fitness specialists who work with hockey players will debate loud and long&mdash;is that the jump on the land training bandwagon, the Buck Rogers conditioning machine wagon and the pushup fanatics have inspired an early burnout in pro hockey players.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re over-training and overconditioning players now and that&rsquo;s why they&rsquo;re burned out at 30 years of age,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never lifted a weight or jogged&mdash;I always hid in the bushes, splashed water on my face and talked about how tough the run was&mdash;and I had a 20-season career in the game.&ldquo;I would bet that none of the other players who played 15 to 20 years ever lifted weights or jogged or worked out on fancy machines. We had a longer training camp and skated ourselves into shape.&ldquo;The Russians have had only a very few players on their national team who had passed the big three-oh. That&rsquo;s because they work so hard and long at conditioning, their bodies are just worn out by the time they hit 30. We&rsquo;re doing the same thing to players now.&rdquo;Espo&rsquo;s view is that players simply run out of steam because of the conditioning programs.&ldquo;Barry Beck (New York Rangers&rsquo; big defenseman) is a training fanatic who works very hard at a very tough program,&rdquo; Esposito added. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s as hard as nails but every year, come February or March, he plays as if he&rsquo;s very tired. I think it&rsquo;s just from overwork.&rdquo;Esposito is a booster of longer training camps, however, but not just as a means of rounding the team into shape. He points out other benefits of an extended camp.&ldquo;I liked it back when training camp was longer because I think it promoted team unity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We could go out of town for a camp, have a heavy workout in the morning, play golf in the afternoon and get to know each other.&ldquo;The players had a chance to get close together. Now many teams have camp right in their towns and many of the players stay at home. It&rsquo;s just not the same.&ldquo;The camps had a longer time before the first exhibition and the players could skate themselves into condition. I think it was better and gave the chance for a much longer career.&ldquo;Now the teams are using the condition methods that European hockey took from other sports where the careers are very short. It&rsquo;s just too much to ask the body to lift weights and run all summer, then play 100 games or so and travel all season.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0004-01

Espo Has Had His Fill Of Soviets

<div class="byline">BY JEFF Z. KLEIN AND KARL-ERIC REIF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021284/5530873-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg"></div><h2>FOR ARGUMENT&rsquo;S SAKE</h2>Wayne Gretzky has dominated the goalscoring lists as few players in the 67-year history of the NHL ever have. Most say that he is simply the greatest offensive player the game has ever seen, and they have plenty of evidence to back them up.Yet there are a few cognescenti who claim that Agent 99 is not necessarily the most fantastic scorer ever to lace up a pair of skates. They say that Gretzky plays in an era when goal scoring is inflated and the general quality of the game is not what it once was. But for all their cavilling, they have presented no hard statistics to shore up their argument.There is a way to find out the extent to which a-goal scorer is better than his peers in any given season, and that is to compute the percentage by which the leading goal getter outscores the second-best goal-scorer&mdash;what we call &ldquo;the quality of victory.&rdquo; If, for example, Player A won the goal-scoring title with 40 goals in 48 games&mdash;.83 goals per gam&mdash;and the runner-up, Player B, scored 30 goals in 50 games&mdash;.60 GPG&mdash;the quality of Player A&rsquo;s victory is the percentage by which Player A&rsquo;s GPG figure is better than Player B&rsquo;s, or 27.71 percent. Simply put, Player A scored almost 28 per cent more goals per game than Player B.Using this method, which equalizes the vast changes in rules, styles of play and &ldquo;goal-scoring inflation&rdquo; the league has seen over its history, one can determine who was the NHL&rsquo;s most dominant goal-scorer over the course of a single season. How does Gretzky measure up?Surprisingly, Gretzky&rsquo;s fabulous 92-goal season was only the 10th-most dominant ever. That was because the runner-up, Mike Bossy, scored a pretty healthy 64 goals. So, although the Great One tallied 28 more times, he scored &ldquo;only&rdquo; 30 per cent more goals than did the Islander. Evidently, in the rush to heap the Great One with much-deserved praise, people have&rsquo; forgotten that everyone else these days is scoring bushelfuls of goals, too.The most dominant lamplighting season ever recorded was that of the great Bobby Hull in 1965-66. Though seriously hampered all year by a leg injury, the Golden Jet was spectacular. He netted his 300th career goal in January, and in March he became the first player in league history to score 50 in two separate seasons. A few days later he scored a then-record 51 st, prompting the Chicago Stadium crown of 22,000 to explode into a wild seven-minute ovation. In the end, he scored a whopping 22 more goals (and over 43 per cent more goals per game) than the runner-up, Frank Mahov-lich.The &lsquo;65-66 campaign was not an unusual one for Hull, who during his sparkling career popularized the slap shot, invented the curved stick, awoke the dormant Black Hawk franchise and singlehandedly made the WHA legitimate rival to the NHL. It was the first of four consecutive years he would win the goal-scoring crown, and by 1969 he had won seven out of 10 goalscoring titles.Hull also recorded the third- and fifth most dominant campaigns, but the second-best was Maurice Richard&rsquo;s legendary 50-in-50 season of 1944-45. It was a year in which many players were serving in the armed forces or essential war jobs, and the quality of play in the league was far below par. Nevertheless, the Rocket&rsquo;s record would stand une-qualled for 36 years, and unsurpassed for 37.Gordie Howe is remembered by those under age 30 for the incredible Continued from page 4 stamina he showed in middle age, but Howe earned the nickname &ldquo;Mr. Hockey&rdquo; for his amazing all-around skills&mdash;not the least of which was goal-scoring&mdash;as a young man. He wasn&rsquo;t even in his mid-20s when he registered the fourth-most dominant championship in this category.Phil Esposito&rsquo;s superb 76-goal season is the sixth-best ever, and it is good to see the often-overlooked Charlie Conacher, the most-feared goal-getter of the mid-1930s, finishing seventh in this department.None of this is meant to belittle the accomplishments of The Great Gretzky, whose astonishing skills and noble bearing have done so much for the game. When we examine the quality of his victories in assists and points, he will no doubt seem greater still. But, as this study shows, he does not tower above the ranks of hockey&rsquo;s greatest goal-scorers&mdash;rather, he stands among them.<h2>The Quality Of Victory&hellip; &#9632;</h2>

f0004-02

Bobby Hull: Greatest Scorer Ever

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011279/5530904-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="341" height="444"></div>IT IS GOING to be my pleasure to write a column every other week in THE HOCKEY NEWS entitled, &ldquo;Ask the Referee.&rdquo;The intent of this column will be to allow you, the reader, to have a place to write and seek answers to the many questions that come up during the course of a hockey season. Not just those of rule interpretations, but also areas of judgment, situations that have developed over past seasons or any other item involving officials and situations in and around hockey.You may be surprised to know, for instance, that an NHL official travels 75,000 to 100,000 miles in a season to officiate in the 21 cities and can be on as many as eight-10 flights in a week. Or that a new rule in the NHL this year is that teams will not change ends in the event of overtime. Or that the inventor of Megg-Nets, Dennis Meggs, spent several years looking worldwide to get the proper type of magnets to carry out his plans before settling on the unique system that has been adapted in the NHL and American Hockey League for 1984-85.These are samples of the areas of interest but more important, your questions pertaining to those situations that develop in a game will be our main objective, and if necessary, we will go right to the source (i.e., the referee) to get the answer.Send your questions to:ASK THE REFEREETHE HOCKEY NEWS85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Don Mills, Ont.CanadaM3B 2R2MY CAREER IN hockey officiating started back in 1957 when I first refereed men&rsquo;s hockey and minor hockey at all levels. I then moved into the Ontario Hockey Association and officiated in junior, intermediate and senior. I was given a tryout by then-NHL Referee-in-Chief Carl Voss in 1961 and sent to the International Hockey league for one year.Following that I was hired into the National Hockey League&rsquo;s pool of officials and assigned to the newly-formed CPHL (Central Professional Hockey League, which also ended a 21-year career this year) and the American Hockey League. The next season we added the Western Hockey League (another pro league which is gone) and I officiated in the three leagues.Then I was elevated to the NHL in 1966 and stayed there 18 years before my retirement this year. I was the first referee to officiate in 1,000 games, establishing a record of 1,033 regular season games and 111 Stanley Cup games. Many, many changes in the game of hockey, its rules and their application came about over those years and there are many memories to share.The end of one career spawns a new one and in the season ahead, besides authoring this column, I will be doing color commentary-analyst work on televised hockey games, having just completed my first assigment with The Sports Network, the new cross-Canada all-sports network which carried many Canada Cup games. I will also be putting together all of those memories for a book which I will be writing over the next year.Meanwhile, I solicit your letters and as the season progresses, I am sure we can provide you with a different dimension to the world of hockey. &#9632;

f0005-01

ASK THE REFEREE

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Pre-season play in 1969 was one of the most controversial of all time. In a game between Montreal and Boston, Hab defenseman Terry Harper fought with Bruin goalie Gerry Cheevers. But that paled in comparison to the Bruins&rsquo; game with St. Louis, in which the Blues&rsquo; Wayne Maki and Boston&rsquo;s Ted Green engaged in a brutal stick-swinging affair. After Green speared Maki, the latter clubbed the Bruin defender over the head. Green had to be rushed to hospital and underwent a five-hour brain operation, with doctors inserting a metal plate in his head.&bull; Toronto&rsquo;s Norm Ullman was given the richest contract in Leaf history at $57,000 a year. Tim Horton was willing to come out of retirement if the Leafs doubled his previous year&rsquo;s salary of $42,000.&bull; There were new coaches in Los Angeles (Hal Laycoe), Pittsburgh (Red Kelly), Philadelphia (Vic Stasiuk) and Toronto (John McLellan). &#9632;

THIS WEEK…15 Years Ago

<div class="byline">By Randy Schultz</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02935/5530966-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="386" height="448"></div>Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?&rdquo; is an old song written about an Irishman whose &ldquo;hair is red and his eyes are blue and he is Irish through and through.&rdquo;Now if you were a hockey fan from the late 1940s to the early &lsquo;60s you would have sworn that the song was written about one of the game&rsquo;s most versatile and talented players of that era, Leonard Patrick (Red) Kelly.Kelly played for 20 seasons (19471967) in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. He won the Norris Trophy in &lsquo;54 and the Lady Byng Trophy in &lsquo;51, &lsquo;53, &lsquo;54 and &lsquo;61. Besides playing, he also coached for nine other seasons in the league with Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and the Leafs. In &lsquo;69, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.Although he established himself as a rushing-style defenseman with the Red Wings, it wasn&rsquo;t until he came to Toronto late in the 1959-60 season and was converted into a center by Leaf coach George (Punch) Imlach&mdash;a recent inductee in the Hall of Fame as a builder&mdash;that he was able to show his true talents as a player.&ldquo;Punch was a hard taskmaster,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;He was very stubborn, but he was always fair.&ldquo;I never had any problem with him and I gave everything I had for him. When he converted me to a center I never argued. I figured it was for the best of the team. And the team was always first and foremost on our minds.&ldquo;Not all of the players got along with Punch. Some had problems with the way he handled the team. And Punch, like any other coach, had to handle all of the players as individuals because no two were the same.&ldquo;The one thing I found out about Punch is that he made us pay for something somebody else did. For instance, if he found out that a couple of players had broken curfew and had decided to stay out late, the next day in practice he would make them, as well as the rest of the team, skate or do some other drill over and over until we were all just about ready to drop.&ldquo;So I always made sure that I was in the best shape I could be in so that when something like this happened I would be ready for it.&rdquo;Like many other hockey fans, Kelly was impressed with the recent Canada Cup game between Team Canada and the Russians. To him, it was one of the best hockey games he had ever seen.&ldquo;There was no doubt in my mind that that was one of the best 60 minutes of hockey I have seen in a long time,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;There was action for the entire 60 minutes, as well as the overtime period. And they just kept going back and forth all night long.&ldquo;You just don&rsquo;t see hockey like that much during the regular NHL season. Not that I&rsquo;m saying every game should be like that one between Canada and Russia, but a few more would be nice.&rdquo;Today, Kelly lives in with his family in a suburb of Toronto where he is owner and president of CAMP (Computerized Aircraft Maintenance Program) Systems of Canada. Although he&rsquo;s not involved with the league, he does follow it closely.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03650/5530959-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1201" height="1021"><figcaption class="caption-body">When Red Kelly came to Toronto, he was moved from defense to center and excelled there for the Maple Leafs.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

Kelly Owes Punch Credit For Changing His Career

1. What is the highest score recorded in World Championship play?2. What two NHL players registered six consecutive 100-point seasons?3. How many penalty shots were taken in 1934-35, the first season of its existence?4. What is the record for the most consecutive games played by a goal-tender?5. What player played 82 games in the 1980-81 NHL season?6. Who captained the USSR in the 1972 Summit Series against Canada?7. What player played for his country in four consecutive Olympics from 1928 to 1948?8. Who was the last New York Ranger to score a Stanley Cup winning goal?9. Who was the first player to get 50 goals and 50 assists in the same season?10. Who was the first player to record 100 points and 100 penalty minutes in the same season?Answers in next week&rsquo;s issue.<h2>Last Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Les Costello. 2. Camille Henry. 3. Three. 4. Ivan (Ching) Johnson. 5. Paul MacLean. 6. Brit Selby, 1965-66. 7. Rich Preston. 8. Paul and Cecil (Tiny) Thompson. 9. Buzz Schneider. 10. Alex Smart, Montreal Canadiens. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04425/5531021-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div>that the NHL coaches with the most wins of all-time are: &#9632;

f0005-04

Did You Know…

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011461/5531052-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="376" height="451"></div>How lucky can you get?Don (Grapes) Cherry, the poor man&rsquo;s Nostradamus, the man who last season had the best selection record of all National Hockey League forecasters, has consented to share his genius with you in this column.In his inimitable no-nonsense manner. Cherry tells us who will finish first in what will be noted by historians as the world&rsquo;s fastest NHL preview.Take it away Grapes:NORRIS DIVISION&mdash;&rdquo;Minnesota will win it in a dogfight with Chicago.&rdquo;SMYTHE DIVISION&mdash;&rdquo;As soon as the national anthem is played Edmonton will win the division&mdash;and the conference!&rdquo;ADAMS DIVISION&mdash;&rdquo;Boston will win it after a horserace with Buffalo.&rdquo;PATRICK DIVISION&mdash;&rdquo;Put the Islanders, Flyers and Caps in a hat and shake it up. Pick one and that team has as good a chance as the other of finishing first, but I&rsquo;ll go with the Islanders. (By the way, the Rangers will be better because they gained confidence in the playoffs.&rdquo;)STANLEY CUP FINALS&mdash;&rdquo;It will be the Islanders against the Oilers. (That&rsquo;s why Al Arbour is hanging around; he wants to prove something.) The series will be tougher and a lot will depend on injuries. Edmonton might win, but it won&rsquo;t be so easy.&rdquo;CRUSHING GRAPES&mdash;Hearing that, it is now my duty to tell you that I disagree with Cherry on most counts. As I see it, Grapes&rsquo; problem is that he&rsquo;s suckered by the obvious. Subtleties elude him and this season will be filled with subtle surprises, each of which will affect the race. Consider them:NORRIS DIVISION SURPRISES&mdash;Everybody dumped on Orval Tessier last year. His &ldquo;my-club-needs-a-heart-transplant&rdquo; line from the previous playoffs haunted Orval all year and Tony Esposito&rsquo;s insurrection didn&rsquo;t help either. The thinking is that Tessier is doomed this year, and the North Stars will romp.Wrong.Tessier&rsquo;s problem wasn&rsquo;t so much himself or Esposito, it was injuries multipled to the radical 50. I&rsquo;ll put my money on Orval leading Chicago back to the top and it wouldn&rsquo;t surprise me if his new kid, right winger Ed Olczyk, wins the rookie award and Doug Wilson takes the Norris. I see super-duper comebacks for Al Secord and Tom Lysiak. Denis Savard will lead the Division in scoring and Murray Bannerman will have them forgetting Esposito by November.Grapes is offside figuring the North Stars to make a race of it. The surprise will be the Blues. Everyone figured last year&rsquo;s playoff was a fluke. Not so. Sure, St. Lou got screwed out of draft picks but there&rsquo;s a healthy nucleus in Mike Liut, Rob Ramage, Brian Sutter, Joey Mullen, Bernie Federko and Jorgen Petterson. But the surprise guys who&rsquo;ll lift the Blues past Minny will be Doug Wickenheiser and Gil Delorme. Write down: 1984-85 will be The Year Of The Wick.It wouldn&rsquo;t surprise me if the Red Wings climb over Minny as well. Greg Stefan will be the hot goalie of the year and Tiger Williams will take his leadership role so seriously that Joe Louis Arena will dance to his skatesteps. Do not underestimate the spiritual power of The Tiger. Or Steve Yzerman. Or John Ogrodnick.Yes, the North Stars have the names but they also have the echoes. Like the echo of Al MacAdam&mdash;traditionally a quiet, team man&mdash;wanting to get out, and getting out. And the echo of Dino Ciccarelli&mdash;traditionally a loud individualist&mdash;wanting to get out. Not to mention those anonymous fellows on the North Stars who echoed the MacAdam-Ciccarelli line.In Toronto the surprise will be Harold Ballard&rsquo;s mime routine. This fall Pal Hal will set a world&rsquo;s record for reticence, determined to let the new Dan Maloney-John Brophy regime blossom without his bluster. An even bigger surpris&mdash;if that&rsquo;s possibl&mdash;will be the Maple Leafs putting together something resembling a defense. And an even bigger surprise than that will be them making the playoffs. Forget about the last two items reaching reality.SMYTHE DIVISION SURPRISES&mdash;So, Grapes has conceded everything to the Oilers. Well, that&rsquo;s the fashionable thing to do; like inhaling. Let&rsquo;s, for a moment, be unfashionable. Consider the possibility that all those Oilers who skated in the Canada Cup might just have a massive case of the downers and that the gifted, young Flames might just have a massive case of the uppers. Impossible, you say. Okay, see me about this time next spring. Other Smythe Division surprises: Richard Brodeur will retain his No. 1 goalie job over Frank Caprice; David Babych will become an All-Star and Marcel Dionne won&rsquo;t.ADAMS DIVISION SURPRISES&mdash;Grapes likes the Bruins to finish on top. That&rsquo;s about as unusual as Ronald Reagan saying he likes America first. The surprise will be Gord Kluzak, who will become the young Rod Langway of the Adams Division, but that won&rsquo;t be enough to enable the B&rsquo;s to surpass the Sabres. In Buffalo, with superlative efforts coming from the Housleys, Barrassos and Folignos, the Sabres, not the Bruins, will finish first.Will a terrific Steve Penney season in Montreal be a surprise? No, sir. Everyone figures he&rsquo;s here to stay as the Canadiens&rsquo; peerless puckstopper. At least that&rsquo;s what his playoff effort suggested. Don&rsquo;t believe it. Penney will be unmasked as a counterfeit. The surprise will be Steve Penney back in the American League by Christmas.In Quebec they figure that Dan Bouchard is dead and buried as a first-line goalie; that Mario Gosselin will take over and be the George Vezina of the late 1980s. That&rsquo;s no surprise, but Danny B. is not dead yet, and that is. He won&rsquo;t win the Cup for Quebec but he will win some big games.The Whalers need a playoff team&mdash;simply to sustain interest in Hartford. Since the Whalers almost never make the playoffs it will be a surprise of humungous proportions if they reach the coveted circle for a change this season. My metabolism has very good vibes for Jack Evans and his crew at this point. I will venture that the Whalers and not the Canadiens will provide the final surprise in the Adams sector.PATRICK DIVISION SURPRISES&mdash;For inexplicable reasons, Grapes Cherry has an anti-Ranger hangup. He always underestimates the Broadway Blueshirts, virtually dismissing them out of hand. This is a mistake often made by other experts. They figure that since the Rangers never win the Stanley Cup (1940 was the last time they brought it home), they will never win it. Grapes, for one, will be surprised at the Ranger staying power this year. They will win all of their games from the defending champion Oilers and will challenge the Islanders for first-place. The other surprise will be rookie Dave Gagner, who will get more positive attention than the Ranger who figures to get it, James Patrick. But Patrick will still have a solid season.The Islanders&rsquo; surprise will be Butch Goring. Not long ago, in Winnipeg, he was written up as the sure-thing newest member of the Jets and in the New York papers as the newest member of the New Jersey Devils. Instead, Goring remains one of the oldest members of the Islanders&mdash;and one of the smartest. The consensus is that Butch is just a vestige on a rebuilding team. The surprise will be Goring doing a hockey version of Phil Niekro, having one of the best years of his life.After an impressive season in 1983-84 and a stirring playoff effort, the Caps are now considered Stanley Cup calibre.They won&rsquo;t be.Their first mistake was letting Rod Langway knock himself out in the nonsensical Canada Cup. Their second mistake was not unloading Pat Riggin while there still was time to barter him for someone worthwhile up front. Their third mistake is thinking they&rsquo;re better than the Rangers. So, insted of romping among the top two, the Caps will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs. (Now, isn&rsquo;t that a surprise?)The Flyers appeal to Grapes Cherry because they still like to bang heads, and there&rsquo;s something to be said for that (although I&rsquo;m not sure what). But to lump the Flyers with the Islanders and Rangers is to bury your head in a 1974 calendar. Let&rsquo;s face it, Bob Clarke no longer skates for Philly nor does Bill Barber. Who&rsquo;s going to replace them, Keith Allen? C&rsquo;mon, Grapes, this is a Flyer club that will have its hands full keeping up with the Caps and both of them will have a devil of a time staying ahead of the Penguins. If you ask me, the big surprise on Broad Street will be Bob Clarke restraining himself from making a comeback by mid-season.Talk hockey to any Pittsburgh fan and he&rsquo;ll respond like a citizen of Hartford. If his team makes the playoffs, he&rsquo;ll consider it worthy of a national holiday. Everyone has the Pens doomed to the doldrums. The surprise will be their escape from said subterranean depths. It will be more because of Bob Berry than Mario Lemieux but that&rsquo;s beside the point. (Don&rsquo;t be surprised if the Penguins make the playoffs&mdash;at Philly&rsquo;s expense.)The biggest surprise any New Jerseyite could ask for would be for his Devils to survive the 1984-85 season without being smeared again &ldquo;a Mickey Mouse outfit.&rdquo; The thinking of The Meadowlands&mdash;at least among the newshounds&mdash;is that a string of losses will doom rookie coach Doug Carpenter, enabling loquacious Lou Vairo to move in from the wings and become the first Brooklyn boy to coach an NHL team. Carpenter, however, will surprise them. No Scotty Bowman, to be sure, but he&rsquo;s a solid coach who&rsquo;ll last the season and return next year.Now, for the playoffs. Here it is October and we&rsquo;re supposed to be figuring out Stanley Cup surprises for April. That&rsquo;s plain crazy. Grapes likes the Islanders and Oilers. That&rsquo;s no surprise. The surprise will be if both actually make it to the finals.Consider this: The Oilers have survived four seasons without serious injuries and without having Wayne Gretzky sidelined for any significant length of time. The law of averages will catch up to Edmonton this year. And if it happens, the Oilers won&rsquo;t get out of the Smythe Division alive.And that would be the biggest surprise of all.(But don&rsquo;t bet against it!) &#9632;

f0006-01

Grapes Likes Oilers But I Like Surprises

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;One youngster is the son of a former National Hockey League goalie. Another was the last player chosen in the 1983 entry draft. There are also two 46-goal scorers in the group.They are members of the Islanders&rsquo; kindergarten class, those newcomers who showed up for the team&rsquo;s training camp with high hopes and burning desires to make good. And although none is expected to crack the Isles&rsquo; lineup this season, they have major-league potential, according to general manager Bill Torrey.Here in capsule form are the most promising candidates, with comments provided by Torrey:&bull; Bob Bassen: Son of Hank Bassen, once a goalie with Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh. A camp walk-on, he scored 39 goals as a center for Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League last season. (&ldquo;Not too big, but very intelligent and competitive.&rdquo;)&bull; Jim Koudys: The 252nd and last player chosen in last year&rsquo;s draft. Led Sudbury of the Ontario Hockey League in scoring last season (46-45-91) after being converted from defense to left wing. (&ldquo;A lot of people are rooting for him. Has a lot of desire. Also has things to learn.&rdquo;)&bull; Alan Kerr: A right winger, he led Seattle of the WHL in scoring (46-66112). (&ldquo;Very strong along the boards and in the corners. Has to work on his skating.&rdquo;)&bull; Dale Henry: A feisty left winger, he was a 41-goal scorer for Saskatoon of the WHL. Reminds some people of former Islander Garry Howatt. (&ldquo;He was a little chunky last year, but he has lost some weight and has worked on his skating. It shows. Has had a good camp.&rsquo;&rsquo;)&bull; Bruce Melanson: A second-round pick in last June&rsquo;s draft, he plays either wing. Suffered a dislocated shoulder while playing for Oshawa of the OHL last season and that hampered his progress. No relation to Isles&rsquo; goalie Roland Melanson. (&ldquo;Rangy and a strong skater. Ha, to improve his puckhandling.&rdquo;)&bull; Gerald Diduck: A big (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) defenseman, he was the Isles&rsquo; second pick in the first round of last year&rsquo;s draft; the other was Pat LaFon-taine. (&ldquo;We&rsquo;re giving him a long look. There are things he has to leant on defense, but he has definite major-league potential&rdquo;)&bull; Garnet McKechney: A right winger, he was a second-round pick in the 1983 draft. Was a 31-goal scorer with Kitchener of the OHL last season. (&ldquo;Has shown some flashes of talent, but has to become more consistent.&rdquo;)&bull; Rene Breton: A left winger, he totalled 23 goals and 70 points for Granby of the QHL in his final junior year last season. (&ldquo;Works hard and plays hard. Checks very well.&rdquo;)&bull; Mike Murray: Plays center. Only 17 when he was picked in the fifth round of this year&rsquo;s draft, so he has two years of junior hockey left. (&ldquo;Despite his lack of experience, I like what I&rsquo;ve seen of this kid&rdquo;)&bull; Garry Lacey: A left winger, he was a third-round pick in the 1982 draft. Totalled 41 goals and 101 points for the Toronto Marlies last season. (&ldquo;Has leadership qualities, but hasn&rsquo;t measured up yet. Of course, it&rsquo;s still early.&rdquo;)ON THE ISL&mdash;Duncan MacPherson. the Islanders&rsquo; first-round pick in this year&rsquo;s draft, was sidelined with a bruised left knee. He missed almost half of last season with Saskatoon because of an ankle injury&hellip;The first week of training camp produced a handful of nagging injuries. Pat Flatley had a pulled groin muscle. Greg Gilbert had a sore ankle and Tomas Jonsson had a bruised knee. Pat LaFontaine, Bob Nystrom. Dave Langevin and Ken Morrow did not play in the early exhibitions&hellip;Brian Kilrea. the new assistant coach, made his debut behind the bench in the opening exhibition game against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The Isles lost, 7-1. &#9632;

The Kids Are Almost All Right On The Isle

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE GRETZKY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011307/5531107-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky says it&rsquo;s important for parents and young players to realize hard work doesn&rsquo;t necessarily guarantee anyone a career in the NHL.</figcaption></div>The following is an excerpt from Walter Gretzky&rsquo;s recently-released book, GRETZKY, From Back Yard Rink to the Stanley Cup, published in Canada by McClelland and Stewart and reprinted here with their permission.&ldquo;Every year I send my Dad two return airline tickets to Florida. They won&rsquo;t go. I keep saying, &lsquo;Relax, I&rsquo;ve made it now. Enjoy it.&rdquo;&rsquo; &ldquo;&lsquo;BS,&rsquo; he says. &lsquo;Now I have to worry more.&rdquo;&rsquo; &mdash;Wayne Gretzky, 1983.This is my Dad&rsquo;s book. That was the understanding from the start. But he left something out. He told you about the rest of the family. Now I&rsquo;d like to tell you about my Dad.I&rsquo;ve heard all the stories about how he pushed me into hockey and kept me out in the back yard practising because he wanted me to be a star in the NHL. But my Dad never put pressure on me; I put pressure on me. All he ever said was, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care what the outcome is. It&rsquo;s good to win and I want you to do your best, but as long as you prepare and do the job to the best of your ability that&rsquo;s all anyone can ask for.&rdquo; If he knew that I hadn&rsquo;t prepared or wasn&rsquo;t ready, then he would question me.And he had a right to, because at the time he was putting a lot of money into me. We don&rsquo;t realize it as kids, but minor hockey is expensive. We&rsquo;re doing it for fun, but he was sacrificing a lot of things around the house to allow me to play hockey. All he wanted in return was my best&mdash;always. And he&rsquo;s never quit wanting it.There&rsquo;s not much doubt that hockey caused his ulcers. He worried about everything. The night before tournaments, he couldn&rsquo;t sleep. It&rsquo;s not that he&rsquo;s so bent on winning, it&rsquo;s just the way he is. For instance, I can honestly say I&rsquo;ve never worried much about what&rsquo;s said or written about me. I didn&rsquo;t have to. Dad worried enough for both of us. It used to influence him in dealing with me. He&rsquo;d hear somebody at the rink say, &ldquo;That Gretzky&rsquo;s hair is too long,&rdquo; and he&rsquo;d tell me, &ldquo;Cut your hair.&rdquo; Then, finally, he realized that there are so many people out there, you can&rsquo;t keep them happy.I agree with my Dad 95 per cent of the time, not because he&rsquo;s my father, but because he&rsquo;s older and a heck of a lot wiser than I am. There&rsquo;s still that little percentage when I&rsquo;m sure I&rsquo;m right, and I have to make a stand and go against his opinion. I think it was hard for him the first time it happened. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean that the next time I&rsquo;m caught up in a situation, I won&rsquo;t be turning to him. I may wind up doing it my way, but when I&rsquo;m 60 I&rsquo;ll still be listening to him first. Why wouldn&rsquo;t I? In the crunch, he&rsquo;s always been there&hellip;When I was nine or 10, Dad and I would play catch in the back yard maybe 20 minutes every night. One day I decided what we really needed was a pitcher&rsquo;s mound. Down at the end of our street there was a vacant lot covered with rocks and stuff, so I went down there with the wheelbarrow and a shovel and loaded up. I was wheeling it up the driveway when Mom came out the door.&ldquo;Where do you think you&rsquo;re going with that junk?&rdquo; she said.&ldquo;Back yard,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;Build a pitcher&rsquo;s mound.&rdquo;&ldquo;Oh no, you&rsquo;re not,&rdquo; she said.Well, I knew my Mom meant business. But I also knew my Dad. I just left the wheelbarrow in the driveway and waited for him to come home from work.&ldquo;Where you going with that?&rdquo; he asked.&ldquo;Back yard,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;Build a pitcher&rsquo;s mound.&rdquo;&ldquo;Sounds good,&rdquo; he said. He went into the basement, nailed a couple of boards together for a slab and helped me build the mound. It was there for 11 years.He loves that back yard. It&rsquo;s a rink in the winter and a baseball bullpen in the summer, and it&rsquo;s just become a part of us like the house and the farm and Brantford. When I turned pro and got some money, I went to him with what I thought was a great idea. &ldquo;Dad,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m gonna put a swimming pool in the back yard.&rdquo; &ldquo;Are you crazy&rsquo;.&rdquo; he asked, and went away shaking his head. Needless to say, we do not have a swimming pool.Maybe it&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;ve had some success, but people keep looking at my parents as though there&rsquo;s some sort of secret formula for producing Wayne Gretzkys that they&rsquo;ve stumbled on. We laugh about it sometimes. Take, for instance, the business with the rink in the yard.In 1979, I told a reporter for the Toronto Sun that my Dad and I would be on the rink for hours a day. And I was quoted, accurately, this way: &ldquo;Honest to God, it was so cold I&rsquo;d come in the house crying.&rdquo; Now I can just see a bunch of kids coming in crying and hearing their Dads say:&ldquo;Get back out there! Wayne Gretzky froze. He&rsquo;s sitting in a penthouse in Edmonton. Where the heck are you?&rdquo;But they miss the point. They say to me, &ldquo;You practised four hours a night,&rdquo; and I say,&rdquo;Yeah, I guess I did.&rdquo; But looking back at it, I wasn&rsquo;t practising. If I&rsquo;d thought I was practising I&rsquo;d probably never have done it. I did it because that was what I had fun doing. I never thought, &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;ll practise four hours today because if I do that I&rsquo;ll have a chance to make the NHL.&rdquo; It never entered my head. We did it because we enjoyed it. Other kids were staying out there skating a lot longer than I did and they didn&rsquo;t make it. You can&rsquo;t say, &ldquo;If you do this you&rsquo;ll make the NHL.&rdquo; It just isn&rsquo;t true. I&rsquo;d skate for three or four hours and come in, and my Dad would say, &ldquo;Had enough, eh?&rdquo; and I&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; and the next day I&rsquo;d be out doing it again.Oh, I cried all right. Chilblains. Every kid who ever stays out in the cold, then comes into a warm house, gets them. When your feet warm up it hurts and itches like mad. But I don&rsquo;t remember the crying. I remember the hot chocolate, and my Dad&rsquo;s big, strong hands holding my toes to make the cold go away&hellip;And now I&rsquo;m in the National Hockey League and the money&rsquo;s good and the opportunities are great, and people look back to the days of the back-yard rink and tell their kids, &ldquo;Do what Wayne Gretzky did. Look how hard he worked. Look how long he practised.&rdquo; But the one doesn&rsquo;t necessarily follow the other. You won&rsquo;t make the NHL if you don&rsquo;t practise, but there&rsquo;s no guarantee you&rsquo;ll make it if you do.I did a lot of other things, and that&rsquo;s important. I played other sports, I swam&mdash;for a couple of years I crocheted. Got pretty good at it, too. I read somewhere that Jacques Plante, the famous goaltender, crocheted as a hobby, so I tried it. Made my Mom a purse, did a rug. (&ldquo;Look, son, Wayne Gretzky crocheted and he&rsquo;s in the NHL. Now pick up that crochet hook!&rdquo;) I still try to do a lot of other things. I didn&rsquo;t sing on The Paul Anka Show because I plan to be a singer, or appear on The Young and the Restless because I want to be an actor. They were new things to try. Hockey can&rsquo;t be everything. I&rsquo;ll keep trying things that look interesting or challenging, looking ahead to the day when hockey will be over and I&rsquo;ll need something else.The pressures are getting bigger, I know that. I&rsquo;ve found myself getting less and less patient, snapping not at outside people so much but at my family. I have a shorter fuse these days and I know it&rsquo;s not going to get any better.You know the only place I can go to get away from it during the season, the only place I can totally relax? On the ice.When I play hockey, there&rsquo;s nothing on my mind but the game. I know players whose off-ice activities affect their on-ice performance; they have off-ice problems and can&rsquo;t shake them when they play. The ice is where I get away. Sometimes I chuckle to myself. I walk in the dressing room, pick up a ping pong paddle, play a game, tape up four sticks and go out and play. You have this one thing to do and there&rsquo;s no one bothering you to do anything else. It&rsquo;s great. The games are always the best part. The work comes with the rest of it.That&rsquo;s the thing about what my Mom and Dad have done. They don&rsquo;t have the games to relax in. I had the easy part. So did Kim and Keith&mdash;and Glennie and Brent have it now. All we had to do was play. Equipment, transportation, arrangements&mdash;they took care of them all. It makes me wonder sometimes: what kind of a father will Wayne Gretzky be&hellip;?A lot of the trouble and confusion in minor hockey is caused by parents, well-meaning parents, who want to have it both ways.Some parents say kids should play for fun, and that&rsquo;s great. And they say kids should go out there and everybody should play, and that&rsquo;s great too. Then they say kids should go out and, win or lose, leave the game there when they go home. That&rsquo;s wonderful. And there&rsquo;s a place for that. The way minor sport is set up, if you want to be content with that level there&rsquo;s a place for you. But if you want to be the best, if you want to be under pressure at that age, if you want to win every day, there&rsquo;s a place for that, too. And there should be.If you&rsquo;re my son I&rsquo;m going to say to you, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re playing on this team and you&rsquo;re going to do the best you&rsquo;re capable of doing, and you&rsquo;re going to learn to do what you have to do to win. But if you lose, that&rsquo;s fine. Learn from it, leave it there, and go home and live your life. When you go back again, try to learn from your mistakes, but you still want to win.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way I believe you should be brought up, because if you are, then win or lose it&rsquo;s going to carry into your school, into your job and into your life. You should want the feeling inside that say, &lsquo;Dammit, I&rsquo;m gonna be the best. Our team&rsquo;s gonna be the best.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s the feeling you&rsquo;ve got to have.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s room for kids whose parents don&rsquo;t want them under pressure, who think it&rsquo;s bad for them. There&rsquo;s house league hockey. And there&rsquo;s the other side where there&rsquo;s pressure, where the team is expected to win. Where I get mad is when the coaches of the pressure-situation teams try to bring the good players down to the average rather than encouraging the average ones to lift themselves to the level of the good ones. They do that because they&rsquo;re afraid of causing dissension. That was where my problems in minor hockey started. I had coaches, some of them who wanted me to be an average hockey player. If I had a team with a exceptional player on it, I&rsquo;d be saying to the others, &ldquo;Hey, watch what he does, and try to learn to do it yourselves.&rdquo; If they can&rsquo;t do it, that&rsquo;s fine. But they&rsquo;ve tried, and in trying they&rsquo;ve probably done better than they thought they could.It&rsquo;s a question of pushing yourself to your best. My Dad always said, &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t expect you to do what you can&rsquo;t, but I expect you to do the things I know you can.&rdquo; Take school. He knew I was good in certain subjects and not so good in others. If I did well in one of the poor ones, that was great. But if I did badly in one he knew I could handle, that was uncalled for. Everything hit the fan.The other thing to remember is that no kid, no matter how good he is in minor hockey, can say for sure that he&rsquo;s going to make the NHL. Too many things can happen. And if there was one piece of advice I could give to those who do get a chance to turn pro it would be this: if you can&rsquo;t play in the NHL, go home.My brothers could be in that position and I&rsquo;d tell them the same thing. Glennie, for instance. No one worked at it harder or wanted it more, but it could be hard for him. Deep down I think he knows it and is preparing himself for other things. If he did make it to the pros and was a borderliner, I&rsquo;d tell him to forget it, as I would have. Because when NHL teams open camp saying all positions are open, they&rsquo;re lying. If I played two years in the minors and hadn&rsquo;t made it. I&rsquo;d have no qualms about saying, &ldquo;Thank you very much. I enjoyed it, I learned a lot, and what I learned most is that I have to get a job or go back to school.&rdquo;I have been very fortunate. All my life I&rsquo;ve been surrounded by a family that loves me. And I&rsquo;ve played the game I love.Hockey is so much fun. You know, maybe it&rsquo;s just as well that I live in a penthouse. If I lived at street-level in Edmonton, the winter would come and I&rsquo;d look out the window at the kids playing road hockey, and before you know it I&rsquo;d be out there with them and there would go my game that night.Some day if I&rsquo;m luckey, maybe I&rsquo;ll take my son out on the ice at the farm, or play with him on the rink in the back yard in Brantford. And when he comes in, crying a little because his feet are frozen, I&rsquo;ll hold his toes and make the cold go away, just like my Dad did for me. &#9632;

f0007-01

A FEW WORDS FROM 99

The International Hockey WeeklyFounded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Hall Of Fame Problem</h2>THE NATIONAL HOCKEY League Hall of Fame induction ceremonies are a wonderful trip down memory lane that allow those involved in the game to indulge in a little nostalgia.The 1984 ceremonies, held Sept. 25th in Toronto to honor Phil Esposito, Jacques Lemaire, Bernie Parent, Punch Imlach and Jake Milford, were no exception.Those on hand were able to reflect on bygone eras: Espo and the Big, Bad Bruins and the unforgettable Summit Series of 1972; the quiet effectiveness of Lemaire and the Canadiens&rsquo; four-Cup dynasty of the mid-&rsquo;70s; Parent&rsquo;s heroics and two Stanley Cups for the Broad Street Bullies version of the Philadelphia Flyers; Punch Imlach&rsquo;s successful reign as the Toronto Maple Leafs major domo when that team was something special and, last but certainly not least, Jake Milford&rsquo;s diligent climb through junior to the minors to the NHL and hilarious anecdotes of being traded for a pair of Art Ross goal nets.All in all, it was a night not to be missed. And therein lies the problem.Because the Hall of Fame ceremonies are held in late September&mdash;during the middle of NHL training camps&mdash;many hockey people, from coaches to general managers to scouts, are unable to attend the function. Or if they do, they must make some big sacrifices.So why not shift a few dates around and make it easier for hockey people to attend one of the most enjoyable, easy-going events of the year?For example, the opening of the National Hockey League regular season has already been put back one week&mdash;Oct. 4th or 5th to Oct. 11th to cut down on competition with major league baseball playoffs (a good idea, by the way)&mdash;but training camps still open at about the same time as usual (Sept. 17th).Why not delay the opening of training camps three or four days and hold the Hall of Fame dinner and ceremonies on the last Tuesday before training camps? It would mean the Hall of Fame ceremonies would run about two weeks earlier than they do right now.But that seems like a small price to pay to let more hockey people attend the function and honor men such as Esposito, Lemaire, Parent, Imlach and Milford, who have contributed so much to the game. &#9632;

The Hocking News

Let your voice be heard! Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., Canada M3B 2R2.DO WE NEED a Canada Cup? Do the players need this and all the criticism that goes with it? Do the Canadian and American players and coaches have to prove something to the Europeans, or even to their own fans? I think the answer is no to each of these questions.The Summit Series of 1972 was something special and cannot be duplicated, so why keep on trying? Let&rsquo;s leave the international hockey to the Olympics and the amateurs. Oh sure, the Soviets are hardly amateurs. We know it, they know it, and so does everybody else. However, that is the concern of the International Olympic Committee not the National Hockey League. Let them work it out.Getting back to our guys, I&rsquo;d like to say that I respect Bryan Trottier&rsquo;s decision to play to Team USA just as I respected him as a great hockey player before his move. His reasons are very sound and he deserves the respect of all hockey fans. So get off his back!Tom Blacklock &nbsp;Welland, Ont.<h2>THANK YOU, BRYAN</h2>After having read all the hogwash concerning the Bryan Trottier fiasco, on behalf of many Americans and Canadians, and myself, I would like to extend to Bryan our sincerest congratulations on your new American citizenship&hellip;and for your loyalty to the Islanders, Americans fans across the U.S., and more importantly to hockey.It took a lot of guts to stand up and be counted and put his priorities in order. I would like to say I wish Bryan continued success and happiness and you are always welcomed as a U.S. citizen anywhere in the U.S.Tony Branco &nbsp;Philadelphia, USA<h2>MORE THANKS FOR BRYAN</h2>The normally polite Canadian hockey fans have been very unfair to Bryan Trottier. It would have been easy for Bryan to join his Islander teammates playing for Team Canada. But Bryan had migrated to the U.S. and he chose to play for the underdog U.S. team. Certainly Canadians can understand that since many Canadians emigrated from other countries.Bryan should be applauded for his courage and sincerity.George Wieman Manhasset, NY<h2>THOSE SMUG CANUCKS</h2>I thought I&rsquo;d seen it all regarding certain Canadian citizens&rsquo; criticism of Bryan Trottier&rsquo;s decision to play for Team USA in the recent Canada Cup tournament.However, the letter in your Sept. 28 issue hit a new low, not just in criticism of a hockey player but in the attitude of some smug, jingoist Canadians.Mr. Trottier&rsquo;s decision to wear red, white and blue has been adequately described by Mr. Trottier, and his description should be taken at face value. Canadian pride should not feel bruised because an American made a free decision to thank the country of his employ. Canadians should be honored that their national game is blossoming in the States, and what better proof is there than one of its true superstars playing for the States?Writers such as those in the Sept. 28 HOCKEY NEWS should heed the words of their new prime minister, Mr. Mulroney. A cornerstone of his policy will be &ldquo;superb&rdquo; (his word) relations with &ldquo;Canada&rsquo;s best ally and best friend,&rdquo; (again his words). This statement of this fine Quebecois is certainly the feeling I&rsquo;ve noticed travelling in Quebec, and the same feeling is in our hearts for Canadians visiting our comer of the States.Our two countries are the best of friends, and friends should applaud the good fortune of other friends.Michael Cascella West Springfield, MA<h2>DON&rsquo;T FORGET SUMMANEN</h2>The Sept. 28 issue had a great report on the 1984-85 NHL crop of rookies. I expected to see names such as Pat LaFontaine, Mario Lemieux, James Patrick, etc. However, there is one player (who has the potential to be rookie of the year) who you didn&rsquo;t mention. He is Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Finnish left winger Raimo Summanen.Raimo played just two regular-season games and had five points. He also contributed offensively against Winnipeg and Calgary in the playoffs. You&rsquo;re talking about players who never played a game in the NHL (Ed Olczyk, Mario Lemieux, Petr Svoboda) and saying they have a great shot at winning the Calder trophy for Rookie of the Year. Raimo Summanen may play with Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri this season and you never even mentioned his name in your rookie section.How could you forget about a player who, at his scoring rate in the regular season and playoffs, would have scored 114 points in 80 NHL games. You may be sorry when the Rookie of the Year is named next June.Troy Wood worth Lantz, N.S. &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie&#x2019;s Editor&#x2019;s Notebook</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011392/5531186-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="397" height="446"></div>It didn&rsquo;t take long for the inevitable to happen. Just days after the release of Walter Gretzky&rsquo;s book&mdash;GRETZKY, From Back Yard Rink to the Stanley Cup&mdash;Oshawa General coach Paul Theriault heard what he knows will be the first of many catcalls tossed his way.&ldquo;Hey Theriault,&rdquo; yelled a fan in Peterborough, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re such a lousy coach you didn&rsquo;t even know what to do with Wayne Gretzky.&rdquo;The barb was in reference to a couple of passages in the book, detailing Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s days as a 16-year-old star with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.In short, Walter, a genial fellow whose down-to-earth approach to life would seem to explain why his superstar son is so levelheaded, claims Theriault was responsible for:&bull; trying to make Wayne &ldquo;a different kind of hockey player.&rdquo;&bull; making Wayne feel like &ldquo;he was in chains.&rdquo;&bull; Wayne wanting to turn pro at 18 and never return to the Greyhounds.Add them all up, along with the obvious inferences, and you get the picture that Theriault isn&rsquo;t on the Gretzky&rsquo;s Christmas card list. Which is, as far as Theriault is concerned, just fine, thank you.But when the father of the greatest player in the game writes a book and you happen to come up looking a little like a chump&mdash;after all, how can you mishandle Wayne Gretzky?&mdash;it&rsquo;s reason for a little concern.&ldquo;In one sense,&rdquo; says Theriault, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m flattered to be mentioned. I&rsquo;ve always thought Walter Gretzky has done a helluva job raising his family and he was always looking out for Wayne&rsquo;s best interests. On the other hand, I&rsquo;m a little upset at the way I&rsquo;m portrayed in the book.&rdquo;First, a little background.The Greyhounds of 1977-78 were coached by Muzz MacPherson, a colorful old-school guy who was loved by the players (he was more a friend than a coach); the fans (Muzz&rsquo;s repertoire included throwing his ever-present fedora on the ice) and the local media (colorful quotes, don&rsquo;t you know). Some of his players included Greg Millen in net, Craig Hartsburg on defense and, of course, Gretzky up front. The supporting cast wasn&rsquo;t bad either.Muzz loved Gretzky. Gretzky loved Muzz. Muzz, never one for complicated theories, figured the key to success was young Wayne. So he played him and played him and played him&hellip;There was only one problem. In spite of Gretzky, Hartsburg and Millen, the Hounds were in dead last place.So with 11 games left in the regular season and the Hounds 14 points out of a playoff spot, Muzz was fired&mdash;he didn&rsquo;t resign, as was written in the Gretzky book&mdash;and Theriault, a local boy who was coaching a junior B team in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., took over.In his book, Walter admits Theriault &ldquo;did turn things around a little bit.&rdquo; Talk about understatement. The Greyhounds went 9-1-1 in their final 11 games, then knocked off the Tony McKegney-Behn Wilson-led Kingston Canadians in a playoff upset. Then, the Greyhounds took the powerful Bobby Smith-led Ottawa &lsquo;67s to the eighth and deciding game, only to see Jim Fox score the winning goal with 52 seconds remaining.Theriault accomplished this by drastically cutting Gretzky&rsquo;s ice time. The supporting cast, which under Muzz had been spectators more than players, responded and the Hounds were revived.Theriault was the man of the hour in the Soo, though not with Gretzky. And now, more than six years later, the whole Theriault-Gretzky relationship is being dredged up for all to see and judge. And based on Walter&rsquo;s account, Theriault can&rsquo;t help but come out of it with aspersions on his coaching career.&ldquo;When I left home my dad said, &lsquo;Be anything you want to be, but don&rsquo;t be an ass&mdash;,&rdquo; says Theriault, obviously implying that he&rsquo;s followed his father&rsquo;s credo. &ldquo;Another friend of mine, Jim Kelleher, who&rsquo;s an MP now, told me to &lsquo;follow my heart.&rsquo; I&rsquo;ve done that and I don&rsquo;t regret anything. To me. the team comes first.&ldquo;There were two reasons why, in that instance, I cut Wayne&rsquo;s ice time. First, I thought the team would play better. Under Muzz, it was a one-dimensional team and it didn&rsquo;t have any character. Second, as a junior coach, I felt an obligation to develop all the players who were capable of playing. Under Muzz, some of those guys rarely got any ice time. I played them and they responded and I think that helped them to develop.&ldquo;As far as me trying to take something away from Wayne, to make him something he wasn&rsquo;t, well, it&rsquo;s ridiculous to even insinuate it. You&rsquo;d have to be blind not to see what kind of player he is.&rdquo;The next season&mdash;minus Gretzky, Hartsburg and Millen&mdash;offered a little proof that Theriault wasn&rsquo;t stifling anyone&rsquo;s individuality. The Greyhounds finished with three guys among the league&rsquo;s top five scorers, but the team was horrendous, placing dead last. Theriault was fired.He&rsquo;s rebounded since then and found himself a fine post with the Oshawa Generals, a team he took the Memorial Cup finals two years ago. Now one of the OHL&rsquo;s senior statesmen, Theriault might be apt to dig up an old clich&mdash;&rdquo;You can&rsquo;t judge a book by its cover,&rdquo; or &ldquo;There are two sides to every story,&rdquo;&mdash;to throw back at those fans who will be giving him the gears about Gretzky. He won&rsquo;t, though.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt I&rsquo;m an open target in most rinks,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been the opposition fans&rsquo; favorite coach anyway. This (Gretzky book) will make it worse, but that&rsquo;s the nature of the beast. They&rsquo;re going to yell at me anyway. If it&rsquo;s not about the Gretzky thing, then it&rsquo;d be something about my wife or mother.&rdquo;And is he concerned that Walter Gretzky&rsquo;s word could harm his career somewhere done the road?&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s put it this way,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If someone wouldn&rsquo;t hire me or thought less of me as a coach because of what Mr. Gretzky said about me, then I wouldn&rsquo;t want to work for them anyway.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

Gretzky Book Isn’t No. 1 On Theriault’s List

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011351/5531252-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="578" height="900"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Esposito</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02978/5531245-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="584" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Lemaire</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03656/5531238-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="582" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Parent</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-04519/5531231-1-eng-US/f0009-042.jpg" title="f0009-04" width="588" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Punch Imlach</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-05395/5531224-1-eng-US/f0009-052.jpg" title="f0009-05" width="578" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jake Milford</figcaption></div>For Phil Esposito, it was the final chapter. His induction at age 42 into the Hockey Hall of Fame put a finish to a career that began more than two decades ago in Chicago, and now there are no more honors to be won.&ldquo;On the one hand, I&rsquo;m really excited, and on the other hand, I&rsquo;m sad,&rdquo; said a wistful Esposito, echoing sentiments he would repeat time and again that week.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like you&rsquo;re reading a book, and you never want to come to the end,&rdquo; continued Esposito, who is fond of speaking in metaphors. &ldquo;And then you close the cover, and the book is finished. In hockey, there is nothing left for me to do.&rdquo;Which does not mean that Esposito is sitting around.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so busy I can&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; he said in that breathless way of his.There is the Atlantic City casino for which he is a spokesman, the clothing manufacturer, the artificial ice company, a battery firm, and then the activities that keep him most in the public eye in New York&mdash;the Phil Esposito Foundation, and color commentary for the Madison Square Garden network, which will televise 42 Ranger home games (40 regular-season games and two exhibition games) and 29 road games on commercial TV.In an NHL playing career that spanned almost 19 seasons, Esposito scored 1,590 points (second only to Gordie Howe), 717 goals (also second to Howe) and 873 assists (third behind Howe and Stan Mikita).He retired as an active Ranger player in January, 1981, and was recently reminded of the diversity of reactions his fellow Rangers had that day at an elegant Manhattan restaurant, when his retirement was formalized.&ldquo;I asked a lot of the same questions,&rdquo; Esposito recalled, acknow-ledging that the younger players polled that day had not even begun to think about retirement while some of the older ones had begun to make plans.Saddened by recent reports of former boxing great Muhammad Ali&rsquo;s possible ring-related health problems, Esposito once again recalled his departure from the game, at a time when it was no longer fun for him.&ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t a guy in the world who retires and doesn&rsquo;t believe he can still play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The one thing I&rsquo;m very proud of is that I did everything I could do in hockey, including retiring with dignity. For me to say that is really a pleasure. I always said I would know the right time.&rdquo;Now he is proud of his foundation&rsquo;s career-counselling program, one of several services designed for both current and former players. But he is disturbed that he is still awaiting some sort of support from the league itself and from the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association, and that&rsquo;s forced him to cut back on his administrative staff.&ldquo;I spent a lot more time there this summer than I anticipated, picking up the slack. We can&rsquo;t afford now to have extra help,&rdquo; said Esposito, who in the weeks proceeding the Hall of Fame induction was planning Masters of Hockey games, benefitting the foundation.Immediately following his retirement as an active player was a shortlived stint as a Ranger assistant coach, which ended when Esposito realized he could not take a back-seat to Craig Patrick, then the Rangers&rsquo; coach and not its general manager. Now, in terms of the day-to-day running of the team, he is not asked for input and he does not volunteer, and confines his commentary to the broadcast booth.There, he is a mixture of opinionated&mdash;which at times has gotten under the skin of Ranger players and frontoffic&mdash;and insightful. He is at his best when he gives the viewer a sense&rsquo; of what particular situations are like from the player&rsquo;s point of view, pointing out the importance of communication on the ice and on the bench and other subtleties often neglected by other players turned broadcasters.So he&rsquo;s been an outsider for a number of years, and this fall, with his induction into the Hall of Fame right in the middle of training camp&mdash;&rdquo;this is the only time I miss it, but I&rsquo;m so busy I miss it less than I thought I would&rdquo;&mdash;was a time for remembering.There was 1970, and the first of two Stanley Cups with the Boston Bruins, a team consisting of the likes of Wayne Cashman, Ken Hodge, Johnny Bucyk, Fred Stanfield, John McKenzie, Don Marcotte, Derek Sanderson, Ed Westfall and, of course, Bobby Orr.&ldquo;The first Cup year was a special team and a special feeling,&rdquo; says Esposito.The second time around was not as thrilling, but 1972 was also the year of Team Canada, the series in which Canada beat the Soviets in three straight games in Moscow, winning the tournament after a stirring speech by Esposito inspired his teammates and politicized what was much more than a mere sporting event.&ldquo;I played the best hockey of my life then,&rdquo; he recalled, &ldquo;but it was not a hockey game as far as I&rsquo;m concerned. It was country against country, their way of life against our way of life. It was not a game; it was a war.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-06336/5531217-1-eng-US/f0009-062.jpg" title="f0009-06" width="1186" height="1694"></div>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re still the sam&mdash;a great bunch of hockey players, I&rsquo;m never going to deny that&mdash;-but no one is going to tell me their way of life is what I want.&rdquo;He would never again risk giving the Soviets a propaganda victory through an international tournament, he added.&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned I&rsquo;d never play them again; I wouldn&rsquo;t take the chance,&rdquo; he said.Now is a time in life for hard work. His income from all his current activities is comparable to what he made as a player, and it is clear, when he sweeps into the Garden for yet another broadcast, or lingers after a game with old friends, that he still enjoys being around the sport he knows so well and the people whose friendships he has cultivated for better than 20 years.But this is also a time to think about his age. He and his wife are building a home on four suburban acres&mdash;they will keep a small Manhattan apartment as well&mdash;and there&rsquo;s a clear sense of satisfaction in Esposito&rsquo;s voice as he describes his new digs:&ldquo;All my hockey life, I always wanted a house where I could have room and do the things I want to do, have closet space and a swimming pool.&rdquo;He didn&rsquo;t even have to add that there be space for his trophies. Here, that&rsquo;s a given. &#9632;

f0009-01

PHIL ESPOSITO

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>Punch Imlach and Jake Milford were both surprised when they were nominated to the Hockey Hall of Fam&mdash;but their reasons are as different as the National League and the minors.Imlach, 66, coached the Toronto Maple Leafs to four Stanley Cups in the &lsquo;60s (including the Leafs&rsquo; last one in 1966-67) and built the Buffalo Sabres from scratch in 1970. But offsetting the glory was much controversy, particularly in his second term with the Leafs as general manager (and unofficial coach) from 1979-82. For the latter reason, Imlach was more than a little taken aback when he was told he had gained a space in the hockey shrine.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect it,&rdquo; Imlach confessed with a smile. &ldquo;During my career I wasn&rsquo;t always popular. I marched to a different drummer, and I suppose that&rsquo;s what surprises me the most. I didn&rsquo;t exactly please everybody.&rdquo;For the 65-year-old Milford, who wasn&rsquo;t able to come to Toronto for his award because of poor health, his induction was equally shocking. His most recent success came in 1982, when the team he was managing, the Vancouver Canucks, rode a crest of glory to the Stanley Cup finals, before losing to the New York Islanders. But Milford wasn&rsquo;t honored for that; it was for his many years working in the minor leagues, some of which have long since folded.&ldquo;Yes, I was surprised. It took Clarence Campbell three days to get it into my head,&rdquo; said Milford of the late NHL president who told him he was going to be enshrined.&ldquo;He told me that I was going into the Hall of Fame as a representative and symbol of all of those people who had worked in the minors without recognition or making it to the NHL. I suppose it just goes to show that if an old codger like me can make it to the Hall of Fame, then anyone can.&rdquo;Though Imlach and Milford never worked together, they do have a connection with Eddie Shore, one of the most controversial hockey men of all time. Imlach worked for Shore at Springfield before joining the Leafs in 195960. Milford played for Shore and was involved in one of the most celebrated incidents in hockey history. Shore traded Milford from Springfield to Buffalo for what he believed were two new hockey nets. Ironically, the nets were used, leaving the feeling he was shortchanged.Commenting on Milford, Imlach described him as a &ldquo;good hockey man.&rdquo;For Milford, that&rsquo;s a supreme compliment.&ldquo;There were a lot of people in hockey who were not hockey people,&rdquo; Milford said. &ldquo;But what Punch meant was that I&rsquo;d been a minor league player, a minor league coach, a minor league manager. I wasn&rsquo;t a day-to-day desk guy&rdquo;While both men were known to everybody as Punch and Jake, these were not their original given names. Both were given their nicknames by others, and in both cases the stories surrounding them are quite amusing.Imlach was given his after he got his &ldquo;bell rung&rdquo; in the first game he ever played. When he came to his senses, he starting throwing punches, and to the hockey world his name changed from George to Punch.Milford, whose real name is John, used to go by the name of Jack, which he acquired as a youngster. But when he came to Los Angeles in 1973 as general manager. King owner Jack Kent Cooke put an end to that.&ldquo;He said, &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t be Jack. There&rsquo;s only Jack around here. That&rsquo;s me.&rsquo;&rdquo;Having been in the business a long time, Imlach and Milford have their own special memories.&ldquo;The last one (Stanley Cup) sticks out in my mind,&rdquo; Imlach said of the 1967 triumph. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t supposed to win that.&rdquo;For Milford, it&rsquo;s that final&mdash;or rather the events that led up to it&mdash;in 1982.&ldquo;The team jelled at the end and came along,&rdquo; Milford said. &ldquo;At the tim&mdash;people laughed at m&mdash;I thought we had a chance to of knocking off the Islanders, but it came at a time when we were a tired hockey club.&rdquo;When asked what was his best trade, Imlach listed the deal which brought Red Kelly from Detroit to Toronto in 1959-60. Another favorite was the one which sent Tiger Williams and Jerry Butler to Vancouver (with Milford as GM) for Rick Vaive and Billy Derlago.&ldquo;That was an exceptionally good deal,&rdquo; Imlach said.Milford has a hard time recalling his best trade; as for his worst, he said, &ldquo;I had a lot of those, too many to count.&rdquo;When Imlach was asked which was his worst trade, he said, &ldquo;Forget about that. I can&rsquo;t remember.&rsquo;&rdquo;Imlach, who describes himself as a &ldquo;National Leaguer,&rdquo; is not much of a believer in Europeans or European hockey, which, on the surface, would appear to be a major philosphical difference between he and Milford.Milford played a major role in bringing Juha Widing (the first Swedish player in the NHL) to Canada, and stockpiling the Canucks with Europeans.But Milford did that more out of necessity than choice. The Canucks were in a rebuilding stage, and the Europeans, he confessed, were more talented than the other players the team had.&ldquo;I respect their ability, but I&rsquo;m not crazy about their ability,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

PUNCH IMLACH—JAKE MILFORD

<div class="byline">BY MIKE MILO</div>One early autumn day each year since 1973, amid the nigged terrain of northern Minnesota&rsquo;s Iron Range, America ushers in a new hockey season by celebrating its illustrious past. On Oct. 6, 1984, William (Billy) Christian and William W. Wirtz will be inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, MN.Christian, for his contributions as an amateur player and now coach, and Wirtz for his administrative work, will be the 60th and 61 st men honored with a commemorative obelisk in the historic heart of the Hall.&ldquo;These two worthy gentlemen were selected to the Hall by an anonymous eight-man committee whose members cover the Eastern, Midwest and Western regions of the country,&rdquo; said Mr. Kelly Campbell, the Hall&rsquo;s secretary and acting director. &ldquo;After reviewing the suggested candidates and discussing their virtues via a number of conference calls, the committee voted in May and the top two point-scorers gained entrance to the Hall. This year&rsquo;s inductees were selected from a number of excellent candidates.&rdquo;Wirtz has been actively involved in hockey at the National League and Olympic levels since 1950. In 1967 he assumed the role of president of the Chicago Black Hawks from his father, Arthur, and has been instrumental in modernizing the ancient Chicago Stadium. On a larger scale, Wirtz has served the NHL as chairman of its board of governors for 10 years, bringing such matters as possible league expansion and international hockey issues into his daily dealings.A member of the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame since 1976, Wirtz has also been a member of the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic Committees. A product of the 1984 team, Chicago-born Ed Olczyk, made Wirtz and all of Chicago both proud and happy when he signed a contract with his hometown Hawks.William Wirtz&rsquo; enshrinement at Eveleth unites his career with those of six other Chicago Black Hawks already in the Hall&mdash;Mike Marakes, Doc Romnes, Virg Johnson, Cully Dohlstrom, Vic Heyliger and (coach) Bill Stewart, all members of the 193738 Hawk team that won the Stanley Cup.Billy Christian&rsquo;s inclusion in the Hall of Fame is the culmination for a family that has become synonymous with American hockey. Billy, a lifetime resident of Hockeytown USA&mdash;Warroad, MN.&mdash;was on five U.S. National and Olympic Teams during a playing career that ended in 1980. For 23 years since leaving the University of Minnesota, no matter where his international travels took him Christian always returned to his Warroad Lakers senior club.Christian will be best remembered for his two goals against Russia in the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley that helped the U.S. to its first gold medal. Christian&rsquo;s first goal tied the game at two in the second period and his second score, a third-period rebound of a shot taken by his brother Roger, put the home team into the final game against Czechoslavakia. Christian now joins five other members of the team that thumped the Czechs in the U.S. Hall of Fame.&ldquo;My two biggest thrills both involved the Olympic gold,&rdquo; said the 46-year-old hockey stick magnate. &ldquo;My two goals against Russia and the gold medal we won was number one. Number two was when my son David won the gold medal during the 1980 Olympics.&rdquo;David, now an important member of the Washington Capitals, was the fourth Christian to represent his country in Olympic competition. Billy&rsquo;s brother Gord played on the 1956 silver medal team and in 1958 Gord, Roger and Billy were all members of the National Team. That 1958 team, Billy&rsquo;s first National Team appearance, was the first American sports team to play in the Soviet Union. David will be in attendance at the ceremony honoring his father, leaving immediately after a Capitals&rsquo; exhibition game for the trip to Eveleth. Billy&rsquo;s other son, Ed, a player in the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; organization, is also expected to be in Eveleth for the enshrinement.&ldquo;I was at the NHL meeting in Montreal last spring when a man came and congratulated me on my induction,&rdquo; recalled Billy, now a bantam coach in Warroad. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what he was talking about, but then it sank in. It made me very proud!&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011432/5531307-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="585" height="811"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Christian, above, will be on hand for his father&rsquo;s Hall of Fame induction.</figcaption></div>After the induction ceremonies Billy will return to Warroad to help finish the building of Hockeytown&rsquo;s second indoor rink in time for the winter. &#9632;

f0010-01

Christian And Wirtz Set To Enter U.S. Hall

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02970/5531369-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg"></div>The greatest tributes to Bernie Parent, the splendid goaltender of the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Stanley Cup championship teams in 1974 and &lsquo;75, often have arrived indirectly, usually when the men delivering the tribute were discussing another goal tender.&ldquo;That kid is the best goalie to come out of junior hockey since Bernie Parent,&rdquo; is one way the compliment is delivered. &ldquo;Reminds you of Bemie Parent, doesn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo; someone will say when a young goalie exhibits good all-round ability.On the day when both he and Parent were inducted into the Hall of Fame, George (Punch) Imlach delivered a high tribute to Parent, in-directly, of course. Imlach was discussing his Buffalo Sabres of 1975, a team that climbed from expansion to the Stanley Cup final against the Flyers, the first expansion side to win a crown.&ldquo;No doubt about it! Only one man, Bemie Parent, prevented us from winning the Stanley Cup that year,&rdquo; Imlach said. &ldquo;If you changed the goalies from one team to the other in that series, there&rsquo;s no doubt we would have won the Cup. Parent was that good.&rdquo;Parent was the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy in those two Cup years, in addition to Vezina Trophy and first team all-star nominations in both terms. His career figures seem like a misprint when juxtaposed on today&rsquo;s totals&mdash;a 2.55 average and 55 shutouts in 608 season games, 2.43 average and six shutouts in 71 playoff matches.Flyer captain, now the team&rsquo;s general manager, Bob Clarke, once paid Parent a high tribute and, as he did with everything, Clarke did it directly.&ldquo;When Bemie was at his best, the influence he had on the way our team could play the game was enormous,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;He was so good that we had supreme confidence in him. That meant we would always take the little extra chance, the gamble even when the risk was high, because we had complete faith that if the gamble failed or we screwed things up, he was always there to bail us out.&rdquo;On the day when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Parent talked of the key influences in his life, the men who exerted the most influence on his career at various stages.First came Hap Emms, owner-GM-coach of Niagara Falls Flyers, the junior team where Parent established his credentials as a standout prospect in the &lsquo;60s.&ldquo;Hap didn&rsquo;t throw his money away&mdash;I had to buy most of my equipment in my first year with Niagara Falls&mdash;but he was a good man in other ways,&rdquo; Parent said. &ldquo;I learned a great deal about discipline from him and what hard work means in sport. He gave his players high standards to measure up to and when you&rsquo;re a teenager away from home, you need that.&rdquo;When he was a lad growing up in Montreal, Parent&rsquo;s hero was Jacques Plante, the great goalie of the Canadiens. To this day, Parent maintains hero worship for Plante and he treasures the two seasons they spent together with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where Parent was able to study at the master&rsquo;s knee.&ldquo;Jacques was&mdash;and still is&mdash;a hero to me,&rdquo; Parent said. &ldquo;Not only was he a great goalie who knew probably more about the game than any man I ever met, he was a great man. Those two years in Toronto where I was with him every day are something I treasure, and the things he taught me are the big reason I&rsquo;m in the Hall of Fame.&rdquo;The puzzling occurrence in Parent&rsquo;s career was the Flyers&rsquo; decision to trade him to the Leafs in 1971 and go with Doug Favell as No. 1 goalie. Another strange move, but a lucrative one, was Parent&rsquo;s decision to become a Miami Screaming Eagle when he signed with the World Hockey Association team in 1972.However, the Eagles became the Philadelphia Blazers and that eventually restored Parent to the Flyers.&ldquo;Wish I could say that I actually played a game for a team called the Screaming Eagles,&rdquo; Parent said.Parent adds Flyer owner Ed Snider and coach Fred Shero to his list of key influences in his life.&ldquo;Mr. Snider was more than just the owner of the team because he cared a great deal about the players,&rdquo; Parent said. &ldquo;He made Philly a wonderful place to play and the players would run through the wall to repay all the things he did for us.&ldquo;Shero was a great help to me and every other player on his teams because he could help you to be better than you thought you could be. He was the best coach of his time and although the Flyers had some good players, we didn&rsquo;t have great talent. But he made the team great.&rdquo;Parent probably was the prototype of the great goaltender, the ideal combination of technical skill, reflexes, size and concentration.Bill Bradley, the great basketball player, now U.S. senator, once said that the key to his scoring ability in that game was &ldquo;a sense of where you are.&rdquo; The great athlete just knows&mdash;he doesn&rsquo;t have to think about it, he just knows&mdash;where he&rsquo;s situated in relation to the hoop or goal at all times.Parent always seemed to know where he was situated in relation to the net and that was why he probably gave up fewer &ldquo;bad&rdquo; goals than any netminder you can mention. &#9632;

f0011-02

BERNIE PARENT

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Two for the price of one. Again?If there was a surprise in training camp for the Red Wings, it was Doug Houda, the second-round draft pick from the Calgary Wranglers. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound defenseman turned heads with his poise, talent and knack for the game.&ldquo;Everybody looks for different things,&rdquo; general manager Jimmy Devel-lano said. &ldquo;I guess, for me, it would be Houda. Obviously, we felt he was a good prospect but based on what he&rsquo;s shown in camp, he looks like a first-rounder.&rdquo;Which is what Detroit figured he would be all along but, fortunately for them, wasn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;We had him rated in the first round,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;That makes it two years in a row that&rsquo;s happened to us; that we&rsquo;ve been able to draft a player we had rated a first-rounder in the second round. It happened with Lane Lambert. What it does is move our timetable up a little.&rdquo;Lambert, of course, scored 20 goals as a rookie last season to complement No. 1 pick Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s super season of 39 goals and 85 points.Center Shawn Burr, the No. 1 pick this year, is everything a top draft is supposed to be and. with Houda, that gives the Wings two more prize young players. Burr will make the jump to the NHL this season. Houda won&rsquo;t&mdash;at least not at the start.&ldquo;Had this been two years ago, Houda would have started the season with us,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when we were operating a little bit out of desperation, moving underage players, like Claude Loiselle and Murray Craven, who still had two years of junior eligibility remaining, into the lineup because they were as good as anything we had.&ldquo;Truth was, that wasn&rsquo;t good enough to play in the NHL. Now we can send Houda back to Calgary, tell him what to work on and make his development a bit more natural.&rdquo;Burr, a 6-foot-1, 180-pounder who was bom and raised in Sarnia, Ont., 10 minutes from the Wings&rsquo; training camp in Port Huron, enjoyed a promising camp.&ldquo;I guess I was a little nervous (at first),&rdquo; Burr said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to hold my own out there. That&rsquo;s what it was like when I first got to Kitchener. I&rsquo;m not a training camp player.&ldquo;I try to play my position. I don&rsquo;t run up the goals or points. I&rsquo;m not going to get five or six points game. I think I&rsquo;m the kind of player you have to see over a long period of time.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll buy that,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s fit in well. He takes the body well and passes the puck well. He&rsquo;s not a finesse player and he&rsquo;s not an overly impressive skater. But he does a lot of things the Bobby Clarkes do. I know that&rsquo;s putting him in some awful good company, but he&rsquo;s like that.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll gradually ease him in, give him some good linemates to work with. We won&rsquo;t rush him. But so far I like what I&rsquo;ve seen. I feel good about him.&rdquo;So does coach Nick Polano.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good forechecker,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;He looks like he hasn&rsquo;t loosened up yet. He&rsquo;s a little nervous and he&rsquo;ll be better when he relaxes. Maybe being so close to home is making it harder on him.&ldquo;But he does a lot of things right, like when he goes in to forecheck he always gets a piece of the man.&rdquo;Burr opened the exhibition season by scoring in his first game as the Wings defeated Pittsburgh, 4-3.There are the inevitable comparisons between Burr and Yzerman.&ldquo;I know people talk about that but I don&rsquo;t even think about it,&rdquo; Burr said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to have the kind of year he had but I don&rsquo;t expect it. He&rsquo;s a 19-year-old who played for Team Canada, which tells you how good he is.&rdquo;WING NOTES&mdash;All the other young players in the Detroit camp who had junior eligibility remaining, except for Shawn Burr, were returned to their junior teams&hellip;For the first time in eight years, Paul Woods wasn&rsquo;t in camp with the Wings. He&rsquo;s been assigned to Detroit&rsquo;s top farm club, Adirondack of the American League. Woods won&rsquo;t be protected in the waiver draft and the Wings wouldn&rsquo;t mind it if he was picked by another club so that he might get a chance to continue playing in the NHL&hellip;Brian Johnson, who made the big club last year, was released during the offseason.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021171/5531431-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="588" height="752"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary Wrangler Doug Houda was impressive at Detroit&rsquo;s training camp.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Wings High On Houda, But It’s Back To Junior

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Tom Kurvers is attempting to do something that two recent Norris Trophy winners did not.The 1984 winner of the Hobey Baker Award as U.S. college&rsquo;s top player is making a bid to become a regular member of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defense in his first year of professional hockey and there is a better-than-good chance that he will do it.Kurvers, who played four seasons at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, was one of the positive notes as the Canadiens struggled to a victory, two losses and a tie in their first four exhibition games. He skates well, as do most American-trained defensemen, and he has shown cool under the pressure of fighting for a job in the National Hockey League.&ldquo;I just want to play my best, and hope by playing my best that I will create a spot,&rdquo; said Kurvers. &ldquo;1 want to make the club and play. That&rsquo;s been a goal of mine ever since I realized I was coming.&ldquo;There are lots of good defensemen here. It&rsquo;s going to take my best effort to earn a spot on the team. I am still learning a lot of things out there. I&rsquo;m willing to learn and I&rsquo;m willing to work hard to do that it takes to make this team.&rdquo;Neither Larry Robinson, who won the Norris Trophy as the league&rsquo;s best defenseman in 1977 and 1980, nor Rod Langway, the winner of the award during the past two seasons, won regular employment without some time in the system.Robinson played all of the 1971-72 season in Nova Scotia and half of the 1972-73 campaign before playing 36 games for Montreal. Lang way started the 1978-79 season with the Canadiens, was sent to Halifax for six weeks midway through the year before returning to help Montreal win its last Stanley Cup in May, 1979.Things have changed since Robinson and Lang way, who was traded to Washington in September, 1982, broke in with Montreal. It actually began to change the year Langway was given away with Brian Engblom, and Craig Ludwig came out of the University of North Dakota to earn a regular spot.Last season, Kent Carlson, a New Hampshire-bom defenseman who played at St. Lawrence University, stayed with the team all of his rookie season and now Carlson finds himself being pushed by Kurvers.&ldquo;People like Langway and Ludwig are good players and if I can get the level of my game up to theirs that would be great for me,&rdquo; said Kurvers, who was in the communications faculty at Minnesota-Duluth.Kurvers signed a two-year contract, plus an option, with Canadiens&rsquo; managing director Serge Savard. The announcement didn&rsquo;t create headlines in the local newspapers, but as training camp continued and the exhibitions got underway more and more attention was being paid to the 22-year-old from Minneapolis who was the Canadiens&rsquo; 10th choice and 149th overall in the 1981 entry draft.Kurvers was part of the growth of the hockey program at Minnesota-Duluth. It all culminated last spring in his personal awards, including a selection to the NCAA all-American first-team defense, the Baker award and participation in one of the best U.S. college hockey championship games ever played.UMD was matched against Bowling Green in the final, which got underway just after 7:30 p.m. and finished about four-and-a-half hours later.&ldquo;There was absolutely nothing left,&rdquo; Kurvers admitted. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to believe that we went that far. The pace of the game kept up and both teams were absolutely drained. I don&rsquo;t know how they could have been celebrating that much later. They were as tired as we were.&rdquo;There was a classic picture in Sports Illustrated showing Bowling Green, which won the game 5-4, whooping it up while the UMD players sat on the ice or on their bench with their heads down.&ldquo;You just feel defeated,&rdquo; Kurvers noted. &ldquo;It was a great experience I think to come off of that and be able to bounce back and feel good about yourself.&ldquo;Looking back, you don&rsquo;t feel like a loser. The game is going to go down in history as one of the best games in college hockey. At the time, it was hard to accept.&rdquo;Kurvers has had various defensive partners in the Canadiens&rsquo; camp, including fellow Americans Ludwig and Chris Chelios, who returned to active duty with the Canadiens in the third pre-season game following his stint with Team USA in the Canada Cup.&ldquo;One thing I&rsquo;ve learned in the exhibition games is that as soon as you get the puck, you better know what you are going to do with it,&rdquo; Kurvers said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t hesitate. The players are quicker and stronger than I was used to in college.&rdquo;Kurvers has held his own and along with Czechoslovakian defenseman Petr Svoboda should be a part of the Canadien defense this year and for the next few seasons at least.IN PASSING&mdash;Shayne Corson, the Canadiens&rsquo; second pick and eighth overall in the 1984 entry draft, was returned to the Hamilton Steelhawks of the Ontario Hockey League. Corson had a goal in three pre-season games and needs more time to develop&hellip;Also returned to their junior teams were Claude Lemieux of the Verdun Junior Canadiens and Stephane Richer of the Granby Bisons&hellip;Larry Landon, who scored a goal in the Canadiens&rsquo; 5-5 tie against Philadelphia in Hershey, was optioned to the Canadiens&rsquo; farm team in Sherbrooke&hellip;Dick Irvin and Bob Cole will split television play-by-play duties, replacing Danny Gallivan.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011322/5531462-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="591" height="745"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Kurvers participated in last season&rsquo;s thrilling match in the college finals.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Kurvers Hoping To Make Habs On First Try

For his more than 50 years of dedicated service to the greatest game in the world, the management, staff and players of the Vancouver Canucks are delighted and proud to salute our Senior Vice President and true Hockey Hall of Famer, Jake Milford.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011384/5531500-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="632" height="744"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jake Milford</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021078/5531493-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="532" height="392"></div> &#9632;

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CONGRATULATIONS

Every year we ask our writers to make some prognistications on the division finishes which, when you take into account the injury factor, hardly qualifies as any easy task. But this year, on top of that assignment, we asked them to predict the top team overall in the regular season, the Stanley Cup winner, and the coach of the year.Of the 20 writers who were bold enough to answer our challenge, the one thing which they shared in common&mdash;certainly in the newest phase of our questionnair&mdash;was that defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton was going to be the best in the regular season and continue that success en route to the Stanley Cup.Nineteen of the 20 writers picked Edmonton to finish first overall during the regular season, with Washington receiving the only other consideration.When it came time to pick a Stanley Cup winner, the Oilers finished atop, but it was a lot closer than their advantage in the regular season. Seven of the 20 writers picked the Oilers to win the Cup, with their Wales opponents of the last two seasons, the New York Islanders, receiving six votes. The young Buffalo Sabres and the Capitals each received three votes and one went to Boston.Ironically, no one picked Oiler coach Glen Sather for top coach. The winner in that category was Scott Bowman of the Sabres. The Islanders&rsquo; Al Arbour, who is expected to step down after this season, was next with four. Bryan Murray of the Capitals, the 1983-84 HOCKEY NEWS Coach of the Year, received three.In the regular-season standings, the Oilers recorded a shutout&mdash;20-0&mdash;by taking all 20 votes to finish atop the Smythe. The Flames were 20-0 to finish behind the Oilers, with Winnipeg, Vancouver and Los Angeles expected to trail in that order.In the Norris Division, Minnesota is predicted to repeat as champions. Chicago, which was decimated by injuries last season, is expected to bounce back and, therefore, most of the writers are giving them a second-place finish. Detroit is next, followed by St. Louis and Toronto, which finished in the basement last season and is expected to repeat that.The Adams Division saw the Sabres clearly finishing on top with 14 of 20 votes. Boston, which just edged out Buffalo last season, is next. Quebec is picked for third, followed by Montreal and Hartford.The Islanders, who showed their mettle in overcoming the Capitals in the final week of the season, took 13 of 20 votes to finish atop the Patrick Division. The Capitals were next, followed by the Rangers and Philadelphia. Pittsburgh and New Jersey, both with new coaches, were fifth and sixth, respectively. One writer, an obvious believer in Mario Lemieux, figures the Penguins will finish in fourth.<h2>How The NHL Races Will Finish</h2><h3>WALES CONFERENCE Adams Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011290/5531552-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="837" height="277"></div><h3>Patrick Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02919/5531545-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="846" height="307"></div><h3>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE Norris Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03679/5531538-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="846" height="265"></div><h3>Smythe Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04503/5531531-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="837" height="262"></div> &#9632;

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Oilers-Islanders Cup Rematch Predicted

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-05369/5531583-1-eng-US/f0015-052.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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How The Writers See The NHL Races

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;The first truly difficult decision of Doug Carpenter&rsquo;s coaching reign in New Jersey is not very far down the road. An overcrowded goaltending situation, complicated by the strong pre-season play of Finnish star Hannu Kamppuri and former Philadelphia property Sam St. Laurent, has the Devils&rsquo; rookie coach scratching his head.St. Laurent, a long-shot at breaking camp with the Devils, was selected Most Valuable Player in the team&rsquo;s intrasquad, round-robin tournament instituted by Carpenter. But St. Laurent is still destined to open the season with Maine of the American League.It is Kamppuri, the 27-year-old international star signed to a multi-year contract on Aug. 1, who has made New Jersey management think again about a possible deal involving Chico Resch or Ron Low. Kampurri played with confidence and flair in the Devils&rsquo; pre-season opener, a 3-1 loss to Hartford at the Meadowlands Arena on Sept. 25.The Devils insist they are not trying to trade Chico Resch. So what&rsquo;s the problem with three NHL-calibre goalies?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really for three goaltenders because I don&rsquo;t think three get enough work,&rdquo; said Carpenter. &ldquo;I think we have to wait until I come to the time when we&rsquo;re faced with three goalies who should stay here. Kamppuri stops the puck, no doubt about it. And that&rsquo;s a goalie&rsquo;s job.&rdquo;Kamppuri, whose free-agent contract indicates he can play in the NHL or at Maine, knows the odds are against him. But he remains optimistic.&ldquo;We have two great goaltenders here and I&rsquo;m just doing my best and I hope I can help this team,&rdquo; said Kamppuri, a veteran of three National Finland World Championship tournament teams. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not thinking about Maine or anything. Let other people make the decisions. I just hope I&rsquo;ll be here.&rdquo;This is Kamppuri&rsquo;s second sojourn in North America. The six-foot, 175-pounder played two games for the World Hockey Association Edmonton Oilers at the end of the 1978-79 season and 19 matches for the Central League Houston Apollos the following season. Under an amateur tryout with the Oilers those two years he became a free agent upon his return to Finland in 1980.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a totally different guy now,&rdquo; said Kamppuri. &ldquo;I have a lot more experience playing against the Russians, Czechs and Sweden the last six years. Mentally, I&rsquo;m different. Here it&rsquo;s a tough place to play.&ldquo;It has been in my mind to return but I was starting at home (he was a five-time, first-team All-Star) the last three years and I couldn&rsquo;t think about it. One reason I&rsquo;m back now is back (at) home only one goalie can start. For me this is a good chance. I&rsquo;m at the age when it&rsquo;s the best time for me. I&rsquo;m very comfortable.&rdquo;He must adapt his style somewhat to the smaller NHL rinks, but expects no problem.&ldquo;I like to play in the smaller rinks now,&rdquo; said Kamppuri. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re good for goalies. You get a lot of shots and you get into the game easier.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s sort of unorthodox,&rdquo; added Carpenter. &ldquo;His style has to grow on you. He comes way out, which is typical of European goaltenders.&rdquo;The question is, will Kamppuri&rsquo;s style grow on Carpenter enough during training cmp or will he polish up his act at Maine while Resch or Low are shopped around the league?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011174/5531645-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="588" height="964"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02938/5531638-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="590" height="966"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veterans Chico Resch (left) and Ron Low (right) are getting some stiff competition, which might result in a trade.</figcaption></div>HOT STUFF&mdash;The Devils reduced their goalie load to seven by releasing Kirk Firlotte outright and sending Kirk MacLean back to Oshawa&hellip;No. 1 draft pick Kirk Muller has been impressive in pre-season. Muller, called a &ldquo;can&rsquo;t miss&rdquo; by Flyer GM Bobby Clarke during a rookie game, set up Al Stewart&rsquo;s goal in the loss to Hartford&hellip;Don Lever started camp with a sore left knee after a collision with Bob Lorimer, but is back in action&hellip;How is this for a bizarre ending to the Whalers&rsquo; match: The Devils were on a power play with 2:27 remaining and Doug Carpenter pulled Hannu Kamppuri for a draw in the Hartford zone. Pat Verbeek won the faceoff with Mike Zuke, but the puck slid the length of the ice and into the empty Devil net. &ldquo;My debut certainly didn&rsquo;t end on a good note, especially when we were still in the game,&rdquo; said Carpenter. &ldquo;But you don&rsquo;t see that very often.&rdquo;&hellip;Dave Lewis and Tim Higgins have been most impressive veterans thus far. Muller and Al Stewart have been strong among rookies&hellip;Chris Felix was invited to the camp of Ft. Wayne Komets of the International League&hellip;The Devils had 8,400 season tickets last season and are seeking 9,000 this year. &#9632;

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Carpenter Doesn’t Favor Retaining Three Goalies

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011029/5531676-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glenn Anderson had to endure torture at the dentist, but the new contract he signed with the Oilers helped to relieve the pain.</figcaption></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Talk about going from excruciating pain to a bed-of-roses riches within a few short hours.The hell-to-heaven syndrome, in a bona fide sense.Glenn Anderson spent two-and-a-half hours in a dentist&rsquo;s chair on Sept. 21, having a wisdom tooth extracted. In the company of his agent, Vancouver-based Ron Perrick, the unemployed winger than dropped by the Oilers&rsquo; office and landed eight years of no-cut, no-trade employment with the Stanley Cup champions&mdash;a total packege worth in the neighborhood of $3 million.Nice work if you can get it.Trouble is, there are some things even money can&rsquo;t buy. Such as, an immedite cure for the suffering from a wisdom tooth.&ldquo;Needless to say,&rdquo; quipped Perrick, &ldquo;we didn&rsquo;t even have a drink to celebrate.&rdquo;Anderson&rsquo;s signing, completed between Perrick and owner Peter Pocklington, concludes two-and-a-half years of negotiating and completes the long-term tying up of Edmonton&rsquo;s nucleus. Wayne Gretzky will be an Oiler until past the turn of the century, Mark Messier and Paul Coffey for at least five years, while Kevin Lowe, Jari Kurri and goalie Grant Fuhr have also been re-signed within the last year. Only Kurri is short-term&mdash;a year and an option.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s our Walter Alston,&rdquo; quipped Gretzky, comparing his Finnish sidekick to the former L.A. manager who went about his business signing only one-year contracts through two decades with the Dodgers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big and long chore completed, and a damned expensive one,&rdquo; said Pocklington of the fact the young core of the Oilers will be together for a number of years. &ldquo;But the fans here pay the big buck, so they should get nothing but the best. Some other clubs might be willing to let some of their guys go&hellip;&rdquo;While none of the others were expected to bolt the Oilers&rsquo; scene, the free-spirited Anderson was another case altogether. His threats of going to Europe were not to be sloughed off as idle talk.&ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t bluffing,&rdquo; said Perrick of Anderson, who escaped to Jasper for some R and R after the signing. &ldquo;If he wasn&rsquo;t happy with what was offered, he would have gone elsewhere. Glenn&rsquo;s a different breed. He would have gone to Europe, knowing he would have left a lot of money on the table.&rdquo;When negotiations between Perrick and general manager-coach Glen Sather stalled in March, Pocklington stepped in&mdash;as he did with Gus Badali on the Gretzky front a couple of years back. Ironically, it was Perrick who defended Sather on a minor assault charge in Van-couver recently.But, back to the matter at hand&hellip;Perrick claimed that three NHL clubs were prepared to come up with the stiff compensation (two first-round draft choices, or a first-rounder and their fourth-best player) required to land the son of a B.C. fisherman.The length of the contract is also somewhat startling. All along Anderson maintained he would have preferred a shortterm deal, then renegotiating once again or taking his chances with a loosening of the NHL&rsquo;s free-agency rules.&ldquo;The deal is extremely good for Andy and he&rsquo;s extremely happy,&rdquo; was the way Pocklington put it. &ldquo;But we have faith in him, he&rsquo;s one of the 10 best in the league.&rdquo;Anderson&rsquo;s renegotiated salary leaves him no worse than fifth behind Gretzky, Messier, Coffey and perhaps Kurri. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s also one of our five top performers,&rdquo; said Pocklington.&ldquo;It is sometimes hard to tell a young guy he should go for eight years,&rdquo; explained Perrick of Anderson who turns 24 on Oct. 2. &ldquo;But at the end of five years, Glenn will be 29&hellip;and 29-year-old legs could be different than 25-year-old legs. Two years would have been ideal, but Peter always wanted a minimum of five. I thought, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s fine, I&rsquo;ll take three more.&rsquo; Glenn thought five was better, but finally he agreed to eight.&rdquo;Eight years&mdash;not a bad deal for a chap, who was laughingly known as Mork upon arrival four years ago.And, just think, only one more wisdom tooth to go. &#9632;

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New Long-Term Contract Relieves Anderson’s Pain

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011067/5531707-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dan Daoust was a catalyst for the Leafs after they acquired him in 1982, but now he&rsquo;s battling to retain his job.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;For most of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the physical rigors of training camp are behind them. Now, it is a time for mental anguish, wondering whether they&rsquo;ll still be members of the team when the season starts.For Dan Daoust, the physical and mental strains have to be taken as one, because he has not had the benefit of a full training camp.Daoust tore ligaments in his left ankle in the off-season and skated only a few times before the Leafs opened training camp.While his teammates were skating&mdash;and it was anything but leisure in the first part of training camp&mdash;Daoust was just feeling his way.But now it&rsquo;s fast approaching cutting time, and Daoust has to give it all he&rsquo;s got.&ldquo;The other centers have an advantage.&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just got to pull my load.&rdquo;Daoust, whom the Leafs acquired from Montreal in December, &lsquo;82, has already lost his job on the top line to Bill Derlago, who last season started off as a winger but was eventually moved back to his center spot. Peter Ihnacak would appear to have the job centering Walt Poddubny and Miroslav Frycer&mdash;the trio which did so well before last season&rsquo;s calamity&mdash;and Russ Courtnall seems to have a lock on another job.The remaining jobs are up for grabs, and Daoust would obviously love to claim one.One thing which would appear to be in his favor is his willingness to play physically. Coach Dan Maloney, if the Leafs&rsquo; play in pre-season can be used as a barometer, wants his players to concentrate on shutting down the other team&mdash;by hook or crook or any method which is legally possible.Daoust, in his first season with the Leafs, was effective in that department. He fearlessly flung his fragile body at opponents, who often were surprised that the 160-pound Daoust showed so much courage. Daoust, in fact, was the catalyst that sparked the Leafs&rsquo; surge to the playoffs before falling to Minnesota.Last season, Daoust found opponents were more familiar with his style, and he was not nearly as effective. His offense was up (he was the team&rsquo;s second-leading scorer with 74 points), but his hits-per-game was down.Whether he&rsquo;s able to find that form again this season will be a big question, but his most immediate concern will be trying to overcome his ankle injury.And make no mistake about it, an ankle injury is a serious thing&mdash;just ask Poddubny. Last season, he broke his ankle in a freak mishap and missed most of the year. He&rsquo;s been told by a doctor that because of the severity of the injury plus the constant usage of it, his ankle will never be 100 per cent again.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m only starting to have it (the feeling) back this fall,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it took eight months and two or three months of that involved a lot of work on the ankle. It&rsquo;s been a time-consuming process.&rdquo;Poddubny says that compared to shoulder injuries, knee and ankle ailments are more severe because of the pressure put on the joints. That, in turn, effects the skating stride.&ldquo;There are times when you go to make a play and are worried about the ankle, and you can&rsquo;t do that.&rdquo; Poddubny says.LEAFLETS&mdash;Steady Bill Root has had responsibilites on and off the ice. On the ice, he&rsquo;s been paired with rookie Al lafrate. Off the ice, he&rsquo;s had to attend to his wife, who is pregnant with the couple&rsquo;s second child. Leaf coach Dan Maloney gave Root the option of missing practice so he could be with his wife&hellip;After the Leafs moved from Belleville for the first half of training camp, they stayed at a hotel near Maple Leaf Gardens. This was designed to keep the players together, and maintain the training camp atmosphere. On the pressure of training camp, Root said: &ldquo;Everybody gives their best for the team when they&rsquo;re on the ice, but after the game that&rsquo;s when it&rsquo;s on your mind&hellip;Second-year man Gary Leeman scored a fight decision over Larry Melnyk of Edmonton in a pre-season game, which the Leafs won, 6-0. Bill Derlago showed he&rsquo;s already in scoring form by beating Andy Moog on a penalty shot&hellip;Referee Andy van Helle-mond wore a helmet in that game. &#9632;

f0018-01

Daoust Has To ‘Pull Load’ On Bad Wheel

<div class="byline">Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02811/5531738-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="384" height="518"></div>YOU CAN TAKE me now, Lord. I have seen the best hockey game ever played.Up until Sept. 13 at Calgary, I had always held a special place in my heart for that magical January, 1975 night when the Kansas City Scouts beat the Bruins, 3-2, at Boston Garden. The Scouts reached the pinnacle in that glorious tilt. Then in employ of the Kansas City Star, I was truly privileged to chronicle that event and am assured my place in the Hockey Hall of Fame is inevit-able. Eat your heart out if you missed it.I have since searched 10 years for a better hockey game. My quest was long, lonely and painful. It took me to Cleveland, to Hartford, to Atlanta, to the New Jersey Meadowlands. Magic moments, all, many nines but no tens. Would I never again find perfection?And then Canada and the Soviets went at it in the 1984 Canada Cup. It was the best.Better than the Islanders and Rangers in Game Five last spring? Better than the Canadiens and Bruins on that fated 1979 night when the Bruins put too many men on the ice? Better than Canada 5, Soviets 4, in Game Eight of the 1972 Summit Series in Moscow? Better than Czechoslovakia 1, Canada 0 in the 1976 Canada Cup?How about Soviets 3, Montreal 3, New Years Eve 1975? Sorry, if I wasn&rsquo;t there, it couldn&rsquo;t have been any good. Ditto any 1947 Leaf classic Fischler is sure to bring forth in rebuttal. Sorry, after being to hockey heaven in Calgary, I will take the view that nothing that transpired before my birth could have possibly been so good. I was privileged to see Canada upset the mighty Soviets, 3-2, on Mike Bossy&rsquo;s goal in overtime, and like anyone else at the Saddledome that night, I feel it was so special as to be part of my destiny. I was bom, among a few other irrelevant reasons, to see that hockey game and could now die happily. Which is the only way I know of to get out of having to cover the exhibition games.The problem in writing for a Philadelphia paper is that my claims have been met with a certain amount of cynicism. It wasn&rsquo;t televised here. The morning paper didn&rsquo;t even cover the contest. Then, too, I had tred upon sacred ground&mdash;nothing here will ever top Flyers 1, Bruins 0, in Game Six of 1974, with Flyers 4, Soviet Army 1 of 1976, thrown in for good measure.&ldquo;What&rsquo;s this &lsquo;best game ever&rsquo; stuff?&rdquo; said Keith Allen. I had seen that look in his eye before, everytime through the years that he had wanted to trade me to Pittsburgh. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll bet there were three games in that 1976 series that were better.&rdquo;How dare he question a man who had just had a profound religious experience? How dare he assail the following unassailable logic?Think about it. Certainly, two NHL teams have pushed each other to the absolute limit in golden Stanley Cup matches. No question, the Islanders and Rangers did that in April and it was glorious.But Canada and the Soviets were two all-star teams giving everything to settle a grudge that has gone back 12 years. No one has ever played a single game any harder. And it was the skill level of the participants that set this one on a higher plateau.You could argue that the 1976 and 1981 Canada teams were better than the 1984 one. And that the Soviets were not at full strength without Vyacheslav Fetisov.But everytime the Soviets come over here, they look better and better to me, if only because they have become more and more accomplished in their own end. Vladislav Tretiak could not have played any more spectacularly than Vladimir Myshkin did in that game.If these weren&rsquo;t, by any slight margin, the two best teams of ail time, they were damn close. And no single match between two clubs this highly skilled had ever produced such a dramatic ebb and flow. Not 1976. Not 1981. Maybe the final in Moscow in 1972 but no one would argue that that Soviet team was nearly as accomplished as it is today.The emotion that went into the two team efforts in Calgary was almost mystical. To see athletes play at that speed, with that much skill under the pressure of being eliminated if defeated, was awe-inspiring. Throw in the Soviets coming from behind in the third period, then the Canadians scoring late to create the tie and the tension of an up-and-down overtime, and, I just can&rsquo;t conceive of anything any better. &#9632;

f0018-02

The Canada-Soviet Game Is Mu Ticket To Heaven

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHASTCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01991/5531769-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jamie Hislop had to retire because of an eye injury, but it didn&rsquo;t take him long to move to the coaching ranks.</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;A summer of uncertainty ended for Jamie Hislop on the eve of the Calgary Flames&rsquo; training camp.Hislop, who suffered a serious eye injury Dec. 1 in a game against the New York Islanders, failed his physical and was forced to retire.Instead of playing, Hislop returned to the Flames as an assistant coach and took a regular turn&mdash;putting the team through its training camp paces.&ldquo;Everything&rsquo;s happened so fast,&rdquo; said Hislop. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really sure what my role is going to be. I suppose it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll get more comfortable with as time goes on.&ldquo;In many ways, it&rsquo;s (training camp) for me too. It&rsquo;s the first time I&rsquo;m running drills rather than participating in them. As a player, you don&rsquo;t realize what it takes to set them up. You just go where you&rsquo;re told.&rdquo;Hislop&rsquo;s career-ending injury did not appear all that serious when it first happened. The Islanders&rsquo; Anders Kallur accidentally clipped Hislop with his stick when the two were skating side-by-side along the boards. Hislop spent time in hospital, but actually returned for 11 games in mid-season.However, Hislop&rsquo;s vision remained blurred and eventually he again had to undergo laser surgery, sending him to the sidelines for the rest of the season.In the summer, Hislop knew he would have a decision to make: quit or continue and risk further damage. In the end, the doctors made the decision for him.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a real big shock,&rdquo; said Hislop. &ldquo;I could tell my vision hadn&rsquo;t improved. I played a lot of squash and hockey in the summer, but the problems were still there. There&rsquo;s still quite a bit of weakness in my retina. The actual holes in my eye were sealed, but there are weak areas around it that could pop out with any contact.&ldquo;The doctor told me it shouldn&rsquo;t affect me in my everyday lif&mdash;as long as I&rsquo;m not stupid and take up boxing or something like that.&rdquo;Altogether, Hislop played professionally for eight seasons, three in the World Hockey Association and five in the National League. He came to Calgary in 1981 in a trade for goaltender Dan Bouchard.Hislop&rsquo;s decision to accept a coaching job came as something of a surprise because he had a number of possible career opportunities outside of hockey.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d often thought that once I finished, I&rsquo;d just as soon get out of the game,&rdquo; said Hislop. &ldquo;Then this came up and I thought it would be a good learning experience. I figured I&rsquo;d spend a year at it and if I don&rsquo;t like it, I&rsquo;ll get out. This is more of a feeling out year for me.&rdquo;&ldquo;He will be learning the coaching business,&rdquo; said general manager Cliff Fletcher. &ldquo;He will spot for us in the press box and also act as an advance scout, something we&rsquo;ve never had before. He is here because we decided we&rsquo;d like him to be part of our organization. He is a char-acter person and he is respected by the players. We like the idea of Jamie being part of our coaching-management team.&rdquo;The Flames, on Hislop&rsquo;s behalf, put in a disability claim to Lloyd&rsquo;s of London. Hislop could collect up to $175,000&mdash;$100,000 from a league policy negotiated under the collective bargaining agreement and another $75,000 from a Players&rsquo; Association policy.Fletcher said the Flames sent the necessary documentation to the insurance company. Now Hislop must simply wait for the settlement.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really know what I&rsquo;ll get,&rdquo; said Hislop. &ldquo;All the forms are in. I&rsquo;ll have to wait and see what the insurance company decides. I hope they understand what my situation involves.&rdquo;Hislop&rsquo;s sometime linemate, Dave Hindmarch, fared only slightly better with his medical. Hindmarch tore the ligaments in both his knees in a December game against the Vancouver Canucks and missed the remainder of the season.He spent over a month in a wheelchair and another two months walking with canes. He could not start skating until July 1 and, in his words, was &ldquo;pretty wobbly then.&rdquo;Unfortunately, he was also pretty wobbly in the first week of camp and coach Bob Johnson wasn&rsquo;t sure when Hindmarch would be ready to play an exhibition game.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s come back a long way,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s not all the way back yet.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-01

Hislop Retires To Be An Assistant Coach

<div class="byline">Steve Simmons</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02733/5531800-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="394" height="435"></div>QUESTIONS TO PONDER as another National Hockey League season begins&hellip;&bull; Will success spoil Glen Sather and the Edmonton Oilers, or were the Oilers spoiled long before they were successful?&bull; Can the NHL&rsquo;s version of Three&rsquo;s Company&mdash;the New York Islander goaltenders of Billy Smith, Roland Melanson and Kelly Hrudey&mdash;co-habitate for yet another season?&bull; Will a larger rat in the Boston Garden have any more impact than the smaller rats we&rsquo;ve seen in that building in recent years?&bull; Can Washington Capitals find happiness without a goal scorer? Or will Paul Gardner return from oblivion to help the Caps find a power play. Or better yet will Charlie Simmer somehow find his way to the nation&rsquo;s capital&mdash;and I don&rsquo;t mean playing for the Ottawa 67s?&bull; Will Bobby Clarke send Darryl Sittler on a Florida vacation in early season if Sittier doesn&rsquo;t play better than he did a year ago. Or will Clarke take Sittler&rsquo;s place on left wing and name Sittler general manager?&bull; Will Clifford G. (for generous) Fletcher get the new long-term security deal he is seeking from the Hames&rsquo; owners, or will the six men who own the Flames finally flicker out on Fletcher, the king of mediocrity?&bull; Will Steve Penney be the next Ken Dryden or the next Mike Moffat? And if he is the next Mike Moffat, who will Les Canadiens play in goal? Hint: it might be a former St. Louis goalie, and we&rsquo;re not talking about Jacques Plante.&bull; Will Les Canadiens goaltending be any more questionable than that of the Kings or Jets? Is it possible that two teams from the Smythe Division can miss the playoffs in the same season? How about three from the Snorris Division?&bull; Will Al (first half) Jensen and Pat (second half) Riggin continue to shine for Washington Capitals. And will they switch halves? Will Riggin wait for the second half before winning his first game and will he sulk in the first half if he doesn&rsquo;t?&bull; Can Mike Rogers, Dave Maloney and Ron Gres-chner crawl out of the pit that is Herb Brooks&rsquo; doghouse? And who will take their places on the sidelines and in the trade rumors? If Rogers is press-box-bound, who outside of Pierre Larouche will score for the speedy Rangers?&bull; Will Tiger Williams&rsquo; addition to the Red Wings mean more or fewer fans for Ron Duguay? Can two heartthrobs co-exist on a team of trolls? Will Nick Polano be Coach of the Year?&bull; Will Bob Berry put up with Mario Lemieux and vice versa? Who will start the feud? When will it start? How will it start? We want details, man, details.&bull; Now that Bill LaForge is coaching Vancouver, can we expect John Garrett to be first off the bench leading brawls? He throws a mean one-liner.&bull; Will David A. Jensen, David H. Jensen, Carey Wilson, Ed Olczyk, Shawn Burr, Ulf Samuelsson, Craig Redmond, Tom Hirsch, Brian Wilks, Petr Svoboda, Shayne Corson, Kirk Muller, Pat Flatley, Pat LaFon-taine, James Patrick, Mario Lemieux, Mario Gosselin, Russ Courtnall, J.J. Daigneault or the Pooley twins win the Rookie-of-the-Year award? I&rsquo;m picking Patrick, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean much. Last year, I picked Ron Sutter.&bull; Will Orval Tessier sleep well at nights with Roger Neilson and his video machines waiting in the wings? Will Bob Pulford die his hair? Will Pulford talk to anyone, or merely continue to grumble?&bull; Can Bill Mahoney quiet the barking wolves or will he be the latest victim of a player-wants-coach-out purge? If Mahoney does quiet the wolves (some have called them dogs) will he then beat out Polano for Coach of the Year?&bull; Will the North Stars&rsquo; trainer find a helmet large enough to fit over Brian Bellows head, or did the Canada Cup help return Brian back to the planet earth?&bull; Can two Greg Adams make the NHL, and will both be indistinguishable?&bull; Will hockey writers in Buffalo get frustrated and eventually jump from their press-box seats while trying to keep track of Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s line combinations? Will the Sabres have any set lines? And if so, how long will they last together?&bull; Is Greg Millen going to keep playing out his option until there is real free agency in the NHL? Or will he continue to go unnoticed as one of the game&rsquo;s best goalies on a last-place team?&bull; Can Mario Gosselin and his comic books get along with Dan Bouchard and his bible? And if not, what is to become of Richard (we-picked-him-up-because-we-need-a-goalie-not-because-we&rsquo;re mad-at-the-Canadiens) Sevigny and Clint (gimme-a-chance) Malarchuk?&bull; Will the NHL consider further expansion? To Toronto maybe? &#9632;

f0019-02

Just Tell Me One Thing: Are The Oilers Spoiled?

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;An exhilirating start to the Black Hawks&rsquo; exhibition season in the form of a 2-0 victory in Winnipeg was tempered by depressing news concerning captain Darryl Sutter back in Chicago.On the day of the game, Sutter had cartilage removed from the right knee he injured scrimmaging late the previous afternoon and will be sidelined for about four weeks.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have a cast on and he should be able to begin rehabilitation in about a week,&rdquo; said team Dr. Louis Kolb. &ldquo;This wasn&rsquo;t a major operation.&rdquo;Yet it was a major setback for Sutter, who has been dogged by intermittent injuries since scoring 40 goals as a rookie in 1980-81.In January, his jaw was shattered when he was struck by a slap shot from the stick of teammate Doug Wilson during a game in Minnesota. That mishap was responsible for 18 of the 21 games he missed last season.In 1981-82 assorted injuries sliced his season in half. He returned for the playoffs, then was put out of commission with a separated shoulder after stumbling on a coin tossed onto the ice by the lunatic element in Chicago Stadium during a brawling game with Minnesota.The following year he recovered to play 80 games only to suffer the broken jaw last year.Less than five minutes remained in the second scrimmage of the day when Sutter sustained his latest injury. He was maneuvering in the offensive zone on left wing near the boards when suddenly he fell to the ice. clutching his knee.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t take a hit (check) or anything,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;All of a sudden it just locked on me.&rdquo;If Dr. Kolb&rsquo;s projection of four weeks on the disabled list is accurate, the Hawk captain will miss four to six regularseason games in addition to all 10 exhibitions.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01862/5531831-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="591" height="658"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Black Hawks got bad news when they learned of Darryl Sutter&rsquo;s knee injury.</figcaption></div>When training camp opened coach Orval Tessier said he hoped to make first-round draft choice Ed Olczyk the new linemate for Sutter on left wing and Tom Lysiak at center. But they were able to play together for only one week.Olczyk was forced to stop scrimmaging for a week because of a hyperextended knee that is a souvenir of his work with Team USA in the Canada Cup and now Sutter is sidelined.In addition to Sutter and Olczyk, two other Hawk VIPs, left winger Al Secord and defenseman Doug Wilson, missed the three-night expedition to Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton that launched the exhibition campaign. Secord stayed behind to have wisdom teeth removed, while Wilson was given time off after starring in the Canada Cup.The stars of the trip were goaltenders Murray Bannerman and Warren Skor-odenski.They collaborated on the shutout in Winnipeg, with Bannerman making 15 saves in a starting role and Skorodenski 16 in relief.The following night in Calgary, Skorodenski was the starter and blanked the Flames in a 30-minute stint to collaborate with Steve Larmer, who scored two goals, in leading the Hawks to a 5-3 victory. The Calgary goals came at the expense of Jim Ralph.Ralph got the starting call the next night in Edmonton where the Hawks suffered a 4-3 setback. He gave up all of the goals before being relieved by Bannerman, who again responded with a scoreless string.Thus, both Bannerman and Skorodenski returned from the trip with goals-against averages of zero.HAWK TALK&mdash;In opening camp, Mt. Orval showed his sunny side. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a fresh start,&rdquo; said coach Orval Tessier. &ldquo;I welcomed the team, I introduced Roger Neilson (his new assistant), and I told the players that, as much as possible, I want a very relaxed atmosphere. I told them: &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s not dwell on last year; let&rsquo;s work on the same wave-length, and pull on the same rope.&rsquo; I see now that the Chicago Cubs are loose and laughing the way the White Sox were last year. But now we don&rsquo;t see the White Sox loose and laughing. It was the same way with us last year. We were a losing team, so we paid the price.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-01

Hawks Forced To Take Bad With The Good

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The good news at the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; training camp is that a lot of young prospects are getting an extra good look.The Other side of that coin, however, is that some of those unproven players seized upon the opportunity and have played well enough to make it difficult to make cuts.Look at center, for example. Neal Broten, Keith Acton, Dennis Maruk, Brian Lawton and George Ferguson give the Stars probably more quality depth than any other team in the National Hockey League. Acton and Maruk started camp at a particularly fast pace.Add Jiri Poner and Scott Bjugstad to that list, and you can see the kind of &ldquo;healthy&rdquo; problem coach Bill Mahoney must deal with.Poner was positively dazzling in scrimmages, stickhandling and playmaking with brilliance. He must acclimatize himself to the rugged traffic of the National Hockey League, and he took some thumpings from the Philadelphia Flyers in the first two exhibition games.The Stars won, 6-3, and tied, 4-4, in those games, and the biggest surprise was Bjugstad. The former U.S. Olympian who starred at the University of Minnesota and at Irondale High School, across town from the Met Center, centered lines that got four goals in the two games.Bjugstad snapped in two of those himself in the first game, including the first goal and the game-winner, to break a 3-3 tie and precede a pair of last-minute goals. He added an assist to lead the team in scoring but, equally important, played solidly in the second game and was not scored against in either game.Bjugstad had been a center his whole career except for last season, when he played wing on the Olympic team. Mahoney expects to try him on the wing, too, because of the crowd at center, and said that both Poner and Bjugstad are prime candidates to make the big club.On defense, where Curt Giles, Craig Hartsburg, Gordie Roberts, Brad Maxwell, Tom Hirsch, Craig Levie and Dave Richter are all incumbents, newly acquired Harold Snepsts adds even more depth.With their chances in camp scrimmages and exhibition games, however, that depth is increased by the play of Dave Jensen, Bob Rouse, Randy Velis-chek and Chris Pryor.On the wings, Ken Solheim and Tim Trimper have looked good, among the new prospects. Mark Napier had been flying as perhaps the flashiest veteran winger in the early going.Solheim is back with the Stars after a unique trade. Solheim went to Detroit a year ago, and under certain conditions, the future consideration in the deal could cause Solheim to revert to the Stars. That&rsquo;s what happened, offering a peek into the complex mind of general manager Lou Nanne, who essentially traded Solheim for himself and didn&rsquo;t have to pay his contract for a year of development.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01645/5531862-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="600" height="868"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Bjugstad was an impressive performer in the North Stars&rsquo; training camp.</figcaption></div>Among the impressed viewers was Lome Henning, who will coach the Springfield team that will be split between the Stars and the New York Islanders.&ldquo;There are a lot of good players,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;In fact they&rsquo;re all playing so well, it&rsquo;s hard to try to guess which players I&rsquo;ll be getting.&rdquo;The reasons young players have gotten a better-than-usual look are that the five Canada Cup participants&mdash;Broten, Brian Bellows, Roberts, Lawton and Hirsch&mdash;were given at least a week off before joining the Stars&rsquo; camp.And then, in a very tightly run, high-tempo camp, the pressure of obvious competition for every position left the training room filled with pulled and strained muscles.Such injuries felled Hartsburg, Acton, Brent Ashton, Don Biggs, Dirk Graham. Miroslav Maly, Steve Payne, Snepsts and Velischek, all with pulled or strained groin muscles. Goalie Jon Casey pulled a hamstring, Dino Ciccarelli was letting his surgically-repaired toes rest, and there were numerous other bruises.The most concern came over Richter&rsquo;s abdominal strain and Lawton&rsquo;s injured shoulder. The Richter ailment is similar to the one that caused Al Secord to miss virtually all of last season. Richter had the trouble last year, came to camp in good shape, but suffered a recurrence. The Stars are considering sending him to the specialist in Chicago who ultimately healed Secord.Lawton came off a five-goal surge for Team USA in the Canada Cup, but as soon as he hit the ice in a North Star scrimmage, he hurt the same shoulder that he separated last season. It isn&rsquo;t considered too severe, but because of last year&rsquo;s difficulty it is being watched closely.In all, 20 players out of the 46 in the original camp have been visiting the trainers, either briefly or regularly.But all those injuries didn&rsquo;t affect their play as they were 2-0-1 after three exhibition games, including a 3-0 win over Edmonton. &#9632;

f0021-01

The Stars Are Multiplying In Minny’s Camp

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01750/5531893-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="591" height="1123"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Millen says he&rsquo;ll continue to play his best regardless of his salary dispute.</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Goaltender Greg Millen has decided to play out his option, while right winger Bobby Crawford will go to salary arbitration.Nobody&rsquo;s panicking, both sides say, and nobody&rsquo;s feeling the least bit uncomfortable. It&rsquo;s simply a case of, well, money. It don&rsquo;t sing and dance, as the song says, but it talks plenty loud.&ldquo;I realize that this is a business and I understand both sides now,&rdquo; said Millen, who is entering the option year of a four-year contract. &ldquo;There are no hard feelings on either side. If you&rsquo;ve got a 10-year contract or a two-second contract, you play hard. That&rsquo;s the way you&rsquo;ve been trained.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried about Greg,&rdquo; coach Jack Evans said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll have another good year.&rdquo;If the Hartford Whalers are to realize any of their stated goals, such as continued improvement and even a berth in the playoffs, they&rsquo;ll need another quality season from Millen, now 27. Last year Millen played more games (60) and more minutes (3,583) than any other NHL goaltender.&ldquo;We had fair and friendly talks,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;I want to stay in Hartford, but now it&rsquo;s a matter of waiting and see what happens.&rdquo;President-general manager Emile Francis has decided to play the same wait-and-see game.&ldquo;1 have no objection to someone playing out his option,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;Guys do it all the time.&rdquo;Francis admitted that he had made overtures to Edmonton defenseman Kevin Lowe, who was in the same boat as Millen two years ago.&ldquo;We can always talk during the season and hopefully get matters ironed out,&rdquo; he said.Francis, in a very real sense, holds the hammer.If Millen and the Whalers fail to reach agreement by June 30, he will become a free agent with compensation. The compensation, considering Millen&rsquo;s contract ($160,000), will be two first-round draft picks or a No. 1 and a player, a real player. Millen&rsquo;s new club, if there is one, can protect just four players, including Millen. Plus and here&rsquo;s the kicker, the Whalers can match any offer that Millen might receive and retain his services.Francis and Millen reportedly have argued on the length of a new pact&mdash;two years plus an option&mdash;but remain about $30,000 apart, the same number that keeps surfacing in the Crawford case.Armchair GMs and agents, gather round. The Crawford case is just the one for you.Crawford is a 25-year-old right winger who was the Whalers&rsquo; second leading goal scorer last year with 36. He was claimed by Francis, who knew of Crawford from his St. Louis days, in the waiver draft last October. Crawford would say, jokingly, from time to time, that he had &ldquo;the worst contract in the NHL,&rdquo;&mdash;around $60,000, no bonuses, no personal incentives. But, hey, what did it matter. Crawford was delighted that the Whalers wanted him and he proceded to deliver in a big way. Of his 36 goals, just five came on the power play.Crawford chose the arbitration route rather than playing out his option. He reportedly is seeking $120,000, while management reportedly is offering $90,000. Crawford, his agent, and Francis will meet with arbiter Gary Schreider in Ottawa at a date to be determined.The question is, thus, what should a team pay a player who has done it once and only once?Good question.&ldquo;I figured this was the best way to go,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;What happens, happens. Either way, I can assure you that I will play my best.&rdquo;WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Goal tender Pete Arbic was the first cut of training camp. Arbic was returned to North Bay of the Ontario League&hellip;Left winger David Jensen lined up alongside center Ronnie Francis in the Whalers&rsquo; first exhibition game, an 11-2 drubbing of Pittsburgh, and looked excellent. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s intelligent,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;He won&rsquo;t make the same mistake twice. He&rsquo;s willing to listen and learn.&rdquo; Francis himself has enjoyed a &ldquo;great camp,&rdquo; according to coach Jack Evans&hellip;Captain Mark Johnson has returned after a week&rsquo;s vacation. Johnson was involved in the Canada Cup and his 5-foot-9, 160-pound frame needed some rest. &#9632;

f0022-01

Money Matters To Whaler Players

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;When the Blues held back-to-back intra-squad games before breaking camp in Peoira, IL, 18-year-old defenseman Brian Benning watched from the stands.With its exhibition opener against the Black Hawks only a few days away, the club was taking no chances. The wrist that Benning had broken last January while playing for the Portland Winter Hawks had been pronounced fit, but the Blues were playing it extra cautious. They wanted to be sure they could show off a healthy Benning to the hometown fans.If it seemed odd that the Blues would make such a fuss over a player drafted in the second round, 26th overall, consider that Benning is their highest draft choice since 1981.In 1982, the Blues didn&rsquo;t draft until No. 50. In 1983, they didn&rsquo;t draft at all. This year, they traded away their first-round pick as part of the deal for goalie Rick Wamsley.And so Benning quickly became a valuable commodity, not just because of his status as a high draft choice but because of the talent he displayed early in training camp. After one week, coach Jacques Demers was convinced that the youngster had a good chance to start the season with the Blues.&ldquo;After a few exhibition games, we may feel different,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m telling you the truth, he&rsquo;s got a super chance. So far he&rsquo;s played like a veteran.&rdquo;Dave Pichette and Jim Pavese are Benning&rsquo;s competition for the third spot on left defense behind Terry Johnson and Tim Bothwell. With only a half season of junior behind him, Benning is by far the least experienced.&ldquo;Sometimes, lack of experience doesn&rsquo;t matter if you&rsquo;re talented,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;He scored a goal in a scrimmage that was unbelievable. The kind of play only a special player can make.&ldquo;What I like about him is his compsoure, his ability to find the open man, and his ability to handle the puck.&rdquo;As it turned out, Benning was a late scratch from the lineup from the Blues&rsquo; only home exhibition game because he was &ldquo;not up to par physically.&rdquo;After a summer of limited activity because of an elbow-length cast, the first nine days of training camp were a struggle for Ben ning.&ldquo;My lower body is in top form,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s taken a toll on my upper body.&rdquo;Benning said the bone in his wrist has completely healed, but the muscles still were a bit weak.The Blues also took a long look at Allan Perry, a third-round draft choice but the 18-year-old goalie was almost certainly ticketed fora season with Windsor of the Ontario League.Perry is skipping his senior year at Mount St. Charles High School in Rhode Island, perhaps envisioning the kind of leap to the NHL made last season by Tom Barrasso. Two years ago. Perry&rsquo;s team beat Barrasso&rsquo;s team in a high school game.&ldquo;To beat that kid, it was a big confidence booster, especially after what he did last year coming right out of high school,&rdquo; Perry said. &ldquo;I hope they (the Blues) take that into consideration&mdash;you&rsquo;re young but you still can play.&rdquo;At 5-foot-8, Perry is more like Toronto&rsquo;s Allan Bester than the 6-foot-3 Barrasso.&ldquo;I think I can play now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not up to me. If I was a little bigger, they might give me a better shot.&rdquo;The obstacles standing in Perry&rsquo;s path to the NHL are veterans Mike Liut, Rick Wamsley and Rick Heinz. Liut and Wamsley are expected to be protected in the waiver draft, leaving Heinz available.If he is not claimed, Heinz likely will be the goaltender sent to Peoria of the International League. Demers has said the Blues will keep only two goaltenders this season.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s never been a happy marriage around three goaltenders,&rdquo; he said.BLUENOTES&mdash;Left winger Perry Anderson and right winger Perry Ganchar were the Blues&rsquo; leading scorers through nine days of scrimmages&hellip;Defenseman Rik Wilson is more muscular than ever after a summer in which he surpassed his goal of bench pressing 400 pounds. &#9632;

Blues Taking Precautions With Benning

The decision whether Canadians can watch National Hockey League games on the CTV network involving the 14 U.S.-based teams and the Quebec Nordiques will be decided in a county court room in Chicago.The dispute splits the six Canadian teams (Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal), Mol-son Breweries and Canadian Sports Network (CSN), the producers of Hockey Night In Canada. On the other side, are the Nordiques and the 14 U.S. teams in the NHL, Carling-O&rsquo;Keefe Brewery (owners of the Nordiques) and the NHL administration, headed by president John Ziegler.The Chicago court will decide whether the Trans Border Agreement that the U.S. clubs made with CSN-Molson not to televise their games in Canada without the consent of the Canadian teams has expired or whether it has a year to run, as CSN contends.Courts in Chicago and Ontario have already ruled in favor of Carling O&rsquo;Keefe.The six Canadian teams sought an in-juction to prevent the NHL owners from discussing the dispute at their meetings, but the Supreme Court of Ontario dismissed it.In Chicago, Cook County Circuit Judge Irving Norman ruled that the NHL lawsuit asking for a declaratory judgment on the Trans Border Agreement is legitimate.Ziegler told Frank Orr of the Toronto Star that the dispute would not lead to a split between the Canadian and U.S. teams and denied that the NHL was a pawn in the &ldquo;beer&rdquo; war between Molson and Carling-O&rsquo;Keefe.Goodbye Montreal, hello Toronto.That about sums up the NHL&rsquo;s decision to conduct its entry draft in Toronto after 20 years in Montreal.The principle reason for the change. NHL president John Ziegler said, is a shortage of hotel rooms next June 14-16 in Montreal because of the scheduling of the Grand Prix of Canada for that weekend.The &lsquo;85 draft is expected to be at Maple Leaf Gardens and will likely be televised again.The NHL also plans to run its executive congress, dealer&rsquo;s exhibition, board of governors meetings, awards banquet and draft during the same week.In addition to that announcement, the board also passed several rule changes. Concerning the waiver draft, clubs can only protect 16 players and two goalies instead of 18 and two.In the event of ties at the end of the regular season, the tie-breaking procedure will be the differential of the club&rsquo;s goals for and against instead of most goals.And finally, the home team now has the option of going on the ice last at the start of each period, preventing unnecesarry delays.Referee Andy van Hellemond is the first NHL official to wear a helmet but he may not be the last.Van Hellemond donned a helmet for an exhibition match between Toronto and Edmonton, and other refs and linse-man are expected to experiment with helmets during the exhibition season.Minor and junior officials have wom the headgear for several years.&ldquo;Pretty soon, the only people left in the game who aren&rsquo;t protected by helmets will be the officials,&rdquo; van Hellemond said. &ldquo;We wear shinpads worth $ 100 and I wear a corset (to brace a weak back) that costs three times that much. Why shouldn&rsquo;t we wear a $30 helmet to protect an important part of the body?&rdquo;Phil Esposito, the former star center of Boston and recent inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, will have his former number (7) hung from the rafters at the Jan. 17 game between the Bruins and Calgary Flames.A pennant with Esposito&rsquo;s name and number will be raised for pemament display, along with those of six other Bruins previously honored.The others are: Eddie Shore, Lionel Hitchman, Bobby Orr, Dit Clapper, John Bucyk and Milt Schmidt.Dale Hawerchuk has been chosen to succeed Lucien DeBlois as captain of the Winnipeg Jets.Hawerchuk, 21, becomes one of the youngest players in history to be appointed captain.Joanne Hull Robinson, the former wife of hockey star Bobby Hull, has failed to win the right to sell shares in the Winnipeg Jets held by her husband.Hull&rsquo;s former wife won a $460,000 divorce settlement three years ago and wanted to sell Hull&rsquo;s shares in the National Hockey League franchise back to the Jets for $110,000. But a Manitoba court ruling supports the claim that businessmen James Gobuty and Robert Handler hold a two-thirds interest in Hull&rsquo;s shares. &#9632;

TV Dispute To Be Ruled On In Chicago

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;&rdquo;I don&rsquo;t mind the tournament so much,&rdquo; said Bruin general manager Harry Sinden. &ldquo;It stirs interest and it raises money for the players&rsquo; pension fund.&ldquo;But the teams run a heck of a risk by allowing their very best players to play. &ldquo;Sinden&rsquo;s Bruins ran that risk when Rick Middleton, Ray Bourque and goalie Pete Peeters competed for Team Canada in the Canada Cup series.And they lost when Peeters sprained his left ankle in a Team Canada practice and then aggravated the injury in the Canadians&rsquo; 6-5 victory over Sweden in the Cup final to the extent that his lower leg was placed in a cast.There&rsquo;s a possibility the injury could &bull;prevent Peeters, the Vezina Trophy winner as the National Hockey League&rsquo;s best goalie two years ago, from playing in the Bruins&rsquo; opener Oct. 11 against Pittsburgh.&ldquo;If a player is hurt and out for awhile,&rdquo; said Sinden, &ldquo;the good that is accomplished by the Canada Cup tournament doesn&rsquo;t outweigh the risk.&ldquo;I sit on pins and needles worrying about my players. I hate watching the games for that reason. Not only me, but everyone who has their best players on the team.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I sit on pins and needles worrying about my players.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;You run the same risk in practice, but if it happens in practice at least he&rsquo;s doing it as a member of the Bruins. You&rsquo;ve got some control over the situation.&rdquo;Peeters, who is a key player in whatever hopes the Bruins have of being Stanley Cup contenders, hurt his ankle in practice on Sept. 17 on the eve of the second and final game against Sweden in the cham-pionship series. He didn&rsquo;t think it was serious.&ldquo;I had been looking forward to this tournament for so long that I just couldn&rsquo;t stay out of the final game,&rdquo; he said.With 18 seconds left in the second period, Sweden&rsquo;s Thomas Steen scored his team&rsquo;s fourth goal and Peeters was re-injured himself.&ldquo;It should have been a routine save but I caught the edge of my skate and rolled over on the ankle again,&rdquo; said Peeters. &ldquo;I thought about taking myself out. Maybe I should have. But I wondered to myself, &lsquo;Would the guys think I&rsquo;m bailing out on them or what?&rdquo;&rsquo;Early in the third period, Mats Nas lund barrelled into him on a breakaway, damaging the ankle even more.The Canada Cup series ended for Peeters at 1:40 of the finale when he slid across the crease in a vain effort to stop Kent Nilsson&rsquo;s goal that brought Sweden to within one. 6-5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01730/5531972-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="582" height="798"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pete Peeters hurt his ankle in the Canada Cup and is expected to miss Boston&rsquo;s opener.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The ankle couldn&rsquo;t take the pressure,&rdquo; said Peeters. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t even stand up.&rdquo;The injury was diagnosed as a sprain and Peeters was fitted with a short leg cast at University Hospital in Edmonton and the Peeters watch began in Boston.&ldquo;You know,&rdquo; said Peeters, &ldquo;I still haven&rsquo;t had a chance to see the Canada Cup. I don&rsquo;t even know what it looks like. I feel kind of cheated in that respect.&rdquo;Peeters was instrumental in winning the Cup for Canada since he was in goal for the tense 3-2 overtime victory over the Soviet Union in the semi-final round.&ldquo;People always ask me what my biggest thrill in hockey is,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now I can tell them.&rdquo;At the Bruins&rsquo; training camp, Peeters&rsquo; injury focused in on Boston&rsquo;s backup goaltending strength. Only one of five goalies in camp, Doug Keans, has played in a professional game. Keans would be the likely starter in the Bruins&rsquo; opener if Peeters were still sidelined.&ldquo;If I start out No. 1 it would only be until Pete gets back,&rdquo; said Keans. &ldquo;Let the chips fall where they fall. If I start the season No. 1, fine, if not I&rsquo;ll be ready for when I do play.&rdquo;The choice for a backup to Keans would be between Cleon Daskalakis, the all-American free agent from Boston University, and Allin Larochelle, who played last year for Saskatoon in the Western Hockey League.&ldquo;Pete&rsquo;s injury doesn&rsquo;t change things,&rdquo; said LaRochelle. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t change anyone&rsquo;s perspective. All I can do is show what I can do and work for the future.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably spend a couple of years in the minors improving. In time, I&rsquo;ll be up. You&rsquo;ve got to plan on the minors for awhile. Not too many make the jump right away.&rdquo;The other goalies in camp are Mike Bishop, 19, drafted last June from the Toronto Marlboros, who faces another year in junior; and Don Sylvestri, 23, a 1981 pick out of Clarkson College, whose future is uncertain. &#9632;

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Peelers’ Canada Cup Injury Irks Sinden

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Following a recent preseason hockey game between the Sabres and Boston Bruins in Rochester. NY. Buffalo general manager-coach Scott Bowman stood outside his team&rsquo;s lockerroom commenting on the team&rsquo;s fortunes.&ldquo;Do you realize that we could have as many as five of our draft picks from last year (1983) playing on this year&rsquo;s team, &ldquo;said Bowman.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s incredible.&ldquo;Not very many teams can make a claim like that about their draft.&rdquo;The five players Bowman referred to are goalie Tom Barrasso, left winger Richard Hajdu, right winger Normand Lacombe, and centers Adam Creighton and John Tucker.Barrasso, of course, has already established himself with the team as well as the National Hockey League.Hajdu and Lacombe both have outside chances to break into the lineup.But the real battle going on in this year&rsquo;s training camp is the one between Creighton and Tucker, both of whom have a good chance to making the parent club.Creighton, 19, played with Ottawa of the Ontario League for the majority of last season, although he did play in seven games with the Sabres.Competition is heavy at the center position. Dave Andreychuk seems to have a lock on it that carries over from last season.Veteran Gil Perreault, unless he plays at left wing, will be back. Rounding out the group competing for the position is Brent Peterson, and minor-leaguers Randy Cunneyworth, Gates Orlando, Claude Verret, all of whom have had excellent training camps so far, and Geordie Robertson.At 6-foot-5, 205 pounds, Creighton is certainly big enough to be considered NHL material. Does he think he&rsquo;ll stick with the Sabres this season or will he end up back in the OHL again?&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather not think about that if I don&rsquo;t have to,&rdquo; Creighton said. &ldquo;I know I have my weaknesses as far as my play goes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not as fast a skater as some of the other guys are on this team. Because of my size it takes me awhile longer it seems to get going and build up speed going down the ice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01644/5532010-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="586" height="922"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02425/5532003-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="582" height="928"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sabre boss Scott Bowman (left) likes the competition on the team, while Adam Creighton (right) worries about making it.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I also find myself wandering a little bit when I&rsquo;m on the ice as well.&ldquo;One thing I worked on this summer was to build up my upper body strength. That&rsquo;s important to me. If you can get worked over by a guy and be able to take it without getting hurt or knocked off your skates, I feel that will discourage the opponent after a time.&ldquo;In the end, I figure that if I work hard I will make the team. If I make it, I&rsquo;ll know I did my best and will continue to do so. If I don&rsquo;t make it, I&rsquo;ll still know I did my best and will try to improve myself back in junior.&rdquo;Tucker, on the other hand, knows that if he doesn&rsquo;t make it with the Sabres he&rsquo;s bound for Rochester.&ldquo;I think the few games I played with the Sabres last season really helped me out a lot,&rdquo; said Tucker, who played 21 games for the Sabres last season and the remainder of the season with Kitchener of the OHL. &ldquo;That was definitely made a difference for my coming into training camp this season and at least knowing what to expect.&ldquo;I seem to have more confidence in my play this year than I did last season. I know that things are different in the NHL than they were in junior. Here things are much quicker and you have to be shooting all the time. You don&rsquo;t have time to play with the puck.&ldquo;I know that there are quite a few guys ahead of me. I have my work cut for me. I&rsquo;ll do my best to stick with Buffalo.&rdquo;Bowman is quite high on both players.&ldquo;Both Creighton and Tucker have the tools to make it in the NHL,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;Having two guys like that on the team at center gives us depth and competition that very few other teams have.&ldquo;And competition like that makes for a good hockey team.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Bowman Talking Proud About Draft Picks

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03275/5532041-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg"></div>If the Calgary Flames are going to take a serious run at the Edmonton Oilers this season, they&rsquo;re going to need a healthy Paul Reinhart in the lineup. Based on the early pre-season results, the Hames can count on that.Reinhart, coming off serious back surgery which-threatens to end his NHL career, earned player of the week honors after scoring three goals in the Flames 8-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks, pushing Calgary&rsquo;s pre-season record to 4-2. He also added an assist in that game. &#9632;

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Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;There is less of Randy Carlyle to watch this season. Twenty-three pounds less.His gesture has tickled the Winnipeg Jets so much they are tempted to name him captain.&ldquo;I think in doing so he has demonstrated the tremendous desire he has to play here,&rdquo; said coach Barry Long. &ldquo;He has illustrated to other players his intentions. That&rsquo;s the kind of dedication and commitment we need to be a winner.&rdquo;When the playoffs ended so abruptly last April, the merciful sight of the 220-pound Carlyle struggling to be effective on two bad knees was over. As battered and buttered as he was, the Jets had no one better.&ldquo;We are depending on him,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;He is a quality defenseman who is young enough (28) to have one of his best years. Staying away from injuries is important. You start by being in shape.&rdquo;Breezing through his first 60-minute skate, showing no effects of any lingering injury, Carlyle showered and dressed before pausing to discuss his new look.&ldquo;Weight is supposed to be an internal thing,&rdquo; he said, smiling at the double meaning of his remark. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not at liberty to say what I am, but the last time I weighed 196 pounds was in my last year of junior. Being this light, it can&rsquo;t do anything but help me.&rdquo;Starting anew with a self-negotiated contract, Carlyle said the motive of his weight loss was based on mutual respect.&ldquo;The Jets have shown they have an interest in me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a 28-year-old hockey player and, hopefully, I can perform for these people. This is the least I can do.&rdquo;Using a diet introduced last fall at the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; camp, Carlyle limited himself to a &ldquo;solid&rdquo; breakfast and an &ldquo;adequate&rdquo; lunch and supper while staying away from red meats.&ldquo;It was more a question of sticking to the basics,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it isn&rsquo;t easy during the summer. We entertain a lot at our cottage near Sudbury. I was accustomed to eating at 10 o&rsquo;clock, then going to bed. But I forced myself to eat at six, then stayed away from food.&rdquo;Looking back on the season past, he dismissed it as a write-off.&ldquo;One thing after another happened,&rdquo; he said, recalling the beginning of the end of a six-year stay in Pittsburgh. &ldquo;I was hurt all season. After awhile, it became apparent a change was the best thing that could possibly happen. It was time for a change.&rdquo;Idle for a month, he played the day after the Jets acquired him&mdash;helping the team to a 7-3 win in Los Angeles on Mar. 6.&ldquo;I played three or four games, then bruised my kneecap and missed another three weeks,&rdquo; said Carlyle. &ldquo;I came back one game before the playoffs. We were going to meet Edmonton Oilers. You better be ready.&rdquo;Though the meeting was brief, Carlyle seemed to strike a rapport with Winnipeg fans who liked the generalship, the fundamental skills and the touch of meanness mixed with strength of the 1980-81 winner of the Norris Trophy.&ldquo;I will definitely do the best I can possibly do,&rdquo; vowed Carlyle, issuing a promise to the people who are eager to see him perform for an entire season.BENCH BITS&mdash;Swedish national coach Leif Boork had to sever his ties with the Jets when he accepted the fulltime position before the Canada Cup. Boork had worked as a scout for the Jets for the past 10 years&hellip;Laurie Boschman is still slightly affected by his shoulder injury of last season. He has lost 5-10 per cent of his extremeal rotation, which would be serious if he were a baseball player&hellip;Scott Amiel, Andrew McBain and Jim Kyte have added valuable pounds of muscle to their upper bodies, complying with the team&rsquo;s off-season suggestions.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01683/5532072-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="582" height="724"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Carlyle has shed a lot of extra baggage and the Jets&rsquo; brass is impressed.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Carlyle Lose Flab, Gains Respect

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The first two weeks of involvement with the Vancouver Canucks are going to be crucial to new coach Bill LaForge.The 33-year-old Edmonton native is coming in with such unusual ideas on how to develop a winning attitude, he risks turning off all the veterans on the club. He doesn&rsquo;t walk softly, and perhaps some people perceived his training camp format for Duncan was a little juvenile. Can you really believe Team Desire and Team Hustle?But while this may seem like stuff even youth hockey teams couldn&rsquo;t accept, the Canucks don&rsquo;t appear to be turning off to the man. His enthusiasm is contagious, the only thing people are wondering about in Vancouver is whether it catches in time to delay any reaction to being treated like children.LaForge has installed a one-mile run after practice for the team that loses a scrimmage. While it may have seemed unfair, LaForge defended it by saying, &ldquo;The weaker team will just have to work harder. Life is seldom fair.&rdquo;Coming from a man who has just lost a six-month old child, his comment on life&rsquo;s fairness can be easily accepted, even by the exhausted runners.&ldquo;Every coach has a different approach to the things he wants to do and that is good,&rdquo; said veteran Thomas Gradin, who over the years has been Vancouver&rsquo;s best player. &ldquo;The things like the training camp run are fine, only as long as they don&rsquo;t stay around long enough as to be oppressive.&rdquo;Indeed Gradin missed much of training camp with the Canada Cup tournament, but one veteran who seems to be accepting the LaForge stuff is captain Stan Smyl, who LaForge needs on his side.&ldquo;When Bill LaForge wrote all the players a letter during the summer, it was an excellent move,&rdquo; said Smyl. &ldquo;I read that letter and realized it was the first time a coach had ever written to me in a positive tone. Yes, it was exciting. You thought to yourself, &lsquo;Hey, maybe we can do something.&rsquo; &ldquo;Perhaps they can. Certainly LaForge&rsquo;s goal of 50 wins, or at least fewer than 30 losses, is ambitious, a mark which no Canuck coach has ever dreamt of, let alone achieved.But at the same time, LaForge&rsquo;s innocence of the National Hockey League could cause some profound disappointments down the line.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it,&rdquo; said Wayne Gretzky at the Canada Cup. &ldquo;Most teams in the NHL prove every year you can only go so far without talent. Hard work only works until you meet talent working just as hard.&rdquo;While LaForge&rsquo;s attitude may be a touch naive, it might also be exactly what the Canucks could use after the systematic approach of a Roger Neilson and the fiery rhetoric of a Harry Neale.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve tried a few different approaches,&rdquo; said Smyl, and this one may be our best chance.&rdquo;Whatever his level of acceptance, LaForge has his players fighting each other tooth and nail in training camp. Michel Petit went at it against Craig Coxe, Mike Stevens with Cam Neely and other assorted exchanges. Whether this is a little too early is another matter of con-jecture, though it does indicate the players feel they can attract the coach&rsquo;s eye by throwing punches instead of scoring goals.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had coaches who&rsquo;ve said maybe we can win, maybe we can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Smyl. &ldquo;The new guy doesn&rsquo;t think that way and it&rsquo;s going to be good, particularly for the kids on the club. He&rsquo;ll be able to shape their thinking quite a bit.&rdquo; &#9632;

Canucks Experience The Hard Life

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;Two weeks of training camp led Quebec coach Michel Bergeron to change his ideas about sticking with all his veteran forwards for the start of the regular season.One was a positive thing, the play of utility forward Ed Lee. The other was bad news, namely injuries to centers Andre Savard, Paul Gillis and Mike Eagles.After the injures to Savard and Gillis, Bergeron moved Lee from left wing to center. Lee has responded well, quickly becoming one of the standouts in pre-season games and workouts.&ldquo;We have never seen this much depth this early in the year, &ldquo;said Bergeron before the start of the regular season. &ldquo;Someone like Lee has continually impressed me in practices and in games. You can see that he is a few years older than most of the rookies and that he has a little more experience. I really like the way he handles himself on the ice.&rdquo;Lee, 22, is from Rochester, NY. Last season with Princeton University, he had 28 points in only 11 games. He also played many positions on the team, and was used to kill penalties on the power play.&ldquo;I am happy so far, although I quickly noticed that the pace is so much quicker in the NHL,&rdquo; said Lee. &ldquo;I have been treated very fairly in Quebec. Some friends hinted to me that I would not get a fair chance if I came to Quebec for a tryout but that hasn&rsquo;t been true at all. I want to play in the NHL and I am not thinking at all about Fredericton or the AHL for the moment.&rdquo;Red Fleming, who scouts for the Nordiques in the northern United States, first recommended Lee to Quebec. He was drafted in the fourth round, 94th overall, back in 1981.&ldquo;We were able to steal him from Chicago at the last minute and they had their eyes on him,&rdquo; said Fleming. &ldquo;We offered him a contract then but he decided to finish his studies at Princeton first. He was a team leader there, playing all three positions up front.&rdquo;Lee was getting lots of ice time even before some injuries hit Quebec. Gillis, the Nordique leader in aggressiveness along with Dale Hunter, had a finger fractured by teammate Mario Marois.A few days before the Gillis accident, Savard had his nose broken by a flying puck, although he would miss only about two weeks and return with a face mask. Eagles, who was expected to fill in for Gillis, soon fractured his right hand falling into the boards. Both Gillis and Eagles were not expected back into the lineup until mid-October, although both kept skating with the team.Bergeron made it clear he would wait until the very last moment possible before deciding what to do in goal. He is starting the season with three netminders on the roster. A few veterans, including Blake Wesley, Andre Dore and Marian Stastny, disappointed in the early stages of training camp. Bergeron&rsquo;s impatience became evident, even if he was not quick to point the finger at anyone.Quebec was 1-1-1 after three pre-season games, with a tie and a win against Toronto and a loss to Buffalo. Peter Stastny was ejected from the game in Buffalo after he bumped a linesman, and was subsequently given a three-game suspension by the league.Bergeron tried to downplay the bumping incident.&ldquo;It was purely an accident and we have the video tape to prove it,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &#9632;

Injuries Put A Crimp In Bergeron’s Plans

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;Despite a rather obvious need for a left winger who can put the puck in the net more often than once a month, Washington general manager David Poile declined to make a big trade that might upset the newly-acquired stability of his improving team.Poile was gambling that one of the young players on his roster might develop a homegrown touch around the net and save him the trauma of a multi-player offering for a proven scorer such as Los Angeles&rsquo; Charlie Simmer.Although five intra-squad games and one exhibition do not make a National Hockey League forward, Poile is hoping that he may have found the man of his dreams in Andre Hidi, the top player in Canadian college hockey last winter.Hidi scored six goals in the intra-squad series, conducted under regular game conditions except for the absence of power plays and the seven Capitals who participated in the Canada Cup. No other player connected more than three times.Then Hidi scored a goal in the opening exhibition game, as the Capitals defeated the New York Rangers, 3-1, at Richfield, OH. In that contest, Washington was in complete control, posting a 44-12 edge in shots, but experienced its usual difficulty scoring.&ldquo;We kept up to our usual ratio of 1 to 15,&rdquo; Poile said sarcastically. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t add to our scoring touch. But Hidi is on a roll. On his goal, he went right to the net. He and (Dean) Evason (who assisted) are working well together.&ldquo;We brought Hidi in last season just to travel with the team. He wound up playing in what I consider the biggest game in the team&rsquo;s history, beating Philly for second place, and he was not out of place out there.&rdquo;Poile signed Hidi after he scored 45 goals in 49 games while leading the University of Toronto to the Canadian title. Before attending the U of T, Hidi was a stalwart on the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario League. Joining the team on Mar. 29, Hidi found himself in uniform in that big game in the Spectrum Apr. 1, when Alan Haworth was idled by a bruised chest. Hidi also skated in two playoff victories over the Flyers.&ldquo;Having met everybody last year made it a little easier at camp,&rdquo; Hidi said. &ldquo;It was a matter of being here, getting a taste of competition and getting accustomed to the environment. It gave me something to look forward to, rather than a big question mark.&ldquo;They emphasized last year that they were looking for strength on the left wing and I knew that&rsquo;s what they wanted, so I lifted weights this summer, heavier weights early and then lighter ones as it got closer to camp.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been able to score. What I&rsquo;m trying to work on here is quickness. I have to react quicker, particularly in covering the point. There&rsquo;s a big change from college hockey to pro. You can&rsquo;t take time with the puck and you have to move faster.&rdquo;Hidi, who is pursuing a doctorate in economics and political theory, is not counting on brains alone to carve out an NHL career. His upper body work this summer left his 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame in such good shape his teammates nicknamed him &ldquo;Muscles.&rdquo;&ldquo;Hidi goes to the net aggressively and he&rsquo;s big and strong,&rdquo; said coach Bryan Murray. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not physical at this point ant for him to be involved a little more would help. He&rsquo;ll willing to try, but it&rsquo;s not something that&rsquo;s in his nature. I think we have to encourage it.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s more in the picture now than I thought he would be coming into camp. He has to impress us over the whole camp, of course. But he has a touch around the net. He&rsquo;s one of the strong guys in the organization and he worked hard in the off-season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a responsible player and he tries hard defensively, too. His weakness lies in his inability to get off the mark in a hurry. That&rsquo;s an area where there&rsquo;s a big difference between pro and college hockey.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Defenseman Dave Shand, impressive during his early days of camp, was struck below the left eye by a Scott Stevens slap shot. He suffered a cracked sinus bone and needed 16 stitches to close the cut on his cheek&hellip;Stevens and rookie Ed Kastelic engaged in two spirited fights during the intra-squad games. &ldquo;1 guess we&rsquo;ll have to put them on the same team from now on,&rdquo; coach Bryan Murray said. &#9632;

Hidi Has Muscle And Much More

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;&rdquo;How they handle the people is more important than how they handle the puck.&rdquo;Those are the words of Walt MacPeek, who covers the Rangers for the Newark, NJ Star-Ledger, and he was talking about the competition for jobs that was so much more intense than in the Ranger training camps of recent years and potentially so much more divisive.As MacPeek spoke, the Rangers prepared to meet the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum in the second of a home-and-home series of exhibition games. It was a Ranger-Islanders series in name only; these players, literally, could not tell each other without a scorecard.The Islanders had sent a skeleton team to Madison Square Garden two nights earlier for a 7-1 Ranger victory, and on this night, a 6-2 Islander win, there was only one Ranger on the ic&mdash;goaltender Glen Hanlon&mdash;who is assured of a job with the team come opening night, Oct. 11.Aside from Hanlon, the other players in uniform were goalie Ron Scott; defensemen Ron Greschner, Dave Maloney, Willie Huber, Simo Saarinen, Steve Richmond, Terry Carkner; left wingers Nick Fotiu, Chris Kontos, Randy Heath, George McPhee; centers Larry Patey, Mark Morrison, Mike Rogers, Dave Gagner; right wingers Mike Blais-dell, Blaine Stoughton, Cam Connor, Gordie Walker.A look at the lineup for that exhibition gam&mdash;a mixture of veterans concerned about their jobs and younger players eager to take them away&mdash;provides a sense of what GM Craig Patrick and coach Herb Brooks were up against in the following two weeks.As Hanlon pointed out about the same time last year, this is the time when a player thinks of himself and not the team, a rare moment for a professional athlete. The score of the game might be meaningless in terms of the standings, but the game itself is far from meaningless, with Patrick and Brooks watching from the Coliseum pressbox, noticing everything, as assistant coaches Carol Vadnais and Wayne Thomas choreographed the jobmarket ballet from behind the bench.It was a night when one of the prettiest goals was orchestrated by the team&rsquo;s Hartford Connection, three exWhalers&mdash;Fotiu, Rogers, Stoughton&mdash;who were fighting for their jobs.And it was a night when a veteran defenseman, Maloney, went down to block a shot in the game&rsquo;s last 30 seconds.&ldquo;Quite a vicious business,&rdquo; he would say later of the entire roster-culling process.There had already been some significant personnel moves in preceding days. Pierre Larouche, after scoring a hat trick in the 7-1 victory at the Garden, announced his intention to play out his option and become a free agent after contract negotiations reached an apparent impasse.Scoring two goals that night at the Garden was Reijo Ruotsalainen, normally a defenseman but skating on left wing alongside Mark Pavelich and Anders Hedberg, an international line with, from left to right, a Finn, an American and a Swede.Not only would the Rexy-on-wing experiment ease the personnel congestion on the backline, with one of the league&rsquo;s swiftest skaters at forward, it would also inspire the team to do more skating.&ldquo;My feeling always has been that we should look at him up there,&rdquo; said Brooks. &ldquo;We want to give him the full training camp. The way he&rsquo;s been playing hasn&rsquo;t hurt him a bit.&rdquo;The advantage of having Ruotsalainen as a forward, explained an obviously pleased Hedberg, was that &ldquo;he&rsquo;s not a conventional forward. He has a lot of imagination and he uses it.&rdquo;Ruotsalainen, normally shy and reluctant to speak because of trouble with the English language, was uncharacteristically holding court for reporters in the Ranger dressing room. He was hard-pressed to evaluate the experiment after just one game, but allowed that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s good to do it now, because the season is just starting. I wouldn&rsquo;t be happy if it was just a one-game thing and they kept switching back and forth. The only difference is that I have to skate more. It&rsquo;s easy to play with Pav and Anders. They think the same way.&rdquo;Ruotsalainen was one of four Ranger to sign new contracts that week (the others were McPhee, Hanlon and Rogers).Meanwhile, contrary to earlier speculation, the Rangers were unlikely to suffer significant damage in the October equalization draft. Their unprotected list of three or four was expected to include Connor (a needed face-off specialist), Robbie Ftorek, Patey&mdash;all in their 30s&mdash;and perhaps right winger Mike Backman. This would leave Fotiu protected and eliminate the danger of the native New Yorkers&rsquo; being snatched by the Devils or another Patrick Division team.But that was the least of the Rangers&rsquo; personnel problems. The biggest headache was whittling the squad down to roster-size, and the task of telling several veterans and eager young prospects convinced they deserved to stay, that they were being sent to the minors, or back to juniors. &#9632;

It’s A ‘Vicious Business’ For Ranger Players

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>BALTIMOR&mdash;If the Baltimore Skipjacks are to repeat as Southern Division champions, they&rsquo;ll have to find a way to make up for the loss of prolific scorer Paul Gardner.Gardner, now with the Washington Capitals, pumped in 81 points last year in only 54 games, including 32 goals (five game-winners). He racked up nine of those while quarterbacking the almost-impossible-to-stop Skipjack power play.Additionally, the Skipjacks may be without goaltender Roberto Romano. &ldquo;The Great Roberto&rdquo;&mdash;who was eventually called up to the parent Pittsburgh Penguins&mdash;was the winning goaltender in one half of Baltimore&rsquo;s victories, sporting a 23-6-1 record in the Skipjacks&rsquo; 46-24-10 season.Vince Tremblay and Jim Ralph combined for a more modest 22-18-9 mark while youngster Georges Gagnon, a candidate to make the Skipjacks this season, was 1-0.Romano is expected to stick with the Pens, who also have Michel Dion and Denis Herron.Add the new or additional affiliations around the Southern Division and it&rsquo;s easy to see why Baltimore coach Gene Ubriaco isn&rsquo;t expecting an easy run in the AHL South during 1984-85.Ubriaco is hoping for return to form of center Mitch Lamoureux, who fell from 57 goals in 1982-83 to 30 goals last year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping Mitch will pick where he left off a couple of years back,&rdquo; said Ubriaco. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s looking real good right now, but center is one position Pittsburgh has a lot going.&ldquo;I think Mitch was such a sparkplug in his first year, that maybe he wasn&rsquo;t as ready as he should have been last year.&rdquo;Half of Lamoureux&rsquo;s goals last year came on the power play. He had only one game-winning goal all season.The goaltending situation is complicated. In addition to waiting to see how the goaltending shapes up with Pittsburgh, there&rsquo;s the possibility the Skipjacks will try and get Ralph back on loan from Chicago. Ralph, who is battling Warren Skorodenski for the backup job in Chicago, is Black Hawk property, but the Hawks are without an AHL affiliate.Chicago&rsquo;s top minor-leaguers are slated for Milwaukee of the International League, but it is likely Ralph, who temporarily left hockey last after a dispute with then Springfield coach Doug Sauter, would prefer to play in the faster-paced AHL.Ubriaco also has his eyes on two other netminders, Cleo Ruin and Mike Vacanti.Despite the missing links from last season, Ubriaco is expecting to start the season with more familiar faces than he&rsquo;s seen in the last four years of coaching.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had more than four guys back, but this year I&rsquo;m expecting 1012,&rdquo; said Ubriaco. &ldquo;But anything over four is great. That&rsquo;s fewer players I&rsquo;ll have to repeat the rules to.&rdquo;Ubriaco is counting on Jim Hamilton (34 goals, 45 assists), a left-handed shot, to continue his work on right wing.&ldquo;He goes to the net better playing the right side,&rdquo; said Ubriaco. &ldquo;And he plays in his own end better too. He had such a good playoff last year.&ldquo;I like putting him out on right wing. It&rsquo;s easy for him to do it because he&rsquo;s one of the most skilled players in the league.&rdquo;The Skipjacks will have their share of enforcers. Bennett Wolf, who once had 408 minutes in penalties in the International League (349 last year in Baltimore), will be back along with Greg Teb-butt (125 minutes in 44 games) and possibly Jack Carlson.But all the beef won&rsquo;t compensate for the crafty Gardner. Lamoureux, Hamilton and company will have a lot of scoring to do.DOWN SOUTH&mdash;In Rochester&rsquo;s 5-3 exhibition loss to Fredericton Sept. 21, Amerk hopeful Colin Chisholm scored two goals, marking the second straight season an Amerk rookie defenseman has scored twice in the exhibition opener. Jim Hofford did it last year. Chisholm scored only one goal in 34 games last for the University of Alberta&hellip;The St. Catharines Saints received defenseman Dave Farrish among the first Toronto cuts. Others assigned included Basil McRae, Fred Perlini, Gary Yaremchuk and Leigh Verstraete&hellip;Binghamton is not likely to get right winger Randy Pierce back. Pierce, who scored 21 goals in 46 Binghamton games, was playing on the Ron Francis line with David A. Jensen in Hartford&rsquo;s training camp&hellip;New Rochester coach Jim Schoenfeld and assistant coach John Van Boxmeer were roommates as members of the Buffalo Sabres. Schoenfeld is a hit with the Rochester media&hellip;Some trade talk in Boston could affect Hershey. Bruin blueliner Randy Hillier is reportedly looking for a new home&hellip;AHL teams were shocked to see that former badman Paul Stewart is an NHL referee trainee&hellip;The Buffalo Sabres brought in goaltender Dave Parro to camp in case they&rsquo;re unable to get Jacques Cloutier past waivers to go to Rochester. Also in camp looking for an Amerk spot was Bob McNamara, son of Toronto GM Gerry MacNamara, and Dave Burkholder, who backstopped Rochester Institute of Technology to the 1983 Division Two NCAA title. &#9632;

Skipjacks Looking For Lost Scoring Power

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;When they slipped into the American Hockey League lineup the skeptics had a field day. But five years later, the Adirondack Red Wings are alive and flourishing.The franchise, located in the small upstate-New-York city of approximately 18,000 people, followed the lead of the wildly-successful Maine Mariners and has emerged as the jewel of the league. It annually leads the way in season-ticket sales and paid attendance and that box-office success is continuing at an unprecedented pace. Although it took the team awhile to become winners on the ic&mdash;last season was its first over.500&mdash;the laughter surrounding its birth has long since died away.Former Detroit Red Wing coach and general manager Ned Harkness was the man responsible for delivering the franchise in the first place and the one who masterminded the promotional blitz that put the people in the seats, most of whom had never seen a professional hockey game in person. Although Harkness, who spent five years as the manager of the Glens Falls Civic Center, has since moved on to Lake Placid to oversee the operation of Olympic facilities, the foundation he built for Adirondack has not crumbled.As the franchise enters the second half of its first decade, it faces its own peculiar problems&mdash;like no-shows. The phenomenon first became noticeable two seasons ago.&ldquo;Probably at the end of the &lsquo;82-83 season we started to notice a significant increase in no-shows,&rdquo; said Dave Strader, the team&rsquo;s broadcaster and public relations director. &ldquo;Paid ticket sales were still there, but for some reason people weren&rsquo;t coming to the games. There were a lot of different things that we tried to attribute that to. We have probably a much different type of crowd than a lot of other teams in the league. You go to a lot of places and it&rsquo;s basically a blue-collar type of crowd, but here it&rsquo;s a lot of professional people.&ldquo;According to surveys that we sent out, our audience makes a lot of money. A lot of people go south for four or six weeks at a stretch. A lot of them are season-ticket holders, who probably feel, &lsquo;Well, if I can give my tickets to someone, fine. If I can&rsquo;t, fine.&rsquo; They want the security of knowing when they&rsquo;re here they&rsquo;ve got that season ticket.&rdquo;While it&rsquo;s disconcerting for Adirondack officials to see empty seats and the resulting loss of concession revenue, they&rsquo;re not ready to panic. Their season-ticket sales remain high&mdash;nearly 3,700 by late September&mdash;guaranteeing them an average attendance in the range of 4,500-5,500 to which they&rsquo;ve been accustomed. That season-ticket figure, while down slightly from the high-water mark of a couple of seasons ago, is far and away the best in the league.Though the reasons for the franchise&rsquo;s success to date may be cause for debate, the fact remains that it has stood the test of time and is an extremely popular entity. To protect that position, Strader and his staff in Glens Falls&mdash;with the help of the Detroit Red Wings, which owns the entire operation&mdash;have become actively involved in promotion and marketing ventures, something that wasn&rsquo;t necessary three or four years ago.AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;AHL training camps started to fill up as National League teams began the process of cutting rosters. Adirondack picked up 18 players from Detroit and coach Bill Dineen expected a few more before the season opener. Among the veterans sent to Adirondack were, defensemen Barry Melrose, Greg Joly, Rejean Cloutier, Ted Huesing and John Beukeboom; goalie Ken Holland, and forwards Jody Gage, Dennis Polonich, Andre St. Laurent, Ted Spears, Gerard Gallant and Paul Woods&hellip;Claude Larose, the leading scorer in the league last year, heads a large group at Sherbrooke that includes Larry Landon, Brian Skrudland, Norm Baron, Serge Boisvert, Blair Barnes, Dave Allison and Ted Fauss. The Calder Cup-winning Maine Mariners figure to have a familar look. Among the returnees from the championship team are Bud Stefanski, the playoff MVP, Paul Evans, Glenn Merkosky. Mike Hordy, Murray Brumwell, Rob Palmer and Larry Floyd&hellip;Fredericton had five goalies, Brian Ford, Luc Guennette, Michel Dufour, Shawn Kilroy and Wendell Young in camp, and Nova Scotia coach Larry Kish welcomed a large crew that included Ray Cote, Todd Bidner, Todd Strueby, Ken Berry and Archie Henderson. &#9632;

Fans Pay And Stay Away In Adirondack

<h2>NHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01646/5532275-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="544" height="1570"></div><h2>AHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02469/5532268-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="518" height="642"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03322/5532261-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="526" height="1086"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04221/5532254-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="530" height="132"></div><h2>IHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05151/5532247-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="544" height="848"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

Pro Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>SALT LAKE CITY&mdash;It&rsquo;s not that you can&rsquo;t get to Salt Lake City from wherever you might be, it&rsquo;s rather that it&rsquo;s a bit farther than a bus ride between Muskegon and Kalamazoo (85 miles).That&rsquo;s the reason the International League initially balked at Salt Lake&rsquo;s request to be included in the IHL this season following the suspension of operations in the former Central League.The facts couldn&rsquo;t be denied, however: Salt Lake has been an extremely successful franchise for several seasons. The Golden Eagles have been healthy financially and they played good hockey in the CHL; good enough so that they drew fans in respectable numbers.The demise of the CHL left Salt Lake out on the farthest reaches on a limb and only a bold move by those in charge brought the Golden Eagles into the IHL fold for the 1984-85 season, albeit on a &ldquo;trial basis.&rdquo;General manager Chuck Schell explained the Eagles&rsquo; proposition which was utimately accepted by the IHL ruling body:&ldquo;We have to come up with the travel subsidies in the area of $200,000 to get the rest of the teams to come out this way,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;We will pay the complete round-trip air fare for a travelling party of 20 persons per team, and hotel and per diem costs.&rdquo;Schell also noted the Golden Eagles will pick up the tab for local ground transportation.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s going to be a very small factor, though,&rdquo; he said.All that, of course, is in addition to what it will cost the Golden Eagles to make the long trip east. According to Schell, that won&rsquo;t be much less than another $200,000.That means, the Salt Lake GM surmised, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have to draw about 5,000 fans a game to be close to breaking even on expenses this season.&rdquo;Attendance in the CHL last season wasn&rsquo;t too bad. Schell said the club drew better than 4,500 per game in the Salt Palace.The Golden Eagles had season-ticket sales of 1,100 a year ago, and their most recent figure is around 800. That&rsquo;s about on target compared with the previous season, Schell stated.&ldquo;Salt Lake City always has been the kind of town that responds after the start of a season,&rdquo; Schell said. &ldquo;We feel we&rsquo;re on line with what we expect. We didn&rsquo;t start selling season tickets this fall until we were sure we were going to have a club.&rdquo;There still is the factor of fan acceptance in the new league, Schell said.&ldquo;I think we may have to prove ourselves&hellip;the new league may make a difference in the way fans view our style of play,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to show that the IHL is good, entertaining hockey.&rdquo;He feels the presence of nine teams in the league will be helpful to attendance. Several teams in the CHL found fan interest waning when there were but five franchises.&ldquo;I think the fans will enjoy seeing more teams this year,&rdquo; Schell said.He also believes the single-affiliate clubs of Milwaukee and Peoria will present some stiff competition. Milwaukee will be the sole major developmental club for Chicago and Peoria will work exclusively with St. Louis.Last year&rsquo;s CHL Coach of the Year, Tom Webster, will be in charge of the on-ice activities of the Golden Eagles this year. Salt Lake will be getting assistance from Hartford, Calgary and the New York Rangers.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to put together as competitive a team as we can,&rdquo; Webster noted. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have any idea yet as to the calibre of player we&rsquo;re going to get.&rdquo;For that reason, he recently visited the Whaler and Ranger camps.With a determined ownership at Salt Lake, and with Webster handling the players, it&rsquo;s a good bet the league&rsquo;s gamble will pay off. It may be successful enough to get the Golden Eagles a permanent voting berth in the IHL for the following season.NOTES&mdash;Some progress was re-ported as far as rosters are concerned. At Indianapolis, general manager and part owner Fred Creighton announced the Checkers had signed scrappy Kevin Devine. A veteran of five seasons with the CHL Checkers, during which time he was recalled on occasion by the New York Islanders, Devine scored at least 20 goals a year. He holds the Indianapolis career record of games played (388) and penalty minutes (969 over five seasons). He was captain of the last three Indianapolis squads and was instrumental in bringing a pair of Adams Cup championships to the city.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01595/5532306-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="584" height="883"><figcaption class="caption-body">Golden Eagle coach Tom Webster needs to ice a competitive and entertaining team.</figcaption></div>Things may be going so smooth in the IHL thus far that commissioner Bud Poile has had reason to feel relaxed. &ldquo;Our league meetings have gone well,&rdquo; Poile explained, &ldquo;and every club came up with their money without any problems.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0031-01

Salt Lake Needs The Fans’ Support To Stay

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>UTICA&mdash;Rich Suwek isn&rsquo;t worried about his coaching future. It&rsquo;s the present that he&rsquo;s concerned about.Suwek became the third player-coach to be named in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League this season when the Mohawk Valley Stars selected him to guide the club. Ron Hansis of the Erie Golden Blades and Paul O&rsquo;Neil of the Virginia Lancers will also serve double-duty as player-coaches.Suwek caught the coaching bug last year when former Star coach Rick Ley asked him to be a playing assistant.&ldquo;Being a playing assistant kind of opened my eyes to coaching,&rdquo; explained Suwek. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played under a lot of coaches, but I learned a lot from Rick Ley and I&rsquo;m grateful to him.&rdquo;The Montreal native has no plans as far as eventually coaching in a higher caliber league. For now, the ACHL suits him just fine.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a thought in the back of your mind that you would like to go to a higher league, but I just want to try to do a good job with the Stars this year and then go from there,&rdquo; said Suwek.The choice of Suwek was a popular one in Utica since the left winger is a three-year veteran with the Stars and a member of the Mowawk Valley championship club of 1981-82. If there is an &ldquo;iron man&rdquo; in the ACHL, it truly is Suwek, who missed less than 10 games in three years and played in all 65 contests a year ago.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good move for us,&rdquo; noted Star president Jan Zabek. &ldquo;Suwek has been around awhile and knows the type of players we need and the calibre of players the other teams will have. He knows what he has to do to win.&rdquo;Suwek got a taste of being the head man last season when Ley was suspended for three games and he quickly learned to enjoy the added responsibilities of coaching.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited and looking forward to the opportunity this year,&rdquo; Suwek said. &ldquo;The new format for the league will really change the atmosphere.&rdquo;(The ACHL is planning to primarily stock their teams with American-born players.)Suwek already has a good idea of the five returning veterans he wants for the team and the type of team he expects to put on the ice.&ldquo;I know it takes different combinations to win,&rdquo; the 25-year-old left winger said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be a good skating team and aggressive as far as taking the body.&rdquo;Things are looking up for the Stars, who have undergone sweeping changes in ownership. A new three-and-a-half year building lease demonstrated the city&rsquo;s commitment to hockey and the Stars now own the concession rights which will only boost the financial outlook. Along with that, the Stars have adopted new red, white and blue uniforms this season.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Commissioner Ray Miron has invited 40 players to the rookie camp slated for Utica in mid-October. Coaches will be on hand to look over the talent before players will be selected in a draft following the completion of the camp. &#9632;

Suwek Joins Ranks Of Player-Coaches

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>TORONTO&mdash;Frank Bonello calls them &ldquo;sort of walk ons.&rdquo;The general manager of Toronto Marl-koros was understating his club&rsquo;s position, at least in the view of other Ontario Hokcey League members.The &ldquo;walk-ons&rdquo; are Fabian Joseph and Jack MacKeigan, who produced more than 50 goals each and finished one-two in scoring for the Victoria Cougars last season; Finnish national junior team goalie Timo Lehkonen and former Detroit midget Greg Rolston, who gave up a college baseball scholarship to return to hockey.The additions to the already strong Marlies&rsquo; lineup makes them the favorites in the Leyden Division and, perhaps, a leading contender for the Memorial Cup tournament next May. Their success, similar to other clubs, probably hinges on how many of their 10 players in pro camps are returned.The Marlies drafted Joseph and MacKeigan a couple of seasons ago but they decided to play in the Western Hockey Legue.&ldquo;I kept them on our protected list hoping they&rsquo;d have a change of heart,&rdquo; Bonello explained during the Marlies&rsquo; training camp.They did.The deal was concluded when the Marlies secured their release from Victoria.Bonello played a hunch to obtain Lehkonen, whom the Marlies and Maple Leaf scouts watched play in the world junior tournament and on other occasions. Bonello sent the goalie a letter in the summer and, to his surprise, Lehkonen responded, saying he&rsquo;d like to come to Toronto.&ldquo;It sounds like bull, but we corresponded most of the summer at which time I made arrangements to pick him up in Lake Placid in August and bring him to Toronto,&rdquo; Bonello said.Marlie coach Tom Martin has a strong cast of returnees including five top defensemen&mdash;Mike Rowe, Scott Mohns, Kevin Hunter, George Spezza and Jeff Cornelius&mdash;to go with Peter Zezel (47 goals, 86 assists), Greg Johnson (38-35), Vito Cramarossa (18-40), Glen Murphy (24-30) and John Del Col (22-24).The club&rsquo;s first draft pick, Yvon Corriveau from Welland junior Bs, is expected to play a prominent role on left wing.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have a pretty good club,&rdquo; Bonello said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping for the top three.&rdquo;Martin is more precise.&ldquo;In the Leyden Division, I think we will be contenders,&rdquo; he said.Meanwhile, the first major casualty of pro camps was Tim Salmon, the OHL scoring champion who was released by the Montreal Canadiens along with Scott Morrison, last year&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player and top scorer for London Knights.Kingston general manager Ken Slater is anxious to have Salmon, who had 45 goals and 100 assists, as his overage player.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to have him but he&rsquo;s looking at the possibility of the IHL (International League), Slater said.London coach Don Boyd hadn&rsquo;t made a decision on Morrison&rsquo;s future but Morrison (47-73) gave strong hints he&rsquo;d like to play overage in London, or elsewhere. London junior B Diamonds also entered into the bidding, offering to pay Morrison twice the salary he was making in the OHL if he played for them.&ldquo;A lot of people think it is so bad to play overage, that it&rsquo;s such a terrible thing,&rdquo; Morrison said. &ldquo;What else can I do at this late date? How am I supposed to decide? All of a sudden I&rsquo;m at a dead end. What are my options?&rdquo;To keep Morrison, Boyd would have to drop Rick Barkovich as his overage player.The Montreal Canadiens also returned first-round pick Shayne Corson to the Hamilton Steelhawks. The Habs figure he needs more seasoning, which is good news for Hamilton coach and GM Dave Draper.Another casualty was star of the OHL&rsquo;s referee staff, John Willsie, of London. The 38-year-old veteran of six OHL seasons was struck on the neck and knocked unconscious by a puck which rebounded off the glass late in an exhibition game in Guelph on Sept. 21 between the Platers and Toronto Marlies.The puck struck Willsie on the top of the spine and left him paralyzed for seconds, and in hospital for two days.It was one of those rare occasions when the crowd cheered a referee.&ldquo;I heard they gave me a pretty big hand,&rdquo; Willsie told Tom Hedican of the London Free Press. &lsquo;&lsquo;I guess they thought I was hurt so bad I wouldn&rsquo;t be back. All I remember is turning around and seeing the player take a slap shot to get the puck into the other team&rsquo;s end. I was at the blueline and it hit me on the top of the spine. I was told it hit the glass behind me first, but I don&rsquo;t know if it did.&ldquo;I was unconscious for a few seconds but before I fell to the ice. I could feel the shock waves going down my arms and legs from the impact. It scared the hell out of me. You don&rsquo;t realize how easily you can be hurt until something like this happens.&rdquo;Willsie said he regained feeling in the hospital, but he won&rsquo;t be able to return to duty for a couple of weeks.What&rsquo;s in a name&mdash;When Joe Holody bought an expansion franchise for Guelph a couple of seasons ago he was told by the OHL he couldn&rsquo;t retain the nickname &ldquo;Holody Platers&rdquo; he used for years in tier two and junior B leagues. The same didn&rsquo;t hold true for the new owners of the Windsor Spitfires. The Detroit based Compuware Corp., which purchased the fledgling team in May, has changed the name to Windsor Compuware Spitfires.Trade news&mdash;Ottawa 67s dealt last year&rsquo;s first-round pick Todd Clarke to the Kingston Canadians in exchange for Robbie Hudson and Joel Brown, two noshows at Kingston&rsquo;s training camp. Hudson was Kingston&rsquo;s sixth pick from the Ottawa Senators and Brown spent the past two seasons in Kingston, but didn&rsquo;t want to report this season.Before leaving Ottawa, Clarke took a shot at 67s new coach Cliff Stewart, who has been critical of junior hockey players in Canada and doesn&rsquo;t allow, among other things, swearing, spitting or drinking.&ldquo;If Stewart had a choice,&rdquo; Clarke told Bob Elliot of the Ottawa Citizen, &ldquo;he&rsquo;d run a team in a non-contact league.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01560/5532441-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="586" height="1108"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marlie coach Tom Martin thinks his team will be contenders in the Leyden Division.</figcaption></div>No shows&mdash;London&rsquo;s first draft pick, Bruce Rendali of Thunder Bay, checked in for the club&rsquo;s hockey school in August, then failed to show the first day of camp. He called to say he was going to play junior B in Chatham to protect his U.S. college scholarship eligibility. If the Knights feel they were stung, they should look at the situation in Guelph. The Platers&rsquo; second pick Wayne Smith and five others failed to show and three more walked out the second day of camp.In the case of Rendall, there may be a question of his eligibility since he may have retained an agent to act on his behalf. &#9632;

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Marlies ‘Walking On’ Cloud Nine

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02402/5532486-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="570" height="522"><figcaption class="caption-body">DARREN TURCOTTE North Bay</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Darren Turcotte is only a 16-year-old rookie in the OHL this season but already he&rsquo;s attracting attention.The North Bay Centennials&rsquo; freshman center scored four goals and added a pair of assists to win the nod as the first OHL Player of the Week for the new season.A third-round draft choice from the Air Canada champion North Bay midgets, Turcotte led his OHL team to two wins and scored the overtime winner in the Centennials&rsquo; 5-4 decision against Kitchener.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03294/5532479-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="566" height="522"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAN HODGSON Prince Albert</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>It didn&rsquo;t take Dan Hodgson long to pick up where he left off last year with Prince Albert.Hodgson, the No. 2 league scorer in 1983-84 with 181 points, failed to make the grade at the Leafs&rsquo; training camp and was subsequently assigned back to Prince Albert where he scored a hat trick in his first start. Hodgson, who has counted 118 goals in the past two years, was chosen as the WHL&rsquo;s first Player of the Week for the new season.Hodgson&rsquo;s three-goal blast enabled Prince Albert to outlast Saskatoon 9-8 in the team&rsquo;s first game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04234/5532472-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="566" height="522"><figcaption class="caption-body">GUY ROULEAU Longueuil</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Little Guy Rouleau was passed over by the NHL teams in the 1984 entry draft but it hasn&rsquo;t deterred him from making an impressive debut with the Longueuil Chevaliers.The diminutive 5-foot-8, 165-pound center collected 12 scoring points in the opening 10 days of action to win the honor of being named the first QHL Player of the Week.Rouleau had three goals and nine assists to spark Longueuil to a pair of back-to-back victories over Plattsburgh and Laval as he took over the individual league scoring lead with 22 points in his first seven games.At the end of the current season. THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

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MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

THE HOCKEY NEWS is delighted to announce that JOFA-VOLVO Canada Ltd. has agreed to sponsor the Minor Hockey Player Showcase in THE HOCKEY NEWS throughout the 1984-85 season.Starting with the October 26, 1984 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS and in a total of 22 issues during the season, a JOFA minor hockey player will be featured each week from nominees submitted by minor coaches and parents in both the U.S. and Canada.All nominees will be eligible for a draw and the winner will receive a special award to be presented by THE HOCKEY NEWS at its annual award ceremony to which the winner and his family will be invited to attend with all hotel and transportation expenses paid by JOFA. In addition, the youngster named Minor Hockey Player of 1984-85 will receive a complete set of JOFA hockey equipment.Minor hockey coaches and parents in Canada and the United States are invited to submit their nominees for the weekly showcase. Complete details on the nominees including a black and white photograph and biography with pertinent statistics should be sentto: Minor Hockey Showcase, c/o THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Road, Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. &#9632;

The Hockey News JOFA

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>NEW WESTMINSTER&mdash;The jury deliberated for only a short time last Western Hockey League season before rendering a unanimous decision. After digesting sufficient evidence it was proclaimed Al Patterson should be given serious consideration for Coach-of-the-Year honors. The evidence was the overwhelming.Although the laurel was bestowed upon Prince Albert Raiders&rsquo; mentor Terry Simpson, it wasn&rsquo;t surprising Patter-son finished second with his impressive juggling act in New Westminster.&ldquo;Those things are always nice to look back on and it&rsquo;s nice to be recognized by your peers and certainly Terry was a deserving winner,&rdquo; said Patterson. &ldquo;To have that kind of recognition is very satisfying but when it&rsquo;s done it&rsquo;s done. They don&rsquo;t judge this year on last year&mdash;you&rsquo;re only as good as your last win.&rdquo;The rookie coach guided the Bruins to a second-place finish in the six-team Western Division. New Westminster posted a 24-26-2 mark, not bad for a franchise which had to pick up the pieces after a floundering existence as the Nanaimo Islanders in the 1982-83 campaign.After an impressive stretch drive last season, the Bruins bowed out in final game of a suspense-filled, nine-game division semi-final series with the Portland Winter Hawks.This season presents the 44-year-old Patterson with another big challenge.Although buoyed by several returnees up front, the Bruins are in dire straights behind the blueline. Only Marc Zeitlin and Lee Trimm are back to start the season on defense. Doug Quinn, who suffered a broken leg during the summer in an automobile accident, isn&rsquo;t expected to suit up before Christmas.&ldquo;I think the kids we have back there have some experience and we&rsquo;re not pushing the panic button,&rdquo; said Patter-son. &ldquo;But we have to improve defensively. With the people we lost and what we have coming back, we&rsquo;ll have to wait until we get into league play to see if we&rsquo;re okay. It&rsquo;s hard to trade for defensemen; there&rsquo;s not a great abundance of them kicking around anywhere.&rdquo;The pressure will be on newcomers Gary Moscaluk, Skot Jorgenson, Brian Martins and Dean Kolstad plus WHL veteran Trevor Dickie to hold the fort behind the blueline.Moscaluk, 18, played tier two in Hobbema, Alta., last season and stands 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. Jorgenson, 18, is 6 feet, 185 pounds and was a standout rearguard with St. Albert in tier two hockey. Martins, 18, played in Winnipeg last year while Dan Kolstad, a 16-year-old who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 195, steps up from the midget ranks in Edmonton.In goal, Bill Ranford is back and Patterson is hopeful acrobatic Pokey Reddick, the division&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player last season, will be back although the Winnipeg Jets may choose to retain him.Up front it&rsquo;s a different story.There is lots of veteran talent and some eye-opening rookies. Leading the way is diminutive center Cliff Ronning who finished seventh in scoring with 136 points and was named Rookie of the Year.Roger Mulvenna, Todd Ewen, Mark McCleary, Troy Vollhoffer, Shawn Nagurny, Craig Berube and Brent Hughes all have experience in the league. And there are a few newcomers to watch out for, too.Brian Noonan of Boston and Larry Depalma of Detroit have impressed in the pre-season while Glen Mulvenna and Kirk Tomlinson look ready to make the jump to major junior. Noonan, 19, played high school hockey last sason and is 6 feet, 180 pounds. He&rsquo;s being used at right wing. The 19-year-old Depalma plays the left side and is 6 feet, 175 pounds. He played junior A last season.Actually, getting the Americans to head west was easier said than done.&ldquo;All you have to do is look at the phone bills,&rdquo; said Patterson. &ldquo;At a lot of places out east they tend to look at the WHL as a place where you hop on a bus in October and don&rsquo;t get off until April. We convinced them that we are well located geographically and our travel schedule isn&rsquo;t as rigorous as other teams.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01639/5532541-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="580" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Patterson finished second in the Coach-of-the-Year voting last season.</figcaption></div>Mulvenna, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound 17-year-old who played midget last season with the provinical finalist Calgary Royals, has been working out at center. Tomlinson, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound for ward from Toronto, has shown good speed and smarts.Patterson hasn&rsquo;t hesitated to insert his younger players into starting roles, even if they&rsquo;re smaller in stature.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t draw a line. If I had been thinking Cliff couldn&rsquo;t play he would have been finished as a bantam,&rdquo; said Patterson, who has guided Ronning through peewee, bantam, midget and tier two ranks. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a hard thing to determine but you&rsquo;ve got to give the boy an opportunity to play. Some can and some can&rsquo;t. Once their given the opportunity then you can make the judgment.&rdquo;If Patterson has as much success this season judging talent, then the Bruins could be a force to reckon with in the Western Division.WHL WEEK&mdash;The 1984-85 schedule, which opened with regular-season play Sept. 28 and encompasses 504 games, is geared entirely to education. All 14 teams were encouraged to plan their road trips so that a minimum amount of schooling would be missed&hellip;Accordingly, the majority of games have been scheduled on the weekends. Frida is the most heavily-scheduled night with a total of 111 games followed by Sunday with 104 and Saturday with 93. This total of 308 weekend games represents nearly two-thirds of the regular-season slate&hellip;In trade news, Kamloops sent defensemen Mike Morelli (17) and Doug Miller (18) to Moose Jaw in exchange for forwards Kerry Russell (15) and overage Shawn Green. Miller was included to complete a previous deal which brought defenseman Brian Benning to Kamloops. &#9632;

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Patterson Set To Face Another Challenge

<h2>OHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02491/5532593-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="533" height="2006"></div><h2>WHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03382/5532586-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="551" height="2027"></div><h2>QHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04280/5532579-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="556" height="1826"></div><h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05219/5532572-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="553" height="152"></div> &#9632;

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Junior Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>HULL&mdash;Quebec Major Junior Hockey League clubs are keeping a wary eye on Pat Bums&rsquo; plumbers.They&rsquo;re not the covert Watergate variety, but a group of hard-working young players who have propelled Hull to the best start in its 12-year history.The Olympiques were undefeated after four games and have won nine of 10 games since the start of the pre-season schedule.Their only loss was a 9-8 exhibition setback to the Memorial Cup champion Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League in one of the annual back-to-back encounters between the cross-river clubs.Four regular-season games isn&rsquo;t much of a track record to judge how major junior hockey&rsquo;s only city-owned team will do this season, but the Olympiques appear to be for real and there is nothing covert about them.And there is no doubt Hull fans are ready for a good year. Except for a strong campaign in 1981-82 when they were runners-up to Sherbrooke by two points for the league pennant, the Olympiques have never finished better than sixth overall. That year, with wingers Sylvain Turgeon and Jean-Marc Gaulin goalie Roberto Romano and defenseman Dan Naud, many thought the Olympiques would qualify for the Memorial Cup in Hull. Last season, the club finished two points ahead of last-place Trois-Rivieres Draveurs and out of the playoffs (25-45), with little more than a record $161,000 deficit and a meagre gate of 1,300 a night to show for its efforts.As an added incentive, city council has given the club one year before its status is re-evaluated.&ldquo;If they keep playing at the same pace, Hull could be the surprise team of the year,&rdquo; said former Washington veteran Guy Charron, after the Olympiques beat his Remparts, 4-3, in Quebec for their fourth victory. &ldquo;They are playing good, disciplined hockey and they are well-balanced.&ldquo;Steve Averill is playing very well in goal, the defense is doing its job in their cwn end and the forwards are aggressive. They break out pretty well and they played with a lot of composure on the road. &ldquo;Rookie coach Bums, 32, is a Montreal native who has lived in neighboring Gatineau for 20 years and seems to be doing all of the right things.He coached Gatineau Ambassadors to a bantam and two midget AA titles in Quebec before joining the Olympiques as a scout. He was the team&rsquo;s assistant coach for the past two years. Bums was heavily involved in a draft that has panned out for 10 of 19 players, including the first seven picks.They weren&rsquo;t slipping out to the well-known Promenade du Portage discos during training camp. Bums bused the team to and from the Robert Guertin Arena while sequestering it at a youth camp 30 kilometres outside the city of 60,000. The move helped foster a cohesive attitude that is one of the team&rsquo;s main strengths.&ldquo;I have a lot of respect for the Ontario League, maybe it&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;ve lived next to Ottawa for so long,&rdquo; said Bums, who has put together a big team with defense a high priority. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t play beautiful hockey. We don&rsquo;t have the electricity type of player people are used to seeing in Quebec. We work hard on defense.&rdquo;Bums is a disciplinarian, but knows when to ease up.&ldquo;You give vour 100 percent, then I&rsquo;ll decide when it&rsquo;s fun time,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a tough coach, easy to understand, all of the players respect him,&rdquo; said Hull left winger Luc Robitaille, second in team scoring last season as a rookie with 32 goals and 52 assists. &ldquo;When you work, you win, and when you win, it&rsquo;s fun.&rdquo;Robitaille was the only Olympique selected in June&rsquo;s NHL entry draft. Los Angeles claimed him in the ninth round and returned him from training camp recently.He is one of Bums&rsquo; &ldquo;plumbers,&rdquo; twoway workers who can be thrown out on the power play or to kill penalties. Bums improvised against the Remparts by concocting two defensive lines to stay on this year&rsquo;s top offensive unit of Claude Gosselin (56-84-140), Claude Lefebvre (6273-135) and Ghislain Provencher (30-6595).Plumbers Joe Foglietta, Gilles Proulx and Mario Ouellet were obrtained last year from Chicoutimi Sagueneens in a much-criticized trade for sixth-round NHL draft picks Joel Baillargeon (Winnipeg) and Pat Emond (Pittsburgh). All three are producing.The Kid Line of top three midget picks Jean Bergeron, Marc Dumont and Eric Legros is performing well, as are second-year defensemen Rick Hayward, Stephane Richer and Alain Bedard, acquired from Verdun Junior Canadiens. Hayward received a five-game suspension for leaving the bench during an opening-night brawl in Plattsburgh. Averill saw limited action in goal last year but has a 2.95 average and is fending off promising rookie Eric Bohemier, rated Quebec&rsquo;s top midget netminder last season by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01605/5532631-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="590" height="782"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02473/5532624-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="590" height="780"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gilles Proulx, left, and Joe Foglietta, right, came to Hull in a much-criticized trade with Chicoutimi.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

Plumbers Doing The Job For Olympiques

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-06" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06181/5532735-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0036-06

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02429/5532697-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="527" height="234"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01578/5532704-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="188" height="181"></div><h2>ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Oct. 2)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03348/5532690-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="532" height="262"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thu. Sept. 27Kingston 0 at Peterborough 7Sudbury 5 at Windsor 3North Bay 4 at Hamilton 5S.S. Marie 7 at Cornwall 5Fri. Sept. 28North Bay 8 at Kitchener 5S.S. Marie 4 at Ottawa 3Sudbury 4 at London 3Oshawa 4 at Kingston 6Hamilton 2 at Guelph 5Sat. Sept. 29S.S. Marie 5 at Belleville 8Sun. Sept. 30Toronto 1 at Oshawa 2Kitchener 4 at North Bay 5Sudbury 4 at Guelph 3Cornwall 4 at Ottawa 3London 3 at Windsor 4<h2>QUEBEC HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Oct. 1)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04262/5532683-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="533" height="205"></div><h3>DIUO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05211/5532676-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="536" height="233"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. Sept. 15Hull 7 at Plattsburgh 6Sun. Sept. 16Shawinigan 3 at Chicoutimi 5Drummondville 5 at Quebec 4Longueuil 4 at T-Rivieres 6St. Jean 7 at Verdun 3Mon. Sept. 17Plattsburgh 0 at Laval 13Tue. Sept. 18Drummondville 4 at Longueuil 5St. Jean 0 at Hull 4Wed. Sept. 19Granby 4 at Laval 8Chicoutimi 3 at T-Rivieres 4Fri. Sept. 21Hull 5 at Chicoutimi 3Quebec 9 at Drummondville 6Verdun 5 at Granby 1T-Rivieres 1 at Shawinigan 4Laval 8 at St. Jean 4Sat. Sept. 22Longueuil 8 at Plattsburgh 5Hull 4 at Quebec 3Sun. Sept. 23Laval 4 at Longueuil 7Drummondville 7 at Shawinigan 3Plattsburgh 2 at St. Jean 15Granby 1 at Laval 10Mon. Sept. 24Verdun 5 at Chicoutimi 4Shawinigan 4 at Laval 3Tue. Sept. 25St. Jean 5 at Longueuil 2Wed. Sept 26Granby 3 at Hull 2Quebec 6 at T-Rivieres 9Thu. Sept. 27Laval 11 at Plattsburgh 6Fri. Sept 28Hull 4 at Drummondville 8T-Rivieres 5 at Granby 8Chicoutimi 4 at Quebec 4Verdun 7 at Shawinigan 2Longueuil 3 at St. Jean 10Sat. Sept. 29Chicoutimi 9 at Plattsburgh 6Sun. Sept. 30Shawinigan 7 at Hull 6Granby 3 at Quebec 6Drummondville 4 at T-Rivieres 3Plattsburgh 2 at Verdun 15<h2>NHL Exhibitions</h2><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Sept 21Chicago 2, Winnipeg 0Sat. Sept. 22Buffalo 7, Boston 2Chicago 5, Calgary 3Edmonton 6, Montreal 5Hartford 11, Pittsburgh 2Vancouver 5, Los Angeles 3Minnesota 6, Philadelphia 3Washington 3, NY Rangers 1Sun. Sept. 23Buffalo 7, Boston 2Detroit 4, Pittsburgh 3Edmonton 4, Chicago 3Philadelphia 4. Minnesota 4NY Rangers 7, NY Islanders 1Toronto 1, Quebec 1Winnipeg 7, Montreal 2Los Angeles 4, Vancouver 3Tue. Sept. 25Calgary 6, Washington 1Hartford 3, New Jersey 1NY Islanders 6, NY Rangers 2Buffalo 7, Quebec 5Edmonton 7, Vancouver 2Los Angeles 6, Winnipeg 4Wed. Sept. 26Calgary 6, Washington 3Chicago 4, Detroit 2Minnesota 3, Edmonton 0Montreal 5, Philadelphia 5Quebec 3, Toronto 2Los Angeles 4, Winnipeg 2Thu. Sept. 27Calgary 4, Los Angeles 2Quebec 6, Minnesota 4Montreal 3, Boston 1St. Louis 5, Chicago 1Toronto 6, Edmonton 0Fri. Sept. 28NY Islanders 2, Buffalo 2St. Louis 4, Chicago 4NY Rangers 3, New Jersey 2Boston 5, Philadelphia 3Hartford 4, Pittsburgh 3Washington 5, Calgary 3Sat. Sept. 29Detroit 7, Buffalo 3Montreal 5, Edmonton 4Boston 5, NY Islanders 3Pittsburgh 4, New Jersey 2Minnesota 4, Quebec 4Washington 6, Toronto 3Sun. Sept. 30Calgary 8, Vancouver 4Edmonton 6, Chicago 5Buffalo 6, Detroit 1Toronto 3, NY Rangers 2Boston 3, Quebec 1(Standings on Mon. Oct. 1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01504/5532669-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="541" height="327"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02368/5532662-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="545" height="361"></div>(Games against NHL teams only) &#9632;

f0036-02

Amateur Scoreboard

Every week during the 198485 hockey season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Chrysler Rookie of the Week. This tribute to the stars of tomorrow will culminate with THE HOCKEY NEWS rookie of the year award being presented by Chrysler at the annual HOCKEY NEWS awards luncheon.-Last year&rsquo;s rookie winner, goaltender Tom Barrasso of the Buffalo Sabres, is presently making good use of his prize, a Chrysler Laser.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03285/5532766-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="560" height="836"></div>Pat Flatley made quite an impression when he joined the New York Islanders after playing for Canada in the 1984 Winter Olympics.Flatley, a right winger, surprised many people with his scoring prowess in the playoffs. He had nine goals and six assists in 21 games.Flatley, 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, was drafted in the first round (21 st overall) by the Islanders in 1982 out of Wis-consin. The native of Toronto played for Henry Carr Crusaders, but it was his defensive ability, not his offense, which caught the scouts&rsquo; attention.While he may not register glowing offensive statistics this season, he&rsquo;s certain to make a solid contribution defensively. He&rsquo;s cut from the Islander mold, and similar to John Tonelli, many people think he&rsquo;ll be a star like his teammate in years to come. &#9632;

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Chrysler Rookie Spotlight

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02456/5532828-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;For Marcel Dionne, despite his extraordinary accomplishments of the past 13 years, victories have come all too infrequently for him to find complete satisfaction.For that reason alone, the Kings&rsquo; present center and future Hall of Famer had to snicker just a little bit upon hearing the news that the baseball player Reggie Jackson had hit his 500th career home run&hellip;in a 10-1 defeat.&ldquo;I laughed when I heard about it,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;Reggie reaches the milestone and what did it mean?&rdquo;Dionne had to be thinking about his milestone, about his 500th and 501st career goals, which he collected in Washington two seasons back&hellip;during a 5-2 loss.The Kings finished in the Smythe Division cellar that year, just as they did last season, and this is where most folks expect they&rsquo;ll wind up again in 1984-85.Ah, but the new season has brought on new hope&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t this happen every year?&mdash;and, well, who knows?Rogie Vachon is beginning his first full year as general manager and Pat Quinn is beginning his first year as Kings&rsquo; coach and&hellip;don&rsquo;t think for a minute the organizational overhaul hasn&rsquo;t had a positive effect on the players.Training camp began in Victoria, B.C., on Sept. 18 without AWOL Charlie Simmer, who is being fined the max-imum $250 every day he is absent, but it was a week before that Dionne and the other Kings who live in the Los Angeles area discovered that the new management team might be a little different than its pedecessors.&ldquo;Pat Quinn called everybody back in California and we had a good meeting,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;When 50 guys come to camp it&rsquo;s tough for him to talk one-on-one, and he made it a point to do that last week.&ldquo;It was a good sign. All the things I had heard about him were positive and I think now the guys are going to see things will be more open.&ldquo;We have a lot of work to do and losing all those famous draft choices for all those years is still going to haunt us, but the attitude is very good.&ldquo;I think the most important thing for me is that the management thing has been cleared up. I think we&rsquo;re going to have a much better relationship with management. With Rogie and the coaches&hellip; there&rsquo;s a much more positive mood.&rdquo;Talk may be inexpensive, but the 42-year-old Quinn apparently wasn&rsquo;t simply blowing smoke from the cigars he enjoys so much when he talked&mdash;and listened&mdash;to the troops he inherited when he was lured out of law school by Vachon three-and-a-half months ago.&ldquo;Unless we can provide leadership from our end,&rdquo; Quinn said, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re not going to get it on the ice. I just wanted to show them that we&rsquo;re concerned.&rdquo;For the former Philadelphia Flyer coach who was fired three years ago, this is an opportunity he has &ldquo;been looking forward to for quite awhile.&rdquo;&ldquo;There are two major things we have to do here,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;One, evaluate what we have and, two, get started on a system. But we can&rsquo;t do the second one until after we&rsquo;ve done the first one, and last week&rsquo;s meeting helped in that regard.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We have to learn as much about everyone as we can. I wanted to know what they&rsquo;re thinking, what they&rsquo;re feeling.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;We have to learn as much about everyone as we can, and I wanted to know what they&rsquo;re thinking, what they&rsquo;re feeling. Theoretically, we&rsquo;re going to have an open-door policy and I wanted to set up the lines of communication.&rdquo;Having enough talent to turn things around wouldn&rsquo;t hurt, of course, and the Kings are more than a little short in this department, but Quinn at least has begun his term on a positive note.KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;The absence of Charlie Simmer, who says he&rsquo;ll play with anyone but the Kings, disturbs longtime linemate Marcel Dionne.&ldquo;Nobody seems to know exactly what he wants,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all puzzled by it. I think it&rsquo;s the first time I&rsquo;ve seen a player of his calibre who wants out even though he has a contract and isn&rsquo;t mad at the coach. Of course I&rsquo;m disappointed.&rdquo;Said coach Pat Quinn: &ldquo;Charlie&rsquo;s the type of guy we&rsquo;ll miss in the lineup, but whether he&rsquo;s here or not we have a job to do. I&rsquo;d love to have him here, but he&rsquo;s not here and that&rsquo;s a fact.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t start thinking, &lsquo;Oh, geez, times are tough. What are we going to do?&rsquo; No way. That apparently was the attitude in the past, but it&rsquo;s not going to be that way anymore.&rdquo;Simmer hasn&rsquo;t been suspended because, technically, he doesn&rsquo;t begin receiving his salary until the season starts.&ldquo;But when it gets to the point where he&rsquo;s running out of time to get in top shape for the season, I&rsquo;ll contact him again and tell him to show up or he will be suspended,&rdquo; said King general manager Rogie Vachon, who is still trying to make a trade. &#9632;

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Kings Allowed To Talk, But Quinn Has Last Word

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Bob Berry&rsquo;s name was mentioned as a candidate for at least six National Hockey League coaching positions during the summer. Why would he choose to come to the Penguins, probably the least desirable coaching position of all?&ldquo;When I was released in Montreal, I went to Florida for about a month,&rdquo; said Berry, who was fired by the Canadiens in February. &ldquo;I think I really sort of got myself together because I was very, very upset at that time.&ldquo;I have somebody that helps in my contracts and financially, Gerry Petrie, who has been very good to me. When I came back from Florida, I said to Gerry, &lsquo;After what happened last year, I have to work. I&rsquo;ve got another year on my contract. I&rsquo;m not concerned about the money or anything. I want to go back to work.&rsquo; Basically, Gerry talked with a lot of teams.The other five teams that reportedly coveted Berry were Philadelphia, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Toronto and New Jersey, all of which have new coaches this season.&ldquo;I thought this was a situation to come into, obviously not an easy situation,&rdquo; said Berry about deciding on Pittsburgh. &ldquo;But after talking with (general manager) Eddie (Johnston), he felt he had done an awful lot of work to hold onto his draft choices. It just seemed to me a situation that I would like&mdash;coming to a team that had struggled.&ldquo;I had done that before in Los Angeles. I felt it was a very positive situation to come to, as bleak as last year was.&rdquo;The Penguins finished last for the second year in a row with a 16-58-6 record. Berry says one of the reasons he came to Pittsburgh was the city itself.&ldquo;To be completely honest, I&rsquo;d come to Pittsburgh for 15 or 16 years and seen nothing but the hotel across the street (from the Civic Arena), some of those dirty little places downtown (bars), the airport and that was it,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;Coming here, I was tremendously impressed with the city itself.&ldquo;Even in the summertime, I&rsquo;d talk with people and I&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t believe Pittsburgh the way it&rsquo;s changed. I think anybody that comes to work in a city, play hockey in a city, or whatever it might be, has to like and appreciate the neighborhood he&rsquo;s in.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01583/5532797-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="582" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Berry didn&rsquo;t have much of a chance to explore Pittsburgh when he was playing.</figcaption></div>Berry also was impressed with Pitt-burgh&rsquo;s three first-round draft choices. However, he has been criticized in the past for using veterans over younger players.&rsquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been critized for not playing young players,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It happened last year. I was criticized because I didn&rsquo;t play young Alfie Turcotte and Kent Carlson in Montreal. But they never played in the playoffs (after Berry was fired). To my way of thinking, I made the right decision at that time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m paid to make decisions. I didn&rsquo;t like it at that time being criticized for not playing those guys because I didn&rsquo;t think we could win hockey games with them. I think they&rsquo;re both going to be excellent players.&ldquo;On the other hand, I had Larry Murphy in Los Angeles the first year, and he was a 19-year-old kid. He played on the power play, he killed penalties. He was always on when the other team had the goalie out at the other end. I don&rsquo;t care, young or old, if you have confidence in an individual player to do the job. I think that&rsquo;s basically the same situation here. &ldquo;Berry is reluctant to set a point-total goal for the Penguins, a club which finished 55 points out of a playoff spot in the Patrick Division last season.&ldquo;What&rsquo;s a reasonable goal?&rdquo; Berry asked. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you can set a reasonable goal for any team that has an average amount of talent. I don&rsquo;t see how you can go into the dressing room and say, &lsquo;Okay guys. We&rsquo;re going to play less than.500 but that&rsquo;s still going to be a good year for us.&rsquo;&ldquo;But on the other hand, if you&rsquo;re looking at a.500 record, you&rsquo;re talking about 80 points, which is a tremendous improvement.&ldquo;What we&rsquo;ve decided to do is divide our season into eight, 10-game segments and try to set a realistic goal points-wise per segment. You don&rsquo;t want to set a goal too high because you&rsquo;re going to lose guys. And you don&rsquo;t want to set it too low because you&rsquo;re destroying any kind of motivation or incentive that you can give the team.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Defenseman Ron Meighan failed to report to training camp, and club officials expect him to retire. Meighan, 21, came to Pittsburgh in Oct., 1982 from Minnesota with Anders Hakansson for George Ferguson and an exchange of 1983 first-round draft choices. The Penguins finished last and Minnesota got the first pick overall (Brian Lawton). &#9632;

f0038-01

It Ain’t The Pitts In Berry’s View

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The most disarming aspect of Ed (Boxcar) Hospodar, the Flyers&rsquo; newest defenseman, is neither his right hand, which can be devastating, nor his temper, which can be short.Rather, it is his honesty; Hospodar isn&rsquo;t trying to fool anybody, least of all himself.Wearing a T-shirt from local Villano-La University, where he is pursuing a business degree, Hospodar broached the subject of his role with the Flyers for the coming season, and he did not dispel the, notion that he will be at the Spectrum to rock a few bodies. However, more importantly, he thinks he will be in Philly to clear out some jams in front of the Flyer net.Unlike so many other physical players who deny their roles with &ldquo;I-am-not-a-fighter&rdquo; spoils, which come out like Nixonian &ldquo;I-am-not-a-crook&rdquo; statements, Hospodar, 25, knows exactly why the Flyers wanted his services and acquired him as a free agent from the Hartford Whalers over the summer. And he intends to make himself useful to the club playing the role for which he is cast.Speaking of cast, Hospodar was already in a cast when the exhibition season was only a week old when he injured his right hand during a fight with Minnesota&rsquo;s tough guy, Willi Plett. Indeed, Hospodar will play his role.Then again, even if he isn&rsquo;t trying to fool anybody into thinking he&rsquo;s not a fighter, neither is he anybody&rsquo;s fool.&ldquo;I am not a journeyman player,&rdquo; said Hospodar. &ldquo;I was a regular with the Rangers, and I was a regular with the Whalers. It&rsquo;s not a case of me just being around for fights. I think that kind of player was phased out a long time ago.&ldquo;I think of myself as a hard-working hockey player. And I think there will always be room for that type of player. You see them all the time; they&rsquo;re the type of player that winning teams are built around.&ldquo;I guess in Philly everybody remembers me from my rookie year with the Rangers (1979-80) when I broke Kenny Linsemen&rsquo;s nose. It was an intense rivalry, and people remember. Still, I think it was a case of my just wearing the wrong color jersey. If I played like that for the Flyers they would have loved me. Anyway, if I was getting booed in Philly, it must have meant I was getting my nose in there somewhere and getting noticed.&rdquo;He gets his nose in there all right (an average of 3.2 minutes in penalties per game in his career), but he also gets his nose in the comers; all of which is kind of forgotten by Flyer fans who only remember that night at Madison Square Garden.&ldquo;At least I stood up to them,&rdquo; said Hospodar. &ldquo;I mean, I was a rookie, and they were banging us pretty good. I re-member, I hit T.J. (Gorence) and then Kenny (Linseman), and then I hit Mel Bridgman behind the net and figured, &lsquo;Here we go.&rsquo;&ldquo;Well, we go to take the face-off, and I see Moose Dupont lining up at forward, along with Bridgman and all their other muscle. After the whole thing, one of my teammates, who I was rooming with at the time, came up toward me. I asked him if he was coming to help me. He said, &lsquo;No.&rsquo; He wanted to come and get the rent money from me before I got killed.&rdquo;And now, in a strange twist of fate, Hospodar has crossed over the river to the Philly side where the Flyers have given him Paul Holmgren&rsquo;s old number, hoping they&rsquo;ve acquired somebody to replace Holmgren&rsquo;s drive&mdash;maybe a Boxcar Named Desire.&ldquo;I got the nickname Boxcar from a sportswriter in Ontario when I was playing junior hockey,&rdquo; said Hospodar. &ldquo;He wrote that I was like a runaway boxcar. It didn&rsquo;t bother me. I guess I played that way then.&rdquo;When the Flyers acquired Hospodar, the reaction was immediate from Vancouver to Long Island as knee-jerk critics wailed that the Flyers were trying to resurrect their bully act with one of the chief bullies, Bobby Clarke, playing the role of architect in his new position of general manager.&ldquo;With Randy Holt and Frank Bathe retired we thought we could use some muscle at the blueline,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;But we didn&rsquo;t just get Ed for that; we think he can really help the team.&rdquo;Any snickers were quieted at least for awhile when Hospodar assisted on a go-ahead goal in the Flyers&rsquo; pre-season opener, and then scored the game-tying goal late in their second game.Then again, he also injured his hand during the fight with Plett. The injury should only keep him out of action for about 10 days, and then he&rsquo;ll be back doing just exactly what the Flyers wanted from him.NOTES&mdash;The most impressive rookie in the Flyers&rsquo; camp continues to be right winger Rick Tocchet&hellip;Early indications are that Darryl Sittler will be named team captain, replacing Bobby Clarke, but the club will not announce the new captain until after the exhibition season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01551/5532859-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="590" height="776"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Ed Hospodar knows what his role is and isn&rsquo;t shy about admitting it.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

Philly To Feature Boxcar Named Desire

BOSTON&mdash;Pete Peeters, G, sidelined with ankle injury.CALGARY&mdash;Jamie Hislop, RW, announced retirement from hockey after sustaining eye injury last season. Hislop will become assistant coach with Flames.DETROIT&mdash;The following players were assigned to Adirondack of AHL: Goaltenders Ken Holland Mark LaForest, defensemen John Beukeboom, Rejean Cloutier, Ted Huesing, Barry Melrose and Rick Zombo, centers Andre St. Laurent and Ted Speers, right wingers Jody Gage and Joe Kocur, and left wingers Murray Craven, Gerard Gallant, Mike Stern and Paul Woods. Cloutier will be delayed reporting after suffering broken hand. Wayne Crawford, C, sent to Kalamazoo of IHL. Brian Johnson, RW, released outright. Following players were returned to junior teams: Goaltender Chris Pusey, defensemen Doug Houda, David Korol and Stefan Larsson, centers Tom Nikolau and Urban Nordin, and left wingers Bob Probert and Tim Kaiser.EDMONTON&mdash;Wayne Babych, RW, returned to St. Louis are conditional trade tryout.HARTFORD&mdash;Scot Kleinendorst, D, assigned to Binghamton of AHL. Jeff Poeschl, G, Tom Cronin, D, John Samanski, C. and Robin Monleon, RW, all released outright. Peter Abric, G, returned to North Bay of OHL.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Charlie Simmer, LW, reported to training camp and club lifted his suspension. Fred Boimistruck, D, released after tryout as free agent.MINNESOTA&mdash;Dave Richter, D, sidelined with abdominal strain. Brian Lawton, LW, out of action with shoulder injury.MONTREAL&mdash;Tim Salmon, C, returned to Kingston of OHL. Scott Morrison, RW, returned to London of OHL.NEW JERSEY&mdash;The following players were assigned to Maine of AHL: Goaltenders Alain Chevrier and Shawn MacKenzie, defensemen Murray Brumwell, Alan Hepple, Gordon Mark, Doug McGrath and Rob Palmer, left wingers Larry Floyd and Mitch Wilson, centers Greg Adams, Kevin Maxwell, Roy Sommer and Bud Stefanski, right wingers Rich Chernomaz, Paul Evans and Hector Marini. Craig Billington, G, Kirk McLean, G, Greg Evtushevski, RW, and Ian Ferguson, D, all returned to junior teams. Chris Felix, D, sent to Fort Wayne of IHL. Kirk Firlotte, G, Pierre McGuire, D, Paul Kalbflisch, D, and forwards Curtis Collins, Dave Cobryn and Ken Man-churak, all released outright. Dave Lewis, D, Jan Ludvig, LW, and Tim Higgins, RW, all signed multi-year contracts.NY RANGERS&mdash;Brent Sapergia, C, assigned to Salt Lake of IHL. Rory DeLouise, G, and Jeff Watts, G, both released outright. Bryan Walker, D, Jim Andonoff, RW, and Gord Walker, LW, all returned to junior hockey. Reijo Ruotsalainen, D, Mike Rogers, C, Glen Hanlon, G, and George McPhee, LW, all signed to new contracts.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Gary Morrison, RW, released by Flyers as free agent, joined Univ, of Michigan as assistant coach.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Phil Bourque, D, Troy Loney, LW, Dean DeFazio, LW, Mitch Lamoureux, C, and Grant Sasser, RW, all assigned to Baltimore of AHL. Ron Meighan, D, failed to report to training camp and was suspended. Moe Mantha, D, signed new multi-year contract. Mike Rowe, D, Mark Teevens, RW, John Del Col, LW, and Alex Haidy, RW, all returned to junior hockey. Bob Gladney, D, retired after suffering eye injury last season. Brian Lundberg, D, left Penguins to play in West Germany this season.QUEBEC&mdash;Andre Savard, C, out with broken nose, Paul Gillis, C, out with broken finger, and Mike Eagles, C, sidelined indefinitely with broken hand.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Tony Curtale, D, Troy Collard, C, and Jeff Larson, C, released as free agents after tryouts.TORONTO&mdash;Jeff Reese, G, Derek Laxdal, RW, and Dan Hodgson, C, all returned to junior hockey. Rich Costello, RW, Dan Turner, LW, Ken Strong, LW, and Grant Mulvey, RW, all assigned to St. Catharines of AHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;Laurie Boschman, C, out for undetermined period with bruised left shoulder. John Giftopolous, D, Joel Baillargeon, LW, Tom Martin, LW, and Remi Gagne, RW, assigned to Sherbrooke of AHL. Pokey Reddick, G, signed NHL contract and was sent to Brandon of WHL. Brent Severyn, D, returned to Seattle of WHL. Tony Grenier, C, returned to Prince Albert of WHL. Greg Dick, G, Scott Shaw, D, Ed Christian, C, and Tom Mishler, RW, all assigned to Atlantic Coast League for tryouts. &#9632;

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October 12, 1984

BLUELINES

Atlantic Coast League Schedule

Joan Collins Goes On My Hockey List

JACQUES LEMAIRE