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 19, 1984

The Hockey News October 19, 1984

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;The pre-season for the Quebec Nordiques was anything but passive. If anything, it was a carryover from last season&rsquo;s physical playoff series with Montreal, and clearly pointed out that the Nords won&rsquo;t have an easy time in the Adams Division this season.Two games against Boston in a span of three days (Sept. 30-Qct. 2) resulted in over 350 minutes in penalties, thus setting the mood for the regular season and the first time the teams meet in Boston Nov.&ldquo;We certainly can&rsquo;t expect to go through the regular season at that pace because we will be dead by the time the playoffs arrive,&rdquo; said Nordique coach Michel Bergeron. &ldquo;It was natural that there would be a lot of aggressiveness in pre-season games because jobs were on the line.&rdquo;The Nordiques lost defenseman Wally Weir for about a month, after he separated a shoulder in the second game of that series. But the Bruins suffered a more painful loss, as Barry Pederson broke his hand and is sidelined for about two months.Bruin general manager Harry Sinden was furious with Bergeron after losing Pederson.&ldquo;Once again, we are always the ones who start everything,&rdquo; responded Bergeron. &ldquo;What happened when Brian Curran jumped on Bo Berglund? I suppose that was Berglund&rsquo;s fault as well.&rdquo;Bergeron has always wanted his team to be aggressive. He got that wish from the start of his training camp this year, and even saw his team captain, Mario Marois, injure one of his centers, Paul Gillis, with a slash.The Bruin flair-up came only five days after the Nordiques and Buffalo Sabres ennaeed in a highly-emotional gameNord center Peter Stastny received a three-game suspension for bumping an official and Weir was also awarded a three-game suspension for injuring a player.Stastny was originally reluctant to discuss the issue, but later offered his version of the story.&ldquo;I simply lost control,&rdquo; Stastny said. &ldquo;What bothered me the most was that he (the referee) would call an unsportsmanlike penalty in the final moments of a tied game and that is what I wanted to tell him.&rdquo;But Stastny&rsquo;s words fell on deaf ears, and now the Nords will have to open the season minus their leading offensive player and one of their stalwarts on deffense.NORDIC NOTES&mdash;Gilles Gilbert, a former native of Quebec and a veteran of 14 years in the National League, has been signed to do color commentary on pro vince-wide radio broadcasts of the Nordique games&hellip;Montreal and Quebec settled differences recently and will each broadcast in the opposition&rsquo;s home town, even when the home team is playing That gives Quebec and Montreal fans a choice of games when both teams are home on the same night. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Nords Show Dislike For Division Rivals

<h2>OHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02492/5536118-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="532" height="1222"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03383/5536111-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="486" height="270"></div><h2>WHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04281/5536104-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="538" height="936"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05220/5536097-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="524" height="590"></div><h2>QHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06189/5536090-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="552" height="646"></div> &#9632;

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Junior Games To Come

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; The National Hockey League opened the season with 16 new players for the six teams. Among the rookies were Dennis Hull (Chicago); Roger Crozier and Gary Bergman (Detroit); Yvan Cournoyer, Ted Harris and Claude Larose (Montreal);Arnie Brown and Rod Seiling (New York); Ron Ellis (Toronto) and Ron Schock (Boston).&bull; Bruin majority stockholder and chairman of the board, Weston Adams, decided to take a more active role in the club&rsquo;s operations after the death of president Walter Brown.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; The league outlined plans for expansion. Some of the changes included full divisional realignment, balanced schedule, and a new playoff format.&bull; Detroit&rsquo;s Roger Crozier joined a growing number of goalies using goalie masks. &#9632;

THIS WEEK… 20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">By JOHN HFRRFRT</div>TORONTO&mdash;The first week of the Ontario Hockey League season will certainly go into the books as one of the most exciting and turbulent of all time.There was major news and developments, much of it unexpected, on just about all 15 fronts.Sudbury Wolves and their star Craig Duncanson were among leading newsmakers on and off the ice while Kingston coach Rick Comacchia and his new defenseman Todd Clarke were making it interesting in the Canadians&rsquo; camp and around the Leyden Division. Other newsmakers included London&rsquo;s Greg Smyth and Scott Morrison, Soo Greyhounds&rsquo; Chris Felix, North Bay coach Bert Templeton, and the debut of the Hamilton Steelhawks and the return of their star, Shayne Corson, from the Montreal Canadiens.First, the Leyden Division news.On his first day in Kingston, Clarke continued hurling verbal insults at Cliff Stewart, the Ottawa coach who traded him to the Canadians. Clarke told Kingston Whig-Standard hockey writer Tim Gordanier that he was having trouble fitting into Stewart&rsquo;s system.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not really that I didn&rsquo;t like him,&rdquo; Clarke told Gordanier, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m just not familiar with his style. I play a physical game. I&rsquo;m glad I was traded. I expected it and if it didn&rsquo;t happen soon, I was going to ask for it anyway.&rdquo;Stewart, who took over from Brian Kilrea after coaching the Netherlands national team last year, has introduced a European brand of hockey in Ottawa.&ldquo;He would say if you go into the corner, you don&rsquo;t have to kill the guys, just take them out,&rdquo; Clark said in the Whig-Standard story. &ldquo;Maybe he&rsquo;s going to grow flowers around the rink, too.&rdquo;Continuing with Kingston, Cornacchia and players Jeff Chychrun and David Hoover drew two-game suspensions for a game ending mini-brawl in the team&rsquo;s season-opening 7-0 loss to Peterborough. The Canadians were also assessed a $1,000 fine.Turning to the Emms Division, the Wolves, league doormats the past four seasons, were the surprise team as they jumped out of the starting blocks with three straight victories on the road. The Wolves got some exceptional work from sophomore goalie Sean Evoy, a third-round pick last year from Don Mills midgets, along with this year&rsquo;s first and second draft picks, Dave Moylan and Max Middendorf.But the Wolves&rsquo; news wasn&rsquo;t all good.On opening night in Windsor, Duncanson went down with a knee injury with 28 seconds to play and will be lost to the rebuilding club for about a month with a tom cartilage in his left knee. A couple of days later in Guelph, the Wolves also became entangled in some pre-game and post-game brawling with the Platers.According to observers, Guelph&rsquo;s Trevor Stienburg went chasing a puck into the Sudbury zone during the warmups and got into a scrap with John Landry of the Wolves. The post-game altercation centered on Landry and Guelph&rsquo;s Mike Fordy. The Platers were fined $700 while the Wolves were tagged with a $500 penalty.It London, it was a bad week for Knight coach Don Boyd, a nervous wreck at the best of times. London lost its opening three games and right winger Jim Sandlak was suspended for two games and teammate Smyth for five. Smyth has also been ordered by the Knights to post an undisclosed bond to insure good conduct after throwing his stick in the seats and manhandling an official in Windsor.Boyd also received word that Calgary Flames might keep Brian Bradley, their top returning scorer. And 47-goal scorer Scott Morrison decided to turn down a contract to play overage. He joins exOttawa star Don McLaren at York University, coached by Dave Chambers.In Kitchener, the Rangers hope they solved their goaltending problem by obtaining Mike Bishop from London for a fourth-round pick.While Joey Rampton was calling it quits with the Soo to pursue a career in medicine, the &lsquo;Hounds were adding allstar defenseman Chris Felix as their overage player.There was also some sad news for the Hounds, as they learned that ex-Soo goalie John Armellin, who was playing in Italy this season, had been killed in an automobile accident. Commissioner Dave Branch and Soo general manager Sam McMaster were among those who attended the funeral in Toronto.In Windsor, general manager Jim Rutherford was anxiously waiting the return of rookie goalie Alan Perry from the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; camp. The return of Perry gives the Spits, a team which had problems in goal last season, perhaps the finest pair. Mark Gowans, a rookie from Compuware midgets, has been a surprise.Another big story came out of Hamilton as the Steelhawks opened their season at Mountain Arena against who else but North Bay&rsquo;s version of Mr. T, Bert Templeton. The former Hamilton Fincup coach came home to a full house of 2,500&mdash;about another 1,000 were turned away&mdash;but his team dropped a 5-4 decision in the spirited game. Curtis Collin of the Centennials was given a match penalty for kicking in a fight.In a television interview after the game, Templeton took a couple of good-natured digs at his old boss Dave Draper, who coaches the Steelhawks, suggesting it was Draper who was the &ldquo;goon coach&rdquo; all those years they were together.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see it,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;I heard what he said. Usually with remarks like that you assess the source and forget it. I wondered if he was joking.&rdquo;The Steelhawks also got an unexpected bonus, as Montreal sent Corson, one of their two first-round draft picks, back for seasoning. Corson, obviously, was disappointed he didn&rsquo;t stick in Montreal but took his return objectively, and with a good attitude.&ldquo;I got to know the guys on the team (the Habs), knew the city and enjoyed being there,&rdquo; Corson said. &ldquo;I was disappointed, but now I&rsquo;m here. I&rsquo;m happy and looking to this year. I went to a good organization and now I&rsquo;m back with another.&rdquo;The Steelhawks will play in the Mountain Arena for one year while waiting for the 18,000-set Vic Copps Arena and Trade Centre to be completed downtown. Draper couldn&rsquo;t be happier with the response of fans so far because six years ago his Fincups played in the building but seldom drew more than 1,500.&lsquo;The enthusiasm and the reception the team and organization has received has been tremendous,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing in a small facility but very quickly tickets are going to become scarce because of the interest. That&rsquo;s very good for us and very good for the league.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01561/5535983-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="588" height="830"><figcaption class="caption-body">London&rsquo;s Greg Smyth had to post a bond with his team to insure good conduct.</figcaption></div>Names in the news&mdash;Kingston has named Mike Plesh, 19, their captain&hellip;Ottawa&rsquo;s first draft pick, Dave Baseggio, from Niagara Falls, told Ottawa Citizen writer Bob Elliott that he decided not to join the 67s after Brian Kilrea departed&hellip;Paul Coleman of Harrietsvilie, one of the OHL&rsquo;s best linesmen in recent years, joins Ken Boden-distel&rsquo;s staff of referees on a full-time basis. Although it had been reported otherwise earlier, Jim Lever isn&rsquo;t retiring. He will take a lighter work load though, because of conflicts with his job. The OHL game of the week begins Jan. 12&hellip;Watch for a major change in the all-star game format. It is slated for Feb. 9 in Kitchener&hellip;The Spitfires think they got first-round quality in fifth draft pick Shawn Scarfe from Hamilton&rsquo;s tier two junior club. &#9632;

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Ontario League Opens With Wacky Week

By the time you get the next issue, the 1984-85 National Hockey League regular season will be in full swing after one of the longest training camp periods in the history of the league. This issue will have all the scores, statistics and summaries from the first four days of the season, along with team-by-team reports from around the league.We&rsquo;ll be featuring Boston Bruin star Rick Middleton and tell you why he&rsquo;s expected to get off to a quick start, despite losing linemate Barry Pederson to injury.On top of all that, we&rsquo;ll have our usual up-to-date coverage of the minor leagues, U.S. colleges and Canadian major junior hockey, plus insightful commentary from the best columnists and analysts in the game today.Don&rsquo;t miss it. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

<div class="byline">BY DAVID WILLIAMS AND JAMES LAWTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011376/5534303-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Whether it was with the Canucks, above, the Maple Leafs or now the Red Wings, Dave Williams has approached the game with the same attitude. He&rsquo;s relentless and demanding. Those two qualities have caused him some trouble, too.</figcaption></div>David (Tiger) Williams has been called a lot of things in his career, many of them uncomplimentary. Now, with the release of TIGER, A Hockey Story, you can add author to the list. Williams, the pugnacious NHL veteran, teamed up with Vancouver journalist James Lawton to produce a work that easily could have been titled The World According To Tiger. Since the book was written, Williams was traded from Vancouver to the Detroit Red Wings, but that will make &ldquo;little difference. In the following excerpt, you&rsquo;ll realize that while all around him may change, the Tiger doesn&rsquo;t.This excerpt is reprinted with permission. The following italicized passage was written by Lawton, the words that follow it are the Tiger&rsquo;s.Roy McMurtry is still the attorney general of Ontario. More remarkable, given McMurtry&rsquo;s political touch and the relentless physical pressure involved in being a National Hockey League &ldquo;policeman,&rsquo;&rsquo; David Williams remains a highly-paid player. Unlike Danny Maloney, Williams left nothing of himself in the Toronto courtroom. It is true that the game itself has taken some toll, that upon a face which was almost delicately boyish just a decade ago, a lifetime of conflict has been impressed. But there is still much robust humor in the face, and the kind of vitality guaranteed to caution opponents many years younger.Sit with Williams on the terrace of his West Vancouver house overlooking the sweep of sea and city and mountains, listen to his vibrant talk of hunting in Northern British Columbia, of training fierce dogs and breaking wild horses, and you are reminded of the lines of Ernest Hemingway. &ldquo;If people bring so much courage to this world, the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world-breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. &ldquo;There are those who say that Tiger Williams represents almost everything bad in the game, that he is cynical and self-serving, and that his talent has been geared exclusively to the business of survival. Certainly he is candid enough about his imperatives. He has a family to support, a network of dependents tracing back to his prairie roots; and he will not leave quietly as long as he believes that he can push forward the bridgehead of security he has won from a world which from his first impressions of it never seemed to him overly generous.Politically, Tiger Williams is some way to the right of Ronald Reagan. Socially, he is amiable and exhaustively involved in charity, and as a responsible member of the community, he has made several spectacular citizen&rsquo;s arrests. Athletically, he admits he is an anarchist. The only obligation on the ice, he says, is this: &lsquo;&lsquo;Help your guys win.&rdquo;I don&rsquo;t recognize the term policeman as it is applied to those players who have to inject some toughness into their teams. A policeman should be a peacemaker. I&rsquo;ve never wanted be a peacemaker. Big Harold Snepsts is a policeman on the ice. Whenever there is a battle going on, Harold wants it to be &ldquo;fair.&rsquo;&rsquo; To me, it should never be fair. Someone should have the advantage and he should be using it. The guy who wants it to be fair should look at himself in the mirror and ask himself if he&rsquo;s in the right business.Sometimes you look at your career and it seems that your whole time is spent settling scores, proving to this guy that you&rsquo;re not scared of him, keeping somebody else under your thumb, always adjusting the balance of power. In a way, this is the reality of it all, even in the era of Wayne Gretzky. We hear a lot about Gretzky being what the modem game is all about and there is no doubt that he is incredible, but then people sometimes forget about Dave Semenko. Amazingly, even Wayne Gretzky sometimes forgets about Semenko. He would never do it while he is playing the game&mdash;because everybody knows that Semenko is worth at least 25 goals a season to Gretzky&mdash;but when he talks about it rather than does it, well, he can be forgetful.Gretzky said recently that the age of the tough hockey player was over, that if anybody could explain to him how a barbell helped you to score goals he would start using one. This was obviously hypocrisy. Gretzky has so much natural talent that he can sail beyond the pressures less gifted players must bear, and his club pays Semenko a tremendous salary simply to look after him. In the 1984 playoffs Semenko proved that he can play hockey, score goals, but that will never be his major role with the Edmonton Oilers. To play Semenko&rsquo;s role, you have to be a rare breed of hockey player, and there is no doubt that he is an unusual character. The club doesn&rsquo;t disguise his job. He gets only sufficient ice time to fulfill his main function, which is to intimidate, and the fans are very free with their abuse. But he seems happy in his work. He&rsquo;s big and mean, and he gives you the impression that he wants to hurt you. I know that he wants to get me, that he really hates me. This is probably because I take every chance I get to run at Gretzky.If I was to compare myself with a Semenko or a (Dave) Schultz I would say that I have thought about the game a little more, tried to understand a little more deeply what goes into shaping winners and losers. As I see it, Semenko doesn&rsquo;t have to worry about such matters as timing and psychology. The level of his team&rsquo;s play would make that unnecessary. What he has to do is prepare himself for about five minutes of action per game. He has to gear himself up to go beat the crap out of anyone trying to bother Wayne. What you have to give Semenko is the fact that he is genuinely intimidating. Just by dressing for the games, he provides protection for a player like Gretzky. Semenko is a limited player, but as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, he is the most valuable Edmonton Oiler after Gretzky&mdash;and I&rsquo;m not forgetting great talents like Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Paul Coffey. Without Semenko, there would be a competitive vacuum on the Oiler team.I have always made it my business to try to fill such vacuums. I&rsquo;ve given a lot of thought to the challenge of gaining an advantage.This, I believe, is what the business of professional sport is about. What it means is that you have to be prepared to do whatever is required to make a career, to get the big contract which is going to set you up for the rest of your life. A lot of guys do this but then a lot of them make one mistake. They never toughen themselves for the days when the criticism starts to flow. It is ridiculous but true that some guys never get over the first time they read about themselves being goons. A guy goes home and his wife is crying about the fact that the kids are going to have a tough time in school because of this article in the newspaper. And this can blow a guy&rsquo;s mind. Meanwhile, he&rsquo;s just got a $10,000 cheque for two weeks work.I always come back to the money, because you have to be honest. I&rsquo;m not playing a sport. I&rsquo;m not playing for fun. I do get fun out of the game&mdash;I&rsquo;m always the first at the rink and the last to leave&mdash;but if the general manager of the club called me up today and said that I wouldn&rsquo;t be paid for the next 10 games, well, there&rsquo;s no way I would play one shift. I&rsquo;d tell him that I had hungry mouths to feed. You go along doing things for a purpose. You can&rsquo;t analyze it all too much. I put Stan Mikita out of the game, and maybe Garry Unger but I can&rsquo;t afford to dwell on that. I have to say it could have been the other way around. Mikita was very chippy. I recall thinking, &ldquo;Well, he didn&rsquo;t give me much option.&rdquo; That was after I&rsquo;d speared him. Maybe you hide behind a few old truths. Maybe you just say, &ldquo;We live by the sword, we might just die by it.&rdquo; It is one of the more obvious risks you run when you tell yourself you&rsquo;re going to make a living out of hockey.You justify yourself in various ways. Only the players I have gone against can confirm or deny what I say here, but I like to think that I have been rough on very few guys who have not deserved some kind of retribution, and that if I have overstepped the mark against players who had no reputation for violence, it was because of a set of circumstances in a game. I tell myself I did it for the club, because something had to be done, something totally unforeseen by the opposition. Something had to be done to justify my paycheque.Coaches may not spell out their requirements. Demands may not be written into your contract. But within the game there is no attempt to blur the reality. When a physical situation has gotten beyond your control&mdash;maybe it came at a time when you were physically drained at the end of a shift&mdash;your teammates let you know. They make clear their displeasure, their belief that you have let them down. And if you have won a fight, if you have seized some advantage, created some momentum, they also show their pleasure. After the game, they will take you out and order you the biggest steak on the menu and pick up the tab. Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald would do this in Toronto, where we had the three-second rule. Sittler and McDonald were supposed to wait three seconds before they reacted to any incident. If 1 wasn&rsquo;t there in that time they were on their own because it was obvious I had my own troubles. Sittler and McDonald could look after themselves, but why risk your highest scorers? If McDonald broke his hand in a fight our power play was shot to pieces. The fighting was my job.At first it is very difficult in the NHL simply because you have to make so many decisions and you never get much time. No one is interested in what you did in the last game. It is a case of &ldquo;What are you going to do for me today, kid?&rdquo; I accepted that principle. Your confidence can be hit when you take a bad penalty or misjudge a situation, and then people jump all over you. So you have&rsquo; to remind yourself of when you took a run at a guy and he just coughed up the puck and allowed McDonald to score. You have to play little mental games with yourself all the time.I decided at the beginning of my career that I would follow a certain policy very strictly. I would always go out and give it all I had in games and practices both, whatever the conditions, whether I had a cold or a sore leg or some personal problem, and no one would ever hear me complaining. I figured that this would make all my teammates like me, and that all the people in the stands would feel they were getting their money&rsquo;s worth. And if I was unfortunate enough to get somebody like Punch Imlach managing the team, another club would leap at me. Because there wouldn&rsquo;t be any doubt about what I could do, what I represented. What I represented was an understanding of what it is to be a professional. That&rsquo;s what I told myself when I did the things that some of the other guys would never do.One of the things you leant most quickly is that hockey is like the rest of the world: it operates on double standards. You see a Bobby Clarke doing something totally vicious and then later someone will say, &ldquo;Is that Clarke ever determined!&rdquo; Denis Potvin once speared Jack Valiquette in the face, cut him up very badly, and got two minutes in the box. &ldquo;Oh, that was Potvin, he didn&rsquo;t mean it,&rdquo; people said. If you&rsquo;re a big boy you get turned the blind eye because the league president John Ziegler, or the vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, doesn&rsquo;t want to get involved in public debates with Potvin or Clarke. That wouldn&rsquo;t look too good in the papers. So the safe alternative is to go for someone like me from time to time. As I see it, the goal scorers, the glamor guys, are like the politicians. They sail over the inconveniences of life. If anyone is going to be isolated and attacked, it&rsquo;s not going to be a Potvin or a Clarke. It&rsquo;s going to be some grinder, some poor plugger who&rsquo;s been written off as a goon long ago.So you have to learn to be very controlled on the ice. You have to know who you are and what you are doing. You can&rsquo;t afford to have any false ideas about yourself. Because of the need for conflict and for a strong front on the ice, you develop two personalities: you have the emotional equipment you need for the game, and then you have to strip that away as you go about your own life. I suppose it is inevitable that sometimes there is some overlapping.It&rsquo;s true that there are lots of things about life which make me angry. I see a lot of dishonesty, a lot of eagerness to pick up an easy buck. I hate hypocrisy and I can&rsquo;t understand the mentality of people who would toss their garbage into the street. That offends me. I guess some might say that the things I do on the ice are offensive. Well, I&rsquo;ve never disguised myself or my intentions. I give my employers value for money, I give Caesar what is his.When I got my first contract as a twenty-year-old it suddenly occurred to me that I was in a position to earn a million dollars. If I did my work, if I protected my body, if I didn&rsquo;t let a lot of irrelevance creep into my thinking, I could make a good life for myself and for my family. I could help people I wanted to help, I could have the freedom to make choices. And the price? The price was going out on the ice and battling a guy every once in awhile. And every so often someone would get the better of me, bend my body a little. So what? So what, when you measure it against the good life and the freedoms I can win in the battle.It would have been nice winning those freedoms in the fashion of Lanny McDonald, getting the glory of a goal-scorer along with them. But that wasn&rsquo;t at my disposal. I guess I was bom to it hard way.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01564/5534296-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="1528" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">Williams, usually in the middle of whatever is happening on the ice, says a player must know what his role in the game is and accept it, even if it causes some concern off the ice. That, he adds, is part of being a professional.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02391/5534289-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="1524" height="916"></div> &#9632;

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THE WORLD ACCORDING TO TIGER

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011395/5534358-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="385" height="454"></div>&ldquo;OH, DOCTOR ORR, after a long summer of floundering around in hockey&rsquo;s fuzzy outerreaches, it&rsquo;s encouraging to see that your shingle is out again to offer succor to those of us boggled by the game&rsquo;s complexities. &ldquo;&ldquo;Ah, come right in, help yourself to the coffee and tell me what I can help you with in the area of de-fuzzification. I&rsquo;ve been at summer school taking a course in the Canada Cup.&rdquo;&ldquo;Can you explain the great television wars that the NHL has going now?&rsquo;&rsquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the entire problem. No one in the world can understand what&rsquo;s going on and the lawyers aren&rsquo;t going to explain it all until they absolutely have to do it and have been paid for all their work.&rdquo;&ldquo;There seems to be a lot of beer involved in that problem.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yes, there is. It would be much more classy if two wineries were fighting for control of the NHL. Or even a couple of distilleries. In fact, there&rsquo;s so much brew in this mess that they couldn&rsquo;t decide if they should have a court case on a burp-off.&rdquo;&ldquo;But can you explain what&rsquo;s going on?&rdquo;&ldquo;Actually, no! It&rsquo;sabit like Viet Nam. Or one of the great Indian wars. It seems the Comanches are fighting the Apaches. The Comanches are led by a Sioux and the Apaches are commanded by Arapa-hoes. It would be much more simple if you could figure out which are the good guys and who are the bad ones. They&rsquo;ve promised to issue black and white uniforms to the opponents the next time they meet.&rdquo;&ldquo;Doctor, many people have tried to figure out the sociological implications of the Canada Cup and Canada&rsquo;s victory over the Soviet Union. Can you place it in its proper perspecti ve in the big picture?&rdquo;&ldquo;Of course, no problem in that. Canada&rsquo;s win proves the superiority of democracy over communism, the benefits of capitalism and the advantage of John Tonelli. It gave Glen Sather the chance to prove that it really is easy for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Eagleson. It also gave Anatoli Tarasov the chance to establish how many cans of pressroom beer and soft drinks can be jammed into a small equipment bag and the pockets of a track suit. The Soviet players had the chance to demonstrate how much stereo equipment can be loaded on one plane.&rdquo;&ldquo;Doc, I understand there was some disappointment when Sweden made it to the final of the Canada Cup when everyone figured they would miss the playoffs.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yes, their good play and the fact that the Swedes were very aggressive means that the term &lsquo;Chicken-Swede&rsquo; can&rsquo;t be used any longer. To a fairly large group of big, bad Canadian hockey players and some coaches and television commentators, that means they have no one to pick on. Chicken-Finn, Chicken-West German or Chicken-Yankee just doesn&rsquo;t have the same ring as ChickenSwede.&rdquo;&ldquo;Has the new agreement between the NHL and the Canadian juniors ended all the bad blood between them in the few years?&rdquo;&ldquo;Yes, peace reigns at last&mdash;and will until some NHL team finds a way to violate the recall rule on junior hockey players which says that players returned to junior teams can be summoned back to the NHL only under emergency conditions. New definitions of emergency will be written this season.&rdquo;&ldquo;Does the NHL&rsquo;s claim that the juniors are doing a bad job developing players hold water?&rdquo;&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t even hold beer. The NHL takes away the juniors&rsquo; best players at 18, which lowers the calibre of the junior leagues, then complains about the quality of talent it drafts. To me, the NHL is the same as the kid who murders his mother and father, then complains about being an orphan.&rdquo;&ldquo;Doctor, I&rsquo;m certainly glad we had this chat because I now can hit the new season with my head high because of my complete understanding of all the important issues.&rdquo;&ldquo;You&rsquo;re entirely welcome. Your bill will be in the mail soon and remember, it&rsquo;s tax deductible.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0004-01

TV Wars Even Stump Doctor Orr

<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/f0004-021285/5534389-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg"></div><h2>FOR ARGUMENT&rsquo;S SAKE</h2>What chemistry is it that can turn a loser into a winner overnight? If any hockey executive could find the answer to that question, he would be a happy man indeed. It&rsquo;s one of the grand old game&rsquo;s most difficult riddles, but by studying the most dramatically improved teams of the past, one can ferret out a few clues.Because the lengths of National Hockey League schedules have varied widely&mdash;from as few as 18 games to today&rsquo;s high of 80&mdash;the most accurate way of gauging a team&rsquo;s improvement from one year to the next is to compute the difference in a team&rsquo;s winning percentages over two seasons. This puts an equal yardstick to every team in the history of the NHL, no matter the lengths of the schedules down through the years.The catalyst that set off the big surge for seven of the teams on this list was the acquisition of a single player (five of those seven were a goalie or defenseman) who immediately turned the team around&mdash;an interesting fact in light of the pervasive belief that hockey is not a &ldquo;one-man team.&rdquo; Let&rsquo;stake as an example the top team on the table, the Montreal Canadiens of the mid-&rsquo;20s.Both the weak &lsquo;25-26 team and the strong &lsquo;26-27 side enjoyed the services of the high-scoring immortals Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat. But the big difference was in goals-against. The first year the Habs surrendered three goals per game&mdash;terribly high in those low-scoring days&mdash;while in the second year they gave up just 1.5 goals per game. Why? Goaltending.The great Georges Vezina, virtually the Habs&rsquo; only goaler ever, took ill during the first game of the &lsquo;25-26 season, and died soon after of tuberculosis. The Canadiens were deeply shaken by Vezina&rsquo;s absence. They couldn&rsquo;t find an adequate replacement, and the team finished last.The Habs signed George Hains-worth of Saskatoon for the following season, and he was an immediate sensation, providing superb goalkeeping and setting the Habs free to develop to an unprecedented degree their freewheeling offense. They finished in second place and began a long reign of dominance with Hainsworth unbeatable in goal.The Canadiens of &lsquo;42-43 were a listless club, but they called up young Maurice Richard from the amateur ranks for his first full pro season the following year. He was red-hot and so were the Habs, who were suddenly transformed from a .500 club into an awesome Cup-winning side. The &lsquo;2425 Montreal Maroons were a woeful fifth-place side, but they added the rookie center Nels Stewart for the next campaign. He proceeded to have the most fabulous season ever enjoyed by an NHL freshman, leading the league in both goals and points, and the Maroons to the Stanley Cup.The last-place &lsquo;28-29 Black Hawks suffered from an awful defense, but after they added defenseman Taffy Abel for &lsquo;29-30, they soared to second place. Ottawa Senators of &lsquo;17-18 were also afflicted by a porous defense, but when the great defenseman Sprague Cleghorn returned from a broken leg the next year, the Nats&rsquo; defense jelled and the team finished first.The addition of Cleghorn was also the biggest factor in the rise of the 25-26 Bruins, the third-ranked team on our list. With him on board, the second-year franchise&rsquo;s defense spearheaded a quick march from incompetence to respectability. The &lsquo;2728 New York Americans, a collection of several long washed-up stars obtained the nifty little goaler Worters for the following season. Their goals-against plummetted, and Worters was awarded the Hart Trophy for singlehandedly lifting the Amerk from last to second place.Coaches and managers are hired and fired with blinding speed these days. Owners hope the change at the top will work magic with a bad team. Although this kind of quick fix rarely works, it has succeeded often enough in the past to justify the practice, at least to some degree.Three of the 10 teams on our list got there as a direct result of coaching or managing changes. The &lsquo;67-68 Bruins benefitted immensely through the shrewd dealing of new GM Milt Schmidt, who brought Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield to Beantown for a pittance. The &lsquo;24-25 Hamilton Tigers made no major roster changes, but they did hire Jimmy Gardner as coach, and they shot from last place to first&mdash;one of only six clubs in league history to have accomplished that feat in one year. Lastly, the fine collegiate coach Tom Watt took over woeful Winnipeg, and the young Jets&mdash;brimming with junior-age stars such as Dale Hawerchuk and Dave Babych&mdash;improved dramatically overnight.Watt was fired within two years or his brilliant &lsquo;81-82 achievement. Hehad brought the Jets from horrible to mediocre, and when he couldn&rsquo;t get them to rise above mediocrity, he was out the door. But as this list reveals, it is not a coaching change that most often ignites a team from out of nowhere, it is the acquisition of a key player&mdash;particularly a key defensive player. Alas, as recent history has so amply illustrated, finding such a player is a difficult business. Firing a coach is not.<h2>Percentage Of Winning&hellip; &#9632;</h2>

f0004-02

Formula For Fixing A Franchise

<div class="byline">By Bob Duff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011280/5534420-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="397" height="447"></div>Q: How many times have the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup?A: The Rangers have captured the Cup three times. They joined the National Hockey League in the 1926-27 season and were in the finals the following year, downing the Montreal Maroons in five games. That was the famous series in which Ranger coach Lester Patrick tended goal. They won again in 1932-33, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in four games. Their last win came in 1939-40. Again, the Leafs were the victim, this time in six games.Since that time, the Blueshirts have made three unsuccessful bids for Lord Stanley&rsquo;s mug, in 1949-50, 1971-72 and 1978-79.Q: What was Mike Nykoluk&rsquo;s career playing record?Q: Nykoluk, fired last season as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, played 17 pro seasons. After graduating from the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A League in 1954-55, Nykoluk played the following season with Winnipeg of the Western League. In 1956, he was promoted to Rochester of the American League. Later that season, he was called up to the Maple Leafs for 32 games, scoring three goals and one assist, along with 20 penalty minutes.The next year he was traded by the Leafs to Hershey of the American League for Willie Marshall. Nykoluk spent the remainder of his career in Hershey, before retiring in 1971-72. He was named to the AHL first all-star team in 1967-68 and the second team in 1966-67. He won the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL Most Valuable Player in the 1966-67 season.Q: Who recorded the NHL&rsquo;s first shutout?A: There were only two shutouts recorded during the NHL&rsquo;s inagural season, 1917-18. The first in league history was recorded by the great Georges Vezina of the Montreal Canadiens. Vezina, known as the Chicoutimi Cucumber, turned the trick Feb. 18, 1918 as the Habs toppled the Toronto Arenas, 9-0. Exactly one week later on Feb. 25, Ottawa&rsquo;s Clint Benedict blanked the Canadiens, 8-0, for the only other shutout recorded that year.Q: Has any player ever won the NHL scoring title with more than one club?A: Joe Malone is the only player to ever perform such a feat. In the NHL&rsquo;s first season, Malone scored 44 goals in 20 games for the Montreal Canadiens to win the title. Assists were not recorded that year. Two years later, in 1919-20, Malone, then with the Quebec Bulldogs, scored 39 goals and six assists to again lead the NHL in scoring.He retired after the 1923-24 season and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950.If you want your question answered, write to:ASK THE DUFFER115 3rd Avenue South, 316Saskatoon, Sask.Canada, S7K 1L7All letters will be read, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

f0005-01

ASK THE DUFFER

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02936/5534482-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="390" height="445"></div>Shack is his name. Entertainment was his game.Granted, Eddie Shack played hockey, including 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (1958-75) for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.But it was the way he played the game, making mad dashes down the ice, banging into opponents with much vigor and somehow always managing to take center stage.Always popular with the fans, Shack was one of the few players in the history of professional hockey to ever have a song&mdash;Clear The Track, Here Comes Shack&mdash;written about him.&ldquo;I always felt my job in hockey was to entertain,&rdquo; recalled Shack, who earned the nickname. The Entertainer. &ldquo;I never played seriously.&ldquo;I could score goals, but I knew I wasn&rsquo;t a natural goal-scorer. When I was with the Leafs, I left the scoring up to guys like (Frank) Mahovlich, (Ron) Ellis, and (Dave) Keon.&ldquo;The one thing I didn&rsquo;t want to be remembered as was a boring hockey player.&rdquo;Shack possessed immense physical strength, which allowed him to exchange crunching hits with opponents. And despite his modesty, the former left winger could contribute offensively, 4 too, as he proved by scoring over 20 goals five times.&ldquo;Sure, I liked to shoot the puck and score goals, but when I would get out on the ice I was always looking to create some excitement and havoc,&rdquo; said Shack, who had his best season in 1970-71 with the Kings and Sabres when he scored 27 goals and 46 points. &ldquo;I just figured that if I could hit some son-of-a-b&mdash;, then hit him and worry about what happens later.And Shack was anything but boring. Not only did he make life interesting for fans and teammates, but for his coaches as well.One coach in particular was former Toronto coach and general manager, George (Punch) Imlach.&ldquo;Punch was always work, work, work and push, push, push, Shack said&rdquo; His idea of a practice was push, glide and shoot the puck. Over and over again.&ldquo;He used to drive me bonkers. But I still love the guy and I&rsquo;m glad to see him get elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He deserves it.&rdquo;Today, Shack onws a golf course in Toronto, runs several hockey schools and is quite popular as an after-dinner speaker.Shack still enjoys following the game he played for so many years.&ldquo;To me, Tiger Williams is one of the most entertaining players in the NHL today,&rdquo; said the 47-year-old Shack. &ldquo;I look for that type of player when I&rsquo;m watching the game.&ldquo;There are still a few entertaining players who play the game the way I did, but I would have to say that Tiger is the best.&ldquo;It takes a special talent to be an entertainer. I know I had to work at it. Believe it or not, it takes a lot of time to become good at it.&ldquo;Maybe if I had worked harder and been more serious about the game itself I might have been a more productive player.&ldquo;But can you imagine what you would have missed if I had ever gotten serious?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03651/5534475-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1206" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eddie Shack scored over 20 goals five times in his career, but hockey fans will remember more for his entertaining play.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

They Sang About Shack And He Entertained them

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04426/5534513-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div>that the active NHL goaltenders with the most career shutouts are: &#9632;

f0005-04

Did You Know…

1. Who was the only player active in 1983-84 who played with Montreal&rsquo;s 1968-69 Stanley Cup winner?2. Name the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; player bom in Long Beach, California?3. Which was the first expansion team to register a shutout?4. Who was the first player to score his 50th goal of the season in a losing cause?5. Who scored the first goal in the 1972 Canada-Russia series?6. What current NHL GM was the third goaltender on the 1972 version of Team Canada?7. Who is the only player still active from the NHL&rsquo;s first all-star team?8. Which of the four WH A teams was the first to beat an NHL team in a league game?9. What sport does Montreal&rsquo;s Larry Robinson play in the summer to keep in shape?10. What political party was former NHLer Red Kelly a member of?Answers in next week&rsquo;s issue.<h2>Last Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Canada 47, Denmark 0, 1949. 2. Bobby Orr, 1969-70 to 1974-75, and Guy Lafleur, 1974-75 to 1979-80. 3. 29. 4. Glenn Hall, 502. 5. Mike O&rsquo;Connell. 6. Victor Kuzkin. 7. Richard Torriani (Switzerland). 8. Bryan Hextall. 9. Phil Esposito, 1970-71. 10. Bobby Orr, 1969-70. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011462/5534568-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="379" height="444"></div>My apologies to Tony Esposito, Bobby Clarke, and any other blokes who cherish instant immortality.Sorry, 1 am hereby closing the Hockey Hall of Fame.It&rsquo;s too crowded. There are far too many characters inhabiting the shrine, and the time has come to shut its doors for a spell and rearrange our honoring system.A new wing is needed. No, not another Hall of Fame, this would be HOCKEY&rsquo;S HALL OF INFAMY, dedicated to the supreme flubs, funnymen and fanatics; guys who, by their very nature, make 10 times better stories than our staid, old immortals.The HOCKEY HALL OF INFAMY will welcome a large bunch of mavericks and Mister Malaprops in its inaugural year (which I hope will be 1985), and these are my choices for &ldquo;The Infamous Five.&rdquo;1) FERN GAUTHIER, THE MAN WHO COULDN&rsquo;T SHOOT THE PUCK IN THE OCEAN: You laugh, but it&rsquo;s true. The Great Gauthier (alias Rene Fernand Gauthier) was so bad a forward, that he couldn&rsquo;t shoot the puck into the ocean if he was standing at the shoreline. And one day the charge was proven true.But first a bit of background. Fabulous Fem had been a not-too-bad scorer with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers during the early &lsquo;40s. The Detroit Red Wings had their eyes on him and finally acquired The Great Gauthier in 1945. Wing general manager Jack Adams figured if Fem could score 14 goals for the Rangers and 18 for the Canadiens (in a 50-game season), he&rsquo;d do likewise for Detroit.Alas, The Great Gauthier didn&rsquo;t come through. Game after game elapsed without Fabulous Fem lighting the light. It was now obvious that Detroit had come upon a lemon that would have made the Edsel look good by comparison, a fact that became painfully apparent to the Motor City media, who noted that Gauthier &ldquo;couldn&rsquo;t put a puck in the ocean.&rdquo;Detroit Times hockey writer Lew Walter decided to put the charge to the supreme test when the Red Wings visited New York. Walter, a photographer and Gauthier, armed with pucks and sticks, cabbed down to the tip of Manhattan where he could confront the Atlantic Ocean.Standing at the edge of the water, Gauthier attempted to put the puck in the ocean. The best story of all has it that Fabulous Fem missed on his first two shots. &ldquo;It was said,&rdquo; Walter once recounted, &ldquo;that as Fem shot the first puck a seagull swooped down and snatched it&mdash;and then the second puck went sailing out, a tugboat came puffing by with a string of barges, on one of which the puck landed.&rdquo;True or not, it&rsquo;s a grand tale, and Walter later verified that Fem did shoot puck after puck into the ocean. &ldquo;Fem proved,&rdquo; said Walter, &ldquo;that he could put the puck in the ocean and also that he was a good sport by entering into the spirit of the rib.&rdquo;For that he deserves instant entrance in the Hall of Infamy.2) STEVE BUZINSKI, BEST BOWLEGGED AND THE WORST GOALIE IN NHL HISTORY: No doubt I&rsquo;ll get an argument on this from Steve Buzinski and lobbyists for the Markus Mattson Fan Club. No matter, even if Steve B. isn&rsquo;t the absolute, definitive worst, he remains the absolute definitive worst goalie with the unequivocally best gag lines. And about those bow legs, can you believe a blowlegged goalie? His manager. Frank Boucher, said Stevie B. was so bowlegged, &ldquo;he looked as if he were shot full of holes.&rdquo;Now, as bad a goalie as Steve was (5.89 goals-against average in 1942-43), that&rsquo; show good he thought he was. It was Steve B. who coined the definitive expression about goaltending, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s as easy as pickin&rsquo; cherries off a tree.&rdquo; He uttered that deathless remark to teammate Bryan Hextail after making a save, then tossed the puck to the comer. A few minutes later, he made another glove save and this time&mdash;inadvertently, of course&mdash;tossed the puck into his own net!Stevie B. lasted a grand total of nine games but was so bad even the then-terrible Rangers felt obliged to bench him in favor of Jimmy Franks. However, coach Frank Boucher insisted that Buzinski be kept on the payroll as a practice goalie for themselves as well as their farm team, the New York Rovers. One day, Ranger boss Lester Patrick noticed that Buzinski was hanging around and Lester urged him to work out with the Rovers. Teammate Alf Pike, who was there, said Buzinski&rsquo;s reply stunned Patrick to the core. &ldquo;He looked up at Lester,&rdquo; Pike recalled, &ldquo;and said, &lsquo;Gee, -I&rsquo;d like to help you out Mr. Patrick, but I&rsquo;ve got a lot of letters to write.&rdquo;When Patrick recovered from the shock, he bought Stevie Buzinski a one-way ticket back to Swift Current, Sask. (If that isn&rsquo;t enough to guarantee Stevie B. a spot in the Hall of Infamy, then how about his nickname: Steve Buzinski&mdash;The Puck Goes Inski.)3) HAROLD COTTON, THE WINGER WHO BEEFED SO MUCH ABOUT NOT GETTING PASSES, HIS LINEMATES HUNG HIM OUT OF A NEW YORK HOTEL WINDOW: It&rsquo;s one thing to complain about not getting a goal-scoring pass from your linemate but it&rsquo;s quite another thing to yap about it incessantly for the 12-hour train ride from Toronto to New York.Harold (Baldy) Cotton, who recently passed away, made the latter mistake while skating for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The man whose ear he chewed off was linemate Charlie Conacher.Cotton erred on two points: a) Conacher was considerably bigger and stronger than he was and b) Cotton exceeded the accepted limits of complaining by approximately 11 hours.When the 12th hour arrived, the Leafs had checked into Manhattan&rsquo;s Hotel Lincoln overlooking Times Squares. As he unpacked, Cotton moaned about the pass-that-never-came for the umpteenth time.That did it.Conacher opened the hotel window, high above The Great White Way, cornered Cotton, grabbed him by the waist and lifted him out of the window where he held Harold by the ankles. (Teammate Hap Day, looking out of the window in the room directly below, was stunned to see an upside down airborne Cotton peering at him from outside the hotel window.&ldquo;Do you think you could shut up if I let you back in,&rdquo; demanded Conacher.The reply was uplifting, to say the least, and Cotton&mdash;somewhat more mute&mdash;was restored to Conacher&rsquo;s good graces and his room.(Another time, Conacher was a bit less peeved&mdash;but peeved nonetheless&mdash;at Cotton during a stopover in Boston. Instead of hanging Harold out of a window, he buried him under an avalance of hotel furniture. Cotton was wedged between the twin beds of their room, with springs, mattresses and bedclothes piled on top of him. Cotton was saved when teammate Dick Irvin came by and extricated the otherwise fallen Leaf.4) GILLES GRATTON, THE GOALIE WHO HATED GOALTENDING, AND WHO WAS HOCKEY&rsquo;S FIRST STREAKER: When some ancient sage of the ice rinks coined the bromide, &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t have to be nuts to be a goaltender but it doesn&rsquo;t hurt,&rdquo; he must have had Gilles Gratton in mind. Grattoony, as they came to know him, was looney (or was he?)He once declared that he was overpaid and, anyway, hated his job. &ldquo;When summer ends,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;a hockey player gets itchy. I feel like killing myself.&rdquo;Grattoony never did, but his accomplishments, while not Vezina Trophy quality, do make him a must for the HOCKEY HALL OF INFAMY. For example, when he played for the World Hockey Association Toronto Toros, Double G skated onto the ice for a practice as nude as a Playgirl centerfold. (When he played for Team Canada 1974, he posed nude with a female masseuse in a sauna bath.) At a time when San Diego&rsquo;s WHA team was desperately trying to promote the game in Southern California, Grattoony was interviewed at the San Diego rink after a game with the Mariners. &ldquo;You have a great building here,&rdquo; chirped Double G, &ldquo;too bad you don&rsquo;t have a hockey team.&rdquo;5) BINGO KAMPMAN, THE STRONGEST DEFENSEMAN IN NHL HISTORY WHO COULDN&rsquo;T WIN A FIGHT: How strong was Rudolph (Bingo) Kampman? Had he been around today he would lift Barry Beck with one thumb and Larry Robinson with another while balancing Wayne Gretzky on his nose. Man, this man was mighty.How mighty, you ask? Whenever he needed side money, Bingo would wager that he could lift a package-laden table by snaring it in his teeth and then lifting it. Bingo never lost the bets.As strong as he was, Bingo couldn&rsquo;t fight. &ldquo;That didn&rsquo;t stop him,&rdquo; said author Ira Gitler, who watched Kampman play for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the early &lsquo;40s. &ldquo;He would close in on his opponent, get him off-stride by faking a punch and then swiftly grab him in a bear-hug or a fireman&rsquo;s lift. He simply outwrestled him.&rdquo;One night Cully Dahlstrom of the Black Hawks angered Bingo. Kampman picked up Dahlstrom the way a magnet picks up a paper clip and threw him over the boards and into the rinkside seats.Ranger defenseman Muzz Patrick (Craig&rsquo;s uncle), who once was the Canadian heavyweight boxing champion, played against Kampman and even Muzz marvelled at Bingo&rsquo;s biceps. &ldquo;He could take a 50-cent piece,&rdquo; Patrick recalls, &ldquo;and bend it in two like the local strong man does to Coke tops.&rdquo;Patrick&rsquo;s best Kampman story is about the time pesky Ranger center Phil Watson bothered Bingo. With a twist of the wrist, Kampman had Watson aloft.&ldquo;Bingo lifted Phil,&rdquo; says Patrick, &ldquo;and I mean all of him, over his head and then twirled him, flying-scissors style, while skating down the ice!&rdquo;Bingo, welcome to the HOCKEY HALL OF INFAMY!No doubt, there will be bitter complaints that I omitted several qualified applicants for the HOCKEY HALL OF INFAMY and they will be right. In fairness to those, a DISHONORABLE MENTION list follows:&bull; STEVE WOJCIECHOWSKI&mdash;for having the most unpronounceable name in NHL annals. (Red Wing press agent Fred Huber changed it to Steve Wochy.)&bull; JOHNNY (GOOSE) McCORMACK&mdash;for violating Mapie Leaf boss Conn Smythe&rsquo;s edict and getting married in mid-season&mdash;and being demoted to the minors after some nerve-wracking games between the pipes.&bull; WILF CUDE&mdash;for fuming at his wife&rsquo;s ill-broiled, pregame steak, tossing it against the wall and then watching it slide, ketchup and all, down the wall to the floor. &ldquo;By the time the steak reached the floor,&rdquo; saidCude, &ldquo;I knew that it was time for me to quit goaltending.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;The injury bug, which cost &ldquo;the Boston Bruins so dearly as they fought for the Adams Division crown last year, has struck early this season.&rdquo;Barry Pederson, one of the three of four players the Bruins can least afford to lose, went down with a broken knuckle on his right hand Oct. 2 in a fight with defenseman Mario Marois in Quebec.It was the second of two fight-filled Exhibition games with the Nordiques in which the two teams totalled 354 minutes in penalties. It was figured the injury will cost the Bruins Pederson&rsquo;s services for at least six weeks.General manager Harry Sinden of the Bruins was livid over the incident, which he blamed on Quebec coach Michel Bergeron.&ldquo;The chicken bleep is behind the bench. He&rsquo;s great at sending his players out to fight. Why didn&rsquo;t he (Bergeon) go over the boards and fight? It&rsquo;s all him, nobody else.&ldquo;You think our game plan was to send Barry Pederson out to start a fight? It&rsquo;s all the doing of that arrogant pup. I&rsquo;m sick of him and the way he hides behind his angelic halo.&rdquo;The loss of Pederson opened up one more forward spot, at least temporarily, on the Bruins&rsquo; roster and for a time it appeared rookie Dave Pasin, the team&rsquo;s first-round pick in the June draft, would fill it.Pasin looked good in training camp, demonstrating a cannon shot, a quick release and good positioning around the net. Unfortunately his skating did him in for the 1984-85 season and it was decided to send him back back to junior hockey for another year.&ldquo;He looks exactly like what he&rsquo;s supposed to be,&rdquo; said coach Gerry Cheevers. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got an uncanny knack for putting the puck in the net.&rdquo;&ldquo;Even his mistakes go in,&rdquo; added Sinden.&ldquo;But we have to be careful that we don&rsquo;t force him into a situation that he&rsquo;s not ready for.&rdquo;The choice of Pasin, 19th overall in the draft, was a radical departure for the Bruins who, in the past, have looked for checking ability first and let scoring take care of itself. Pasin doesn&rsquo;t have great defensive ability, nor is he an outstanding skater. But the 18-year-old right winger feels he&rsquo;s ready for the NHL.&ldquo;I think I could play here,&rdquo; he said, after testing himself against in practice and exhibition games. &ldquo;One of the lucky things is that I adjust well to competition.I jumped into tier two junior right from bantam when I was 15 years old. I got sick and had to go back to midget but I jumped to major junior the following year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d probably start off a bit slow but I think I could play in the NHL this year.&rdquo;Scoring has never been a problem for Pasin. He scored 40 goals as a 16-year-old in his first year of major junior with the Prince Albert Raiders. He had 68 goals for the Raiders last year. He once scored 14 goals in a squirt game. He fired eight of his team&rsquo;s goals in a 9-5 victory that won the north Edmonton mite championship.&ldquo;Goal-scoring is just something that came natural to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The only thing I&rsquo;ve had to work at was more strength to be able to get into position to shoot and getting a quick release on my shot.&ldquo;What I really lack is checking ability. That comes with skating, and skating is the weakest part of my game. That makes it tough to hold my check. I really have to get him close.&ldquo;I started skating when I was about five or six years old in mini-mites. I power skated when I was 11 years old. I did it for about two or three years. I took it again last year in major junior during the Christmas holidays. They may have been holidays for some but I spent Christmas power skating.&rdquo;One of the hurdles for Pasin was that most of the Bruins&rsquo; best forwards are right wingers&mdash;Rick Middleton, Keith Crowder, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and Dave Silk.Pasin is the first in his family to make it in organized hockey. His older brother. Dale, played junior B, but now works for the railroad in British Columbia. His father, an immigrant, played semi-pro soccer in Italy. He figures the name originally was Pasini.&ldquo;My parents were the biesest influence on me in hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was out of the house when I was 15 years old It&rsquo;s pretty tough on parents to let a son that young move away just to play hockey. But they were always behind me inwhatever decision I made.&ldquo;The biggest thing that&rsquo;s happend to me so far in hockey is being drafted by the Bruins. Montreal was always my favorite team but I always liked the Bruins. They never had any superstar when I was growing up but they worker hard. No riders on this team. Everyone pulls their own load. Great guys and they all work together.&rdquo; &#9632;

Angry Sinden Blasts Bergeron For Injury

The International Hockey WeeklyFounded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Wouldn&rsquo;t It Be Nice&hellip;</h2>IT IS THE START of another National Hockey League season and, despite the fact that the Canada Cup gave us some top-flight hockey to watch more than a month earlier than usual, it&rsquo;s about time the 21 teams are back in action.The regular season, no doubt, will again be declared meaningless and an 80-game waste of time by some, but for most of us, it signals a fresh start.Even the fans in Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Toronto, Los Angeles and Hartford, who saw their teams miss the playoffs last spring, have some reason for optimism. Come Christmas, the same may not hold true, but for now, everybody is starting anew.That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s fun to play a litte &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t It Be Nice&hellip;&rdquo;&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if members of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s officiating staff skated through an entire season without be molested or physically abused by a player who momentarily lost grasp of reality?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if members of the good teams in the National Hockey League didn&rsquo;t say nasty things about the weak teams, such as labelling them &ldquo;Mickey Mouse&rdquo; or &ldquo;as bad as the West Germans&rdquo;?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if any differences between the U.S. governors and the Canadian governors could be settled amicably at a meeting instead of by a gross of lawyers in any number of courtrooms in Canada and the United States?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if the weak teams in the league held fast and refused to trade any of their draft picks?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if the National Hockey League season ended and not one player had been charged with a drug offense?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if the one-third of the league that makes money, makes more?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if the one-third of the league that breaks even, makes more?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if the one-third of the league that loses money, makes much more?&bull; Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice if the new development agreement between the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League and the National Hockey League worked the way it&rsquo;s meant to?Well, yes, there&rsquo;s no question that if all those things unfolded perfectly, we&rsquo;d have quite a &ldquo;nice&rdquo; season. But here&rsquo;s betting that someone will foul it all up. &#9632;

The Hockey News

After reading Joe Falls&rsquo; column in the Sept. 28 issue, I felt I should write to you about an incident that occurred earlier this year.After attending a St. Louis-Detroit Red Wing game at the Arena in St. Louis late in the 1983-84 season, a friend and I stopped at a bar for a drink before returning home. A short time later, the Red Wings entered the bar.Well, to make a long story short, not only did the players sign autographs, I got to talk hockey with Brad Park for over an hour.Now having been a hockey fan since I first saw the St. Louis Braves play when they were the Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; farm club and an amateur player myself for 14 years, you can imagine the thrill I got talking hockey and having a beer with a future Hall of Fame defenseman and meeting one of the finest group of athletes in the world.I thought the management and ownership of the Red Wings should know that in this day and age of overpaid and spoiled athletes, they have assembled one of the classiest groups ever.Thanks again to Brad Park, Reed Larson, Bob Manno, Danny Gare, Kelly Kisio, Paul Woods and Eddie Johnstone.I&rsquo;m still a fan of the St. Louis Blues, but you better believe I&rsquo;ll be pulling for Detroit whenever they&rsquo;re not playing the Blues.Wendell E. Hopper Gillespie, IL<h2>PROMOTE CUP BETTER</h2>This is written in response to the recently completed Canada Cup, or, to be more precise, the poor attendance that plagued the series.True, a $27 charge for a seat was a bit high, but to blame the lack of full houses solely on this is absurd. The reason, as mentioned in the Sept. 28 issue, was that the fans just did not care what happened in a game not involving Canada and therfore didn&rsquo;t show up.Why should Canadians fans want to pay to watch Sweden and West Germany? But something could have been done to increase fan support and should be when the next tournament takes place. The games involving Team USA should have been scheduled in American cities where interest would have been high.One game, Czechoslovakia vs. USA, was held in Buffalo, NY. The game drew 12,352 fans, not a full house but still the largest crowd to watch Team USA. The USA vs. Canada game drew only 10,563 in Montreal and, worse yet, the USA vs. USSR game drew a paltry 5,513 in Edmonton. The people of Edmonton were more concerned about their own team than their neighbor, and rightfully so. The obvious question is, why was this game scheduled in Edmonton in the first place?Had the game been scheduled in Madison Square Garden it would have drawn a packed house. Furthermore, Canadians would have justly been peeved had the Canada vs. USSR match been held in New York or some other American city. Why should Americans, therefore, be deprived of seeing their team in action?Finally, we talk about promoting the game of hockey in the States. What better way is there than to expose the fans to international competition involving their team? It makes no sense, whatsoever to have Team USA play north of the border when it belongs home.I am not proposing that the USA totally dominate the Canada Cup scheduling. I merely am saying that each country should be permitted to host the games involving its respective club. This past Cup has shown what happens when this doesn&rsquo;t take place.The Canada Cup is already at a disadvantage because no games will be held in Toronto, a city where a sellout would be practically assured. It should not hurt itself any more than necessary.Jeff Whitbred Erie, PA<h2>HAIL TO THE EAGLE AND CO.</h2>My sincere congratulations to Alan Eagleson, Glen Sather, the CTV Network and, of course, all the Team Canada players for bringing the Canada Cup back to Canada.It&rsquo;s a tremendous lift to Canadian hockey, and it proves the game is played at its best in Canada. Hopefully, the Canada Cup series will continue to take place once every four years.Gary Wallman Canton, MI<h2>FAN FORUM</h2>Let your voice be heerd! Send your comments to Fen Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., Canada M3B 2R2. &#9632;

Wings Make A Fan’s Day

<div class="byline">Terry Jones</div>Arbour&rsquo;s Empire Strikes Back!It&rsquo;s only a one-year &lsquo;dynasty&rsquo; for Gretzky and Team Arrogance.&mdash;Inside Sports NHL Preview HeadlineIn the above mentioned article, author Stan Fischler called the Edmonton Oilers &ldquo;the reincarnation of the 1950 Detroit Red Wings, who provided a brief respite from the Toronto Maple Leafs three-consecutive-Cup reign; Toronto counterattacked and won again in 1951.&rdquo;The story goes on to say &ldquo;the Oilers won on a fluke last spring&rdquo; and that they are &ldquo;suffering from hallucinations. They suspect that they have the makings of a dynasty, but if there is such a thing as a one-year dynasty, the Oilers are it.&rdquo;So that&rsquo;s supposed to be the scenario, is it?Listen. I&rsquo;m the guy who once called the Oilers, when they gassed a 5-0 lead and lost a game and a series to the Los Angeles Kings, &ldquo;weak-kneed wimps.&rdquo; Over the years, I&rsquo;m the guy who continually questioned their character and, at times, their coach. I&rsquo;m the guy who suggested they trade some goals for some guts.Fluke?One-year wonders?Certainly they were once everything author Fischler suggests they still are. But they had their gut-check. They passed.A year earlier, in the final against the New York Islanders, the Oilers lost because it was boys against men. Young and immature, the Oilers grew up last year. They&rsquo;ve had the talent to be the best team in the free world. Now they are. And no more do I think you can say they don&rsquo;t have the character, the discipline and the maturity.If you want to pin-point it, I think they grew up the night they beat the Calgary Flames in Game Seven of the Smythe Division final series.&ldquo;The Calgary series made all the difference in the world,&rdquo; said defenseman Kevin Lowe. &ldquo;Game Seven. Right there. That was the time and place. That&rsquo;s where we grew up. That&rsquo;s where we acquired the mental toughness you have to have to win a Stanley&ldquo;That,&rdquo; said Paul Coffey, &ldquo;is where we finally sat down and said &lsquo;If we&rsquo;re a hell of a team, let&rsquo;s prove it.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s where we found out what it takes. To win a Stanley Cup, you have to go out and work your butts off as a team.&rdquo;If Game Seven against Calgary didn&rsquo;t convince you, Game One of the five-game sweep of the Islanders had to.The Oilers won a Stanley Cup playoff game, a tough, grinding game, 1-0.&ldquo;We proved to everybody that we can be as disciplined as anybody if we put our minds to it,&rdquo; said Wayne Gretzky.The mental toughness the Oilers discovered in the playoffs last year should carry over. Wayne Gretzky has been crowned a winner. Finally, he&rsquo;s complete. Grant Fuhr proved he wouldn&rsquo;t fall apart in the playoffs. Mark Messier emerged as a leader instead of a follower. Paul Coffey maybe made the biggest step of all in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and even more dramatically in the Canada Cup game against the Russians, by proving what he did defensively. And Kevin Lowe proved he&rsquo;d be a study of steadiness in such situations.All those players will be able to grow into a different dimension of greatness, one which transcends talent, as a result of what happened to them last year.The talent which has always been there, the character they acquired and the yellow brick road which is the built-in Campbell Conference trip to the Stanley Cup final should result in many more chances to repeat. Normally the question of dynasty is out of order after one Cup. In this case, I submit it&rsquo;s not.Now that they&rsquo;ve had their day, the Edmonton Oilers are not going to go away.Terry Jones is a columnist for the Edmonton Sun. &#9632;

The Oilers Aren’t One-Year Wonders

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Bill Barber didn&rsquo;t even lace on a pair of skates during the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; training camp, but it was the toughest camp in his 13-year National Hockey League career.While most of the Flyers were practising or scrimmaging on the ice, Barber would shuffle past the blur of jerseys and head for the back of the rink and his new headquarters&mdash;the training room, and his most important teammate, Flyer physical conditioning coach, Pat Croce.The training room, also known as Croce&rsquo;s &ldquo;Little Shop of Horrors,&rdquo; is a necessary daily routine. It is the only path with gives Barber any hope of rehabilitating his reconstructed right knee to the point where he can rejoin the Flyers early next spring.If that can&rsquo;t be done, then Bill Barber&rsquo;s career will have come to an end.&ldquo;I go in every morning,&rdquo; said Barber, &ldquo;and Pat pulls and twists, and yanks at the knee. Does it hurt? You&rsquo;d better believe it hurts. It&rsquo;s unbelievable at first.&ldquo;What he&rsquo;s doing&mdash;or at least what he tells me he&rsquo;s doing&mdash;is breaking down, scar tissue. But I don&rsquo;t know, maybe he just likes to see guys in pain. Actually, there&rsquo;s no way to avoid the pain. What he has to do is break down the scar tissue and the adhesions every day.&rdquo;Actually, it&rsquo;s amazing the Flyers are even thinking about getting Barber back into their lineup at all. When he tumbled on the knee last spring, he wrecked what was left of the cruciate ligament, which holds the knee from bending backwards. Thus, Barber was left with what might be called a &ldquo;flamingo knee&rdquo; which would just collapse backwards.&ldquo;There was no doubt he had to have the operation,&rdquo; said Croce. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d been having trouble with the knee for a couple of seasons. I can&rsquo;t tell you how long we&rsquo;ve worked on it. He never had surgery, but, believe me, we kept that knee together with bubble gum and Band-Aids for a long time.&ldquo;His great asset was his incredible muscle girth around the knee. He&rsquo;s got incredibly big muscles in his thighs and they acted as kind of a natural brace. But that last injury really did it.&rdquo;Ironically, the injury the surgeon expected to find isn&rsquo;t the one which is putting his career on hold. When Doctor John Gregg cut into Barber&rsquo;s knee he found an even more alarming problem; Barber had broken part of the femur (bone) on the inside of the knee.It then became necessary to cut away more of the bone and drill holes into it, hoping this could be filled with cartilage and give Barber the required mobility.&ldquo;When I heard about the bone,&rdquo; said Croce, &ldquo;well, I just kind of figured we &bull; could scratch him off forever. You know, in hockey you use that inner part of your thigh and knee to push off. It&rsquo;s where you get your skating power.&rdquo;The ligament problem was solved by taking some muscle from Barber&rsquo;s thigh and using it to reconstruct a ligament. As for the bone problem, Croce and Barber are trying to solve that with rehabilitation. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a really difficult process,&rdquo; said Croce. &ldquo;It involves a lot of pain, and I need a lot of feedback from Bill.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a case of having to make it hurt to make it feel better. You have to really get to know the patient, because a lot depends on knowing his threshold of pain. It&rsquo;s kind of like two steps forward and then one back&mdash;it hurts, then it feels good, then it tightens up and hurts again.&ldquo;Three weeks ago, I wouldn&rsquo;t have thought his chances of coming back this season were very good. But now, I&rsquo;ve kind of changed my mind. He&rsquo;s really working at it.&rdquo;At 32, and a perennial all-star left winger throughout most of his career, Barber is looking at the whole matter philosophically.&ldquo;You know, when you&rsquo;re playing, you complain about training camp,&rdquo;said Barber. &ldquo;Now that I&rsquo;ve had to sit out with this, it makes me realize how much I&rsquo;ll miss the game.&ldquo;1 really want to come back, but when the time comes to see if 1 can play, it will be a tough decision with a lot of circumstances to consider. I don&rsquo;t want to get back into a situation where I&rsquo;m afraid of getting hit again; I will not go through what I&rsquo;ve been through all over again.&ldquo;I am working to get my knee back to 100 percent. That&rsquo;s my goal. If the knee does not get to 100 percent, 1 figure the writing will be on the wall.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t want to go back at 80 percent. I&rsquo;ve seen guys come back late in their careers and try to play at 80 percent, or whatever. I don&rsquo;t want that to happen. I don&rsquo;t want Bill Barber&rsquo;s career to end like that.&rdquo;And so, every morning, Barber goes through his own torture chamber so he can come back at 100 percent next spring.NOTES&mdash;Another Flyer, Mark Howe, also worked with Pat Croce during the summer for rehabilitation. Howe went through a seven-week program with Croce to help repair an injured rotator cuff (shoulder) and avoid surgery. Thus far, Howe is reporting good results and he can once again wind up for a slap shot&hellip;The Flyers have been impressed with rookie goalie candidate Ron Hextall who played a brilliant game in a 2-1 pre-season loss at Montreal. &#9632;

Barber Discovers Real Meaning Of Pain

<div class="byline">Bill Fleischman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021094/5534774-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="404" height="449"></div>BERNIE PARENT CAN laugh now, but on that Sunday afternoon in May 10 years ago, a city held its breathThe Philadelphia Flyers, an expansion team that almost everyone said had no business being in the Stanley Cup finals. were leading the mighty Boston Bruins of Bobby On- and Phil Esposito, 1-0. It was the third period of the sixth game and if Philadelphia held the lead, it would stun the hockey world and win the Stanley Cup in only its seventh season as a National Hockey League member.At this moment, however, the Flyers had a slight problem Ken Hodge, the right winger on the productive Esposito-Wayne Cashman line, was carrying the puck into the Philadelphia zone on a breakaway. All that stood between Hodge and a tie game was Bemie Parent. Parent, then 29, had just completed one of the greatest seasons every by an NHL goaltender, a league-leading 1.89 goals-against average and 12 shutouts while playing in a phenomenal 73 of 78 games. The league was into the two-goaltender system by then, but Parent worked as if his good friend and back-up, Bobby Taylor, was on vacation.Parent was equally outstanding in the playoffs. He would finish with a brilliant 2.02 average. But at this moment, everyone thought the Flyers were in big trouble. It was late in the game, but if Hodge, a 50-goal scorer that season, put the puck past Parent, it was thought that the Bruins would rise up and crush the Flyers.Terry Crisp, a Parent teammate that season and now the successful coach of Sault Ste. Marie in the Ontario League, still jokes that he closed his eyes as Hodge wound up to shoot.&ldquo;I did the same thing&mdash;I closed my eyes, too,&rdquo; Parent says, laughing and his warm eyes twinkling.Parent is kidding, of course. During that season and the following one, when he again led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup, the only times he closed his eyes were when he slept. Parent stopped Hodge, the Flyers won the game and the Cup and a city that had been pulling its jacket collar up around its face to avoid acknowledging its sports embarrassment rejoiced like never before. Millions lined the streets the next day for the unforgettable parade and this collection of old-fashioned, hard-working Canadians who triggered the success of the Phillies, Eagles and Sixers would have become etched into Philadelphia sports history forever.The big flaw in the story is, the joy didn&rsquo;t last long enough&mdash;for Parent or the Flyers. He suffered a neck injury prior to the 1975-76 season, returned, then, on Feb. 17, 1979, went down for good with a longshot eye injury. The odds on a stick penetrating an eye hole in a goaltender&rsquo;s mask are astronomical, but it happened to Parent.That&rsquo;s when the agony began&hellip;the self-doubt, the drinking. And that&rsquo;s why it was so good to see him inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame prior to this season. The smile that can light up an arena was back. The sense of humor and the self-confidence were also back. The man who was in such control of himself as one of hockey&rsquo;s greatest goaltenders and then lost that control is steering his own ship again. His full head of wavy hair is prematurely gray at age 39, but Bemie Parent is still young at heart.&ldquo;Positive thinking. Bill,&rdquo; he&rsquo;ll say. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve gotta think positive. The only way to bounce back is not to sit back.&rdquo;Parent litters his conversation with many of these minipep talks. It&rsquo;s as if he&rsquo;s reciting them from a pamphlet, but that&rsquo;s okay. Too many former athletes who encountered the problems Parent had have drifted toward oblivion. carried on a river of booze. Parent says he was sliding that way, but with help from his wife, Carol, and friends, he recovered. Now he&rsquo;s the Flyer goaltending coach, he&rsquo;s a vice president of a product display company and he&rsquo;s one of the most popular banquet speakers on the Philadelphia sports scene.&ldquo;He took publ&rsquo;C speaking courses and English lessons,&rdquo; Carol said proudly. &ldquo;He was worrying about the future because he didn&rsquo;t want to just ride with the Flyers. He didn&rsquo;t want them creating a job just for him.&ldquo;He was down a lot of days after he finished playing, but he has really grown up.&rdquo;One of the best moves Parent made after he retired from hockey was not accepting a hand-shaking job with one of the Atlantic City casinos. Carol Parent said her husband could have accepted a $90,000-a-year job that&rsquo;s basic duty is keeping the high-rollers in Atlantic City happy.&ldquo;But it scared me,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It was the wrong lifestyle for him, staying out until two and three o&rsquo;clock every morning.&rdquo;Always a family-oriented person, Parent now works regular hours. The only nights he is out are for Flyer games or speaking assignments. Standing before school and business audiences wasn&rsquo;t easy for someone who had a thick French-Canadian accent, but Parent worked at that, too.&ldquo;Linda Panasci of the Flyers helped him so much,&rdquo; Carol said, referring to the club&rsquo;s marketing manager. &ldquo;She encouraged him when he was afraid to go out speaking. She would talk with me every day. She&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;I know he can do it,&rsquo; and I&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;Push him.&rsquo;&rdquo;Together, the two pushed and polished Parent into a smooth, confident speaker. His professional and personal life is in order and he&rsquo;s in the Hall of Fame, where he belongs, with names such as Orr, Howe, Esposito and Plante.&ldquo;I guess there&rsquo;s no place better to be,&rdquo; Parent said. &ldquo;Once you&rsquo;re in the Hall of Fame, it&rsquo;s like a part of you will live forever.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-02

Agony Followed Ecstasy For Hall Of Famer Parent

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011433/5534743-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Palmateer has a history of knee problems and a hefty contract, but he believes he can still help out a team.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;Mike Palmateer is 30 years old and has a history of knee problems, but his heart is his healthy and so is his spirit.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m getting old and have had a bad wheel and all,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but come on, I think I could do some teams some good.&rdquo;Whether Palmateer is given that chance remains to be seen. The one thing that is certain is the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team for which Palmateer played the last two seasons and for four previous ones in the s&rsquo;70s, has given him a clear indication he&rsquo;s no longer wanted.When the Leafs listed the names of the players they were protecting in the waiver draft, Palmateer&rsquo;s name wasn&rsquo;t on it. So now Palmateer, who has a fat contract ($300,000 in Canadian funds) aside from his other liabilities, is hoping some other team will gamble that he can still play.The Leafs, it is believed, will pay for part of Palmateer&rsquo;s salary if another team signs him. Ironically, this is what Washington did at the end of the 1982-83 season when the Leafs gambled that Palmateer still had a few good years left. Palmateer proved to be quite a bargain, as he led die Leafs to the playoffs and gave a gutsy showing in a losing effort to Minnesota.But last season Palmateer had one of his worst season&rsquo;s ever, and the fact the Leafs were forced to give him a raise after he took them to arbitration and won certainly didn&rsquo;t win him any points.His much-troubled knees had to undergo arthroscopic surgery in February, and he was sidelined for three weeks. When he returned, he had lost his starting job to a 19-year-old youngster named Allan Bester, who was in many ways a carbon copy of the effervescent and bubbly Palmateer of the &rsquo;70s.Realizing he was in his last year and would be a free agent at the end of the season, Palmateer worked hard over the summer and came to camp in excellent shape. In fact, had Palmateer failed his physical, the Leafs would have been exempt from paying him. But Palmateer negated that by reporting in excellent condition.It should be noted, however, that Leaf owner Harold Ballard tried to discourage Palmateer before he reported. Ballard bad-mouthed the player he had once adored, claiming Palmateer didn&rsquo;t have the skills anymore.It was typical for Ballard&mdash;who wanted to pay his onetime captain Darryl Sittier to stay away from training camp&mdash;but, according to Bester, it gave Palmateer &ldquo;an incentive to prove that he&rsquo;s not finished.&rdquo;With coach Dan Maloney repeating over and over that the &ldquo;best two goaltenders&rdquo; would be retained at the start of the season, Palmateer appeared to have a good chance. The only real competition in his way aside from Bester was Ken Wregget, a 20-year-old all-star in the Western League last season. Wregget had played in three games with the Leafs last season, compiling a 5.09 goals-against average. But the fact he faced 128 shots in those three games&mdash;including over 50 in the first one&mdash;was something which had to be taken into account.Palmateer played well in scrimmages, and in the first pre-season game against Quebec he played steadily and only surrendered a goal.And that&rsquo;s when it happened. Palmateer was put to rest&mdash;for 8 days&mdash;despite the Leafs playing five game in six days. His next game was against his own teammates, as he suited up for the Leafs&rsquo; farm team in St. Catharines in a brawling affair against the parent team. He let in six goals, and if the Leafs were looking for an excuse to prove Palmateer was finished, that was it.When asked about it a few days later, Palmateer claimed he was put in the game only to give him some scrimmage time, and that he found it hard to play his usual aggressive game against his own teammates.&ldquo;If I wanted to, I could have smoked them,&rdquo; he said.And then he offered a comment which summed up the events of the last few weeks.&ldquo;I think things were decided before I got here this fall,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was decided this summer. I didn&rsquo;t have a chance when I got here.&rdquo;From a management standpoint, you can understand the Leafs&rsquo; thinking. Bester, who came to camp looking for the No. 1 job and appears to have it after a solid pre-season, and Wregget are young and have the makings of becoming excellent goalies.Where that leaves Palmateer is anybody&rsquo;s guess. When he first came to the Leafs, his opening words to then-general manager Jim Gregory were: &ldquo;Relax, your troubles are over.&rdquo; When he was talking after the Sabre game, he said: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what happens when you get old.&rdquo;LEAFLETS&mdash;Don&rsquo;t be surprised if the Leafs open the season with youngsters Al lafrate and Todd Gill on defense. Both played well in pre-season and deserved to stick with the team&hellip;Botje Salming drew a few stares when he jumped onto the ice wearing a towel around his neck in a game against New York in Kitchener, Ont. The Leafs scored on the play&hellip;In a losing effort to Buffalo, coach Dan Maloney berated his veterans and praised his youngsters. That was a common thing last year, but as usual no one was singled out. One veteran who watched a game from the press box said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather be here than in St. Catharines.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

Palmateer’s Toronto Career Appears Over

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011305/5534805-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

BookShelf

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011405/5534836-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lindy Ruff realizes he&rsquo;s going to have make some adjustments in his play after moving from forward to defense.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;When Lindy Ruff began his National Hockey League career with the Buffalo Sabres in 1979, he was a defenseman.But by the end of that season, Ruff was playing left wing, too.Last season Ruff was a regular fixture on the wing, mucking it up in the comers, despite two separate injuries which kept him out of 22 regular-season games.This season, Ruff is returning to defense, and he&rsquo;s quite excited about the move.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really looking forward to playing back on defense,&rdquo; Ruff, 24, said. &ldquo;This is the position I began with and I would really like to play it again.&rdquo;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt in my mind that I will have to make some adjustments being a defenseman instead of a forward. I know that Scotty (Bowman) will expect a strong, solid defensive game from me.&ldquo;In the past (his rookie season), I was a little helter-skelter as far as the way I played the defensive position. If I got the puck I would just take off and go.&ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m just concentrating on defense and letting my defensive partner take care of moving with the puck.&rdquo;Ruffs partner could be one of either Phil Housley, Mike Ramsey or Hannu Virta.It could even be Timo Jutila, a rookie defenseman who was a member of the 1984 Finnish Olympic team.&ldquo;A player like any one of those guys needs to get some respect,&rdquo; Ruff said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want a player, especially a rookie like Timo, getting tested by opposing players or beaten up or taken advantage of.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s where I think a player like myself will come in. I will be out on the ice to play defense and protect my teammates. And not by gooning it up either.&rdquo;Ruff played well in the exhibition season and stuck to playing defensively.&ldquo;I feel good back there,&rdquo; said Ruff. &ldquo;I have already found some opportunities where the opposition had some two-on-two or three-on-two breaks and I have found myself not taking chances and playing back to protect our end of the rink.&ldquo;As long as I don&rsquo;t gamble and take chances I&rsquo;11 be all right. That&rsquo;s what hurt me the first two years I played with the Sabres on defense.&rdquo;With the exceptional play of Jutila during training camp and Ruff moving back to the blue line position, defense has become a game of numbers with the Sabres.Besides Jutila, Ruff, Ramsey, Housley and Virta, veterans Bill Hajt and Larry Playfair are almost guaranteed positions with the team. Jim Wiemer and Dave Fenyves, both of whom divided playing time last season between the Sabres and their minor league farm team in Rochester, represent the only other legitimate competition.Bowman will most likely keep seven defensemen to begin the season, with Jutila being the key.&ldquo;I thought Timo would be a good hockey player knowing what I did about him from our scouts, and seeing him play myself,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;His four seasons in their top league (the Finnish Elite League) in Finland didn&rsquo;t hurt.&ldquo;He developed very well over there and he should do the same over here.&ldquo;As for Lindy, I will try him back on defense for now and see how he does. But he&rsquo;s still a player that has a lot of versatility and can play either forward or defense.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

Ruff Returns To Defense After Winging It

<div class="byline">Al Strachan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021172/5534867-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="397" height="445"></div>SUPPOSE YOU OWNED a hockey team and were dishing out the broadcast rights.One station, be it radio or television, says that it wants to produce the standard kind of partial hockey broadcast. It will refer to the local team as &ldquo;we&rdquo; it will always point out that the referee favors the oppositon; &lsquo;our&rsquo; &lsquo;goals will evoke a scream of glee while &ldquo;their&rdquo; goals will be muttered in barely audible grunts.The other station says it will point out the good plays on both sides, will point the bad plays on both sides and will cut the local team to ribbons if it plays badly.Which one will get the broadcast rights&rsquo;?Probably the former. We don&rsquo;t know for sure because the next station to promise the other approach will be the first.But one veteran broadcaster says that the second approach would be better for the team in the long run.He says the feedback he receives from hockey fans&mdash;and he gets a lot&mdash;indicates that people are tired of broadcasts in which the local team only displays varying degrees of greatness.He says we should imagine that, in the scenario mentioned above, both stations were given the rights.When the local team was winning, the audience would probably be split fairly evenly. When the local team was losing, however, surely the second station would earn the lion&rsquo;s share of the audience.Fans, irate because their heroes aren&rsquo;t doing well, would tune in the second station to find out what&rsquo;s wrong. Borderline fans, whose interest normally falls off during a bad stretch, would tune in to hear the scathing criticism. Fans who dislike the local team&mdash;and every city has those&mdash;wouldn&rsquo;t miss a broadcast.So either way, if the second station were to win the rights, interest would be maintained. Granted, it may be a negative interest, but it is interest nonetheless. The team shouldn&rsquo;t complain. It is interest in the sport which sells tickets, not only positive interest.The fans may show up and boo lustily but they will show up, and to do so, they must buy tickets.In fact, the only people who would be genuinely hurt by the second station acquiring the broadcast rights are the players. They scream loudly on those rare occasions that a broadcaster is critical of their play. They whine incessantly when the fans are on their backs.But almost inevitably, the fans are right. Very few fans desert a team that is successful but giving its all. Most of the time, if the players are taking a beating from their followers, they deserve it.So if the players don&rsquo;t like it, that&rsquo;s tough. They&rsquo;re well paid and they get the adulation when they win. They should expect abuse when they&rsquo;re loafing.But despite all this, the hockey broadcast rights always go to the &ldquo;house&rdquo; stations.There are a number of reasons for this. One is that most team owners see criticism of the team as criticism of themselves and try to stamp it out.Another is that the owners grew up in an era when newspapers were a branch of the team&rsquo;s public relations department and reporters were paid by the team.They think that the change in the status of newspaper reporters is simply one more ill in a rotting world. They can&rsquo;t control newspapers but by heavens they can control the electronic media.Hockey rights can be extremely lucrative to a station. As a result, a station covets those rights. If an announcer is critical of a player and the player complains to the owner who then complains to the station manager, that announcer&rsquo;s job is in jeopardy.And we&rsquo;re not just talking about third-rate 50-watt stations here.The biggest broadcasting contract in hockey today is Hockey Night in Canada. When announcer Brian MacFarlane criticized the treatment accorded Darryl Sittler by Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard, it spelled the end of McFarlane&rsquo;s career in the Toronto broadcast booth.Similarly, Howie Meeker, another HN1C announcer, was banned from games in the Montreal Forum for the indiscretion of criticizing the Canadiens.The few exceptions to this trend to be found in New York where there is actual competition (please don&rsquo;t say that word near an NHL owner) for fans.But elsewhere, hockey fans can expect more of the same old stuff. &ldquo;Boy, he has really played a great game in goal despite those six unlucky ones he let in during the first five minutes.&rdquo; Or &ldquo;Well, our guy really showed that goon a thing or two. Our boy was smart enough to absorb 30 punches to tire him out and then he wrestled him to the ice when his strength had gone.&rdquo;And the usual quota of &ldquo;they came to play&rdquo; and &ldquo;the puck isn&rsquo;t bouncing their way&rdquo; and &ldquo;this is an important faceoff,&rdquo; remarks will be issued.But don&rsquo;t blame the broadcasters. Until they get some support from their bosses, they&rsquo;re not going to change. It&rsquo;s a tough job market these days. &#9632;

f0012-02

Rooting For A Home Team Is Security In Broadcasting

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Mark Holden and Greg Moffett are long-time teammates and the best of friends. Both goalies came to the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; camp looking to win the backup job to No. 1 goalie, Steve Penney, yet fully aware the unsuccessful candidate would be shipped to the minors.On Oct. 4, one week before the start of &lsquo;the 1984-85 National Hockey League season, the 25-year-old Moffett received the bad news that he was the one bound for the Canadiens&rsquo; new American Hockey League affiliate in Sherbrooke.Canadien coach Jacques Lemaire told Moffett as well as defenseman Ric Nattress and center John Newberry the day the Canadiens downed their Sherbrooke farm team 5-3. All three players were dressed by the farm team, with Nattress and Newberry already knowing they had been sent down and Moffett still hoping for a chance&mdash;which he later got.&ldquo;It is tough because we didn&rsquo;t see the goaltenders play enough games,&rdquo; Lemaire admitted. &ldquo;You have to make a decision. I went through what they did last year and I made my decision on that.&rdquo;Last season Moffett played in just 10 regular-season games. He missed two months with a ripped groin muscle and three more with a dislocated shoulder. As it turned out, those injuries came back to haunt him again.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed a little bit that I&rsquo;ll be in Sherbrooke,&rdquo; Moffett said. &ldquo;You have to take things as they come. I entered this business knowing that could happen. I&rsquo;m happy to be in the organization.&rdquo;Moffett was zapped for seven goals in Winnipeg in the Canadiens&rsquo; second preseason game but came back and shutout the Philadelphia Flyers in the second half of a 2-1 Canadien triumph at the Forum.Holden, 27, was impressive in the second half of a 3-1 victory at the Forum against Boston as well as in the first half of the games against Philadelphia and playing for Sherbrooke against the Canadiens.A third goaltender, junior Patrick Roy, also played in pre-season but a decision on his future with the club was not expected to be made until just before the season got under way. If Roy were to be sent down he could not be recalled until the third emergency situation.For his part, Holden is taking things rather calmly. He has heard and read the various rumors about the Canadiens picking up a veteran goaltender from another team, perhaps depriving him of another chance at being an NHL regular.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011323/5534898-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="588" height="874"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Moffett failed in his bid to land the backup goaltending job on the Canadiens.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel any pressure,&rdquo; Holden admitted. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come to play hockey and do the best I can. 1 know, given the opportunity to play, that I can play.&rdquo;Holden, who played university hockey in the U.S. at Brown, was unsure of his hockey future at the end of last season, though well aware their was a vacancy in the goaltending department with the departure of Rick Wamsley to St. Louis and Richard Sevigny to Quebec.&ldquo;It was a wait-and-see situation,&rdquo; Holden said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t sure if Montreal was interested in me for the future. The summer came and they offered me a one-year extension on my contract with some optimism that I could play here this year, especially with Rick and Richard gone.&rdquo;Moffett, a journalism student at the University of New Hampshire, worked a little harder in the off-season because of the goaltending opening.&ldquo;I traversed the countryside looking for ice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wanted to make sure that if they made up their minds on somebody and it wasn&rsquo;t me that I didn&rsquo;t want to be the one to cut myself.&rdquo;Lemaire made it clear that regardless of the cuts, he would not hesitate to recall some of the players he demoted because of the proximity of the Habs&rsquo; minorleague team to Montreal.&ldquo;Newberry is a center and I already have six centers, most of whom played in the NHL last year,&rdquo; Lemaire noted. &ldquo;The reason I kept (Thomas) Rundqvist is that I&rsquo;m waiting for him to adapt to the NHL before I make a decision on him. I told John that if he plays well here (Sherbrooke) that he would be one of the first to be called up.&rdquo;That may be little consolation for Newberry who, similar to Moffett, wasn&rsquo;t listed as a future prospect in the annual Canadien guide. It&rsquo;s the third season Newberry has come to the Montreal camp and the third year he&rsquo;s been shipped out.Nattress became a victim of the Canadiens&rsquo; numbers game on offense. In the minds of Montreal management, Nattress was behind rookies Tom Kurvers and Petr Svoboda. Kent Carlson was in the same position, but the Canadiens have decided to move him to the left wing, an experiment which was tried last season.&ldquo;I want to give Kent a good try on left wing,&rdquo; Lemaire noted. &ldquo;We might want to use him on the left side this winter. Nattress was making the same mistakes over and over in the exhibition games. With the guys we had, they were ahead of him.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

Habs Keep Holden, Ship Moffett To Minors

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Attendance at several significant National Hockey League franchises will be closely monitored this year for a barometer of the game&rsquo;s growth. One such club, the New Jersey Devils, face a calamitous downturn&mdash;for a team that could be the NHL&rsquo;s best moneymaker&mdash;if the Devs plummet again. The club is aiming for 9,000 fullseason tickets and 2,000 partials. So far, about 83 per cent of last year&rsquo;s 8,400 subscribers have renewed. Devil prexy Bob Butera sees the novelty of hockey in Jersey wearing off. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a time,&rdquo; says Butera &ldquo;when the fans want to see us win. &ldquo;The Whalers, another chronic NHL loser, have gained ticket-holders. BLUELINES learns that the Whalers season tix are up from 6,000 last year to almost 7,000 now. The Red Wings, whose subscription list had dipped to 4,500 before owner Mike Ilitch took over, have climbed to 7,500 with more on the way. The North Stars are holding fast at 9,500. The Bruins have made a big jump, from 9,200 to 11,200, whereas the Nordiques, with 10,400 in hand, are hoping to hike it to the 11,000 figure of last year. The Penguins had dipped to 3,300 in 1983-84&mdash;and figured it would have slipped to &ldquo;less than 2,000 without Mario Lemieux&rdquo;&mdash;and are now hoping for 5,000. The Blues should do better than last season&rsquo;s 7,000; the Jets are at 8,300 and the Canucks approximately 9,000. The Oilers, Flames, Islanders and Rangers are sold out. The Sabres won&rsquo;t release figures but claim to be the &ldquo;same as last year.&rdquo; The Kings report 5,300. The Hawks, Caps, Leafs, Habs and Flyers won&rsquo;t talk. NHL insiders lump 14 clubs among the financial &lsquo;elite&rdquo;. Some govs blame boss Jerry Buss for the Kings&rsquo; woes because he accents his basketball Lakers at the expense of his NHL club. The NHL remains the only major league which does not base its &lsquo;dues&rsquo; &lsquo;on a percentage of ticket revenues; and has no travel equalization, the bane of the Kings. The &ldquo;partnership&rdquo; among NHL owners exists in two areas&mdash;U.S. (cable) network television and in the draft.The feud between the Flame high command and Calgary Herald columnist Steve Simmons is into its third year. Simmons lit another hotfoot for Flame general manager Cliff Fletcher, suggesting that the latter has been using former Leaf goalie, the Czech-bom Jiri Crha, to lure left winger Igor Liba, center Peter Rosol and defenseman Jaroslav Benak from behind the Iron Curtain to Calgary. The Flames pooh-pooh the alleged plot, but Fletcher confirms he&rsquo;s huddled with Crha. &ldquo;It was convenient for him (Crha) as a Czech to do a little communicating for us with the Czechs,&rdquo; says Fletcher. However, Fletcher denies there is any plot to encourage defections like the one hatched by the Nordiques to get the Stastnys to Canada. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t be a party to that,&rdquo; Fletcher insists. Fletcher, coincidentally, is due for a new contract and, reportedly, wants a long-term deal. Word from Calgary is that he&rsquo;ll get big bucks (likely in the $200,000-5250,000 range) but on a shorter term deal than he&rsquo;d like.Brad Park hasn&rsquo;t opened his pizza place in Boston yet but finished a Little Caesars training course. Teammate Dwight Foster says Park rates an A-plusforhis pizzas. To which Brad confesses: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t tell Mike Ilitch (Little Caesars and Wings owner) that 1 gave you extra cheese! &ldquo;&hellip; A photo of Danny Gare, which had been bolted to the wall of the old Calgary Corral, was pilfered. Gare had once played for the Calgary Centennials. Corral officials say they&rsquo;ll find a negative of the Gare photo and replace it&hellip;Some NHL scouts opine that the Norris Division will be vastly improved this year. Wing coach Nick Polano cautions that the Black Hawks will be big trouble. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll beat out the North Stars,&rdquo; says Nick, &ldquo;and finish first.&rdquo; Polano figures the Canucks mishandled Tiger Williams, the Red Wings&rsquo; off-season acquisition, by not letting Tiger go for goals. &ldquo;He could get 20 for us,&rdquo; says Polano&hellip;The Blues have been promoting throughout Illinois cities of Springfield, Decatur, Champaign, Danville, Bloomington and Peoria, the home of their International League farm team. They&rsquo;ve scheduled a &lsquo;Peoria Night&rsquo; &lsquo;at the St. Louis Arena with 500 Peorians slated to make the trip&hellip;The toughest Canada Cup criticism was centered in Calgary where Sun columnists Eric Bishop and Jack Tennant withered the tournament, its guru Al Eagleson, and the Oilers&rsquo; Mark Messier &ldquo;for crudely and cruelly&rdquo; elbowing Vladimir Kovin. Tennant calls the Canada Cup &ldquo;a gouge of Canadian hockey fans to fatten the wallets of the NHL Players&rsquo; Pension Fund, foreign hockey teams and those who claim expenses for running it.&rdquo; Bishop zings fans for &ldquo;the boorish booing of a great star like Bryan Trottier.&rdquo;&hellip;Whaler boss Howard Baldwin endorses plans to help the poor NHL clubs. &ldquo;Something should be done so a non-playoff team has the opportunity to get in (the playoffs) quicker,&rdquo; Baldwin tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;The way today&rsquo;s economy is, no team can afford to be in the bottom five for too long.&rdquo;The NHL high command has become less resistant to the programs of the Phil Esposito Foundation. &ldquo;The league would look stupid trying to ignore them,&rdquo; says one NHL insider. Espo Foundation director Warren Breining tells BLUELINES that the unit is kicking off a major corporate fund-raising drive&hellip;Espo, Bobby Hull and Eddie Johnson will be featured in John Devaney&rsquo;s upcoming book, Sports Stars of Yesteryear: Where Are They Today?&hellip;Although the Blues got zinged for their thrifty approach to the game, their payroll is higher than a half-dozen clubs including the Canucks and Bruins. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011385/5534953-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kent Nilsson played well in the Canada Cup and in the pre-season and the big reason for it is confidence.</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;Perhaps the most important coaching move made by the Calgary Flames this season happened before the team ever went to training camp.The decision was made by a man not under contract to the team. It was made half a world away by a bespectacled former schoolteacher named Leif Boork, coach of Sweden&rsquo;s national hockey team.Boork&rsquo;s brainchild was to use Kent Nilsson and Hakan Loob, a pair of right wingers in the Flames&rsquo; scheme of things, on a single line.The two flourished in the Canada Cup and in their first action of the exhibition season and showed no signs of letting up. They are, to use Bob Johnson&rsquo;s favorite post-Canada Cup phrase, playing like &ldquo;world-class&rdquo; players.&ldquo;When Kent Nilsson plays with confidence. he is as good as anybody in the game,&rdquo; said defenseman Paul Reinhart. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got his confidence now. He wants to challenge everybody.&rdquo;Playing against a rookie-laden Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; team, Nilsson controlled the play whenever his line was on the ice, engineering three goals with the kind of precision that sets him apart from everybody else.His feathery pass on Loob&rsquo;s goal turned a two-on-one into a one-on-oh.His well-timed push hit Reinhart in stride, breaking in from the blueline, and led to the winning goal.&ldquo;This year, I&rsquo;m high up. I&rsquo;m a little cocky. I do things and I don&rsquo;t care if I miss. If I miss once, I&rsquo;ll try again next time.&rsquo;His sixth sense found Eddy Beers alone in the slot for the insurance goal.Johnson calls Nilsson a special-teams specialist. A year ago, Nilsson scored seven goals on the power play and nine shorthanded. This year, Loob will also get more time on special teams.&ldquo;The more open ice they have, the better they are,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;Kent is outstanding on the left point. He may mess up once in awhile, but he&rsquo;ll make 20 great plays to offset it. That&rsquo;s really his best place on the power play.&rdquo;Things have changed dramatically for Nilsson in the past 12 months. In last September&rsquo;s training camp, Nilsson didn&rsquo;t play a game until the final weekend because of a minor knee operation performed late that summer.Then he injured his back. Then he injured his elbow. In March, just as the playoffs approached, he broke his leg.&ldquo;With all that, he was still our leading scorer,&rdquo; said Johnson, pointedly.Nilsson said he can&rsquo;t compare this season to the last one.&ldquo;This year, I&rsquo;m high up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little cocky. I do things and I don&rsquo;t care if I miss. If 1 miss once. I&rsquo;ll try again next time. That&rsquo;s from having your confidence. When you don&rsquo;t have it and you miss, you don&rsquo;t want to try again.&rdquo;In the Canada Cup, Thomas Steen of the Winnipeg Jets centered Nilsson and Loob. Since Steen isn&rsquo;t on the trading block, Johnson used sophomore center Dan Quinn with Nilsson and Loob in camp.However, the plan is for Mike Eaves to inherit the job once he is ready to play. Eaves missed almost all of camp with a dislocated shoulder.Should the unit click the way Johnson thinks it will, Nilsson will be on a regular line for the first time since the days Al MacNeil coached the team. In Johnson&rsquo;s tenure, Nilsson has played all three forward positions with almost every player on the current roster and a dozen who have since departed.Some players can flit from line&rsquo;to line and play effectively with his linemate of the moment. Nilsson can&rsquo;t. His is a brilliant hockey mind, one that his linemates must adjust to. He hasn&rsquo;t had that cohesiveness or understanding with linemates since his days with Don Lever and Ken Houston.&ldquo;Loob and I played two-and-a-half months together,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;They play a movement game and they understand each other. In Europe, on the big rink, there isn&rsquo;t a lot of mucking. They&rsquo;re not used to it. They&rsquo;ll tell you so. Even the Russians aren&rsquo;t used to it.&ldquo;Over here, they still need someone to work for them. Eaves can do that. Eaves can be as good as Steen&mdash;or better.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Flames Can Thank Boork For Lighting Up Nilsson

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;If one player has turned lingering doubt into absolute certainty in the great hunt for hockey players, Robert Picard has.Richly talented but much maligned, the 27-year-old defenseman seemed destined to go through his career playing far below the expectation made for him.Winnipeg Jets, the fourth National Hockey League team to take a chance on him, preferred to believe the third overall choice in the 1977 draft had something substantial to offer.&ldquo;My attitude has changed in the past year,&rdquo; said Picard. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m no longer young. I have two kids and a wife. When I look at my family, I wonder what they&rsquo;ve been thinking as I bounced around. More than anything, I want to make their lives a little easier.&rdquo;Playing hockey at a fevered pitch has brought out the best in Picard.Suddenly he has become the master of the big check, the one who dumps the lugs in front of the net and the teammate who arrives first when another is challenged.In a pre-season game in San Francisco against Los Angeles, Picard issued one of the hardest checks ever seen by a member of the Jets.Even King coach Pat Quinn marvelled at the hit that left his prize rookie, Brian Wilks, crumbled in a heap at center ice.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t cut through the middle of the ice with your head down in this league,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;The hit was as clean as a whistle. Mr. Wilks will remember that one.&rdquo;Adding to the indignation of the moment, the Kings&rsquo; Dean Hopkins went after Picard only to be thrown to the ice.&ldquo;That hit on Wilks could have been the check of the year,&rdquo; said general manager John Ferguson. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t surprise me. Robert has had a very good camp.&rdquo;Joining the applause was Barry Long, the Winnipeg coach.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s one veteran who came to camp realizing he&rsquo;s fighting for a job on this team,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;We have room for six defenseman on this team and he wants his spot. The check he threw in San Francisco was one of the best I&rsquo;ve ever seen.&rdquo;While Picard&rsquo;s job appeared safe, many others&rsquo; didn&rsquo;t.Tim Young has not convinced Long that he is the sort of influence this team needs, and was left unprotected in the waiver draft. Wade Campbell&rsquo;s attitude is excellent, but can he play? Is Andrew McBain about to become consistently mediocre or reliably good? Will Brian Mullen be the sacrificial left winger who goes in a trade for someone who can play the right side? Or has this team outgrown Morris Lukowich?Picard was a question mark too&hellip;until camp began.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t take myself for granted anymore,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As a hockey team, we have a lot of potential. And if I wanted to be a part of it I had to start doing the little things I haven&rsquo;t done for years.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;The Jets ended their pre-season schedule with a 3-6 record. Bengt Lundholm was the leading scorer with seven points, all assists. The goalscoring lead was shared by Ron Wilson and rookie Paul Pooley with four apiece&hellip;Captain Dale Hawerchuk suffered a sprained ankle when he crashed into the boards during a game against Vancouver Canucks in Victoria, B.C&hellip;Veteran goaltender Doug Soetaert started all three games won by the Jets, convincing observers that he is, indeed, the team&rsquo;s No. 1 goaltender&hellip;Brian Hawyard suffered a cut requiring 16 stitches on his forehead when a shot in practice struck him on his helmet, exactly where the cage was attached. The helmet was shattered and Hayward was cut in the process.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011291/5534984-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="592" height="634"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jet defenseman Robert Picard earned rave reviews for a heavy hit against L.A.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Jet Checks In With New Attitude

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Garth Butcher and Bill LaForge are together again.Butcher, the 21-year-old, right-side defenseman who was Vancouver&rsquo;s No. 1 draft pick in 1981, was playing in Regina when LaForge was coaching the tough Pats then.Butcher, who was the team&rsquo;s policeman, totalled 318 minutes in penalties, but proved he can play offensively, too, by netting 92 points, half on the power playBut since being drafted by the Canucks, his career has been up and down, the end of last season being pretty much the bottom of the pits for the likeable youngster.Despite the fact he became the youngest player ever to play in a Stanley Cup final in the spring of 1982, Butcher hasn&rsquo;t really blossomed into the type of star the Canucks were hoping for when they made him their top pick that season. After a pretty good start partnered with Harold Snepsts last season, the two had a series of poor games and then Butcher hurt his ankle. He was sent to Fredericton to play himself back into shape and sprained the other ankle leaving him in dire straits at the end of the season.Rut he&rsquo;s hack with a new lease and outlook on his pro career now that Snepsts has been traded to Minnesota and LaForge is the new coach.&ldquo;Yeah, this is the year I&rsquo;ve got to start my pro career going,&rdquo; said Butcher. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have forever.&rdquo;In the club&rsquo;s first exhibition game of the season, Butcher took a loose puck at center ice, skated towards the net and scored the winning goal with a low screen shot, rekindling the offensive talents he once took for granted.&ldquo;With all the things I&rsquo;ve been through I tend to forget I once did have a good offensive knack,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m starting to feel better about the way I&rsquo;m playing everyday and I&rsquo;m sure the team will have a good year. The feeling on the club is great.&rdquo;The feeling on the club so far this preseason has been decidedly abrasive. Never really a team that could be totally leaned on, the Canucks had been somewhat lacking in that mean streak many of the best clubs seem to have. Now with LaForge stressing the togetherness, including standing up for your teammates in physical situations. Butcher is enjoying something of a renaissance of style.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel I have to be a team policeman,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I have to necessarily fight to make it. But I know I of defensemen on this team who aren&rsquo;t known for their aggressiveness; their forte is carrying and passing the puck on the attack. My role has to be as an aggressive defenseman. I have to take the initiative by stepping in when liberties are taken with my teammates.&rdquo;In an exhibition against the Oilers, Butcher must have felt there were a few liberties being taken because he ended up with a game misconduct for three fights in the same game and 39 minutes in penalties. He took on Steve Smith in the first one, Don Jackson in the second and Wayne Babych in a third.&ldquo;When things like that happen, guys like myself. Chief (Ron Delorme), Al Mac Adam and Craig Coxe, if he makes it, will have to show up,&rdquo; says Butcher, who last season had just 43 penalty minutes in 28 games with Vancouver.&ldquo;Butcher did some good things and Doug Lidster didn&rsquo;t back off against Semenko,&rdquo; said LaForge after the slugfest. &lsquo;&lsquo;We&rsquo;ve got to spread our toughness around a bit more.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Newcomer Petri Skriko suffered a broken thumb and is sidelined for about a month. J. J. Daigneault, who missed two weeks with a sprained knee, is back in the lineup. Doug Halward, Rick Lanz and Moe Lemay have been suffering from various minor hurts, slowing their early-season progress. &#9632;

When Going Gets Rough Butcher Can Play Tough

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011175/5535046-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="586" height="1192"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alain Lemieux</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02939/5535039-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="588" height="1188"><figcaption class="caption-body">the older brother of highly-touted Mario Lemeiux, is running out of chances with St. Louis.</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Alain Lemieux says he is proud of his young brother, Mario, and hopes he does well this season as a rookie with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But you couldn&rsquo;t blame the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; center if he were a little tired of hearing about the family phenom.He wouldn&rsquo;t mind generating some publicity of his own this season. If Alain ever lives up to his potential, a reader who sees the name Lemieux in a headline won&rsquo;t assume the story is about Mario.The problem for Alain is that time is running out for him. Now is the time to do it, not next year or the year after.Of the 217 games in which he has played as a professional, only 62 have been in the National League.Last season was the ultimate disappointment. After starting the season with Montana of the Central League, he was brought up for 17 games and then demoted.Unlike last September, when he reported to training camp overweight, Lemieux arrived this season fully aware of what he was up against.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to make this team,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my last chance.&rdquo;Lemieux entered camp as one of two candidates for the fourth center job behind Bernie Federko, Doug Gilmour and Doug Wickenheiser. His competition was Dave Barr, formerly of Boston and the New York Rangers.The Lemieux-Barr battle was-one of the most interesting as the Blues prepared for their Oct. 11 opener at Calgary. Lemieux scored goals in the Blues&rsquo; first and third pre-season outings. Barr was a standout in the second exhibition, and was the team&rsquo;s scoring leader through a week and a half of scrimmaging.Unofficially, Lemieux had the inside track for two reasons. First, his strength is offense, and the Blues are looking to improve their offensive production this season. Second, Barr can also play right wing, so if he and Lemieux are relatively even, Barr can be moved to the wing to shore up an area that lacks depth.&ldquo;If I play my best, there will be a spot for me on this team,&rdquo; Barr said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to look as good as I can.&rdquo;The stakes were high for both players. Each is 23 and there is no guarantee that cither would be protected in the waiver draft Oct. 9.Lack of consistency and a disdain for defense have been the rap on Lemieux, who does not lack offensive skills. Scouting reports out of Montana last season said he could be the best player on the ice and then the worst on successive nights.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always the same thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m going to work hard on my defense. I played all summer and just thought about coming back and taking my man. But it&rsquo;s tough because I&rsquo;m an offensive player. 1 guess I&rsquo;ll have to change my style a little bit.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m no superstar, so they want me to come back and get my man.&rdquo;Lemieux hopes to be in the lineup Nov. 8 when the Blues play the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Because of their age difference, Alain and Mario have never played agianst one another.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a firm believer in jealousy among brothers,&rdquo; said Bob Plager, the Blues&rsquo; special assignment scout and brother of assistant coach. Barclay Plager. &ldquo;His brother is in the league now, so he wants to keep up with him or even do better.&rdquo;Coach Jacques Demers also believes in the brother theory.&ldquo;I think if 1 had pride, which I hope he has. I&rsquo;d want to show my brother that I can play in the NHL, too,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;1 talked to him about that and gave him a couple of digs. He&rsquo;s not a very open person, but 1 can sense a little more desire in him this year.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;Right winger Wayne Babych was returned to the Blues after two weeks with Edmonton on a tryout basis. After being the only St. Louis forward not to score a goal in intrasquad games and scrimmages, left winger Kevin Lavallee broke out with two against Chicago in the Blues&rsquo; second exhibition game. &#9632;

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It’s Either Now Or Never For The Other Lemieux

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Like the U.S. Marine Corps, the Chicago Black Hawks have room for only a few good men.What does the drill instructor, Orval Tessier, do when six good men play the same position&mdash;center?The coach has yet to find a way to pool the resources of Denis Savard, Tom Lysiak, Bill Gardner, Troy Murray, Steve Ludzik and Ken Yaremchuk and come up with one Wayne Gretzky.But, after a summer of reflection, Tessier apparently has come to the conclusion that the things Gardner did last season suggest that he deserves more ice time this winter.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for a great season from Bill,&rdquo; said Tessier, who at times in the past two seasons has overlooked him. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s extremely valuable, and he has to play.&ldquo;Everything we asked of him last season he did, and he did it pretty dam well. He scored 27 goals (only three of which came on the power play), he killed penalties extremely well and he did well on left wing when we moved him.&ldquo;I prefer to keep him at center. He&rsquo;s shooting the puck well, and he&rsquo;s deadly around the goal.&rdquo;The statistics that don&rsquo;t appear in the program accentuate the contributions made by Gardner last season. His shooting percentage of 23.7 was best on the team (Denis Savard was the runner-up with a percentage of 17.6); he had three shorthanded goals; and he delivered three game-winning and four game-tying goals.On a roster packed with minus players, he was a plus-one.&ldquo;This year I want to be a more complete player,&rdquo; said Gardner. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to getting more ice time. If I get ice time my stats will come naturally as the year goes on, and I think everything will fall into place.&ldquo;I think our team will rebound this year. Eddie Olczyk (the third choice overall in the June draft) will be a big factor. They&rsquo;ll play him a lot, and I think he will produce.&rdquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;Coach Orval Tessier used Steve Ludzik at left wing on a line with Bill Gardner and Rick Patterson during some of the exhibitions. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d like that to be our checking line, and also use those three as penalty killers,&rdquo; Tessier said. &ldquo;Gardner and Patterson work very well together and we&rsquo;re hoping Ludzik will work out with Troy Murray.&rdquo;&hellip;The other lines contemplated for this season have Denis Savard centering Al Secord and Steve Larmer; Tom Lysiak for Darryl Sutter and Bob MacMillan; Troy Murray for Curt Fraser and hometown rookie Ed Olczyk. That would leave center-right winger Ken Yaremchuk and Jeff Larmer, who can play either wing, as the spare parts&hellip;Originally Sutter was expected to miss from four to six regular-season games after having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee the first week of training camp. But now the prognosis is that he will be ready for the Oct. 11 opener with Detroit&hellip;The Hawk defensemen are expected to be more prominent in the offense this year, with Doug Wilson moving into the slot and Keith Brown penetrating deep into the offensive zone. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something Roger Neilson (the new assistant coach) and I have talked about,&rdquo; Tessier said. &lsquo;When your defensemen are pressing, it means you can sustain offensive pressure instead of having them back up and let the opposition come at you.&rdquo;&hellip;Among the rookie defensemen the most impressive has been Marc Bergevin, a 19-year-old from Chicoutimi of the Quebec League who was a third-round selection in 1983. &#9632;

Tessier Gives Gardner Good Word

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;It sounds like a large, conglomerate law firm: Bjugstad, Sands, Poner, Solheim and Rouse. In reality, they are five young players under pressure.All five have a chance to make the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; roster based on their play in training camp. And yet, with the Stars boasting one of the most complete teams, from the standpoints of quality and quantity, it is unrealistic to imagine more than one or two cracking the lineup.Ken Solheim, who has been an enigma with his physical attributes but his lack of impressive play at the National League level, has had his best training camp ever. He reported in top shape and led the team with six goals while playing in six of the first seven exhibition games. He is a candidate at left wing.Scott Bjugstad tailed off after leading but continues to impress the whole organization with his astute two-way play. His checking has been as good as his playmaking and confidence in the offensive end. He is a center who can also play either wing, and he is probably the surest bet of the five to make the the club.Bob Rouse, the top defenseman in the Western League last season with the Lethbridge Broncos, has continued to play impressively at defense but seemed faced with an impossible task because of the club&rsquo;s depth on the blue line.However, an assortment of pulled and strained muscles sidelined Craig Hartsburg, Dave Richter, Dan Mandich, then Brad Maxwell cracked a rib in an exhibition game. With Randy Velischek, Dave Jensen and Chris Pryor&mdash;who had all been impressive&mdash;also sent to Springfield, Rouse appears certain to start the season with the Stars, at least until some of the injured veterans return.Jiri Poner, the Czech forward, shows flashes of brilliance while learning what kind of thumping he can expect in NHL warfare. He may require some time in the minors to adapt for fully to the North American thumping, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s a player,&rdquo; said general manager Lou Nanne.Mike Sands has the toughest job of all. As a goaltender, he stood 0-1-2 in record, but had a 2.91 goals-against mark in five appearances. That was a better ledger than incumbents Gilles Meloche and Don Beaupre, but the certainty of the Meloche-Beaupre combination means that Sands can only make it if the club decides to carry three goalies.&ldquo;we intend to look at those young players closely,&rdquo; said coach Bill Mahoney. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got our roster down pretty good now. But those young players have been impressive throughout camp.&rdquo;STAR DUST&mdash;Brian Bellows (tendinitis in his elbow) and Tom McCarthy (bruised foot) were the latest in the Stars&rsquo; long line of casualties&hellip;The Stars were thrashed twice by Washington, 6-1 and 5-3, to give them a 2-3-2 record after seven exhibition games. &#9632;

Opportunity Will Knock For Few Star Youngsters

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;There are not too many teams on which a 51-goal scorer would be considered by some to be the second center, but that&rsquo;s how Mike Bullard could feel since the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Mario Lemieux first overall in June.&ldquo;It was a little frustrating at the start,&rdquo; admitted Bullard about Lemieux&rsquo;s publicity. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s going to put the people in the building for us, and he&rsquo;s a hell of a hockey player.&rdquo;One advantage Bullard envisions with Lemieux on the team is he will no longer exclusively face the opposing team&rsquo;s best checking center.&ldquo;With Mario on the ice and myself on the ice, the other teams can&rsquo;t just check one of us,&rdquo; Bullard said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to have to worry about both of us, and I think it will help us in the long run.With Mario on the ice and myself on the ice, other teams are going to have to worry about the both of us.&rsquo;&ldquo;A lot of teams would come in last year and they were just checking one line. This year they&rsquo;re going to have to key on myself and Mario. That&rsquo;ll give a lot of freedom for both of us.&rdquo;Bullard, who added 41 assists to his 51 goals last season, is entering the option year of his contract. Ironically, he and Lemieux are represented by the same agent, Gus Badali.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little disappointed in what they offered me,&rdquo; said Bullard of his contract negotiations with general manager Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really trying to think about it right now, but it&rsquo;s always on my mind. I&rsquo;m just going to go out and try to have the best year possible.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to probably test the free-agent market because the terms haven&rsquo;t really been that close. It&rsquo;s my own decision. I like Pittsburgh, but I&rsquo;m just trying to think of myself financially and things aren&rsquo;t working out right now.&rdquo;Bullard was involved in a highly-publicized incident last season in which he and Andy Brickley were discovered in a Buffalo bar after the team&rsquo;s curfew. Bullard was fined the maximum $100, and Brickley was banished to the minors because of the infraction.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011030/5535125-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="582" height="1128"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Bullard is entering the option year of his contract and will opt for free agency.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I thought it was handled pretty poorly last year,&rdquo; said Bullard. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take the blame. I&rsquo;ll get fined like hundreds of thousands of people that have probably missed curfew. But I thought they kind of blew it out of proportion.&ldquo;It was one of those things that I don&rsquo;t think our team really needed at the time. We were in last place at the time. Something like that, it even made things worse.&ldquo;It was my fault, and Andy&rsquo;s fault.People do make mistakes, and we&rsquo;re going to try and make up for it. I kind of argued at the time that they were trying to make an example out of it. I guess they didn&rsquo;t. That&rsquo;s over with, and it&rsquo;s a new year. It was one of those things.&rdquo;Bullard, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s first-round draft choice in 1980 from Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League, cannot compare new coach Bob Berry to last year&rsquo;s coach, Lou Angotti.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re really two different coaches,&rdquo; Bullard said. &ldquo;With Bob Berry, his discipline is really tough. He&rsquo;s been skating us unbelievable. He seems to be pretty strict. With (assistant coach) Jimmy Roberts helping him, I think our team&rsquo;s pretty solid.&rdquo;With the trade of Randy Carlyle to Winnipeg, the Penguins will have a new captain this season. Bullard would appear to be a logical candidate.&ldquo;Jimmy&rsquo;s had a talk with me about that,&rdquo; Bullard said. &ldquo;He said they&rsquo;re looking for a leader. Anybody would probably love to be a captain. (If I&rsquo;m picked) I&rsquo;ll just try to go out there and do the best I can.&rdquo;The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Ottawa native says he&rsquo;d love to scored 50 goals again, but he also intends to work on his overall game.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of good, new faces in the lineup this year, and I think our team is going to do well on the whole,&rdquo; Bullard said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to get 50 goals again. I&rsquo;m going to give it my best shot and try to improve my overall play.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Marty McSorley suffered an injured rotator cuff in his left shoulder during a training camp fight with teammate Tim Hrynewich. McSorley is being converted to right wing after playing defense during his rookie season. &#9632;

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Bullard Likes Being Second Best With Pens

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;Whether intended or inadvertent, the notation on the chalkboard in the New York Rangers&rsquo; Madison Square Garden dressing room was perfect for the occasion:&ldquo;FINNISH CHECKS,&rdquo; it read. &ldquo;MOVE PUCK UP. MOVE TO GET PUCK.&rdquo;There was indeed a Finn in the Garden spotlight that night. Reijo Ruotsalainen, a Ranger defenseman for three years, was being tried at left wing in one of the most significant experiments of the exhibition season. If it worked, that move would open up another job in the crowded Ranger backliner corps, and could inject even more speed and motion into the team&rsquo;s already-swift offense.The shift can be compared to the difference between a quarterback and a receiver in football. On defense, Ruotsalainen serves as the Ranger quarterback, orchestrating and setting the tempo of the team&rsquo;s attack, dazzling with his speed and stickhandling. But on the forward line, he must be more dependent on others, waiting for the play to develop around him or for someone to get the puck to him.His ability to adjust to the change will be a primary factor in where he will be play this season. For now, he is taking a wait-and-see approach to an experiment that has been in coach Herb Brooks&rsquo; mind for a long time. For one thing, it is getting his season off to a flying start.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see what happens, but I do feel better now than in other years,&rdquo; he said, alluding to the relatively slow starts in past Septembers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easier to move on defense because there&rsquo;s more room,&rdquo; he admitted that night, having played once again with Anders Hedberg as his right winger but with Jan Erixon subbing at center for a flu-afflicted Mark Pavelich.With starters Mike Allison and Mark Osborne nursing injuries and several dark-horses emerging from the field with strong pre-season showings, the Rangers are expected to start off the season carrying extra players.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a great situation to be in,&rdquo; said captain Barry Beck of the overloaded roster. &ldquo;Everybody is going to have to help each other out. We should be capable of handling it because we&rsquo;ve been through it before. Once the season starts it should be time to put these thoughts aside and winning should be the most important thing.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure our management has tried to do something about the situation but the NHL isn&rsquo;t the easiest place to make a deal.&rdquo;The players recognized that the competition generated by the excess bodies could potentially have a divisive effect, but did not necessarily have to.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll have any dissension because everyone here gets along so well,&rdquo; said James Patrick, the defenseman who arrived late last season from the Canadian Olympic team and is still, technically, a rookie and eligible for the Calder Trophy. &ldquo;I think of a guy like Dave Maloney, who had such a rough time last year&mdash;especially once I showed up&mdash;yet he was the best guy to me on the team, both on and off the ice.&rdquo;Maloney. his unner body bulkier after a summer of weightlifting, handled the pressure of a crowded training camp with grace and humor, the memory of a spring in which he watched most of the Ranger-New York Islander series from the sidelines still painfully fresh.The Rangers&rsquo; trip to Kitchener, Ont.&mdash;for years the site of the team&rsquo;s training camp&mdash;for a 3-2 exhibition loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs brought back some memories for the veteran, a Kitchener native who played his last amateur hockey there as well.&ldquo;It was the first time I skated there since my first training camp with the Rangers,&rdquo; said Maloney, a first-round draft choice in 1974 at age 17. &ldquo;I was kind of disappointed there wasn&rsquo;t a band waiting at the airport to welcome me back and present me with a key to the city.&rdquo; &#9632;

Rangers Look To Reijo For Sneed Up Front

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;After a 24-goal season punctuated by periods of intense pain, a healthy Alan Haworth seems destined to enjoy a banner fifth professional campaign.Haworth, obtained from Buffalo in 1982 for a draft choice and a promise not to select Phil Housley, was outstanding at the Washington Capitals&rsquo; training camp.Haworth, 24, scored goals in five of the six exhibitions in which he played, but more importantly he was more consistent in his shooting, he was moving to the net aggressively and his overall play was sharp in both ends of the ice.A year ago, Haworth&rsquo;s production was limited both by pain in his knee and by his positioning at left wing, where he was unable to fully utilize his speed and his scary right-hand slap shot.When the season ended, he underwent arthroscopic surgery to remedy what turned out to be pinching of the cartilage. It was a relatively simple matter to shave the cartilage, but the relief has been monumental.&ldquo;It hurt every once in awhile last year and when the pain came I couldn&rsquo;t do anything,&rdquo; Haworth said. &ldquo;The pain would be there when I woke up and I&rsquo;d know it would be a long day. Now the knee is good, there are no sharp pains and I feel fine.&rdquo;His return to the right-wing spot he prefers has merely added to Haworth&rsquo;s feeling of contentment.&ldquo;Playing the right wing as a righthand shot has been the difference,&rdquo; Haworth said of his impressive camp. &ldquo;On the left wing I would skate and work hard, but I couldn&rsquo;t get the shot off quick. 1 was always on the wrong foot.&ldquo;You get a better shooting angle on the off wing if you&rsquo;re stopped or going slow, using a wrist shot. But you can&rsquo;t get off a good shot going full speed. I&rsquo;ve never seen that.&ldquo;On right wing, I can shoot the puck better and I&rsquo;m facing the play all the time, instead of constantly turning. I have a pretty good slap shot, but I haven&rsquo;t been able to use it in a lot of years. Now I&rsquo;m able to put it on net and I think I can be much more productive this season.&rdquo;Coach Bryan Murray said he intended to keep Haworth on the right side, with Craig Laughlin most likely moving to the left wing when the glut of training camp forwards was sorted out.&ldquo;Alan is healthy and his good year plus the confidence he got have helped him,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;The knee problem was looked after early and he obviously feels much better.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s shown a lot of jump and he&rsquo;s been a solid player in most of the exhibition games. We weren&rsquo;t doing him any favors playing him on the left side last year. Coming of the right side with his speed, he can approach Mike Gartner in production if we can get him the puck.&ldquo;He does have to be more consistent from game to game. Just playing a lot ought to do that. He&rsquo;s been such an erratic shooter and puck handler at times. One rush he&rsquo;d make a perfect shot and next time he&rsquo;d miss the net by 15 feet.&rdquo;There have been none of those 15-foot misses this fall. Instead, Haworth has brought gasps from the stands with his sizzling slap shots&mdash;on the net. It was that kind of shot past Calgary goalie Mike Vernon that shattered a 3-3 tie in the third period as Washington won, 5-3, in an exhibition game at Regina, Sask.The next night, in Toronto, Haworth&rsquo;s third-period goal extended the Capitals&rsquo; lead to 4-2. When the Leafs closed within a goal, Haworth set up Bob Carpenter for the clincher in a game that eventually ended at 6-3.&ldquo;My biggest problem right now is just waiting for the season to start,&rdquo; said Haworth, echoing the feelings of a number of Capitals who see a lot of good things ahead this winter.NOTES&mdash;Washington won five of its first seven exhibitions, although it rarely had as many as half of last year&rsquo;s regulars in the lineup at one time&hellip;Over a stretch of four games, three Capitals turned in hat tricks&mdash;Bryan Erickson. Craig Laughlin and Dave Christian&hellip;Bryan Murray received a bench penalty during an exhibition against the Flames in Lethbridge, Alta., even though he watched the game from the stands. He protested too vehemently to referee Andre Duhamel at the end of the second period&hellip;Defenseman Graeme Nicolsonand Marc Chomey, signed as free agents during the summer, were sent to Binghamton. &#9632;

Haworth More Consistent Playing The Right Wing

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;He is a disciple of Eddie Shore, the Hall of Fame defenseman who became a legendary minor league coach and club owner. He played in only 26 National Hockey League games, yet he scored a memorable goal for the Los Angeles Kings. His National Hockey League career was cut short by an Eddie Westfall hip check.He is Brian Kilrea, the new assistant coach of the New York Islanders.A stocky man of 49 with a square jaw and close-cropped brown hair, he appears stem while conducting practice, but off the ice he smiles easily and often.He was smiling at the Islanders&rsquo; training camp when the conversation drifted to memories of Shore. Kilrea spent 10 years playing center for Shore&rsquo;s Springfield Indians of the American League.&ldquo;I remember when Barclay Plager joined the team in the &lsquo;60s,&rdquo; Kilrea said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t smoke or drink. After a couple of weeks of Eddie, he became a regular smoker and even took an occasional drink. He was a bundle of nerves. Eddie did that. He scared a lot of guys, including me.&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t begrudge my days with Eddie because I learned a lot about coaching from him. He used a lot of different drills, some for punishment. I&rsquo;d never do that&mdash;I mean punish the guys&mdash;but I picked up plenty of ideas from Eddie. He was a tremendous teacher.&rdquo;Herb Brooks, the Rangers&rsquo; coach, has acquired a great deal of publicity for employing a perpetual motion offense, but, according to Kilrea, Shore used the same system a quarter of a century ago.&ldquo;Eddie wouldn&rsquo;t let us dump the puck into the other team&rsquo;s end,&rdquo; Kilrea said.&ldquo;We had to move it. If we couldn&rsquo;t carry or pass it in, we had to go back and regroup. He was far ahead of the other coaches. They&rsquo;re just catching up with him now.&rdquo;Kilrea played one game for the Detroit Red Wings in 1957, failed to score and returned to the minors. He didn&rsquo;t get back to the NHL until 10 years later with the Kings and scored the team&rsquo;s first goal in its first league game.&ldquo;We were playing Philly and losing, 3-0, when I took a pass from Ted Irvine and scored,&rdquo; Kilrea said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t remember the goalie but it could have been Doug Favell. We won the game, 5-3. Oh yeah, 1 scored another goal into an empty net that night.&rdquo;Kilrea had three goals to his credit when his NHL career ended midway through the 1967-68 season. He suffered a damaging knee injury in a game against the Bruins in Boston.&ldquo;Eddie Westfall got me,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;He was playing defense then and I tried to be fancy and skate around him. Eddie caught me with a hip check, and I tore up my knee. But things worked out for the best.&rdquo;His playing days over, Kilrea operated a hotel and restaurant in Ottawa for awhile, then became coach of a midget team in his home city. That led eventually to a position as coach and general manager of the Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League. In 10 years with Ottawa, his teams finished first five times and won the Memorial Cup last spring.Now, after a lapse of 17 years, Kilrea is back in the NHL as Al Arbour&rsquo;s assistant coach behind the islanders&rsquo; bench. There is natural conjecture that Kilrea will become the Isles&rsquo; head coach when Arbour retires. Kilrea is cautious when dealing with that subject.&lsquo;There are a lot of kids coming up and my major role is to try and help them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Obviously I&rsquo;ll also watch Al and how he handles the team. But I&rsquo;m going to make sure I don&rsquo;t get in his road.&ldquo;The (head coach) job has never been mentioned to me. I know Al can stay as long as he wants. If and when he decides to retire. I&rsquo;m sure (general manager) Bill Torrey will have other coaches to consider as well as myself.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE&mdash;The Islanders face the possibility of opening the season without Ken Morrow who has chronic knee problems. His right knee became swollen after the first week of training camp and he was forced to stop skating. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a swelling in there and a little bit of pain,&rdquo; Morrow said&hellip; Mike Bossy also remained off skates for a week in order to rest his ailing right knee cap. Pat LaFontaine sat out the Isles&rsquo; first four exhibition games with the same sprained knee that caused him to miss the Canada Cup tournament&hellip; Bob Nystrom is making a slow recovery from surgery to repair ligament damage in his left wrist and was not expected to play in the season opener&hellip;The Isles returned 11 youngsters to their junior team and assigned 18 players to the Springfield Indians, their new farm club in the American League. The cuts reduced the roster to 29 players, including 26 holdovers. &#9632;

Memories Of Shore Still Strong For Kilrea

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;During a dozen seasons in the National Hockey League, Don Lever has been involved in franchise shifts across a continent, uprooting trades, painful injuries and teams so far out of the Stanley Cup chase that they sometimes began the next season mathematically eliminated.But never has Lever suffered through a campaign as he did last season with the Devils. He started it as New Jersey&rsquo;s captain and wound up being stripped of his title by coach Tom McVie, who gave the &ldquo;C&rdquo; to Mel Bridgman while Lever battled injuries and listened to constant trade rumors.&ldquo;Last year was the roughest year I ever had, physically and mentally,&rdquo; Lever said. &ldquo;There was the captain thing and sitting on the bench so long. It was rough.&rdquo;Lever pulled a groin muscle on Nov. 23 in Pittsburgh and missed five games. Then, after returning with six goals in six games through mid-December, he strained ligaments in his right knee on Dec. 29 against the Penguins in New Jersey and missed four more games. That injury nagged him long after his return.Still, the injuries were the least painful part of last season. While he finished with a career-low 33 points (14 goals, 19 assists in 70 games). Lever felt humiliated by losing the captaincy.&ldquo;It happened,&rdquo; he said with a shrug. &ldquo;I kept it to myself. It bothered me but in another sense it took a lot of pressure off.&rdquo;He attempted to resolve the matter in his own mind, refusing to undermine Bridgman. But it never really was smoothed out for Lever.&ldquo;Obviously they felt I wasn&rsquo;t doing something, but they never gave any reasons,&rdquo; he recalled. &ldquo;I must&rsquo;ve done something right because every team I&rsquo;ve ever been on I was captain.&rdquo;Bridgman is a strong and respected captain. The job fits him. Yet some of the Devils look at Lever as still holding the title.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t have to have the &lsquo;C&rsquo; on your sweater to have leadership qualities,&rdquo; Lever explained. &ldquo;I think I can still contribute to helping young players and I&rsquo;m a hard worker. I always have been. And 1 get along with everybody.&rdquo;This is a key season for Lever, who will turn 30 on Nov. 14. After last season&rsquo;s disappointing stats he must prove to the Devils that he can still produce and avoid nagging injuries which often slow veterans.Both Lever and rookie coach Doug Carpenter agree that this will be a turning point in the South Porcupine, Ont., native&rsquo;s career.&ldquo;Definitely,&rdquo; said Lever. &ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned I&rsquo;m good enough to play. It&rsquo;s just a matter of proving it. After the year 1 had last year I have to go out and prove it. I want to score 30 goals this year.&rdquo;&ldquo;I would say it&rsquo;s an important year for him and it&rsquo;s important for us that he has a good year,&rdquo; added Carpenter. &ldquo;You look at his past and he&rsquo;s done real well. may be it&rsquo;s a situation where we should write off last year and pick up from where he left off the previous year. Look at his background and he&rsquo;s definitely a good hockey player.&rdquo;A sore left knee (he collided with defenseman Bob Lorimer while skating just before training camp opened) slowed Lever down in camp, but he expects to be ready for the season opener.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in good shape,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know everybody says it every year but this is the hardest I&rsquo;ve worked in a long time. I&rsquo;ve been skating almost a month before camp opened.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re building. I&rsquo;m anxious to see how Kirk (Muller) plays. He&rsquo;ll be the cornerstone along with Patty (Verbeek) and Joey (Cirella). There&rsquo;s going to be a lot of pressure on Kirk. I know because I went through it (he was Vancouver&rsquo;s No. 1 choice in 1972). It&rsquo;ll be up to us to help him through it.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Tim Higgins, Jan Ludvig and Dave Lewis have all agreed to new contracts this season. John MacLean has enjoyed a solid pre-season and appears to have earned a spot on the Devils&rsquo; roster&hellip;Ken Daneyko, Don Dietrich, Sam St. Laurent and Rocky Trottier were all assigned to Maine&hellip;Rick Meagher needed 15 stitches for a cut forearm suffered in the Devils&rsquo; preseason game against Hartford. He is sidelined indefinitely &#9632;

Devil Vet Has Something To Prove

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;The disturbing news came last October, less than three months before he and his Canadian teammates were to embark for Sarajevo and the Winter Olympics.Already involved in a heated two-way battle for the No. 1 goaltending position with Mario Gosselin, Darren Eliot had to contend with another problem.He was a diabetic.The 22-year-old native of Milton, Ont. had been &ldquo;running out of gas&rdquo; during the Canadians&rsquo; extensive pre-Olympic exhibition schedule when the disorder was detected, and he believes it probably cost him the starting job once Olympic coach Dave King had to select his main man.&ldquo;It took me several months before I had a full understanding of the disease and it&rsquo;s not a factor anymore for hockey, but it certainly has changed my life drastically,&rdquo; says Eliot, who was one of six goaltenders invited to training camp by the Kings this fall.&ldquo;I tried to minimize it,&rdquo; Eliot says, &ldquo;but through November and December I was going on auxiliary power, playing pretty average. My stats were about the same as Gosselin&rsquo;s, but the coaching staff was concerned. 1 can&rsquo;t blame them; there was so much at stake.&ldquo;Basically, my body wasn&rsquo;t burning sugar properly. My pancreas wasn&rsquo;t producing enough insulin and so my body was burning fat. In layman&rsquo;s terms, when I bottomed out, 1 had lost between 10 and 15 pounds&hellip;along with my endurance, my strength and my quickness.&ldquo;I did the best I could. I couldn&rsquo;t play up to my capabilities, but, unfortunately, the hectic pace finally caught up with me.&rdquo;That was in January, one month before the Games were to begin.Eliot had posted a 3.86 goals-against average in 28 exhibition games&mdash;&rdquo;Even being sick my stats were as good as Mario&rsquo;s&rdquo;&mdash;but King went with Gosselin and played Eliot for all but two periods in Yugoslavia.&ldquo;I was disappointed, of course, but it didn&rsquo;t come as a shock,&rdquo; Eliot said. &ldquo;Had we lost to the Americans (Canada beat the U.S. in the opening game), maybe I would have played a lot more, but winning that game got us into the medal round and that was the most important thing. Mario just got hot at the right time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just very thankful I was able to play at all. I can say I played in the Olympics and that&rsquo;s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Looking back, I feel good about it. I did my best. Considering the circumstances, I think I did pretty well.&rdquo;Anyway, that experience is behind him. And by watching his diet and taking daily insulin injections, Eliot&rsquo;s diabetes is under control.&ldquo;I want neither sympathy nor pity,&rdquo; he said.A sixth-round pick in the 1980 draft, Eliot played four years at Cornell, where he became a regular member of the AllIvy League, All-ECAC and All-American teams. He was signed by general manager Rogie Vachon&mdash;a goaltender of some note during his playing days&mdash;shortly after the Olympics ended in February and played in the minors at New Haven.The Kings are extremely high on the youngster, who majored in marketing, minored on communications and graduated last year with a 2.8 grade-point average.With the Olympics behind him, Eliot is optimistic about his future.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question the Olympics experience has made me a better goal tender&mdash;technically and mentally,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe if I had just come out of college I&rsquo;d feel a little intimidated; maybe 1 would have been too young. Anyway, that&rsquo;s all speculation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the type of person who feels that things eventually work out for the best. I&rsquo;ve got a degree from a good school. I played for Team Canada and in the Olympics, and I&rsquo;m still getting to do what I&rsquo;ve always wanted to do&mdash;play in the NHL.&ldquo;I feel good about it. Now I&rsquo;ve got to prove 1 belong.&rdquo;KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;Left winger Charlie Simmer, out $1,000 in fines for missing the first four days of camp, finally reported. He showed up, he said, only to get into shape. He still wants the Kings to trade him&hellip;Center Brian Wilks, a second-round draft pick out of Kitchener, scored five goals in the Kings&rsquo; first three exhibition games&mdash;they won two&mdash;but was returned to his junior team. &#9632;

Olympic Experience Changed Eliot’s Life

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01863/5535276-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"></div>The Washington Capitals finished the National Hockey League&rsquo;s preseason schedule as the hottest team, winning eight and losing only two in their 10 outings.A number of players played exceptionally and among that group was winger Craig Laughlin, who came to the Caps in the controversial Rod Langway trade with the Montreal Canadiens.Laughlin scored five goals and four assists to earn Player of the Week honors. Other Caps who also scored nine points in the exhibition schedule included winger Alan Haworth and center Jim McGeough. &#9632;

f0020-01

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY ROD BEATON</div>Boston College and Boston University have long reigned among the top U.S. hockey college powers in the east; Wisconsin and North Dakota in the west. That is not likely to change&mdash;at least for four more years.Those four schools fared best in the Division One recruiting wars over the summer, according to a coaches&rsquo; survey by THE HOCKEY NEWS.There is no guarantee a top freshman will contribute for a full four years to his college&rsquo;s program. If he improves, the pressure to tum professional increases. Few of these prospects have escaped the entry draft for which most were eligible upon high school graduation.When Bowling Green won the NCAA Division One championship last season with a 2-1 score in the fifth overtime period, freshman Gary Kruzich was in goal. Kruzich was the Most Valuable Player in the tournament&mdash;an indication of just how significant a role a freshman can play.Sophomore Gino Cavallini scored the gamewinner. Two months later he signed with the Calgary Hames. Bowling Green lost a top left winger&mdash;an indication of the risky business of recruiting highly-regarded freshmen.Three of most notable freshmen will have names familiar to hockey fans:&bull; Brett Hull, son of Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, will play for Minnesota-Duluth after a 105-goal season in tier two.&bull; David Quinn, the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo;first-round draft pick in June, is bound for BU. Quinn was the only player selected in the first round to head for a college in the U.S.&bull; Ken Hodge Jr., whose father starred for the Boston Bruins, is going to BC after an all-state, 63-point season at St. John&rsquo;s Prep in Danvers, MA (Bobby Carpenter&rsquo;s alma mater).&ldquo;Boston College has a really fine freshman class. It isn&rsquo;t just the top players, it&rsquo;s the overall quality,&rdquo; said Bowling Green coach Jerry York.&ldquo;BU did the best,&rdquo; said attorney Brian Burke, former Providence star, now a National Hockey League player agent. &ldquo;The key is quality, not quantity. BU got Quinn and (Clark) Donatelli. Quinn is a legitimate first-rounder and Donatelli is a killer-type player.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll be devastating in the same lineup. Just because Donatelli wasn&rsquo;t a top pick (fifth round pick of New York Rangers) doesn&rsquo;t mean he won&rsquo;t be an outstanding college player. He isn&rsquo;t that big (5-foot-10, 190 pounds). His skating is good, but not great. But he&rsquo;ll do anything to win. He&rsquo;s rougher than John Tonelli.&rdquo;North Dakota&rsquo;s top recruits include centers Todd Norman and Tony Hrkac. Norman, from Hill-Murray H.S. in Minnesota, is noted for &ldquo;his mean streak,&rdquo; by Edmonton super-scout Barry Fraser. Hrkac scored 106 points in tier two last year. Add goaltender Scott Brower, defenseman Kevin Melrose and center Steve Johnson and you&rsquo;re looking at an outstanding class.&ldquo;No question. North Dakota did very well,&rdquo; said Duluth coach Mike Sertich. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t ignore Wisconsin.&rdquo;Wisconsin&rsquo;s plums included Scott Mellanby, a big, strong right winger from Henry Carr in Toronto drafted in the second round by Philadelphia; Paul Ranheim, a Minnesota high school star picked high by Calgary; and Victor Posa, another Henry Carr product and a defenseman who is expected to go very high at the next draft. Wisconsin filled out the class with goaltender Dean Anderson and right winger Steve Tuttle, both highly regarded.Players such as Mellanby and Posa, and especially tier two players like Hull, tend to contribute faster in college than U.S. high school players, according to Maine coach Shawn Walsh.&ldquo;A player from junior will generally have been playing against kids older than he is,&rdquo; said Walsh. &ldquo;A high schooler generally plays against kids younger than him&hellip;The kid from junior is more likely to contribute immediately.&rdquo;With that in mind many schools concentrated on recruiting Canadian youngsters. Two other schools that recruited well are Bowling Green, which had to compensate for massive defections to the pros, and Miami of Ohio, which tapped Minnesota&rsquo;s school boys.The following is a list of the key freshmen playing U.S: college hockey this season.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>BU&mdash;David Quinn, D; and Clark Donatelli, LW.BC&mdash;Ken Hodge Jr., C; Bill Kopecky, C; and Joe McEachern, D.UNH&mdash;Steve Leach, RW; and Quintin Brickley, C.Lowell&mdash;John Morris, C.Northeastern&mdash;Kevin Heffernan, C.Maine&mdash;Dewey Wahlin, LW; Dave Wensley, C; Stan Czenczek, D; and Paul Leliever, C.Providence&mdash;Shawn Whitham, D; and Gordie Cruickshank, C-RW.<h2>WESTERN COLLEGE HOCKEY ASSOCIATION</h2>North Dakota&mdash;Tony Hrkac, C; Todd Norman, C; Scott Brower, G; Kevin Melrose, D; Bob Joyce, LW; and Steve Johnson, C.Wisconsin&mdash;Scott Mellanby, RW; Victor Posa, D; Paul Ranheim, C; Dean Anderson, G; and Steve Tuttle, RW.Minnesota&mdash;Paul Broten, C; Brett Nelson, D; and Dave Grannis, LW.UM-D&mdash;Brett Hull, RW; Mike DeAngelis, D; and Brian Nelson, C.Colo. College&mdash;Doug Wieck, LW; and Tom Pederson, D.Denver&mdash;David Hansen, C; and Chris Gillies, G.Michigan Tech.&mdash;Russ Becker, D; Tim Flanagan, RW; and Graham Hamilton, C.Northern Michigan&mdash;John Corrigan, G; Mike Jeffrey, G; and Mike Bolton, D.<h2>EAST COAST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE</h2>Army&mdash;Bob Dwan, LW; Scott Custer, D; and Chris Schwart-zbauer, G.Harvard&mdash;Don Sweeney, D; and Paul Sheehy, C.Vermont&mdash;Toby Ducolon, LW.Yale&mdash;Tom Walsh, C; and David Tanner, LW-D.Dartmouth&mdash;Bill Mclnerny, LW; and Sal Tiano, C.Brown&mdash;Sean McNamara, D; and Dominic Alphonso, G.Clarkson&mdash;Jay Rose, D; Sonny Newman, G; Chris Mills, D; and Luciano Borsato, C.RPI&mdash;Tom Hussey, LW; Rick Tosto, LW-C; and Maurice Mansi, C.St. Lawrence&mdash;Hank Lemmens, D; Pete McGeough, D; and Larry Tomiaelly, D.Colgate&mdash;Greg Dreschel, LW; Colin Cooper, D; and John McCarthy, C.Conreil&mdash;Kermit Salfi, LW.Princeton&mdash;Lenny Quesnalle, D; and Dave Umland, RW.<h2>CENTRAL COLLEGE HOCKEY ASSOCIATION</h2>Bowling Green&mdash;Brian McKee, D; Brent Regan, RW; Scott PaIu ch, D; and Doug Claggett, D.Miami (O)&mdash;Greg Dornbach, C; Bob Caulfield, RW; Mike Om, C; and Tom Terwilliger, D. Michigan&mdash;Jeff Norton, D; and Gary Lorden, D.Illinois-Chicago&mdash;Gord Holliday, D; Brad Ryan, G; and Dan Perillo, G.Ferris State&mdash;Darin Fridger, C; and Mike Sarago, RW.Lake Superior&mdash;Gerry Johansson, D.Michigan State&mdash;Tom Tilley, D; and Sean Clements, D.Western Michigan&mdash;Kevin McCoffey, G.Ohio State&mdash;Bill Brown, C; Mike Nightingale, D; Rick Brabant, C.<h2>INDEPENDENTS</h2>Alaska-Anchorage&mdash;Ken Carlson, D; Pat lozzo, C; Mike Hiltmer, C; and Tony Catani, C.Alaska-Fairbanks&mdash;Rick Pitta, LW, Tom Marosta, D; and Robbie Duke, C.Northern Arizona&mdash;Steve Taylor, C; Guy Thaneuf, D; and Charlie Perperittis, RW. &#9632;

Perennial Powers Show Recruiting Strength

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;The Bermuda shorts and T-shirts aren&rsquo;t even packed away yet. It&rsquo;ll be several weeks before the mittens and galoshes come out of the closet. Ice skating?Yes ma&rsquo;am. That&rsquo;s because the new era in Eastern college hockey is here. Hockey East&rsquo;s seven teams aren&rsquo;t just out there skating in October&rsquo;s bright blue weather, either. They&rsquo;re already honing the breakouts and backchecks in preparation for season openers.Practice began Oct. 1. That&rsquo;s a full two weeks before they&rsquo;ve been used to out East, but it was entirely necessary because play for keeps begins in midmonth. Western teams have been starting their season this early for years, of course, but Easterners have always enjoyed at least an extra month of conditioning, tryouts and scrimmages. The weather at least had a chance to cool off before the games began in earnest.But that&rsquo;s all history, of course, with the schism of Hockey East and a shrunken EC AC Division One. For those who&rsquo;ve been in hibernation since last winter, the new setup has seven Hockey East teams each playing 16 games against Western Collegiate Hockey Association outfits this winter. All those games will count in Hockey East standings, as will the three times they play one another for a total of 34 contests.Hockey East comprises Boston College, Boston University, Lowell, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern, and Providence. Except for a smattering of contests, these teams will not face former long-time rivals who used to make up the ECAC West and Ivy sectors. Demands of a full national schedule, for all intents and purposes a national college league, preclude the twain&rsquo;s meeting.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01751/5535345-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="558" height="919"><figcaption class="caption-body">Senior Jim Averill will have to provide leadership on defense for Northeastern.</figcaption></div>The one term heard most often in the anticipation-filled days leading up to the first faceoff is &ldquo;first-class operation.&rdquo; From the announcement luncheon in a posh Boston hotel back on Jan. 18, commissioner Lou Lamoriello and his fellow athletic directors have been investing time and money to put forth the league&rsquo;s image.Their rinks have all been spruced up awaiting the Western invaders. The publications are top shelf. A public relations firm has been retained to promote the league. A television deal was close to reality, too.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be really exciting.&rdquo; enthused New Hampshire coach Charlie Holt. &ldquo;The unknown is always exciting, and our team especially has a lot of unknowns this year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02526/5535338-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="561" height="912"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Cullen, a sophomore, is one of the notable returnees for Boston University.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;There will actually be a lot less travel for us. We don&rsquo;t have to bus long ways to places like Clarkson, Princeton and Colgate.&rdquo;Holt is in his 17th year at Durham. He seems to do best when molding teams of untried youngsters, and up to seven freshmen may play regularly in Snively Arena in 1984-85. But UNH&rsquo;s rookies will look to an experienced defense corps and goaltender Bruce Gillies for guidance. Seniors Ralph Robinson, David Lee and Brian Byrnes, along with juniors Peter Herms, Shane Skidmore and Kirk Lussier give Gillies (3.49 goals-against average) more protection than he needs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03397/5535331-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="566" height="905"><figcaption class="caption-body">Shawn Walsh is the new head coach at Maine after assisting at Bowling Green.</figcaption></div>The senior line of Dan Muse, Ralph Robinson and Scott Ellison, plus sophs James Richmond and Peter Douris, provide balanced scoring among the forward lines&rsquo; returnees, but freshmen will probably fill out the rest of the attack waves.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll use more people early in the season, and that&rsquo;s a good thing,&rdquo; Holt said. &ldquo;We did have to make squad cuts after two days of practice, however, and I would have preferred to wait a little longer.&rdquo;Conventional wisdom has New Hampshire, Boston College and Boston University finishing as the league&rsquo;s top three teams, closely bunched. Providence ought to fall in line at fourth place, followed by Northeastern, Lowell and Maine, respectively.Both BC and BU recruited well, and the success of each will probably be dictated by goaltending. The Eagles have junior Scott Gordon (3.75) to carry most of the load, but the many back-to-back weekends will force untested sophomore Shaun Real to see more than his three games&rsquo; worth of action of a year ago. BU has to replace AllAmerican Cleon Daskalakis with either soph Terry Taillefer or frosh Peter Fish.In all other places, both BC and BU are well set. Sophs John Cullen and Ed Lowney are BU&rsquo;s most notable returnees, while BC junior forwards Bob Sweeney and Scott Harlow ought to lead Eagle snipers.Providence&rsquo;s Mario Proulx, a clutch netminder over the years, bequeathed his job to junior Chris Terreri, who has a good defense in front of him, led by Peter Taglianetti and Nowel Catterall. The forwards are respectable but not high powered.Northeastern has seven seniors to replace, including three defensive regulars, so look for some high scoring games in Matthews Arena. Senior Jim Averill will have to carry a disproportionate share of the blueline load in front of goalie Tim Marshall. Goal production shouldn&rsquo;t fall off very much with Stewart Emerson, Rod Isbister, and Jay Heinbuck leading the way.Lowell is in its firt full-fledged Division One season and is a very young club despite only two graduations. Just seniors Danny Craig (16 goals) and Mike Opre (11) had more than 10 goals from those who returned from last year. With a weak team in front of him, goalie Dana DeMole slumped to a 4.70 average last year and ought to be better.Maine has a new coach in Shawn Walsh, who spent the last six years assisting Ron Mason at Bowling Green and Michigan State. Walsh has virtually his entire squad returning to action, but he brought in nine freshmen to compete for positions. Undoubtedly a few veterans will fall by the wayside, but those who won&rsquo;t ought to include defenseman Ray Comeault and forwards Ron Hellen, Ray Jacques and Kevin Mann. Maine could surprise but needs time to rebuild.Hockey East&rsquo;s quarter-final playoff round will be two-game affair at campus sites. Providence Civic Center will be the site of the semis and finals. Playoffs indeed seem a long, long way off now, but almost every game counts towards seedings right from the beginning in New England&rsquo;s balmy autumn weather.The noble experiment has begun! &#9632;

f0022-01

Excitement Mounting In New Hockey East

<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2><h3>OCTOBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01675/5535593-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="570" height="766"></div><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02445/5535586-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="520" height="128"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03316/5535579-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="536" height="1118"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04233/5535572-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="512" height="70"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-05193/5535565-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="532" height="942"></div><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-06165/5535558-1-eng-US/f0023-062.jpg" title="f0023-06" width="546" height="210"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-07146/5535551-1-eng-US/f0023-072.jpg" title="f0023-07" width="550" height="1082"></div><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-08131/5535544-1-eng-US/f0023-082.jpg" title="f0023-08" width="516" height="72"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-09112/5535537-1-eng-US/f0023-092.jpg" title="f0023-09" width="552" height="660"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-10100/5535530-1-eng-US/f0023-102.jpg" title="f0023-10" width="520" height="130"></div><h3>HOCKEY EAST PLAYOFFS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1186/5535523-1-eng-US/f0023-112.jpg" title="f0023-11" width="430" height="250"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><h3>OCTOBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1272/5535516-1-eng-US/f0023-122.jpg" title="f0023-12" width="546" height="876"></div><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1360/5535509-1-eng-US/f0023-132.jpg" title="f0023-13" width="526" height="118"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1452/5535502-1-eng-US/f0023-142.jpg" title="f0023-14" width="548" height="1172"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1543/5535495-1-eng-US/f0023-152.jpg" title="f0023-15" width="532" height="646"></div><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1636/5535488-1-eng-US/f0023-162.jpg" title="f0023-16" width="564" height="436"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1726/5535481-1-eng-US/f0023-172.jpg" title="f0023-17" width="528" height="794"></div><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1818/5535474-1-eng-US/f0023-182.jpg" title="f0023-18" width="522" height="334"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1914/5535467-1-eng-US/f0023-192.jpg" title="f0023-19" width="544" height="822"></div><h3>CCHA PLAYOFFS MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-2010/5535460-1-eng-US/f0023-202.jpg" title="f0023-20" width="456" height="246"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><h3>OCTOBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-218/5535453-1-eng-US/f0023-212.jpg" title="f0023-21" width="544" height="966"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-227/5535446-1-eng-US/f0023-222.jpg" title="f0023-22" width="520" height="100"></div><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-236/5535439-1-eng-US/f0023-232.jpg" title="f0023-23" width="560" height="966"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-245/5535432-1-eng-US/f0023-242.jpg" title="f0023-24" width="538" height="704"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-254/5535425-1-eng-US/f0023-252.jpg" title="f0023-25" width="546" height="364"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-264/5535418-1-eng-US/f0023-262.jpg" title="f0023-26" width="534" height="940"></div><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-274/5535411-1-eng-US/f0023-272.jpg" title="f0023-27" width="550" height="128"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-284/5535404-1-eng-US/f0023-282.jpg" title="f0023-28" width="536" height="1062"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03333/5535397-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="518" height="156"></div><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04237/5535390-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="522" height="512"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05188/5535383-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="524" height="556"></div><h3>WCHA PLAYOFFS MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06162/5535376-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="414" height="180"></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

COLLEGE HOCKEY SCHEDULES

In recognition of the importance of U.S. college hockey, Bauer will once again sponsor the Bauer College Performer of the Week Award throughout the 198485 season.Each week one player will be selected from the Eastern, Central and Western College Hockey programs as Bauer Performers of the Week, based on outstanding achievements for that week. Each player will receive an attractive trophy with his name, school and the week he won the award as a momento of the honor. At the end of the year, one player will be chosen as the Bauer Performer of the Year. The winner will then be presented with appropriate honors at the annual HOCKEY NEWS awards banquet.Last year&rsquo;s winner was Paul Pooley from Ohio State, who signed with the Winnipeg Jets along with his twin brother. Perry.Randy Curran, marketing manager of Bauer, reports that this program is only one of the many that Bauer provides to support U.S. college hockey.&ldquo;For many small towns and cities in the United States, college hockey is the NHL, and the caliber of the game is always fast and exciting,&rdquo; says Curran, adding that &ldquo;there are more American boys playing in the NHL every year, and most owe their development to the U.S. college hockey system. Even their Olymic program is derived from U.S. college hockey.&rdquo;One member of the Bauer Pro Staff Department, Frank Rowe, works out of Buffalo, NY, and spends almost 75 per cent of his time fitting and servicing the U.S. college program. Bauer also participates in the sponsorship of the annual Hobey Baker Award, the equivalent of football&rsquo;s Heisman Trophy, which is presented every year to the outstanding U.S. college hockey player of the year.Says Curran: &ldquo;U.S. college hockey, like major Jr. A in Canada, plays an integral part of the North American hockey system, and Bauer recognizes this.&rdquo; &#9632;

BAUER College Awards

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>GRAND FORKS&mdash;Western Collegiate Hockey Association coaches are doing no favors for the University of Minnesota these days&mdash;they&rsquo;ve named the Gophers as the team to beat in the WCHA, which, in the past, has been the kiss of death.In the 13 previous pre-season polls of WCHA coaches conducted by the Grand Forks (ND) Herald, only four times has the team picked as the pre-season favorite gone on to win the league championship.But the Gophers must carry that burden this season after Minnesota shaded defending champion Minnesota-Duluth for the top spot. The Gophers drew four of the eight first-place ballots to three for Minnesota-Duluth and one for North Dakota, the league runnerup a year ago. Wisconsin, Denver, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Colorado College all failed to receive consideration.The WCHA has a new look this year as the addition of Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan, who switched over from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, gives the WCHA eight teams. In addition, all WCHA teams will play 14 games against the seven members of Hockey East, creating a 34-game league schedule in the WCHA. That&rsquo;s one of the reasons the WCHA rejected the application of two Alaska schools&mdash;Anchorage and Fairbanks&mdash;for membership in the league.Here&rsquo;s a look at the prospects.MINNESOTA-DULUTH&mdash;Coach Mike Sertich&rsquo;s Bulldogs will be hard-pressed to duplicate last year&rsquo;s tremendous season, which saw Duluth capture its first WCHA title ever and finish second in the nation, losing the historic four-overtime title contest to Bowling Green.But the Bulldogs return a wealth of talent, including league scoring champion Bill Watson, as well as Matt Christensen and Tom Herzig, both of whom finished in the top 10 in league scoring.In addition, Duluth is solid in goal with Rick Kosti, who posted a 2.92 goals-against average as a freshman. Kosti just beat out North Dakota AllAmerica goalie Jon Casey for the best average in the league, stopping Casey&rsquo;s bid to win that honor three straight times, something only Michigan Tech&rsquo;s Tony Esposito ever did.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be weaker,&rdquo; Sertich said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a couple of big holes to fill with the loss of Lakso and Tom Kurvers.&rdquo; Kurvers, a defenseman, won the Hobey Baker Award last year, given to the best college player in the U.S.MINNESOTA&mdash;What Gopher coach Brad Buetow has going for him this year is healthy hockey players. A year ago, two of the best centers in the WCHA&mdash;Minnesota&rsquo;s Rick Erdahl and Steve Orth&mdash;spent much of the year on the injured list. And center Corey Millen is back from the U.S. Olympic team. All three are healthy this year, one reason the Gophers get the nod for first place.&ldquo;Our defense has to get more consistent and we need more consistency in goal,&rdquo; Buetow said.Forwards Tom Rothstein and Pat Micheletti, two proven scorers who both were in the top 10 in league scoring, are back, too. The injury problems haven&rsquo;t entirely left the Gophers, however, as Rothstein will be out six weeks with a broken thumb suffered even before practice officially began.NORTH DAKOTA&mdash;Coach Gino Gasparini is singing an old song at North Dakota about how his players are so young they don&rsquo;t need to take razors with them on the road.Gasparini says it&rsquo;s the youngest team he&rsquo;s ever had and that it&rsquo;s the first time in his seven years as coach that he doesn&rsquo;t return a veteran goalie, having lost AllAmerica Jon Casey to graduation.In addition, defenseman Rick Zombo gave up his last year of eligibility to turn pro and four guys who played with the Canadian Olympic team last season&mdash;James Patrick, Dave Tippett, Dave Donnelly and Gord Sherven&mdash;all turned pro rather than return to school.Brian Williams, Chris Jensen, Jim Archibald and Perry Berezan are the best of North Dakota&rsquo;s veteran forwards while freshman Tony Hrkac, who started for Orillia in the Provincial Junior Hockey League last season, will turn some heads.But for the Sioux to contend, either sophomore Greg Strome or Craig Perry or highly-rated Scott Bower must come through in goal.WISCONSIN&mdash;Coach Jeff Sauer brought in 10 freshmen and the word is that the Badgers had one of the better recruiting years in college hockey.But freshmen seldom win titles for you, so the Badgers need improved play from forward Paul Houck, who saw his scoring totals dip drastically last season.&ldquo;The real question is if we have improved ourself on defense and in goal and can we replace the firepower provided by John Johannson, Ted Pearson and Lexi Doner, all lost to graduation,&rdquo; Sauer said.In addition, Sauer must replace graduated goalie Terry Kleisinger.Although Sauer brought in all the freshmen, he says his best recruit is Tim Thomas, who rejoined the Badgers after playing on the U.S. Olympic team. He&rsquo;s a versatile player who can be used either on defense or up front.&ldquo;Our freshmen have talent, but they haven&rsquo;t played before 8,000 screaming fans, either,&rdquo; Sauer said.DENVER&mdash;If the Pioneers were playing football these days, coach Ralph Backstrom would have the stuff needed to produce a winner. One of his recruits is 6-foot-4, 210-pound Jim Smith.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be a very big hockey team,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re pretty encouraged, but we&rsquo;re going to let the players do the talking this year.&rdquo;Those who may talk the loudest are John McMillan, lan Ramsey, Dave Anderson and Dallas Gaume, all proven scorers in the league.&ldquo;We appear to have lots of offensive strength,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;Now we need to tighten up our goals-against average.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01645/5535676-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="590" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">Upper row left to right: Tom Rothstein of Minnesota has a broken thumb and will miss the first few weeks of the season; Paul Houck of Wisconsin has to improve on his play. Bottom row left to right: Dallas Gaume is one of the key shooters for the big and physical Denver team; Coach Rick Comley will have 16 returning players in Northern Michigan; Chris Chicocki is back again after leading led Michigan Tech last season.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02426/5535669-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="592" height="928"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03276/5535662-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="588" height="922"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04177/5535655-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="592" height="926"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05142/5535648-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="588" height="926"></div>Backstrom may call on frosh goalie Chris Gillies to help in that area.COLORADO COLLEGE&mdash;The Tigers may make a move out of the WCHA cellar this year, and not just because there are two new teams in the league.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m feeling more optimistic that in past years,&rdquo; coach Mike Bertach said, &ldquo;just because of the experience we have and more depth than in previous years.&rdquo;Ken Filbey, who had 13 goals in 26 league games a year ago, is CC&rsquo;s top returning scorer, so the Tigers need some help in that department.Marty Wakelyn can be outstanding in goal, so the Tigers figure to win some games on the play of their ironman goaltender.NORTHERN MICHIGAN&mdash;Coach Rick Comley greets 16 returning lettermen, so the Wildcats are long on experience.Gary Emmons, who was the CCHA&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year last season, heads the list of the three top scorers who are back for Northern Michigan. Center Bob Curtis has been the second leading scorer for the Wildcats the last two years while defenseman Dave Randall was third in scoring for the Wildcats.&ldquo;I think we will be better up front than we have been in a lont time,&rdquo; said Comley, who has seen his Wildcats finish under .500 three straight years. &ldquo;If we have a question mark, it&rsquo;s at defense, because we don&rsquo;t have a lot of age.&rdquo;Scott Purpur, leading scorer in the United States Hockey League last season, could add some punch up front for the WildcatsMICHIGAN TECH&mdash;Coach Jim Nahrgang returns 20 lettermen from a team that finished sixth in the CCHA last year with a 14-16 record and posted a season mark of 19-21-1.Heading the list of talent is winger Chris Cichocki, Tech&rsquo;s leading scorer last season with 25 goals. Two other top scorers back for the Huskies are Geordie Hamilton, who led the club in assists with 26, and winger Brian Hannon, who popped in 17 goals as a rookie last year.Nahrgang also has three veteran goalies on hand in Dave Roach, Bart Tompsett and Darryl (Tiger) Pierce.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know much about the teams in the WCHA,&rdquo; Nahrgang said, &ldquo;because the only team from the WCHA we&rsquo;ve played in recent years is Minnesota-Duluth. So it&rsquo;s hard to say how we&rsquo;ll do.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0025-01

Gophers Favored On Coaches Poll

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>The accent is clearly on the positive as the Central Collegiate Hockey Association enters its 14th season in 1984-85.Gone are Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan, two schools with strong hockey traditions. Both left for what they believe to be the greener pastures of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, which enters into a direct rivalry with earns from the East this season, an interlocking relationship being tested for the first time.But the CCHA product is proven and the remaining league members are more resolved than ever to forge ahead.After all, the CCHA is home to the defending NCAA champion Bowling Green State Falcons and eight other Division One teams, including: Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Illinois at Chicago, Miami of Ohio, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Western Michigan.While the number of teams has reduced from 11 to nine, the schedule is balanced for the first time and each clubs plays the others four times, home and away. And the lucrative post-season berths are now attainable for all but one league member.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not dwelling on the negative,&rdquo; says Miami coach Steve Cady. &ldquo;Sure, we lost two good programs in Tech and Northern, but we&rsquo;ve got nine strong programs left and better balance and a chance to create more rivalries and reach playoff status. We&rsquo;re in great shape.&rdquo;So, convinced they&rsquo;re on the right track, the CCHA members charge into another season, confident it will be the best yet with an eye on the post-season NCAA tournament, to be held this season right in their own backyard, at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.With this in mind, we give you, in capsule form, a brief preview of the CCHA for 1984-85 in probable order of finish:MICHIGAN STATE&mdash;It would take a rash of injuries and many an upset to keep the Spartans from winning their first regular-season CCHA crown.Coach Ron Mason, in his sixth season, has 20 players back from a powerhouse that finished 21-9 (tied for second with Ohio State) last season before winning the CCHA playoff round, thus gaining No. 1-seed status at Lake Placid.Michigan State should be head and shoulders above the rest of the CCHA this season&mdash;there really is no obvious weakness in this team.Back are goaltenders Norm Foster and Bob Essensa, both of whom carried goals-against averages under 3.00 last season, and they&rsquo;re only sophomores. Also returning are defensemen Dan McFall, Brad Beck, Don McSween and Neil Davey, along with senior Gary Haight, who played last winter with the U.S. Olympic team. Returning up front are high-scoring forwards Kelly Miller (28 goals), Gord Flegel (21), Tom Anas-tos (22) and Bill Shibicky and Mike Donnelly (18 apiece) return.Add veterans Dale Krentz, Craig Simpson, Harvey Smyl and Jeff Parker and you&rsquo;ve got the makings of a national champion. Moreover, with freshmen Sean Clement (third-round pick, Winnipeg) and Tom Tilley (ninth-rounder, St. Louis) plus freshman Kevin Miller, younger brother of Kelly and the seventh Miller to play at MSU, you&rsquo;ve got a college coach&rsquo;s dream team.&ldquo;Last year was one of tremendous growth,&rdquo; says Mason. &ldquo;Early, we were young and inexperienced, but we became&hellip;a bona fide contender. The challenge for us now is a league championship.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01684/5535742-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="590" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Mason&rsquo;s Michigan State team is expected to win their first league crown.</figcaption></div>WESTERN MICHIGAN&mdash;Coach Bill Wilkinson begins his third season with the Broncos with no less than 21 of 22 players back.His was the surprise team of 1983-84. Western started slowly, but built to a playoff peak, knocking off regularseason champ Bowling Green in the CCHA playoffs before bowing out to Michigan State.Back are second-team All-American Dan Dorion, who had 41 goals and 91 points as a sophomore last season. He&rsquo;s joined by juniors Troy Thrun, a walk-on last season who scored 52 points, and Lance Johnston, who also had a 52-point year.Back are Glenn Healy, an outstanding netminder (3.69 average), and defenseman Wayne Gagne, who totalled 43 points. Also returning are Stuart Bumie, a 39-point man, and Bob Bryden (17 goals, 29 points).Promising newcomers include goalie Kevin McCaffrey from Bramalea, Ont., forward Jeff Kick of Glenview, IL., defenseman Dave Lobdell, of Mt. Clemens, MI., Scott Howe of Port Huron, MI.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04282/5535735-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="584" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran Jon Elliott is one of two outstanding goaltenders for Michigan.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02471/5535728-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="586" height="888"><figcaption class="caption-body">Graham Craig scored 25 goats and 26 assists for Ferris State last season.</figcaption></div>FERRIS STATE&mdash;Just as Michigan State stands above the rest of the CCHA this season, every other team stands pretty much on the same footing, about four rungs below the Spartans.It&rsquo;s virtually a toss-up for third to ninth place. A break here, an injury there, and anybody might finish third&hellip;anybody else ninth.Ferris State gets the nod for third spot, mostly on the strength of returning balance. The Bulldogs lost 73-point man Randy Merrifield and All-American defenseman Jim File (49 points), but they have Graham Craig (25 goals, 51 points) along with Paul Couture (23 goals, 44 points), Tim Wendt and twin brothers Peter and Paul Lowden, just sophomores.Coach Dick Bertrand, in his third season at State, has 22 returning letterman and only six graduated seniors. Goalie Rob Hughston had a 4.35 average as a junior and returns along with backup Norm Young. Both have extensive CCHA experience.If Ferris has a major question mark it is on defense, but even there the Bulldogs return senior Brad Hildestad and sophomores Ray Zabel, Judd Green and Scott Syring. Add Rod Schluter, who played for the Penticton Knights last season, Tom Galvin (Nepean Raiders), frosh defensemen Mike Kellum (Ft. McMurray Oil Barons) and Jeff Lindsay (Hamilton Kilty Bs) and Bertrand&rsquo;s guys may just be able to grab a home-ice berth in the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05220/5535721-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="590" height="900"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bowling Green will be without Dave Ellett, who is with the Winnipeg Jets.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03383/5535714-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="582" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coach Frank Anzalone has made defense a major priority at Lake Superior State.</figcaption></div>LAKE SUPERIOR STATE&mdash;If defense means anything, Frank Anzalone&rsquo;s Lakers may nail down their first-ever, home-ice playoff berth this season.Anzalone is in his second full season and the players know his system and each other. The big keys here are goaltending and uncovering some offensive punch.The Lakers have strength enough on the blue line that they can afford to move senior Chris Guy (12 goals, 40 points) up to right wing, giving an exceptional playmaker a chance to provide even more offense.Returning on defense are senior Chris Dahlquist, junior Mark Vichorek and a trio of exceptional sophomores in Paul Jerrard, Grant Clark and Matt Cote. Add recruits Jerry Johannson (fifth-rounder, Montreal), Brian Michaud and walk-on Terry Hossack (who also plays left wing) and you&rsquo;ve got a lot of support for sophomore goalie Randy Exelby and freshman Craig Shermoen.Up front the Lakers boast senior Allan Butler, a 28-goal, 54-point man in 198384, plus the likes of shifty center Jim Rocque and veterans Keith Martin, Scott Johnson, Nick Palumbo, Nick Bumbac-co and Dean Dixon. Add newcomers Kim McIvor (Moosejaw Canucks), Craig Hewson (Newmarket Flyers), Jeff DiCaire (Espanola Eagles), Steve Hurt (Hill Murray High in White Bear Lake, MN) and Peter Desjardins (Stratford) and you&rsquo;ve got the makings of a CCHA contender.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06182/5535707-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="584" height="898"><figcaption class="caption-body">Miami of Ohio&rsquo;s Andy Cozzi will be one of his team&rsquo;s key performers this season.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We could finish anywhere from second to seventh,&rdquo; says Anzalone. &ldquo;We learned a lot last year and we&rsquo;ve got a lot back (the Lakers graduated three). If we get any goaltending and find some scoring, we&rsquo;ll be right there.&rdquo;MICHIGAN&mdash;The Wolverines have enough talent back to rate even higher, if it weren&rsquo;t for a few rather large question marks.No less than 20 letterman return, including two experienced netminders in Mark Chiamp and Jon Elliott. Couple them with returning defensemen Todd Carlile (11 goals, 31 points), Pat Goff, Bill Brauer, Mike Neff and Greg Hudas, and things could be hunky-dory in Wolverine land.Also back are Chris Seychel (16 goals, 36 points), Brad Jones, Ray Dries (16 goals), Tom Stiles, John Bjorkman, Doug May, Frank Downing, Bruce McNab, Paul Kobylarz and Paul Spring. Newcomers include wingers Sean Baker, Brad McCaughey, defensemen Jeff Norton and Gary Lorden, all of whom have been drafted by NHL teams.Lost, however, are Jim McCauley, who scored 17 goals and 43 points, and John DeMartino, who anchored the defense. Also gone is coach John Giordano, replaced by Michigan alumnus and former NHLer Red Berenson.Berenson brings a classy approach and a wealth of knowledge to the Wolves, but it takes a while for a team to acclimate to a new coach. And the Michigan players laid a lot of the blame for last season&rsquo;s disaster on Giordano, a claim that will be tested this season. The Wolverines, it seems, are another group that could be second&hellip;or seventh.OHIO STATE&mdash;Okay, All-CCHA goalie John Dougan is back. So is his backup Bob Krautsak. So is outstanding defenseman Mark Shortt.But gone are Paul Pooley, the CCHA&rsquo;s Hobie Baker candidate and a 32-goal, 96-point man; brother, Perry Pooley (39 goals, 79 points); Dave Kobryn (72 points), and Andy Browne, (34 goals, 67 points). That&rsquo;s 128 goals and 314 points lost to graduation, and that isn&rsquo;t easy to overcome.The Buckeyes were second, tied with Michigan State, in the regular season last year and ranked eighth nationally in the final polls.But coach Jerry Welsh will be hard-pressed to come near last season&rsquo;s record of 30-10-1.Returning to anchor the offense are Bruce Tillotson (11 goals), Dave Beaudin (14 goals) and John Mowat (nine goals). Newcomers include Rick Brebant, an outstanding prospect who had 108 goals for Pembroke Lumber Kings last season, and Mike Nightengale and Bill Brown, a pair of former prep standouts at Simley High in Inver Grove Heights, MN.The Buckeyes could surprise, and they still play out of the crackerbox OSU &ldquo;ice rink,&rdquo; but finding offense to match last season and enough blue-line strength to help Dougan and Krautsak won&rsquo;t be easy.BOWLING GREEN&mdash;Decimated is the best word to describe the defending national champs. The Falcons have been decimated by graduation and the pros tapping four outstanding BG talents, all of whom could be wearing the orange and brown this season.Gone are grads John Samanski (25 goals, 60 points), Nick Bandescu, Perry Bruan (12 goals, 30 points), Mike Pikul (an outstanding defenseman who also had 37 points), Peter Wilson, Wayne Wilson (another top-notch defenseman), Dave O&rsquo;Brian (12 goals, 39 points) and Tim Hack.Turned pro are Gino Cavallini, a 25-goal scorer who netted the winner in the classic four-overtime game against Minnnesota-Duluth in the national final, Dave Ellett (15 goals, 54 points playing defense), Dan Kane (24 goals, 72 points) and Garry Galley (another outstanding defenseman, who had 15 goals, 67 points).Sure, coach Jerry York can count on goalies Gary Kruzich, the outstanding player in last season&rsquo;s NCAA tounament, and Wayne Collins, and he&rsquo;s got high-scoring Jamie Wansbrough (34 goals, 50 points) and George Roll (13 goals, 38 points) returning, but the Falcons are very inexperienced on defense and have lost no less than 159 goals, 491 points.Newcomers include highly-touted Brian McKee of Willowdale, Ont., Doug Clagett of Dubuque and Scott Paluch of Chicago on defense; Daryn Fersovich of Edmonton, Andy Gribble of Agincourt, Ont., Brian Mehary of Don Mills, Brent Regan of Edmonton and Paul Ysebaert of Corunna, Ont., up front.York and his capable staff have a lot of rebuilding to do. However, they have one of college hockey&rsquo;s top programs, great fan support and a winning tradition and they could be a lot better than their decimated ranks might seem to indicate.MIAMI OF OHIO&mdash;Again, the variables remain to be seen.Miami suffered from a lack of defense last season and finished second last among 11 teams. Since then, the Redskins have shored up the defensive corps, matured with what they had there last season and added some scoring punch too (they think), but they&rsquo;ve lost a first-class goaltender in Alain Chevrier (4.89 average for a team with a 13-23-1 record).&ldquo;We&rsquo;re stronger defensively, but our goaltending is the key,&rdquo; says coach Steve Cady, in his seventh season. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be better and, with the league so balanced, we could finish anywhere from third to last, depending on things like injuries, breaks and our goaltending.&rdquo;Also gone are defenseman Andy McMillan and two of Miami&rsquo;s top four scorers in Greg Lukas and Dave Wheeldon.In goal, Cady looks to virtually-untested sophomore Tim Hall, who has the size at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds. Also in goal will be freshman Jim Blair, who toiled for the Oshawa Junior Bs last season.Returning up front are 11 lettermen, including Andy Cozzi (15 goals, 41 points) and John Ciotti (21 goals, 42 points), on whom the Redskins will rely for a lot of firepower. Also back are Bill Easdale (13 goals) and Todd Channell (14 goals), along with defensemen Mark Dean, Jay Lees, Tim Moore, Ron Renner and Keith Bertrim.Miami&rsquo;s promising recruits include defensemen Tom Terwilliger and Steve Benson and forwards Bob Caulfield, Greg Dombach (a member of the U.S. National Junior team) and Mike Om.ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO&mdash;The Flames were 5-29-1 last season and that makes them easy pickings for prognosticators seeking somebody to wear the doormat handle.However, coach Val Belmonte starts his third season with 20 returning letterwinners and seven newcomers. Gone are four grads.Inconsistency was the byword in 1983-84 and there isn&rsquo;t a part of the game the Flames don&rsquo;t need to improve on. However, they have some outstanding talents in senior center Colin Chin (11 goals, 36 points), sophomore Ray Stas-zak (15 goals) and Mike Rucinski (17 goals, 43 points).Back to add strength on the blueline are veterans Shawn Cronin, and Jamie Husgen and Harry Armstrong. Newcomers Gordie Holliday, from Winnipeg, and Darrin Alexander, of Langley, B.C., are also expected to step right in and help.Darryl Seltenreich adds some speed up front and newcomer Jeff Nelson, a &ldquo;local&rdquo; from Franklin Park, IL, should be able to play right away. Also back is winger Frank Provenzano, along with Terry Majich, who had off-seasons offensively in 1983-84.Scott Knutson comes to Chicago from the University of Minnesota, where he played sparingly and scored just two goals. With increased ice time, Knutson should help the Flames.The Flames will have sophomores Jim Hickey and Dan Perillo in goal, along with freshman Brad Ryan (St. Paul Vulcans).With a lot of new faces, unproven goaltending and only one tested offensive unit, it&rsquo;ll likely be another long season in the Windy City. &#9632;

f0026-01

CCHA Optimistic Despite The Defections

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>When the pucks start dropping in the rinks of Hockey East and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, fans in places such as Troy, NY, Hanover, NH, and Cambridge, MA, will be sitting under autumn-colored leaves, watching footballs fill the air.Hockey is still a winter sport in the restructured ECAC.League play in the new ECAC, which has been cut down to 12 teams, won&rsquo;t begin until the weekend of Nov. 16-17. Some of the teams involved will play non-conference games before that time, but it will be another month before things really start to heat up.The ECAC has taken on an interesting look this season. Gone are the six teams from the old ECAC East, now banded together with Lowell under the banner of Hockey East. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Colgate and Vermont, which made up the ECAC West last year, have joined the established Ivy League schools&mdash;Yale, Harvard, and former independent Army to form the new ECAC.When league play does begin, the 1984-85 campaign could easily develop into the year of the goalie. When you start talking about net-minders in the ECAC, the puck stops at RPI, where Darren Puppa and Brian Jopling return for their sophomore seasons.&ldquo;Brian and Darren comprise the best, young goaltending tandem in college hockey,&rdquo; said Engineer coach Mike Addessa.Puppa, out of Kirkland Lake, Ont., finished the 1983-84 season as the No. 2 goalie in the ECAC, compiling a 13-3 record with a 2.85 goals-against average. Overall, he was 24-6 with a 2.94 GAA.Jopling, probably the best back-up goaltender in the country, was 8-0 overall with a 2.88 GAA. The Bridgewater, MA, native also played on the U.S. Junior National Team.Back to challenge them for supremacy are juniorGrant Blair of Harvard, sophomore Mike Schwalb of Yale, junior Jamie Falle of Clarkson, senior Jeff Cooper of Colgate, sophomore Jimmy Edmands of Cornell and Army&rsquo;s triumvirate of Jim Stenson (17-5 last year). Brian Drinkwine (7-0) and Paul DeGironimo (4-0).Schwalb could be the sleeper in the bunch. As a freshman, he posted a 6-4 record and a team-leading 2.91 GAA. If he can get some help from the Bulldogs&rsquo; improved blue line unit, he could be in for a big season.Clarkson coach Bill O&rsquo;Flaherty is confident that Falle will be the nucleus for the Golden Knights.&ldquo;The backbone of any good team is strong goaltending and we are confident we have that attribute,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Flaherty.In addition to Falle, who posted a 3.11 GAA and an 881 save percentage, Clarkson has added two fine freshman recruits in Sandor (Sonny) Neumann of Gentopte, Denmark, by way of Deerfield Academy, and Scott Domingos.The bottom line in the formation of the new ECAC is academics. League presidents wanted to put the emphasis on academics and still carry on a strong athletic tradition. For that reason, virtually all of the league&rsquo;s games will be played on Friday and Saturday nights, leaving the week nights open for studying and labs.Although the league schedule will consist of 21 games (Army plays each ECAC team once this year), most of the members have picked up enough non-conference games to fill out a 29- or 30-game schedule.ECAC NOTES&mdash;Here are the opening dates and opponents for the ECAC teams: St. Lawrence, Nov. 3, Plattsburgh; Clarkson, Oct. 27, Toronto; Brown, Nov. 17, at Dartmouth; Yale, Nov. 9, McGill; Princeton, Nov. 17, Cornell; Harvard, Nov. 17, Yale; Dartmouth, Nov. 17, Brown; Cornell, Nov. 3, Guelph; Colgate, Nov. 7, Buffalo; Vermont, Nov. 3, Norwich; Army, Oct. 26, Ryerson; RPI, Nov. 3, Guelph&hellip;Two new coaches will be making their debuts in the ECAC this season. Former Rochester Insititute of Technology coach Brian Mason takes over for George Crowe at Dartmouth while Mike Gilligan, the interim coach at Yale last season, replaces the retiring Jim Cross at Vermont&hellip;Senior Gord Sharpe of Cobourg, Ont., has been selected captain at Clarkson, with seniors Dave Fretz (Toronto) and Tom Hargrave (Rochester, NY) chosen as alternate captains. Sharpe, a 6-foot, 198-pound left wing, is Clarkson&rsquo;s top returning scorer with 113 career points. &#9632;

Goalies Will Be Spotlighted In The ECAC

<div class="byline">BY ROD BEATON</div>The U.S. Junior National Team is a draftnik&rsquo;s dream. High draft picks&mdash;past, present and probably future&mdash;dot the 16-man roster named by the Amateur Hockey Association of the U.S.Defenseman Al lafrate, the fourth player taken in the June entry draft, and goaltender Alan Perry lead a lineup AHAUS officials hope will improve upon the fifth-place (2-5-0) finish at the World Junior Championships last year in Nykopping and Norkop-ping, Sweden.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very happy with this lineup,&rdquo; said coach Doug Woog. &ldquo;I think we have a good chance to move up.&rdquo;Woog, a coach at South St. Paul High School in Minnesota, was an assistant to Lou Vairo with the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. He succeeds John Perrich, who coaches now at St. Cloud (MN) College.Woog was part of a selection process that included many AHAUS officials and started at the midget and junior elite camps in Colorado Springs, CO., this summer. The field of candidates was narrowed down there and a week-long camp in Lake Placid, NY in August reduced it further. The Lake Placid squad played Finland, essentially the team that finished in the basement last year and was 1-02.&ldquo;That was very encouraging,&rdquo; said Woog.The team will return six players from last year&rsquo;s team, including Perry, a member of the all-toumament team. The St. Louis Blues selected Perry, the top-rated goalie in the draft, in the second round in June.The team hopes to have lafrate in the lineup, although he&rsquo;s still with the Toronto Maple Leafs.Other NHL draft picks on this Team USA are: right winger Steve Leach (Washington, second round), center Doug Wieck (New York Islanders, fourth), left winger Clark Donatelli (New York Rangers, fifth), center Brad Jones (Winnipeg, eighth), center Bill Kopecky (Boston, 11th) and 1983 selections center Allen Bourbeau (Philadelphia, fourth), defenseman Brian Johnson (Hartford, sixth) and defenseman Paul Ames (Pittsburgh, seventh).But two youngsters on the team aren&rsquo;t even draft eligible until 1986. And when their time comes, look out. Remember the way NHL teams lusted for Brian Lawton, Pat LaFontaine and Tom Barrasso in the &lsquo;83 draft? In &lsquo;86, you&rsquo;ll hear the same hoopla about Americans Brian Leetch and Craig Janney (not to mention centers Scotl Young, Jimmy Carson and Dave Capuano who aren&rsquo;t on this team).Leetch is a center-turned-defenseman; Janney is a center. Both are from Connecticut&mdash;hardly a nesting ground for budding hockey talent. Leetch, 16, and Janney, 17, are midget-aged but both dazzled at the Elite Camps.&ldquo;They earned their way onto the team,&rdquo; said Woog, who said everyone was reluctant to put midgets on a junior team.Bourbeau was probably the most impressive forward at the camps, a slick, greedy playmaker who&rsquo;ll attend Harvard this year. Others of note are Donatelli, who steamrolls the opposition like a smaller John Tonelli; goalie Mike Richter, top-rated in this year&rsquo;s draft; Leach, who hits and shoots hard, and Johnson, an extremely versatile player who was a forward at NCAA runner-up Minnesota-Duluth.AHAUS officials will add five players to the team at a later date. They will be scouting early-season performances by the candidates to make their decision. The leading candidates for the final berths are:Defense&mdash;Craig Mack, Eric Wein-rich, Dave Espe and Jay Octeau.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01656/5535804-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="582" height="906"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02464/5535797-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="588" height="908"><figcaption class="caption-body">U.S. Jr. National coach Doug Woog (left) is impressed with his team and is hoping for the services of talented Al lafrate (right).</figcaption></div>Forwards&mdash;Alfie Turcotte (if Montreal makes him available), Steve MacSwain, Scott Young, Jeff Rohlicek, Steve Orth, Brian Nelson, Jim Carson, Scott Schneider, Steve Johnson and Kevin Hiller. &#9632;

f0028-01

U.S. Junior Team Lists Talented Prospects

Pleyers listed in order of hometown, height, weight, present teem, 1983 teem end points:<h2>GOAL</h2>Alan Perry, Johnston, Rl; 5-8, 155; Windsor (OHL); Mt. St. Charles; 22-1-1, 1.35 GAA.Mike Richter, Flourtown, PA; 5-11, 170; Northwood Prep (Lake Placid, NY); Philadelphia Jr. Flyers, 23-10-3, 2.81.<h2>DEFENSE</h2>Paul Ames, Bilenca, MA; 6-0,176; Lowell U.; Lowell U.; 2-13-15.Al lafrate, Livonia, Ml; 6-3, 190; Belleville (OHL) or Toronto (NHL); USA Olympic Team; 4-15-19.Brian Johnson, Silver Bay, MN; 5-11, 180; Minn.-Duluth; 4-9-13.Brian Leetch, Chesire, CO; 5-10, 160; Avon Old Farms Prep; Chesire Farm; 52-49-101.<h2>FORWARDS</h2>Allen Bourbeau, (C); Falmouth, MA; 5-10, 180; Harvard; USA Jr. Team; 3-3-6.Clark Donatelli, (LW); N. Providence, Rl; 5-10, 185; Boston U., and Stratford Junior B; 141-4990.Greg Dumdach, (C); Edina, MN; 5-11, 175; Miami (0.); Edina H.S.; 23-40-63.Brian Hannon, (RW); Clinton, NY; 5-10, 180; Mich. Tech.; Mich. Tech.; 17-17-34.Craig Tanny, (C); Enfield, CO; 6-0,180; Deerfield Academy; Deerfield Academy; 41-44-85.Brad Jones, (C-LW); Sterling Heights; Ml; 60, 190; U. Mich.; U. Mich; 8-26-34.Bill Kopecky, (C); Beverley, MA; 5-10, 165; Boston College; Austin. MA Prep; 31-36-67.Steve Leach, (RW); Lexington, MA; 5-11,180; J. New Hampshire; Matignon, MA H.S.; 27-2249.Doug Wieck, (C); Rochester, MN; 6-0, 180; Colo. College; Rochester (MN) Mayo H.S.; 3124-55.<h2>COACHES</h2>Doug Woog, South St. Paul (MN) H.S. and 1984 U.S. Olympic Team.Dave Peterson, &lsquo;84 Olympic Team.Ben Smith, Boston U. assistant. &#9632;

U.S. Junior Roster

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>ADIRONDACK&mdash;As the new season approaches, it&rsquo;s time to take a look back at a sometimes hectic summer and make a few mental notes about how those changes will affect the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Northern Division.To start with, Adirondack and Fredericton are the only two of the six teams in the division to maintain the same affiliations and coaches. The Red Wings of Glens Falls, NY are still the top farm team of the Detroit, and Bill Dineen is back as coach. Earl Jessiman is ready to start his second season with Fredericton, and the Express will again be supplied with players by the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks.The first bit of change is in Portland, MA. The Mariners remain the AHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils, but the coaching sitution has changed a bit since the end of the season. Tom McVie, who guided the Mariners through the 1982-83 season and in the first two months of last season, returns to the head-coaching post at Maine after handling the Devils for the final five months of last season. John Paddock, McVie&rsquo;s replacement and the man who led the Mariners to the Calder Cup in May, is the team&rsquo;s assistant coach.Moncton left the league for about three weeks in June and early July and returned with a new franchise, new owners, a new affiliate and a new coach. The turnover began when the Edmonton Oilers, owners of the Moncton Alpines for two seasons, closed shop and moved to Halifax, leaving the New Brunswick city without a team for the second time this decade. A group of local businessmen&mdash;in partnership with the Moncton city government&mdash;stepped forward to fill the void and purchased a franchise. The group then convinced the Calgary Flames, left without a minor-league team by the demise of the Central League, to locate at Moncton. Pierre Page, coach of the Colorado Flames in the CHL the past two seasons, will run Moncton&rsquo;s third AHL entry&mdash;the Golden Flames.Edmonton hopped from one Maritime province to another in about 48 hours in June and began operating in Halifax, N.S, as the Nova Scotia Oilers. They came into existence moments after the Montreal Canadiens ended their long sponsorship of the Nova Scotia Voyageurs and marched off to the province of Quebec. Edmonton moved most of its front office staff from Moncton to Halifax and named special scout Larry Kish, a man with many years of pro coaching experience, as the team&rsquo;s head coach, replacing Doug Messier.The final chapter of this sometimes convoluted story takes place in Sherbrooke, Que., where the Jets became the Canadiens in that busy month of June. When Edmonton agreed to assume their responsibilities in Halifax, the Montreal Canadiens accomplished their objective of moving their minor league operations closer to home and opened for business in Sherbrooke. They replaced the Winnipeg Jets there, but kept the Jets as a partner to help supply the Sherbrooke Canadiens with talent. Long-time junior coach Pierre Creamer was selected to run the Sherbrooke team. The late Ron Racette was the coach of the Sherbrooke Jets for most of last year.Here is a team-by-team preview of the clubs in the division. Last year&rsquo;s record and finish are in paratheses:ADIRONDACK (37-29-14, second)&mdash;Five rookies join a veteran cast of 11 players from last year&rsquo;s club to form the sixth Adirondack team. Heading the list of veterans are the Red Wings&rsquo; top two scorers, Jody Gage (40-32-72) and Andre St. Laurent (26-43-69 in 50 games), defenseman Greg Joly and goalie Ken Holland (19-15-6, 3.70 goals-against average). The other vets are forwards Dennis Polonich, Brad Smith, Ted Speers, and Gerard Gallant, and defenseman John Beukeboom, Rejean Cloutier and Ted Huesing.Paul Woods, a regular with Detroit the past seven seasons, has been assigned to Adirondack, and veteran Barry Melrose adds some muscle to the defense.The newcomers include left wingers Murray Craven, Mike Stem, and Carmine Vani, right winger Joe Kocur and defenseman Rick Zorn, who passed up his final year at the University of North Dakota to turn pro.Second-year coach Bill Dineen is expecting four or five more players to be sent from Detroit and believes that his team can be competitive.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really satisfied with what the prospects of our hockey club is going to be, from a talent standpoint,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;I think we have a good blend of talent and experience and that should make for a real good hockey club.&rdquo;FREDERICTON (45-30-5, first)&mdash;As the NHL season was approaching, the Express&rsquo; second-year coach, Earl Jessiman, was playing the waiting game while the team&rsquo;s affiliates, Vancouver and Quebec, finalized their rosters. Jessiman was expecting two more goalies, six or seven more defensemen and a handful of forwards.Defense and goaltending could be the Express&rsquo; strong suit once again. Clint Malarchuk and Frank Caprice, two former Express goalies with NHL experience, could be back, and the defense may have familiar players such as Claude Julien, Gord Donnelly, Andy Schliebener and Neil Belland. The forwards already in camp include Marc Crawford and Dan Wood, Dave Bruce, Mark Kirton, Rejean Vignola, Jim Dobson and Mark Kumpel.&ldquo;I think you can almost look at our club and say that we will be 25 to 30 percent stronger than last year,&rdquo; Jessiman said. &ldquo;However, I think the league will be 25 to 30 percent strongr, so it will be offset somewhat.&rdquo;MAINE (33-36-11, third)&mdash;Tom McVie, in his third year as coach of the Mariners, will open the season with an experienced cast back from last year&rsquo;s Calder Cup-winning squad and a sprinkling of promising youngsters. The touted rookies include center Greg Adams, the NCAA scoring leader at Northern Arizona last year, defenseman Ken Daneyko and left winger Rocky Trottier.They join 15 players who were part of the championship team. Goalie Sam St. Laurent, the playoff star, is back, as is Shawn MacKenzie, who compiled a 3.48 GAA in 34 games last year. The Mariners figure to receive another goalie from the Devils.Bud Stefanski, the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs, leads a group of vets that includes centers Glenn Merkos-ky and Larry Floyd; left wingers Ray Sommer and Paul Evans; and right wingers Hector Marini, Rich Chernomaz, Mitch Wilson and Kevin Maxwell.Rob Palmer, Allan Hepple, Mike Hordy and Murray Brumwell return on defense, and the Devils have sent along steady Don Dietrich, whom they acquired in the off-season from Chicago.McVie, who claims that &ldquo;coaches and general managers are paid to worry,&rdquo; agreed that he has the makings of a strong team.&ldquo;It looks to me like a solid team, but you never know until you play against the guys in the other sweaters,&rdquo; he said.MONCTON (32-40-8, fifth)-The foundation of rookie coach Pierre Page&rsquo;s first team in Moncton will come from the team he coached at Denver in the CHL last season. Similar to most of the other teams in the division, the Golden Flames were expecting some later additions, but a number of their players are in camp and preparing for the season.Experience is the important word with the team&rsquo;s forwards. Player-assistant coach Dan Bolduc is the senior man in the group that includes Yvon Vautour, Pierre Rioux, Mario Simioni, Todd Hooey and Mike Clayton. Rookies looking to crack the lineup are left wingers Ted Pearson and Dan Cormier, and centers Joe Otto and Mark Lamb. Otto was the top scorer in the NCAA Division Two last year and helped unbeaten Bemidji State win the championship.The defense will be built around 6-foot-5 Keith Hanson, Dale Degray, Stan Hennigar and rookie Lou Kiriakow. Marc D&rsquo; Amour, who toiled in Colorado last year, and rookie Dave Mezaros were the goalies in camp.NOVA SCOTIA (32-37-11, fourth)&mdash;The Oilers figure to dip into the free agent market and take advantage of the waiver draft to complete their roster in the early weeks of the season. First-year coach Larry Kish expects to be shorthanded for awhile, but said that he doesn&rsquo;t expect to have any problems filling in the holes in his lineup.Mike Zanier, a pleasant surprise as a rookie with Moncton last year, and rookie Ian Wood are the goalies working with the team. The defense includes veterans Lowell Loveday and Dwayne Boettger and rookie Jim Playfair.Todd Bidner has been moved to center to join veteran Ray Cote and rookie Steve Graves, while the right side is being manned by lumbering Archie Henderson, Rob Tudor and rookie Jan Tabor, a Czechoslovakian defector. Jeff Brubaker, who spent the past two seasons with Colorado, is the most experienced left winger. He&rsquo;ll be joined by Ken Berry, Todd Strueby and Dean Dachysyn.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01647/5535859-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="588" height="910"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom McVie takes over as the new coach of defending league champion Maine.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re going to be a young club and we&rsquo;re going to have good size,&rdquo; Kishsaid. &ldquo;I feel we&rsquo;ll be a fairly aggressive hockey team and if there is any weakness it will just be overall depth.&rdquo;SHERBROOKE (22-53-5, sixth)&mdash;Although a number of players were still expected from the major league camps, the Jets and rookie coach Pierre Creamer already have the nucleus of what looks to be a very strong team.The Canadiens&rsquo; veterans include left winger Claude Larose, the leading scorer in the AHL last season with 53 goals and 120 points, centers Wayne Thompson, John Newberry and Brian Skrudland, right wingers Larry Landon, Serge Boisvert and Blair Barnes, and left wingers Norm Baron, and defenseman Ric Nat-tress, Dave Allison, Ted Fauss, Craig Channell and Stephane Lefebvre. Greg Moffett will share the goaltending duties with Paul Pageau. Rookies such as Steve Smith and Jocelyn Gauvreau should help from the start.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a good atmosphere here and a good answer from the population, and we&rsquo;re expecting to put a respectable team on the ice,&rdquo; Creamer said. &ldquo;After seeing the other teams, it may not make the job easier, but it will give us a better idea where we stand.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-01

It Was A Summer Of Changes In The North

<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2>James Coyne, the county executive for Albany, NY, says he wants to land a National Hockey League franchise and could have done it this summer if he had a place for the team to play.Coyne, who helped bring two minor league teams, the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball Association and the Albany-Colonia A&rsquo;s (now Yankees) of the Eastern Baseball League, to the Capital District region of upstate New York, said that two NHL teams are for sale. He said that one of the teams would have played in Albany this season if a building had been available. Coyne would not identify the team, but said the franchise is in a Canadian city, which leads observers to believe he is referring to Winnipeg.Albany, the capital city of New York, is located 150 miles north of New York City and approximately 200 miles south of Montreal. It is the center of the tri-city area of Albany-Schenectedy and Troy. The metro region has a population of slightly over 500,000.Coyne first proposed a building that could seat 7,000 last October during his re-election campaign. The original plan to construct the building in the town of Colonia, an Albany suburb, has been scrapped and the county executive now plans to use land in downtown Albany adjacent to the Empire State Plaza office complex as the site. During the summer, he said that the proposed size, which had risen to 12,000, should be increased to at least 15,000 to make it acceptable to the NHL.Coyne said that the team would have been purchased though public stock in which private citizens could have bought shares in the franchise.&ldquo;We think the idea of a public stock is very realistic,&rdquo; Coyne said. &ldquo;People of Albany County, people of New-York state, anyone who wants to buy stock (could) do so. We&rsquo;re reviewing that possibility, and if that were the case I know that there are two teams available for sale right now.&rdquo;Coyne also said that he could guarantee any NHL franchise an average of 10,000 fans a game.Part of the reason for that optimism is based on the success of the Adirondack Red Wings, an American Hockey League team based in Glens Falls, 50 miles north of Albany. The Wings, who have averaged nearly 5,000 per game in each of their five seasons in the league, draw heavily from the more populated Albany-Schenectedy-Troy area nearly an hour&rsquo;s drive away.Detroit Red Wing general manager Jimmy Devellano tossed some cold water in the direction of Albany&rsquo;s NHL talk during recent visit to Glens Falls. Devellano pointed out that unanimous vote is needed to move an NHL team.&ldquo;We have some control over that,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see it happening.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02470/5535890-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="586" height="782"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Simpson was returned to the Islanders after an NHL ruling on conditional trades.</figcaption></div>NHL President John Ziegler has outlawed the practice of conditional trades, and as a result, Dave Simpson has been sent back to the New York Islanders.Simpson, a former Canadian Junior Player of the Year, had been traded to the Vancouver Canucks from the Islanders on the condition that he made the team. However, Ziegler&rsquo;s ruling meant that the Canucks had to send Simpson back to the Islanders.Harold Ballard, the controversial owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is recovering from broken ribs which he suffered in a spill late in September.Ballard, 81, broke three ribs when he was climbing out of his car at a downtown Toronto hotel and fell.Ballard admitted he&rsquo;s &ldquo;fine as long as I don&rsquo;t have to sneeze or cough.&rdquo;Bobby Clarke, who retired as a hockey player with the Philadelphia Flyers May 15 to take over as the team&rsquo;s GM, will be honored Nov. 15 at the Philadelphia Spectrum.As part of the ceremonies, Clarke&rsquo;s number (16) will be permanently fired, joining those of Bernie Parent and the late Barry Ashbee.&ldquo;Bob Clarke was, is and always will be the standard by which all other Philadelphia Flyers are measured,&rdquo; said Flyer president Jay Snider.Harold Snepsts had his prize pair of skates returned to him after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recovered them in a Vancouver suburb.Snepsts, who had been traded by the Canucks to Minnesota for Al MacAdam in the summer, had his skates and other hockey equipment stolen from his car in September.Dean Shaw, an 18-year-old goalie who had two fingers severed and a third partially severed by a skate in April, has completed his hockey comeback by winning a berth with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League. &#9632;

f0030-02

Albany Needs Rink To Land Team: Official

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Only three teams in the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Southern Division are affiliated with only one National Hockey League team, but two of those clubs&mdash;the Baltimore Skipjacks and Rochester Arnerks&mdash;should finish near the top again. The other, the St. Catharines Saints are expected to struggle after having lost five of their top scorers from a year ago.Predicting what will happen in the South this season is no easy chore as most of the teams are vastly improved. Injuries and call-ups will have their usual effect. The intangible aspects of effort and coaching will also have an impact.One thing is sure, though&mdash;the quality of play will be at its highest level since the pre-NHL expansion days of the AHL when the Willie Marshalls, Dick Gambles and Freddie Glovers dominated the scene.Here&rsquo;s a team-by-team capsule with last season&rsquo;s record and finish:BALTIMORE (46-24-10, first)&mdash;Although the Skipjacks may have a tougher time cracking the 100-point plateau, their experience makes them a solid contender to repeat as champions this season.The quality of play will be at its highest level since the pre-expansion days.Veterans Mitch Lamoureux, Jim Hamilton, Steve Carlson, Rod Schutt, Ted Bulley and high-powered pointmen Greg Tebbutt and Tom Thombury are among the 14 returnees. Bennett Wolf will again take care of the police work. And if the goaltending holds up, coach Gene Ubriaco should expect to win his share of close games.The defense may be a bit shy at least in numbers. At press time, the Skipjacks had only five blueliners, even with the addition of Joe McDonnell, who played last year in Moncton.There are plenty of quality forwards, but Paul Gardner (Washington) is gone, so the remaining frontliners will have to fine-tune their skills on the power play&mdash;the Gardner specialty. Lamoureux had 15 power-play goals last year and Hamilton added nine, so the potential is there.The &lsquo;Jacks will also benefit from the mediocrity of the parent Pittsburgh Penguins. Last year many of the Baltimore players could have easily been interchanged with those on the Pittsburgh roster and the NHL results would have been probably the same or better.So don&rsquo;t look for a let-up from this season&rsquo;s crew. The boys from Baltimore will be out to impress new Pittsburgh coach Bob Berry to get another shot at the big time.Pencil the Skipjacks in for at least second.BINGHAMTON (33-43-4-70, sixth)&mdash;The Hartford Whalers cut down on their large list of &ldquo;no future&rdquo; players who used to skate in Binghamton. They&rsquo;ll be replaced by the top cuts from the Washington Capitals. So, on paper at least, Binghamton should be improved.However, the Whalers will still have to work to make the playoffs. Goaltending could be a problem with Hartford&rsquo;s representation expected to be Paul Fricker(10-17-2,5.16 goals-against average). The Caps have three goalies&mdash;Pat Riggin, Al Jensen and Bob Mason&mdash;and hadn&rsquo;t determined which one they&rsquo;d demote.In early October, Steve Weeks was still in Hartford, on his way to landing the No. 2 goaltending job behind Greg Millen. Ed Staniowski&rsquo;s future with the organization remained in doubt.The Whalers picked up some good defensive help when veteran Richie Dunn and young Scott Kleinendorst were assigned. Kleinendorst saw little action last year because of a groin injury.At center, look for some excitement from little Ray Ferraro, who scored an amazing 108 goals and 84 assists last for Brandon of the Western League.Familiar faces include Dan Bourbonnais (16-32-49 in only 38 games last season), Dan Fridgen (23-27-50) and Paul MacDermid (31-30-61). Paul Lawless, once a Whaler top draft pick, will also start the year at Binghamton.HERSHEY (28-42-10, seventh)&mdash;The Bears should get off the bottom of the standings but. similar to Binghamton, making the playoffs will be a struggle.Lacking depth up the middle, the parent Philadelphia Flyers helped Hershey&rsquo;s cause by signing veteran toughman Don Nachbaur, who had a 33-32-65 season for New Haven a year ago. The Bears also brought free agent Al Hill to camp, and he may play center.The Bears have some excellent firepower from Boston. On the wings, there&rsquo;s Brad Palmer, Doug Morrison and Luc Dufour.Although goaltender Gil Hudon has AHL experience with Springfield last season, Darren Jensen was considered the No. 1 candidate to represent Philadelphia in Hershey.Some of the players from last year&rsquo;s Chicago-Philadelphia affiliation in Springfield who should help the Bears include Dave Michayluk (18-44-62), Bobby Mormina (14-27-41) and Taras Zytynsky, a defenseman.NEW HAVEN (36-40-4, fifth)&mdash;The Nighthawks are likely to be the most-improved team in the division. The additional help from the New York Rangers, who co-stock the team with Los Angeles, gives the Nighthawks the speed needed to move up the ladder.Goaltending should be solid as the Nighthawks are slated to get two from a group of Ron Scott, John Vanbiesbrouck, Mike Blake and Darren Eliot.Injuries plagued the Nighthawks at the start of training camp as Cam Connor (hamstring), Dave Chartier (hip), Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer (groin) and Mike Heidt (hand) were all shelved. Chartier was expected to miss the first month of the season.In addition to Connor, hard-working Mike Backman adds valuable experience up front.As for toughness, who would be crazy enough to fool with Steve Martinson and Connor, first and third in penalty minutes, respectively, in the Central League last season. Dean Hopkins had 162 minutes (and 35 goals) at New Haven.Steady Allan Tuer and Howie Scruton return to the Nighthawk defense from Los Angeles.ROCHESTER (46-32-2, second)&mdash;Although Bob Mongrain has gone to Switzerland, Ron Fischer is in West Germany and Yvon Lambert is coaching in Verdun, Que., don&rsquo;t worry about the Arnerks. Sabre general manager Scott Bowman has enough talent available to stock another team and a half.Jim Schoenfeld, the new Amerk coach, will be assisted by playing-coach John Van Boxmeer, who had 44 points in 45 games with Fredericton last season. Both have a wealth of experience on defense, which should help the young Rochester rearguards.Hard-working center Gary Bums, a steady scorer in previous years as a member of the Ranger system, was in the Rochester camp and was expected to stick.Steve Dykstra, Venci Sebek, Val James, Chris Langevin, Jim Aldred, Clint Fehr, Dan Naud, Tom St. James and Jeff Eatough reported directly to the Arnerks&rsquo; camp.ST. CATHARINES (43-31-6, third)&mdash;The Saints will have a hard time equalling last year&rsquo;s performance now that Mike Kaszycki, Bruce Boudreau, Norm Aubin, Ernie Godden, and Russ Adam are gone.Those five combined for 196 goals, an average of nearly 40 goals apiece.The defense should be strong as Claire Alexander, regarded as a player&rsquo;s coach who demands discipline, strives to make up for the lost goal production with hard work.One help will be the faceoff expertise of Wes Jarvis, who led the CHL in scoring two years ago. But overall, there is a lack of depth at center. Look for Fred Perlini, a natural center, to be used there instead of on wing. Ditto for Gary Yaremchuk. Perlini had 21 goals last year, Yaremchuk 24.Goaltending should be a strong suit. Young Bruce Dowie will get a lot of playing time, with veteran Rick St. Croix expected to back him up.Off the ice, the St. Catharines City Council approved a feasibility study for a 7,000-seat arena to be located on the outskirts of St. Catharines Garden City Arena, the present facility, was built in 1938 and holds just over 3,000 people.SPRINGFIELD (39-35-6, fourth)&mdash;As usual, everything is new in Springfield. There&rsquo;s a new affiliation (New York Islanders and Minnesota North Stars), a new coach (Lome Henning) and a new logo (actually it&rsquo;s an old logo brought back to life).Look for this edition of the Indians to be tough physically (Tim Coulis and Chris Pry our were terrors in the CHL), strong on defense, but a bit weak on offense.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01596/5535921-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="590" height="872"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rookie coach Jim Schoenfeld will be blessed with a strong team in Rochester.</figcaption></div>Left winger Ron Handy, the second leading scorer at Indianapolis last year and Dirk Graham (38 goals) are likely to pace the attack. Tim Trimper should also be a factor.The goal will be well guarded with Lome Molleken, a Springfield player six years ago, joining with Todd Lumbard. &#9632;

f0031-01

Amerks, Skipjacks Bound For Glory Again

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;In spite of the overflow of veterans available as free agents this season&mdash;resulting from the demise of the Central Hockey League this past summer&mdash;the look in the International Hockey League shouldn&rsquo;t change too much.It still will be a &ldquo;young&rdquo; league in comparison, perhaps, with the American League. And though Indianapolis may not qualify as the youngest franchise in the league (this will be Salt Lake City&rsquo;s initial venture into the league), the Checkers are almost newcomers, despite the presence of an Indy team in the league in the &lsquo;60s.In keeping with the &ldquo;young&rdquo; theme, the Checkers have come close to robbing the cradle in the hiring of their coach. At 27, Darcy Regier becomes the youngest head coach in professional hockey.He&rsquo;ll bring to the job, however, eight years of experience and a reputation for consistency and hard work. As an example of his consistency, consider the fact that nobody in the 21-year history of the Central League played in more games than Regier.When Regier quit playing after last season, he registered 558 of his 589 regular-season appearances in the CHL. The rugged defenseman first saw action in the CHL with Salt Lake in 1976-77, at Fort Worth in &lsquo;77-78 and with Indianapolis the last five seasons.In a much-travelled 1977-78 season, Regier played at Binghamton of the AHL, Phoenix and Fort Worth of the CHL and appeared in 15 games with the former Cleveland franchise in the National League.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Regier will be the first to admit he wasn&rsquo;t a goal scorer. He averaged a goal every 26 games in his career</blockquote>Over the last two seasons, the native of Herbert, Sask., played in 11 games for the New York Islanders.Regier will be the first to admit he wasn&rsquo;t a goal-scorer&mdash;he averaged about one goal for every 26 games he played in his career. His job, he figured, was defense. During his time with the Checkers, three sets of goaltenders won the league&rsquo;s Terry Sawchuk Award for the best goals-against average.Regier hopes this season&rsquo;s Checkers team will reflect his defensive philosophy.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be a hard-working team,&rdquo; he stated. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;ll have self-discipline, mentally and physically.&rdquo;In spite of his comparative youth among coaches, Regier says he&rsquo;ll draw on his experiences from eight years in the CHL, which included playing on three championship teams (one at Sait Lake, two at Indianapolis.)&ldquo;I had a lot of respect for Billy McMillan, who coached and played when I was at Fort Worth,&rdquo; he noted.Bert Marshall, the first coach the Checkers had when they moved to Indy from Fort Worth, also provided Regier with an insight to coaching.&ldquo;Bert&rsquo;s practice sessions were excellent,&rdquo; he pointed out.&ldquo;I probably learned more the last three years playing for Fred (Creighton),&rdquo; said Regier of this season&rsquo;s Indianapolis general manager and part owner.In his three seasons behind the bench, Creighton led the Checkers to two Adams Cup titles and lost in the finals the third year.&ldquo;Fred brought an attitude of winning to the job,&rdquo; Regier noted. &ldquo;He refused to accept losing or being second best.&rdquo;Since Creighton is still involved, and since Regier will bring his own hardworking attitude to the job, fans in Indianapolis are expecting to see hard-nosed, disciplined hockey as the IHL returns to their city.Offense has not been neglected as the Checkers prepare for their camp Oct. 9. Center Garth MacGuigan and winger Kevin Devine have been signed, and Creighton expects former Checker center Charlie Skjodt will return to the fold. Skjodt was signed by Detroit a couple of seasons ago but reached an agreement with the Red Wings this year which is expected to permit him to play again in Indianapolis, where he resides in the offseason.&ldquo;We needed some more scoring down the middle,&rdquo; Regier explained, &ldquo;and Charlie has the offensive skills we were looking for.&rdquo;The Checkers previously had signed defenseman Tim Lockridge and goalie Bob Holland, both former Checkers.NOTES&mdash;In other moves around the league, Kalamazoo GM-coach Bill Inglis announced the acquisition of Wayne Crawford from Detroit. The 5-foot-ll, 180-pound center played at Adirondack the last three seasons, where he averaged 20 goals a year. Inglis also announced that forwards Dale Yakiwchuk and John Flesch have been placed on loan to the Wings from Milwaukee and they&rsquo;ll be at the Kalamazoo camp&hellip;The Toledo Goaldiggers announced the retirement of 31-year-old veteran Paul Tantardini. Coach Tony Piroski also indicated a preseason exhibition game against Indianapolis Oct. 12 in the Toledo Sports Center&hellip;The St. Louis Blues assigned Randy Wilson and Doug Evans&mdash;both forwards&mdash;to Peoria&hellip;The New Jersey Devils returned Chris Felix to Fort Wayne&hellip;Salt Lake got centers Eric Magnuson and Brent Sapergia from the New York Rangers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01627/5535952-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="586" height="866"><figcaption class="caption-body">Indy&rsquo;s Darcy Regier will draw on the experience of some of his past coaches.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

Regier Favors Defensive Approach

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02403/5536028-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="556" height="568"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICK BARCOVICH London</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Rick Barcovich isn&rsquo;t one of your conventional major junior hotshot goal scorers, but when he does connect, the London Knights usually come up winners.Barcovich, the designated overage player on the Knights&rsquo; roster this season, came through with a hat trick as London defeated the Toronto Marlboros 7-5 to snap a three-game losing streak. Italso won Barcovich the nod as the OHL Player of the Week.Last season Barcovich ranked as. London&rsquo;s fifth-highest scorer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03295/5536021-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="514" height="572"><figcaption class="caption-body">DARREN COTA Kelowna</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Kelowna Wings are happy to have Darren Cota back from the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; training camp. He couldn&rsquo;t have returned at a better time.The 5-foot-10, 189-pound right wing scored four goals and set up a fifth as the Wings outlasted Seattle 9-7 to win the selection as the WHL Player of the Week.Cota, a rugged performer with 152 penalty minutes last season, also was the team&rsquo;s fifth-best point scorer. He was drafted 120th by the Nordiques in 1984.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04235/5536014-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="560" height="574"><figcaption class="caption-body">LUC MARENGERE St. Jean</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>The St. Jean Beavers hope to become a serious threat for the league championship this season and if they are to succeed they&rsquo;ll have to get some big offense from Luc Marengere.Marengere, who led the individual scoring race with 22 points after his first seven games, was chosen as the QHL&rsquo;s Player of the Week when he scored eight times in three straight St. Jean victories.The 5-foot-8, 180-pound center enjoyed a 10-point performance last week. Last season he led St. Jean with 113 points.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0033-02

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>CALGARY&mdash;They aren&rsquo;t exactly household names but then again there are times when they&rsquo;d like to be forgotten too.Western Hockey League referees, those targets of barbs hurled by general managers, coaches, players and fans, are again prepared to prove their competence this season. And if testing skills under fire isn&rsquo;t enough, referee-in-chief Richard Doerksen has assured that his crop of officials is capable of making players and coaches adhere to WHL laws through an annual pre-season training camp.&ldquo;I was very happy with the entire staff last year and especially in the Eastern Division where we had more experienced referees on staff,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;I think the greatest improvement is they (referees) are much more consistent, and the cooperation we&rsquo;ve had from coaches and managers in changing some rules has helped make is easier too&mdash;like players going to the bench when a fight breaks out.&rdquo;In fact, referees have a better grip on the game than ever before. Benchclearing brawls are becoming a thing of the past. There were none on record all of last season.In 1984-85, referees will have further command on keeping games under control by being able to assess a bench minor to coaches berating players on the ice or the opposing bench.And as much as some GMs or coaches might harbor doubts about the caliber of some officials, the bottom line seems to be the WHL has a fine crop of referees.&ldquo;Very definitely,&rdquo; said Portland Winter Hawk GM Brian Shaw. &ldquo;When I compare them to other leagues I look up and thank God we have such good officials.&ldquo;We took positive steps years ago when we infiltrated the ranks with young people. Through that we&rsquo;ve built a good nucleus.&rdquo;Each season Doerksen, in his fourth year as referee-in-chief, Eastern Division supervisor of officials Harv Hildebrant and his counterpart Al Paradice in the Western Division start with a crop of WHL hopefuls at a special weekend camp to determine referees who will start the season.&ldquo;Over the three days we had on-ice and classroom sessions and a brief presentation by Scotty Morrison of the National Hockey League,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;We ended the clinic with a written test after assessing the referees on ice. There we looked at positioning, signals, skating, mobility and general on-ice impression through game conditions.&rdquo;So what is Doerksen looking for in a WHL referee?&ldquo;Generally, we like to have referees who first have a lot of experience in tier two,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tougher brand of hockey and if they can officiate tier two we feel they can step in and do tier one. We like tier two referees to work as linesmen in tier one to get used to the pace.&ldquo;But it (the league) is a definite jump up the ladder. The pace is faster and the crowds are bigger.&rdquo;This season Doerksen has 21-year-old Dean Forbes of Victoria and 22-year-old Darren Zupp of Vernon, B.C. officiating WHL games, and veterans in 33-year-old Rob Fehr of Regina and Ken Wheler, 27, of North Battleford, Sask,&ldquo;We like to develop referees for the NHL but it depends on the situation,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;Having Wheeler and Fehr back on staff will help. Wheler worked as a pro linesman and refereed the odd game in pro, too. It helps having experienced people when you have a rough game coming up with two rivals. The teams are looking for good officiating and we have to provide that.&rdquo;The WHL&rsquo;s good officials don&rsquo;t go unnoticed. Not only do they work more games, 10-12 a month, they&rsquo;re around at playoff time and are assessed by the NHL, too.Each year the WHL sends one of its better officials to an NHL referees&rsquo; camp in Toronto. This year it was Darren Loraes of Saskatoon.&ldquo;A pro future depends a lot on age,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;The NHL likes to have fellows in its program by the time they&rsquo;re 25 or 26 but there are exceptions. Darren is 23 and it&rsquo;s his second camp.&ldquo;I thing the NHL is happy with the referees we send them. Rob Shick, who worked in our league last year, has signed an NHL contract and will work American Hockey League, International Hockey League and the odd NHL game this season.&rdquo;Sounds like a lot of glitter and glamor. But is it? Are there big bucks to be had in the NHL at the outset?&ldquo;There are so many stars in everyone&rsquo;s eyes,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;Going on the road is not all it&rsquo;s cracked up to be. Ask the guy who spent 28 days straight on the road last season and has a wife and two kids.&ldquo;The average starting salary in the NHL for officials is $22,000. Guys look at that and see it&rsquo;s lower than other jobs they&rsquo;ve already had. That&rsquo;s why we brought Morrison in to talk to the referees. We wanted him to put in into perspective for them.&rdquo;Referees selected to start the season are Brad Harland from Portland; Mike McGeough, Brad Howard and Fehr from Regina; Brian Shalovelo, Ken Skingle, Mike Langlois and Loraas from Saskatoon; Wheler from North Battleford; Lance Roberts from Edmonton; Dale Bennett from Calgary; Mike Wosuita from Lethbridge; Jody Ginther from Taber, Alta.; Doug Rutsatz and John Giddens from Kamloops; Zupp from Vernon; Rod Armitage from Kelowna; Russ Neely, Jim Fisher, Frank Brodeurs and Ardie Sloat from Vancouver and Forbes from Victoria.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01640/5536059-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="592" height="828"><figcaption class="caption-body">Referee-in-chief Richard Doerk-son was pleased with the work of his staff last season.</figcaption></div>Ales Kasparovsky from Czechoslovakia will work out of Portland as a linesman. &#9632;

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Western League Officials Keep Improving

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>PLATTSB BURGH&mdash;The Great American Hockey Experiment is struggling, both on and off the ice.The expansion Plattsburgh Pioneers of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, founded as the first all-American major junior team, lost its first seven games by a 78-27 margin. Among its defeats were 15-2 losses to Verdun Junior Canadiens and St. Jean Beavers and a 13-0 setback to Laval Voisins.But although they are winless, the Pioneers have earned one point under the league&rsquo;s new bonus system for overtime losses.That point came in a 7-6 overtime loss to Hull Olympiques in the Pioneers&rsquo; opener at home. About 1,500 fans turned out to watch the game in which 234 penalty minutes were called. Hull&rsquo;s Rick Hayward and Plattsburgh&rsquo;s Dino Vulpitta, a former Seattle Breaker and Guelph Plater, were assessed five-game suspensions for their part in the main bout in the second period.But the team has averaged about 700 fans a night playing at Plattsburgh State University while waiting to get into its Crete Memorial Civic Centre home.Owner and coach Denis Methot from Trois-Rivieres, who has helped invest almost $500,000 in the venture, appealed to the community for support in a story on the front page of the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.&ldquo;We expected a little more support from the community,&rdquo; said Methot, who is seeking at least double the number of fans in the stands. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re willing to wait for awhile but we can&rsquo;t go on like that forever.&rdquo;The league&rsquo;s board of governors agrees.At a regular board meeting in Quebec, Methot was given a list of things the league wanted done and a week to do them in.&ldquo;I think the main problem is the structure of his organization,&rdquo; said Dr. Gus Morissette of Hull, the league&rsquo;s new president. &ldquo;I thinking he&rsquo;s doing too much himself, he&rsquo;s a one-man show. You can&rsquo;t run practice and look for players at the same time.&ldquo;The governors told him the league is as strong as its weakest link and gave him a week to get a secretary, a coach and some more players.&rdquo;Methot left the meeting early because he had a game to coach in Plattsburgh that night.Players are the immediate problem.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the whole story,&rdquo; said Methot, who obtained defenseman Doug Bailey of Detroit from Drummondville Voltigeurs recently to extend his roster to 18 players, almost all of them from U.S. high schools.&ldquo;We would like to carry 22 or 23. We have a lot of talent but run out of steam after two periods. We had Laval, 4-1, but couldn&rsquo;t keep going and lost, 11-6.&ldquo;Speed is no problem and nobody is giving up, but we have to work on our defense. Their biggest adaptation is to the grabbing and holding and stickwork.&rdquo;Although Methot admits recruiting players was more difficult than he expected in the face of competition from the Ontario and Western leagues and college hockey, the former university teacher blames the league for some of his problems.The league initially ruled that the team would be made up of U.S. players only and limited its recruiting area to the eight Northeastern States.The eight-state barrier was removed in August and Methot was given permission to go after European players this year at the recent governors meeting, but most players already are committed.&ldquo;If the rule had been changed in April, it could have been a different story,&rdquo; Methot said. &ldquo;We were always behind schedule.&rdquo;Method said he may retain the services of Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Nile, a defenseman who attended the camps of the Ottawa 67s and Junior Canadiens. He also is attempting to attract Chicago defenseman Adam Glickman and French center Pierre-Yves Gerbau.&ldquo;I think the league could have given us some direction on how to operate,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now they give me a list of things to do in a week&rsquo;s time when we&rsquo;re moving into our rink. They want us to operate like the team has been going for 15 years.&rdquo;Methot acknowledged there have been communication problems while the team was playing at the college.&ldquo;Language is a big problem,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to find a secretary who speaks and reads French. All communications from the league are in French.&rdquo;&ldquo;The league is still foreign around here, even to hockey fans,&rdquo; said Bob Goetz, sports editor of the PressRepublican. &ldquo;What Denis needs most of all is some professionalism in marketing the team. You have to wonder if the league couldn&rsquo;t have helped out more.&rdquo;Although in office for only a month, Morissette said he understood Methot hadn&rsquo;t asked for help. &#9632;

Pioneers Finding It Tough In The Beginning

<h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Oct. 8)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01579/5536208-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="539" height="229"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02430/5536201-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="533" height="264"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. Sept. 30Toronto 1 at Oshawa 2Kitchener 4 at North Bay 5Sudbury 4 at Guelph 3Cornwall 4 at Ottawa 3London 3 at Windsor 4Tue. Oct. 2Windsor 5 at S.S. Marie 9Wed. Oct 3Toronto 7 at Belleville 5Thu. Oct. 4Oshawa 2 at Peterborough 5London 5 at Hamilton 6Ottawa 6 at North Bay 4Fri. Oct 5Toronto 4 at London 7Kitchener 7 at Sudbury 4Ottawa 4 at S.S. Marie 7Belleville 3 at Kingston 2Windsor 3 at Guelph 7Sun. Oct. 7Peterborough 9 at Oshawa 2Guelph 3 at North Bay 4Belleville 5 at Cornwall 6Ottawa 4 at Sudbury 4Kitchener 2 at S.S. Marie 5Hamilton 4 at London 7Toronto 7 at Kingston 5<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Oct. 7)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03349/5536194-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="540" height="268"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04263/5536187-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="536" height="202"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Sept 28Medicine Hat 5 at Calgary 3Sun. Sept. 30Prince Albert 9 at Saskatoon 8Seattle 7 at Kelowna 9Tue. Oct. 2Regina 7 at Calgary 4Wed. Oct. 3Saskatoon 4 at Moose Jaw 4Fri. Oct. 5Medicine Hat 2 at Lethbridge 1Saskatoon 0 at Regina 3Brandon 7 at Moose Jaw 2Calgary 4 at Prince Albert 8Portland 4 at Seattle 6Kelowna 1 at Kamloops 3Sat Oct. 6Lethbridge 2 at Medicine Hat 1Seattle 3 at Portland 5New Westminster 1 at Victoria 5<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Oct. 8)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05212/5536180-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="539" height="203"></div><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06182/5536173-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="544" height="238"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. 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 6Granby 3 at Quebec 6Drummondville 4 at T-Rivieres 3Plattsburgh 2 at Verdun 15Mon. Oct. 1Longueuil 8 at Chicoutimi 2St. Jean 5 at Laval 2Wed. Oct. 3Chicoutimi 3 at Drummondville 4Verdun 7 at Laval 5Granby 1 at St Jean 7Shawinigan 4 at T-Rivieres 3Thu. Oct 4Verdun 3 at Longueuil 9Fri. Oct 5Plattsburgh 4 at Chicoutimi 6Hull 5 at GranbyT-Rivieres 5 at Quebec 10Longueuil 2 at Shawinigan 8Drummondville 3 at St. Jean 6Sun. Oct 7St. Jean 3 at Drummondville 5Chicoutimi 2 at Hull 10Shawinigan 1 at Longueuil 1Granby 4 at T-Rivieres 10Laval 1 at Verdun 5 &#9632;

f0036-01

Amateur Scoreboard

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-07" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07169/5536239-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>NHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01584/5536291-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="552" height="1586"></div><h2>AHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02457/5536284-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="512" height="360"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03368/5536277-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="532" height="1180"></div><h2>IHL OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04283/5536270-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="522" height="856"></div> &#9632;

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Pro Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05204/5536336-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="651" height="595"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06165/5536329-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="588" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07151/5536322-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="566" height="592"></div>DETROIT&mdash;A sophomore jinx? Not for Steve Yzerman. Or Lane Lambert.For different reasons, Detroit coach Nick Polano can&rsquo;t see it happening to his prize rookies of a year ago. And neither can they.&ldquo;If you come back for your second season and figure you&rsquo;ve got it made and don&rsquo;t have to work, then you&rsquo;ve got a problem,&rdquo; Yzerman said on his first day back with the Red Wings following a week of rest and relaxation after the Canada Cup.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to work harder. If I have a poor season, it&rsquo;s not going to be because of a jinx. It&rsquo;s because I didn&rsquo;t work hard enough&mdash;and that&rsquo;s not going to happen.&rdquo;The Red Wings were tickled to have Yzerman, 19, back with them.And what about Yzerman?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to see the guys,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was really looking forward to getting back. I enjoyed last season so much. It was a fun workout.&rdquo;Naturally, and routinely, most of the attention in the workout was focused on the young center who scored 39 goals and added 87 points as a rookie.&ldquo;He sure did look good,&rdquo; Lambert said. &ldquo;Smooth as silk&mdash;that&rsquo;s his nickname, Silk. It&rsquo;s good to have him here.&ldquo;I think the Canada Cup did him a world of good, to play with guys of that caliber. He&rsquo;s so good to begin with and then to get that chance, to be with the best&hellip;he looks better than ever.&rdquo;Polano expects both of his sophomores to have big seasons in 1984-85.&ldquo;Stevie&rsquo;s a real player,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;His skill level is so high that he stands out. Everything about him (stands out).If you rated his skating, it would be a 10. If you rated his stickhandling, it would be a 10. Naturally, a player like that is going to stand out. During the scrimmage almost every shift out he had a scoring opportunity.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;ll be a jinx and, again, it&rsquo;s because of his skill level. If he&rsquo;s healthy I just can&rsquo;t see it. He creates things when he&rsquo;s out there. He&rsquo;s got a tremendous imagination for hockey.&rdquo;In Lambert&rsquo;s case, Polano said, it&rsquo;s his dedication and determination that will avoid any problems this season.&ldquo;He worked hard during the offseason and he looks terrific,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;He could have a big, big season and I think he will.&rdquo;Yzerman said the knee injury he suffered in the final game of the playoffs last season is completely healed and passed the test of the physical pounding in the Canada Cup.&ldquo;It was sore the first few days when we were going two-a-day,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But then it was fine. No problem.&rdquo;The Wings did run into some training camp injuries that slowed the preparations of a few players but nothing of a serious nature. Goaltender Greg Stefan had his wisdom teeth extracted and Ed Mio suffered a groin injury that kept him out of an exhibition game. Pierre Aubry suffered facial injuries in a collision with a Chicago player in an exhibition.Then there was Brad Park&rsquo;s sore back.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just strained muscles in the lower back,&rdquo; the veteran defenseman said.Park hurt his back while bailing out his flooded baesement.&ldquo;I bailed water for two, three hours and the next morning I went to skate and it seized up on me,&rdquo; he said.Park spent a day in traction but soon returned to practice.&ldquo;It happened to me once before, six or seven years ago in Boston, and I missed a weekend. Once the soreness leaves you can go back and skate.&rdquo;WING NOTES&mdash;Coach Nick Polano said he&rsquo;s communicating well with his new players from Czechoslovakia, forward Frank Cemik and defenseman Milan Chalupa: &ldquo;With a little sign language&hellip; we understand each other. Chalupa has fit in nicely. He&rsquo;s had no trouble adapting to the North American style. It&rsquo;s been more difficult for Frank. We play more of the up-and-down, strength in the comers and along the boards style. For 10 years he played the European style, circling all the time. He&rsquo;s been out of position and it&rsquo;s caused a breakdown in our system.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Yzerman, Lambert Aim To Shun Sophomore Jinx

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;The Stanley Cup in May and the Canada Cup in September.Certainly nice work if you can get it. All of which doesn&rsquo;t make for a bad spring and summer for the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; coaching staff and eight players who were part of the Canada Cup tournament which the Canadians won with a 6-5 victory over Sweden Sept. 18.Is there a comparison between the two?&ldquo;Oh yeah, it&rsquo;s comparable, yet it&rsquo;s not comparable, if you know what I mean,&rdquo; said Wayne Gretzky, who staked Canada to a 2-0 lead in Game Two of the two-game sweep of the upstart Swedes. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s comparable in a sense it&rsquo;s a championship, a chance to prove you&rsquo;re the best&mdash;not only in North America, but the world.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s also comparable to the fact we were underdogs in the Stanley Cup and we were underdogs in this&hellip; We won in both cases.&rdquo;Mark Messier, on the other hand, wasn&rsquo;t about to draw a comparison.&ldquo;The preparations for the two are so different, it would be really hard,&rdquo; said Messier, who opened the scoring two minutes into the finish, smacking Mike Gartner&rsquo;s rebound into a net that was knocked off its moorings by a Swedish defender. &ldquo;To compare it would be unfair to either championship. I&rsquo;m just happy we won it. It&rsquo;s a big thing for Canada, for all. the hockev fans in Canada.&rdquo;Kevin Lowe put himself in the same situation as Messier.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to compare the two,&rdquo; said the big defenseman. &ldquo;For myself the Stanley Cup was hard work&mdash;I mean, 10 exhibition, 80 regularseason. 19 playoff games. This was 10-12 games at a very high tempo&mdash;a high pace, but there wasn&rsquo;t the bumping, grinding and physical contact of the Stanley Cup playoffs.&ldquo;I was really exhausted by the time we won the Stanley Cup last spring. I&rsquo;m not tired now&hellip;maybe it&rsquo;s because it&rsquo;s the start of a new year, I&rsquo;m fresh. But to be Stanley Cup champions and world champions in the same year, it feels pretty good.&rdquo;Paul Coffey, who scored the eventual winning goal, savored the moment of playing for his country.&ldquo;It was very exciting to win both, but after the Canada Cup I think I&rsquo;ve got more pride coming out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel more proud now than I did to win the Stanley Cup. We&rsquo;re world champions and played for that Canadian flag. That&rsquo;s something I might never do again in my life. I wouldn&rsquo;t trade these past seven weeks for anything.&rdquo;Someone mentioned to general manager-coach Glen Sather that 1984 has been quite a year for him personally.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t do anything specifically,&rdquo; countered Sather, who has indicated he will continue in his dual GM-coach capacity with the Oilers but will shift more of the workload in the direction of assistant coach John Muckier.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a job that a lot of guys would have liked to do,&rdquo; added Sather. &ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t take the job in the Canada Cup to have a notch on my bedpost. 1 did this because it was something I had a chance to do for the country. I did it for the team. That was the only way I look at it.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to stop what I&rsquo;m doing,&rdquo; Sather said concerning his coaching future. &ldquo;I just may do a little less of it. But I haven&rsquo;t really talked it over fully with John or Teddy (Green). There won&rsquo;t be any quick decisions, that&rsquo;s for sure.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s one thought to consider in the aftermath of Canada&rsquo;s stunning win over the Soviets in Calgary and strange final conquest of the Swedes.&ldquo;The bottom line is we&rsquo;ll never be able to explain these things,&rdquo; said Gretzky, &ldquo;because this team will never play together again.&rdquo; &#9632;

It Won’t Be The Same Again For Oilers

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;Kevin Dineen spent one year of his childhood in Glastonbury, CT, 10 miles outside Hartford, while his father. Bill, was coach of the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association. The predicament was not without certain advantages.&ldquo;I remember cutting classes and sneaking out to the rink so I could watch practice,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;Not many 14-year-olds get a chance to play keep-away with Gordie Howe. It was really something.&rdquo;Today, Dineen is a 20-year-old right winger who made a big impression in the Whalers&rsquo; pre-season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got guts,&rdquo; Whaler president-general manager Emile Francis said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done all we&rsquo;ve asked. He wants it.&rdquo;Dineen, a third-round selection in the 1982 draft, only spent one year in Connecticut. When his father was fired before the 1979-80 season, the Whalers&rsquo; first in the National Hockey League, he returned to Toronto. He then spent two years at the University of Denver and was a member of the Canadian Olympic team. His brother, Gord, plays for the New York Islanders.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t see my brothers because we&rsquo;re so spread out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have two brothers in British Columbia and one in Toronto. We keep in contact, but not that much.&rdquo;Dineen really grew up in Houston where his father was GM-coach of the WHA Houston Aeros.&ldquo;The only ice you ever saw in Houston was in cocktail glasses,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;At least in Connecticut, there was more of a hockey atmosphere. It was nice to see snow and be able to skate on an outdoor rink.&rdquo;Another year in Houston might have crushed Dineen&rsquo;s dream of becoming a hockey player. In Texas there are only two sports&mdash;football and spring football.&ldquo;I got out of there at just the right time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I played youth hockey and you had to travel all the way to Dallas just to play in a game. It was really expensive. I think if I had stayed in Houston, I never would have pursued hockey.&rdquo;Dineen&rsquo;s bloodlines are hard to ignore.&ldquo;The biggest influence my father had on me was convincing me to go the college route,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The way hockey has changed, you get noticed as much in college hockey as you would in junior hockey. He wanted me to get an education and play hockey at the same time. It was his idea to try to take a step up this year.&rdquo;Those who practice, never mind play against Dineen, know he&rsquo;s been around.&ldquo;Dineen&rsquo;s a hard worker and a very intense kid,&rdquo; said coach Jack Evans. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very impressed with him. He&rsquo;s scrappy and he&rsquo;s a good defensive player.&rdquo;At 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, Dineen is a bit undersized, but his competitive nature and tireless work ethic more than compensate. Neither the trenches nor the corners scare him. His long suit is courage, the kind that can&rsquo;t be taught.Color Dineen a right winger of the future.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Kevin Dineen scored a shorthanded goal in his first exhibition game while his mother and father watched in Troy, NY. Bill Dineen coaches Adirondack of the American League, part of the Detroit chain&hellip;Richie Dunn, a six-year NHL veteran, headed the list of those assigned to Binghamton. Dunn complai ned that he didn&rsquo;t get a chance in training camp, but his spot in Hartford looked shaky at the end of last season when he sat out 13 of the final 17 games&hellip;Other notables sent to Binghamton included defenseman Scot Kleinendorst, who came over from the Rangers in the Blaine Stoughton deal, former No. 1 pick Paul Lawless, a left winger, and Western League scoring whiz Ray Ferraro&hellip;Jack Evans insists that the Whalers must continue to cut down their goals-against, while boosting their offensive production. He wants the Whalers, who scored 288 times last year, to net 35-40 more goals, while allowing 35-40 fewer than the 320 they permitted last year. &ldquo;Those numbers are realistic, too,&rdquo; Evans said&hellip;The best player in pre-season was center Ronnie Francis, who realizes this is pivotal year for him. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been great since day one,&rdquo; Evans said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01552/5536391-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="592" height="974"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hartford demoted veteran defenseman Richie Dunn to their Binghamton farm team.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Courage May Keep Dineen In Connecticut

(Standings on Mon. Oct. 8)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02384/5536422-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="546" height="676"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>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 1Los Angeles 7, Winnipeg 4Washington 6. Minnesota 1Mon. Oct. 1Montreal 2, Philadelphia 1Toronto 9, St Catharines (AHL) 3Tue. Oct 2Edmonton 7, Vancouver 4New Jersey 3, Hartford 3Winnipeg 5, Los Angeles 4Washington 5, Minnesota 3Philadelphia 4 NY Rangers 4Quebec 7, Boston 5Wed. Oct. 3Calgary 7, Minnesota 0Chicago 4, Detroit 2Washington 5, Hartford 4New Jersey 4, Pittsburgh 3Philadelphia 5. NY Islanders 4Buffalo 5, Toronto 4Vancouver 4, Winnipeg 0Thu. Oct. 4Boston 6, Montreal 4Washington 6, Hartford 3Vancouver 5, Los Angeles 5NY Islanders 4, Philadelphia 1Winnipeg 4, St. Louis 3Fri. Oct 5Quebec 3. Buffalo 1Boston 7, NY Islanders 6Washington 5, Philadelphia 2Vancouver 4, Calgary 3Minnesota 7, Edmonton 5Sat Oct. 6Toronto 4, NY Rangers 3Quebec 6. Montreal 3Boston 6, Philadelphia 3Minnesota 5, Chicago 3Edmonton 3, St Louis 2Detroit 3, Hartford 0Sun. Oct 7Edmonton 4, Toronto 1Pittsburgh 5, Detroit 0NY Islanders 3, Buffalo 3Montreal 4, Quebec 3Boston 6, New Jersey 4Philadelphia 8, NY Rangers 3Minnesota 6, Chicago 2St Louis 5, Vancouver 4 &#9632;

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EXHIBITION SCOREBOARD

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Barry Pederson, C, sidelined for two months after undergoing surgery on broken hand. Following players were assigned to Hershey of AHL: defensemen Peter Dineen, Stuart Smith and John Meulen-broeks, centers Kevin Conway and Dave Kasper, right wings Bob LaForest, Scott MacLellan, Doug Morrison, Brian Shaw and Matt Winnicki, left wings Luc Dufour, Steve Lyons and Dave Reid. Tony Fiore, C, sent to Indianapolis of IHL. Maurizio Pasinato, D, released outright. Sean Coady, D, and Bill Whelton, D, did not report to training camp. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalies Mike Bishop and Allan Larochelle, defensemen Misko Antisin, Ian Armstrong, Jeff Cornelius and Allen Pederson, centers Ray Podloski and Mark Thietke, left wings Francois Olivier, Greg Puhalski and John Urbanic.BUFFALO&mdash;Mikael Andersson, C, Sabres&rsquo; 1st draft pick in 1984, returned to Sweden to complete his junior eligibility. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalie Darcy Wakaluk, defensemen Mark Ferner, James Gasseau, Bob Halkidis, Tim Hoover and Jason Meyer, right wings Grant DeIcourt and Ray Sheppard, left wing Doug Trapp.CALGARY&mdash;Steve Bozek, LW, sidelined for 6 weeks after breaking a finger. Randy Turnbull, D, and Gary Stewart, D, sent to Salt Lake of IHL Following players were assigned to Moncton of AHL: Goalies Marc D&rsquo;Amour and Dave Meszaros, defensemen Dale Degray, Keith Hanson, John Hutchings, Lou Kiriakou and Jay MacFarlane, centers Joel Otto, Dan Kane and Pierre Rioux, right wings Dan Bolduc, Todd Hooey and Yvon Vautour, left wings Mike Clayton, Mark Lamb and Ted Pearson. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalie Jeff Hogg, defensemen Kevan Guy, Rob Kivell and Ken Sabourin, left wing Gary Roberts. Released outright were Dean Hansen, D, Brent MacNeil, D, Bob Scurfteld, D, Peter Maduch, C, and Bob Reid, LW.CHICAGO&mdash;Following players were assigned to Milwaukee of IHL: Goalie Darren Pang, defensemen Darrel Anholt, Rene Badeau, Steve Blyth, Randy Boyd and Mark Hatcher, centers John Ollson and Gord Stafford, right wings Dan Frawley, Phil Patterson and Perry Pelensky, and left wings Jim Camazzola, Marcel Frere, Billy McCreary, Flo Robidoux, Kevin Robinson and Jeff Smith. Following players were returned to their junior teams: defensemen Adam Glickman, Kent Paynter and Trent Yawney, center Steve Pepin, and right wing Darin Sceviour. Kevin Willison, D, released outright.DETROIT&mdash;Randy Hansch, G, and Tim Kaiser, RW, returned to their junior teams. Greg Joly, D, and Mike Stern, LW, sent to Adirondack of AHL. Brian Rorabeck, C, assigned to Muskegon of IHL. Petr Klima, LW, returned to Sweden. Charlie Skjodt, C, released to join Indianapolis of IHL. Bill Shibicky, C, released outright.EDMONTON&mdash;Following players were assigned to Nova Scotia of AHL: Goalies Ian Wood and Mike Zanier, defensemen Dwayne Boettger and Jim Playfair, centers Pat Conacher, Ray Cote and Steve Graves, left wings Jeff Brubaker, Todd Bidner, Dean Dachyshyn and Todd Strueby. Ken Hodge, G, returned to Univ, of Alberta. Tim Molle, D, Mike Krensing, C, Doug Kyle, RW, and Dean Clark, LW, assigned to Muskegon of IHL. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalie Daryl Reaugh, defensemen Darren Gani, John Miner, Selmar Odelein and Emanuel Viveiros, center Simon Wheeldon and right wing Todd Ewen. Risto Jalo, C, returned to Finland. Joel Curtis, LW, released outright.HARTFORD&mdash;Following players were assigned to Binghamton of AHL: Goalies Gray Weicker and Paul Fricker, defensemen Richie Dunn, John Mokosak, Brad Shaw and Tom Connolly, center Ray Ferraro, right wings Randy Gilhen and Paul McDermid, left wings Dan Bourbonnais, Dan Fridgen, Paul Lawless, Mike Hoffman and Brent Loney. Sylvain, D, Dave McLean, RW, and Mike Millar, RW, returned to their junior teams.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Following players were assigned to New Haven of AHL: Goalie Dave Ross, defensemen Dave Chartier, Howie Scruton, Allan Tuer and Mike Heidt, centers Marty Dallman, Dave Gans and Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer, left wings Carl Mokosak and Darcy Roy and right wing Dean Hopkins. Tim Bernhardt, G, released after tryout as free agent. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalie Paul Kenny, defensemen Steve Duchesne, Dave Lundmark and Bruce Shoebottom, center Guy Benoit and Brian Wilks, left wings Brian Martin and Luc Robitaille. Al Tarasuk, RW, released outright.MINNESOTA&mdash;Craig Hartsburg, D, Tom Hirsch, D, Brad Maxwell, D, Willi Plett, RW, Brian Bellows, RW, and Tom McCarthy, LW, all sidelined with injuries. Hartsburg out with hip pointer, Hirsch separated his shoulder, Plett suffered a dislocated shoulder. Maxwell out with cracked rib. Bellows suffering from tendonitis of the elbow and McCarthy idle with bruised foot. Following players were assigned to Springfield of AHL: Goalie Lome Molleken, defensemen Randy Velischek, David Jensen and Chris Pryor, centers Terry Tait and Bob Bodak, right wing Bill Stewart, and left wings Tim Trimper, Tim Coulis and Bob Lakso.MONTREAI&mdash;Ric Nattress, D, John Newberry, C, and Larry Landon, RW, assigned to Sherbrooke of AHL. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalie Troy Crosby, centers Shayne Corson and Stephane Richer, right wings Claude Lemieux and Jim Nesich. Jean Hamel, D, sidelined indefinitely after being hospitalized with eye injury.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Sam St. Laurent, G, Don Dietrich, D, Ken Daneyko, D, Al Stewart, LW, and Rocky Trottier, C, assigned to Maine of AHL. Rick Meagher, C, sidelined indefinitely with severely cut forearm. Mitch Wilson, RW, recalled from Maine. Following players returned to college teams: Goalie Chris Terreri, defensemen Neil Davey, Chris Kiene, Jay Octeau, Mike Peluso and Mike Roth, center Jon Morris, right wings Dan Dorian and Paul Ysebaert.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Following players were assigned to Springfield of AHL: Goalie Todd Lumbard, defensemen Bill Dowd, Vern Smith, Gord Paddock, Bill Nichols and Glen Johannesen, centers Roger Kortko and Scott Howson, right wings Neal Coulter, Mark Hamway, Alan Kerr and Monty Trottier, left wings Ron Handy, Garry Lacey, Rene Breton, Dale Henry, Scott MacLellan and Jim Koudys. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalie Gary Johnson, defensemen Franco DeSantis, Kevin Vescio, Ron Viglasi, Mike Neill and Tom Warden, centers Bob Bassen and Mike Murray, right wings Bruce Melanson and Garnet McKechney and left wing Dave Shellington.NY RANGERS&mdash;Following players were assigned to New Haven of the AHL: Goalie Mario Proulx, centers Jim Malone and Mark Morrison, right wings Mike Backman, Kurt Kleinendorst and Gary DeGrio, left wings Cam Connor, Randy Heath and Steve Martinson. Brent Sapergia, C, and Eric Magnuson, C, both sent to Salt Lake of IHL Ron Greschner, D, signed to new contract. Vesa Salo, D, and Reimo Helminen, C, returned to Finland.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Following players were assigned to Hershey of AHL: Goalies Mike Bloski and Gil Hudon, defensemen Grant Anderson, Billy Campbell, Brian Tutt and Taras Zytynsky, right wings Bobby Mormina and Rob Nichols, and left wing Dave Michayluk.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Following players were assigned to Baltimore of AHL: Goalies Cleo Rowein and Mike Vacanti, defensemen Phil Bourque and Tom Thornbury, right wing Grant Sasser, left wings Dean DeFazio, Scott Gruhl and Troy Loney. Dave Goertz, D, returned to junior hockey. Greg Hotham, D, sidelined indefinitely with mononucleosis.QUEBEC&mdash;Dale Hunter, C, signed to new 3-year contract. Following players were assigned to Fredericton of AHL: Goalies Michel Dufour, Brian Ford and Luc Guenette, defensemen Michel Bolduc, Gord Donnelly, Claude Julian and Daniel Poudrier, centers Andre Chartrain and Richard Zemlack, right wing Christian Tanguay, and left wings Jim Dobson, Mike Hough, Mark Kumpel and Dan Wood. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Defensemen Jeff Brown and Steve Finn, centers Wayne Groulx and Guy Ouellette, right wings Darren Cota, Yves Heroux, Ken Quinney and Trevor Stienburg, and left wing Claude Gosselin. Released outright were Martin Lachaine, D, Richard Turmel, D, and Ian McInnis, RW. Bernard Carrier, D, returned to college. Wally Weir, D, sidelined for month with shoulder separation.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Wayne Babych, RW, returned by Edmonton after trainingcamp tryout pending conditional trade. Alan Perry, G, assigned to Windsor of OHL. Graham Herring, D, Robert Dirk, D, Daniel Jomphe, LW, Cliff Ronning, C, and Mark Cupolo, LW, were returned to their junior teams. Randy Wilson, LW, and Doug Evans, C, were sent to Peoria of IHL.TORONTO&mdash;Wes Jarvis, C, assigned to St. Catharines of AHL.VANCOUVER&mdash;Dave Simpson, C, returned to NY Islanders after NHL cancelled conditional trade between teams. Petri Skriko, LW, sidelined for 3-4 weeks with broken thumb. Following players were assigned to Fredericton of AHL: Goalies Shawn Kilroy and Wendell Young, centers Mark Kirton and Rejean Vignola, right wing Dave Bruce, and left wings Marc Crawford, Steve Driscoll and Dave Morrison. Following players were returned to their junior teams: Goalie Rex Grant, defensemen Brett MacDonald, Allan Measures and Parie Proft, center Brian Bertuzzi, right wings Dave Lowrey and Scott Tottle, and left wing Landis Chaulk. Jeff Crawford, LW, released outright.WASHINGTON&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz, G, Marc Chorney, D, Graeme Nicolson, D, Dan Ryder, D, Ed Kastelic, RW, and Mike Siltala, RW, assigned to Baltimore of AHL. Following players were returned to their junior teams: defenseman Frank Joo, center Dwaine Hutton, right wings Vito Cramarossa and Jim Thomson, and left wing Kris King. Bruce Raboin, D, retired from hockey. &#9632;

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October 19, 1984

Nords Show Dislike For Division Rivals

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