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.

November 30, 1984

The Hockey News November 30, 1984

In next week&rsquo;s issue, we&rsquo;ll profile one of the NHL&rsquo;s most exciting rookies, Ed Olczyk of the Chicago Black Hawks. The native Chicagoan has taken the Windy City by storm and you&rsquo;ll find out why Chicago is Eddie O&rsquo;s kind of town.On top of that, we&rsquo;ll have THE HOCKEY NEWS Magazine, the eight-page color insert that appears once a month. The December Magazine includes an indepth interview with Vancouver Canuck coach Bill LaForge, one of the most intersting personalities in the NHL this season; a centerspread feature on the new wave of Europeans and why Don Cherry, for one, would like to put them all in a boat and send them back where they came from.All that, plus a full-color photo essay, the Lighter Side of Hockey, Short Stuff, the Pros and Cons and The Referendum&mdash;should fighting be banned in the NHL? &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

NEXT WEEK IN THN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01469/4940760-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><h2>GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01440/4940753-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="585" height="2227"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><h3>GOALS AGAINST AVERAGE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02306/4940746-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="576" height="181"></div><h3>MOST WINS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03218/4940739-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="559" height="291"></div><h3>SAVE PERCENTAGE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04184/4940732-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="566" height="177"></div> &#9632;

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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Quebec Nordique coach Michel Bergeron made some changes to shake up his team recently in an effort to motivate a couple of players who were not producing as expected. These changes included using Peter Statsny as a right winger in one game, as well as calling up Jean Marc Gaulin and Roger Haegglund from the Fredericton Express of the American Hockey League.Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet are expected to lead the Nordiques up front each game. When they don&rsquo;t, Quebec rarely wins. This was exactly the case in two home games where Quebec lost 1-0 to Hartford, Nov. 10, and 5-4 in overtime to Los Angeles, Nov. 13.&ldquo;We are just not getting goals from our normal leaders and it is discouraging to see a rookie like Jean Marc Gaulin show the way and provide the scoring and leadership that should be coming from others,&rdquo; said Bergeron.This was not meant to knock Gaulin, who scored twice and picked up an assist in his first NHL game this season, but rather to show just how upset Bergeron was with his team&rsquo;s lack of production from the big guns.Goulet has been getting goals and has led the team in scoring since the start of the year, but admits he could be producing more. When Bergeron played him on a line with Peter Stastny and Dale Hunter, the trio clicked in a 7-3 win over St. Louis, Nov. 14. Goulet netted two goals and an assist, and Stastny totalled one apiece.With the Stastny brothers playing on the same line for a few weeks, Peter suddenly couldn&rsquo;t buy a goal and Marian was obviously struggling. In moving his best center to right wing, Bergeron had a message not only for the Stastny brothers but for the rest of his team, too.&ldquo;I put all my eggs in the same basket, and this time it worked well,&rdquo; said Bergeron following his experience of using Goulet, Hunter and Peter on the same line.Would Bergeron do it again?&ldquo;I wanted to do something to shake him (Peter) up a little,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &ldquo;He remains, of course, an excellent center.&rdquo;Bergeron and general manager Maurice Filion have been in hot water with Quebec fans since the start of the season, but things peaked after the Nordiques were shutout by Hartford. That was only the second time since joining the NHL that the Nordiques were blanked by the opposition, although in that game the score was tied at zero.The Nordiques, the number two offense in the league last year, have been noticeably without punch, especially on the power play. From mid-October through mid-November, Quebec scored only two times in 48 power-play chances.Bergeron has rarely criticized a player in recent years, but recently attacked Goulet and Peter Stastny for not providing scoring or leadership.Goulet and team captain Mario Marois clearly dismissed rumors that some veterans no longer wanted to play for Bergeron. Peter Stastny has little to say at the best of times, and when he is having problems on the ice he has nothing to say at all. Bergeron and Filion knew they would just have to weather the storm.Veteran netminder Dan Bouchard had as good an explanation as anyone for the team&rsquo;s poor play.&ldquo;It is always just a question of time until the puck starts bouncing our way and we get our share of the breaks,&rdquo; said Bouchard, who played well in the Hartford loss. &ldquo;The spirit on the bench is good. We are working as hard as we can in games and in practices as well. There is no one in particular to blame for our problems, and we know we can turn it around.&rdquo;NORDIC NOTES&mdash;While Canadian astronaut Marc Gameau was honored at a recent Nordique home game, someone in the balcony yelled, &ldquo;Give him a pair of skates!&rdquo; Other fans have threatened to start wearing paper bags if the team doesn&rsquo;t improve&hellip;Team captain Mario Marois said coach Michel Bergeron is a tough nut to crack. &ldquo;Any player who tries to get (Michel) Bergeron&rsquo;s head on a platter better know what he is getting into. Others have tried and failed.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01920/4939066-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="588" height="678"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Goulet has led the Nords in offense all season but he&rsquo;s still below par.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Nords’ Big Guns Shooting Blanks

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011314/4938595-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="378" height="442"></div>&ldquo;You always should give credit where credit is due. &ldquo;&mdash;Sarah Fischler (my grandmother), 1939.It is now 45 years later and, I&rsquo;m thinking, maybe Grandma was right.Maybe Paul Coffey is right.Could be he got a bum rap right in this column. So, in deference to Grandma Sarah and Paul Coffey, let us give credit where credit is do.For starters, let it be known that Coffey has not come asking for a break. Matter of fact, he hesitated when we started talking, and I couldn&rsquo;t blame him.He has taken my best shots. Some high, some medium, some in the heart.&ldquo;I was not happy with what you wrote,&rdquo; he says.I was&mdash;at least at the time I was. &lsquo;I had conducted the Who&rsquo;s Better, Coffey or Rod Langway? poll and I was not overcome with grief when Langway won, although I did none of the voting.&ldquo;I thought I deserved better,&rdquo; says Coffey.Not me, not then anyway. But that&rsquo;s ancient history, and that&rsquo;s why the memory of Grandma Sarah inspires another&mdash;completely fair&mdash;look at the cream in the Coffey.Today it is hard to deny that he is the best defenseman between the Capital Centre and Northlands Coliseum. Reality demands such a conclusion.So does Mike Lyster of Windsor, Ont., my supreme advisor on defensive matters, who lives midway between Washington and Edmonton and couldn&rsquo;t care less who wins the Norris Trophy.Coffey believes he is being penalized in the Norris voting because of his offensive prowess, and he is right.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s false for people to think I&rsquo;m not playing defense just because I go up ice a whole lot,&rdquo; Coffey advises me. &ldquo;Ray Bourque and Doug Wilson do and they&rsquo;re sound defensemen. Why do I have to be ridiculed? Why should people be led to believe I&rsquo;m a lousy defenseman?&rdquo;But the facts&mdash;and my superduper, expert stat man Lyster&mdash;say he is a damn good defenseman. Now, the very best. Here&rsquo;s why:&bull; Coffey was outstanding in the Stanley Cup finals. Enough said on that point.&bull; Pure defensive play has become an overrated factor in evaluating Norris Trophy candidates.&bull; The Oilers have become a superb defensive team through no fault of Coffey.Point Two is the most important. My man Lyster, who eats statistics the way Popeye devours spinach, says I have been unfairly denegrating Coffey just because he&rsquo;s a superb, two-way player.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one way to accurately measure a player&rsquo;s worth,&rdquo; argues Lyster, &ldquo;and that is on two fronts&mdash;offense and defense. These components are of equal value in every player regardless of position. Each goal scored is always worth the same as each goal prevented.&rdquo;After closely examining the Coffey-Langway controversy, I am compelled to swing my vote to Edmonton. This after having firmly backed Langway right up until recently. The bottom line on the argument is as follows:The difference between Coffey and Langway offensively is greater than the difference between them defensively.&ldquo;Coffey is good for about 100 points more a year than Langway on offense,&rdquo; notes Lyster. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t say that Langway is 100 points better than Coffey defensively.&rdquo;What Coffey and the Oilers are demonstrating is a point I made here exactly three years ago&mdash;defense is vastly overrated. You win by scoring more goals than the other guys. Period.Why, then, has Coffey suffered in the Norris Trophy voting? For one thing, playing in the Smythe Division&mdash;which suffers from a severe image problem&mdash;is a major debit.&ldquo;It definitely hurts,&rdquo; Coffey allows. &ldquo;And there are a lot of voters in the east who don&rsquo;t see me that much. There are a lot of votes there.&rdquo;Actually, Coffey&rsquo;s biggest problem&mdash;as I told him as well as his agent, Gus Badall&mdash;is that he needs a good press agent. There&rsquo;s no way he&rsquo;s going to get the attention Langway receives. And for very obvious reasons&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurd, Glen Sather and Grant Fuhr.Check out the Washington Capitals&rsquo; dressing room. Langway is their best player and the captain of the Caps. Reporters are after him every night. He gets drowned in ink. He&rsquo;s in the paper after almost every game. It all translates into votes.Check out the Edmonton Oiler dressing room. There&rsquo;s a convention around Gretzky every night. There&rsquo;s a caucus around Sather every night. And if Gretzky, miraculously, is limited to only five points on any given evening, there&rsquo;s a flock in front of Kurri. And if Fuhr makes three thrilling saves, he gets his hordes of newsmen.That&rsquo;s your media problem, Paul, and no fault of your own.&ldquo;Wayne and the other guys deserve any attention they get,&rdquo; Coffey replies. &ldquo;What limelight I get after that is fine with me. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s no way Coffey can be top banana on the Oiler bunch, which only means he&rsquo;s going to have to fight for his vote. And if that wasn&rsquo;t problem enough, there&rsquo;s a story circulating that he&rsquo;s a tough interview, which he is not.&ldquo;A guy from the New York Times came up to me in Pittsburgh one night,&rdquo; Paul recalls. &ldquo;He was kind of hesitant, like he wasn&rsquo;t sure about interviewing me. He said, &lsquo;I heard you&rsquo;re not talking to reporters.&rsquo; I told him I&rsquo;d never do that. And then we talked. So, you write what you want, it&rsquo;s alright with me.&rdquo;Well, it was all right with me to run a Rod Langway campaign through November, but the time has come for a serious reassesment. Langway has earned his sainthood in Washington but let&rsquo;s give Coffey his due. And let&rsquo;s quarrel with an unfair voting process that allows patented ignorants the right to decide who should win the NHL&rsquo;s awards and prize money.&ldquo;You have a situation,&rdquo; says Coffey, &ldquo;where a voter will only see a guy in one game all season. And on that night the guy might have one bad shift and the writer will think he gives up the puck all the time.&rdquo;Then, there&rsquo;s the business of what compromises a sensational good or average year? Last year, Coffey produced 40 goals, 86 assists and 126 points. Now the Oilers are winning with defense.&ldquo;Does that mean if I come up with 75 to 90 points this year, it&rsquo;s a bad season?&rdquo; he wonders. &ldquo;Doi have to get higher than the plus-52 I had last year?&rdquo;Up until now I had been a Langway man, but times change, more evidence has been delivered and it demands a revisionist view of the two. At this point in time, Coffey is the more valuable player, so I am hereby switching my vote.PUBLIC SERVICE DEPARTMENT&mdash;In this age of streamlined hockey, it would be a good idea if two of the longest-named players in history trimmed a few letters off the end and made life easier for the slow spellers of the world. I&rsquo;m thinking of Ranger goalie John Vanbiesbrouck and Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s linemate, Mike Krushelnyski. For the former, I suggest &ldquo;Belgian&rdquo; Johnny Van. (His roots are near Antwerp.) And for the latter. Lucky Mike Kay. (Anyone who has Gretzky as his center has to be lucky.)This would not be the first time long names were shortened. In 1945, the Detroit Red Wings realized it would take several days for scribes to figure out the spelling of Stephen Wojciechowski, their young right winger. Poof! He became Steve Wochy. Two years later, a right winger came to camp with the handle Enio Sclisizzi. Poof! Poof! He came Jim Enio.&ldquo;Belgian&rdquo; Johnny Van, you&rsquo;re next.THE LEMIEUX WATCH&mdash;Seeing Mario Lemieux in action for the first time reminds me of the night, exactly 30 years ago, when I attended Jean Beliveau&rsquo;s New York debut at the old Madison Square Garden. Le Gros Bill, as they called Beliveau, arrived in the bigs with exactly the same tidal wave of publicity as Lemieux.I vividly recall that Beliveau was disappointing that first time around. (He was 19, and had just finished a stint in the high-class Quebec Senior Hockey League). For the most part, he was panned by the Manhattan media and there was some question as to his staying power. (He lasted 20 years, played on 11 Stanley Cup-winners and is well-ensconsed in the Hall of Fame.)Likewise, Lemieux, who is only 19, was less than overwhelming. He missed two good scoring chances, was heavily checked and often inconspicuous. The distinction is this: Beliveau was playing for a superpower, the 1954-55 Montreal Canadiens. Lemieux skates for a struggling franchise, while under incessant media siege.Let&rsquo;s give him a year before making a judgment. My guess is that, in time, he&rsquo;ll be another Beliveau.30-SECOND THIRD DEGREE&mdash;Scott Stevens, of the Washington Capitals, will you please take the stand:Q: Who taught you to be so physical?STEVENS: My father. When I was a kid, before every game he&rsquo;d tell me to take the body and get lots of hits and slow down the fast skaters.Q: How come you&rsquo;re less excitable than you were two years ago?STEVENS: As a rookie, I was trying to prove myself, so I got into a lot of fights. Lately, I haven&rsquo;t been challenged as much, and I know I&rsquo;m more important to the Capitals on the ice than in the penalty box.Q: How has Washington changed as a hockey town?STEVENS: A couple of years ago I made some appearances and nobody knew me or anything about the Capitals. This year I made an appearance and there was a terrific turnout. I brought a stack of pictures and they were gone so fast we had to go out and get more. People are starting to know who we are. If we keep winning, Washington will be a great hockey town.Q: You&rsquo;re from Kitchener, Ont. Wouldn&rsquo;t you rather play for the Maple Leafs?STEVENS: It would be great for my parents and brother who could see me a lot, but the Leafs&rsquo; organization is really funny. A lot of their young players haven&rsquo;t developed. The answer is, I don&rsquo;t want to leave here.Q: What do you think of the officiating?STEVENS: The refs make sure each team gets, like, six penalties each. They don&rsquo;t want to call a game where one team gets four penalties and the other doesn&rsquo;t get any. I think they keep track of how many penalties are called. They&rsquo;re afraid to call the game the way it is: they want to make sure it&rsquo;s even. &#9632;

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ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01800/4941301-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>How You Can Influence NHL Rule Making-Page 12Paving The Road To The 1988 Calgary Olympics&mdash;age 18Holy Hockey Hypnotist! Is This For Real?&mdash;age 32Hockey&rsquo;s TV Whiz Leaves To Scale New Heights&mdash;age 8 &#9632;

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AN ALL-CANADIAN BOY IN THE BIG APPLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011213/4938251-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="546" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">MAKING PEACE Page 6</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02998/4938244-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="534" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREAT SCOTT! Page 25</figcaption></div><h2>THE COVER STORY&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;Page 3</h2>New York Ranger defenseman James Patrick is not your typical NHL rookie. In fact, if there&rsquo;s a more mature, worldly rookie out there, he hasn&rsquo;t been found yet. And that&rsquo;s one of many reasons why fans in the Big Apple are hoping that the all-Canadian boy will be the cornerstone of the franchise and lead the Blueshirts to the promised land.<h2>THE ROAD TO OLYMPUS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;Page 18</h2>The 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary may seem like a long way off, but for the folks who put together the Olympic hockey programs in Canada and the United States, they&rsquo;ve got plenty of reason to be busy right now. And there&rsquo;s added excitement in Canada, where there&rsquo;s an ongoing program, headed by travelling salesman Dave King.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03739/4938237-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="532" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body">GUT CHECK PAGE 21</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04511/4938230-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="540" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">HEART AND SOUL Page 10</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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The Hockey News

&ldquo;Maybe now we&rsquo;re beginning to believe a little in ourselves.&rdquo;&mdash;Los Angeles King coach Pat Quinn, after watching his team reel off eight wins and a tie in a nine-game stretch. Story on Page 7. &#9632;

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011233/4938330-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="708" height="1056"><figcaption class="caption-body">JAMES PATRICK</figcaption></div>His teammates discuss him in terms generally reserved for someone much older than 21, and it&rsquo;s easy to forget that he has been in the National Hockey League since only last March.But James Patrick, the New York Rangers&rsquo; splendid rookie defenseman, has been a focal point in The Big Apple since 1981, when general manager Craig Patrick&mdash;no relation&mdash;drafted him in the first round, ninth overall.And that&rsquo;s saying something, considering the Winnipeg native elected to spend two years at the University of North Dakota&mdash;leading the Sioux to a national championship in his first year&mdash;and then represented his country at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics.&ldquo;He was well worth the wait,&rdquo; says Ranger coach Herb Brooks, who did not see Patrick play until he joined the team last spring. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very intelligent young man. The elevator goes all the way up on this kid. He&rsquo;s good enough that I can&rsquo;t screw him up.&rdquo;James Patrick&mdash;that&rsquo;s James, not Jim&mdash;is far from your typical freshman. It&rsquo;s not just his technical ability&mdash;the skating, passing and shooting of which Brooks speaks so highly, the positional game, the ease with which he makes the transition from offense to defense and vice versa. And it&rsquo;s not just the intangibles, the leadership ability and character, the quiet, steady, self-assured way he handles himself both on and off the ice.It&rsquo;s all of those things.Rarely has a young athlete been welcomed anywhere with such high expectations, not to mention pressure. Any superlatives that are used are employed in the context of a team that has not won the Stanley Cup since 1940, and whose fans are looking for a hero to lead their team to the promised land.&ldquo;James Patrick,&rdquo; writes Mark Everson in the New York Post, &ldquo;stands to become the latest in a legacy of great Ranger defensemen, following in the skatemarks of Ching Johnson, Bill Gadsby, Doug Harvey, Harry Howell, Brad Park and Barry Beck. Patrick plays the game like the Canadian that he is, making moves that have been part of hockey for 50 years, or at least since Bobby Orr. His opponents have seen them before, in other players, but he executes them with nearperfection.&rdquo;And this was after only a stay which included 12 regularseason and five playoff games. That is indeed select company, but don&rsquo;t overlook that from Beck, Patrick has inherited more than just the label of &ldquo;great defenseman.&rdquo; When Beck arrived in New York in 1979, he was the &ldquo;savior.&rdquo; That has not yet become a heavy burden for Patrick.&ldquo;When it happened to me, it was more than I realized, and it was a situation that I didn&rsquo;t handle well at all,&rdquo; says Beck of the pressure in his first year with the team. &ldquo;James has got a great career ahead of him and he has nothing to worry about. We all realize he&rsquo;s a player and a mature guy.&rdquo;Patrick&rsquo;s goalie on the Canadian Olympic team, Darren Eliot, now plays for the Los Angeles Kings and he says if anyone can deal with the trappings of stardom in the Big Apple, it&rsquo;s James.&ldquo;Our Olympic team was as competitive as it was because James was our defensive and spiritual leader,&rdquo; Eliot said. &ldquo;New York either makes or breaks an athlete. James will rise to the occasion.&rdquo;Perhaps the key is that Patrick marches to his own drummer, recognizing what is best for him and his future. Immediately following the Olympics, as promised, he took a brief rest from hockey while Craig Patrick and the player&rsquo;s Saskatoon-based agent, Herb Pinder, Jr., hammered out a contract. James, exhibiting patience not normally found in young soon-to-be professionals, reported on March. 5.He was on the team for one of the biggest build-ups to a letdown in the franchise&rsquo;s history, the 3-2 overtime elimination at the hands of the New York Islanders last spring.&ldquo;I felt I&rsquo;d gotten to know the guys very quickly and it was an amazing series,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there was anything more that either team could have given.&rdquo;He was particularly affected by the emotion of the moment, watching one of his his boyhood idols, (former Winnipeg Jet) Anders Hedberg, sit disconsolately in defeat. And he was right there when veteran defenseman Dave Maloney broke down and cried when asked by a TV reporter if it was his last game as a Ranger.&ldquo;Dave helped me more than anyone else, talked to me more, helped me on and off the ice, had me over to the house, gave me confidence,&rdquo; says Patrick. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure when I got here, I didn&rsquo;t make anything easier for him. That shows the kind of person he is.&rdquo;Now, Patrick is about to move into his own condominium near the Rangers&rsquo; suburban Rye practice rink. In the meantime, he&rsquo;s been sharing a house in another nearby Westchester county town with teammates Dave Gagner, Bob Brooke and goalie John Vanbiesbrouck.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not like a small-town Canadian boy in the big city,&rdquo; Patrick says. &ldquo;Westchester reminds me of (tier two) junior in Prince Albert&mdash;rolling land and trees.&rdquo;What many people don&rsquo;t realize is that&mdash;for most of the team, anyway&mdash;the point of reference is more surburban than urban, despite the Garden&rsquo;s mid-Manhattan location. Many of the players live only minutes from the Rye rink, which is perched alongside Long Island Sound and even has a beach just outside the door. Their exploration of Manhattan ranges from avid to sketchy, according to taste and time limitations.Patrick has been to a few restaurants, an Elton John concert at the Garden, and his first trip to a Broadway show is likely to take place in December, when his mother and sister visit him.Conversation with Patrick after practice covers a broad spectrum, both hockey and non-hockey, which is not surprising considering this young man&rsquo;s background. His father, Stephen, played professional football for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League for 13 years and also served as a member of the Manitoba Parliament, and Patrick&rsquo;s brother, also named Stephen (or Steve to most of the hockey world), is a winger with the Buffalo Sabres.Patrick is right at home discussing various aspects of the Canadian political situation&mdash;differences between Eastern and Western Canada, how the country saw the former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau as opposed to how Americans perceive President Ronald Reagan, the French-English language question, and, turning to hockey matters, the pressure of playing in New York.It&rsquo;s not affecting me, but I&rsquo;m scared for it to happen,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I felt an unreal amount of pressure in the Olympics; it built up for seven months before those two weeks. I was one of the guys who was supposed to lead the team and, at first, I was tense and frustrated. In those weeks, my emotions went through a lot of highs and lows, and when I came here I thought it would be the same thing.&rdquo;The Olympics were good preparation, then, and what helped ease the re-entry was that he played his first few games with the Rangers on the road; his second game, in fact, was in front of the hometown fans in Winnipeg and he had three assists.&ldquo;Here I was, practising with an NHL team after wondering for five or six years what it would be like, and I didn&rsquo;t feel any pressure,&rdquo; he says.Yet another step in the maturation of James Patrick came in the fall, when he tried out for Team Canada in the 1984 Canada Cup. He didn&rsquo;t make the final roster, but stayed on as an eighth defenseman for practice, an experience he won&rsquo;t soon forget.He met Montreal Canadien defenseman Larry Robinson, who, next to Bobby Orr, was his biggest boyhood idol.&ldquo;Meeting him was as big a thrill as anything,&rdquo; Patrick says.But standing up to Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson, Mike Gartner and company was a confidence-builder and, as he says, worth two years of game experience.&ldquo;When we play the Oilers now I won&rsquo;t be as intimidated,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We meet them six times in two years, and here I faced them, coming down on me, every day.&rdquo;This season started off on the wrong foot, literally, for Patrick. After the Canada Cup, he had not skated for eight days, and on his first day in practice he went all-out, both on the ice and in the weight-room. The next morning his inner-thigh muscles stiffened up, and he was sidelined for two weeks.If Patrick has a problem, it&rsquo;s his weight. He weighed in at 202, and several weeks into the season was down to 196 pounds. A special diet, however, may correct it. Another long-term concern is increasing his upper-body strength.These are, however, minor technicalities, when you compare them to the whole picture, which is seen clearly by Dave Maloney.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t have to mature,&rdquo; says Maloney, implying that Patrick had already undergone that difficult period of a young player&rsquo;s life. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not even fair to ask me because I&rsquo;m very high on him. He&rsquo;s the cornerstone of this franchise. James won&rsquo;t be in the spotlight in the ninth inning (a reference to New York Met phenom Daryl Strawberry, whose big bat wilted in his sophomore year) because he has 20 guys to help him, so he&rsquo;ll be better insulated from the New York press.&rdquo;Hedberg agrees.&ldquo;He obviously has both feet on the ground now, when he&rsquo;s just beginning, instead of the way it is with other players where; it sometimes takes two or three or maybe four years to bring it out in them.&rdquo;Even fellow rookie and ex-Olympian Dave Gagner sees the writing on the wall.&ldquo;I can see that James came into a situation where they were waiting for him for two years before he even came,&rdquo; Gagner says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s getting a lot of ice time and he&rsquo;s always handled the pressure very well. He tries to turn it on himself so that he goes harder. He sets his standards. He&rsquo;s done really well at every level and, in time, he&rsquo;s going to be one of the best defensemen in the league.&rdquo; &#9632;

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An All Canadian Boy Takes The Big Apple By Strom

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineBUSINESS MANAGERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIBUTING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrDIRECTOR ADVERTISING SALESDanny LewickiADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESFor Canadian Consumer Advertising Only Call:CCMC. Cliff Kivell, 287 MacPherson Ave.Toronto. Ontario M4V IA4(416) 928-2909SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPatricia BackNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTJudy HartmanRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom MoffatMary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERHughes MarketingHockey News Bookshelf(416) 499-8227ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Toronto. Ontario. CanadaM3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Thiid AvenueNew York. New York10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTORDistributed nationally by Disticor101 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite L4Don Mills. Ont., MSB 1Z3(416) 449-6430THE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except monthly June and bi-monthly July and August by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 85 Scarsdale Road #100. Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. In U.S. c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York. N.Y. 10022.40 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION RATES $24.95 in the U.S.A. $24.95 in Canada $54.95 in Foreign Countries. Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS. P.O. Box 13055, Postal Station &lsquo;A&rsquo;, Toronto. Ont M5W 1V7. U.S. subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo. N.Y. 14240. Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing.SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Road #100. Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2 Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News. 85 Scarsdale Road. #100. Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2.IN THE UNITED STATES: Second class post age paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News. P.O. Box 904. Buffalo. N.Y. 14240.Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockcy News

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011268/4938385-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="380" height="449"></div>UNFORTUNATELY, BILL MAHONEY didn&rsquo;t make it work in his first try at a National Hockey League coaching post with the Minnesota North Stars. He worked hard at the job and certainly his knowledge and approach to the task were excellent.He was also a classy, big-league guy but his style and the players he was attempting to mold into a solid team and inspire to a big effort just didn&rsquo;t click. Approximately 134 theories could be advanced on why the chemistry wasn&rsquo;t correct, all of them containing a little bit of accuracy.Maloney&rsquo;s departure brought Glen Sonmor back to the head-coaching profession, and if there&rsquo;s a good thing to a fine chap losing his job it&rsquo;s that another splended fellow replaces him.Of course, it would help if Sonmor had brought a little enthusiasm with him to the job. How anyone with so little ebullience could ever be hired is difficult to figure out?Sonmor has so much gung-ho that he keeps Valium awake.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a positive, up person and if that can rub on the players, then I&rsquo;m happy,&rdquo;, Sonmor said.Sonmor had coached the North Stars for close to five seasons until he resigned from the job 43 games into the 1982-83 schedule. He had not lost his zip for the job, and while the team was struggling a little at the time, the players still responded to him. Sonmor quit because of his problems with alcohol.Time in a clinic and membership in Alcoholics Anonymous have inspired 22 dry months for Sonmor, who has held the job of director of player development for the Stars. Back in the pressurecooker of NHL coaching, the gregarious Sonmor will say many things but one statement won&rsquo;t be, &ldquo;This team will drive me to drink.&rdquo;Sonmor knows that the subject is one that will be raised on his first trip around the NHL, and while his preference is to talk about other matters, he isn&rsquo;t reluctant to discuss his problems with the sauce.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a problem I had and I deal with it one day at a time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It happened and I&rsquo;m proud in what I have done to overcome it. I&rsquo;m also proud that the people who run the North Stars stood behind me through it all and saw fit to invite me back as coach.&rdquo;Of course, the pressure of handling an NHL team, which has turned seemingly sane, strong men in the past into recluses, bad-tempered dolts and, in a few cases, heavy drinkers, would seem the wrong place for a fellow trying to stay on the cart. However, Sonmor doesn&rsquo;t feel that coaching an NHL club increases the chances that he&rsquo;ll renew his love affair with John Barley Com.&ldquo;People who have had problems with alcohol can&rsquo;t be categorized in any way,&rdquo; Sonmor said. &ldquo;I simply don&rsquo;t think my drinking was related to the job of coaching any more that it&rsquo;s related to the stress of any other profession.&rdquo; Both the Stars and Sonmor explored all sides of the matter before he returned to the bench.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve thought of all possibilities and I&rsquo;m as certain as I can be that I can handle everything involved,&rdquo; Sonmor said. &ldquo;When the team decided to ask me back to the job, Lou Nanne (general manager of the Stars) checked with the people who had helped me to overcome the problem to see if it increased the risk.&ldquo;One of the owners, Gordon Gund, called me and said that they wanted me to coach but didn&rsquo;t want me to take the job if it would contribute in any way to undoing the good things I&rsquo;ve accomplished.&rdquo;Sonmor&rsquo;s first duty in his second coming is to inject some life into a team that seems to have the personnel to rate among the five or six best clubs in the league but got away to an atrocious start this season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m inclined to pat guys on the back rather than boot them on the tail,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Hike to use a lot of positive reinforcement to get them to produce as much of their potential as possible.&ldquo;My first target with the team is to set things up to produce more firepower. Our approach to defense will be to play a puck-control game with plenty of forechecking. If we can play 30 per cent more in the other team&rsquo;s zone than they play in ours, we&rsquo;ll be fine with the gunners we have.&rdquo;A large number of folks around the NHL are rooting for Sonmor to do a bang-up job once again. &#9632;

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Gregarious Glen Back On Bench

<div class="byline">BY JEFF Z. KLEIN AND KARL-ERIC REIF</div><h2>FOR ARGUMENT&rsquo;S SAKE</h2>Moments after he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in September, Phil Esposito urged that the Canada Cup tournament and other intercontinental hockey competitions between North Americans and Europens be stopped altogether.&ldquo;If they want to come over and play our Stanley Cup champions in a best-of-seven series, that&rsquo;s okay,&rdquo; Espo said. &ldquo;Otherwise, we&rsquo;ve got nothing to gain and everything to lose.&rdquo;How sad it was to hear the great Esposito, who has been such a profressive force in the game, take the side of those who would like to see North American hockey re-enter the cocoon of isolationism from which it emerged only a dozen years ago.As if this weren&rsquo;t disappointing enough, Esposito went on to say that &ldquo;one of the reasons these people are capable of playing in the NHL is because there are 21 teams. You&rsquo;d have a rough time getting them to play in a six-team league.&rdquo;To hear such xenophobic sentiments coming from a man who has been such an eloquent and affable ambassador for hockey is crushing indeed. Was this the same Phil Esposito who charmed the hockey world in &lsquo;72 when he fell flat on his derriere during the player introductions in Moscow and laughed with the crowd at his own embarrassment?Now it sounds as though he&rsquo;d just as soon give them the finger.Fortunately, both international hockey at the elite level and the appearance of Europeans on NHL rosters have been with us ever since that historic Canada-USSR series of 1972. And the resulting cross-pollination of concepts, styles and strategies has enriched hockey on both sides of the Atlantic to a degree unparalleled in the history of the game. Of all the team sports played on earth, only soccer can lay claim to a more lively exchange of ideas between nations.Unfortunately, there will always be those in life who belittle the accomplishments of foreigners. Hockey is no exception.There will always be players such as Tiger Williams who call European players chickens and agitate for their banning from the NHL. There will always be executives like Harold Ballard who slur deft Swedish wingers by saying they could go into the comers with eggs in their pockets and come out again with the eggs still intact. There will always be analysts like Howie Meeker who, when seeing a Soviet team that doesn&rsquo;t lower itself to retaliating against the vicious, cut-throat tactics of a North American team, dismiss the Soviets as soulless robots.But, happily, the majority of fans, players, management and press applaud the artistry of so many of the Europeans who have come here to play, either on their respective national teams or as members of NHL clubs.The first European-trained performer in the NHL was Ulf Sterner, who played four games for the New York Rangers in 1964. Next, in 1972, the gritty if unspectacular defenseman Thommie Bergman came to Detroit, where he collected a fairly robust 243 penalty minutes in 246 games, spanning six seasons. In &lsquo;73, Inge Ham-marstrom and the great Borje Salming arrived in Toronto, and the immigration boom was on.The World Hockey Association got into the picture the following season by inducing Vaclav Nedomansky, the Czech national team captain, to become the first Eastern European to defect to North America to play pro hockey.But the big story that year&mdash;and one that would change the face of hockey here forever&mdash;was the arrival of Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg. They joined Bobby Hull on a line in Winnipeg, and backed by the playmaking of defenseman Lars-Erik Sjoberg, the modem age of supercharged, high-voltage, hyper-arcing offense began. As a matter of fact, Edmonton Oiler general manager-coach Glen Sather has said that he patterned his Stanley-Cup champion team after the Jets of the mid-&rsquo;70s.When Quebec engineered the Ross MacDonald-like intrigue of the Peter and Anton Stastny defection for the &lsquo;79-80 season, any argument that the skills of Europeans might not be crucial to NHL clubs was quashed for good. Now, there are 44 Europeans among the 691 players on the NHL rosters, and there&rsquo;s no question that a good many of those 44 would make the cut in a six-team league, no matter what Phil Esposito might think.After watching teammate Reijo Rout-salainen, a Finn, score a goal while skating backwards, Hedberg put it all in perspective when he told Frank Brown of the New York Daily News: &ldquo;That goal was a work, of art. It was like a painting of Vincent Van Gogh, a Finnish Van Gogh, on the ice.&rdquo;Below, we have chosen an all-European-trained NHl all-star team, based upon career performance. Most of the choices are obvious, but we feel obligated to explain ourselves in one case.We chose Hedberg ahead of Jari Kurri as the first-team right winger because of Hedberg&rsquo;s unflagging excellence&mdash;even in this season, his last before retiring&mdash;and because his plus-minus figures have been far more impressive than those of the high-scoring Kurri.GOAL&mdash;First team, Pelle Lindbergh; second team, Hardy Astrom.DEFENSE&mdash;First team, Borje Salrning, Stefan Persson; second team, Risto Siltanen, Reijo Routsalainen. Honorable mention: Tomas Jonsson, Hannu Virta, Pekka Rautakallio, Kari Eloranta, Lars Lindgren, Thommie Bergman.LEFT WING&mdash;Mats Naslund; second team, Jorgen Pettersson. Honorable mention: Anton Stastny, Inge Ham-merstrom, Ilkka Sinisalo.CENTER&mdash;First team, Peter Stastny; second team, Thomas Gradin. Honorable mention: Kent Nilsson, Ulf Nilsson, Juha Widing, Anders Steen, Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, Patrik Sundstrom, Peter Ihnacak.RIGHT WING&mdash;First team, Anders Hedberg; second team, Jari Kurri. Honorable mention: Marian Stastny, Willy Lindstrom, Vaclav Nedomansky, Jan Ludvig, Peter Sundstrom.<h2>Best European Players&hellip;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021183/4938416-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="996" height="608"></div> &#9632;

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Europeans Made The Game Better

<div class="byline">By Bob Duff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011133/4938447-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="402" height="444"></div>Q: I have compiled a list of National Hockey League father-son and brother combinations. Could you please tell me if former NHLers Rene and Marc Boileau are related?Rev. G.R. Goodhand Cottam, Ont.A: I went directly to the horse&rsquo;s mouth, so to speak, on this one. I asked Marc Boileau, who is currently coaching the Seattle Breakers of the Western Hockey League. He said that the two are related. Rene Boileau was his father.Rene Boileau played with the New York Americans during the 1925-26 season, while Marc was a member of the Detroit Red Wings in the 1961-62 season, and coached the Pittsburgh Penguins from 1972-73 until 1974-75.Q: Under what circumstances would a goaltender have to serve his own penalty?Bob Grise St. Louis Park, MNA: Under current NHL rules, there is no situation where a goaltender would actually sit out his own penalty. A player always sits in the penalty box in place of the goaltender. As well, goaltenders may not be used to sit out bench minors. The only occasion where this would change is in the case of a game misconduct. Any goalkeeper receiving one would be immediately expelled from the game.This was not always the case, however. In the early days of the NHL, goalies were required to serve their own penalties. And, since suiting up a back-up goaltender was unheard of at that time, a player would have to take over in the nets. This rule was rescinded in the late &lsquo;20s.Q: Could you settle a family dispute. I say it was an injury to his left eye which ended goaltender Bernie Parent&rsquo;s career. My father and brother both say it was the right. Who&rsquo;s correct?Rhonda Notarianni Cranston, RIA: Parent, recently elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, saw his career ended by an injury to his right eye, which only goes to show that you should listen to your father.The mishap occured Feb. 17, 1979, at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Flyers were opposing the New York Rangers. Parent was accidently clipped in the eye by the stick of the Rangers&rsquo; Don Maloney. The Rangers went on to win the game, 4-2. Parent finished with a goals-against average of 2.55 and 55 career shutouts.If you want your question answered, write to:ASK THE DUFFER 115 3rd Avenue South, 316 Saskatoon, Sask. Canada, S7K 1L7All letters will be read, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

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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/f0005-02829/4938485-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="389" height="445"></div>Some observers of Dave Burrows may have been amazed with his skating style. He was the type of player who could move faster backward better than most could go forward.&ldquo;I took a lot of pride in being able to move laterally and backwards with great ease,&rdquo; said Burrows, who played from 1971-81 in the National Hockey League with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs, and participated in three All-Star games. &ldquo;It took a lot of practice, but it was something I enjoyed doing.&ldquo;In fact, I used to get a big kick out of skating backwards on two-on-one breaks or one-on-one breaks against me when I was back on defense. It was a challenge trying to break up situations like that.&rdquo;In the &lsquo;70s, Burrows was one of the best, if not the best, defensive defenseman in the NHL. If there had been an award for that, Burrows would have won it hands down.&ldquo;I enjoyed that part of the game the most,&rdquo; Burrows said. &ldquo;From the time I was a kid until the time I made the NHL, I never had any type of scoring knack around the net. I just couldn&rsquo;t score many goals.&rdquo;A player who influenced Burrows as a boy and later as a player was the late, great NHL Hall of Fame defenseman, Tim Horton.&ldquo;I can remember watching Tim play on TV when I was a kid,&rdquo; Burrows said, &ldquo;but I never patterned my style of play after him. I just admired the way he played defense.&ldquo;The biggest thrill of my career was playing defense with Tim when we were together in Pittsburgh. I was in awe of the man. In fact, the first time I was introduced to him I didn&rsquo;t know what to say.&ldquo;And Tim wasn&rsquo;t afraid to give out advice or help. He helped me out with a lot of little things in my game. He&rsquo;s a man I&rsquo;II never forget. I owe him a lot.&rdquo;Unfortunately for Burrows and many other defensive defensemen of his time, a shadow was cast over them by another defenseman with an offensive style, Bobby Orr.&ldquo;I guess you would have to say it was tough getting any recognition with a guy like Bobby around,&rdquo; said Burrows. &ldquo;But that really didn&rsquo;t bother me because I really didn&rsquo;t like getting a lot of attention. I just enjoyed playing my game.&ldquo;But sitting back and watching a guy like Orr, you knew that he de-served to get all the awards he got. He could skate so well. And he was a good defensive defenseman.&ldquo;With the speed he had he could come back and cover up on some of the mistakes he made. To say the least, he was adept on defense. I wouldn&rsquo;t mind having him on my team. He was the best I ever saw.&rdquo;Burrows doesn&rsquo;t see that much professional hockey today. He owns his own industrial maintenance business in Brampton, Ont., near his hometown of Toronto. His business consists of everything from lawn care to painting.&ldquo;When I retired, I knew I was ready,&rdquo; said Burrows, 35. &ldquo;I knew I was getting a step slower and that the young guys were moying in.&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t miss the game. I miss the guys and the fun we had. I really don&rsquo;t even follow the game that much today.&ldquo;Above all, I don&rsquo;t miss the body checking. There is something about pain that a guy doesn&rsquo;t really miss.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03578/4938478-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1205" height="925"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Burrows had a special talent when it came to skating, but he admits it didn&rsquo;t happen without a lot of practice.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Burrows Skated With Ease, Even If It Was Backwards

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Referee Eddie Powers received a cash settlement and an apology from Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; coach Toe Blake and the French-language newspaper, Montreal Matin, after Blake slandered Powers following a game two years earlier and the newspaper printed it.&bull; Detroit&rsquo;s Norm Ullman, playing in his 10th season in the National Hockey League, registered his 200th NHL goal. The 28-year-old Red Wing veteran was the first player of the season to reach the 200-goal mark. Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Holdout Bobby Hull finally rejoined the Chicago Black Hawks and immediately apologized for negative comments directed at general manager Tommy Ivan and coach Billy Reay In St. Louis, veteran goalie Glenn Hall had a change of heart and reported after less than a year of retirement.&bull; Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ed Van Impe lost six teeth and needed 35 stiches after taking a slap shot in the mouth, but later in the same game he returned after having his mouth frozen &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

1. Against which club did the Washington Capitals post their first NHL win?2. The New York Islanders eliminated Edmonton in six games in the 1980-81 quarter finals. What player scored the game-winning goal in both Oiler wins?3. Who scored the first penalty shot goal of the 1984-85 season?4. What goaltender did he beat?5. Who is the only Los Angeles player in that club&rsquo;s history to score while his team was two men short?6. Who played the first overtime game of the &lsquo;84-85 season?7. How many current NHL head coaches have no NHL playing experience?8. What recently-retired New York Islander lists beekeeping as an offseason occupation?9. What current Adams Division player was chosen first overall in the 1973 WHA amateur draft?10. Name the former NHL forward who is currently public relations director of the AHL Moncton Golden Hames.Answers in next week&rsquo;s Issue.<h2>Last Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Joe Malone, Quebec, 1919-20. 2. Boston. 3. Montreal Maroons, Nels Stewart, 1925-26. 4. Swift Current. 5. Jordy Douglas. 6. Mike McEwan. 7. Charlie Hodge. 8. Parker McDonald. 9. Mikko Leinonen. 10. Ivan Mitchell. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04387/4938564-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div>that the NHL players with the most 40-goal seasons are: &#9632;

f0005-04

Did You Know…

Just as this issue was going to press, the New York Islanders finally resolved their clouded goaltending situation when they dealt Roland Melanson to Minnesota for a first-round draft pick in 1985.Melanson, 24, was one-third of the Isles&rsquo; goaltending team, which also included veteran Billy Smith and rookie Kelly Hrudey. Melanson and Smith shared the William Jennings Trophy in &lsquo;83 for giving up the fewest goals against; of any team in the National Hockey League.Melanson had been on the trading block for some time and, in fact, was offered to Los Angeles for the Kings&rsquo; pick (third overall) in the 1984 draft.Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the Kings acquired left winger Steve Shutt from the Montreal Canadiens, Nov. 18, for future considerations.Shutt, 32, is a veteran of 12 seasons in the NHL and was a first-round pick of Montreal in 1972. He has 406 goals and 372 assists in regular-season games, but had been limited to only 10 games in the &lsquo;84-85 campaign with the Adamsr Division leading Canadiens.Shutt, who makes his home year-round in Montreal, was a first-team allstar &ldquo;76-77, and a second-team all-star in &lsquo;77-78. In &lsquo;76-77 he set the record for most goals by a left winger, 60.The Kings, who entered the week riding a five-game winning streak, the best in the league, were looking for a left winger to replace Charlie Simmer, who was dealt to Boston shortly after the season began.And the Hartford Whalers reacquired Pat Boutette, who played for them for a season and a half, from Pittsburgh Penguins for the rights to Finnish defenseman, Ville Siren, Nov. 16.Boutette, who had his best season in the pros with the Whalers in 1980-81 (28 goals, 52 assists), had only one goal at the time of the trade.Siren, currently fulfilling military obligation, was drafted in the second round, 23rd overall, by the Whalers in &lsquo;83.&ldquo;We have scouted him in the past and will look at him when he&rsquo;s done in the army, but he&rsquo;s a quality player and should fit into the picture in the near future,&rdquo; said Penguin general manager, Eddie Johnston.To replace Boutette, the Pens recalled left winger Troy Loney from Binghamton of the American Hockey League.The Ontario provincial government has formed a new development organization for amateur hockey and named county court judge Joe Kane as an advisor.Kane, 56, is a director of Hockey Canada, advisor to the Canadian Olympic team committee, former coach at every level from house league to the Ontario Hockey Association&rsquo;s senior series and the Varsity Blues in intercollegiate hockey.&ldquo;The government wishes to avoid legislative intrusion into amateur sport,&rdquo; said Reuben Baetz, minister of tourism and recreation. &ldquo;We have sought means whereby hockey administrators could get together to resolve common problems.&rdquo;Kane will serve as an independent, volunteer consultant to assist in resolution of problems confronting amateur hockey.&ldquo;I am there to represent the public, I guess the conscience of the private sector,&rdquo; Kane said. &#9632;

Islanders Trade Melanson To North Stars

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Changing what might be described as a defeatist attitude on the part of the Los Angeles Kings is right up there on Pat Quinn&rsquo;s list of priorities, as is lowering what has been a bloated goals-against average for the past three seasons.Off the early returns, the new head coach has found a good degree of success on both counts.Since tying Winnipeg 2-2 on Oct. 27, the Kings went on a tear with eight wins and a tie in their next nine games&mdash;making them the NHL&rsquo;s hottest club in the month of November. An ability to overcome adversity and play defensively on an extremely professional level have made the difference.And should the state of things continue to improve as the season wears on, they&rsquo;ll be looking back on a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Buffalo on the evening of Nov. 9 as the rallying point.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we would have come back like this last year,&rdquo; said Doug Smith, after scoring a fluke goal to tie the score with 10 minutes left, before Dave Taylor won it with 1:23 remaining.&ldquo;But when we got down, we just picked each other up and kept going. There&rsquo;s just a feeling that I&rsquo;ve never felt here before.&rdquo;Buffalo defenseman Bill Hajt had beaten Bob Janecyk on a 55-footer early in the second period to snap a 1-1 tie and, based on past performances, it wouldn&rsquo;t have been a surprise had the Kings re-sponded by crumbling.Instead, they buckled up and took total control.&ldquo;Obviously, it&rsquo;s very satisfying,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;We made a big step forward, I hope. The guys stayed steely-minded and we got back in it. The nonacceptance of a bad break didn&rsquo;t do us in.&rdquo;&ldquo;It might have been different in the same situation last year,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;But we know Bobby&rsquo;s going to make the big saves most of the time, and we have a lot of confidence in him.&rdquo;Janecyk is giving the Kings the best goaltending they&rsquo;ve had in a long while. The 27-year-old rookie is staying in his net, challenging shooters and making big saves.In the club&rsquo;s streak&mdash;the lone setback was a 3-2 defeat to Chicago on Nov. 5&mdash;Janecyk kept his GAA to just over three a game.The Kings, in fact, were among the top eight in the league, no small feat for a club that allowed 376 goals a year.&ldquo;Bobby&rsquo;s playing extremely well,&rdquo; Quinn said, &ldquo;but the team is giving him a great deal of help. I&rsquo;ve said a hundred times that the two go hand in hand.&rdquo;Two days after the come-back victory over Buffalo, fellow rookie Darren Eliot played brilliantly in his first game in two weeks in a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers, his first win in the NHL.&ldquo;This is the highlight of my career,&rdquo; the 22-year-old Eliot said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been looking forward to this for some time.&rdquo;As for the Kings&rsquo; habit of folding under pressure in the past, Quinn saw the victory over Buffalo as an encouraging sign, calling it the team&rsquo;s most satisfying win of the young season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a case of low esteem sometimes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you get a bad penalty or an unlucky goal is scored&hellip;it&rsquo;s a collective thing, really.&ldquo;This team has been through a lot of that the past two years and we&rsquo;ve just tried to be patient, hoping that winning the little battles on the ice might get some of the guys to start thinking, &lsquo;Hey, we&rsquo;re not a bad team.&rsquo;&ldquo;The mental aspect of the game is so important, and maybe now we&rsquo;re beginning to believe a little in ourselves.&rdquo;They&rsquo;re also beginning to believe Quinn when he says hard work pays off in the long run.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve constantly been reminding them that good things will happen if you keep working and don&rsquo;t quit,&rdquo; Quinn said.KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;Winger Carl Mokosak, called up from New Haven with rookie Steve Seguin sidelined with an ailing shoulder, picked up an important assist in his first game, against Buffalo&hellip;During one stretch, the Kings killed off 25 consecutive penalties, but the power play was fizzling, cashing in just nine of 71 chances. &#9632;

Quinn Has Kings Believing They Can Win

The International Hockey WeeklyFounded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Major Minor Problem</h2>SOMETIMES, PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY succeeds in spite of itself.If you want a prime example of this philosophy in action, look no further than the American Hockey League.The AHL is hockey&rsquo;s top minor pro league. It&rsquo;s a well-run loop, one which has survived the test of time and will, from all indications, continue to prosper in an era when the squeeze is on at all levels of pro sports.So, given all that, you have to ask yourself the question: How can the men who operate the AHL be so stupid?The question is in reference to what has been labelled the Ross Lambert case.Ross Lambert is a hockey player who wants to play for the Nova Scotia Oilers of the AHL. And the Nova Scotia Oilers want Ross Lambert. This, as a rule, is a satisfactory arrangement that results in a hockey player being gainfully employed.That is, unless, of course, stupidity takes precedence over common sense, which is exactly the scenario in the AHL these days.The reason Lambert cannot play for the Oilers is because of an AHL by-law which prohibits players from playing in Europe and the AHL in the same season. The intent of the by-law is good. It&rsquo;s there to prevent teams from loading up on veteran talent which returns from Europe just in time for the AHL playoffs.But, in this case anyway, it&rsquo;s perfectly clear that the intent of the by-law and it&rsquo;s actual implementation are miles apart.First of all, Lambert went to play in Europe only after he couldn&rsquo;t catch on with a North American team. When he got there, he had contractual difficulties which resulted in him returning home.His agent, Boston-based lawyer Brian Burke, began canvassing minor-league teams to see if there was any interest. That&rsquo;s when the Oilers came into the picture and then the by-law was cited.Burke, as well as AHL president Jack Butterfield, attempted to make the governors see how Lambert was an exception, a victim if you will. Burke, who avoids confrontations whenever possible, went so far as to offer his services to help rewrite the by-law so its intent is best served.But the AHL governors refused and now Burke has to go to court to get the decision overturned.Here&rsquo;s hoping the court sees fit to let Lambert excercise his right to pursue his chosen profession&mdash;that being a professional hockey player.Although the way the AHL has conducted itself is far from professional. &#9632;

Let your voice be heard I Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., Canada M3B 2R2.I ENJOYED YOUR new Magazine section. It contained some very entertaining humor and insight into the world of hockey. But I must comment on Bob McKenzie&rsquo;s and Stan Fischler&rsquo;s articles on the pros and cons of fans voting for the NHL All-Stars.Both writers make good points. Mr. McKenzie states that the fans should pick the All-Stars. I disagree. If the voting was left up to the fans, a fine player such as Bernie Nicholls playing in pathetic Los Angeles would probably get about 4,000 votes while a lesser player such as Nick Fotiu, playing in hockey-crazy New York, would get 400,000.Mr. Fischler says the Central Scouting Bureau should pick the All-Stars. Problem is NHL scouts don&rsquo;t follow players in the NHL, only minor league up-and-comers.Here&rsquo;s my suggestion. Let the players pick the AllStars. Who else but the players know who&rsquo;s best in the NHL. They&rsquo;re the one&rsquo;s who have to go head-to-head 80 games a year. By leaving the voting up to NHL players, everyone would get the recognition they deserve.Paul Coffey could even vote for himself.Gord Mathew Juskatla, B.C.<h2>CUT DOWN ON FIGHTING&hellip;</h2>Vic Maestri made a good point in your Oct. 26 issue. Baseball should adopt the rule where the third man in an altercation is kicked out of the game and fined.On the other hand, hockey should take a cue from baseball on the same matter. Perhaps the players involved in the original scuffle should receive a game misconduct. In most baseball fights the combatants are not allowed to stay in the game.But there are still those who say the hockey fights help the game attendance. To them I say look what team draws the biggest crowds in each city they play in&mdash;the Edmonton Oilers, with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and all the rest of their other goal scorers. Do you ever hear people say, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve gotta get a ticket to see Tiger Williams?&rdquo;Robert W. Rennison Ottawa, KA<h2>&hellip;AND HERE&rsquo;S HOW</h2>Twenty-five seconds into the Buffalo-Pittsburgh game on the first night of the NHL season, a fight broke out.These schoolyard scraps are boring, ineffective and divert from a sport requiring great skill and courage. Having been involved in hockey for 50 years in the U.S. and Canada, I see no reason to exempt hockey players from the sort of punishment applied, say, in football or basketball. The implication of some sort of special privilege to fight is unwarranted.I would suggest two alternative solutions to prevent further degradation of a tough and exciting sport:1) The application of stiff suspensions for fighting&mdash;three games minimum, with further penalty for repeated offenses&mdash;erhaps a season&rsquo;s suspension and 2) should a fight break out, have the officials leave the ice and police made available to prevent lasting injury.It may be that an honest solution would be to have two referees and one linesman, the tailing referee to pick up the cheap stuff away from the puck.I would hope that the NHL leadership would have the courage to stop the foolish distractions and give the game the respect it deserves.Charles R. Stevens Englewood, CO<h2>A PACKAGE FOR TV</h2>After reading your Nov. 9 issue, I feel the NHL should definitely try to aggressively pursue a contract with one of the major U.S. television networks.I feel such a package, to succeed, should include the following points:1) During the first year, there would be five or six regular-season games, including the All-Star game, which should be moved to a weekend afternoon, and weekly coverage of the early Stanley Cup rounds.2) The network would carry all games of the finals. Weekend games would be seen live in the afternoon, while weeknight games be seen on tape at 11:30 p.m. eastern time except a) in the two cities involved, where it would be seen live and b) any other NHL city where the local affiliate, at its option, would have the chance to pick up the game live.3) And, hopefully, weekly regular-season coverage beyond year one.The NHL should pursue ABC, for the USFL will move to a fall schedule in 1986, and the network will need something to fill Sunday afternoons in the spring. Maybe the NHL and Stanley Cup could be just the thing to fill the gap.Joseph Gallant Norwood, MA &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie&#x2019;s Editor&#x2019;s Notebook</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011252/4938722-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="398" height="451"></div>It isn&rsquo;t something that Ralph Mellanby even cares to discuss or, for that matter, considers significant enough to remember, but the incident does provide some insight into a television whiz that the average hockey fan wouldn&rsquo;t know from Adam.It was last spring in Edmonton during the Stanley Cup playoffs and the evening was drawing to a close at the NHL&rsquo;s hospitality suite.A few newspapermen&mdash;and Mellanby&mdash;were on hand as the subject drifted around to the pros and cons of Hockey Night in Canada&rsquo;s weekly on-air performance.When the critique became too severe, in the eyes of HNIC&rsquo;s executive producer for the last 18 years, the man who has hired every on-air personality you see on Saturday night, he erupted.Had it not been for a rather large pacifist getting between Mellanby and a reporter, more than angry words would have been exchanged. As it was, the hospitality suite was renamed the hostility suite.Mellanby&rsquo;s message was clear. &ldquo;We do a damn good job,&rdquo; he said then. &ldquo;Live television isn&rsquo;t an easy thing to do. Our guys are pros so don&rsquo;t go running them down.&rdquo;Six months later, Mellanby, as he reflects on the end of a chapter of his life, doesn&rsquo;t feel any differently. He still thinks Hockey Night in Canada is the best sports telecast there is. And he still feels a strong sense of loyalty to the entire cast&mdash;on-air and behind-the-scenes&mdash;that brings Canadians their weekly fix of Saturday night hockey.So why is Mellanby, the Emmy-award winning producer, leaving HNIC to become executive producer for the CTV network&rsquo;s Olympic Host Broadcast Unit for the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary?&ldquo;After 18 years of doing basically the same thing,&rdquo; Mellanby says, &ldquo;I was getting a litte stale. In the past when I&rsquo;ve done something different, like Olympic coverage for ABC or the NHL draft, I found myself getting a real spark.&ldquo;But a lot of the time that spark was missing.It was just time for a change.&rdquo;If Mellanby is looking for a challenge, he&rsquo;ll find it in the Olympics. Television folks consider it one of the most demanding and difficult jobs in the industry.He&rsquo;s already started work on the Olympic program that will see him move from Toronto to Calgary early in 1986. And, since HNIC has lost two producers in the past few months&mdash;one went to The Sports Network, the other to the rival Carling O&rsquo;Keefe network that is expected to be bom in the next few weeks&mdash;Mellanby will stay on with HNIC for the rest of this hockey season.His new responsibility will be to provide the best picture and sound possible to the entire world (excluding Canada) from the Games.When someone with the stature of Mellanby leaves one network to join another, it&rsquo;s inevitable that rumors start to fly. For example, there are stories making the rounds that say Mellanby is a) in line for the soon-to-be-retiring Johnny Esaw&rsquo;s head of network sports position, and b) odds-on favorite to coordinate and develop Carling O&rsquo;Keefe&rsquo;s hockey package, which will run on the CTV network as long as it gets the legal go-ahead.&ldquo;The Esaw thing, at this point, is pure speculation,&rdquo; Mellanby says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got an agreement with CTV that says my future after the Olympics will be determined by 1987. They&rsquo;ll have to make a commitment to me, and I to them.&ldquo;As far as me doing hockey for Carling O&rsquo;Keefe on CTV, it&rsquo;s just not true. I have absolutely no intention of doing hockey. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m leaving HNIC. I&rsquo;m going over there (CTV) strictly for the Olympics.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s possible that Mellanby will have an even greater personal stake in the Winter Games. His son, Scott, 19, attending the University of Wisconsin on a hockey scholarship, is one of many long-range candidates for Canada&rsquo;s &lsquo;88 Olympic squad. But it&rsquo;s also possible Scott could be with the Philadephia Flyers, the team that selected him in the second round of the 1984 entry draft.&ldquo;That&rsquo;ll be Scott&rsquo;s decision,&rdquo; Mellanby says. &ldquo;It would be kind of nice to do the Olympics and have a son participating, but playing in the NHL isn&rsquo;t bad either. It&rsquo;ll be up to him.&rdquo;In the meantime, though, Mellanby will continue to moonlight, doing both hockey and Olympics, and continue his quest to get HNIC the recognition it deserves but, in his eyes, sorely lacks.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I go around the world and people&mdash;I&rsquo;m talking giants in the field&mdash;are awed when they find out I&rsquo;m from HNIC. Outside of Canada, HNIC is perceived as a masterpiece.&ldquo;But in Canada for some reason, we get knocked by the press and the TV establishment. I don&rsquo;t understand it and I just wish it was more appreciated. It&rsquo;s a great, great show and its strength are its people, just great people. That&rsquo;s probably my biggest satisfaction, having brought together a team I think is the best.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

TV Whiz Bids Adieu To The World Of Hockey

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;From Sunday to Sunday, it was a week to remember in the history of a franchise which appears settled into an era it might title, Past and Future Champions.The Flyers began their eventful week with a resounding 7-5 win over the Edmonton Oilers, continued with a win over the Hartford Whalers, and then travelled to Boston Garden where they defeated the Bruins 5-3, for their first win in Beantown since November, 1981.Still, not finished, the Flyers returned to the Spectrum the following night&mdash;exactly one week after the Edmonton win&mdash;and with three regulars out of the lineup, including three centers, the Flyers tied the New York Islanders 3-3.The tie ran the Flyers&rsquo; unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1), and kept them atop the Patrick Division with an 11-3-3 record, four points ahead of the Islanders (25-21), who had played one more game. And all of this with a team which was supposed to be rebuilding and sorely missing the leadership of Bobby Clarke.Bobby Clarke?Oh yes, as if the week wasn&rsquo;t glorious enough, Flyer fans were treated to a Clarke tribute which had to be seen to be believed. The Flyers retired his famous number (16) in a45-minute, Holly woodtype ceremony before the win over Hartford.The ceremony, which included a four-minute-plus standing ovation by the sellout crowd (scalpers were getting $60 a ticket), was highlighted by Kate Smith singing God Bless America on the giant, four-sided video screen placed over the scoreboard.Two days before that, Clarke had been feted at a black-tie affair for 350 guests, including his Stanley Cup champion teammates, at a local hotel.&ldquo;I just want to say that the win over Edmonton was as thrilling to me as playing in any game except the Stanley Cup ones,&rdquo; said Clarke, who is now the team&rsquo;s general manager.Clarke&rsquo;s former coach, Fred Shero, also made a speech at the affair at which time he assured Flyer fans that Clarke would bring the city another Cup in his new role.And, by the looks of things, the Flyers are ahead of schedule.The win over Hartford might have been taken for granted, especially with the team jacked up from the pre-game ceremonies, but the victory over the Bruins in Boston and the tie with the Islanders, who hammered the New York Rangers 10-4 the night before, had to be heartening.&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; said Flyer coach Mike Keenan after the win at Boston, &ldquo;this was a break in history. We&rsquo;re pleased as hell to be at this point (first place), but I have no preconceived notion about it.&rdquo;Flyer goalie Pelie Lindbergh had played goal for the fifth consecutive game during the win at Boston, and he was back in goal for the sixth consecutive game the next night back in Philly when the Islanders needed a goal by Pat LaFon-taine with less than three minutes to play in order to pull out the tie.Making the tie even more impressive was that the Flyers had to call up two players from the Hershey Bears, their American Hockey League affiliate, in order to make up for injuries to centers Peter Zezel (broken bone in his left hand), Len Hachbom (badly bruised left wrist), Dave Poulin (groin pull) and right winger Rich Sutter (bruised shoulder).In order to put together a healthy roster, Keenan and Clarke caHed up center Tim Young and right winger Paul Guay from Maine, and the latter helped set up a go-ahead goal by Dave Brown for a temporary 3-2 lead over the Islanders in the third period.&ldquo;If they&rsquo;re going to come up,&rdquo; said Keenan, &ldquo;then they&rsquo;re going to play.&rdquo;Still, most of the plaudits again had to go to Lindbergh, who kept the Flyers in the Bruin game with 29 saves, then stopped 18 or 19 shots by the Islanders as they swarmed all over the Flyers in the third period of the game at the Spectrum.&ldquo;The Flyers are just on a roll right now,&rdquo; said Bruin coach Gerry Cheevers, &ldquo;and when a team is going like that, the puck bounces their way. And, it helped too that Lindbergh is playing like that.&ldquo;But, overall, I think they looked pretty good. They played a very intelligent game on the road, and they looked very disciplined.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;As a gift, the 1984-85 Flyers presented general manager Bobby Clarke with a sterling silver hockey stick. The club also gave Clarke and his wife a couple of Rolex watches valued at over $10,000 and commissioned the sculpturing of two small statues depicting Clarke&rsquo;s jump for joy after scoring the overtime goal for a win at Boston Garden in Game Two of the 1974Stanley Cup finals. One statue was given to Clarke and the other will remain at the Spectrum and be awarded to the Flyers&rsquo; MVP every year&hellip;Peter Zezel is expected to be out another two weeks. Dave Poulin&rsquo;s groin injury is a day-to-day situation. Rich Sutter and Len Hachbom should be back in the lineup within a week. The injuries also made room for right winger Ray Allison, who played center for two consecutive games after missing 13 of the first 14 games. &#9632;

A Glorious Week For Flyers To Remember

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Arthroscopic surgery on the right knee in September, tom rib cartilage in October and a concussion in November. It&rsquo;s not that Darryl Sutter has a high tolerance for pain. His knees still ache. His ribs still hurt and his head and jaw, which were bounced off the boards in a game in Toronto on Nov. 10, still felt like Marvin Hagler had been using them for punching bags when the Chicago Black Hawks returned home four nights later for their next game against the New York Rangers.But Sutter was back on the ice, scoring the second goal and helping the Hawks beat the Rangers 6-4 before a jubilant crowd of 17,362, the largest of the season in Chicago Stadium.It was all in a night&rsquo;s work for the Hawks&rsquo; Captain Courageous, a man who believes that it borders on unethical to watch games from the press box when you&rsquo;re paid to play hockey.Compared to last year, all of Sutter&rsquo;s misfortunes this season are mild. On Jan. 2 in Minnesota, Sutter was struck on the cheekbone by one of teammate Doug Wilson&rsquo;s slap shots.Something similar happened to a Cleveland pitcher named Herb Score in May, 1957. He was hammered in the head by a line drive from the bat of New York Yankees&rsquo; Gil McDougald, and it marked the beginning of the end of a brilliant career.But Sutter was back in the lineup 18 games after the near-tragedy, and if the injury has had an effect on his play this season, it isn&rsquo;t visible to the naked eye.Despite playing hurt nearly every night, the 26-year-oid left winger is averaging a point a game. In 10 outings he has six goals and four assists. He missed six games because of the rib injury.&ldquo;If they play me regularly, I dam well better produce,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;The concussion is no problem. It&rsquo;s just a slight concussion. I had a bad head for a day or so, my neck was a little stiff and my mouth hurt. Nothing major.&ldquo;I was lucky the knee was hurt early in training camp, so it really hasn&rsquo;t hampered me. When the ribs got hurt you had to wonder. Injuries like that are tough. But you just try not to think about it.&rdquo;Overcoming adversity is the story of Sutter&rsquo;s hockey life.He was drafted in the 11 th round by the Hawks in 1978, giving him a clue that he wasn&rsquo;t even in the index of their future book.So, he crossed the Pacific to play in the Japan National League and was chosen Rookie of the Year in the Land of the Rising Sun.Then, the Hawks brought him back to play for their New Brunswick farm team. In 1979-80, he was named the American League&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year and was promoted to the Hawks for the playoffs.Sutter made the Hawks to stay at training camp the next fall and wound up scoring 40 goals as a rookie.But in his sophomore year, he sustained a lacerated elbow that required surgery, slicing the season in half. He came back for the playoffs, but in the opening round against Minnesota he tripped on rubbish hurled onto the ice by unruly Chicago Stadium fans and dislo-cated his shoulder.The most recent mishap, the concussion, took place after Sutter scored the first goal in the 4-4 tie with the Maple Leafs. He crashed into the boards in the second period while absorbing a body check from Dan Daoust and didn&rsquo;t play thereafter.That happened on a Saturday night. Monday morning he was back on the ice practising, even though coach Orval Tessier would have given him a sick day.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011292/4938777-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="590" height="1118"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darryl Sutter was banged up in Toronto but shook it off and played in the Ranger game.</figcaption></div>Sutter has five brothers skating in the National Hockey League&mdash;Brian in St. Louis, Brent and Duane with the New York Islanders and the twins, Ron and Rich, in Philadelphia. Supposedly, the Sutters are peas in a pod. a strain of hard workers and intense competitors. But, you&rsquo;d better believe Darryl Sutter is one of a kind.HAWK TALK&mdash;The victory over the Rangers stretched the Norris Division leaders&rsquo; undefeated streak to four games (3-0-1). It was a short homecoming&mdash;eight of their next nine games will be on the road. To win, the Hawks had to rally in the final period. Curt Fraser broke a 4-4 tie at 2:18, just 33 seconds after Steve Larmer had tied the score. &#9632;

f0010-01

Sutter Doesn’t Know The Meaning Of Pain

<div class="byline">Bill Fleischman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021002/4938808-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="404" height="448"></div>THE LAST TIME I was involved in a night like this was the night the Boston Bruins retired Bobby Orr&rsquo;s No. 4. What I remember most from that historical evening was fans of all ages, tears streaming down their faces, begging Orr to wear his renowned No. 4 one more time. Orr obliged and the ovation was deafening.The Philadelphia Flyers retired Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s No. 16, Nov. 15 at the Spectrum, and the reaction was similar to Orr&rsquo;s night. Two great players&hellip;two players whose names will live forever, not only in hockey history, but in sports history&hellip;two people who make you feel better just for knowing them.The Flyers handled the Clarke celebration with class. First, they held a formal dinner for Clarke, who retired after last season to move into the general manager&rsquo;s chair at the Spectrum. Teammates of Philadelphia&rsquo;s Stanley Cup team were there, players such as the Watson brothers, Joe and Jimmy; Ed Van Impe and Don Saleski. Other former teammates showed up, including Jack Mclhargey, in all the way from Vancouver where he now works with the Canucks, and Paul Holmgren, from Minnesota. Even Fred Shero, the coach of those colorful Flyers, was there, looking fit and feeling fine after stomach surgery for cancer a few years ago.Two nights later, in a lively, sold-out Spectrum, the Flyers retired Clarke&rsquo;s No. 16. An orange banner with Clarke&rsquo;s name and number in black now hangs from the Spectrum rafters with the names of the two other Flyers whose numbers have been permanently stashed away: Bernie Parent&rsquo;s No. 1 and the late Barry Ashbee&rsquo;s No. 4.All the right things were said and Clarke, who always disliked individual attention, was uncomfortable throughout the ceremony. Ed Snider, the Flyers&rsquo; owner, spoke for the fans when he said Clarke was &ldquo;the hardest working athlete we&rsquo;ve ever seen. The Flyers are a team of character and tradition, largely because of Bobby Clarke. He showed us how to win.&rdquo;As an inadvertent, but nice touch, the door to the Flyers&rsquo; penalty box was kept open throughout the presentation. Clarke spent enough time in that box for it to deserve a small part in the special evening.Predictably, when Clarke slipped on his sweater for the final time, the fans exploded in affectionate cheering. Finally, during his touching speech, the fans celebrated again when Clarke said, &ldquo;If I had my choice, I&rsquo;d love to do it over again.&rdquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t that be something to see? At least on this night the fans, who didn&rsquo;t know a blue line from a bluefish 13 years ago, but later embraced Clarke the way a family cherishes a son, saw some highlights from Clarke&rsquo;s Hall of Fame career. They saw Clarke scoring the overtime goal in Boston during the 1974 Stanley Cup finals that triggered the Flyers&rsquo; upset of the Bruins; they saw him scoring against Detroit as he slid along the ice on his rump; and they saw perhaps the vignette that Flyer fans will remember more than any other: a perspiring Clarke holding the Stanley Cup after Philadelphia beat Buffalo in the 1975 finals, smiling a gap-toothed smile and winking at Bernie Parent.To most fans around the NHL, Clarke was a dirty player leading a pack of renegades on skates. At the peak of the Broad Street Bullies&rsquo; act, one Los Angeles newspaper signalled the Flyers&rsquo; arrival in town each season by publishing a photo of gangsters carrying machine guns.Clarke wasn&rsquo;t reluctant to use his stick. If I had been covering any other NHL team in those days, I probably would have disliked Clarke, too. But the beat reporters saw how much Clarke meant to his team, how hard he worked every game. We criticized Clarke and the Flyers on those occasions when even they crossed the line between hockey&rsquo;s curious code of justice and caveman tactics, but even the greatest cynic had to admire the way Clarke and the Flyers persisted despite not receiving much respect for their accomplishments.It always baffled me to see how few penalties were called against opponents for roughing up Clarke. Here was a guy deeply involved in the action whenever he was on the ice, but he rarely drew penalties. Bruin general manager Harry Sinden may not have been a Clarke lover, but said, &ldquo;No question he was a dirty player, but you could respect a guy like Clarke because he was so willing to take what he dished out. Look at his face. He didn&rsquo;t carve it up himself.&rdquo;Sinden now deals with Clarke on the GM level. Unlike some people who categorize all hockey players as uneducated louts, Sinden won&rsquo;t be surprised to find Clarke an intelligent, perceptive, innovative executive. Similar to most players of his era, Clarke dropped out of school after the 10th grade in Flin Flon. But I tell people that, in his way, he is as educated as someone with a degree from Harvard. During road trips Clarke&rsquo;s reading material usually stepped outside of sports and included best sellers and self-betterment books.Take a nostalgic trip through Clarke clips and you see stories referring to him as the Flyers&rsquo; &ldquo;heart and soul,&rdquo; their &ldquo;spirit,&rdquo; their &ldquo;Captain Marvel.&rdquo; Ed Snider is right: hockey has never had a harder worker. Nor has it had anyone who cared as much about the sport as Clarke does.As a player, Clarke was nerveless. The way he led many Philadelphia comebacks on the ice was remarkable. After Clarke rallied the Flyers to a tie at three games apiece with Calgary in the 1981 playoffs, Pat Quinn, then the team&rsquo;s coach, was moved to say, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the greatest clutch player the game has ever seen.&rdquo;Reminiscing about his career before his big night, Clarke said, &ldquo;I never felt any pressure when I played, even in Stanley Cup games. That was fun. But this (the retirement) ceremony is different. I&rsquo;m not much for speeches. Whatever I say, it will be brief. I don&rsquo;t want to put the fans to sleep.&ldquo;When they put my number up there, I don&rsquo;t know how I&rsquo;ll feel. A little funny, I guess. I always thought that was for the Howes and Richards. Me, I just played hard.&rdquo;And well. His fans regret that his distinguished career is over, but they are happy he is embarking on a meaningful new career. Still, they agree with Clarke when he was asked to summarize his 15-year career.&ldquo;It went too fast,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0010-02

Flyers Celebrate In Style For Mr. Heart And Soul

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011265/4938839-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toronto Maple Leaf veteran defenseman Borje Salming has had his name bantered about in a number of trade rumors.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;Winnipeg has put the whammy on Harold Ballard.Ballard, the colorful owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, thought he would finally win a championship, when his Hamilton Tiger Cats made it to the Grey Cup, the final of the Canadian Football League, Nov. 18. Unfortunately for Ballard, his team was throughly dominated 47-17 by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.And if that wasn&rsquo;t bad enough, the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League beat Ballard&rsquo;s other team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 the night before.Pity poor Harold. At least the Cats made it to the playoffs. If the Leafs continue on their present course, they&rsquo;re not going to make it.As the Leafs left for a three-game road trip, they took along a winless streak of 10 games, five of which came in a homestand at Maple Leaf Gardens. And, with only nine points, they were officially the worst team in the league.For Leaf coach Dan Maloney, who needed a few extra moments to compose himself after the Jets&rsquo; game, the postgame chats are becoming a painful rehash of things he&rsquo;s been saying for a few weeks.&ldquo;The best thing that could possibly happen is for us to get a few wins,&rdquo; Maloney said.There are others who are speculating that changes, either in the form of trades or call-ups from the minors, are needed to remedy the Leafs. Craig Muni, a defenseman whom the Leafs drafted 25th overall in 1980, was called up from St. Catharines of the American Hockey League to accompany the team on the road trip, but he is obviously not the answer.There has been much talk about dealing Leaf captain Rick Vaive, who was benched by Maloney in a game against Calgary, but has been the Leafs&rsquo; best offensive player since. Montreal was said to be interested, but Serge Savard, the general manager of the Canadiens, was quick to deny it. Regardless of who wants Vaive, the Leafs would have to receive a lot in return to consider parting with their three-time, 50-goal scorer.Borje Salming, one of the Leafs&rsquo; best-ever players, is another one who is believed to be on the trading block. While Salming was once of the top defensemen in the league, he has been wasted, partially because he&rsquo;s always had to cover up for mistakes made by others instead of being allowed to play his own, highly-skilled game. Ballard, who gave Salming a large contract against the advice of former Leaf general manager, Punch Im-lach, has always been against trading the talented Swede, but it seems that now is the time for letting the head takes precedence over the heart.One player who is having his problems but is unlikely to be traded is rookie Russ Courtnail, whom the Leafs drafted seventh overall in 1983. Courtnall, who was a high scorer in junior, has been struggling with only two goals in 17 games. He unleased part of his anxiety in the Jets&rsquo; game, when he pounded out Dale Hawerchuk. Granted, Hawerchuk is not the toughest player in the league, but the fact Courtnall is only 5-foot-10, 175 pounds (or so he&rsquo;s listed) and is not regarded as a fighter indicated that he was packing something behind his punches.&ldquo;Maybe it was a little frustration, but at the time I wasn&rsquo;t thinking about it,&rdquo; said Courtnall, adding that it was his first, &ldquo;stand up and throw &lsquo;em&rdquo; brawl.Courtnall, whose brother, Geoff, is a rookie with the Boston Bruins, said all of the players still feel they can win but some may be lacking confidence.When asked what would happen if the Leafs maintained their losing ways, Courtnall said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been in a situation like this and I couldn&rsquo;t tell you what will happen if it keeps up, but when teams continue to lose, they start making changes and that&rsquo;s when guys really get scared.&rdquo;LEAFLETS&mdash;Bill Stewart injured his ankle breaking up a fight between Borje Salming and Jim Korn in practice and he&rsquo;ll be out for another week. Peter Ihnacak re-injured his knee in the Leafs&rsquo; 4-3 loss to Los Angeles, Nov. 14, but it will only sideline him for about a week-&hellip;Bill Derlago did not skate in the warmup for the Kings&rsquo; game, and was only notified he was playing in the game 15 minutes before it started. When asked about the unusual happening, Leaf coach Dan Maloney said it was a &ldquo;misunderstanding.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Rick Vaive&rsquo;s consecutive point streak was halted at seven in the Jets&rsquo; game. The Leafs, coincidentally, have lost their last 11 games to the Jets, with their last victory, Dec. 19, 1981&hellip;Gary Leeman, called up from St. Catharines after a brief stint in the minors, earned two assists in his first game back (against L.A.) and was assessed a game miscondcuct after an extended fight against former Leaf, Laurie Boschman, in the Jets&rsquo; game&hellip;Ken Wregget continues to gain the majority of the starts. Allan Bester, the team&rsquo;s other rookie netminder, admits he&rsquo;s been struggling. &#9632;

f0012-01

Winnipeg Whammy Burns Ballard Bad

<div class="byline">Al Strachan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021061/4938870-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="394" height="460"></div>EVERY YEAR, THE National Hockey League makes some rule revisions. This year, for instance, one of the new rules says that the teams don&rsquo;t change ends for regular-season overtime.This rule came into being in the normal fashion. First, a problem was identified. In this case, some goalies were found to be chopping up the crease area once they realized that overtime was imminent. This made life difficult for the opposition goalie when the teams switched ends for overtime.Next, a solution was proposed to the league&rsquo;s officiating department. Don&rsquo;t change ends. Then the Rules Committee, composed mostly of general managers, approved the change. In the summer, the board of governors approved it and it became a rule.It&rsquo;s a relatively simple process and one to which the fans have a degree of access.When fans have ideas for rule changes, they can send their proposals to the GM of the local team. If he considers them worthwhile, he will submit them to the league by mid-January deadline. Fans who don&rsquo;t live in an NHL city can send their proposals to the NHL&rsquo;s New York office.There are, however, some rule changes that you don&rsquo;t need to submit because they&rsquo;re already under consideration.Buffalo Sabre general manager Scotty Bowman, one of the game&rsquo;s leading innovators, suggests a rule which would help cut down on fighting injuries and would take another step towards eliminating fighting altogether.Bowman says that in an altercation, as soon as one player&rsquo;s knee touches the ice, the fight must end. If a punch is thrown after that, so is the puncher&mdash;out of the game.&ldquo;Even professional boxers stop swinging when their opponent has one knee on the ground,&rdquo; says Bowman.Bowman, similar to many other GMs, is concerned about the number of hand and shoulder injuries due to fighting&mdash;especially injuries to quality players. If this rule was enacted, he says, any player can easily avoid a fight.Another idea proposed by Bowman is the elimination of player substitutions when the faceoff is in a neutral zone.If the faceoff is inside the blue line. Bowman says, there are obvious reasons why coaches might want to get their best faceoff men out there.But between the blue lines, the jockeying does little except slow the game. One coach sends out a line, the other matches it. The other coach tries to sneak out an extra player, the referee sends him back. Fans yawn.Just stick with the players who are out there, says Bowman. Once the puck is dropped, you can always change on the fly. Because the faceoff is in the neutral zone, every player has easy access to the bench and can get off quickly if he wants to.There has also been a suggestion that icing calls be limited to pucks shot from inside the defensive zone. The thinking is that once players are outside their own blue line, they don&rsquo;t ice the puck intentionally; they try to make a pass. If the pass goes astray enough to be called icing, the team has already been penalized by losing possession of the puck. Why not let the play continue?Other rule changes are suggested from time to time but don&rsquo;t make it. Broadcaster Danny Gallivan, for instance, has long been in favor of a delay-of-game penalty for any team which intentionally ices the puck too often&mdash;three times in one period for instance.There have also been movements to allow no substitutions at all during stoppages in play. That one was actually tried out during an exhibition season but the coaches didn&rsquo;t like it and it was dropped.And a couple of minor changes that wouldn&rsquo;t change the game except to help the officials run things more smoothly have repeatedly failed to gain support.One calls for a small hole in the glass so the referee can talk to the goal judge if necessary.Another suggests small red and green lights be attached to the top of the dasher boards right behind the goal. The lights would be synchronized with the larger red and green lights and would enable a referee both to keep his eyes on the play and to know what is happening with the goal judge&rsquo;s lights.He can more easily determine whether a puck entered the net before a period ended, and he can see whether or not the goal judge erred in putting on the red light when a puck hadn&rsquo;t fully crossed the goal line.Maybe next year. &#9632;

f0012-02

Want To Break A Rule? Just Call Your Local GM

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; string of losses on the road reached eight with successive setbacks in Calgary, Nov. 13, and Vancouver a day later.In Calgary, the Wings rallied for three, third-period goals, including a pair by John Ogrodnick, to take a 4-2 lead, only to have the Flames fire up three of their own. Paul Reinhart scored the winner with 12 seconds left in overtime.&ldquo;That was devastating, to lose like that in overtime when a tie would have been terrific for us,&rdquo; said coach Nick Polano.&ldquo;Tough one, eh?&rdquo; said veteran Darryl Sittier, who returned to the Detroit lineup for the first time since suffering a fractured cheekbone, Oct. 24 in Toronto.&ldquo;Unreal,&rdquo; added goalie Greg Stefan.&ldquo;It looked pretty good. I thought we were going to win that one,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said.Against Vancouver, the Wings allowed the league&rsquo;s worst team, recordwise, to pelt goalie Corrado Micalef with 41 shots en route to a 3-2 win.Compounding matters, a trade rumor cropped up suggesting the Wings dealing Ogrodnick to Buffalo for Jacques Cloutier, Paul Cyr and Hannu Virta. Wing general manager Jim Devellano strongly denied the rumor, and at least one Detroit player was aghast at the logistics of the possible trade.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t trade a 50-goal scorer like Johnny O. for two 10s,&rdquo; said Stefan, putting the report in perspective.The Wings would have to get substantially more from Buffalo than Cloutier, Cyr and Virta for the deal to be palatable.The Wings&rsquo; 4-11-1 start was magnified when they couldn&rsquo;t beat the Canucks, a team with only two wins in its first 16 games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who&rsquo;s struggling more, them or us,&rdquo; Polano said.&ldquo;It was the kind of game we wanted to play&mdash;keep it close, don&rsquo;t give them confidence and score when we get the chances. If I had to do it all over again. I&rsquo;d tell our team to play the same way. But the goals didn&rsquo;t go in.&ldquo;One of these days, the puck is going to start going in from everywhere for us. Until then, we have to maintain a good, positive attitude on this hockey team, stick together and get out of it. We&rsquo;ve done it before and we can do it again.&rdquo;The Wings were outshot 41-28 by the lowly Canucks and didn&rsquo;t score against a defense that had given up 99 goals, by far the most in the NHL, until the third period. By then, the Wings were two goals behind.And if it hadn&rsquo;t been for the work of Micalef in goal, the deficit easily could have been two or three times greater.The game marked the return of Tiger Williams to the city where he played the past four and a half seasons. In his much-publicized return, Williams was slotted on right wing with the team&rsquo;s top center, Steve Yzerman. Polano, hoping to capitalize on Williams&rsquo; motivation for the game, gave him plenty of ice time. Williams, who had only one goal and two assists in 16 games, couldn&rsquo;t have asked for a better opportunity to nick his former teammates.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;I wish I could have done more to help us get two points. I really appreciate Nick giving me the chance to look good and come out on top.&ldquo;It just didn&rsquo;t go our way,&rdquo; Micalef said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to break that goose egg on the road. I really felt we were going to do that tonight. Even when we were behind, I felt it was going to happen.&rdquo;WING NOTES&mdash;Captain Danny Gare suffered strained ligaments in his left thumb and was sidelined from seven to 10 days. Coach Nick Polano said rookie Shawn Burr, the team&rsquo;s No. 1 draft choice in 1984, would probably be returned to the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario League when Gare recovers-&hellip;Defenseman John Barrett, suffering from a deep charley horse, dressed but didn&rsquo;t play in Vancouver. He suffered the injury in his first game back (against Boston) from a broken right hand&hellip;Veteran defenseman Brad Park and Milan Chalupa also remained sidelined with injuries. &#9632;

Wing Woes Heightened On Trip Out West

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Super-agent Bill Watters is fed up with stories linking him with his erstwhile colleague&mdash;now foe&mdash;Al Eagleson. Now thriving with his own Toronto-based agency (Branada Sports), Watters singles out THE HOCKEY NEWS (Magazine) November interview with Eagle-son in which the union boss charges Watters with stimulating the controversial Sports Illustrated Eagleson expose. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s another Eagleson exaggeration,&rdquo; Watters tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;I had absolutely nothing to do with the story. Mark Mulvoy (STs managing editor) came to me to talk about the article and I said. &lsquo;No. You can talk to me, but I can&rsquo;t talk to you.&rsquo;&rdquo; Watters argues that he&rsquo;s &ldquo;had enough&rdquo; of Eagleson &ldquo;throwing my name around,&rdquo; adding: &ldquo;I find it distracting when my name is mentioned in untruths. And I&rsquo;m tired of my name being associated with Eagleson&rsquo;s. He is indulging me with his follies.&rdquo; Since splitting with the Eagle in 1980, Watters has amassed a stable of 75 NHL clients, including Rick Vaive, Barry Pederson and Tom Barrasso and has tilted with The Eagle ever since&mdash;to his annoyance. &ldquo;I find the whole subject of Alan Eagleson very boring,&rdquo; Watters concludes&hellip;Contrary to reports, New York rep Art Kaminsky says he is not moving away from the hockey business. &ldquo;Last year,&rdquo; Kaminsky tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;I did more NHL contracts than anyone but Norm Caplan (his partner, who recently died). Kaminsky has been touring the NHL circuit to reassure clients about his group&rsquo;s continued emphasis on hockey. &ldquo;Bob Murray (Boston), Rollie Thompson (junior circuit) and Daniel Sauve (Caplan&rsquo;s accountant) will be having larger roles,&rdquo; Kaminsky said. He denies suggestions that Gary Green will replace Caplan but adds that &ldquo;we&rsquo;re looking at one other person.&rdquo; An insider says Green was the first choice, but that the former Washington Cap coach backed off when it became obvious that entering the agent business would have meant an end to his lucrative television work.Charlie Simmer denies Califomia-based rumors that his wife, Terri, wanted out of L. A. because of a coolness on the part of some King wives toward her. &ldquo;That,&rdquo; says Simmer, &ldquo;had absolutely nothing to do with the move. The question itself is pretty ridiculous. It&rsquo;s the stupidest question I&rsquo;ve ever heard. I&rsquo;ve been asked a couple times and it&rsquo;s unimportant and untrue. We were happy in L.A. but it was a contract dispute (that caused me to leave).&rdquo;&hellip;Insiders view the North Stars&rsquo; promotion of Glen Sonmor to head coach as a stop-gap move until general manager Lou Nanne decides which direction, coach-wise, he plans to go. &ldquo;Sonmor is 57,&rdquo; points out one insider, &ldquo;and he doesn&rsquo;t need that (coaching) kind of pressure. &lsquo;,&rsquo; More than ever, the potential availability of Herb Brooks at the end of the season, when his contract with the New York Rangers expires, makes Brooks the heir apparent for the Minny job. Even if Brooks were to win the Stanley Cup, there are compelling familial reasons for him to consider the North Stars. Most of all, the death of his father&mdash;who had been close to his son, Dan&mdash;has left a void that can best be filled by Herb. &ldquo;My father was the truest definition of a surrogate,&rdquo; says Brooks. &ldquo;Now that he&rsquo;s not there, I start to feel the guilt.&rdquo;&hellip;John Chabot, who moved from the Canadiens to Penguins, says Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s basic problem is attitude. &ldquo;There are times,&rdquo; Chabot tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;when Guy just flies and we&rsquo;d all look at him in amazement. Other times, he just doesn&rsquo;t do a thing.&rdquo; Chabot doubts that the Habs would ever deal Lafleur&hellip;A Toronto rumor has Harold Ballard, Jr., son of the great man, as being a longshot possibility to fill the p.r. void in the Leafs&rsquo; front office, created by Stan Obodiac&rsquo;s death. Harold, Jr. reportedly advised Dad he&rsquo;d only take the job if Senior departed from custom and paid big bucks&hellip;A couple of general managers are beefing about the magnetic nets and how they are too easily pushed off their spots by cheating goalies&hellip;Clif Fletcher&rsquo;s new exec contract with the Flames is described as &ldquo;multi-multi-multi year.&rdquo;Penguin boss Paul Martha says he didn&rsquo;t set any targets for the team this year, for either attendance, points or other factors. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d done that in the past,&rdquo; he allows. &ldquo;This year we dug in and said we&rsquo;ll put a competitive team on the ice and see what happens.&rdquo;&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; Bill Laforge gets riled at suggestions that he&rsquo;s pursuing a Broad Street Bully-type of hockey. &ldquo;If I can get guys like Thomas Gradin and Patrik Sundstrom to play tough,&rdquo; Laforge tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be happy. But I&rsquo;d have to be Houdini to make us like the Broad Street Bullies.&rdquo;Agent Larry Rauch is miffed over a New York Times piece detailing the jumping of his former client, Pierre Larouche, from his stable to Rob Ingraham, who previously repped only one NHLer, Barry Beck. The inference in Craig Woolfs article is that Rauch was insensitive to Larouche&rsquo;s needs. But Rauch claims that whenever Larouche visited New York last summer from Pittsburgh, Larry put him up at his digs and massaged his ego. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; snaps Rauch, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m portrayed as a cold-assed bastard who is only interested in dollar signs. &ldquo;Another agent, a competitor of Rauch, says he was amazed at the tilt of the Times piece. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot more to the Larouche contract than has been written,&rdquo; the agent tells BLUELINES&hellip;Word among his peers is that Jacques Lemaire has done a first-rate job of turning around the Canadiens. His players agree. &ldquo;He has the game so thought out,&rdquo; says defenseman Rick Green, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s almost down to playing it on a chess board.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>&ldquo;The fans love him. The other night 16,033 fans left here and they weren&rsquo;t disappointed. Unfortunately, Mario hasn&rsquo;t scored at home, but the first two goals he scored on the road people have seen over and over on replays. &ldquo;&mdash;Penguin PR director Terry Schiffhauer on Mario Lemieux.&ldquo;The first goal he got opening night, the chants of &lsquo;Ed-die&rsquo; were reminiscent of &lsquo;Tony&rsquo; when Tony Esposito was here. It&rsquo;s funny, but they&rsquo;ve never picked up on any other players like that until Eddie got here. His line with Troy Murray and Curt Fraser has been one of our top lines all year. &ldquo;&mdash;Black Hawk PR director Jim De Maria on Ed Olczyk.EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;While this year&rsquo;s top three draft choices may not be tearing up the National Hockey League, they seem to be shrugging off the pressure which haunt many No. 1 selections. Mario Lemieux has become the center of the Pittsburgh franchise and Ed Olczyk is making believers in Chicago.The same holds true for Kirk Muller in New Jersey. Through his first 13 NHL games, the 18-year-old forward has made a successful shift from center to left wing while playing on a par with the two big names that surrounded him in the previous draft. Muller registered four goals and six assists in 13 games, keeping him among the top five Devil scorers.&ldquo;Idon&rsquo;tknow what fans&rsquo; expectations are, but they&rsquo;re seeing a player that plays with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and intensity,&rdquo; said coach Doug Carpenter. &ldquo;Kirk is progressing. He&rsquo;s getting better and he&rsquo;s getting to know the league and what his own strengths and weaknesses are. He&rsquo;s gotten his feet wet in tight games and loose games.&rdquo;And so far?&ldquo;So far it&rsquo;s been fun,&rdquo; said Muller. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t really felt the pressure as far as it bugging me. People are going to watch what I do, but if we can get back on the winning track like we were early, nobody will be concerned.&rdquo;According to his teammates, Muller is living up to his expectations. No one seemed concerned.&ldquo;I think what impresses me most is when he has the puck he&rsquo;s obviously a good player, but you can really tell the great players when they&rsquo;re without the puck,&rdquo; said captain and linemate Mel Bridgman. &ldquo;He has a lot of hockey sense. For an 18-year-old he knows the game so well. He has an awareness of where everybody is on the ice. He has a better knowledge of the game than most of the guys on this team. I&rsquo;d rank him third or fourth on this team in hockey sense already.&rdquo;Top draft choices tend to be rated by their scoring accomplishments, as well as comparisons with the other players in their draft. Muller has proven his ability in the NHL on three counts. He is scoring points, although not at a furious pace; he has made the jump to left wing and he has contributed defensively.&ldquo;A few times this year it was our line&rsquo;s job to watch Mike Bossy and Rick Vaive&rsquo;s line,&rdquo; said Muller. &ldquo;You get some top right wingers that are good scorers and you tend to think of them and you don&rsquo;t take scoring chances. Just because you don&rsquo;t score in every game doesn&rsquo;t mean you&rsquo;re not contributing.&rdquo;&ldquo;A lot of things I see him do, maybe people don&rsquo;t realize,&rdquo; added Bridgman. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s an exciting player. Kirk has a great attitude. When he reaches 20 he&rsquo;s going to be a great player. He&rsquo;s willing to learn. That&rsquo;s probably his greatest asset.&rdquo;After centering a line at Guelph in junior, Muller has learned to play on the left side.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t play the same style as I played in junior,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s good for now to get adjusted to playing up here. I was the playmaker on my line in junior, but here Mel is the one developing plays. I just break for the opening.&rdquo;While he has voiced concern about the troubles plaguing John MacLean, the Devils&rsquo; top pick in 1983, general manager Max McNab has given Muller high grades and is pleased with his early consistency.&ldquo;Kirk is showing good strides,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very dependable defensively and his offense, I would say, is on target. He will even improve in that area. It&rsquo;s just a matter of getting to know the league, the defensemen and what you can and cannot do in this league. We&rsquo;re very pleased with Kirk&rsquo;s performance.&rdquo;Since training camp opened, Muller has heard nothing but comparisons with Lemieux and talk of pressure in pro hockey. He has handled it all well.&ldquo;People compare players, like Mario and I going against each other,&rdquo; said Muller. &ldquo;But we each have our own style. Any pressure on me this year is from myself, not from the media and fans. As far as the other rookies are concerned, I more or less worry about my job and contributing to this team.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Hannu Kamppuri was sent to Fort W ayne on Nov. 14 for 10 days. &ldquo;The move was made strictly for playing time for Hannu,&rdquo; said general manager Max McNab. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not unhappy or dissatisfied with him.&rdquo; Kamppuri was 0-3 with a 6.75 GAA in three games&hellip;Doug Sulliman brought life to the Devils&rsquo; power play with three goals in as many games. Sulliman&rsquo;s season goal total of six in 13 games matches his entire 1983-84 figure in 67 games for Hartford&hellip;Bruce Driver stopped Wayne Gretzky cold on a third-period rush in Nov. 8 clash at the Meadowlands. Gretzky was so frustrated he punched the Devil rookie in the face and took a roughing penalty. However, Gretzky had the last laugh by setting up the winning goal at 19:54 of the third period&hellip;The Devils drew only 14,848 to see the Oilers equal their unbeaten record&hellip;Jan Ludvig, with only two goals and one assist in 12 games, suffered nasty cuts from a skate blade in the Edmonton contest and required 20 stitches. He missed the following game when his eye swelled shut.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011243/4938949-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="586" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kirk Muller, the Devils&rsquo; top pick in &lsquo;84, has adapted well early in his pro career.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0014-01

Muller Showing Progress Much To Devils’ Delight

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;A year ago, when they emerged as the best defensive team in the National Hockey League, the Washington Capitals shut out eight opponents and limited 16 others to one goal. After 14 games this season, Washington had been unable to hold a single foe under two goals.Coach Bryan Murray, who tried to boost offensive production with the ultimate aim of contending with Edmonton for the Stanley Cup, reversed his tracks and returned to a defensive orientation, figuring that the way things were going, the team wasn&rsquo;t likely to beat anyone.Despite the offensive noises, Washington was averaging slightly fewer goals than last season, 3.79 per game compared to 3.85. Defensively, the figures were stunning, 3.71 against last year&rsquo;s top-ranked 2.83.&ldquo;Maybe we&rsquo;ve had too many people tell us we should score more goals,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;What we really need to do is go back to what was winning games for us&mdash;defense&mdash;and the goals should come anyway.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked about the way we&rsquo;ve played, the number of times we&rsquo;ve gambled and how often our forwards have left our defensemen alone. We have to tighten up, be more responsible in our end and check better in the neutral zone.&rdquo;The most glaring deficiency defensively was in the area of penalty killing. Last season the Capitals permitted only 39 power-play goals in 293 opportunities, for an 86.7 per cent success ratio that was the league&rsquo;s best in five years.Over the first 14 games of this campaign, the Capitals were beaten 20 times in 62 chances. Extend that over a full season and it comes to 114 goals&mdash;which would constitute a league record&mdash;in 354 opportunities.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011174/4938980-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="594" height="1576"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Capitals figure Gaetan Duschene&rsquo;s return will shore up the penalty killing.</figcaption></div>After watching Minnesota score in two extra-man situations to pull out a 3-3 tie on Nov. 13, Murray was beginning to wonder whether the problem could be corrected. One score came after Larry Murphy was stripped of the puck skating out of the Washington end; on the other, Rod Langway fell while backpedalling against Neal Broten.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like we&rsquo;re jinxed in penalty killing,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;On the first one, we&rsquo;re going out of the zone and Larry tries to make a play instead of playing it safe. On the last one, Rod falls down and the guy walks in.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had that type of misfortune in that particular area. We&rsquo;re just not doing the things we&rsquo;ve shown we&rsquo;re capable of doing&mdash;bouncing the puck off the glass down the ice and standing up on defense.&rdquo;Some of the problems related to the penalties themselves. The Capitals were committing some rather foolish fouls, especially in the third period. They were a contributing factor in a situation that saw Washington play four ties, with the opposition rallying for the last score in each case.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really bothersome,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like last year, when we had far more advantages than the teams we played. Maybe we&rsquo;re not as responsible as we had been in regard to our positioning. We seem to be reaching and pulling from behind.&rdquo;Murray was hoping that the return of Gaetan Duchesne, out since the opener with a broken left hand, would help to turn things around. Duchesne and Doug Jarvis were an outstanding penaltykilling pair a year ago.&ldquo;I know he&rsquo;s a very valuable player,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;His skating ability and quickness are a big factor. We have to play somebody like that with Doug to make it an aggressive type of system.&ldquo;Bengt Gustafsson (out until Christmas with a hamstring pull) and Gaetan Duchesne are just as important to the Washington Capitals as any individual players in the league to their teams.&rdquo;CAPPING IT OFF&mdash;Lou Frances-chetti scored his first NHL goal in three seasons on his first shot after being recalled from Binghamton. Two games later, he was returned to the Whalers&hellip;Paul Gardner&rsquo;s goal in a 2-2 tie at New Jersey was his 400th NHL point. &#9632;

f0015-01

Caps Reverse Tracks And Turn To Defense

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;A day after telling a local television reporter that it was unlikely the Montreal Canadiens would be making trades in the near future, managing director Serge Savard dispatched the 12th player from the team since he&rsquo;s been in charge.Center John Chabot was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Ron Flockhart in a one-for-one deal which should benefit both teams if the early results are any indication.Chabot, the 40th choice overall in 1980, had two goals in his debut with the Penguins, Nov. 10, while Flockhart picked up a goal for the Canadiens in a 3-3 tie in Calgary the same night. Flockhart, who was signed by Philadelphia as a free agent in 1980, netted his second goal of the season and it was the game winner in Montreal&rsquo;s 4-2 upset triumph in Edmonton, Nov. 14.&ldquo;Flockhart is a fast center,&rdquo; said Canadien coach Jacques Lemaire. &ldquo;We know he scored his share of goals in Philly and last year he scored 27 goals.&ldquo;Some of our wingers will get better if we have speed at center. When you have speed at center, the center will cany the puck and make the defenseman back up, that gives a little more room to the wingers. Maybe that&rsquo;s what we need.&rdquo;Flockhart arrived in Montreal just as the Canadiens were leaving on their three-game trip to western Canada. which started with the tie in Calgary, continued with a 5-3 victory in Vancouver, Nov. 12, and ended with the victory in Edmonton, utilized on a line with Mark Hunter on the right wing and Mike McPhee at left. Flockhart appeared to fit in to Lemaire&rsquo;s system.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got good wheels,&rdquo; said linemate Hunter, who set his Flockhart up for his first two goals in a Montreal uniform.McPhee, who game by game solidifies his position, also seemed satisfied with his new center.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always like playing with Mark,&rdquo; said McPhee. &ldquo;Mark and I are the same type of hockey players&mdash;grinders in the comers. Flockhart compliments our style. He&rsquo;s a playmaker and skater type. We&rsquo;ll try to go into the comer and set him up in the slot or get him coming in behind to get the puck out.&rdquo;Lemaire utilized Flockhart in both power-play and penalty-killing situations in his debut with Montreal. Flockhart, who had become the third- and fourth-line center with the Penguins, had been killing penalties for ex-Montreal coach Bob Berry and felt that a trade might be forthcoming.&ldquo;This wasn&rsquo;t a shock like the first one,&rdquo; said Flockhart, who went to the Penguins last October along with Andy Brickley and Mark Taylor in the transaction which sent Rich Sutter to the Philadelphia Flyers.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t playing much in Pittsburgh. I was killing penalties which was unusual for me. I talked to my agent and he told me there was a trade in the wind.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m taking this in stride, and I&rsquo;m here to help the team any way I can.&rdquo;The Canadiens have been looking for speed ever since they dealt Keith Acton away to Minnesota along with Mark Napier in the deal which brought Bobby Smith to Montreal last October. Savard has admitted at times this season that the Canadiens missed the speed of Acton, and it was clear that it was a missing element in Chabot&rsquo;s game, although he compensated with deft puck handling.Chabot&rsquo;s departure follows that of Acton, Napier, Robert Picard, Doug Wickenheiser, Greg Paslawski, Gilbert Delorme. Perry Turnbull, Rick Wamsley, Bill Root, Richard Sevigny and Mark Holden from the Montreal organization. There have been recurring rumors in Montreal that some other Montreal players will be en route to Toronto, where Root and onetime Hab center Dan Daoust are, perhaps in exchange for Rick Vaive, but Savard won&rsquo;t tip his hand on a possible deal with the Leafs.Among those speculated on their way out of Montreal if a deal is consummated are Steve Shutt, who isn&rsquo;t playing much, Kent Carlson, who has been converted to a left winger but did not play on the western swing and Ric Nattress, who was a semi-regular on defense last season but is playing in Sherbrooke this year and has been one of the better players on the American Hockey League farm team.Shutt has been offered around to various clubs during the past two seasons but the asking price has been too high for the one-time 60-goal scorer, according to one genera) manager. Savard met with Shutt in Edmonton because the latter was upset with his lack of playing time and the fact he has been a designated sitter in both Vancouver and Edmonton, but he received no assurances he would be returning to the lineup. &#9632;

Flockhart Gives Habs Center With Speed…

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011045/4939035-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The Pittsburgh Penguins have obtained fancy passing for fancy skating.Pittsburgh acquired slick-passing center John Chabot from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for smooth-skating center Ron Flockhart, Nov 9.&ldquo;We wanted someone that could step in and give us a little help, not only offensively but defensively,&rdquo; said Penguin coach Bob Berry. &ldquo;I had John Chabot in Montreal the last couple of years, and we like his style.&ldquo;As far as Ronnie&rsquo;s concerned, Montreal was very, very interested in him. Montreal is a place where if you can skate, they like you. I think it&rsquo;s a very good deal for us and a very good deal for Montreal. I&rsquo;m pleased to have John come here, and I&rsquo;m very happy for Ronnie to be going to Montreal.&rdquo;Flockhart, 24, came to Pittsburgh in October, 1983 from Philadelphia along with Andy Brickley and Mark Taylor for Rich Sutter and an exchange of draft choices. In 68 games last season, Flockhart scored 27 goals and 18 assists. However, this season he registered only six assists while centering the third or fourth line and killing penalties.The drafting of centers Mario Lemieux and Roger Belanger and the presence of 51-goal scorer Mike Bullard limited Flockhart&rsquo;s playing time.The 22-year-old Chabot was Montreal&rsquo;s third choice in the 1980 entry drft, He was the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player 1980-81 when he scored 34 goals and I assists.A lot of the people in Pittsburgh haven&rsquo;t heard of the guy,&rdquo; said general manager Eddie Johnston, who engineered the trade for Chabot. &ldquo;But if your look at last year&rsquo;s production, he ended up with 18 goals and 43 points.Lemieux was getting a lot of ice time along with Bullard and barring the injury (strained knee ligaments) to Belanger, he had taken over the third (center) spot. We were strictly regulating Flockhart to just killing penalties and once in a while we&rsquo;d put him on a power play.&rdquo;The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Chabot is being counted on by the Penguins as a defensive center.&ldquo;When Belanger got hurt, we felt that we wanted sort of a defensive guy that&rsquo;s good on the draws,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;But the thing is with a guy like Chabot, the wingers are going to see the puck a little bit more and we&rsquo;re going to create a lot more opportunities for our team in general.&rdquo;In his first game as a Penguin, Nov. 10, Chabot scored two goals against the kw York Islanders while centering a of left winger Jim Hamilton and right winger Doug Shedden.&ldquo;It was nice to get a couple of goals, but it would have been a lot nicer if we would have won,&rdquo; Chabot said after the 5-4 loss in Uniondale, NY.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that he&rsquo;s a smart player,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;A lot of people in the province of Quebec and the Montreal organization and, in general, in the draft a couple of years ago compared him to Lemieux as far as handling the puck.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping that he&rsquo;s just going to give us that little shot we&rsquo;ve been missing by losing Belanger and give us a little help down the middle.&rdquo;Chabot&rsquo;s weakness reportedly is Flockhart&rsquo;s strength&mdash;skating.&ldquo;I know that and I&rsquo;ll have to work hard every practice, every shift to improve that,&rdquo; Chabot said.Chabot had one goal and four assists at the time of the trade.&ldquo;I have to be more consistent,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Some nights I&rsquo;m very good and some nights I&rsquo;m not good at all.&ldquo;But Bob Berry was always honest with me and I really respect the man and I will enjoy playing for him again.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good feeling because Mr. Berry and Mr. Johnston have confidence in me. I&rsquo;m going to prove I can help the Penguins.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Center Roger Belanger was expected to be out for three weeks with strained knee ligaments. Right winger Rick Kehoe was released from the hospital and is expected to rest the pinched nerve in his neck before deciding whether to attempt to play again. He missed 23 games with the same injury last season. Center Dave Hannan was returned to Baltimore of the American Hockey League. &#9632;

f0016-01

…While Penguins Like Chabot’s Versatility

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div>ST. LOUIS-&mdash;At the age of 23, Doug Wickenheiser has developed into a solid defensive center and penalty killer. Even if he never becomes a big scoring threat, he is gifted enough in those two areas to earn a nice living in the National Hockey League.But Wickenheiser&rsquo;s ability to check and kill penalties was not what convinced most NHL teams that he was the best player available in the 1980 draft. His popularity was based on the 89 goals he scored for the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League.The Blues, similar to the Montreal Canadiens who drafted Wickenheiser first overall in &lsquo;80 and then dealt him to St. Louis in December, 1983, would like to see him rediscover that knack for scoring. They&rsquo;d like to see him become a little selfish and shoot the puck instead of passing it so much.&ldquo;When I first came up, I didn&rsquo;t have a lot of confidence,&rdquo; Wickenheiser said. &ldquo;I thought it would be better if I passed off to someone else. That way, if they didn&rsquo;t score, it was sort of like their problem. After awhile, it became like a habit. It was almost as if I was shooting as a last resort.&rdquo;Five seasons after Regina, he hasn&rsquo;t completely shaken that reluctance to shoot.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been telling me since last year to shoot more,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s still a lot of times when I don&rsquo;t. They&rsquo;re still trying to drill it into my head. Maybe now it&rsquo;s starting to get through a bit. In some situations, I&rsquo;m looking to shoot instead of pass.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of my big assets, and I&rsquo;ve got to use it. Everybody tells me that, and finally it&rsquo;s starting to get through my thick skull.&rdquo;So far this season, Wickenheiser has centered the Blues&rsquo; checking line&mdash;a roll filled that season by Doug Gilmour. But he and linemate Jorgen Pettersson and Mark Reeds showed they can provide some offense when they combined for five goals in the Blues&rsquo; 6-2 victory over Pittsburgh, Nov. 8. Pettersson scored a hat trick and Reeds and Wickenheiser scored a goal apiece.Three nights later, Wickenheiser scored the Blues&rsquo; only goal in a 1-1 tie against the Bruins in Boston.The goal was his fourth of the season, which suggests that he won&rsquo;t have a problem for passing last season&rsquo;s total of 12.&ldquo;Everybody wants to score&mdash;that&rsquo;s common knowledge;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re known for scoring all the time, I guess you expect to keep doing it. But I really haven&rsquo;t scored the way I should and the way I want me to. So they&rsquo;ve got me doing something to help the team in a different way. The results may not show up in the stats sheet, but I think they&rsquo;re still there and I can get the satisfaction of knowing I&rsquo;ve done my job well.&rdquo;Wickenheiser and his partner on the penalty-killing unit, Reeds, have been trying to produce more offense in shorthanded situations. Last season, the Blues gave up 16 shorthanded goals and scored only four themselves.&ldquo;Just looking around at other teams in the league, they seem to have the attitude that just because you&rsquo;re killing a penalty, why shouldn&rsquo;t you try to score a goal?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It helps you defensively, because the other team may hang back a bit if they&rsquo;re afraid of you scoring a shor-thanded goal. They&rsquo;ll still come at you, but they might not send that fourth guy into the slot. And that helps you kill the penalty.&rdquo;After 15 games, the Blues had only one shorthanded goal&mdash;by Pat Hickey&mdash;but the overall effectiveness of the penalty-killing unit had increased dramatically compared to last season.For Wickenheiser, nothing surpasses the good feeling that comes from killing a penalty.&ldquo;As good as it feels to score a goal, it&rsquo;s just as nice when you come off the ice after killing a penalty and the fans are on their feet cheering,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everybody wants to get cheered like that.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;Although the Blues beat Pittsburgh and tied Boston, those results were mixed in with lopsided losses to New York Islanders (6-3), Philadelphia (6-0) and Quebec (7-3). Goaltender Rick Wamsley, playing regularly because of a back injury to Mike Liut, was, like his teammates, inconsistent. &#9632;

Blues Want Wickenheiser To Act Selfishly

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01945/4939121-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine, left, and Pat Flatley, right, of the U.S. and Canadian Olympic prog-are two shining examples of the benefits rams, respectively.</figcaption></div>The National Hockey League&rsquo;s leading rookie scorer calls it the smart alternativeCarey Wilson is talking about the Canadian Olympic hockey team.The last player released from Canada&rsquo;s Canada Cup team gives it a ringing endorsement.James Patrick is talking about the Canadian Olympic hockey team, too.The two young stars of the former Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders made an immediate impact in last year&rsquo;s playoffs.Pat Flatley and Pat LaFontaine made their marks after graduating from the Canadian and U.S. Olympic teams, respectively.In Canada, in a year when the Olympic team consists of one coach, three tournaments and a list of players, the most effective advertising for its continuing program comes from all their graduates who made it in the NHL this season.Every time Wilson has a big game for the Calgary Flames, it is &ldquo;former Olympian&rdquo; Carey Wilson that people read about in the papers. The same for Patrick and Gord Sherven and, for that matter, the same for all 14 Canadian Olympic graduates and 10 U.S. Olympic graduates now playing in the NHL.The highest rookie scorers&mdash;Wilson and LaFontaine&mdash;were Olympians. The most effective defensemen&mdash;atrick and Chris Chelios&mdash;were Olympians. Three of the top rookie goaltenders&mdash;Mario Gosselin, Darren Eliot and Marc Behrend&mdash;were Olympians.Suddenly, the Olympic programs, which once kept a lower profile than John Ziegler, are big news.This is an especially significant tum-of-events for the Canadian Olympic program. Traditionally, the U.S. colleges funnelled their top players towards their Olympic program. As a public relations coup. The Miracle on Ice in 1980 did more for U.S. hockey than Where&rsquo;s The Beef? did for hamburger sales.In Canada, in the years between the 1968 and 1980 Games, things were different.Canada, tired of competing against the so-called amateurs from the Eastern Bloc, simply chose not to compete in Olympic hockey. Since then, the Canadian Olympic program has faced an uphill p.r. battle. The 1980 team was supposed to be the start of an ongoing Olympic program. It wasn&rsquo;t. When the Olympics ended, so did the program. Coaches Tom Watt and Lome Davis found jobs in pro hockey and Clare Drake returned to the University of Alberta.Now, however, the Canadian Olympic program is making some headway. Starting next season, a permanent Olympic-team-in-training will take up residence in Calgary with its sights set on the next winter Olympics, to be held in the Stampede City in 1988. The presence of Sam Pollock&mdash;former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; general manager, now the head of Hockey Canada&rsquo;s Olympic Committee&mdash;lends considerable prestige to the team. In Dave King, the program has an effective, young coach. In Wilson, Patrick, Flatley and others, the team has flesh-and-blood proof of what the Olympic alternative can do for a young player.&ldquo;The success they (the former Olympians) are having is doing us a lot of good,&rdquo; admits Pollock. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the points we raised at our last meeting.&rdquo;Many of Canada&rsquo;s Olympians describe the program as a bonafide alternative for young players.&ldquo;Some junior players can step into the NHL at 18 or 19 and play right away,&rdquo; says Wilson. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t. I didn&rsquo;t want to turn pro until I was ready to play. Going the Olympic route helps a player hone his skills. You&rsquo;re that much more prepared, physically and mentally and you&rsquo;ve matured. You have an easier time adjusting. Plus, you don&rsquo;t have the burden of going to the minors or riding the bench.&ldquo;When I was drafted (by Chicago), they had four pretty good centers, plus Troy Murray and Ken Yaremchuk, coming up. I figured my chances were pretty slim.&rdquo;Patrick, the Rangers&rsquo; first-round choice in the 1981 draft, played two years at North Dakota before joining the Olympic team. He too believes he made the right decision by putting off a pro career until he was ready to step into the NHL.&ldquo;The first month and a half at North Dakota, I really struggled,&rdquo; says Patrick. &ldquo;The skaters were as fast as the NHL and, if I was struggling there, I knew there was no way I could have played in the NHL. I learned a lot and enjoyed school and the social life. I wanted to go to school.&rdquo;Wilson, whose rights were acquired by the Flames in a trade for Denis Cyr, provided another sound argument: The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games, something that will be enhanced by the fact that the 1988 Olympics will be held in Calgary, the first time the Winter Games have ever been held in Canada.&ldquo;The experience of the Olympics themselves was well worth putting off a pro career for,&rdquo; says Wilson. &ldquo;When I look back on it five or six years from now, there&rsquo;s no doubt that I&rsquo;ll be darn glad I went. I&rsquo;ll have had a few years in the NHL and I won&rsquo;t be saying to myself, &lsquo;I wish I&rsquo;d gone to the Olympics. Here comes another year of pro hockey.&rsquo;&ldquo;The way I see it, it can&rsquo;t hurt you. You&rsquo;re not going backwards. By having a good year with the Olympic team, you can make back a few of the dollars you sacrificed by not turning pro right away.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

Road To Olympus Paved With Examples

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div>Dave King is feeling less like a coach and more like a travelling salesman these days.One weekend he&rsquo;s at Michigan State, trying to sell Canada&rsquo;s Olympic hockey program to highly-rated Craig Simpson. The next weekend, he&rsquo;s at North Dakota talking to center Perry Berezan. The week after that he&rsquo;s at Rensellaer Polytechnical Institute, selling goalie Darren Puppa on the benefits of Olympic hockey.The names and locations change, but not the sales pitch. Finally, Dave King has a product to sell. Finally, after years of debate, finger pointing and politicking, Canada has an ongoing Olympic program.King is the on-going coach, on-going general manager, on-going scout and the on-going chief recruiter for Team Canada. Sometimes, he even answers his own telephone.Right now, he is Team Canada, and lists of names on scattered pieces of paper on his desk are his players. But that will all change soon. That will change when a Canadian team is put together for the Spengler Cup in Switzerland. That will change when a Canadian team is put together to be overmatched against the touring Moscow Dynamo Club led by goalie Vladimir Myshkin.The process of icing Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team for the 1988 Games in Calgary began long ago. Now it is reaching the fruition stages.&ldquo;Finally,&rdquo; said King, &ldquo;we have something tangible. This is no mythical team strictly for recruiting purposes. It&rsquo;s tough to sell a dream. This is easier to sell.&ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t help ourselves by going out and doing this, no one else will help us.&rdquo;Much of the selling is new to King, a career coach, who finds himself not coaching actively for the first time in several seasons. He is away from his Calgary home four days each week, scouting collegiate games on both sides of the border, junior games and midget games across Canada. If he hasn&rsquo;t seen every player worth seeing, he will. If he hasn&rsquo;t already got involved with a frequent flyer program he should. A free flight to Hawaii may only be a few campuses away.King is hardly treated with open arms when he steps onto a college campus. Coaches fear him because they feel he is stealing their players. He says he is offering an alternative, an opportunity for the player to grow. Considering the success of both U.S. and Canadian Olympic players in the NHL this season, King may not be that far off.&ldquo;The coaches are concerned, but they&rsquo;re no different than anyone else,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;But the solution is not theirs and it&rsquo;s not ours. In the end, the choice has to be made by the player. We&rsquo;re telling the players they have to be honest with themselves. They have to ask these questions: How good am I now? How much better will I get through this program? What is the best option for me? Ultimately, it&rsquo;s the player&rsquo;s right to play where he wants.&rdquo;King would like to see potential Olympians in Calgary, when he begins with a full-time team in training camp next August. The formation of this team, which will play major tournaments, and international schedule and exhibition games with university and NHL teams, is coming together a year ahead of plan. Originally, the full-time team wasn&rsquo;t to be formed until the 1986-87 season.King cautions, though, that there is no guarantee that the players who play with Team Canada this year, or begin next year with the team, will necessarily be the ones who represent Canada in the Olympics. The search for talent will continue, right up until the Games, and the attempts to allow professionals into the Games will also continue.Still, there are some problems with the Olympic program. Problems, such as timing. A Canadian team will play Moscow Dynamo, first place in the Soviet Union&rsquo;s first division, in a crosscountry tour beginning in Halifax on Dec. 26. But the players who will represent Canada are only a handful of those King would have liked to see in the lineup. The problem is, both Canadian and American university teams are playing games during this period. The best junior players have already been loaned to Team Canada for the world junior championship, under coach Terry Simpson. That doesn&rsquo;t leave much to play against the Soviets&rsquo; top team.The team will likely consist of Canadian college players, but the team will differ most nights, depending on which schools are playing.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the ideal situation,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;But for identification purposes, it may be. If a guy is out to lunch, he&rsquo;ll stick out like a sore thumb. We&rsquo;ll struggle to play against them, but people like to watch the Russians and they&rsquo;ll be seeing some of the best.&rdquo;As a measuring stick, King is hoping to bring back 1984 Olympian Darren Lowe, who failed in his tryout with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It&rsquo;s unlikely Lowe will stick around for the 1988 Games, but for now he&rsquo;ll come in handy. Just like he did in Sarajevo.The players who will join King in Calgary next April will be treated much the same as college players. Most will be expected to continue their education. Most will be working under a scholarship&mdash;or some form of salary&mdash;system, depending on the individual circumstance. The junior-aged players would be expected to attend high school. Ideally, the college players would attend the University of Calgary, Mount Royal College or the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.For Bobby Joyce of North Dakota and John Cullen of Boston University and Myles O&rsquo;Connor of Notre Dame College in Saskatchewan, their names are among the many on Dave King&rsquo;s lists.No longer is he selling the dream he once sold. Now he has a product, too. &#9632;

Dave King Out Hustling The Olympic Ideal

<div class="byline">BY MIKE MILO</div>Given the broad spectrum of professional opportunities now available to America&rsquo;s elite hockey players, the makeup of United States Olympic team will always be subject to the four-year cycle of the Games.It&rsquo;s a phenomenom the United States hasn&rsquo;t really had to deal with too much in the past because, not so long ago, the country&rsquo;s best players still weren&rsquo;t good enough to be able to choose between a pro career and the Olympic experience.So to ensure a regular crop of international-calibre players, the Amateur Hockey Association of the U.S. (AHAUS) has made a commitment to a strong, developmental program at the grass roots level.&ldquo;Our program is designed to develop more and better hockey players,&rdquo; said Art Berglund, a former scout with the St. Louis Blues who assumed the newly created full-time position as AHAUS director of international activities in July.&ldquo;The best things we have going for us are our Olympic training centers in Colorado Springs (CO) and Lake Placid (NY). They allow us to expose our top players, potential Olympians, to top-level coaching as well as the Olympic ideals.&rdquo;Each of the last five summers, the top 15- and 16-year-old players from across the country have come together at Colorado Springs for midget elite camps.&ldquo;These give us a chance to know who the players are,&rdquo; said Berglund. &ldquo;These players become prime candidates for future national junior teams.&rdquo;The next step up the elite ladder is the junior team, which competes in the world championships each Christmas. This year, the Team USA juniors will journey to Finland.This year&rsquo;s junior team will be coached by 1981 Olympic assistant coaches Doug Woog and Dave Peterson.&ldquo;In August, while the team was being selected at Lake Placid, we played three games against the Finns,&rdquo; said Walter Bush, Jr., vice-presidentchairman of the AHAUS International Council and a man who has been involved in U.S. international hockey since 1951. &ldquo;TheFinnshadl2players from last year&rsquo;s second-place team and we were 1-0-2 against them. There are still four spots open on that team.&rdquo;After the junior team comes the annual National Sports Festival, a multi-sports event that rotates around the country. Next summer, the festival will be held in Baton Rouge, LA. For hockey, the top 80 players, mostly collegians, train and play a four-team, round-robin tournament. In 1983, the Olympic team was selected from this competition.&ldquo;This is where we have to hit the age break at the right time,&rdquo; said Bush, the 1973 Lester Patrick Trophy winner who left his position as vicepresident of the Minnesota North Stars in July to devote more time to amateur hockey and business interests. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t keep a player from turning pro a couple of years before the Olympics.&rdquo;Each April, the U.S. is also represented in the world championships by a team made up mostly of NHLers whose teams are not in the playoffs, though exceptional young amateur players such as Mark Johnson, Phil Housley and Tom Hirsch gained top international experience before joining the pro ranks. Though the professionals are not potential Olympians (under the present eligibility rules), this team is responsible for protecting the U.S.&rsquo;s seed in the Olympic Games.&ldquo;Their (the pros&rsquo;) performance in Vienna in 1987 will directly affect us in the 1988 Olympics,&rdquo; said Berglund of that critical competition.&ldquo;As of now, the Olympic committee on eligibility says that everybody in the world is eligible for the Olympics except someone who played in the NHL,&rdquo; Bush said. &ldquo;The International Ice Hockey Federation, to which I am a delegate, wants to open it up to NHLers, too. In my opinion, the rule will be changed. If it is, it will help other countries more than it will help us. We will continue the way we have been going.&rdquo;One reason the HHF-sponsored rule change may be accepted by the International Olympic Committee at its meeting in June, 1986, is for uniformity sake. Of the nine international championships that will be competed for before 1988, beginning with the 1984 Olympics, eight (four junior titles, three world titles and a Canada Cup) have open eligibility. Only the Olympics do not.The only change in America&rsquo;s program Bush foresees involves the preparation of the Olympic team as 1988 approaches.&ldquo;I have had discussions with (Canadian Olympic hockey chairman) Sam Pollock about having the teams play together for two years before the Olympics,&rdquo; Bush said, &ldquo;but they have just been discussions. I would certainly like to see the team prepare by playing more international and NHL competition.&rdquo;Bush is proud of Team USA&rsquo;s Canada Cup performance&mdash;second in the round robin and a semi-final loser to Sweden&mdash;both on and off the ice.&ldquo;Aside from 20 minutes against Sweden in the playoffs, our team played fantastic,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We played right with the Russians, and the team gave a good indication of where we&rsquo;ve come to on the international scene.&ldquo;The team also raised $200,000 for our international program. We raise all of the funds for our programs ourself, so, again, it helps the program keep going.&rdquo;&ldquo;The program is working,&rdquo; said Larry Johnson, general manager of the &lsquo;84 Olympic Team. &ldquo;Though things didn&rsquo;t work out the way we would have liked (in the Olympics), we had the best team we could. I don&rsquo;t think we need to make many changes. &#9632;

U.S. Olympic Effort Starts At Grass Roots

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;&rdquo;Charlie showed up in St. Louis and we started right off the bat there,&rdquo; said Ken Linseman. &ldquo;I swear any centerman could play with these guys and get 100.&rdquo;&ldquo;These guys&rdquo; were Charlie Simmer and Rick Middleton, and all three of them were on the way to scoring 100 points at the pace they established in their first 10 games together.Simmer, who was acquired from Los Angeles for a first-round draft choice Oct. 23, had seven goals and 14 points in those 10 games. Middleton had six and 13 and Linesman five and 11.More important, the Bruins won seven and tied one of those games and briefly touched first place in the Adams Division after flirting with the cellar in the first six games of the season.Simmer, who had three gamewinning goals and one game-tying score in the 10 games, scoffed at suggestions that his arrival in Boston turned the Bruins around.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not really just the three of us, either,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the defense, the way they move the puck up. Starting with the goaltender, everybody seems to be able to move the puck very well, and the less time you spend in your end the better it is.&ldquo;Playing with two good players like Ricky and Kenny it makes it easier. I have a lot of respect for them from playing against them. But the main thing is to get the puck up and let them go and just break for the holes.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of talent on this team. They just didn&rsquo;t start scoring goals when I came here. They&rsquo;ve always been scoring goals all these years. Ricky&rsquo;s a perennial 50-goal scorer. Kenny&rsquo;s a near-100 point man.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s more or less trying to fit into their style and getting players with three different styles together to make up a line.&rdquo;Simmer, who played on one of the all-time high scoring lines with Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor in Los Angeles, could see his new line getting better and better, if the Bruins decided to keep all their scoring eggs in one basket.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;It&rsquo;s not just the three of us. It&rsquo;s the defense the way they move the puck.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s always something you can leam about someone,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The longer we played together in L.A., the better we got. It&rsquo;s just learning the little moves and trying little things in practice.&ldquo;But basically, you just go out and play with two players. If you have studied them long enough and have seen them long enough, it really isn&rsquo;t that tough. There are only so many styles and systems you can play.&ldquo;The main systems only work when you&rsquo;re coming out of your own end. When you play in the other end, it&rsquo;s more basic plays. Everybody knows them.&rdquo;The fact that Simmer is a tad slower than his linemates hasn&rsquo;t hurt.&ldquo;It helps actually,&rdquo; said Linseman. &ldquo;It gives us more time. If you hold onto the puck, Charlie always gets to the hole in time and he&rsquo;s able to get to the net somehow. Nothing wrong with that at all.&ldquo;When you have three fast guys on a line you get three guys too far ahead all the time.&rdquo;Simmer&rsquo;s outstanding moment so far with the Bruins was scoring the gametying goal with 31 seconds to go in a 1-1 deadlock with the Blues.&ldquo;Every night a different player cames up with a big goal,&rdquo; said Simmer. &ldquo;Tonight, it was my tum, I guess. It was just a scramble in front of the net and a lot of bodies down. The rebound came out and I was able to get it up and over everybody.&rdquo;Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, the extra attacker on the ice, played the key role in the goal.&ldquo;It was just to screen the goalie and tie up the defensemen so that the goal scorers have room to maneuver,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult when you get down a goal to be on the offensive because of the clutching and grabbing that is not called in the later stages of the game. It really reduces the number of scoring opportunities.&ldquo;But with the extra man you can get around that by having them hold onto somebody else.&rdquo;Where would the Bruins be without Simmer?&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly, &ldquo;take away all the goals he&rsquo;s scored&hellip;&rdquo; &#9632;

Simmer Sparked Big Difference In Bruins

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;Like most National Hockey League teams, the Hartford Whalers are short-staffed on the blue line. Three experienced defensemen&mdash;Chris Kotsopoulos, Risto Siltanen and Joel Quenneville&mdash;just aren&rsquo;t enough for an 80-game grind. But unlike most teams, the Whalers think they have an answer, Mark Paterson. All he has to do is get well.Mononucleosis has cost the 20-year-old rearguard one-fifth of the 1984-85 season. Drafted 35th overall as an underage junior from the Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League, Paterson was a third-team all-star in the OHL and was named the league&rsquo;s most-defensive defenseman and second-best body checker by a poll of coaches. He played nine games for the Whalers last season, and this season was going to be his year.&ldquo;Going into camp, you had to figure that Mark had a very good chance of making our team,&rdquo; said Whaler general manager Emile Francis.The only thing Paterson made, however, was his bed, over and over again.&ldquo;It was frustrating because I didn&rsquo;t have it (mono) that bad,&rdquo; said Paterson, who has been sent to Binghamton to regain his strength. &ldquo;What kept me out so long was the enlarged spleen.&rdquo;The Whalers could use him. Kotsopoulos has been paired with every conceivable partner and has played the left side as well as the right. In coach Jack Evans&rsquo; scheme of things, Kotsopoulos has surfaced as the team&rsquo;s most dependable dependable. Siltanen and Quenneville have performed better when paired together. Mark Fusco looks as if he&rsquo;ll help, but Wally Weir, Marty Howe and rookie Sylvain Cote have been reduced to part-time duty. Ulf Samuelsson, another rookie, has also been sent to Binghamton.A stay-at-home defenseman who can be trusted in his own end would brighten the defensive outlook considerably.&ldquo;Mark needs a lot of conditioning still,&rdquo; Evans said. &ldquo;But he played nine games for us last year and looked like he was ready. He played very well.&rdquo;Paterson knew, of course, that this would be the year he would prove himself as an NHLer.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I was really looking forward to training camp,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew I had a good chance to make it, but it didn&rsquo;t tum out that way. Now I&rsquo;ve got to try and come in through the back door.&rdquo;Mono victims somehow are always the last to know.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Everybody coming out of junior now seems to like scoring, but that has never been a big part of my game.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;I was feeling tired, but I really didn&rsquo;t think anything about it,&rdquo; Paterson said. &ldquo;I had a sore throat and thought it was a cold. Then I started skating in Ottawa. I was doing wind sprints and nothing was getting better. I wasn&rsquo;t getting any wind. There had to be something wrong.&rdquo;There was.One week into September, Paterson was too weak for camp. Mono was diagnosed and the long journey back began.&ldquo;I skated with my old junior team for a week just to get into some semblance of shape,&rdquo; Paterson said. &ldquo;Actually, I feel surprisingly strong skating-wise. Now my hands have to start moving the puck faster. That will come after I get my wind. I&rsquo;m not going to push anything, though.&rdquo;Binghamton is only a stepping stone for Paterson. The Whalers clearly are hoping that he can step in and help. Today, not next year.&ldquo;In Ottawa they called me a throwback to the old days,&rdquo; Paterson said. &ldquo;Everybody coming out of junior now seems to like scoring points. Scoring has never been a big part of my game. I was a left winger the first year I ever played hockey and I was back with the defensemen so much they just decided to leave me there.&rdquo;There is where the Whalers need help. &#9632;

Paterson Goes To Minors, But It Won’t Be For Long

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;Lanny McDonald, sidelined for all but one game this season with a mysterious stomach muscle tear, recently saw a specialist.The specialist was Dr. Al Secord of the Chicago Black Hawks, a renowned authority on the injury with no name, one that has alternately been called a jammed hip and a pulled stomach muscle and a plain old groin injury. The only thing that&rsquo;s certain is how debilitating it can be. It ruined Secord&rsquo;s season last year and is ruining McDonald&rsquo;s now.Secord missed all but 14 games because of the injury, one that causes severe abdominal pain and makes it impossible for even players with high pain thresholds such as McDonald and Secord to compete.In discussing his problem with Secord and Hawk trainer Skip Thayer, McDonald, the Calgary Flame right winger, said, &ldquo;It sounded like exactly the same thing that he had.&rsquo;&rsquo;Accordingly, McDonald flew to Chicago to see Dr. Robert Kappler, the osteopath who helped get Secord back in the Hawk lineup last season. Kappler confirmed Secord&rsquo;s original diagnosis. The two injuries were identical.&ldquo;In fact, he said it was the first time he&rsquo;d ever come across two injuries so similar,&rdquo; said McDonald.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I don&rsquo;t want to jinx myself, but I felt so good today, my wife, Ardell, was guarding against me going down to the rink.&rsquo;</blockquote>McDonald spent two days in Chicago receiving treatment and then returned home. The next morning, for the first time in six weeks, he said he didn&rsquo;t feel as if someone had just kicked him in the stomach.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to jinx myself,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I felt so good today, my wife, Ardell, was guarding against me going down to the rink to suit up. I can&rsquo;t believe that two days can make this much of a difference.&rdquo;Kappler gave McDonald a series of exercises to perform, but could not fix a date when the 31-year-old could return.&ldquo;He told me to try skating for 15 minutes at first and to come off if it starts to hurt,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;By the third or fourth day, if I start to feel comfortable, he suggested I push it. He said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re the only guy who knows how it feels.&rsquo;&ldquo;The thing about it is, I had a jammed sacoriliac joint, which was locked. Unless you release it, when it heals, if it&rsquo;s still locked; it&rsquo;ll just tear the stomach muscle again.&ldquo;With all the pressure I had in the middle of my stomach, I can&rsquo;t believe that it&rsquo;s gone. I&rsquo;ve lived with it for a month-and-a-half and now it&rsquo;s gone. Maybe I&rsquo;m going mad psychologically, but I feel much better. I hope it continues.&rdquo;McDonald praised Secord for his professionalism in discussing the matter with him&mdash;even though they play for different teams.&ldquo;I owe him one,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;All it cost was the price of a plane ticket, and that&rsquo;s a small price to pay for getting back and getting healthy.&rdquo;McDonald&rsquo;s absence, somthing that was not as evident when the Flames won seven of their first nine games, became more topical when the team lost four of its next five.Suddenly, the Flames found themselves much closer to the third-place Winnipeg Jets than the first-place Edmonton Oilers, the team they&rsquo;re trying to catch in the standings.Part of the problem, according to coach Bob Johnson, is that the Flames were too greedy.Too greedy?&ldquo;We won games last year that we had no business winning,&rdquo; explained Johnson. &ldquo;Now we expect to win every game and we&rsquo;re disappointed if we don&rsquo;t. I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s good or bad. I think it&rsquo;s good. It means we&rsquo;re playing to win; it means we&rsquo;re playing not to lose. On the last road trip, we said we&rsquo;d be happy with a.500 record. I wanted to win every game.&ldquo;Maybe we came out of the chute too fast.&rdquo;Over the first dozen games, the Flames hid their injuries by receiving aboveaverage performances from Jim Peplinski, Steve Tambellini, Carey Wilson and others. Now that their scoring has level-led off, the injuries to McDonald and Doug Risebrough became more significant. So did the fact that three of last year&rsquo;s top scorers&mdash;Dan Quinn, Eddy Beers and Hakan Loob&mdash;hadn&rsquo;t found their form yet.Moreover, the Flames continued to give up one or two bad goals a game, mostly because of poor concentration. All of which added up to four losses in five games and a smattering of concern on the part of management.&ldquo;With the success we&rsquo;ve had to this point in the season on offense, perhaps there&rsquo;s been a defensive letdown,&rdquo; said defenseman Paul Baxter. &ldquo;It may not be anything conscious, but we&rsquo;ve had success by scoring seven or eight goals in a game. Against a top team, we can&rsquo;t score seven or eight. We have to win with three or four goals.&ldquo;Edmonton found out the same thing and they&rsquo;re responding well. We have to respond too.&rdquo;&ldquo;We want to be classified as a total team,&rdquo; added Johnson. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s hard to do. We want to be able to play whatever style it takes to win. If it&rsquo;s a grinding game, we want to be able to grind. If it&rsquo;s a skating game, we want to be able to skate. If it&rsquo;s a rough game, we want to play rough. If the ice is bad, we can adjust. If the ice is good, we can really move. We&rsquo;re not in that category yet.&rdquo; &#9632;

Now Flames Know They Need McDonald

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01626/4939272-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="585" height="906"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York Islander coach coach Al Arbour (above) has plenty of reason to smile now.</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;A large maroon and gold sombrero floated down from the stands and landed on the ice at Nassau Coliseum. It was one fan&rsquo;s salute to Mike Bossy for a record-equalling performance. Other salutes followed.As Bossy was skating back to the Islander bench, the electric scoreboard flashed the message: Mike Bossy has just matched Hall of Famer Phil Esposito&rsquo;s National Hockey League record of 32 career hat tricks. This produced a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 16,002 and left Bossy smiling happily while teammates patted his back and helmet.&ldquo;I had forgotten about Espo&rsquo;s record until I saw the scoreboard,&rdquo; Bossy said.Ironically, his latest hat trick came at the expense of the New York Rangers, one of the three teams Esposito toiled for during his 18 seasons in the NHL. Bossy&rsquo;s third goal of the game came on a rebound with 2:16 left to play and nailed down the Islanders&rsquo; rousing 10-4 victory.Bossy needed fewer than half as many games as Esposito to reach the record. The Islanders&rsquo; superstar was playing in his 550th regular-season game that night; Esposito totalled 1,282 regular-season games during his career.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy, of course, to have gotten that many goals,&rdquo; Bossy said. &ldquo;But beyond that it doesn&rsquo;t hold any special meaning for me.&rdquo;This is Bossy&rsquo;s eighth NHL season and it could wind up as his best. His latest splurge gave him 22 goals in 17 games. That put him nine games and 11 goals ahead of his pace in 1978-79 when he scored 69 goals, an NHL record for a right winger. That season, he had 11 goals after 17 games and didn&rsquo;t score his 22nd until his 26th game.Twenty-four hours after Bossy&rsquo;s splurge against the Rangers, the Islanders travelled to Philadelphia and gained a 3-3 tie against the Flyers on a goal by Pat LaFontaine with 2:42 left in regulation time. Kelly Hrudey, given his first starting assignment in three weeks, played well in goal. He turned aside 28 shots, including a penalty shot by Ron Sutter.Suddenly, the Islanders had a four-game unbeaten streak&mdash;three victories and a tie&mdash;and coach Al Arbour was smiling again.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very encouraged,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing a better all-round game now. We&rsquo;re playing some solid defense.&rdquo;Arbour conceded that the return of Bryan Trottier from the injured list was a factor in the Islanders&rsquo; success. The veteran center has missed seven games with a pulled groin muscle.&ldquo;We were all glad to see Trots back, especially me,&rdquo; Arbour said.Trottier&rsquo;s teammates also were delighted when he returned for a game against Minnesota and scored his first goal of the season in a 6-1 victory.&ldquo;Every team needs a strong forechecker like Bryan,&rdquo; Denis Potvin said. &ldquo;The pressure he puts on the other team is incredible.&rdquo;Bob Boume said: &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t that we said, &lsquo;Let Bryan do it.&rsquo;We knew he&rsquo;d do it. You need everybody pitching in, but Bryan is still the key. He makes us a complete team.&rdquo;Arbour made an interesting move as soon as Trottier returned, reuniting the center with Bossy. That meant breaking up the &ldquo;Canada Cup&rdquo; Line of Bossy, Brent Sutter and John Tonelli. Pat Flatley replaced Bossy on that line and responded quickly by scoring goals in six consecutive games.The play of Bill Smith in goal was encouraging for the Islanders and their fans. He ran off four straight victories after losing his first two starts of the season.&ldquo;I guess you could say that the feeling is back,&rdquo; Boume said.ON THE ISLE&mdash;The injury jinx continued to haunt the Isles, Bob Nystrom missed the first 12 games recovering from wrist surgery, saw spot duty in five games, then bruised his left hand against the Rangers. Dave Langevin missed one game with a lacerated eye, played against the North Stars, then wound up back in sick bay with a bruised right thumb. Pat LaFontaine continued to play despite a swollen right knee suffered when he was slammed against the boards by the Rangers&rsquo; Willie Huber. &#9632;

f0022-01

Bossy, Isles Both Have Reason To Smile

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02445/4939303-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg"></div>It doesn&rsquo;t seem to matter who Mike Bossy plays with, he just keeps on scoring. The New York Islander winger was taken off the Canada Cup line of Brent Sutter and John Tonelli and reunited with Bryan Trottier.That resulted in Bossy&rsquo;s 32nd career hat trick, equalling Phil Esposito&rsquo;s all-time record.So Bossy closed out the week ending Nov. 18 with four goals and four assists, giving him 22 goals&mdash;tops in the NHL&mdash;and 22 assists and THE HOCKEY NEWS Player of the Week honors. &#9632;

f0022-02

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;How the mighty have fallen from the graces of society!From the class of sipping chilled champagne&mdash;truly the toast of the National Hockey League&mdash;to barroom brawling in Cowtown. All within the space of one compact week.One thing about the Edmonton Oilers&mdash;good, bad or indifferent, they seldom go about their business in a halfhearted fashion. With these Stanley Cup champions it&rsquo;s all or nothing.Take a week in the life of the Oilers.On Nov. 9, they were sipping champagne&mdash;courtesy of injured center Mark Messier&mdash;on the occasion of erasing a 41-year-old NHL record for opening a season by going undefeated in 15 straight (12-0-3) games.Two nights later in Philadelphia, the streak came to a halt when the aroused Flyers struck for four goals&mdash;three with-in 113 seconds&mdash;during the final 6:20 to hand the Oilers their initial season loss, a 7-5 affair.The Oilers then returned home and lost 4-2 to the Montreal Canadiens as Wayne Gretzky was held pointless for the first time this season.Then came the debacle in Calgary&hellip;Looking like anything but Stanley Cup champions, the Oilers crumbled to their third straight setback&mdash;by the embarrassing margin of 6-2 to the dreaded-rival Calgary Flames, Nov. 15.The losing skid was the longest for the Oilers with ace Wayne Gretzky in the lineup since March 3-12, 1982, when they dropped four straight.The loss in Calgary was also the first ever in regular-season play for the Oilers at the Saddledome. And, the 16,683 in attendence lapped up the one-sided activity&mdash;Calgary&rsquo;s highest margin of victory at Edmonton&rsquo;s expense since the Oilers were thumped 9-4, Oct. 12, 1982, at the ancient Corral.The Calgarians even lustily cheered the numerous outbreaks of roughouse tactics that saw referee Dennis Morel whistle 45 penalties&mdash;24 to the Oilers&mdash;for 204 minutes (115 to Edmonton).As is custom, afterwards each side blamed the other&hellip;&ldquo;It seems every time we come here, the game ends with something going on,&rdquo; spat Oiler general manager-coach Glen Sather, who accused the Flames&rsquo; Richard Kromm of instigating the night&rsquo;s numerous festivities for some illegal tactics on Jari Kurri. &ldquo;Morel let everything go, then things got a little volatile and he couldn&rsquo;t handle it.&rdquo;To which burly Tim Hunter&mdash;one of the three ejected Flames&mdash;was to counter with a sneer: &ldquo;Who do they think they are? God, they think they&rsquo;ve got guys who are untouchable.&rdquo;The bench-clearing proceedings were touched off after Oiler defenseman Kevin Lowe pummelled the Flames&rsquo; Carey Wilson, prompting backup Calgary goalie Reggie Lemelin to rush from the bench.&ldquo;Morel didn&rsquo;t even call Lemelin coming off the bench,&rdquo; frowned Sather. &ldquo;He said he didn&rsquo;t know how to call it.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to question why he was doing the game.&rdquo;Wilson versus Lowe? A couple of unlikely combatants&mdash;-a fight that was proceeded by a spearing penalty to Lowe midway through the period.&ldquo;Wilson knows what he did to me,&rdquo; said Lowe, who entered the game with 10 minor penalties this season. The Oiler rearguard was fuming over a cross check that went undetected by the officials. &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t have to take that kind of crap.&ldquo;I like to think I play a pretty clean game, but when stuff like that happens, you can&rsquo;t sit around and take it.&ldquo;When Wilson cross checked me from behind, I saw my career flash before my eyes. Something snapped.&rdquo;&ldquo;I hit him,&rdquo; confessed a bruised Wilson.Then he pleaded innocent.&ldquo;It was a clean check,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;Is that all? Can I go now?&rdquo;&ldquo;The game was at stake and likewise was the honor of all our guys,&rdquo; said Calgary interim captain Jim Peplinski.One apology was issued following the marathon affair.Dave Semenko of the Oilers wasn&rsquo;t pulling in his horns because of the brawl, due to a match penalty he received for attempting to knee Steve Konroyd during the pier-six festivities.&ldquo;The whole thing was just a matter of time,&rdquo; said Semenko, &ldquo;but the kneeing part was unnecessary. I was frustrated from an earlier fight with Peplinski.&ldquo;My hands were all bound up by the linesmen. It was a heat of the moment reaction&mdash;out of frustration.&rdquo;No matter what disciplinary action is handed down to the teams and individual culprits, it&rsquo;s unlikely to deter an encore somewhere down the line.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to continue,&rdquo; said Semenko. &ldquo;Nobody is going to change their style.&rdquo;&ldquo;This,&rdquo; said Kromm, &ldquo;is the way It&rsquo;s going to be.&rdquo; &#9632;

Oilers Go For Streak In Opposite Direction

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The coach is different, the attitude has supposedly changed, injured and suspended players keep dropping out of the lineup, but one thing remains constant: The Minnesota North Stars continue to be the National Hockey League&rsquo;s mystery team this season.The Stars are division champs and Stanley Cup threats on paper. But on the ice, they remain well below the.500 mark. The only good luck they have is that Chicago is the only team in the Norris Division above the.500 level.Oh, and Lou Nanne. The general manager bought a batch of fund-raising tickets for a University of Minnesota football promotion. While the Gopher-Iowa football game was going on at the Metrodome, Nanne, who was at the Met Center watching the Stars against the Detroit Red Wings, had his ticket drawn to win a new Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.New coach Glen Sonmor could use a little of that luck. His enthusiasm and the team&rsquo;s replenished vigor for the offensive style was supposed to snap things back into focus for the Stars, who had drifted off on a shaky start to the season.But in Sonmor&rsquo;s first five games, the Stars tied Vancouver, beat Toronto, tied Washington, got blown out 6-1 by the New York Islanders and tied Detroit. A 1-1-3 ledger isn&rsquo;t exactly the shortcut to the promised land.&ldquo;Steve Payne has played pretty well through those games,&rdquo; said Sonmor. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;ve had certain players play very well in a game here or there. But, no, I can&rsquo;t think of anybody who has really been sticking out.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01603/4939358-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="586" height="1022"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalie Don Beaupre was assessed a six-game suspension for clubbing a Buffalo player.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s exactly what we&rsquo;re lacking, is somebody who can get hot and lead the way. So far, some guys play well in a game but too many others are just mediocre. We&rsquo;re not getting enough guys playing at the peak of their game at the same time.&rdquo;Through their first 18 games, the Stars stood 4-9-5. Their four victories include two first-weekend games over the slow starting New York Rangers, and two later squeakers against Toronto, which has the poorest record in the entire league.In that span, the Stars&rsquo; 62 goals looked okay in the anemic Norris, but were fewer than every team in the Smythe, fewer than all but Hartford in the Adams, and fewer than all but Pittsburgh and New Jersey in the Patrick&mdash;although the Penguins and Devils had played two fewer games.Meanwhile, the only NHL teams who had given up more than Minnesota&rsquo;s 79 goals-against were Vancouver and, of all people, the Islanders, who set that record straight with that 6-1 drubbing.The tie at Washington was an example of what Sonmor had talked about. Neal Broten, who started the season fast then faded along with his teammates, came up with a brilliant game, assisting on all three goals in the 3-3 battle. But it was &ldquo;fire and fall back&rdquo; for Broten, who may be suffering a common, early-season letdown from starting Canada Cup work in July.Meanwhile, Dino Ciccarelli, who has been injury free until this season, got back in the lineup to allow Sonmor to reunite the Broten-Ciccarelli-Tom McCarthy line for a couple of games. Then Ciccarelli went out with a wrenched shoulder in Toronto, and came home in a sling while his teammates went on to Washington.Defenseman Brad Maxwell also went out with bruised ribs in the same area where he had broken a couple of ribs in exhibition play.The Stars could add a chapter to Murphy&rsquo;s Law, the compilation of theories that says if anything can go wrong, it will. Every time they get a player healthy, somebody gets injured. Willi Plett stepped in as Ciccarelli went out. Both are right wingers. Tom Hirsch came back from shoulder troubles and stepped in as Maxwell went out. Both are defensemen.And Paul Holmgren, whose characteristics Sonmor has been desperate to put to use, finished his 10-game suspension for smacking Hartford&rsquo;s Torrie Robertson in the face with his stick. Right about then, the NHL office decided that goalie Don Beaupre, who whacked Buffalo&rsquo;s Ric Seiling on the back of the head with his stick, should have six games to ponder the severity of his action.STAR DUST&mdash;Dennis Maruk notched his 300 and 301st career goals, and had scored six points in six games-&hellip;Mark Napier, who continues his strong play, had 13 points in 13 games. Tom McCarthy scored 3-4-7 in the five games since Glen Sonmor put him with Neal Broten. &#9632;

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Stars Look For Answer To Team’s Mystery

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyBUFFALO&mdash;Scott Bowman, general manager-coach of the Buffalo Sabres, is slowly creeping up on Dick Irvin&rsquo;s Inching record of 690 wins in the National Hockey League.Bowman began the season 10 wins behind Irvin. But even as the record approaches, Bowman still has only one thought on his mind. Winning.&ldquo;When you are a coach, there are times when you don&rsquo;t know when you&rsquo;re going to win your next game,&rdquo; said Bowman, in his 18th season of coaching the NHL. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m now on my third team (the other two being the St. Louis Blues Montreal Canadiens) and I&rsquo;ve had winners with every team.&ldquo;Each team I&rsquo;ve coached has played good hockey for me. And the amazing thing about being able to win with all three teams is that all three were different styled teams.&ldquo;In St. Louis, the Blues played a defensive style of game. In Montreal, we had an offense to go along with the defense. I also had a good blend of youth with veterans in Montreal, while in St. Louis I had an older, more veteran-type team.&ldquo;In Buffalo, I went more for youth and I&rsquo;m still winning.&rdquo;Bowman indicated that the record means a lot from a coaching point of view.&ldquo;The record really indicates how long a coach has been in the league,&rdquo; said the 51-year-old Bowman. &ldquo;It took a long time to win this many games. Coaching careers can sometimes be very short in the NHL.&rdquo;Bowman remembered Irvin, who coached for 26 seasons in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, and the times he spent watching the Canadiens practice under his watchful eye.&ldquo;After I began thinking about coaching as a career, I used to take off from work during my lunch hours and go over to the Forum and watch the Canadiens practice,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;I was just so impressed by the way he coached.&ldquo;He was a coach who pretty well knew what was going to happen out on the ice. He was a man who was way ahead of his time as far as coaching goes.&rdquo;Bowman may not be ahead of his time, but he is certainly one of the greatest of all time. Just ask the players.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s demanding and he&rsquo;s a perfectionist,&rdquo; said veteran Sabre defenseman. Bill Hajt. &ldquo;He can be difficult at times, but he&rsquo;s in charge and he wants the players to play the way he wants them to.&ldquo;If you do that you&rsquo;II be a better player and you&rsquo;ll win. I think it&rsquo;s good for the players to have a coach like Scotty. Some players may not realize it now, but I think they will down the road.&ldquo;Behind the bench he is second to none. Scotty is always thinking about what he can do to beat the other team. He&rsquo;s always trying to get an edge on the opposition. There&rsquo;s always something going on behind the bench when Scotty&rsquo;s there. He keeps you in the game at all times.&rdquo;And one player who is back in the game is Real Cloutier. The right winger has been out since the beginning of the season with back spasms. He finally returned to the lineup against Boston, Nov. 14.&ldquo;I feel real good now,&rdquo; said Cloutier. &ldquo;I had been skating for about two weeks before starting the game against Boston. Thing were pretty fast out there against them. But I telt good. I just need a couple of games under my belt to get me going again.&rdquo;SABRE POINTS&mdash;Lindy Ruff remains sidelined with a separated shoulder suffered against Detroit, Oct. 26. It is not known when he will return to action-&hellip;John Tucker will also be sidelined indefinitely with a broken bone in his ankle. He suffered the injury against Minnesota, Nov. 7.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01531/4939389-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="590" height="786"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Bowman is approaching the National Hockey League record for wins by a coach.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Winning Still Means Everything To Bowman

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;When a coach sees his own team in a shocking, new light, he can be forgiven if he spends a couple of sleepless nights.For 59 minutes in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Nov. 14, Winnipeg Jet coach Barry Long watched his players methodically construct what would have been their fourth win in a row. The score could have been 6-0 or 5-1, but it was 3-1 and that seemed sufficient.Actually, the score flattered the Pittburgh Penguins, despite a credible road performance. With 66 seconds to go, a Winnipeg bench penalty seemed harmless. Two other Pittsburgh power-play opportunites had been checked so thoroughly that the Penguins had not even attempted a shot on goal.But the next minute and subsequent overtime would be a harrowing experience for Long and his players, not to mention 10,000 fans and a home television audience.Within a span of 35 seconds, Warren Young scored his 12th and 13th goals of he season and the teams were headed for overtime, where, at 3:54, Mario Lemieux helped himself to Moe Man-tha&rsquo;s rebound for Pittsburgh&rsquo;s 4-3 winner.For Young, 28, the National Hockey League&rsquo;s oldest rookie, the sequence of events was yet another spell-binding thrill experienced in the company of the 18-year-old Lemieux.Long saw things in a different light.&ldquo;It is inexcusable to have a collapse like this,&rdquo; he said, ghost white. &lsquo;&lsquo;We had The game well in hand. There is no way Pittsburgh should have beat us. We haven&rsquo;t lost one like this for quite some time, and I hope I don&rsquo;t have to see another for quite some time.&rdquo;The following day players walked up ^o Long and offered their apologies. Their sincerity lightened the weight of the loss.&ldquo;If this loss was being taken with a grain of salt, I would be really upset,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;The guys felt bad. I can only hope that this has been a learning experience. But, until we win one like this, it&rsquo;ll feel like two points that were frittered away.&rdquo;For one member of the Penguins the form the victory took was exceedingly sweet. Moe Mantha was traded to Pittsburgh by the Jets last summer.&ldquo;I wish I could have looked up into the press box to see the reaction of John Ferguson,&rdquo; said Mantha, referring to the general manager who traded him away as part of a package deal for Randy Carlyle. &ldquo;I feel sorry for the guys on the team but, for the organization that got rid of me, it feels good to have assisted on the winning goal.&rdquo;In fairness to him, Carlyle has been a superb performer for the Jets. He has been playing like an all-star, showing incredible leadership, coolness under fire, quick starts to their rushes and toughness and intelligence in the comers, along the boards and in front of the Winnipeg net.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m playing better now than I ever did,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I feel I&rsquo;m playing well after a couple of so-so games. The team has done quite well and that&rsquo;s what is important to me.&rdquo;His defense partner, Robert Picard, is giving the Jets the best hockey of his career. Entirely accepted by his teammates, he seems to have found his niche. The one mistake per game that plagued his career is simply not happening.The much-maligned Dave Babych, whose ice time has been halved, scored his first goal of the season in the Pittsburgh game. Fans have been giving the big guy a rough time this season. Two or three stiff bodychecks seem to silence them some nights.BENCH BITS&mdash;Jet coach Barry Long called a Western road trip, Nov. 21-27, a &ldquo;make-or-break week for us.&rdquo;&hellip;Paul MacLean had eight shots in the Pittsburgh game but could not beat Michel Dion&hellip;Dale Hawerchuk is off to his best start ever. &#9632;

Jets Offer Long Apology For Blowing Lead To Pens

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01557/4939444-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"></div>Minor hockey and charities in Canada stand to gain well over a million dollars in 1985, thanks to a new fund-raising program unveiled at a November press conference in Toronto.The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), the Canadian Paraplegic Association and the Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf in Toronto have teamed up in a program called the Three Star Challenge, the proceeds from which will benefit all three organizations.The program, which has received major support from the Ford Motor Company Limited of Canada and Harold Ballard, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, will see the estimated 525,000 registered minor hockey players across the country collecting pledges for the goals their teams score in the first three games of the new year.The players will keep half the money raised while the other two organizations will split the other half. In addition, the 15 teams who raise the most money will win a weekend with the Maple Leafs.Bob McAllister, a volunteer with the Bob Rumball Centre who founded the Three Star idea in July, 1983, said charity will be the operative word of the program.&ldquo;They (the players) are gaining something for themselves plus doing something for someone else,&rdquo; McAllister said at the press conference, which was held at center ice of Maple Leaf Gardens.McAllister said that if each hockey player can raise at least three dollars, they&rsquo;ll near the target of $2 milion.McAllister and other volunteers are currently travelling across Canada spreading the word about the program. In most of the Canadian National Hockey League cities, the captains of the local club are lending their assistance. In non-NHL cities, members of the Professional Hockey Alumni, a recently-formed organization, are offering support.The players all have pledge sheets, with additional copies available at all Ford dealerships in Canada, as well as in Hockey Today, the CAHA publication that caters to minor hockey.McAllister said people such as Ballard and Stan Obodiac, the late public relations director of Maple Leaf Gardens who was the honorary chairman of the program, have been a great help.&ldquo;Harold Ballard is just a 100 per cent guy,&rdquo; McAllister said. &ldquo;This is the first fund-raising event he&rsquo;s ever allowed his named to be used on. Stan Obodiac was a phenomenal worker. Right up until the day before he died, he asked how it was going.&rdquo;In addition, he said Ford&rsquo;s financial support had allowed him and the many other volunteers &ldquo;to go out and do the things we need to do.&rdquo;&ldquo;They printed 6,000 press kits and we expect good exposure from the small-town communities who have these minor hockey programs,&rdquo; McAllister said.McAllister pointed to four things which he hopes will aid the program.&ldquo;Firstly, it&rsquo;s not a major fund-raising event for the kids,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Secondly, it&rsquo;s around Christmas and everyone is in good humor. Thirdly, the thing that&rsquo;s selling the program is the weekend trip with the Leafs. And finally, it&rsquo;s feeling good about helping someone else.&rdquo;The winning teams will be flown to Toronto for a weekend which will include such activities as a trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame, skating at the Gardens, watching the Leafs play the New York Islanders, March 1, breakfast with th Leafs the next morning, and many more activities and gifts which will undoubtedly make both the youngsters and their coaches remember it.McAllister said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be the trip of a lifetime. Skating at Maple Leaf Garden and meeting the Leafs, it&rsquo;s like a dream come true. It&rsquo;s like winning the lottery.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Minor Hockey, Charity To Get A Big Boost

Darryl Noren is a 16-year-old major midget who plays for the St. Clair Shores Falcons of Michigan. Darryl, also known as Dirt, has been playing hockey for eight years on travel teams in the metropolitan Detroit area.In 25 games this season, the left-handed center has scored 38 points. In the Sudbury, Ont., Big Nickel Midget AAA Tournament, he led all other scorers with 10 points in the three preliminary games.In addition to being an outstanding hockey player, Darryl is one of metropolitan Detroit&rsquo;s finest young baseball prospects. He hopes to play Tier Two junior hockey next year, with the objective of landing a college scholarship.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02392/4939475-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="552" height="952"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darryl Noren</figcaption></div><h2>JOFA Entries</h2>You can submit a player for consideration for the JOFA Minor Player Showcase. Just enclose a photograph, along with all the pertinent information and mail to: JOFA SHOWCASE, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2.&bull; JOFA is proud to sponsor the Original Six Hockey Heroes tournament shown on television across Canada. Look for times in your local TV listings. &#9632;

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Minor Hockey Showcase

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03329/4939506-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="726" height="991"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Savard and his linemates in minor hockey share the same birth date and birth place.</figcaption></div>When people think about Denis Savard, they envision a small center who is the middle man on one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most exciting line combinations. But long before Savard centered Al Secord and Steve Larmer on the Chicago Black Hawks, he performed the same role for one of the most-exciting trios to ever come out of Quebec.And it all started out in minor hockey.Savard, who is among the fastest players in the NHL and whom Montreal fans are still lamenting after the Canadiens opted for Doug Wickenheiser in the 1980 entry draft, was quite a crowd pleaser in his minor hockey days, along with linemates Denis Cyr and Denis Tremblay. They were known as Les Trois Denis.But even more amazing than the fact they were all named Denis was that they were all bom the same day, Feb. 4, the same year, 1961, and grew up in the same neighborhood. And they played together from the very beginning in minor hockey and through major junior until the draft in 1980. Savard was drafted third overall by Chicago, Cyr 13th overall by Calgary, and Tremblay, the lesser-talented of the three, was not claimed by anyone.These days, while Savard is one of the stars of the Hawks, Cyr is in the International League with Peoria and Tremblay, who realized he wasn&rsquo;t good enough to make a career in hockey, is a mailman in Quebec.&ldquo;Actually, it was a writer from Toronto who brought it up,&rdquo; Savard said of the amazing similarities of Les Trois Denis. &ldquo;We all knew about it, but didn&rsquo;t really talk about it.&ldquo;Even though Denis is in the International League and Denis is a postman, we still keep in touch.&rdquo;While Savard oozed natural talent, he&rsquo;s quick to mention that it was coaches such as Aldo Giampaolo, now a scout with the Calgary Flames, and Ron Lapointe, coach of Shawinigan in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, who helped him at an early age.&ldquo;I have to give credit to my coaches,&rdquo; said Savard, who was the most valuable player in in the QMJHL in 1980 and was an NHL second-team all-star in 1983. &ldquo;Even though we were young, they taught us things such as puckhandling and checking, and that really helped me out later on.&rdquo;If there is one thing, however, that Savard regrets is that he didn&rsquo;t continue his schooling. While he finished Grade 12, Savard said he&rsquo;s sorry that he didn&rsquo;t pursue his education more seriously. He&rsquo;s continuing his schooling now, but looking at his own situation, he said youngsters should take advantage of the opportunities available to them if they concentrate on their studies.Though it&rsquo;s been several years, Savard said he still thinks about a bantam final he played in Quebec, in which the winning team won an all-expense paid trip with their families to a tournament in Toronto. Savard&rsquo;s team came out on the short end of the score.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny, but I still think about that tournament and how we were all looking forward to going to Toronto,&rdquo; Savard said. &#9632;

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Minor Hockey Flashback: Denis Savard

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;While the Vancouver Canucks have been showing some promising signs of late, most fans are wondering what is going to happen in the front office, or at the coaching level, if things don&rsquo;t improve.The team had only two wins in 16 games and the worst goals-against average in the league. They handed out scoring chances like a father gives out cigars after celebrating the birth of a baby. Checking is something done exclusively at the bank, and while the team&rsquo;s owner, the Griffiths family, is becoming legendary for its patience, this cannot go on forever.General manager Harry Neale is not about to take the Minnesota solution and fire his coach, Bill LaForge&mdash;at least that&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;s saying publicly. The Griffiths aren&rsquo;t apt to fire the GM, because it&rsquo;s difficult to find a replacement.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I&rsquo;m betting we&rsquo;ll pull out of this thing, and if we don&rsquo;t we&rsquo;ll be gone at the end of the year.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m betting we&rsquo;ll pull out of this thing, and if we don&rsquo;t we&rsquo;ll be gone at the end of the year, and that&rsquo;s the way it should be,&rdquo; Neale said.The injury situation earlier in the season was ridiculous, and they are still happening from time to time, such as the knee injury to Michel Petit, Nov. 10, which will sideline the young defenseman for about a month. He was injured when hit by Montreal&rsquo;s Chris Nilan, who also put Doug Hal ward on the shelf in the same game. Halward broke a finger while trying to punch the abrasive Montreal forward.But for the most part, the injured are back, and losses occurring at this juncture aren&rsquo;t because of that.&ldquo;In the last four or five games, we&rsquo;ve played pretty well and had some minutes where we have let down,&rdquo; Neale said. &ldquo;In Winnipeg, we controlled the first and third periods, and let one four-minute stretch kill us. It&rsquo;s still not good enough, but in some of the games earlier this year there were no good minutes for us.&rdquo;LaForge, meanwhile, has kept a marvelous attitude, at least to the press during his rather rocky baptism in the pros. He sees positive things in every game, even though his team isn&rsquo;t winning enough to keep his job out of jeopardy on any kind of long or short-term basis.&ldquo;I was very pleased with the way we played against Montreal,&rdquo; he said of the game, which ended when Mats Naslund scored into an empty net to seal it at 5-3 in the Habs&rsquo; favor. &ldquo;The only thing I didn&rsquo;t care for was the final score.&ldquo;We had some great individual efforts, and as a team we worked pretty hard. Petri Skriko and J.J. Daigneault both showed me a lot.&rdquo;Most of the players are hoping some patience is exercised in the front office, although they know changes in the form of big trades are often the result when a team is going poorly.&ldquo;I hope they are patient and wait until we see how we do during the January and February segment, when we have usually gone down,&rdquo; said Thomas Gradin, who is off to a slow start. &ldquo;We have made a lot of changes since we went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1982, and with the young guys we have now I think for the first time they have the talent to become the stars of the team in the future.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take time. But it&rsquo;s not surprising that we would go down before we go up in the standings.&rdquo;With the departure of Richard Brodeur to Fredericton, the Canucks at least seem to have resolved their goaltending with Frank Caprice as the No. 1 and John Garrett as his backup.&ldquo;You can get into the groove a little bit when you play a number of games, and hopefully the groove is a positive one,&rdquo; said Caprice. &ldquo;But to come out on the losing end against Montreal after an effort like that is a little frustrating. I&rsquo;d much sooner play poorly and win.&rdquo; &#9632;

Fans Pondering Canucks’ Future

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01531/4939582-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="603" height="572"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02372/4939575-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="609" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03270/4939568-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="535" height="569"></div><h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Barry Pederson, C, back from injury list. Lyndon Byers, RW, sidelined indefinitely with dislocated kneecap.BUFFALO&mdash;John Tucker, C, out of action indefinitely with with broken ankle bone.CALGARY&mdash;Steve Bozek, LW, back from injury list.CHICAGO&mdash;Ken Yaremchuk, RW, back from injury list.DETROIT&mdash;Danny Gare, RW, sidelined for 10 days with strained ligaments in his thumb. Milan Chalupa, D, out indefinitely with pulled groin. Darryl Sittier, C, re-turned from injury list.EDMONTON&mdash;Marc Habscheid, C, recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL. Lee Fogolin, D, placed on injury list.HARTFORD&mdash;Mark Paterson, D, and Ulf Samuelsson, D, assigned to Binghamton of AHL.MINNESOTA&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, RW, sidelined indefinitely with shoulder separation. Willi Plett, RW, returned from injury list. Don Beaupre, D, suspended for six games by NHL for striking Ric Seiling of Buffalo with his stick. Mike Sands, G, recalled from Springfield of AHL.MONTREAL&mdash;Steve Shutt, LW, traded to Los Angeles for future considerations. Lucien DeBlois, RW, and Ryan Walter, LW, back from injury list.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Hannu Kamppuri, G, sent to Fort Wayne of IHL for 10 days conditioning. Jan Ludvig, RW, sidelined for week with cut eye. Dave Cameron, C, back from injury list and assigned to Maine of AHL for conditioning. Mitch Wilson, RW, returned from injury list.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Roland Melanson, G, traded to Minnesota for first-round draft pick in 1985. Bryan Trottier, C, back from injury list.NY Rangers&mdash;Don Maloney, LW, sidelined for 3 months after breaking his leg. Mike Allison, C, back from injury list.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Paul Guay, RW, recalled from Hershey of AHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Pat Boutette, LW, traded to Hartford for NHL rights to Ville Siren, D, who is serving with military in Finland. Troy Loney, LW, recalled from Baltimore of AHL. Dave Hannan, C, returned to Baltimore.QUEBEC&mdash;Claude Julien, D, Roger Haegglund, D, and Jean-Marc Gaulin, RW, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. Wilf Paiement, RW, sidelined indefinitely with broken finger. Bo Berglund, RW, out of action with shoulder injury. Marian Stastny, RW, placed on injury list.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Mike Liut, G, back from injury list. Rick Heinz, G, returned to Peoria of IHL.TORONTO&mdash;Gary Leeman, D, and Craig Muni, D, recalled from St. Catharines of AHL. Bill Stewart, D, sidelined for two weeks with bruised ankle. Peer Ihna-cak, C, out of action for two weeks with strained knee ligaments. John Anderson, LW, and Jeff Jackson, LW, back from injury list.VANCOUVER&mdash;Garth Butcher, D, and Mark Kirton, C, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. Grant Martin, C, sent to Fredericton. Michel Petit, D, sidelined with stretched knee ligaments. Doug Halward, D, out of action with broken finger. Cam Neely, RW, back from injury list.WASHINGTON&mdash;Lou Franceschetti, RW, returned to Binghamton of AHL. Gaetan Duchesne, LW, back from injury list.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ROCHESTER&mdash;Steve Dykstra, D, returned to Flint of IHL.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Kevin Cameron, C, released from tryout. Gord Paddock, D, assigned to Indianapolis of IHL. Rob Flockhart, C, signed as free agent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04198/4939561-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="502" height="662"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROLAND MELANSON</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyBALTIMORE&mdash;Jon Casey is the lone star from the Minnesota North Stars.Maybe, he should be called the &ldquo;loan star.&rdquo; The All-American goaltender out of the University of North Dakota had a 3-1-1 record and a 2.47 goals-against average in his first five games after being loaned to the Baltimore Skipjacks by the Minnesota North Stars at the start of the season.Baltimore is a strange place to find a Minnesota-owned goalie, but a training camp hamstring pull prevented the promising netminder from staying in the race for a job with divisional-rival Springfield, the regular stop for top North Star farmhands.By mid-November, Casey, who once had fears of being dispatched to the International League, had only one less win than the Springfield team (4-10-2) in less than one third the decisions.Springfield already has two North Star-owned goaltenders (Lome Mol-leken and Mike Sands) in addition to New York Islander-owned Todd Lumbard. And although goaltending hasn&rsquo;t been the main problem with the Indians, it had been a major pre-season concern in Baltimore.Skipjack coach Gene Ubriaco, expecting that 1983-84 sensation Roberto Romano would have a good chance of staying up with the parent Pittsburgh Penguins, called some old friends for help. North Star general manager Lou Nanne, whom Ubriaco formerly coached in the North Stars&rsquo; system, came through.Casey has been so good that Ubriaco has given him the chance to split the duties with Romano.It wasn&rsquo;t always that way. Ubriaco started Romano, 2-6-2, the first six games. The Skipjacks, however, went 1-4-1 despite having had five of the six games on home ice.Casey started Oct. 26 against St. Catharines, an 8-3 triumph. In his next outing, he lost 4-2 at Fredericton, but followed it up two days later with a 3-1 victory at Moncton, his best performance of the season.He was also in goal when the Skipjacks cooled off the Rochester Amerks, 5-3, Nov. 7. He then earned a 2-2 overtime tie against the New Haven Night-hawks, Nov. 10.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m sort of isolated,&rdquo; said Casey of his break from the rest of the North Star-owned players at Springfield. &ldquo;But it might work out better for me here. Springfield hasn&rsquo;t got off to a very good start.&rdquo;Casey was signed to a six-game tryout last year when Minnesota goaltender Don Beaupre was hurt. His first NHL start was a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Black Hawks at Chicago Stadium.&ldquo;I was having a good training camp, and I think I was right in the running for a job at Springfield,&rdquo; said Casey. &ldquo;But I got hurt the day before I was supposed to start an exhibition game against Philadelphia.&rdquo;Casey played 37 games last year at North Dakota, sporting a 3.14 goals-against average for a team that advanced to the National Collegiate Athletic Association final four championships.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01518/4939613-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="575" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jon Casey has been a welcome addition since been loaned Baltimore by Minnesota.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t ready to play at first,&rdquo; sard Casey of the Skipjacks&rsquo; early-season woes (once 2-5-2). &ldquo;The team wasn&rsquo;t as Ply as they should have been. But we&rsquo;ve been doing much better lately. The defense has played real well and the offense has been getting a lot of shots on god.&rdquo;While waiting to get some game time, Casey spent the early days of the season working on fundamentals.&ldquo;Concentration is such a big factor,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In practice, I worked on things like keeping my stick on the ice and my grove up. It&rsquo;s easy to let up and that will cost you.&rdquo;DOWN SOUTH&mdash;Mike Sands helped Springfield&rsquo;s overcrowded goaltending situation when he was assessed a three-game suspension by league prexy Jack Butterfield for pushing Frank Quigley in a game against Hershey, Nov. 8&hellip;Hershey&rsquo;s Ross Fitzpatrick had five goals (four against his former team, Springfield) and three assists to earn Player-of-the-Week honors. Fitzpatrick had 13 goals in 15 games&hellip;The Rochester Amerks had three sellouts and an average attendance of 5,904 per game Per 10 dates&hellip;After going winless in its first five home games, Baltimore went 3-0-2 in its next five&hellip;Binghamton and New Haven, both slow starters in the first period, have excellent records in the second and third periods. &#9632;

f0030-01

Casey A Welcome Loan For ‘Jacks

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>ADIRONDACK&mdash;The American Hockey League&rsquo;s board of governors has refused to grant Ross Lambert an exemption from one of its bylaws and the controversial matter is likely to be argued in U.S. District Court.On two occasions within the past month, the AHL&rsquo;s governors have rejected applications by Lambert to be reinstated and allowed to sign a contract with the Nova Scotia Oilers. Lambert is technically in violation of the league&rsquo;s bylaw 8a, which prohibits a player from returning to the AHL the same season in which he plays in Europe.Lambert, a 21-year-old forward who spent last season with the Moncton Alpines, fell into that category in October. He signed with a West German team, but ran into contractural problems shortly after his arrival and returned to Canada. The Oilers then offered a contract. At the time, the governors voted against a request to allow Lambert to join Nova Scotia.The question was put to a second vote two weeks later, after AHL president Jack Butterfield explained that Lambert went to Europe only because he failed to find a hockey job in North American. Once again, the governors turned down the application.&ldquo;There were five no votes is what I was told. You need 75 per cent for approval,&rdquo; said Brian Burke, the Boston attorney and player agent who is representing Lambert. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed. After Jack&rsquo;s (Butterfield) effort and given the facts of the case that this is not the situation that the rule was designed to prevent.&ldquo;This is the worst possible case for the league to enforce the rule.&rdquo;Burke said that he has discussed the problem with Richard Canning, the league&rsquo;s vice-president and general counsel who has proposed a meeting involving other league officials. But considering the outcome of the two votes, Burke is not optimistic that the issue can be resolved there.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re going to end up in court,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the owners are going to go for it.&rdquo;The rule was adopted in December, 1983 to prohibit teams from packing their rosters just before the start of the playoffs with veteran players who had just completed the European season. Burke believes that the language of the bylaw will not solve the problem, and argues that Lambert should not fall under the rule.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it is a reasonable approach to the thing,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;To me, litigation should always be the last resort and it seems that we&rsquo;re heading that way. I don&rsquo;t like suing the league. I think the league was reasonable last year (when it granted each team an exemption). I played in the league, but I&rsquo;m going to do it.&rdquo;In the meantime, Lambert is a player wanted by teams in two leagues and prohibited from playing in either. After he was turned down by the AHL, Burke arranged for Lambert to play for Muskegon of the International Hockey League. But after appearing in three games, he was banned from that league, too.&ldquo;The International League adopted a rule in June which is a similar rule,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;We sent Ross there in an effort to keep his damages down. He&rsquo;d be making some money, which would come off whatever the American League owes him if we go to trial. Now that doesn&rsquo;t even work. The International League has ruled that he can&rsquo;t play there either.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;The player exchange in Frederiction continues at a brisk pace again this season. In the latest transactions, rookie defenseman Peter Loob was sent to the Express by the Quebec Nordiques, who recalled defenseman Claude Julien and Roger Haegglund and right winger Jean-Marc Gaulin. Also, veteran goaltender Richard Brodeur, who passed through unclaimed when placed on waivers by Vancouver recently, reported to Fredericton. During Brodeur&rsquo;s stay, the Express will keep three goaltenders&hellip;Sherbrooke ended Fredericton&rsquo;s six-game home winning streak, but the Express bounced back to sweep a weekend series with Nova Scotia and maintain a grip on first place in the di vision&hellip;Although the Mariners have been rolling along with a nicely-balanced offensive attack, they do have one line that is a bit hotter than the other three. Center Steve Tsujiura pumped in four goals and 10 points during a 2-1-1 week to pace his line, which includes wingers Rich Chernomaz and Paul Evans. In the four games, the line combined for nine goals and 22 points. A 12-0 win over Adirondack helped to fatten those statistics&hellip;Maine goaltenders Shawn MacKenzie (2.15) and Sam St. Laurent (2.26) are the top-ranked active goalies in the league&hellip;Winger Terry Martin was assigned to Nova Scotia by the parent Edmonton Oilers for two weeks of conditioning. Nova Scotia&rsquo;s Marc Habs-cheid broke out of an early-season slump and produced 14 points in 10 games&hellip;A-dirondack snapped a two-game losing streak with three straight wins to move from the bottom of the standings to within two points of the second-place Mariners. Wing goalie Eddie Mio, who gave up all 12 goals against Maine, bounced back with wins in two of the next three games and allowed an average of three goals per outing. &#9632;

Lambert Controversy May Continue Into U.S. Court

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyINDIANAPOLIS&mdash;A look at the Indianapolis Checkers&rsquo; record book for their Central Hockey League seasons is like recapping Garth MacGuigan&rsquo;s professional career.The 6-foot, 190-pound center is in his second season in the International Hockey League, having broken into the pros with Muskegon when that club was known as the Mohawks in the 1976-77 season. He played one game at Fort Worth of the CHL that year, and was with the Texans for the following two seasons before the New York Islanders moved their primary development schise to Indianapolis.MacGuigan isn&rsquo;t spectacular, but he doesn&rsquo;t get points in bunches, although he shares the Indianapolis record for most points in a game (six) with four other players.He&rsquo;s just steady, and dependable. One of the team records he owns is for most consecutive games played. Between, March 8, 1980 and Feb. 2, 1984, Mac-Guigan appeared in 303 straight games. And for three seasons in a row (1980-81 through 1982-83) he played in all 80 Checker games. At each end of the strings were brief stints with the Islanders&mdash;two games in 1980, three in 1984.Only three of MacGuigan&rsquo;s 151 goals in five seasons came in the same game. His lone hat trick before this year came in October, 1982. His second three-goal game for Indianapolis came in a recent 7-4 Indianapolis loss to Toledo.That particular effort didn&rsquo;t please MacGuigan too much.&ldquo;The hat trick doesn&rsquo;t mean anything,&rdquo; he asserted. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get the two points (for a win).&rdquo;That&rsquo;s typical of his unassuming style and personality. Assessing his outlook for the 1984-85 IHL season, MacGuigan observed, &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t really set any goals for this year. It&rsquo;s probably going to be my last year, anyway, and I just hope we can play well as a team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking to score a few goals,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;but I just want to play as well as I&rsquo;m capable of playing.&rdquo;Should he decide to hang it up after this season, MacGuigan hasn&rsquo;t made up his mind what he&rsquo;ll do in the future. He&rsquo;s been a year-round resident of Indianapolis since he arrived in 1979.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll wait until the end of the season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then we&rsquo;ll either settle here, go back to Canada or to Fort Worth (Texas).&rdquo;His wife, Meryl Lee, is from Fort Worth and the couple has two daughters&mdash;two-year-old Amanda and Ashley, 11 months&mdash;bom in Indianapolis.The 28-year-old center is not awed by the fact his name appears so often in the Checkers&rsquo; record book.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been here as long as anybody,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;so I guess I should have some marks.&rdquo;Those marks are impressive, however. In addition to his 151 goals heading into this season (including 37-goal performances in 1980-81 and 1982-83), MacGuigan has assisted on 199 others for 350 points in five seasons. All are career records for an Indianapolis player.Other categories in which MacGuigan&rsquo;s name tops the list of Checkers&rsquo; accomplishments include power-play goals (43), first goals (26), game winners (25) and shorthanded goals (8).Of the major individual career records maintained by Indianapolis statistician Rick Bums, only two do not list MacGuigan as No. 1. Those two marks are owned by his longtime linemate and team captain Kevin Devine (most games, 388, and penalty minutes, 969). Second in those categories, however, is MacGuigan. He trails Devine by only three games in career outings for the Checkers but he&rsquo;s a distant second in penalty minutes with a comparatively paltry 479.MacGuigan doesn&rsquo;t think the fact there are three affiliations for the Checkers this season will hurt the club.&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t change things a lot once we get down to the playing limit,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think once Darcy (Indianapolis coach Darcy Regier) gets that done he can get into his own system and everyone can start working into that.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01477/4939668-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="582" height="828"><figcaption class="caption-body">Indianapolis&rsquo; Garth MacGuigan will wait until after this season to decide on his future.</figcaption></div>MacGuigan, meanwhile, will be adding to his already impressive career marks in Indianapolis, whatever the system. &#9632;

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Indy’s Big Shooter Sets Records Straight

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;If it appears that the University of Minnesota Gophers have been skating a world apart form their Western Collegiate Hockey Association rivals, it&rsquo;s, well, because they are.The Gophers have used the services of noted St. Paul hypnotist Harvey Misel to get off to a red-hot start in the WCHA, with eight wins and one tie out of their first 10 games and a healthy lead over their nearest competitor.Minnesota coach Brad Buetow invited Misel to speak to the Gopher hockey team just before the Gophers left for a recent series with Colorado College, where the team traditionally has had trouble winning.Misel put the Gophers under a.trance and told them, &lsquo;&lsquo;You&rsquo;ve been playing and winning, but when you get ahead, you&rsquo;ve got to keep going. You&rsquo;ve got to knock teams out mentally. You&rsquo;ve got to attack. You&rsquo;re going to attack. Attack, attack, attack.&rdquo;The Gophers did just that in Colorado Springs, posting 5-1 and 6-4 victories to keep their healthy cushion in the WCHA race.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it was his talk or not that did anything for us,&rdquo; Buelow said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had several speakers come in and talk about positive thinking, attitude and confidence. Everybody works on the physical side of the game, the nutrition, the weight training and conditioning, but nobody ever touches on the mental aspect of the game.&ldquo;To me, the mental aspect of the game is just as important as any other. We like to think Misel&rsquo;s talk helped. If it helps us improve by even one per cent, it will have helped.&rdquo;The result was Minnesota&rsquo;s best six periods of hockey, Buetow said.&ldquo;We played very well and we&rsquo;re improving every game,&rdquo; Buetow said. &ldquo;Last year, we won a lot too, but I didn&rsquo;t think we showed improvement from game to game.&rdquo;The selection of Misel as a motivator for the Gophers was a natural one, since he lives in Buetow&rsquo;s neighborhood and has worked with teams such as pro baseball&rsquo;s Chicago White Sox, along with various individual sports.&ldquo;We as coaches are still as tough on discipline as we&rsquo;ve been in the past,&rdquo; Buetow said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re taking things in a more positive fashion. Misel&rsquo;s talk to our team certainly didn&rsquo;t hurt us at all. We plan on having him come talk to us on a weekly basis.&rdquo;For whatever the reason, Buetow said the Gophers have a better attitude this year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had some problems with players with bad attitudes in the past, but it&rsquo;s three times better this year than it&rsquo;s been before,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everyone is real genuine about their feelings and I think that will hold true, whether we win or not.&rdquo;Along with a better mental attitude, one area of immense improvement for the Gophers has been defensively. The always-potent Gophers are averaging almost a league-leading six goals a game. But they are playing better defensively, too, giving up less than three a game, also the best in the WCHA.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting very good play from all six of our defensemen and our goaltending has been outstanding, especially John Blue,&rdquo; Buetow said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been just fantastic.&rdquo;Blue was a late summer pickup by the Gophers after they spotted him in a summer hockey camp. The freshman from San Jose, CA has won four of his five starts and holds a 2.04 goals-against average and a. 921 save percentage, both the best marks by any league goalie.Now if Misel can put the hex in Gopher opponents, the Gophers can laugh all the way to the league championship.WCHA NOTES&mdash;Michigan Tech sophomore center Ally Cook, who has been sidelined since early in the year with a shoulder dislocation, is back in lineup for the Huskies. But Tech has now lost senior defenseman Brian Clark for three to four months with a knee injury-&hellip;Minnesota-Duluth, which got off to a slow start, is showing signs of life now, winning its last six games. &#9632;

Leading Gophers Psyching Out Opponents

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>OXFORD&mdash;Miami University is known nationwide as the &ldquo;cradle of coaches&rdquo; because of all the great gridiron bosses who passed through here on the way to fame and glory.When it comes to hockey, the program is still in the &ldquo;cradle&rdquo; stage and this hamlet, less than 70 miles northwest of Cincinnati, is just getting acquainted.Still, the 15,000 students at Miami seem to know a little about the excitement of the game. The 2,200-seat Goggin Arena has sold out for most games over the past two seasons, averaging around 3,000 fans per contest.&ldquo;Students&rsquo; support here has been tremendous,&rdquo; says 31-year-old coach Steve Cady, in his ninth season at Miami. &ldquo;Oxford has been very supportive too. But it&rsquo;s a small town and we rely a lot on our students to back us.&rdquo;The hockey program at Miami was started as a &ldquo;club&rdquo; team by Jack Vivian 10 years ago.&ldquo;The tough job here is recruiting,&rdquo; continues Cady, who together with assistants Bill Davidge and Mitch Korn scour North America for talent, competing with the rest of the hockey recruiting world.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got 17 scholarships to work with, three less than everybody else in Division One, with the exception of Ohio State, which also has just 17,&rdquo; Cady says. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t afford to make a recruiting mistake. And we are four to five hours from the nearest recruiting area (Detroit), which makes it tough too.&rdquo;Cady sees this year&rsquo;s Redskins as an improving lot, a team that will come on strong in the second half of the CCHA season.&ldquo;We, like most of the rest of our league, are very young,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We have freshmen at many key positions, like up the middle, and we have two sophomore goalies and enough young guys everywhere else that patience is the biggest key to our coaching. It takes time to indoctrinate everyone into the system. Players don&rsquo;t always realize when they come here that Division One is so tough. They tend to figure that, if they scored 50 goals playing tier two last season, they can do it again here. They&rsquo;ll be doing well to get 20 (goals) here their first year. We&rsquo;re talking a lot of quality players at this level.&rdquo;The Redskins won two of their first eight CCHA games, largely because an untested defense coughed up the puck too many times and green goaltending failed too often.Miami is led this season by senior forwards John Ciotti, Andy Cozzi and Paul Beimes and defenseman Jay Lees. Ciotti wai second to the graduated Paul Lukas in scoring last season, with 21 goals and 42 points.&ldquo;We lost a lot when Alain Chevrier graduated,&rdquo; adds Cady. &ldquo;He was the kind of goalie you could rely on for 40 or so saves a game and not worry about him. Now we have two untested sophomores and it&rsquo;ll be Christmas before we can accurately assess them.&rdquo;The goaltenders are last season&rsquo;s backup Tim Hall and Brent Smith, who say 80 minutes of duty as a freshman.Miami&rsquo;s hopes lie with freshmen sup as centers Greg Dombach and Bob Caul field, both NHL drafts, and winger Mike Ora, along with highly-touted defenseman Tom Terwilliger.&ldquo;Across our league the teams are young and I hear the same complaint everywhere I go,&rdquo; says Cady. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take a lot of patience and a lot of work in the first half this year by a lot of us in the CCHA. Michigan State has such great depth, they&rsquo;ve got to be heavily favored to go all the way. But it&rsquo;s wice open after that and the teams that improve and gear for the second half are the teams that will fight it out for home ice (top four finishers) in the playoffs.&ldquo;The key is to develop the mental toughness to play hard back-to-back, each weekend, all season. That&rsquo;s some thing that takes a lot of work on the part of the coaching staffs.&rdquo; &#9632;

Cady’s Youngsters Need Cradling

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01493/4939761-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="550" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHRIS TERRERI Providence</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>For the second straight week, goaltender Chris Terreri was the big difference between Providence winning and losing.The Friars&rsquo; ace netminder came up with 56 saves in a two-game weekend series, during which Providence tied and defeated topranked Minnesota, to win the nod again as Hockey East Performer of the Week.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02360/4939754-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="550" height="512"><figcaption class="caption-body">RANDY EXELBY Lake Superior</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Lake Superior continued its climb up the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and much of the credit belongs to goalie Randy Exelby.The Lakers&rsquo; sophomore goalie made 52 saves as he turned back Ferris State twice, 4-2 and 5-1, to win the honor of being chosen CCHA Performer of the Week.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03238/4939747-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="548" height="516"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHRIS CICHOCKI Michigan Tech</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Michigan Tech&rsquo;s junior right winger Chris Cichocki was the team&rsquo;s top scorer last season and he is off to another fast start as the Huskies bid to take over the WCHA lead.Cichocki scored four goals as the Huskies defeated Denver twice, 8-1 and 6-3, to win selection as the WCHA Performer of the Week.THE BAUER PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK &#9632;

f0032-01

Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>CLARKSON&mdash;It hasn&rsquo;t taken the Class of 1988 very long to make its mark at Clarkson University.A trio of talented freshmen played key roles for the Golden Knights as they swept a pair of games&mdash;5-3 and 5-4 in overtime&mdash;from defending national onampion Bowling Green, to highlight Clarkson&rsquo;s early-season schedule.The Knights, expected to challenge Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute for the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference championship this season, are loaded, and the quick development of the fresh- *en class will make them just that much better.&ldquo;It was exciting to have them (Bowling Green) come into Walker Arena,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Clarkson coach Bill O&rsquo;Flaherty. &ldquo;Bowling Green has an outstanding reputation and an excellent program, and &bull; was rewarding to both play well and to win. Bowling Green is a real fine club that at this point in time is a little inexperienced, but as the season develops I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;re going to make their mark.&rdquo;The Falcons, coached by former Clarkson head coach Jerry York, ran up gainst one of college hockey&rsquo;s most-balanced teams, as the Knights have a solid defense, outstanding goaltending and explosive forwards&mdash;as well as those freshmen.On the first night of the series, frosh Luciano Borsato had a pair of goals and another rookie, center Steve Williams, had the game-winning goal in the third period. The Knights completely dominated the action, outshooting the Falcons, 50-19.&ldquo;Borsato had an excellent game,&rdquo; stated O&rsquo;Flaherty. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good play-maker. He has excellent hockey sense. I wouldn&rsquo;t call him a natural scorer, but he&rsquo;ll get his share of goals. He has a lot of natural talent, but right now he needs to improve his overall strength to compensate for the adjustment of moving up and playing with men.&rdquo;Another of O&rsquo;Flaherty&rsquo;s outstanding freshman class, goalie Sonny Neumann, came up big on the second night. Disregarding the pressure-packed situation of going into overtime with the defending national champions, Neumann turned aside 16 shots to record the victory.Neumann is a native of Denmark who came to Clarkson out of Deerfield Prep. His family still lives in Denmark and he will probably be spending his holidays with families in Potsdam or with friends in Deerfield. It&rsquo;s a difficult adjustment, but Neumann is handling if well and he gives Clarkson a tough, one-two combination in goal.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s pretty aggressive in goal,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Flaherty. &ldquo;He likes to roam a bit, but technically he&rsquo;s very sound.&rdquo;When you add talented youngsters such as Borsato and Williams to an offense that already includes Gord Sharpe, Mike Harvey, Ted Cline, Charlie Meitner and Al Hill, plus spice up an excellent defense with the likes of Neumann, the resulting chemistry can create a very potent combination.&ldquo;Our freshmen are playing an active role in our progress and that pleases me,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Flaherty said. &ldquo;They will play a large role in the overall success of our program this year.&rdquo;ECAC NOTES&mdash;St. Lawrence came up with a big victory on Nov. 10, ending Toronto&rsquo;s 36-game unbeaten streak with an 8-7 shootout victory. Freshman Brad Mckee had the game-winning goal for the Knights with 2:06 left. Ray Shero had a pair of goals for the winners&hellip;A-nother streak came to an end when Colgate lost to Division II Union College, 5-2, on Nov. 10. The Red Raiders had won 22 straight against Division II foes before falling to the Dutchmen. Colgate coach Terry Slater had been forced to juggle his lines against Union to compensate for the losses of freshman center Gary Mitchell (dislocated shoulder) sophomore center Doug Davis (mono-nucleosis) and junior winger Lou Wagar (groin pull)&hellip;In RPI&rsquo;s first two games this season, junior Adam Oates had six goals and three assists to get off to a fast start in his quest for the national scoring championship&hellip;Yale went into overtime against McGill, but junior defenseman Tom Rzeszut scored on a 40-foot slap shot just 40 seconds into the extra session to give the young Elis a 3-2 win in their season&rsquo;s opener. Mickey Kapelic, who came to Yale from Notre Dame, came in with 10 minutes to go in the second period and stopped 12 shots to record his first victory&hellip;One of the bright spots for Brown this season will be the return of junior forward Joe Kuzneski, who missed most of last season with a wrist injury.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01448/4939792-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="588" height="822"><figcaption class="caption-body">RPI&rsquo;s Adam Oates is chasing a national championship and is off to a good start.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

Clarkson Coach A Master Chemist

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;Say what you will about the ngthy schedule. Say what you will about playing games that &ldquo;count&rdquo; right from the opening whistle. These may be new wrinkles in the 1984-85 season, but they made for one of the better jousts in an ancient college hockey rivalry.In the first of, quite likely, several battles for the top spot in Hockey East, Boston College defeated Boston University 6-3 in a game that had everything. Four lines on each team blazed up and down the ice all evening. There were crisp, accurate passes. There were motry-cracking body checks. There were good goals and bad goals, artful saves and ringing posts.All it really meant was, for the moment, Boston College took over first p\lace by a point. Playoffs aren&rsquo;t for four months, and all the teams will make it. But it was still a special game, and the capacity crowd has the Hockey East experience to thank.&ldquo;Geez,&rdquo; marvelled Jay Mahoney, majordomo of the McHugh Forum club and longtime observer of hockey at all levels, &ldquo;you can really tell that both these teams haven&rsquo;t been playing Division Two teams. It&rsquo;s so obvious that they&rsquo;ve been playing against better opposition than they ever have before.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s true. The Terriers had already taken on Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Minnesota-Duluth while the Eagles had tangled with North Dakota and Denver. At this time in prior years, the only teams that either would have played would be their own jayvee squads or the Budweiser Kings.Even Denny Hanks, the new Hockey East publicist who&rsquo;d spent many years tub-thumping for Michigan Tech, remarked, &ldquo;What a pace!&rdquo; Implied in his comment was, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just as good as the West.&rdquo;BC led the game three times and attacked BU&rsquo;s breakout effectively throughout. Three times the Terriers rebounded to tie, but BC never let them grab momentum and pushed in the next goal. Ken Hodge Jr. scored two of BC&rsquo;s final three tallies. He&rsquo;s one of four rookies who dressed for the Eagles. BU freshman Jeff Sveen also had two scorers; Sveen had six classmates in uniform. Three BU veterans didn&rsquo;t play, and BC&rsquo;s experience advantage showed. But not by all that much, as BU has nothing to be ashamed of.Eagle coach Len Ceglarski maintained that the only strategy he espoused was 60 minutes of aggressive forechecking. &ldquo;We tried to put two men on the puck right from the start,&rdquo; he declared. &ldquo;BU is too good to play for a one-goal advantage and try to sit on it. Sometimes you get a goal and then play defense for eight minutes or so. We didn&rsquo;t do it tonight.&ldquo;Up until our second Denver game last weekend,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;our defensemen hadn&rsquo;t been taking part in the forechecking. We told them not to hold back.&rdquo;BC&rsquo;s star junior winger Scott Harlow, who pitched in with a pair of assists, says that a similar outlook on this season has helped him get off to his best start.&ldquo;When I came here, I was supposed to be a goal scorer and used to count up every goal and assist,&rdquo; said the Montreal Canadien draftee. &ldquo;This year I&rsquo;m just not thinking about it. If I play good hockey, the goals and assists will come. Plus, I&rsquo;ve been playing with Bobby Sweeney the whole time this year. You know something&rsquo;s going to happen when he&rsquo;s on the ice.&rdquo;So BC is on top. For now. And they got there in a game that we wouldn&rsquo;t have seen until February under the ancien regime.NOTES&mdash;BC junior Neil Shea was cut in the neck by a skate and had to go to a local hospital. The cut just missed his jugular vein. Providence did an abrupt turnaround in its first road wins of the campaign. Coach Steve Stirling ended the one-game benchings of junior Jim Robbins and senior John Deasey, and the Friars responded with twin wins at Northern Michigan, 2-1 and 5-2. Junior goalie Chris Terreri had 72 saves to Dennis Jiannarias 45 for the series, earned Player of the Week honors from the league and the application &ldquo;The Franchise&rdquo; from teammates., Tim Army might deserve that name too as he scored a rare &ldquo;real&rdquo; hat trick in the second contest&hellip;Lowell junior John Shummki is the Chiefs&rsquo; biggest surprise this year, leading the Chiefs in scoring with 19 points in nine games. He&rsquo;s a transfer from RPI&hellip;Lowell is in a big youth movement with five of their six defensemen representing the freshman class. Junior defender Paul Ames is on the roster but down with mono. Two of the four available seniors, Danny Craig and Mike O&rsquo;Neill, are also out with injuries&hellip;Coach Bill Riley is unperturbed, waiting for his team defense to mature some time in February before the playoffs. He&rsquo;s pleased that the Chiefs have scored fairly well to date&hellip;New Hampshire is still close but misfiring, losing to Lowell 5-3 and BU 5-4. Bruce Gillies worked harder than his counterpart netminders in both games&hellip;The goals scored by Maine in the 8-3, 4-5 non-league split with Mount Allison mark the first time that the Black Bears have had more than three goals in a game this year&hellip;Northeastern freshman Kevin Heffernan is living up to expectations. He scored a goal in each of NU&rsquo;s losses at North Dakota. &#9632;

That Old Boston Rivalry Heats Up In First Game

<h2>HOCKEY EAST CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Nov. 20)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01507/4939917-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="528" height="232"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. Nov. 10Boston College 7 at Denver 4New Hampshire 4 at Boston University 5Lowell 3 at Wisconsin 8Northeastern 1 at North Dakota 4Tue. Nov. 13Boston Univ. 3 at Boston Coll. 6Fri. Nov. 16Maine 2 at Northeastern 8New Hampshire 3 at No. Dakota 4Toronto 4 at Boston Univ. 5Sat. Nov. 17Boston College 5 at Lowell 7Maine 4 at Northeastern 5New Hampshire 0 at No. Dakota 11Minnesota 3 at Providence 3Sun. Nov. 18Minnesota 2 at Providence 3Toronto 6 at Boston Univ. 0<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02398/4939910-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="535" height="351"></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Nov. 23)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03300/4939903-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="533" height="266"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Nov. 16Colo. College 13 at Air Force 4Denver 1 at Mich Tech 8Wisconsin 2 at Min-Duluth 4Minnesota 3 at Providence 3New Hampshire 3 at No. Dakota 4N. Arizona 4 at N. Michigan 9Sat. Nov. 17Air Force 3 at Colo. College 6Denver 3 at Mich. Tech 6Wisconsin 1 at Min.-Duluth 6Minnesota 2 at Providence 3New Hampshire 0 at No. Dakota 11N. Arizona 2 at N. Michigan 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04207/4939896-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="527" height="208"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05161/4939889-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="532" height="175"></div><h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Nov. 23)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06135/4939882-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="532" height="293"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Nov. 9Illinois-Chicago 4 at Feris State 7Miami 7 at Lake Superior 6Mich State 4 at Michigan 1Ohio State 3 at W. Michigan 2Bowling Green 3 at Clarkson 5Sat. Nov. 10Illinois-Chicago 6 at Ferris State 1Miami 3 at Lake Superior 6Michigan 2 at Mich State 8Ohio State 1 at W. Michigan 4Bowling Green 4 at Clarkson 5Fri. Nov. 16Bowling Green 1 at W. Michigan 3Lake Superior 4 at Ferris State 2Michigan 3 at Illinois-Chicago 7Ohio State 2 at Miami 2Western 3 at Mich State 4Sat. Nov. 17Bowling Green 4 at W. Michigan 3Lake Superior 5 at Ferris State 1Miami 3 at Ohio State 9Michigan 7 at Illinois-Chicago 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07125/4939875-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="531" height="292"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Nov. 23)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08117/4939868-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="535" height="379"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Nov. 16Clarkson 8 at Vermont 4St. Lawrence 5 at RP13Sat. Nov. 17St. Lawrence 4 at Vermont 0Clarkson 3 at RPI 5Princeton 3 at Cornell 5Army 2 at Colgate 9Brown 8 at Dartmouth 1Yale 1 at Harvard 3Sun. Nov. 18Princeton 0 at Colgate 3Army 4 at Cornell 6Yale 7 at Dartmouth 4Brown 2 at Harvard 7<h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Nov. 18)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09105/4939861-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="540" height="414"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Toronto 8, Laurier 8Queen&rsquo;s 3, RMC 3Western 8, York 5Guelph 9. Brock 4Guelph 7, York 6Waterloo 11, Ryerson 6Laurier 2, RMC 0Windsor 6, Laurentian 6<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Nov. 11)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10102/4939854-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="530" height="180"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>McGill 5, Ottawa 3McGill 4, Concordia 3Toronto 6, Boston Univ. 0Mich State 4, Western 3Moncton 8, St. Francis Xavier 5St. Mary&rsquo;s 4, Mt. Allison 1UPEI 7, St. Thomas 2Dalhousie 9, Acadia 1Brandon 13, Lakehead 3Alberta 7, Saskatchewan 3<h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 19)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1195/4939847-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="536" height="268"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Georgian 8, Canadore 2Humber 4, Conestoga 2Seneca 5, Sheridan 3Georgian 8, Conestoga 3Seneca 5, Centennial 2St. Clair 8, Humber 7Georgian 10, St. Clair 6Seneca 7, Canadore 1Humber 10, Conestoga 2 &#9632;

f0034-01

HOW THEY STAND

<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1292/4940004-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="522" height="468"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1383/4939997-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="540" height="644"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1479/4939990-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="530" height="442"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1576/4939983-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="532" height="466"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1676/4939976-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="514" height="182"></div><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1770/4939969-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="556" height="334"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1866/4939962-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="530" height="640"></div><h2>ECAC</h2><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1963/4939955-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="530" height="296"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2055/4939948-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="532" height="526"></div> &#9632;

f0034-12

GAMES TO COME

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyNORTH BAY&mdash;Peter Arbic was the North Bay Centennials&rsquo; afterthought in the midget draft three years ago.The 19-year-old from Scarborough, nt. was the fourth goalie selected by the Centennials in the 1982 midget draft, as the team waited until the 17th round to nick him.Today, he&rsquo;s playing a legitimate role in the rebirth of the Centennials as a legitimate contender in the Ontario Hockey League&rsquo;s Emms Division race. After a 3-8 start, the Centennials rolled to eight straight wins to tie the team record set in Abric&rsquo;s rookie season in North Bay.Abric&rsquo;s goaltending, the work of captain Rob Degagne, the return of overage forward Rob Nichols, some good work on defense and Templeton&rsquo;s shakeup seemed to tum the club around. Curtis Collin, a 30-goal scorer who was sent home last year, decided he wanted to play with a winner and went home to Toronto. Also departing were Mike Larouche, Mike Webber and Peter McGrath.But it&rsquo;s been Abric and Degagne, in articular, who&rsquo;ve played key roles in the Centennials&rsquo; climb back to a challenging psition in the division.Abric posted a league-leading 3.04 goals-against average in the 16 games he&rsquo;s worked. Degagne, a hard-working center, was tied for the team lead in scoring at 24 points with rookie Darren Turcotte, despite missing six games with pneumonia early in the schedule. Another rookie, Frank Di Muzio, leads the club with 13 goals.A good measuring stick to determine Degagne&rsquo;s worth is the six games he missed, which have all resulted in losses.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a combination of everything,&rdquo; Degagne said.Degagne and Abric both say the change in the team&rsquo;s attitude is a big reason for the club&rsquo;s improvement.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a big reason,&rdquo; said Degagne. &ldquo;Some of the guys had negative attitudes. It hurts. They were really a good bunch of guys, but guys like that realized they weren&rsquo;t going anyplace and they didn&rsquo;t care.&rdquo;Degagne also said Templeton has played an important part.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s fair and he doesn&rsquo;t ask for miracles,&rdquo; Degagne said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really great to play for. He gets what he wants out of you. He&rsquo;s got that knack. It&rsquo;s a lot easier playing for Bert when you are winning. If you can play for him, you can play for anybody. You&rsquo;ve got to want to play or he doesn&rsquo;t want you. That&rsquo;s the way it should be.&rdquo;Abric isn&rsquo;t quite as opinionated.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing with more confidence,&rdquo; Abric said. &ldquo;Just getting rid of those guys and a few others last year weeded out the bad attitude.&rdquo;Abric got off to a good start last season with the Centennials and was one of the leading goalies in the OHL until about Christmas, when his play tailed off. This year, he hopes to carry on through the whole season.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to peak at Christmas this time,&rdquo; Abric said. &ldquo;I think I burned myself out by Christmas last year. I skated a lot in the summer, maybe four or five times a week, to prepare for last season. This year I didn&rsquo;t skate so much in the summer.&rdquo;While the Centennials&rsquo; hopes are high, Templeton put it in perspective.&ldquo;The team also lost six in a row before winning eight,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have to look at the team and say, if team unity and the work ethic continues, we&rsquo;re capable of winning in this league consistently. If we revert back to what we did in the six-game losing streak, we&rsquo;re very capable of losing.&rdquo;Templeton feels four things which happened to the club helped get it winning.&ldquo;First, we got rid of people who weren&rsquo;t happy to he here, not necessarily bad people. The number two reason is Degagne. Number three is the improved play of veterans who are over their stints in the NHL, especially Kevin Hatcher. Number four is adding Rob Nichols as our overage player.&ldquo;Those four things have really helped. The team is getting along well. It&rsquo;s a lot more fun working with a team which enjoys playing. Last year it was like pushing a car up a hill with a rope. They wanted to self-destruct. This team wants to learn and we&rsquo;re getting an honest effort.&rdquo;ON THE MOVE&mdash;The Sudbury Wolves acquired goalie Paul Kenny from Cornwall Royals for Dan Nowak, then dealt Brian Verbeek to the Kingston Canadians for Mike King, Dave Landmark and Mike Morrison. Their next move was to give up a fourth-round draft pick to Toronto Marlies for left winger Jamie Blanchard, of North Bay, who was the second-round pick of the Marlies in the 1984 midget draft but left the team during training camp.LET&rsquo;S MAKE A DEAL&mdash;Guelph Platers may be willing to part with one of their two goalies, Steve Guenette or Scott Mosey. Their names were &ldquo;advertised&rdquo; on the league-wide datapac hookup. Interested clubs were subtly advised not to bother dealing with coach Joe Contini or general manager Alex Campagnaro. The datapac message said &ldquo;any interested people contact Joe Holody,&rdquo; the Platers&rsquo; owner.GENERAL HOSPITAL&mdash;Oshawa was hoping to get John Stevens back while North Bay lost Scott Bimie for six weeks with a broken collarbone&hellip;Sudbury&rsquo;s Glen Greenough is finished for the season following surgery to repair a detached retina in his right eye. He was hit by a puck which rebounded off the glass.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01480/4940035-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="579" height="829"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalie Peter Abric is one of the big reasons North Bay is challenging in the Emms Division.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Call Centennials Team Turnaround

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02381/4940080-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="558" height="571"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROB NICHOLS North Bay</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The North Bay Centennials are ecstatic over the reappearance of Rob Nichols in the Ontario Hockey League.Nichols, a 20-year-old left winger who quit Kalamazoo of the International Hockey League and returned to the OHL, had a hot hand in his first three games back. Nichols totalled 13 points to win the nod as the OHL Player of the Week.Drafted by Philadelphia in 1983, Nichols had a seven-point performance as North Bay hammered Kitchener 11-1.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03299/4940073-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="555" height="574"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROY GUNN Prince Albert</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>When Roy Gunn was handed the starting goaltending job by Prince Albert this season, he responded well to the challenge.The 18-year-old won eight of his first 13 starts, including back-to-back 6-1 and 9-0 victories, to capture WHL Player-of-the-Week honors.Gunn also recorded his second shutout of the year and raised his season record to 8-3-2 with a 3.65 goaisagainst average.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04250/4940066-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="564" height="574"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC DAMPHOUSSE Shawinigan</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>The Shawinigan Cataracts are riding high atop the Quebec Hockey League&rsquo;s Dilio Division and much of it is due to some solid offensive leadership from Marc Damphousse.The Shawinigan right winger was selected as QHL Player of the Week for the second time this season as he put together a 14-point performance, nine of them coming in a 12-5 romp over Hull.Damphousse is the QHL&rsquo;s thirdhighest point scorer with a season total of 21-31-52 points.At the end of the current season. THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

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MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeySASKATOON&mdash;The comparisons have already been made.Whether it&rsquo;s the first minute of play or the dying seconds of the game, Saskatoon Blade defenseman Wendell Clark plays with the kind of poise and intensity that lay claim to him going high in the 1985 National Hockey League entry draft.&ldquo;Comparing him (Clark) to Paul Coffey is an adequate assessment,&rdquo; said Saskatoon coach Marcel Comeau. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got such a good change of pace. Two strides and he&rsquo;s at top end. The transition thing is the biggest part of his game.&rdquo;Yes, it&rsquo;s not uncommon to see the 18-year-old Kelvington, Sask., native break up a rush and then quickly wheel away to start a scoring threat of his own. But Clark is more than just a talented defenseman with good wheels and a heavy shot. He&rsquo;s also one of the toughest players in the Western Hockey League.&ldquo;When he hits guys, he hits them right out of their skates,&rdquo; said Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; chief Western Canada scout Bruce Haralson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;sunder6-feet(5-foot-ll, 190 pounds) but he plays like he&rsquo;s 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3. He&rsquo;s mentally tough like Scott Stevens.&ldquo;And when he comes up the middle he reminds you of Coffey. He&rsquo;s like a piece of dynamite in a tin can: he blows the lid right off it. He makes the transition better than any player in junior that I&rsquo;ve seen in Canada.&ldquo;Yet, when he&rsquo;s on the defensive part of his game he reminds you of Ray Bourque. He anticipates the play so much.&rdquo;Pretty high praise for a guy who plays on a team already possessing high draft choices. Duncan McPherson was taken in the first round of the 1984 draft by the New York Islanders while Trent Yawney was a third-round pick of Chicago.&ldquo;It (the draft) is in your mind but you just do what you do and hope they (scouts) like what they see,&rdquo; said Clark. &ldquo;1 hope to make the NHL some day.&rdquo;So what is Clark&rsquo;s secret? What sets him apart from other top WHL draft prospects on defense such as Todd Camelley of Kamloops, Mike Berger of Lethbridge, Jeff Sharpies of Kelowna, Dave Manson of Prince Albert, Dana Murzyn of Calgary and Rick Herbert of Portland?&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say not being scared is the big thing,&rdquo; said Clark. &ldquo;As soon as a guy knows you&rsquo;re scared he&rsquo;ll take an extra step at you. The more physical the game, the better I play.&rdquo;What will likely make Clark a household hockey name next June is he can hurt you so many ways&mdash;he&rsquo;s that talented. It almost makes Clark hard to coach.&ldquo;What I&rsquo;m trying to do is let him pick his spots offensively,&rdquo; said Comeau, who coached against Clark last season when he guided the Calgary Wranglers. &ldquo;He tends to be set in his ways, but we&rsquo;re making headway there too. He&rsquo;s become more open minded to my thinking.&rdquo;The problem with Clark, if you can call it a problem, is he sometimes tends to do too much. He&rsquo;s so into the game that he&rsquo;ll try to make that extra fancy move in his own end instead of dishing off the puck.&ldquo;At the start of the season he tried to lug the puck too much,&rdquo; said Comeau. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very competitive and tries too hard and sometimes gets frustrated. He&rsquo;s using his judgment better now. We need his talents offensively&mdash;we&rsquo;re a little short of scoring punch up front.&rdquo;Scouts find it difficult to fault Clark for his efforts.&ldquo;There are times when he tries to do the job for both defensemen,&rdquo; said Haralson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s on the ice so much that sometimes he gets mental breakdowns&mdash;mentally tired and that&rsquo;s when he makes his mistakes. He seldom makes them early in a game.&ldquo;He has faults defensively and you can&rsquo;t always excuse them but one reason you can is because he is so good offensively. Again, it&rsquo;s like when Coffey came up to the NHL. There was a time when they (fans) said, &lsquo;Get rid of this bum,&rsquo; because he couldn&rsquo;t play defense. Look at him now.&rdquo;As good as Clark seems, there&rsquo;s one part of his game which brings him down to earth. Nerves.&ldquo;Nervous? I&rsquo;m always nervous,&rdquo; said Clark. &ldquo;I get nervous because I want to do so well.&rdquo;WHL WEEK&mdash;Dan Hodgson of Prince Albert and Greg Evtushevski of Kamloops were tied for the scoring lead with 38 points each on 16 goals and 22 assists. Al Conroy of Medicine Hat was next with 37 points, including a league-high 27 assists, while Ken Morrison of Prince Albert had 33 points, including a league-high 17 goals&hellip;In goaltending, Gary Johnson of Medicine Hat led the way with a sparkling 1.89 goals-against average, including two shutouts. Jamie Reeve of Regina was next at 2.95, followed by Troy Gamble of Medicine Hat, 3.05 and Lance Carlsen of New Wesjg minster, 3.08&hellip;Regina continued to lead the Canadian Major Junior Hocktey League top-10 weekly rankings with a 12-2-1 record and. 833 winning percentage. Medicine Hat was second at. 821&hellip;In transactions, Kamloops sent defenseman Darryl Krechuniak to Lethbridge for future prospect Rod Brind&rsquo;Amore.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01457/4940111-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="574" height="796"><figcaption class="caption-body">Saskatoon&rsquo;s Wendell Clark is expected to be a high choice in the 1985 NHL entrv draft.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Blades’ Talented Defenseman Can Do It All

<div class="byline">BY BOB ELLIOTT</div>LAVAL&mdash;Laval Voisins were the champions of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season. With the recent demise of the ill-fated Platt-sburgh Pioneers, the Voisins are the worst team in the league.In a move designed to shake up the team, the Voisins have fired coach Jean Begin and given the job to his assistant, Marcel Patenaude, on an interim basis.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the price you pay when you are champs two years in a row,&rdquo; said Laval owner Claude Foumel after the team slumped to a 7-12 start. &ldquo;I thought we needed a change in terms of attitude.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to make a rush decision. It will be 10 days before I decide who will take over the club if I bring someone new in.&rdquo;One of the leading candidates is Pierre Ladoucer, a sports columnist with the Montreal newspaper La Presse and a coach in the area.After the change, the Voisins lost 8-3 to Verdun and then defeated Gran-by 8-5.&ldquo;There is a slight change in attitude,&rdquo; said Foumel. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re working together now.&rdquo;Losing is new and it isn&rsquo;t enjoyable for Foumel.&ldquo;This is like a cold shower,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are three reasons for us doing so poorly.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02345/4940142-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="556" height="893"><figcaption class="caption-body">Laval has fallen to last place partly because of the loss of scoring leader Mario Lemieux.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Mario Lemieux went as an under age junior to Pittsburgh, which we expected, and Bobby Delias stayed with Winnipeg, which we didn&rsquo;t expect.&ldquo;Secondly, we drafted a lot of American boys a year ago. We had six altogether and none of them are here right now. We drafted Ed Olczyk (now with the Chicago Black Hawks), Al lafrate (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Pete Karmanos (University of Michigan). If I had taken boys from the province they&rsquo;d probably all still be here. So we have a gap in our projection.&ldquo;And third, college hockey is a factor.&rdquo;Attendance at Laval games has sunk to new depths. Laval averaged around 2,000 spectators per game last season, however, the club is down around 750 this year.&ldquo;People want to see a winner,&rdquo; said Foumel. &ldquo;But the facts of life are you work with the horses you&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo;Or as Texan Darrell Royal used to say, &lsquo;Ya gotta dance with the one who brung ya.&rsquo;WHAT A JOB&mdash;Former NHLer and one-time Windsor coach, Ron Harris, is doing an excellent job with the St. Jean Beavers.NEED A JOB?&mdash;Le Journal de Montreal&rsquo;s junior hockey writer, Marc Lachapelle, isn&rsquo;t too good at his work. He&rsquo;s excellent. Lachapelle is so good at knowing who is doing what and how well, he was approached by Pittsburgh a few years ago to join the Penguins as a scout. And they say newspapermen don&rsquo;t know anything.NEED A TEAM&mdash;St. Hyacinthe is rumored to be ready to make an offer for the Longueuil franchise, which would necesitate a franchise shift. &#9632;

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Voisins’ Drastic Reversal Results In Begin’s Firing

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1251/4940694-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="867" height="418"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1159/4940701-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="222" height="284"></div><h2>OVERALL LEADERS</h2><h2>TOP DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1345/4940687-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="860" height="407"></div><h2>TOP ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1442/4940680-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="862" height="377"></div><h2>BOSTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1538/4940673-1-eng-US/f0037-152.jpg" title="f0037-15" width="862" height="145"></div><h2>BUFFALO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1633/4940666-1-eng-US/f0037-162.jpg" title="f0037-16" width="861" height="145"></div><h2>CALGARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1729/4940659-1-eng-US/f0037-172.jpg" title="f0037-17" width="866" height="148"></div><h2>CHICAGO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1828/4940652-1-eng-US/f0037-182.jpg" title="f0037-18" width="858" height="145"></div><h2>DETROIT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1924/4940645-1-eng-US/f0037-192.jpg" title="f0037-19" width="858" height="141"></div><h2>EDMONTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2024/4940638-1-eng-US/f0037-202.jpg" title="f0037-20" width="862" height="143"></div><h2>HARTFORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2123/4940631-1-eng-US/f0037-212.jpg" title="f0037-21" width="861" height="148"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2222/4940624-1-eng-US/f0037-222.jpg" title="f0037-22" width="860" height="145"></div><h2>MINNESOTA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2321/4940617-1-eng-US/f0037-232.jpg" title="f0037-23" width="857" height="145"></div><h2>MONTREAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2420/4940610-1-eng-US/f0037-242.jpg" title="f0037-24" width="859" height="144"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2519/4940603-1-eng-US/f0037-252.jpg" title="f0037-25" width="866" height="146"></div><h2>NY ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2617/4940596-1-eng-US/f0037-262.jpg" title="f0037-26" width="858" height="146"></div><h2>NY RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2714/4940589-1-eng-US/f0037-272.jpg" title="f0037-27" width="863" height="148"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2812/4940582-1-eng-US/f0037-282.jpg" title="f0037-28" width="859" height="143"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2911/4940575-1-eng-US/f0037-292.jpg" title="f0037-29" width="867" height="147"></div><h2>QUEBEC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-3011/4940568-1-eng-US/f0037-302.jpg" title="f0037-30" width="860" height="146"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-319/4940561-1-eng-US/f0037-312.jpg" title="f0037-31" width="857" height="145"></div><h2>TORONTO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-328/4940554-1-eng-US/f0037-322.jpg" title="f0037-32" width="861" height="152"></div><h2>VANCOUVER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-338/4940547-1-eng-US/f0037-332.jpg" title="f0037-33" width="857" height="151"></div><h2>WASHINGTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-348/4940540-1-eng-US/f0037-342.jpg" title="f0037-34" width="858" height="154"></div><h2>WINNIPEG</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-358/4940533-1-eng-US/f0037-352.jpg" title="f0037-35" width="866" height="149"></div> &#9632;

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EMERY TROPHY PLUS-MINUS

<h2>Mon. Nov. 12 MONTREAL 5, VANCOUVER 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01404/4940502-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="538" height="798"></div><h2>Tue. Nov. 13 LOS ANGELES 5, QUEBEC 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02289/4940495-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="560" height="678"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03218/4940488-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="594" height="274"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 3, WASH. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04180/4940481-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="594" height="858"></div><h2>DETROIT 4, CALGARY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05155/4940474-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="606" height="446"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06132/4940467-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="586" height="354"></div><h2>Wed. Nov. 14 BOSTON 2, BUFFALO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07112/4940460-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="600" height="100"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0892/4940453-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="592" height="526"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0979/4940446-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="556" height="98"></div><h2>MONTREAL 4, EDMONTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1073/4940439-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="562" height="328"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02121/4940432-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="564" height="324"></div><h2>QUEBEC 7, ST. LOUIS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0379/4940425-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="566" height="990"></div><h2>RANGERS 4, CHICAGO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0457/4940418-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="560" height="556"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0542/4940411-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="588" height="204"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 4, WINNIPEG 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0635/4940404-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="588" height="842"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 4, TORONTO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0730/4940397-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="588" height="404"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0826/4940390-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="592" height="410"></div><h2>DETROIT 2, VANCOUVER 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0923/4940383-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="588" height="612"></div><h2>Thu. Nov. 15 NEW JERSEY 3, BOSTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1023/4940376-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="594" height="870"></div><h2>HARTFORD 1, PHILAD. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1122/4940369-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="600" height="706"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 1, ISLANDERS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1220/4940362-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="566" height="694"></div><h2>EDMONTON 2. CALGARY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1318/4940355-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="570" height="1196"></div><h2>Fri. Nov. 16 WASHINGTON 2, BUFFALO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1414/4940348-1-eng-US/f0040-142.jpg" title="f0040-14" width="560" height="156"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01161/4940341-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="568" height="330"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0295/4940334-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="588" height="206"></div><h2>QUEBEC 2, ST. LOUIS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0369/4940327-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="590" height="126"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0455/4940320-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="596" height="366"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0545/4940313-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="602" height="266"></div><h2>PITTSBRUGH 6, VANCOUVER 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0639/4940306-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="600" height="66"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0736/4940299-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="542" height="336"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01161/4940292-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="568" height="588"></div><h2>CALGARY 6, WINNIPEG 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02116/4940285-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="572" height="994"></div><h2>Sat. Nov. 17 PHILADELPHIA 5, BOSTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0394/4940278-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="545" height="842"></div><h2>CHICAGO 7, HARTFORD 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0474/4940271-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="542" height="193"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0564/4940264-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="604" height="511"></div><h2>BUFFALO 2, WASHINGTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0652/4940257-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="602" height="701"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 0, MONTREAL 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0750/4940250-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="607" height="580"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 3, LOS ANGELES 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0841/4940243-1-eng-US/f0043-082.jpg" title="f0043-08" width="603" height="320"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0939/4940236-1-eng-US/f0043-092.jpg" title="f0043-09" width="595" height="589"></div><h2>RANGERS 4, ISLANDERS 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1034/4940229-1-eng-US/f0043-102.jpg" title="f0043-10" width="599" height="1047"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 5, TORONTO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1129/4940222-1-eng-US/f0043-112.jpg" title="f0043-11" width="570" height="535"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1226/4940215-1-eng-US/f0043-122.jpg" title="f0043-12" width="595" height="295"></div><h2>DETROIT 3, MINNESOTA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1323/4940208-1-eng-US/f0043-132.jpg" title="f0043-13" width="598" height="699"></div><h2>VANC. 0, EDMONTON 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1423/4940201-1-eng-US/f0043-142.jpg" title="f0043-14" width="597" height="758"></div><h2>Sun. Nov. 18 QUEBEC 5, CHICAGO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1520/4940194-1-eng-US/f0043-152.jpg" title="f0043-15" width="596" height="207"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1618/4940187-1-eng-US/f0043-162.jpg" title="f0043-16" width="563" height="643"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 3, PHILAD. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1714/4940180-1-eng-US/f0043-172.jpg" title="f0043-17" width="564" height="760"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 6, RANGERS 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1811/4940173-1-eng-US/f0043-182.jpg" title="f0043-18" width="564" height="620"></div> &#9632;

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NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05149/4940798-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg"></div><h2>USA Network 1984 NHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06126/4940791-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="542" height="354"></div> &#9632;

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NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07110/4940850-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="538" height="380"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0899/4940843-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="536" height="413"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0987/4940836-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="538" height="412"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1078/4940829-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="537" height="418"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GAMES TO COME

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1514/4940888-1-eng-US/f0040-152.jpg" title="f0040-15" width="548" height="358"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01195/4940895-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="204" height="200"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1613/4940881-1-eng-US/f0040-162.jpg" title="f0040-16" width="544" height="362"></div> &#9632;

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National League Rookie Leaders

(Standings on Mon. Nov. 19)<h2>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1711/4940947-1-eng-US/f0040-172.jpg" title="f0040-17" width="528" height="178"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-189/4940940-1-eng-US/f0040-182.jpg" title="f0040-18" width="532" height="178"></div><h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-197/4940933-1-eng-US/f0040-192.jpg" title="f0040-19" width="530" height="178"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-207/4940926-1-eng-US/f0040-202.jpg" title="f0040-20" width="532" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Nov. 12Montreal 5 at Vancouver 3Tue. Nov. 13Los Angeles 5 at Quebec 4 (OT)Minnesota 3 at Washington 3 (OT)Detroit 4 at Calgary 5 (OT)Wed. Nov. 14Boston 2 at Buffalo 4Montreal 4 at Edmonton 2Quebec 7 at St. Louis 3NY Rangers 4 at Chicago 6Pittsburgh 4 at Winnipeg 3 (OT)Los Angeles 4 at Toronto 3Detroit 2 at Vancouver 3Thu. Nov. 15New Jersey 3 at Boston 5Hartford 1 at Philadelphia 6Minnesota 1 at NY Islanders 6Edmonton 2 at Calgary 6Fri. Nov. 16Washington 2 at Buffalo 3Quebec 2 at St. Louis 4Pittsburgh 6 at Vancouver 7Calgary 6 at Winnipeg 2Sat. Nov. 17Philadelphia 5 at Boston 3Chicago 7 at Hartford 0Buffalo 2 at Washington 3New Jersey 0 at Montreal 5NY Rangers 4 at NY Islanders 10Pittsburgh 3 at Los Angeles 5Winnipeg 5 at Toronto 3Detroit 3 at Minnesota 3 (OT)Vancouver 0 at Edmonton 7Sun. Nov. 18Quebec 5 at Chicago 3NY Islanders 3 at Philadelphia 3New Jersey 6 at NY Rangers 0 &#9632;

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THE NHL SCOREBOARD

BOSTON&mdash;Middleton 8, 9, O&rsquo;Connell 6, O&rsquo;Reilly 4, Silk 6, Simmer 9, 10, Fergus 8, 9, 10. Winning goals-Fergus.BUFFALO&mdash;Hajt 2, 3, Cyr 1, Davis 10, Andreychuk 10, Seiling 6,7, Peterson 4, Housley 3. Winning goals-Davis, Peterson.CALGARY&mdash;Bourgeois 1, Bozek 1, Patter-son 10,11,12, Wilson 8,9,10, Reinhart 10,11, Peplinski 4, Loob 5, 6, Quinn 5, 6, Kromm 8, Maclnnis 4. Winning goals-Reinhart, Wilson, Quinn.CHICAGO&mdash;Gardner 6, Sutter 6, 7, Savard 8, Larmer 10,11,12,13, Fraser 7,8, T. Murray 8,9, Secord 4, Olczyk 7, MacMillan 2, O&rsquo;Callahan 2. Winning goals-Fraser, Secord.DETROIT&mdash;Trader 1, Ogrodnick 8, 9, 10, Boldirev 7, 8, Yzerman 6, Duguay 10, Kisio 4. Winning goals-none.EDMONTON&mdash;Semenko 3, Anderson 12, 13, 14, Gretzky 18, Kurri 19, Coffey 6, Lindstrom 4, Hunter 2, Habscheid 1, Hughes 3. Winning goals-Coffey.HARTFORD&mdash;Siltanen 3. Winning goals&mdash;none.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Nicholls 9, 10, 11, 12, Sykes 4, 5, Fox 6, Taylor 8, Dionne 5, 6, 7, MacLellan 5, Hardy 2, Ruskowski 5, Winning goals-Nicholls, Dionne, MacLellan.MINNESOTA&mdash;Plett 1, 2, Hartsburg 5, McCarthy 3, Ashton 2, Bellows 8, Solheim 4. Winning goals-none.MONTREAL&mdash;Mondou 3, Tremblay 2, 3, 4, Smith 5, Hunter 5,6, Naslund 4, 5,6,7, Flockhart 2, 3, Gainey 5. Winning goals-Hunter, Naslund, Flockhart.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Cirella 4, Sulliman 7, Pichette 2, Meagher 1, Higgins 7, Preston 3,4, 5, Russell 1. Winning goals-Meagher.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Potvin 1, 2, 3, Trottier 1, Flatlev 4.5.6. Gillies 8.9. Bossv 19.20.21.22. Bourne 2, B. Sutter 15, Gilbert 2, Boutilier 6, D. Sutter 6, LaFontaine 5. Winning goals-Trottier, Boutilier.NY RANGERS&mdash;McPhee 5, Allison 3, 4, Brooke 1, Sandstrom 8, Hedberg 7, Dave Maloney 2, Rogers 6. Winning goals-none.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Smith 3, 4, Poulin 5, Kerr 16,17, 18, Rich Sutter 1, 2, Craven 7,8, Howe 6, Allison 1, Crossman 1, Brown 1. Winning goals-Smith, Poulin.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Boutette 1, Young 12, 13, 14, Lemieux 3, 4, 5, Shedden 6, Bodger 3, Babych 7, Bullard 7, Mantha 4, 5. Winning goals-Lemieux.QUEBEC&mdash;Gillis 2, 3, Goulet 9, 10, 11, 12, Gaulin 1, 2, Dufour 1, P. Stastny 7, 8, McKegney 9, A. Stastny 7,8,9, Rochefort 1,2, Savard 4. Winning goals-McKegney, Rochefort.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Sutter 7, 8, Pettersson 6, 7, Mullen 6, 7, 8. Winning goals-Pettersson.TORONTO&mdash;Frycer 7, 8, Vaive 10, Anderson 1, Derlago 6, Poddubny 2. Winning goals-none.VANCOUVER&mdash;Lidster 2, Skriko 4, Smyl 6, 7, Gradin 6, 7, Bubla 1, Lemay 7, MacAdam 4, Butcher 1, Tanti 10, McNab 6, Sundstrom 4. Winning goals-Smyl, Sundstrom.WASHINGTON&mdash;Erickson 4, 5, Gartner 10, 11, Carpenter 9, 10, 11, 12. Winning goals-Gartner.WINNIPEG&mdash;Mullen 6, Lundholm 4, Babych 1, MacLean 4, Carlyle 3, Steen 5, Ellett 3, Boschman 4, Lukowich 3, Picard 3. Winning goals-Lukowich.Four&mdash;goal games&mdash;Nicholls (LA).Hat tricks&mdash;Mullen (StL), Bossy (NYI), Preston (NJ), 1 each.Overtime winner*&mdash;Nicholls (LA), Reinhart (Cal), Lemieux (Pit), 1 each. &#9632;

NHL SCORERS THIS WEEK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-21" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-217/4941023-1-eng-US/f0040-212.jpg"></div><h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-227/4941016-1-eng-US/f0040-222.jpg" title="f0040-22" width="1106" height="182"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-236/4941009-1-eng-US/f0040-232.jpg" title="f0040-23" width="1096" height="184"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-246/4941002-1-eng-US/f0040-242.jpg" title="f0040-24" width="1094" height="218"></div> &#9632;

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How NHL Teams Rate

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0828/4941054-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="550" height="1372"></div>His teammates call him Hobey because he won the Hobey Baker Award as the top U.S. college player in 1984, but Mark Fusco would just as soon be known as a good, steady defenseman. The rookie with the Hartford Whalers is not the biggest player in the league at 5-feet-7, 175 pounds, but he more than makes up for it with speed and puckhandling skills.Fusco comes to the Whalers from the U.S. Olympic team, of which he was a part for most of last season after graduating from Harvard.The Whalers acquired him as a free agent last season and he played in 17 games after the Olympics.Fusco has a brother, Scott, who also played on the Olympic team and whose rights are owned by the Whalers, too. They played together in U.S. college and perhaps they&rsquo;re looking to do the same in the NHL, too. &#9632;

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Chrysler Rookie Spotlight

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-22" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-226/4941270-1-eng-US/f0042-222.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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International League Team Rosters

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Nov. 21)<h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01162/4941239-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="550" height="236"></div><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02106/4941232-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="550" height="204"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. Nov. 10Binghamton 3 at Adirondack 4Naw Haven 2 at Baltimore 2Nova Scotia 3 at Fredericton 4Springfield 3 at Hershey 6StCatharines 2 at Maine 3Sherbrooke 2 at Moncton 6Sun. Nov. 11Springfield 2 at Baltimore 6St. Catharines 2 at New Haven 7Fredericton 6 at Nova Scotia 4Adirondack 2 at Sherbrooke 1Tue. Nov. 13Nova Scotia 3 at Hershey 6Wed. Nov. 14Springfield 3 at Adirondack 8Rochester 2 at Binghamton 5Moncton 4 at Sherbrooke 5Thu. Nov. 15Moncton 5 at St. Catharines 3Fri. Nov. 16Nova Scotia 3 at Binghamton 1Moncton 1 at Rochester 7Fredericton 5 at Sherbrooke 3Sat. Nov. 17Maine 0 at Adirondack 4Nova Scotia 4 at Baltimore 6New Haven 4 at Binghamton 7Fredericton 4 at St. Catharines 4Sun. Nov. 18New Haven 4 at Baltimore 1Fredericton 4 at Rochester 2Moncton 2 at Sherbrooke 3Maine 3 at Springfield 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0376/4941225-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="548" height="316"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Nov. 20)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0458/4941218-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="540" height="142"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0548/4941211-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="540" height="200"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat Nov. 10Flint 2 at Fort Wayne 5Milwaukee 6 at Muskegon 4Toledo 2 at Indianapolis 6Kalamazoo 1 at Salt Lake 5Sun. Nov. 11Fort Wayne 2 at Toledo 2Muskegon 3 at Milwaukee 3Flint at Peoria (ppd.)Tue. Nov. 13Kalamazoo 2 at Salt Lake 6Wed. Nov. 14Toledo 2 at Hint 5Muskegon 5 at Kalamazoo 5Thu. Nov. 15Milwaukee 2 at Salt Lake 3Fri. Nov. 16Milwaukee 8 at Salt Lake 5Peoria 4 at Indianapolis 2Fort Wayne 1 at Muskegon 4Kalamazoo 2 at Hint 6Sat. Nov. 17Toledo 1 at Muskegon 7Fort Wayne 3 at Hint 6Milwaukee 1 at Kalamazoo 4Indianapolis 3 at Peoria 10Sun. Nov. 18Indianapolis 4 at Peoria 0<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0642/4941204-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="558" height="320"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Nov. 21)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0738/4941197-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="544" height="174"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Nov. 7Erie 7 at Mohawk Valley 3Thu. Nov. 8K* Virginia 4 at Carolina 9Fri. No. 9Mohawk Valley 3 at Carolina 5Sat. Nov. 10Virginia 3 at Erie 7Mohawk Valley 2 at Pine Bridge 8Sun. Nov. 11Virginia 1 at Carolina 6Tue. Nov. 13Pine Bridge 2 at Carolina 4Virginia 4 at Mohawk Valley 10Wed. Nov. 14Virginia 6 at Erie 9Fri. Nov. 16Carolina 5 at Mohawk Valley 4Virginia 3 at Pine Bridge 7Sat. Nov. 17Carolina 7 at Mohawk Valley 5Erie 3 at Pine Bridge 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0831/4941190-1-eng-US/f0042-082.jpg" title="f0042-08" width="552" height="348"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Nov. 20)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0928/4941183-1-eng-US/f0042-092.jpg" title="f0042-09" width="554" height="234"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1024/4941176-1-eng-US/f0042-102.jpg" title="f0042-10" width="556" height="264"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Nov. 5Guelph 2 at Windsor 6Tue. Nov. 6Ottawa 4 at Cornwall 5Wed. Nov. 7Sudbury 1 at S.S. Marie 9Thu. Nov. 8Belleville 5 at Peterborough 2Sudbury 0 at Windsor 6North Bay 5 at Hamilton 3Toronto 4 at Cornwall 3Fri. Nov. 9Sudbury 2 at Kitchener 3Hamilton 1 at London 6Toronto 5 at Ottawa 3S.S. Marie at Kingston 2North Bay 6 at Guelph 3Sat. Nov. 10Ottawa 0 at Belleville 6S.S. Marie 4 at Peterborough 1Sun. Nov. 11S.S. Marie 3 at Oshawa 2Kitchener 1 at North Bay 11Sudbury 0 at London 10Windsor 3 at Hamilton 6Mon. Nov. 12Hamilton 3 at Windsor 5Tue. Nov. 13North Bay 4 at Oshawa 2Toronto 8 at Ottawa 2Thu. Nov. 15Oshawa 1 at Peterborough 9London 7 at Hamilton 5Windsor 2 at North Bay 5Kitchener 1 at Guelph 2Ottawa 6 at Cornwall 7Fri. Nov. 16Guelph 3 at Kitchener 7Cornwall 5 at Ottawa 5Oshawa 5 at London 6Windsor 2 at Sudbury 4Peterborough 3 at S.S. Marie 4Belleville 1 at Kingston 5Sat. Nov. 17Kingston 3 at Belleville 12Hamilton 4 at Toronto 6Sun. Nov. 18Kingston 1 at Oshawa 6Hamilton 2 at North Bay 2Peterborough 5 at Sudbury 2Windsor 2 at S.S. Marie 10<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1123/4941169-1-eng-US/f0042-112.jpg" title="f0042-11" width="548" height="348"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 19)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1219/4941162-1-eng-US/f0042-122.jpg" title="f0042-12" width="540" height="260"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Dundas 9, Chatham 6Cambridge 4, Georgetown 3Collingwood 6, Chatham 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1316/4941155-1-eng-US/f0042-132.jpg" title="f0042-13" width="542" height="384"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 19)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1414/4941148-1-eng-US/f0042-142.jpg" title="f0042-14" width="550" height="266"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1514/4941141-1-eng-US/f0042-152.jpg" title="f0042-15" width="546" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Nov. 13Regina 4 at Moose Jaw 6Lethbridge 0 at Prince Albert 9Portland 6 at Victoria 8New Westminster 6 at Seattle 9Wed. Nov. 14Calgary 4 at Brandon 7Lethbridge 3 at Saskatoon 2Portland 4 at Kelowna 6Fri. Nov. 16Medicine Hat 6 at Regina 5Saskatoon 5 at Brandon 4Calgary 6 at Moose Jaw 3New Westminster 6 at Kamloops 7Sat. Nov. 17Regina 1 at Medicine Hat 8Moose Jaw 2 at Saskatoon 10Kamloops 8 at Portland 3New Westminster 6 at Kelowna 5Seattle 3 at Victoria 11Sun. Nov. 11Regina 6 at Lethbridge 4Saskatoon 2 at Seattle 8Portland 4 at New Westminster 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1614/4941134-1-eng-US/f0042-162.jpg" title="f0042-16" width="546" height="496"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 19)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1713/4941127-1-eng-US/f0042-172.jpg" title="f0042-17" width="554" height="176"></div><h3>DIUO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1812/4941120-1-eng-US/f0042-182.jpg" title="f0042-18" width="552" height="236"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. Nov. 11Shawinigan 5 at Chicoutimi 4Drummondville 4 at Longueuil 4St. Jean 6 at Quebec 1Hull 6 at T-Rivieres 4Laval 3 at Verdun 8Tue. Nov. 13St Jean 3 at Longueuil 7Wed. Nov. 14Shawinigan 7 at Drummondville 3St. Jean 3 at Hull 8Verdun 3 at Laval 7Chicoutimi 4 at T-Rivieres 6Fri. Nov. 16Verdun 0 at Chicoutimi 7Laval 3 at Granby 3Quebec 1 at Shawinigan 6Longueuil 4 at St. Jean 6Sat. Nov. 17Drummondville 8 at Quebec 3Sun. Nov. 18St Jean 10 at Drummondville 8Laval 2 at Hull 8Granby 3 at Shawinigan 7Chicoutimi 4 at Verdun 11<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-199/4941113-1-eng-US/f0042-192.jpg" title="f0042-19" width="542" height="318"></div><h2>CENTRAL JUNIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 19)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-209/4941106-1-eng-US/f0042-202.jpg" title="f0042-20" width="530" height="238"></div><h2>NO. ONTARIO JUNIOR</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 19)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-217/4941099-1-eng-US/f0042-212.jpg" title="f0042-21" width="528" height="210"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1910/4941092-1-eng-US/f0043-192.jpg" title="f0043-19" width="542" height="208"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-207/4941085-1-eng-US/f0043-202.jpg" title="f0043-20" width="542" height="347"></div> &#9632;

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November 30, 1984

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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

Nords’ Big Guns Shooting Blanks

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